Anthropology 224:  Gender and Sexuality in Latin America

Department of Anthropology, SUNY Geneseo

Fall 2016

 

Class Meetings:  Tuesday/Thursday, 2:30-3:45 Bailey 201

Instructor:  Dr. James Aimers

Office:  Bailey 148

Office Hours:

Please visit me if you have any questions regarding the content or organization of the course, or for other reasons related to your academic progress.  My office hours are:

Tuesday 3:45 – 4:15

Wednesday 2 - 4 pm

Thursday 3:45- 4:15

You can also meet with me by e-mailing for an appointment 2-3 days in advance.

E-mail:  aimers@geneseo.edu.  Questions I can answer in three sentences or so can be e-

mailed, but please speak to me for more complex questions and problems.  I read e-mail as often as possible but please allow 1-2 days for a response, not including weekends and holidays.   Please include ANTH 224 and a topic in the subject line and sign your message.

Office Phone: 245-5276

Technical and computer-related problems, MyCourses etc:  Call the CIT helpdesk is 245-5588

Course Description

An anthropological overview of gender and sexuality in Latin America from prehistory to the current day. Readings and student projects will change yearly to address topics including pre-contact concepts of gender and sexuality, changes in ideas and practices with European contact, and contemporary ethnographic studies of gender and sexuality in the region. Credits: 3(3-0) Offered fall, even years

Learning Outcomes

In this course students will demonstrate

• ability to critically read, discuss, and write about issues of gender and sexuality in Latin America
• familiarity with important theoretical perspectives on gender and sexuality.

M/ Course

Besides fulfilling your multi-cultural graduation requirements, this course also fulfills one course in the social science general education requirements. The guidelines for a social science core course stress the development of the following characteristics of a responsible member of society:

(1) an acquaintance with major empirical, analytical, or theoretical approaches to human behavior, institutions or culture;

(2) an acquaintance with social, economic, political, or moral alternatives;

(3) an acquaintance with major problems, issues, institutions, practices or trends in the social world;

(4) a capacity to express ideas clearly, coherently and grammatically in written form as one component of the evaluation process. This written work must total at least 1500 words, at least half of which must be prepared outside of class.

 

Accommodations

SUNY Geneseo will make reasonable accommodations for persons with documented physical, emotional or learning disabilities. Students should consult with the Director in the Office of Disability Services (Tabitha Buggie-Hunt, 105D Erwin, tbuggieh@geneseo.edu) and their individual faculty regarding any needed accommodations as early as possible in the semester.

Required readings are available in my Outbox. (ANTHà Aimers folder) https://boxes.geneseo.edu/

Help on accessing Outboxes:  https://wiki.geneseo.edu/display/cit/In+and+Out+Boxes

Value of Course Components:

Two online tests on Kottak (2014) chapters (week 1)                      2%

Response Papers [Weeks 2-14, Three graded, 10% each]           30%

Midterm Exam                                                                                15%

Lead in-class discussion of a single work                                      10%

Gender in the news presentation (about 5 min)                             10%

Attendance and Participation (your will record this)                       15%

Final Exam (all course material)                                                    18%

Grading Scheme

 

See MyCourses -> Course Materials for a document that describes my grading criteria (e.g., what kind of work receives a grade of A).

Geneseo Undergraduate Bulletin :   Final grades are recorded as A, A- (excellent); B+, B, B- (very good); C+, C (satisfactory);C- (minimal competence); D (marginal); E (failure); F (failure in courses elected under the pass-fail option which are not completed successfully); P (pass in courses elected under the pass-fail option which are completed successfully; P is equivalent to a grade of C- or higher); S (satisfactory is equivalent to a grade of C- or higher); U (unsatisfactory); and W (withdrawn).

Assignments, Attendance and Lateness

Regular attendance is the easiest way to ensure success on this course.  Please arrive on time.

Lateness: Reaction papers will not be accepted late because they serve as a basis for classroom discussion.

Make-up tests and exams are available only under extraordinary circumstances, and will require medical or other documentation.

Gender and Sexuality Wiki

You will post your gender in the news project to the Geneseo Gender and Sexuality wiki.  To find the Gender and Sexuality Wiki, go to the Geneseo wiki:  https://wiki.geneseo.edu:8443/dashboard.action  Login at the top right of screen (with your usual ID and password), then scroll down the left side of the screen.  You can also login through MyGeneseo.

Library Research Help

 This semester there is no formal research project in this class, but I strongly encourage you to use the Milne Reference Librarians for assistance with your research in general. You can speak with the reference librarian on duty between 10am and closing time most days (ask for help at the service desk) or chat with a librarian online by clicking the "IM a Librarian" button on the library website (https://www.geneseo.edu/library). Our social sciences librarian is Brandon West (westb@geneseo.edu).

