Deck 9: Gender

Question 1

According to anthropologist Ann Stoler, the economic determinants of gender status include

A) the level of interest rates and the price of oil.
B) controlling one's own and others' trend toward overconsumption.
C) free will and overcoming ideas that associate sin with the desires of the flesh.
D) free will and overcoming ideas that split the mind and body.
E) freedom or autonomy in terms of disposing of one's labor and its fruits, and social power: control over the lives, labor, and produce of others.

Answer 1

freedom or autonomy in terms of disposing of one's labor and its fruits, and social power: control over the lives, labor, and produce of others.

Question 2

Recent cross-cultural studies of gender roles demonstrate that

A) the gender roles of men and women are largely determined by their biological capabilities-relative strength, endurance, intelligence, and so on.
B) women are subservient in nearly all societies, because their subsistence activities contribute much less to the total diet than do those of men.
C) foraging, horticultural, pastoral, and industrial societies all have similar attitudes toward sex but different attitudes toward gender.
D) changes in the gender roles of men and women are usually associated with social decay and anarchy.
E) the relative status of women is variable, depending on such factors as the type of subsistence strategy employed, the importance of warfare, and the prevalence of a domestic-public dichotomy.

Answer 2

the relative status of women is variable, depending on such factors as the type of subsistence strategy employed, the importance of warfare, and the prevalence of a domestic-public dichotomy.

Question 3

In which type of society would you expect women's status to be highest?

A) pastoralists
B) agriculturalists
C) societies where there is much population pressure
D) hunters and gatherers
E) industrial states with high unemployment

Answer 3

hunters and gatherers

Question 4

The tasks and activities that a culture assigns to each sex are known as

A) gender stereotypes.
B) the prestige coefficient.
C) sexual ascribed status.
D) gender roles.
E) sex roles.

Question 5

Regarding sexual orientation, all of the following are true EXCEPT that

A) different types of sexual desires and experiences hold different meanings for individuals and groups.
B) there is conclusive scientific evidence that sexual orientation is genetically determined.
C) in a society, individuals will differ in the nature, range, and intensity of sexual interests and urges.
D) culture always plays a role in molding individual sexual urges toward a collective norm, and these norms vary from culture to culture.
E) flexibility in sexual expression seems to be an aspect of our primate heritage, since both masturbation and same-sex sexual activity exist among chimpanzees and other primates.

Question 6

This chapter's discussion on recurrent gender patterns stresses that

A) it is the role of industrialized nations to correct patterns that are immoral.
B) the United Nations should become more involved in reversing these patterns.
C) exceptions to cross-cultural generalizations may involve societies or individuals.
D) these patterns are universals rather than generalities.
E) these generalities are based on bad data, because the studies did not use randomized sampling.

Question 7

Of the following factors, which is historically correlated with the lowering of women's status in the United States?

A) European immigration around 1900
B) World War II
C) voting rights for women
D) inflation
E) the women's rights movement

Question 8

Among patrilineal-patrilocal cultivators,

A) women remain the primary producers of subsistence crops.
B) women govern the extradomestic distribution of prestige items.
C) women fear contacts, including sexual intercourse, with men.
D) polygyny decreases household productivity, because a man must provide for more than one wife.
E) the population pressure on strategic resources is relaxed.

Question 9

The domestic-public dichotomy refers to the separation of

A) spheres of exchange.
B) secular and sacred domains.
C) the elite and commoners.
D) home and the outside world.
E) cooking and sleeping spaces in residential units.

Question 10

Ethnographic evidence has revealed that traditionally, Pawnee women worked wood, and among the Hidatsa, women made boats. Cases such as these suggest that

A) the division of labor by gender is a natural characteristic of human societies.
B) biology has nothing to do with gender roles.
C) anthropologists are overly optimistic about finding a society with perfect gender equality.
D) patterns of division of labor by gender are culturally general-not universal.
E) exceptions to cross-cultural generalization are actually the rule.

Question 11

Among horticulturalists with matrilineal descent and matrilocality,

A) women tend to have high status, but only within the domestic sphere.
B) gender and sex become indistinguishable.
C) female status tends to be high.
D) women rarely inherit any property and are therefore at a disadvantage in comparison to their brothers.
E) women leaders are only symbolic, because men tend to have true decision-making power.

