Kinship

Rules of Alliance
exogamy: marrying outside of ones own identifying group
can be in terms of class, culture,
endogamy: marrying inside of ones own identifying group
ethnicity, religion, clan, etc.
monogamy: marrying one person at a time
in US marriages tend to be serial
polygamy: marrying more than one person at a time
monogamy with high divorce rates
polyandry: spouse with multiple husbands
polygyny: spouse with multiple wives (ex: Mormon leader Warren Jeffs )
Rules of Resistance
virilocal: living with grooms family after marriage
uxorilocal: living with brides family after marriage (unique localusually guys fam)
neolocal: living apart from family after marriage (new local)
avunculocal: living with the brides/grooms uncle (of uncle local)
biolocal: living with both the grooms and brides family in alternating times (both)
Rules of Descent
unilateral: tracing descent through one line (ex: taking one parents last name)
patrilineal: the lineage is traced through the men bloodline
matrilineal: the lineage is traced through the women bloodline
bilateral: tracing lineage through two lines (common practice in US)
Ex: Kinship Chart

Key
male
female

marriage
descent

=
Marges
sisters and
their
families
continue
on here

Marge

Homer
EGO: the point of
reference of which the
entire chart is based on

Bart Maggie
Lisa
son daughter daughter

death

Kinship Notation
Ego: YOU
Cross-Cousin: your parents *opposite sex* siblings kids
ex: mothers brothers son/daughter (MBS/MBD)
fathers sisters son/daughter (FZS/FSD)
Parallel Cousin: your parents *same sex* siblings kids

Z = sister since S = son

ex: mothers sisters son/daughter (MZS/MZD)

fathers brothers son/daughter (FBS/FBD)
Consanguineal kin (blood kin)
(Affinity/Affine) Affinial kin (kin by marriage)
Kinship System Terminology
simple Eskimo Lineal: distinguishes generation, sex, and lineal of extended (like AmericanEnglish kinship system)
Hawaiian Generational: distinguishes generation and sex only
Iroquois Bifurcate Merging: distinguishes sex, generation, and parents same/opposite sex
siblings and parallel of cross-cousins
complex Sudanese Bifurcate Collateral: distinguishes everything of most specific
Remember!!

Sex: biology; what you are born as

Gender: cultural, what you think you are

Look Whos Talking (movie)

How are sperm and egg represented? How does the movie clip representations:
Sperm
Beach Boys
active music
(song: I get around)
very energetic
aggressive
competitive
parallels the male character
has cognition
can talk

Egg
drifting aimlessly
floating passively
graceful
soft music
(song: I need you, I wont let
you go)
parallels the female character
doesnt have cognition
cant talk

Emily Martin
The Egg and Sperm: How Science Has Constructed A Romance Based On Stereotypical
Male-Female Roles they have genders!
Biomedical discourse, examined textbooks and found exact same metaphors
Production
Oogenesis
female production
process of producing eggs
occurs during the embryonic stage
born with 2 million
oocytes = eggs
Spermatogenesis
process of producing sperm
spermatocytes

sperm manufactured everyday

How do medical journals describe the gender difference?
Men
Women
(positive)
(negative)
produce
shed
creative
degeneration
remarkable
breakdown
amazing
failed reproduction
the sheer magnitude
losing
(several hundred a day)
wasteful
death of tissue
---VALUE LADEN--(once a month)
For Martin, the real mystery is
why womens processes are seen as wasteful but mens are not
if average 2-3 children
Men waste 2 million sperm in lifetime
Women waste 200 eggs per child
Men waste a million per child
Fertilization: New Data
Conventional storyline
egg behaves femininely: swept along, drifting
sperm masculinity: burrows, harpoons, delivers, penetrates, saves damsel in
distress
incorrect
cells are not gendered
Why not the egg rescuing the sperm?
Sperm will die as well if it does not reach egg
lateral motion of sperm 10x greater than forward thrust
lock and key mechanism
Assumption:
egg = lock
sperm = key
By convention:
protein = receptor lock
ligand = the key
medical textbooks reversed this terminology!!!!
egg ZP3 ligand key is called the receptor
(to make it more passive)
sperm is called an adhesive protein egg-binding protein
(to make it more aggressive)
INVENTED THE TERM!!
Like Paul Broca