Assignments

1)  Response Papers, 300-500 words long, double-spaced, will be collected starting in Week 2. You are expected to come to the first class of every week with a concise, typed and edited Response Paper to all of that week’s readings. A Response Paper is an evaluation and critique of the week’s reading and reflects your understanding of the issues they raise.  All Response Papers address the following points: 1) What are the major concepts expressed in the readings (define and analyze at least three)? 2) How do these readings tie in with others? 3) Refer to all the readings for that week. On THREE randomly chosen days during the semester, I will grade your Response Paper according to the “Critical Reading and Writing Rubric” (see myCourses).  No late papers will be accepted. Emphasize quality over quantity and you are welcome to challenge or disagree with the authors you read.  However, you should make your case in a clear and logical manner and support your position. “I don’t like the way X writes” or “I don’t agree with him/her” are not valid responses.

What you write should be complete enough to demonstrate that you read ALL of the assigned reading carefully and worked at developing an understanding of them. These papers help me assess what you know and they help you sort out what you know and think about this material.  . Note:  If you have to miss the first class of the week for an important reason, you will need to email me your Reaction Paper as an attachment by 9:00 am on the day you will be absent.   Late reaction papers will not be accepted.

2)   Class participation grades show the extent to which you come to class having done the readings and prepared your assignments and participate thoughtfully in all class discussions. Please do not use your digital devices during class and laptops should only be used for note-taking.  I also expect that you will come to class on time.

3)  Short presentations: You will be individually assigned to lead the classroom discussion of one reading during the semester. You should come to class with a written summary (talking points) that you will use to speak from, not read to the class.  Give the class a concise overview of the reading (remember everyone will have read it already), with two or three of the most important points made in it.  Develop at least one concise yet provocative question that you will pose for class discussion and be ready to explain and elaborate on that question. Note:  No late responses will be accepted for any reason.

4)  Gender in the News:  What issues relating to gender or sexuality (or both) have been newsworthy in Latin America recently?   Each student will present a short (maximum) 5 minute presentation on what they find.  A short (maximum 200 words) written description should be posted on the wiki by noon Tuesday.  Your presentation should make use of anthropological perspectives or concepts.  Please explore the Key Concepts and Annotated Bibliography sections of the wiki and I encourage you to link to existing wiki content.  Outstanding (A-grade) projects will contextualize the story by using concepts drawn from the course and other scholarly studies of gender/sexuality.  You may also choose to contextualize the story with reference to other anthropological concepts (e.g., ethnicity, globalization) as long as the news item has a strong connection to gender/sexuality.

Academic Honesty

Students are urged to read the policies on Academic Honesty at:

http://bulletin.geneseo.edu/first/?pg=01_Student_Affairs_policies.html

As the policy notes, “Any one of the following constitutes evidence of plagiarism:

• direct quotation without identifying punctuation and citation of source;
• paraphrase of expression or thought without proper attribution;
• unacknowledged dependence upon a source in plan, organization, or argument.”

Topics and Readings (Listed in the order that I suggest you read them)

Week 1:  August 30. Sept 1

Introduction:  Anthropology and Gender

• There are two online quizzes for the Kottak Chapters (in MyCourses under Course Materials).  These are due by 11:55 pm Wed August 31 (we will discuss them in class on Thursday).  The software will let you take each test three times and record your highest score.
• Plagiarism Quiz (in MyCourses under Course Materials).  There is an online quiz on plagiarism due by class time on Tuesday Sept 6.   This is required but it is non-graded.  I will not accept written work from you until you have completed the plagiarism quiz.

 

Kottak, Conrad Phillip

2014    Chapter 2, Culture.  In Mirror for Humanity, 9th Edition, pp. 17-39.  McGraw-Hill, Boston.

Kottak, Conrad Phillip

2014    Chapter 8, Gender.  In Mirror for Humanity, 9th Edition, pp. 160-183.  McGraw-Hill, Boston.

Week 2:  September 6 and 8

Introduction and Key Concepts:  Sex, Gender, and Sexuality PART I

 

There is an online quiz on plagiarism due by class time on Tuesday Sept 6

Chant, Sylvia and Nikki Craske

2003    Gender and Sexuality. In Gender in Latin America, edited by S. Chant and N. Craske, pp. 128-160. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick.

 

Nye, Robert A.

2004  Sexuality. In A Companion to Gender History, edited by T. A. Meade and M. E. Wiesner, pp. 11-25. Blackwell, Malden MA.

 

Sanabria, Harry

            2007    Cultural Constructions of Gender and Sexuality. In The Anthropology of Latin America and the Caribbean, pp. 146-171. Pearson, New York.