Question 12

More than half of all U.S. families living in poverty are

A) patrifocal.
B) blended.
C) headed by men.
D) headed by women.
E) dichotomized.

Question 13

Which of the following statements is NOT true?

A) The feminization of poverty is unique to the United States.
B) Households headed by women tend to be poorer than those headed by men.
C) Married couples are much more secure economically than single mothers.
D) Women now head more than half the households in the United States.
E) The feminization of poverty has serious consequences with regard to living standards and health.

Question 14

Recently, India's four largest cities introduced commuter trains exclusively for female passengers. The aim of this new service was to

A) support women's effort to keep men out of their own domestic space.
B) offer women an alternative method of transportation to and from work with less risk of harassment or violence.
C) offer women work in the transportation industry.
D) help women maintain their traditional gender roles in society.
E) increase the gap between public and domestic spaces that women inhabit on a day-to-day basis.

Question 15

When compared to other kinds of societies, all the following are true about foragers EXCEPT that

A) the public and private spheres are least separate.
B) hierarchy is least marked.
C) aggression and competition are most discouraged.
D) sexual promiscuity is most common and routinely punished.
E) the rights, activities, and spheres of influence of men and women overlap the most.

Question 16

With the term sex, anthropologists are referring to biological differences. In contrast, they define gender as

A) the cultural construction of whether one is female, male, or something else.
B) a political system ruled by men that defines the identity of women.
C) the tasks and activities that a culture assigns to each sex.
D) the marked differences in male and female biology, which vary across cultures.
E) one's biological identity.

Question 17

If a patriarchy is a political system ruled by men, what would a matriarchy be-a political system ruled by women? Anthropologist Peggy Sanday, who investigated these questions among the Minangkabau of West Sumatra, found that

A) true matriarchies do not exist.
B) women in matriarchies see their male counterparts as being inferior.
C) women of newer generations are experimenting with new ideas of gender roles.
D) although matriarchies do exist, they are not mirror images of patriarchies because, at least for the Minangkabau, both men and women are seen as cooperative partners for the common good.
E) although Minangkabau women play a central role in their culture's social, economic, and ceremonial life, they are still regarded as having lower status than men.

Question 18

Which of the following statements about groups with the patrilineal-patrilocal complex is NOT true?

A) They are often characterized by the view that the women are polluting.
B) Their land and prestige are passed through the females.
C) They have strongly developed private-public dichotomies.
D) They have their prestige goods under male control.
E) They often practice polygyny and have patterns of intervillage raiding.

Question 19

All of the following are associated with plow agriculture EXCEPT

A) a decline in both polygyny and unilineal descent.
B) differential rights in divorce and sexuality for men and women.
C) an overall increase in the status of women as new production techniques called for female as well as male labor.
D) a sharp contrast between the domestic and extradomestic realms.
E) the isolation of women in nuclear family households.

Question 20

Research among horticultural societies has found that

A) women are increasingly important to the livelihood of the community the older they get; their prestige increases with experience.
B) men tend to be the main caretakers, whereas women are involved in regional politics and economics.
C) in the case of matrilineal societies, women tended to do all the cultivating; men were typically involved with warfare.
D) the general patterns between gender roles and residence rule do not apply.
E) women are the main producers.

Question 21

The reason there are more modern-day Rosie the Riveters is that modern industry is even more physically demanding than it was during World War II.

Question 22

Based on research in the 1960s, which of the following statements about Etoro conceptions of heterosexual intercourse is NOT true?

A) It was thought to sap a man's vitality.
B) Women who wanted too much heterosexual intercourse were viewed as witches.
C) Such sex was permitted only a hundred days a year.
D) It was permitted to take place only in the couple's residence.
E) It was seen as a necessary sacrifice that would eventually lead to a man's death.

Question 23

Cross-culturally, the subsistence contributions of men and women are roughly equal.

Question 24

The relative gender equality found in horticultural societies most likely characterizes the most natural state of gender differentiation.

Question 25

What is meant by the term feminization of poverty?

A) the view that conditions of poverty are emasculating
B) the increasing representation of women among the poorest people
C) the popularity of feminist ideals among poor people
D) the recent campaign by feminists to work with the poor
E) the view that only women care about issues of poverty

Question 26

Gender roles are the instinctual behaviors that are the exclusive domain of each sex.

