Janet Carsten After Kinship Ch 3 “Gender, Bodies, and Kinship pgs 59-105.

Janet CarstenAfter Kinship Ch 3

“Gender, Bodies, and Kinshippgs 59-105

Anthropological Studies In the Past

What does Carsten say about past studies of kinship and gender?

Anthropological Studies In the Past

Question: What does Carsten say about past studies of kinship and gender?

Answer: Both kinship and gender studies in anthropology were based upon Western theories of biological reproduction.

Carsten - After Kinship Ch 3 “Gender, Bodies, and

Kinship”What does Carsten propose be

done with kinship and gender studies in anthropology?

Carsten - After Kinship Ch 3 “Gender, Bodies, and

Kinship”QUESTION: What does Carsten

propose be done with kinship and gender studies in anthropology?

ANSWER: Carsten says that kinship studies need to be brought back into the picture. She says an analysis of gender needs to happen with an analysis of kinship.

Carsten - After Kinship Ch 3 “Gender, Bodies, and

Kinship”QUESTION: Why does Carsten use

the Rom as an example in the reading?

ANSWER:

Carsten - After Kinship Ch 3 “Gender, Bodies, and

Kinship”QUESTION: Why does Carsten use

the Rom as an example in the reading?

ANSWER: She is saying that those beliefs and practices that occur in the house have implications in the public world.

Carsten - After Kinship Ch 3 “Gender, Bodies, and

Kinship”QUESTION: What does Carsten

say about sameness and difference?

Carsten - After Kinship Ch 3 “Gender, Bodies, and

Kinship”QUESTION: What does Carsten

say about sameness and difference?

ANSWER: She gives the example of a culture (the Malay) who stress similarities between men and women (not differences).

Carsten - After Kinship Ch 3 “Gender, Bodies, and

Kinship”QUESTION: Why does Carsten

bring up the Druvidian kinship system in Southern India?

Carsten - After Kinship Ch 3 “Gender, Bodies, and

Kinship”QUESTION: Why does Carsten bring up

the Druvidian kinship system in Southern India?

ANSWER: She is arguing that there are varying gradations of sameness and difference, conceived in terms of kinship and gender. Kinship and gender should be studied together because they are linked.

Carsten - After Kinship Ch 3 “Gender, Bodies, and

Kinship”QUESTION: In Ch 3 what is

Carsten’s main argument?

Carsten - After Kinship Ch 3 “Gender, Bodies, and

Kinship”QUESTION: In Ch 3 what is

Carsten’s main argument?ANSWER: conceived in the broadest

sense, relatedness (or kinship) [or gender, or race, or class] is simply about the ways in which people create similarities or differences between themselves and others.

Mallon - Gay Men Choosing Parenthood, Ch 2“Creating a Family”QUESTION: What is gender-bound

labor? What does Mallon have to say

about it? Do heterosexual couples differ

from homosexual couples?

Mallon - Gay Men Choosing Parenthood, Ch 2“Creating a Family”QUESTION: What did Mallon have

to say about gay parents and overcompensation?

Mallon - Gay Men Choosing Parenthood, Ch 2“Creating a Family”QUESTION: How did the gay

parent’s social life change after adopting?

Mallon - Gay Men Choosing Parenthood, Ch 2“Creating a Family”QUESTION: Do most of the gay

couples stay together in Mallon’s study?

Mallon - Gay Men Choosing Parenthood, Ch 2“Creating a Family”QUESTION: In chapter two (Creating

Family) of Gerald Mallon's book Gay Men Choosing Parenthood the main argument was:

ANSWER:

Mallon - Gay Men Choosing Parenthood, Ch 2“Creating a Family”QUESTION: In chapter two (Creating

Family) of Gerald Mallon's book Gay Men Choosing Parenthood the main argument was:

ANSWER: the fatherhood narratives dispel the myth of "men can not nurture children" and "father is breadwinner"

Mallon - Gay Men Choosing Parenthood, Ch 2“Creating a Family” Yes, you know, I have seen the way gay men

have been challenged in this new parenting role. It’s just a female, mommy-driven culture, early childhood. And the lack of welcome for gay men in that culture has got to be painful and extra challenging and extra scary. I’ve seen that. I’ve been on those park benches and playgrounds were its all the women, the nannies and the moms, and a man comes in, and there is this kind of distrust and bristling.”

Mallon - Gay Men Choosing Parenthood, Ch 2 - “Creating a Family”PARENTINGAdoptive or foster parents have a different

approach to parenting.They take it more seriously, according to

Mallon’s subjects.Dividing roles and duties – negotiating gender

and parenting One parent has legal rights, the other might notThe legal status of parent often makes him the

primary care giver.The other partner gets left out of many of the

decisions or is de facto secondary.

Mallon - Gay Men Choosing Parenthood, Ch 2 - “Creating a Family”INVISIBLE DAD“In some ways I think I have gotten used

to being unrecognized, the invisible dad. But I hate feeling that way, because, god knows, I do my share of parenting. I really hate it when someone asks, “Which one of you is the real dad?” The kids have my partner’s last name, so in some ways it is already set. Its also becomes a challenge when I have to sign something for the kids from school or the doctor’s office- it really gets to me” (Mallon 78)

TERMS - ethnocentrismThe belief in the inherent superiority of one’s

culture.The belief that one's own race or ethnic group is

the most important and/or that some or all aspects of its culture are superior to those of other groups.