Week 3:  September 13 and15

Introduction and Key Concepts:  Sex, Gender, and Sexuality PART 2           

French, William E. and Katherine Elaine Bliss

            2007    Introduction:  Gender, Sexuality, and Power in Latin America since Independence. In Gender, Sexuality, and Power in Latin America since Independence, edited by W. E. French and K. E. Bliss, pp. 1-30. Rowman and Littlefield, New York.

 

Gilchrist, Roberta

            1999    Experiencing Gender:  Identity, Sexuality and the Body. In Gender and Archaeology:  Contesting the Past, pp. 55-78. Routledge, London; New York.

 

Nesvig, Martin

            2001    The Complicated Terrain of Latin American Homosexuality. Hispanic American Historical Review 81(3/4):689-729.

Week 4:  Sept 20 and 22  

Introduction and Key Concepts:  Sex, Gender, and Sexuality PART 3

Roosevelt, Anna Curtenius

2002   Gender in Human Evolution:  Sociobiology Revisited and Revised. In In Pursuit of Gender : Worldwide Archaeological Approaches, edited by S. M. Nelson and M. Rosen-Ayalon, pp. 355-376. AltaMira Press, Walnut Creek, CA.

 

Joyce, Rosemary A.

2000   Performance and Inscription:  Human Nature in Prehispanic Mesoamerica. In Gender and Power in Prehispanic Mesoamerica, edited by R. Joyce, pp. 176-200. University of Texas Press, Austin.

 

2004   Gender in the Ancient Americas:  From Earliest Villages to European Colonization. In A Companion to Gender History, edited by T. A. Meade and M. E. Wiesner, pp. 305-320. Blackwell Pub., Malden, MA.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 5:  Tuesday Sept 27; No class meeting on Thursday (I will attend the Maya at the Playa conference).

Tuesday Sept 27 we will have visitors for voter registration day.

Thursday:  Watch this video on third gender people in Oaxaca, Mexico (23 minutes):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Bhp7i7WNcM

 

Gender and Sexuality in the Aztec Empire

Joyce, Rosemary A.

            2000    Girling the Girl and Boying the Boy: The Production of Adulthood in Ancient Mesoamerica. World Archaeology 31(3):473-483.

 

Sigal, Pete

            2007    Queer Nahuatl: Sahagún’s Faggots and Sodomites, Lesbians and Hermaphrodites. Ethnohistory 54(1):9-34.

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Week 6: October 4 and 6

Ancient Maya Gender and Sexuality

Bassie-Sweet, Karen

            2002    Corn Deities and the Male/Female Principle. In Ancient Maya Gender Identity and Relations, edited by L. S. Gustafson and A. M. Trevelyan, pp. 169-190. Bergin & Garvey, Westport, Conn.

 

Joyce, Rosemary A.

            2000    Narratives of Gender among the Classic Maya. In Gender and Power in Prehispanic Mesoamerica, edited by R. Joyce, pp. 54-89. University of Texas Press, Austin.

 

            2002    Desiring Women:  Classic Maya Sexualities. In Ancient Maya Gender Identity and Relations, edited by L. Gustafson and A. Trevelyan, pp. 329-344. Westport CT, Greenwood Publishing.

 

Stone, Andrea Joyce

            1988    Sacrifice and Sexuality:  Some Structural Relationships in Classic Maya Art. In The Role of Gender in Precolumbian Art and Architecture, edited by V. E. Miller, pp. 75-103. University Press of America, Lanham, MD.

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Week 7:  Tuesday is FALL BREAK. We will meet on Thursday

Gender and Sexuality in the Ancient Andes

 

Hill, Erica

            2015    Sexuality: Ancient Andean South America. In The International Encyclopedia of Human Sexuality. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

 

Weismantel, Mary

            2004    Moche Sex Pots:  Reproduction and Temporality in Ancient South America. American Anthropologist 106(3):495-505.

 

Silverblatt, Irene

            1978   Andean Women in the Inca Empire. Feminist Studies 4(3):37-61

 

Week 8:  October 18 and 20

Tuesday:  Midterm (all content to the end of Week 7)

Thursday:   Gender and Sexuality in Colonial Latin America

 

Stolcke, Verena

            2004    A New World Engendered:  The Making of the Iberian Transatlantic Empires. In A Companion to Gender History, edited by T. A. Meade and M. E. Wiesner, pp. 371-389. Blackwell Pub., Malden, MA.

 

Bethell, Leslie

            1984    Women in Spanish American Colonial Society. In The Cambridge History of Latin American Volume 2:  Colonial Latin America, edited by L. Bethell, pp. 321-354. Cambridge University Press, New York.

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Week 9:  October 25 and 27

Witches and other Queers in Colonial Latin America

Behar, Ruth

            1989    Sexual Witchcraft, Colonialism, and Women's Powers:  Views from the Mexican Inquisition. In Sexuality and Marriage in Colonial Latin America, edited by A. Lavrin, pp. 178-206. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln.