A priori beliefs
even domains deemed most problematically biological
(e.g. conception, reproduction)
involve culture
Culture is a coral reef
-is abstract, supra-organic, collective
-Alfred Kroebers Metaphor
Ex: the English languages
It precedes you and will go on without you
Youre choosing from a particular restricted menu
Culture
shapes our understanding of the world
divides the world into basic categories
Ex: Food
Sex
Sexuality
Culture shapes our ideas of:
whom you are allowed to have sex with
whom you want to have sex with
what you want during sex
Ex: E. Africa, Massai
3 categories: boy moran man
2 categories: girl woman
Intersexuals
3 different approaches
1. American: horror
2. Navajo: considered blessed
3. Africa: a mistake (more neutral)
Fausto-Sterling: The 5 Sexes
even biological sex is more complicatedthere is a lot more diversity
(Prof. Magliola)
intersexual body as many as 4% of births
herms-merms-ferms
Case Study of Emma
THM: Intersexuals as UNRULY BODIES
dont fit into binary classification system
blurs distinction between M/F
challenges traditional beliefs about sexual difference

silencing, surgery, control

The 3 Bodies
1) Somatic body
2) Social body
3) Body politic
Body as a natural symbol
Body as a locus of power
Sex vs. Gender not biological, but social attributes, ideas of masculinity, feminity
Purity and Danger by Mary Douglas
Body as a natural symbol supplying some of the richest sources of metaphor
Body as a locus of power
What is dirt?
matter out of place
blurred boundaries: impurity, pollution
social order/social disorder
Perceptions of threat danger respond with
Gender System
specific behavioral attributes attached to each sex by a society and defined by culture
not just describing attributes but position within a system of classification
Gender is learned. Involves performance.
Simone de Beauvoir: One is not Born a Woman, but becomes one.
Ex: Martins analysis of biomedical discourses
Ex: Space (department store, Africa)
Gender (does not) = Sex
remarkable cross-cultural and historical diversity
system of categories and inequality
power and differential prestige
Mike Tyson:
Im gonna make you my girlfriend
Im going to dominate you
Gloria Steinem: What IF men could menstruate?
will become this glorified amazing event
making serious power
things associated with women is devalued, but vice versa for men
Ma Vie en Rose Film
How does Ludovic in Ma Vie en Rose (My Life in Pink) blur boundaries? How is he
matter out of place? --- How does he attend against order? What is the response to him?
Cosmetic Surgery Popularity in Asian American Women
Question: What ethnic group is more likely than any other to undergo cosmetic surgery?

Answer: Asian-American (Women)

6% of all procedures, despite being only 3% of the population (ASPRS 1990)
Undoubtedly higher
Latest Stats (2004)
Number of cosmetic surgery patients who were under 18 in 2004 = 326, 233
Number of cosmetic surgery patients who were over 18 in 2004 = 8,884,394
13% male
87% female
Overall Totals: total number of cosmetic surgery patients in 2004 including all age groups
and both genders
9,210, 627
Opening Faces: the Politics of Cosmetic Surgery and Asian American Women
How culture constraints free choice and shapes our behavior
How racial and gender stereotypes of the dominate culture influence
Historical Origins of Cosmetic Surgery
WWI reconstruction surgery for disfigured soldiers
not for repairing natural features a person is unhappy with
within the last two decades cosmetic surgery is a booming industry
tummy-tucks, face-lifts, etc.
Self-Hatred: a lucrative commodity
in 1982, the ASPRS stated that small breasts are:
a deformitya disease which in most patients result ina total lack of well-being
due to lack of self-perceived femininity
(Zones & Fugh-Berman, 2000, p. 389)
Normalization: the molding of people into normal as opposed to abnormal forms and
the process by which a culture encourages its people to regulate and achieve his/her own
conformity with the established rules. (Foucault)
Ethnic Groups seek different types of operations:
breast augmentation; procedures to remove
Caucasian-Americans
fat and wrinkles Facelifts, collagen
injection
African Americans
lip-reduction, nose-reduction
Asian Americans
double-eyelid surgery; nasal dorsum
implants

 Common Claims: no political significance; reflects freedom of choice

Kaw: examples a wider culture
Why are Asian American women willing to undergo cosmetic surgery, despite costs and risks?
at least one-hour long procedure
$1000-$3000
surgical risks include: bleeding,
How do natural features become interpreted as a deformity (deviant, abnormal, flawed)?
I argue p.94-95
However, one cannot regard p.95
Double eyelid and nose-bridge surgeryWhat are the reasons given?
to get rid of the sleepy looks
to look prettier
Informant claims
individually motivated
do not necessary want to look Caucasian
discourse
Asian American women view their racial feature in a negative fashion
(SYMBOL) squinty eyes, flat nose
(MEANING) a dull and passive personality, unenergetic, unsociable, a mind that is
closed and narrow
Double/Triple Oppression
patriarchal definitions of feminity
Caucasian standards of beauty & capitalist work ethics
MEDIA
Asians rarely featured in media
IF they are, 2 TYPES:
1. Fashion models, movie stars who look European
2. Negative stereotypical portrayal of squinty-eyed Asians with dull, passive, rigid
personalities Charlie Chan
Informants: caught between these two images
Obstacles
lack of representation; invisibility
Nativism: assuming persons citizenship status; associating with foreigners
replicable plurals: Asians are all the same
Ex: Asian models as type (p.102)
demasculinization of Asian men (p.103)
Orientalism (discourse; multiple but limited stereotypes)
Oriental girls are diligent with nimble fingers and slow wit
Model Minority definition (p. 100)
cast as a good citizen
Why not a rite of passage?

