Sex, Gender, and Power

3 units

This seminar explores various ways anthropologists have conceptualized the intersection of sex, gender, and power in their ethnographies. Key questions revolve around the processes through which biological categories of sex become socially significant, and interact with various regimes of power such as the state, family, religion, medicine, the market, and science in everyday life. We examine how the social processes and regulatory mechanisms associated with gender and sexuality create systems of hierarchy, domination, resistance, meaning, identity, and affection. Course materials are primarily ethnographies, but will be supplemented with articles. The aim of the course is to develop students' critical reading, discussion, and writing skills. Prerequisite: Upper-level Anthro or Women and Gender Studies courses, or permission of instructor.