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TSR Wiki > Study Help > Subjects and Revision > Revision Notes > Anthropology > Gender as an organising concept

There is a distinction made between "sex" and "gender".

Sex - the biological category into which a person is born, male or female, as determined by chromosomal and anatomical characteristics.

Gender - Learned maleness or femaleness, as reflected in sexual orientation and sex roles.

Gender identity - an individual's self-identification as male or female.

Gender hierarchy - a ranking of cultural notions of maleness and femaleness, as opposed to a ranking of individual males and females.

Patriarchy - A society politically and economically dominated by males.

What is the cause of this patriarchy?

Why is the status of activities in the public domain ore than that in the domestic domain?

It is undisputed that men have greater physical strength then women, but not so widely agreed upon are the differences in behaviour which result from these physiological and skeletal differences. Quinn states that one obvious consequence of the male advantage in strength and energy is the ability of men to carry out more arduous physical tasks. The physical advantage of males has been construed by some as an explanation of the universal dominance of men over women.

Property inheritance and post-marital residence is a good indication of a women's relatively high status.

Sexual Division of labour

The more technologically simple a society, the more likely jobs will be allocated according to sex.

Why do men so often control the production and distribution of a society's material wealth? (Does the Trobriand society fit this model?)

Why do societies commonly associate certain jobs only with males?

The biological differences between the sexes represent the starting point for the rather rigid division of tasks observed in most societies, especially in non-industrialised settings.

It has been hypothesised that the reason why women have low-status jobs which do not concern the way the resources or products of a society are controlled or distributed is because they have jobs which allow them to look after the children.

Cultural-materialists assume that societies, like individuals, are efficient, and that they therefore consistently minimise the time and effort it takes to train people to perform various jobs.

Feminist anthropologist Friedl notes that women's power is most limited in societies in which women neither provide the bulk of the subsistence necessities nor have much of a hand in distribution and exchange of valued goods and services outside of the household. When women make a major contribution to the food supply and personally take part in its extradomestic distribution, their personal autonomy and influence over others tends to be greater.

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