 claim a celebration of the body; freedom of choice

***Kaws answer p.103-105***
NOT: undergoing cosmetic surgery is not made public and there is no socio-spiritual connection
between the participant and the practitioner (doctor and patient)
depoliticized as self-expression of individuals (p.107)
Cosmetic Surgery as a Weapon of the Weak
examples of: passive resistance
self-monitoring, self-regulation to measure up to societal ideals
discipline, docile bodies
aware of oppressive racialized nature of dominant beauty ideal
feelings of marginalization
reinforce these structures by deciding to undergo surgery ACCOMODATION
conforming to hegemonic standards of beauty
the PANOPTICON (Michel Foucault): metaphor of power; self-surveillance
In Discipline and Punish
What is the design for a perfect prison?
Foucault
A: PANOPTICON

You dont even need to have a guard

present at all
The mirror will force the prisoners to selfregulate through the production of
discourse knowledge and truth

PRISIONS

Metaphor for Modern Power

self-surveillance
self-regulation
self-monitoring

Thats so gay
is a form of discourse
MIRROR
associates the word gay with something negative
goes on to reinforce negative stereotypes to homophobes
used to police masculinity
Guest of the Shiek
BJ going to Iraq for honeymoon; fianc is an Anthropologist
Adjusting to the culture:

o women not allowed to be seen in public

o must wear headdress
o emphasis on jewelry (insurance against disaster) & to be with ones womenfolk
Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
fieldwork going undercover
low wage worker
welfare reforms back to work program
a solution to poverty?
$6-7/hr
30% of workforce
why do fieldwork at all?
tricks low wage workers had to survive?
so as not to overestimate how easy it is
gives realistic value to everything
if get side, accident likely to lose job/ no health care
BUDGET (Family of 3)
$1000
housing/rent
$100
utilities (gas, electric, water)
$350
food
$500
childcare
$120 - $15
transportation
$20
cell phone
$50
entertainment
$50
clothes/laundry
$40
housing supply
$45
toiletries
$100
car insurance/health insurance
= $2500
unrealistically low (would be much more)
x 12
$30,000
Life of struggle but dont qualify for welfare
Question: Is it possible to make a living at unskilled jobs?
waitress at the Hearthside Family Restaurant
found work to be taxing
disrespectful management
financially unsustainable
Major challenge: HOUSING
Why do many low wage workers live in hotel rooms? no need to pay security deposit
There are no secret economics that nourish the poor; on the contrary, there are a host of
special costs

Ex: housing, food, healthcare, uniform

Ehrenrichs Luxuries
no kids
car
$1300 start-up
$1000 first month rent
$300 food
$20
Ehrenrichs Finances
$2.43/hr + tips after two weeks
$5.15/hr
$200 short of rent, no expenses to cut
has to find a second job Jerrys
has to move to a less costly housing
hotel housekeeper
Could she hack it? (p.304)
Ehrenrieichs conclusion (p.304-305)
Minimum Wage
The Fair Minimum Wage Act introduced in May 2005 seeking to raise minimum wage to
$17.25/hr (repeatedly shot down), 1997-2007 (raised by 70 cents)
CA minimum wage
www.minimum-wage.org
Poverty Rate
www.povertyusa.org
Q: Where does the tobacco in cigarettes come from?
Malawi and other such third world countries
Q: What is Today (May 1, 2013)?
May 1st International Workers Day
(not celebrated in the US; moved to Sept 1 by Congress as Labor Day)
Q: What happened in Bangladesh a few days ago?
a linens factory collapsed
Pre-capitalismcapitalism control of workers
taylorization/scientific management
The objectification of work & the alienation resulting from separating man from products of
his labor
-the shift from precapitalism to capitalism changed the relationship of human beings to work
in Marxs time
Bourgeoisie
Ruling Class own means of production
Proletariat
Workers zero means to do own work for wages
capitalist production techniques

-the routinization of production

1) Taylorization
2) Scientific management
-fords assembly line (1911)
-deskilling of labor + tyranny of the clock
-breaking down tasks into very small parts:
Very simple, tedious, repetitive, boring, easy to supervise, manage
-GOAL: to produce the greatest number of products as efficiently as possible
Alienation:
-the separation of humans from each other, themselves & the products they create
-no control of their labor because they are being controlled themselves by managers that own
the products they make
The Production of Possession
site: Malaysia
subjects: female factory workers
topics:
how to interpret spirit possession?
proletarianization
capitalist discipline
resistance
context: industrialization of Malaysia

