Breland Hall 182, Tu./Thurs. 10:20-11:35 a.m.
Instructor: Dr. Christine Eber Office Telephone: 646-2448
Office: Breland 314 email address: ceber@nmsu.edu
Office hours: Tues. 1:30-3; Th. 12-1 or by appt. Anth. Dept. Office – 329 Breland
About this course
“We’re gonna talk about difference ‘til difference don’t matter no more.”
(rough quote from speech in Atlanta, December 1994)
This course focuses on gender differences and women’s experiences of these and the methods and theories that anthropologists have developed to study gender and women’s lives. Since anthropologists began to conduct research in the late 1900s, they have noted great diversity in people’s ideas about gender, as well as in their gendered divisions of labor. This diversity has led anthropologists to reevaluate the very premises of their own societies, not to mention their own ideas about gender and themselves.
During this semester we will study gender and women’s lives in small villages and large urban neighborhoods, in the past and present, and from the viewpoints of anthropologists who study these societies as well as the people who live in them. Although we will read accounts by men, we will focus on those by and about women. This is because until quite recently women's experiences and perspectives have been absent from or marginalized in scholarly writings.
Our primary goal will be to deepen your ability to analyze your own and others' social systems with gender as your lens. Specific areas of analysis will include: (1) surveying the history of ideas about gender and women in the discipline of anthropology; (2) comparing women's experiences cross-culturally; (3) exploring what conditions lead to relations of equality or inequality between men and women and among men and women; and (4) how women's ways of writing about their own and others' cultures differ from the ways men write about these.
I hope that our course will be a collaboration in which we learn from one another, sharing our unique perspectives. Our goal will be to work together to empower each other in the following ways:
(1) to apply feminist methods in our research and life.
(2) to integrate feminist pedagogical methods into our teaching.
(3) to gain a foundation in the history of feminist anthropology and in understanding many kinds of feminisms
(4) to write in ways that are personally, professionally, and politically liberating.
(5) to develop a feminist practice that brings the university into greater dialogue with
diverse kinds of communities.
(6) to develop a support network of like-minded scholars to assist us to confront
the challenges of combining scholarship and activism.
(7) to build self-reflection into your scholarship and life.
I hope that by talking together about gender differences (and their intersection with
differences of class, race, and ethnicity) we may make some strides toward a world where “difference don’t matter no more.”
Anth. 433/WS 433, p.2
Three books are required reading for this class. They are available at the University Bookstore.
1. Nisa, The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman by Marjorie Shostak
2. Women and Alcohol in a Highland Maya Town: Water of Hope, Water of Sorrow by Christine Eber
3. A World Full of Women by Martha Ward, 2nd edition (“WFW” on weekly schedule)
4. A few articles will be handed out in class. If you are absent be sure to check to see if an article was handed out when you were absent.
Most weeks will follow the format below:
Tuesdays - lectures/videos/speakers
Thursdays – discussions of weekly readings. Some weeks discussions will be co-facilitated by class members in teams of 2-3 people. (Part of Thursday’s class we may need to finish up what we don’t finish on Tuesday). See course requirements below.
1. Attendance & participation – Being present in class and being generous with your
thoughts is critical to earn a good grade and for us to develop a supportive community in class. You are responsible to sign in on the clipboard that will be sent around each class. Students who attend at least 90% of the class meetings and regularly participate during discussions will earn full credit (100 points); students who attend at least 80% of the class meetings and participate will receive 90 points; those who attend 70% of classes and participate will receive 80 points, and so on. I do not require notification or documentation of absences unless you have a prolonged absence due to illness, serious misfortune, or University business. Written documentation is needed for me to take these absences into account. In case of a prolonged absence please contact me by email or phone to let me know what is going on with you.
I hope that everyone will be generous with their opinions in class discussions, but other ways to participate include: supporting fellow classmates with their ideas; bringing announcements or information relevant to the course content to our attention during the announcement period of class. 100 points
2. Journal - Each week you are required to write an entry in a journal about
the readings for that week based on an approach outlined in the article “The Integrative Learning Journal” in the reading packet. Your journal should eventually contain 12 weekly entries & 2 special entries. Be sure to write at least one entry with each kind of journal entry discussed in “The Integrative Learning Journal.” Your entries may be written in a blank book, typed, or cut and pasted in a book. Please choose the form that allows you to reflect most clearly and critically on the course material. Although an informal tone in your journal is fine, strive to back up your points with evidence or examples. Please write in a way that someone who doesn’t share your culture can understand. Imagine if you were to open the book in 10 years if you would be able to reconnect to what you have written. ALWAYS include the full citation for the book or article that you refer to in each entry that sparked your thoughts. Assume that in 10 years you might want to reread that book or article or refer it to someone.
