Library Resource Guide

This course explores what it means to be male and female in our own and other cultures. It is both a Women's Studies and an Anthropology course. This semester we will apply feminist and anthropological perspectives to three interrelated issues: giving birth, mothering, and male socialization. We will examine the role of reproduction in cultural definitions of men's and women's identity and power. We will explore theories about gender, reproduction, mothering, and power as well as empirical studies of birthing and mothering in a variety of cultural settings. We will end the semester by taking a feminist, anthopological look at how contemporary US culture socializes boys and the consequences of this for men, women, and society.

Course Goals

1. Students will be able to define feminism and outline feminist approaches to birth, mothering and male socialization
2. Students will be able to outline the contributions of anthropology to understanding birth, mothering and male socialization.
3. Students will learn about birth across cultures and develop a critical perspective on the U.S. way of birth.
4. Students will understand some of the diversity involved in mothering and consequences of it.
5. Students will be able to discuss some of the challenges facing contemporary boys in the US and possible ways to alleviate them.

Back to Top

Readings

Jordan, Brigitte. 1993.  Birth in Four Cultures: A Crosscultural Investigation of Childbirth in Yucatan, Holland, Sweden, and the United States.  Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland.  Fourth edition revised and expanded by Robbie Davis-Floyd.

Glenn, Evelyn Nakano, Grace Chang, and Linda Rennie Forcey.  1994.  Mothering: Ideology, Experience, and Agency.  New York: Routledge.

Pollack, William. 1998.  Real Boys: Rescuing Our Sons from the Myths of Boyhood. New York: Henry Holt

Moore, Henrietta.  1988.  "Feminism and Anthropology."  From Feminism and Anthropology.  Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 1-11.  ARTICLE.

Back to Top

Requirements

1. Attend class awake and on time. Do the assigned readings by the day for which they are assigned, and be prepared to discuss them in class. Complete in-class assignments or quizzes based on readings. Class attendance, participation, and assignments or quizzes will count 10% of your course grade.
2. Write three short take-home essays (800-1000 words) typed double space with at least 1" margins due on September 18, October 30, and December 12 (20% each). Late essays will not be accepted without an authorized excuse. Detailed assignments for essays will be distributed.
3. Write a 6-8 page paper (1600-2400 words), typed double spaced and give an oral presentation on it (30%). Your paper must be based on interviews with at least two people and must be on one of two topics: (a) feminist anthropological perpectives on birth, gender and power, or (b) feminist anthropological perspectives on boys, men, and growing up male. Details will follow.

Syllabus

Back to Top