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Sex and Gender

Study Course Description

Course Description Statuss:Approved
Course Description Version:8.00
Study Course Accepted:21.03.2024 14:54:49
Study Course Information
Course Code:KSK_047LQF level:Level 7
Credit Points:4.00ECTS:6.00
Branch of Science:Sociology; Social AnthropologyTarget Audience:Social Anthropology
Study Course Supervisor
Course Supervisor:Diāna Kiščenko
Study Course Implementer
Structural Unit:Faculty of Social Sciences
The Head of Structural Unit:
Contacts:Dzirciema street 16, Rīga, szfatrsu[pnkts]lv
Study Course Planning
Full-Time - Semester No.1
Lectures (count)6Lecture Length (academic hours)2Total Contact Hours of Lectures12
Classes (count)18Class Length (academic hours)2Total Contact Hours of Classes36
Total Contact Hours48
Study course description
Preliminary Knowledge:
Knowledge of kinship anthropology and medical anthropology is desirable.
Objective:
Through a wide range of ethnographic material, to develop an understanding of the anthropological approach to gender studies, with a particular focus on themes such as gender, sex, sexuality, the body and gender roles. The course builds on the knowledge acquired in the course Kinship Systems and is linked to the course Medical Anthropology.
Topic Layout (Full-Time)
No.TopicType of ImplementationNumberVenue
1Gender and Sex in Social and Cultural Anthropology: A Brief History.Lectures1.00auditorium
Classes1.00auditorium
2Debate on the Dichotomy (Nature/Culture, Private/Public). A Critique of 1970s Feminism. Development of Gender Anthropology.Lectures1.00auditorium
Classes1.00auditorium
3Gender Equality, Domination and Subordination in Comparative Perspective.Lectures1.00auditorium
Classes1.00auditorium
4Body, Agency and Subjectivity.Lectures1.00auditorium
Classes1.00auditorium
5Gender, Colonialism and the Global Economy.Lectures1.00auditorium
Classes1.00auditorium
6Important Ethnography in the Anthropology of Gender, Sex and Sexuality.Classes2.00auditorium
7Intersex and Gay Research.Lectures1.00auditorium
Classes1.00auditorium
8Masculinity From an Anthropological Perspective.Classes2.00auditorium
9Gender, Sex and Sexuality in Fieldwork and Ethnographic Work.Classes2.00auditorium
10Gender Equality Issues in Post-Socialist Countries.Classes2.00auditorium
11Globalisation, Modernity and Gender: New Challenges in Anthropological Research.Classes2.00auditorium
12Is There Sex, or Just Gender?Classes2.00auditorium
Assessment
Unaided Work:
Throughout the course, students independently study the required reading for each class topic. For each seminar class, students read the required reading and prepare for a discussion on the specified seminar topic. Students write a midcourse argumentative essay of 1000 words on the 6th topic of the course, Important Ethnography in the Anthropology of Gender, Sex and Sexuality, which is changed every year. In case the student does not attend seminars and lectures, they shall prepare and submit to the head of the course a summary of 400 words for each item of literature indicated for the specific class. At the end of the course, students write a final argumentative essay of 3500-4000 words on one of the topics covered in the course. To assess the quality of the study course, students must complete the course evaluation questionnaire on the Student Portal at the end of the course.
Assessment Criteria:
Participation in seminars – 40%, midcourse essay – 20%, final essay – 40%.
Final Examination (Full-Time):Exam (Written)
Final Examination (Part-Time):
Learning Outcomes
Knowledge:Students are able to understand the role of human gender and sex in different times and societies through ethnographic research, as well as to recognise and explain the interaction of different broader processes (colonisation, globalisation, etc.) with human gender, sex and sexuality.
Skills:To analyse and interpret academic and practical issues related to gender and sex. To discuss the theoretical framework and methods of gender anthropology orally and in writing. To evaluate authors’ arguments and justify one’s attitude with reference to the ethnographic works covered in this and other courses in the programme.
Competencies:Able to make sound judgements about gender and sex from an anthropological perspective and critically analyse discourses on gender and sex in the media and policy documents.
Bibliography
No.Reference
Required Reading
1Strathern, M. 1988. Power: Claims and Counterclaims. In The Gender of the Gift, pp. 98-132. (Akceptējams avots, nozīmīga autore dzimtes studijās.)
2Butler, J. 2006. Bodily inscriptions, performative subversions. In Gender Trouble, pp. 175-193. (Akceptējams avots, hrestomātisks darbs, nozīmīga autore dzimtes studijās.)
3Martin, E. 1991. The Egg and the Sperm: How Science Has Constructed a Romance Based on Stereotypical Male-Female Roles. Signs, 16 (3), pp. 485-501. (Hrestomātisks darbs, nozīmīga autore dzimtes antropoloģijas studijās.)
4Rubin, G. 1975. The Traffic in Women: Notes on the 'Political Economy' of Sex", in Rayna Reiter, ed., Toward an Anthropology of Women, New York, Monthly Review Press. (Akceptējams avots, hrestomātisks darbs, nozīmīga autore dzimtes studijās.)
5Kulick, D. 1998. Travesti: Sex, Gender, and Culture among Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes. Chicago: University Of Chicago Press. (Nozīmīgs darbs nenoramatīvās seksualitātes pētniecībā, ievērojams mūslaiku sociālantropologs.)