Anth. 433/WS 433, p.3
A “quote entry” is an optional entry you could use not discussed in “The Integrative Learning Journal.” With this entry record a quote from the required readings with the full citation, including the page number, and then explore why the quote is compelling and significant to you.
In addition to entries using styles in the “Integrative Journal” and the optional quote entry, you are required to write 2 entries based on the following (20 points each):
1. An entry about your personal history, incorporating any “click experiences” that you have had that have led you to examine how gender roles, relations and ideologies have shaped your life.
(We will discuss “click experiences at the 1st class session) (20 points) To be submitted with the first set of journal entries on 9/19.
2. An entry comparing and/or contrasting ways in which you and a woman covered
in one of the assigned books (Nisa or a woman from Chiapas) have been constrained from expressing yourself and your humanity by beliefs and practices surrounding gender. In the body of your entry be sure to address differences and similarities between the cultural systems in which you both live or lived. Also, please speculate how your experiences might have been different had these constraints not existed. (20 points) To be submitted with the last set of journal entries on 1/17.
Please note: Feel free to make the journal your own, for example by adding poetry, attaching newspaper articles, making sketches, etc. The creative expression you will make in response to the life story you will write this semester can also go in your journal if it is written or a drawing. Also, please take advantage of the journal to write your reflections on the process of recording and writing the life story. In order to help me when I read your journal, indicate when you are writing about the life story project, so that I won’t confuse it with a weekly journal entry.
Weekly journal entries @ 15 pts. = 180 points
2 extra entries @ 20 pts.= 40 points
10 points for submitting completed journals on due dates 3 times = 30 points Total journal = 250 points
3. Co-facilitating a class discussion with a partner - Co-facilitated discussions begin on week 3. By 9/1 have an idea of the week that you would like to co-facilitate. (Please have a back-up week.) Well in advance of the day you co-facilitate, meet with your co-facilitator to discuss the readings and come up a plan for co-facilitating. As you discuss the readings, Anth.
433/WS 433, p.4
remember that your goal is to ask open-ended questions to get to the heart of what you have read and to find creative ways to elicit people’s ideas and feelings to deepen understanding of
the key points in the readings. To come up with questions, ask yourself, “What question is what I am reading an answer to?” Try to pose open-ended questions, not questions that can be answered with “yes” or “no.” (Questions that start with “How” and “Why” are usually open-ended. Questions that start with “Is” and “Do” are usually not. ) Avoid posing questions that cannot be answered from the readings or that are unnecessarily difficult, but don’t hesitate to pose complex questions. Since you will usually read more than one chapter or article each week, your questions could address a dominant theme running through the readings.
To prepare us for the discussion portion of class please write your questions (at least two) on the board at the beginning of class or hand out copies of the questions to the class.
Please open up discussions with a go-around that allows everyone to offer some preliminary reactions to the readings, especially gut feelings. At this time, also share with us any debates or insights you acquired talking with your co-facilitator. This background will help students form their opinions during the discussion. It will also help us reflect on our process of learning in this course.
Note: The day that you co-facilitate your journal entry will consist of a reflection on the process of co-facilitating, including the questions you posed and activities you planned. You do not need to write another entry. Reflect on how the class went in relation to your expectations. Consider what worked well, what didn’t seem as successful. Include insights that you gained from the class discussion and about the experience of co-facilitating. Please make recommendations for how to strengthen our co-facilitation process. (If the journals are due on a day when you co-facilitate, you can turn in your journal by Friday at 5 p.m. with your reflection on the class.)
One co-facilitation 75 points
5. Life story of a woman – An 8-10 page typewritten paper about the life of a woman.
Guidelines for this paper are attached to this syllabus. You can also write about a family member. The choice of a person to interview is completely up to you, but please choose someone you can sit down and talk with face-to-face on more than one occasion. You and the person you interview for this project, if the person can come, will give a short presentation on week 16 of the semester. Part of this presentation will be something you have created (a poster, a poem, a drawing, etc.) in response to the experience of learning about the person you chose. You can present this to the person if you’d like. You are required to turn in a rough draft of the life story so that your classmates and I can help you strengthen the final draft. 175 points
Due dates: Grading scale
Journals due - 9/15, 10/13, 11/17 540-600 A
Life story rough draft due - 11/10 480-539 B
Final life story due – 11/29 420-479 C
Presentations of life stories – 11/29, 12/1, 12/8 300-419 D below 300 F
Wk. 1 - 8/23, 8/25 Introduction
To become acquainted with your professor, other
Anth. 433/WS 433, p.5
classmates, course topics, requirements and readings
Handout: “The Integrative Learning Journal”
Wk. 2 - 8/30, 9/1 Gender as alternative or continuum
To explore relationships between biology
& male-female behavior & orderings of
gender in terms of beliefs about the world.
WFW, chapter 7
Handouts: “Woman as Other”; “The History of Gender in the Study of Anthropology ”
Wk. 3 - 9/6, 9/8 Why not ask the women?
