Deck 11: Gender in Comparative Perspective

Question 1

Gender is

A) universally divided into masculine and feminine.
B) a universal basis for organizing group activities.
C) determined by one's chromosomes.
D) not an important dimension of a person's social identity.

Answer 1

a universal basis for organizing group activities.

Question 2

____ is biological; ____ is cultural.

A) Gender; sex
B) Self-identity; social identity
C) Sex; gender
D) Social identity; self-identity

Answer 2

Sex; gender

Question 3

Which of these most accurately describes biological differences between men and women?

A) Women are more nurturing than men.
B) There are no actual biological differences other than reproductive function.
C) Reproductive function is more important in men than in women.
D) Men tend to be larger and physically stronger than women.

Answer 3

Men tend to be larger and physically stronger than women.

Question 4

The behavior patterns that vary cross-culturally in terms of what is allowable for men and women to do are a result of

A) strict biological differences, limiting men and women to certain activities.
B) cultural acceptance of particular roles assigned to each gender.
C) a natural division that is accepted nearly universally.
D) sociobiology, which shows that men and women cannot do what the other can.

Question 5

The Hua of Papua New Guinea believe that differences between men and women are the result of differing amounts of a life-giving substance called nu. As a result of this belief,

A) sexual intercourse is considered dangerous for men because it transfers nu to women.
B) women must serve food to men so that their nu may be passed to the men.
C) men and women become more different from each other over time as women acquire more nu.
D) women have less ​nu​ than men, making women moister.

Question 6

In Hua society, where sexual differences are explained by the life-giving substance nu, post-menopausal women are permitted to live in the men's house. Why is this?

A) Their position as mothers gives them this right, despite the dangers posed to men.
B) They are cherished for the wisdom their age brings.
C) A life of childbirth and menstruation are believed to have purged them of most of their ​nu​.
D) They are believed to have special supernatural powers stemming from their concentrated nu.

Question 7

In contemporary American society, the vast majority of construction jobs are occupied by men. This can be explained by any of the following EXCEPT

A) men and women tend to seek jobs considered appropriate for cultural conceptions of gender.
B) employers tend to hire for positions based on their own conceptions of gender-appropriate work.
C) people tend to stereotype each other according to gender constructions, regardless of their own identities.
D) biological differences make women unsuitable for outdoor work.

Question 8

Each of these statements about the sexual division of labor is true EXCEPT that

A) it is changing in modern North America.
B) it is a culturally widespread pattern.
C) men are the breadwinners and women the homemakers is not a cultural universal.
D) it is primarily biologically determined.

Question 9

How have anthropological perspectives on cross-gender identity changed since the 1970s and 1980s?

A) Today there is a movement back to thinking of cross-gender identity as deviant.
B) There is currently recognition that some cultures have constructed multiple gender identities.
C) Contemporary anthropology views cross-gender behavior as the same as same-sex sexual orientation.
D) Today there is a widespread understanding that anthropologists of the 1970s and 1980s pretty much nailed it.

Question 10

Within Native American groups that had members who assumed a third gender, how were these members (called Two Spirits) typically treated?

A) They were treated with great respect and valued for their contributions.
B) They were ridiculed and ostracized from the group.
C) They were tolerated but largely ignored.
D) They were put to death.

Question 11

Third gender people among the Navajo were

A) killed as witches.
B) welcomed as nadle (men-women).
C) kept hidden from the tribe by their families.
D) generally famous warriors.

Question 12

The general term preferred by Native peoples and by anthropologists for a person with a third or fourth gender identity is

A) berdache.
B) nadle.
C) Two Spirit.
D) transsexual.

Question 13

In regards to their sexuality, Native American Two Spirits

A) varied little in their behavior from person to person and tribe to tribe.
B) were always considered homosexual.
C) rarely had sexual relations with each other.
D) valued their sexual orientation over their other roles.

Question 14

Which of these is NOT one of the features identified by Serena Nanda as widespread among gender variant Native Americans?

A) Preference for work of the opposite sex, or set aside for third or fourth gender
B) Exclusively heterosexual relationships
C) A style of dress different from that of either men or women
D) Associations with a supernatural power

Question 15

In Hindu India, some people born with male genitalia undergo a rite of passage to remove their penis and testicles, resulting in a person who is "neither man nor woman." The local term for such a person is

A) berdache.
B) Two Spirits.
C) nadle.
D) hijra.

Question 16

The examples of Native American Two Spirits and the hijra of India demonstrate that

A) hatred and intolerance of people who are gender variant and/or homosexual is not universal.
B) gender norms throughout the world are biologically based.
C) there is virtually universal agreement that same-sex unions and cross-gender behavior is deviant.
D) anthropologists have not recognized the importance of multiple gender identities.

Question 17

Which of these tasks are done predominantly or exclusively by males in most societies?

A) Land clearing and preparing the soil
B) Gathering shellfish and fuel
C) Tending small animals
D) Day to day domestic maintenance

Question 18

Which of these tasks is NOT performed primarily by females in most societies?