Within this ideology, individuals will judge other groups in relation to their own particular ethnic group or culture, especially with concern to language, behavior, customs, and religion. These ethnic distinctions and sub-divisions serve to define each ethnicity's unique cultural identity

TERMS - Biologism

Use of biological principles in explaining human especially social behavior

The general tendency in western cultures to constituting and conceiving human character, human nature and human behavior in biological terms.

TERMS - Hegemony - Gramsci

According to Antonio Gramsci the ruling classes will use whatever means available to ensure its status.

A hegemonic position is legitimized as a “common sense”

This consent is achieved through science and the control of morality in society

Scientific validation is a powerful form of social control that ensures the continuation of hegemonic structures

TERMS - genetizationA term coined by Abby Lippman“Describes the trend in American

society toward a reductionist view of humanity as a collection of genes”

Lippman’s definition: “Genetization refers to an ongoing process by which differences between individuals are reduced to their DNA codes, with most disorders, behaviors and physiological variations defined, at least in part, as genetic in origin”

TERMS - naturalizationNaturalization are cultural practices

that reify categories as essential, different and discrete

GenderRaceFamilySex

Kinship is an example of naturalization as knowledge because kin ties are seen as natural and primordial ‘facts.’

TERMS - “New” Reproductive Technologies

Frozen donor sperm has been available to infertile couples since 1949.

Men can “bank sperm” prior to undergoing chemo or radiotherapy that might effect gametogenesis.

Sperm banking when American servicemen were about to depart for an uncertain fate during the war in Iraq with potential exposure to chemicals and radiation.

Harvest immature eggs from ovarian biopsies similar procedures for women who must undergo radiation or chemotherapy

Successful freezing of eggs remains challenging and a technique that needs refinement.

TERMS - Reproductive Technologies

Artificial insemination by donorSuper ovulationIn vitro fertilizationEmbryo flushing Transfer and surrogate

motherhoodSex predetermination

TERMS - Designer BabyDonor sperm, eggs, and embryos have

been employed to avoid transmission of serious genetic disorders.

Sex preselection useful to avoid certain types of sex linked genetic disorders such as Duchenne's muscular dystrophy and hemophilia

Gestational surrogacy has been employed for women who are born without a uterus or in whom the peculiar risks of pregnancy pose serious threats to their own health.

TERMS - designer babyThe term "designer baby" has been used in

popular scientific and bioethics literature to specify a child whose hereditary makeup (genotype) can be, using various reproductive and genetic technologies, purposefully selected ("designed") by their parents.

The term is usually used with derision, although some social theorists.

Transhumanist not only consider the notion of a designer baby to be a responsible and justifiable application of parental reproductive rights but also an important next step in human evolution.

Research Papers

New Reproductive TechnologiesDUE AUGUST 14

Research Papers - General InstructionsLocate media coverage on one new

reproductive technology. You must locate several (3-5) news

stories so that you can compare the coverage.

The comparison of the different representations is key to the analysis. For example, compare how the Christian Science Monitor represents the story of egg donors versus Oprah or Newsweek.

Your paper should focus on one issue such as prenatal testing, genetic screening, invitro-fertilization, surrogacy, or sex selection technology.

Your paper must address the following:Apply theories learned in class. How would a particular theorist interpret

specific newspaper and magazine articles or the events described within them?

Choose 5 concepts from our readings and films apply to your analysis.

Changing ideas. How are new technologies reforming ideas about family, community and kinship?

Short personal reflection. How do the arguments presented in the readings add to or change your own perspective on the issues represented in the media?

Research Layne, L. ed. “Transformative

Motherhood: On Giving and Getting in a Consumer Culture.” NYU Press.

Franklin, S and Helena Ragone eds. “Reproducing Reproduction: Kinship, Power and Technological Innovation.” U Penn Press.

Becker, Gay “The Elusive Embryo: How Women and Men Approach New Reproductive Technologies.” U Cal. Press.

Kahn, Susan “Reproducing Jews: A Cultural Account of Assisted Conception in Israel.” Duke.

Discourses of Reproduction

In Western culture social constructions of maternity have been firmly anchored in the idea of women’s vulnerability.

Giving birth was deemed as manifestation of a woman’s need for assistance.

Emily Martin argues that the human body—- the uterus– is compared to a mass-produced product such as a car.

Martin views the body as an information processing system with a hierarchical structure for purposes of continuous production.

Medical texts describe the process of birthing as “work in progress.”

In Vitro Fertilization

1980s the introduction of methods such as in vitro fertilization (IVF) and gamete intrafallopian transfer (GIFT)

Media representations reflected a bias towards the technological perspective of the treatment, investing physicians with control over their patients since these procedures are all lab-based.

Physicians “life givers”

Press CoverageIn her study of newspaper and magazine

coverage of reproductive technologies in the late 1980s, Celeste Michelle Condit writes about the manner in which the press constructed the images of physicians as “life givers,” and even as parents to these children.

Press position women as dependent on others when it comes to making medical decisions, unlike the framing of abortion as a “woman’s choice,” free of constraints.

According to the press coverage, woman cannot make decisions about life for herself but are portrayed usually as the sole responsible party for killing (the fetus).

Condit CM. Media Bias for Reproductive Technologies. In: Parott RL, Condit CM, eds. Evaluating Women’s Health Messages. Thousand Oaks: Sage, 1996.

Our House

Growing up with Gay parents

Our House – challenges to growing-up with gay parents.

How society normalizes certain relationships and pathologizes others.

What are some examples of daily, mundane practices that are hetero-normative.