To understand anthropologists’ efforts to correct male bias in accounts of human societies; to include women’s experiences in the record of human history; and to see human events from women’s points of view.
WFW, Introduction, Chapter 2
Handout: “Woman The Gatherer”
Co-faciliators:
Wk. 4 – 9/13, 9/15 Nisa: The Life & Words
of a !Kung Woman
pp. 1-112
Co-facilitators:
Journals due 9/15
Wk. 5 – 9/20, 9/22 Nisa
pp. 115-235
Co-facilitators:
Wk. 6 – 9/27, 9/29 Nisa
pp. 237-332
Co-facilitators:
Wk. 7 – 10/4, 10/6 Biocultural markers in the
lives of women/Who Owns her Body?
To explore the intersections of biology,
women’s life cycles & cultural constructions
of these processes; to explore challenges to
cultural relativism that have come from
examining women’s experiences.
WFW, Chapters 3 & 9
Co-faciliators:
Anth. 433/WS 433, p.6
Wk. 8 - 10/11, 10/13 Work and gender
To explore how human societies have assigned
the survival tasks of society according to gender.
WFW, Chapter 1
Co-facilitators:
Journals due 10/13
Wk. 9 – 10/18, 10/20 Patterns of partnering/ Systems for separating females & males
To understand how patterns of partnering structure economic and reproductive rights and obligations and how individuals struggle with the balance between personal desires and social needs. To understand the
roots of gender separation.
WFW, Chapters 5 & 6
Co-faciliators:
Journals due
Wk. 10 – 10/25, 10/27 Women & Alcohol in Chiapas
W&A, pp. 1-134
Handout: “The Reflexive Approach
in Anthroplogy”
Co-faciliators:
Wk. 11 – 11/1, 11/3 Women & Alcohol in Chiapas
W&A, pp. 135-261
Co-faciliators:
Wk. 12 - 11/8, 11/10 Suffering & Healing, Women as the
earth’s last Colony To explore women’s
experiences of and responses to colonization
and economic change.
WFW, Chapters 8 & 10
Co-faciliators:
First 5 pages of biographies due 11/10– please make
extra copies for peer review. (Quantity of copies TBA)
Wk. 13 - 11/15, 11/17 Discussion of rough drafts of life stories
Handout: “The Next Step” by Susan Armitage
Guest: Beth O’Leary, 11/17
Journals due 11/17
Wk. 14 - 11/22, 11/24 No classes
Anth. 433/WS 433, p.7
Wk. 15 - 11/29, 12/1 Course and self evaluations & presentations of
life stories
Life stories due 11/29
Wk. 16 – 11/8 Presentations of life stories during final exam period
1. Be on time. Turn off cell phones and beepers.
2. To withdraw from this course you must take responsibility to process the paper work. I will
not automatically withdraw you.
3. I can only give an incomplete grade to students who have passed the first half of the course & have a legitimate reason for being unable to finish the requirements for the course by the end of the semester.
4. If you are taking this course for “S/U” you must score a “C” to receive an “S” grade.
5. Students with disabilities: If you have or believe you have a disability and would benefit from any accommodations, you may wish to self-identify by contacting the Services for Students
with Disabilities (SSD) Office in Room 244 of Corbett Center (646-6840). If you have already registered, please be sure that I receive a copy of the accommodation memorandum from SSD within the first two weeks of classes. If services are not meeting your needs, please inform me or SSD in a timely manner to better accommodate you.
If you have a condition that may affect your ability to exit safely from the premises in an emergency or which may cause an emergency during class, you are encouraged to discuss any concerns with me and/or Ms. Jane Spinti, SSD Coordinator. Feel free to call Ms. Elva Telles (EEO/ADA and Employee Relations Director) at 646-3333 with any questions about the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) and or section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. All medical information will be treated confidentially.
6. If you have any questions or concerns about the class please come talk with me. If you can’t make it to my office hours, let me know and I’ll try to arrange another time with you. For any important matters needing my feedback or an answer please talk with me in person during my office hours or call me. Please do not use email for important matters.
To help you write your journal entries, life stories, and questions for co-facilitating please consult “Writing guidelines” at the end of this syllabus and “Politics and the English Language” by George Orwell (on reserve under Eber’s classes at Zuhl Library in A Collection of Essays by George Orwell). When writing your life story write to a general reader, not to me or to someone knowledgeable about the topic. Imagine that the person who will read your life story doesn’t share your culture or beliefs. Push yourself to be as clear, detailed, and specific as you can to help any reader understand what you are saying. Provide adequate background on the culture and society in which the woman lives.