Question 27

Domestic violence against women is prevalent in patrilineal-patrilocal systems in which women are cut off from their supportive kin ties.

Question 28

Adding together men's and women's subsistence activities and their domestic work, men tend to work more hours than women do.

Question 29

This chapter's "Focus on Globalization" section discusses the strides different countries have made to close the gender gap. Which region has done the least to correct gender-based inequality?

A) North America
B) Africa
C) Latin America
D) Middle East/North Africa
E) Nordic countries

Question 30

Gender stratification tends to be extremely pronounced in patrilineal-patrilocal societies.

Question 31

Transgender is a social category that

A) includes people whose gender identity has no apparent biological roots.
B) always contrasts biologically with ordinary males and females.
C) consists of only intersex people.
D) is entirely biologically constructed.
E) has no validity within the social sciences.

Question 32

In the United States, attitudes regarding the role of women in the workplace have varied according to economic needs.

Question 33

Intersex, a group of conditions involving discrepancy between external genitals and internal genitals, can have a variety of chromosomal causes that create a sex-gender difference. Which of the following chromosomal anomalies identifies a person with the chromosomes of a woman and female internal anatomy, but with male external genitals?

A) XY Intersex person
B) True Gonadal Intersex person
C) Klinefelter's syndrome (XXY configuration)
D) XX Intersex person
E) Turner syndrome

Question 34

Women in matrilineal societies tend to occupy elevated status positions.

Question 35

Cross-culturally, women's roles tend to be focused on activities associated with the home, but men are more active in the public domain.

Question 36

The traditional gender roles of the Betsileo of Madagascar illustrate the idea that intensive cultivation does not necessarily entail sharper gender stratification.

Question 37

The specific roles assigned to each gender vary from culture to culture.

Question 38

In agricultural societies, women generally dominate the practice of subsistence labor.

Question 39

Transvestism, when members of one gender (usually males) dress as another (female), is

A) very common in Brazil, given this country's general acceptance of alternative gender roles.
B) an example of the biological basis of sexual expression.
C) evidence of the cultural limits in determining gender roles.
D) perhaps the most common way of forming genders alternative to male and female.
E) increasingly popular among gay men in Brazil.

Question 40

According to studies in the 1960s, why did young Etoro men and boys engage in homosexual relationships?

A) They did not understand biological reproduction, which is why they no longer exist.
B) The status of Etoro women was the highest in the world, in a status above and beyond males.
C) Genetic drift created a population dominated by a homosexual gene.
D) They believed it necessary for boys to ingest semen in order to mature in a healthy way.
E) A warrior cult of older adult men vigorously enforced a monopoly on access to women.

Question 41

What factors might explain the correlation between women's work outside the home and a national index of happiness? What is it about women working outside of the home that might make a country's population happier? Brainstorm possible causes for this correlation.

Question 42

What is the relationship between gender stratification and economic roles? Do these relationships apply equally to all types of societies, regardless of the type of productive activity? Why or why not?

Question 43

Contrast gender roles in two of the following: A) foraging societies; B) matrilineal-matrilocal societies; C) patrilineal-patrilocal societies; D) pastoralists; and E) agriculturalists.

Question 44

What is the private-public dichotomy? In what kinds of societies does it occur, and in what kinds of societies is it absent? What factors contribute to its presence or absence, and what are its effects on gender roles?

Question 45

Reasons why there are so many single-parent families headed by women include male migration, divorce, abandonment, and the idea that women are responsible for the children.

Question 46

How are sexuality, sex, and gender related to each other? What are the differences among these three analytical concepts?

Question 47

Even though women represent more than half the U.S. workforce, single-parent families headed by women represent more than half the households below the poverty line.

Question 48

Flexibility in sexual expression seems to be an aspect of our primate heritage.

Question 49

Are certain sexual preferences more natural than others? What factors compel some societies to deviate from the heterosexual norm found in most human societies?

Question 50

What position do most anthropologists take on the matter of whether male dominance is a cultural universal? What is your own view on the matter? What evidence can you put forth to support your view?

Question 51

With the baby boom and the increase in industrialization, women have contributed more and more to the workplace while receiving pay equal to that of their male coworkers.