6Pruitt, D., & LaFont, S. 1995. For love and money - Romance Tourism in Jamaica. Annals of Tourism Research, 22-2, pp. 422-440. (Nozīmīgs darbs seksualitātes un tūrisma pētniecībā.)
7Buckley, T. 1982. Menstruation and the Power of Yurok Women: Methods in Cultural Reconstruction. American Ethnologist, 9 (1), pp. 47-60. (Nozīmīgs darbs dzimtes antropoloģijā.)
8Ashwin, S. and Lytkina T. 2004. Men in Crisis in Russia: The Role of Domestic Marginalization. Gender and Society, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Apr., 2004), pp. 189-206 (Nozīmīgs reģionāls pētījums dzimtes antropoloģijā.)
9Scott, J. W. 1986. Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis. The American Historical Review. 91 (5): 1053. (Nozīmīgs darbs dzimtes antropoloģijā.)
10Kukaine, J. 2016. Daiļās mātes. Rīga: Neputns. (latviešu plūsmai)
11Kukaine, J. 2019. Dzimumu vienlīdzības izpratne un dzimtes kārtība Padomju Savienībā. Letonika, Nr. 40, 97.–115. (latviešu plūsmai)
12Sedlenieks, K., un Rolle, K. 2016. Palīdzēt un atbalstīt: Latvijas tēvi ģimenes dzīvē. Nodibinājums "Tēvi". (latviešu plūsmai)
Additional Reading
1Brown, J. K. 1970. A Note on the Division of Labor by Sex. American Anthropologist, New Series, 72 (5), pp. 1073-1078. (Akceptējams avots)
2Kulick, D. 1995. The Sexual Life of Anthropologists: Erotic Subjectivity and Ethnographic Work. In Taboo: Sex, Identity, and Erotic Subjectivity in Anthropological Field Work. Don Kulick and Margaret Willson, eds. London: Routledge, pp. 1-28. (Akceptējams avots)
3Klein, L. F. 1980. Contending with Colonization: Tlingit Men and Women in Change. In Women and Colonization. Etienne and Leacock, eds. New York: Preager, pp. 88-108. (Akceptējams avots)
4Collier, J. F. and Rosaldo, M. Z. 1981. Politics and Gender in Simple Societies. In Sexual Meanings: The Cultural Construction of Gender and Sexuality. Ortner and Whithead, eds. pp. 275-329. (Akceptējams avots)
5Apo, S. 1998. Ex cunno Come the Folk and Force. Concepts of Women’s Dynamistic Power in Finnish-Karelian Tradition. In Gender and Folklore: Perspectives on Finnish and Karelian Culture. Apo, S. et al., eds. pp. 63-91. (Akceptējams avots)
6Keough, L. J. 2006. Globalizing 'Postsocialism:' Mobile Mothers and Neoliberalism on the Margins of Europe Anthropological Quarterly - Volume 79, Number 3, Summer 2006, pp. 431-461.
7Kulick, D. 1997. Gender of Brazilian transgendered prostitutes. American Anthropologist 99(3), pp. 574-585. (Akceptējams avots)
8Elliston, D. A. 1995. Erotic Anthropology: 'Ritualized Homosexuality' in Melanesia and Beyond. American Ethnologist 22(4), pp. 848-867. (Akceptējams avots)
9Eglitis, D. 2002. (Re)-Constructing Gender in Post-Communism. In Imagining the nation: History, Modernity and Revolution in Latvia. Pennsylvania, pp. 186-224. (Akceptējams avots)
10Putniņa, A. 2007. Sexuality, masculinity and homophobia: Latvian case In Everyday life of LGBT in Eastern and Central Europe. 2007. The Peace Institute (Institute for Contemporary Social and Political Studies, Ljubljana, Slovenia). (Akceptējams avots)
11Demogrāfiskā situācija šodien un rīt / [zinātniskais redaktors Pēteris Zvidriņš. Rīga : Zinātne, 2005. 205 lpp. Zinātniski pētnieciskie raksti / Stratēģiskās analīzes komisija ; 2005/3(4) (latviešu plūsmai)
12Stoler A. L. 1997. Making Empire Respectable: The Politics of Race and Sexual Morality in 20th Century Colonial Cultures, pp. 634-660. (Akceptējams avots)
13Bacigalupo A. M. 2004. The Struggle for Mapuche Shamans' Masculinity: Colonial Politics of Gender, Sexuality, and Power in Southern Chile, Ethnohistory, 51 (3), pp. 489–533. (Akceptējams avots)
14Yanagisako, S. J. and Collier, J. F. 1987 Toward a Unified Analysis of Gender and Kinship, in Gender and Kinship, J.F. Collier and S.J. Yanagisako , eds. Stanford CA: Stanford University Press. (Akceptējams avots)
15Errington, S. 1995 Recasting sex, gender and power: A theoretical and regional overview. In J, Atkinson, & S. Errington (Eds.), Power & difference: Gender in island Southeast Asia, Stanford: Sanford University Press. (Akceptējams avots)
16Jackson, P. 2000. An Explosion of Thai Identities: Global Queering and Re-Imagining Queer Theory. Culture, Health & Sexuality, 2(4), 405-424.
17Brennan, D. 2001. Tourism in Transnational Places: Dominican Sex Workers and German Sex Tourists Imagine One Another. Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, 7:4, pp. 621-663.