Women and Men in World Cultures is an overview of anthropological understandings of the nature of sex and gender as they appear throughout the world.
The book begins with a review of the theories about the role gender may have played in past societies. The second section focuses on the place of women and men in a wide variety of ways of life from foragers to members of the global community. Issues discussed include the relationship of social stratification to gender stratification, the nature of sexual divisions of labor, and definitions of power in diverse contexts.
A third section focuses on topics that are most often of key interest to students. The roles that women and men play in the family and what this means to the lives of individuals are discussed and analyzed. The definition of power is challenged with issues of autonomy, authority, prestige discussed along with those of formal elites.
The roles that supernatural beliefs and religious leaders play in the defining of gender are also considered. The realities of globalization and transnationalism are considered as they differentially influence the lives of men and women. Finally, as a conclusion, students are challenged to confront the complexities of the concepts of sex and gender themselves. |
2004 McGraw-Hill Higher Education