"Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective"
A book by Caroline Bretell Carolyn Sargent
By
Introduction
In this book the focus is on how gender is constructed around the world. The book demonstrated many different areas in which women either ruled or ruled together with man. It leaves people with hope that the world is capable of an equalitarianism society. Many topics in the field of anthropology of gender are covered. The authors feature not only information from classic sources but also include recent literature from around the world. This book gives readers an awareness and understanding of the sociology of women and gender. In this critique the focus will be on the goals the authors hoped to achieve. Including brief descriptions of how and if they reached those goals for readers.
Gender Studies from an Anthropological Perspective
The authors present an article by Margaret EhrenbergEhrenberg-"The Real Women in Human Evolution". In her article Ehrenberg explores how roles in gather and hunting for food have changed and evolved throughout time. She discusses how anthropologist have revealed that in early primate societies that the only difference in this area was that women were often hindered by child rearing and therefore did less hunting to remain close. She discusses how over time the roles of men and women began to be more defined as sex roles. Ehrenberg states that crucial changes in the development of humans were predominately inspired by women. This article in particular goes a long way to support the authors goal of showing how roles have changed from prehistory to today and how anthropological studies have contributed to these findings. The authors also share an article by Louise Lamphere- " The Domestic Sphere of Women and the Public World of Men: The Strengths and Limitations of an Anthropological
References: "Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective", Caroline B. Brettel and Carolynn F. Sargent