Free trade zone: government designated areas of deregulation (laws, etc)

free 1)geographically located areas with good access to transportation 2)free from taxes
Globalization: the fluidity of capital, the mobility of production, and the deregulation of
trade barriers between states and the ensuing cultural transformations & exchanges. Can
be considered the most compelling force of the 21st century
multinational corporationsex: Japanese owned corporations in Malaysia & the hiring of
young peasant malay women
capitalist production techniques
1) taylorization/scientific management
2) low wages + LONG hours
-corporations attracted by cheap labor (low wages + tax laws)
why is female labor preferred?
- young, single=more efficient
- high turnoverafter 3 to 5 years, eyesight shot & need fresh batches of workers
biopower
- inscription of power relations onto bodies
- orientalism
MNC construction of female oriental bodies= the best workers

nimble fingers, slow wit

passivity to withstand low-skilled, unstimulating work. Obedient

How do you create a good capitalist worker?

- taylorizationmeticulous control, regulation & surveillance of bodies
- cultural discourses
beliefs about gender
discourses of sexuality & morality
- daily exercise of power relations between male supervisors & female workers
key to enforcing discipline & recreating patriarchy
- overlapping disciplinary techniques
reproduction of patriarchy
customary male authority & female deference
surveillance, including monitored breaks
restrictive clothing & footwear
suppression of spontaneous friendships
- creation of docile bodies by reinscribing patriarchal relations using cultural
concepts of male domination & female subordination. Thru this, corporations are
able to effectively curtail organized resistance & produce such docile bodies

Spirit possession in factories

In order to understand, must look at:
village life
effects of young, unmarried women
working for $, how and why the larger society characterizes the young women as
morally
questionable
ADAT
ISLAM
-youngest daughter supports parents
-mother/child bond important
-maintenance of kin thru women
MEN
-stronger character
-spiritual purity
-guided by reason akal
-men enjoy spiritual purity over
women because they embody reason
& self-knowledge

-formal authority through father

-male responsibility to care for family

WOMEN
-weaker moral character
-spiritually weak
-more easily influenced by passion,
carnal desires
-lack of rational thought & emotional
stability

Men have authority over women

But women are a threat to men, to male purity. Therefore women must be controlled
Stages of a womans life:
1) Youth, girlhoodvirginal.
morally & spiritually at most weak

under authority of father, male kin

little direct supervision
2) Sexually mature women
sexually mature, very dangerous
a. married women: under authority of husband
b. divorced or widowed women, Jandamost dangerous!
3) Post-menopausal women
no longer a threat to men, lost sexual potency
spiritually strong
less subject to discipline, have authority in family
How women respond to capitalist discipline?
- Passive resistance
- crying
- accidents
- sloppy work
- frequent visits to restrooms or prayer halls
- spirit possession
disguised protest against patriarchydoesnt draw attention to the real problems of work
& society; doesnt directly challenged patriarchal authority & exploitation by MNC
reinforces constructions of women as spiritually weak
SPIRIT POSSESSION= both resistance & cultural accommodation
- they resist! Are not passive!
- but is a weak form of resistance

Neocolonialism
moving away from colonization & into the new age
-transition from colony to own country does mother country have an obligation to help
the developing country?
-resources have been used for hundreds of year. Depleted?
-lending $, able to pay back?
Thangata Social Bondage and Big Tobacco in Malawi (Movie)
Thangata means
(v.) a ChiNyanja term that means to help; to assist
(n.) a system of forced labor in tobacco and other cash crops imposed by British colonists
(n.) a debt slavery system that produces profit for tobacco companies
1890s slave trade ended in Malawi
MAUS
as an ethnography
story alternates between locales, time-periods, subjects
anthromorphic animalsJews=mouse, Germans=cats, Polish=pigs, Americans=dogs

 satire/allegory
survivors/survivors of survivors
parallels Shadowed Lives
experience
macroprocessors
humanity, family, struggle to survive
otherization
Ultimatelybook about the commonality of human beings
The intentional subversion of genre & cultural norm
Multiple Images
animals
real photographs
text
Manuel for shoe repair
maps of Poland
unconscious/conscious thoughts
diagrams of camps and hideouts
Death
- Poisioning of Richieu
- Suicide of mom Anja in 1968
- Murder of European Jews
Mourning & Melancholia (Freud 1916) article by Robert Levanthal On Art Speigelmans
Maus
The transmittance of conflict from one generation to the next
Maus invents a new discursive space to address the question of Jewish trauma, guilt, shame,
and perhaps most importantly, the transmission
Winter Soldier
- 1971: returning soldiers from Vietnam
- 2008: returning soldiers from Iraq