Anth. 433/WS 433, p.8
Check list for written work in this course:
2. Did you use a 12 point font with 1 inch margins for typed papers?
3. Have you cited your sources and have you included a list of references where appropriate?
Please do not put your life story in a plastic binder or other kind of binder. Just staple your
If English is not your first language please let us know so that I can take that into consideration and help you by looking at a rough draft of your papers. Before coming to see me please study the writing guidelines at the end of this syllabus carefully. If your writing problems are extensive, please ask for help at the Learning Assistance Center in Hardman Hall.
Required readings packet (See schedule above for dates assigned)
Ten sets of these readings will be available. Please pair up with someone to make an extra copy.
1. “The Integrative Learning Journal” by Ellen Berry and Elizabeth Lack. Women’s
Studies Quarterly 1993: 3 & 4: 88-93.
2. “The History of the Study of Gender in Anthropology.” In Gender and Anthropology by Frances Mascia-Lees and Nancy Black. Prospect Heights: Waveland, 2000.
3. “The Reflexive Approach” by Francis Mascia-Lees and Nancy Johnson Black. In Gender
and Anthropology by Frances Mascia-Lees and Nancy Johnson Black. Prospect Heights, Il: Waveland Press, 2000, pp. 92-102.
4. “Woman the Gatherer” by Sally Slocum. In Toward an Anthropology of Women, edited
by Rayna R. Reiter. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1975, pp. 36-50.
5. “Woman as Other” by Simone De Beauvoir. In The Second Sex by Simon de Beauvoir.
translated and edited by H.M. Parshley. New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1952.
6. “The Next Step” by Susan Armitage. Frontiers, Vol. II, No. 1: 3-8, 1983.
Anth. 433/WS 433, p.9
A biography of a woman you know focusing on how her society’s beliefs and practices about gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, and class or caste have shaped her, and in turn how she has shaped these ideas and practices.
Your paper needs to cover the three basic parts described below and any other material you wish to include. Feel free to address these topics in any order or form that conveys the richness of the woman’s life.
1. The women’s story – The goal of this part is to explore how the woman you
are writing about has negotiated the social and cultural systems in which she lives. Please don’t neglect the woman’s early childhood. (See questions attached to syllabus). You will want to think about what has made life difficult for the woman, what restraints the people and institutions in her society have placed on her and how she has dealt with these. How aware has she been of these restraints? In what ways has she felt suppressed, unable to express her full humanity? In what ways has she felt free? What innovative strategies has she used to confront constraints? How would you characterize her strategies – overt, covert, collective, individualistic? Many other questions will come out of your discussions with the woman.
2. The defining characteristics of the gender system in the culture or cultures in which the woman you are writing about grew up. Try to draw a picture of the larger social and historical contexts in which the woman has lived. Use the comparative criteria and measures given below (and any others that come out of your interviews) to help you structure this part. Lectures and the three books you will read this semester will help you greatly with this part.
a. survival
b. marriage rules
c. mixing with different kinds of people
d. control of property
e. independence
f. education
g. politics
h. religion
i. violence
j. networks of support
3. Your method - Describe how and why you chose the woman you wrote about, and how the experience of learning about her, writing the paper, and making a creative response affected you. Also, tell how you went about learning about her. For example, did you talk informally or formally? in what setting? using a tape recorder or notetaking? Talking in a language other than English? looking at a photo album, etc.? Here’s some other themes you could explore: how your feelings may have changed about the woman, yourself, her culture, and your culture; how the woman’s cultures may have constrained or freed her (or something in between); and the relative importance of class, gender, ethnicity, race, in her life. You can do a lot with this section; so pay attention to your feelings and thoughts.
Anth. 432/532, p. 9
For students’ use in totaling points earned: 600 points total
Assignment Points possible/pts. earned
Attendance 100 ________
1st set of 4 journal entries @ 15 points each 60 ________
complete journal turned in on time @ 10 points 10 ________
2nd set of 4 journal entries @ 15 points each 60 ________
complete journal turned in on time @ 10 points 10 ________
3rd set of 4 journal entries @ 15 points each 60 ________
complete journal turned in on time @ 10 points 10 ________
Journal entry -personal history 20________
Journal entry – comparison 20 ________
Co-facilitating a class 75 ________
Life story
Written part 125________
Presentation & artistic expression 50 _______
Total points earned = 600 _______
Anth. 433/WS 433, Fall 2005: Grades
Assignment Points possible/pts. earned
Attendance 100 ________
1st set of 4 journal entries @ 15 points each 60 ________
complete journal turned in on time @ 10 points 10 ________
2nd set of 4 journal entries @ 15 points each 60 ________
complete journal turned in on time @ 10 points 10 ________
3rd set of 4 journal entries @ 15 points each 60 ________
complete journal turned in on time @ 10 points 10 ________
Journal entry -personal history 20________
Journal entry – comparison 20 ________
Co-facilitating a class 75 ________
Life story
Written part 125________
Presentation & artistic expression 50 _______
Total points earned = 600 _______