A) Gathering wild plants
B) Processing plant foods
C) Cooking
D) Trapping

Question 19

Which of these tasks does NOT tend to be sex-specific in most societies?

A) Milking animals
B) Fetching water
C) Wood working
D) Hunting

Question 20

According to the text, which explanation for the sexual division of labor seems to have the LEAST amount of support?

A) Fertility maintenance for women
B) Relative physical strength of men and women
C) Role compatibility with childcare
D) Reproductive roles of men and women

Question 21

The physical strength hypothesis probably accounts for which of these male-specific tasks?

A) Clearing land and preparing soil
B) Trapping and butchering
C) Gathering fuel and fetching water
D) Making pottery

Question 22

How people make a living influences the sexual division of labor. This is an example of the ____ theoretical approach.

A) materialist
B) interpretivist
C) postmodern
D) functionalist

Question 23

The degree to which groups allocate social and material rewards based on gender is termed

A) gender materialism.
B) gender stratification.
C) gender dichotomy.
D) sexual division of labor.

Question 24

Anthropologists consider each of the following when trying to assess the status of women (gender stratification) within any particular society EXCEPT

A) whether women are expected to be deferential to men.
B) whether men's activities are routinely valued more than women's activities.
C) whether women dominate men in the political arena.
D) the primary form of descent and postmarital residence.

Question 25

In societies where women have little independence outside the domestic context, each of the following is true EXCEPT

A) they may have autonomous control over their households.
B) their status may change over the course of their lives.
C) they may have higher social status due to their wealth or ethnicity.
D) they are generally happier.

Question 26

Which of these statements about matriarchy is true?

A) Anthropologists have long recognized the existence of early matriarchal societies.
B) A matriarchal society by definition should be the mirror image of a patriarchal society.
C) No instance of systematic female political dominance over men has been documented.
D) Anthropologists are in agreement on the valid definition of matriarchy.

Question 27

Comparative research on gender inequality has found each of the following EXCEPT

A) in no society are the primary political roles restricted to women.
B) women are commonly excluded from major leadership roles in religious life.
C) prior to the 1970s, the ethnographic data used for comparison was gathered primarily by men.
D) from an early stage, the field of anthropology was surprisingly progressive in regards to women.

Question 28

Which of these groups is frequently noted as having near equality between men and women?

A) Modern U.S. society
B) The Kofyar of Nigeria
C) The Iroquois of northeastern North America
D) Traditional Yoruba society of Nigeria

Question 29

Which of these statements best explains why anthropologists are so interested in the question of whether or not gender hierarchy is universal?

A) The existence of societies with gender equality would prove that anthropologists should be working for greater gender equality in other cultures.
B) If many cultures currently have or have had gender equality, this would indicate that modern societies could achieve gender equality.
C) The fact that other cultures have gender equality could be used as evidence that societies with a gender hierarchy are backwards or primitive.
D) This question is incoherent; anthropologists are not particularly concerned with the question of equality.

Question 30

Which of the following is NOT considered a determinant of women's status in any given society?

A) Women's role in production
B) Subscribing to monotheistic religion
C) Ownership of productive resources
D) Descent and postmarital residence

Question 31

All cultures attach the same importance to whether members are men or women.

Question 32

Anthropologists are in agreement that sexual dimorphism and differences in reproductive physiology between men and women are very important culturally.

Question 33

The belief that gender is culturally constructed means that genetic differences between men and women do not matter.

Question 34

In some cultures, constructions of gender are based entirely on the biological differences between men and women.

Question 35

Among the Hua of Papua New Guinea, the belief in nu as the source of differences between men and women creates more than two gender constructions in Hua society.

Question 36

All anthropologists agree that there are only two gender identities.

Question 37

The more different some culture's beliefs are from your own, the more obvious it is that those beliefs are a cultural construction rather than biologically determined.

Question 38

Data derived from hundreds of field studies support the fact that men are the natural breadwinners or providers for the family.

Question 39

Gender crossing behavior and having a same-sex sexual orientation are not necessarily the same thing.

Question 40

When making cultural comparisons, anthropologists cannot use characteristics that are shared by groups as part of an explanation for something that varies from people to people.

Question 41

According to the text, the most likely explanation for the universal sexual division of labor is that men are more expendable than women, from a reproductive perspective.

Question 42

As agriculture becomes more intensive, women's role in direct food production is reduced.

Question 43

Women perform most of the garden labor in horticultural societies.

Question 44

It is important to emphasize that relationships between gender and labor are generalized as exceptions to every "rule"
may always be found.

Question 45

Women in matrilineal and matrilocal societies suffer from male dominance as much as women in patrilineal and patrilocal societies.

Question 46

Describe the cultural construction of gender among the Hua of New Guinea.

Question 47

Using specific examples, describe the cultural construction of multiple gender identities among Native Americans.

Question 48

Explain the strengths and weaknesses of the four hypotheses generally used to account for cross-cultural patterns in the sexual division of labor.

Question 49

Describe the conditions that enabled Iroquois women to achieve near equality with men.

Question 50

Explain the major influences on gender stratification, particularly women's contributions to material welfare and women's control of resources.