 

Horswell, Michael J.

            2005    Barbudos, Afeminados, and Sodomitas:  Performing Masculinity in Premodern Spain. In Decolonizing the Sodomite:  Queer Tropes of Sexuality in Colonial Andean Culture, pp. 29-67. University of Texas Press, Austin.

 

Sigal, Pete

            2003    (Homo)Sexual Desire and Masculine Power in Colonial Latin America:  Notes toward an Integrated Analysis. In Infamous Desire:  Male Homosexuality in Colonial Latin America, edited by P. Sigal, pp. 1-24. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

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Week 10:  Nov 1 and 3

Colonial Latin America

Arvey, Margaret Campbell

            1988    Women of Ill-Repute in the Florentine Codex. In The Role of Gender in Precolumbian Art and Architecture, edited by V. E. Miller, pp. 179-204. University Press of America, Lanham, MD.

 

Chaves, Maria Eugenia

            2000    Slave Women's Strategies for Freedom and the Late Spanish Colonial State. In Hidden Histories of Gender and the State in Latin America, edited by E. Dore and M. Molyneux, pp. 108-126. Duke University Press, Durham.

 

Stavig, Ward

            2003    Political "Abomination" and Private Reservation:  The Nefarious Sin, Homosexuality, and Cultural Values in Colonial Peru. In Infamous Desire:  Male Homosexuality in Colonial Latin America, edited by P. Sigal, pp. 134-151. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

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Week 11: Nov 8 and 10

Colonial Maya

Restall, Matthew and Pete Sigal

            1992    "May They Not Be Fornicators Equal to These Priests:  Post Conquest Yucatec Maya Sexual Attitudes. Indigenous Writing in  the the Spanish Indies 12:90-121.

 

Restall, Matthew

            1995    "He Wished It in Vain": Subordination and Resistance among Maya Women in Post-Conquest Yucatan. Ethnohistory 42(4):577-594.

 

Sigal, Pete

            2003    Gendered Power, the Hybrid Self, and Homosexual Desire in Late Colonial Yucatan. In Infamous Desire:  Male Homosexuality in Colonial Latin America, edited by P. Sigal, pp. 102-133. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

Week 12:  Nov 15 and 17

Post-Colonial Changes

Lipsett-Rivera, Sonya

            2004    Latin America and the Caribbean. In A Companion to Gender History, edited by T. A. Meade and M. E. Wiesner, pp. 477-491. Blackwell, Malden, MA.

 

Besse, Susan K.

            2004    Engendering Reform and Revolution in Twentieth-Century Latin America and the Caribbean. In A Companion to Gender History, edited by T. A. Meade and M. E. Wiesner, pp. 568-585. Blackwell, Malden, MA.

 

Chant, Sylvia

            2003    Introduction:  Gender in a Changing Continent. In Gender in Latin America, edited by S. Chant and N. Craske, pp. 1-18. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick.

 

Murray, Stephen O. and Manuel Arboleda G.

            1995    Stigma Transformation and Relexification. In Latin American Male Homosexualities, edited by S. O. Murray, pp. 138-144. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.

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Week 13:  November 22 only, Thursday is THANKSGIVING

Contemporary Mexico

Viveros Vigoya, Hara

            2003    Contemporary Latin American Perspectives on Masculinity. In Changing Men and Masculinities in Latin America, edited by M. C. Gutmann, pp. 27-57. Duke University Press, Durham.

 

Melhuus, Marit.

            1996    Power, Value, and the Ambiguous Meanings of Gender. In Machos, Mistresses, Madonnas : Contesting the Power of Latin American Gender Imagery, edited by M. Melhuus and K. A. Stølen, pp. 230-259. Critical Studies in Latin American and Iberian Cultures. Verso, New York.

 

Prieur, Annick

            1996    Domination and Desire:  Male Homosexuality and the Construction of Masculinity in Mexico. In Machos, Mistresses, Madonnas : Contesting the Power of Latin American Gender Imagery, edited by M. Melhuus and K. A. Stølen, pp. 83-107. Critical Studies in Latin American and Iberian Cultures. Verso, New York.

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Week 14: November 29, December 1

Contemporary Latin America

Fregoso, Rosa-Linda and Cynthia Bejarano

            2010    Introduction:  A Cartography of Femicide in the Americas. In Terrorizing Women:  Femicide in the Americas, edited by R.-L. Fregoso and C. Bejarano, pp. 1-42. Duke University Press, Durham.

 

Fuller, Norma

            2003    The Social Constitution of Gender Identity among Peruvian Males. In Changing Men and Masculinities in Latin America, edited by M. C. Gutmann, pp. 134-152. Duke University Press, Durham.

 

Stephen, Lynn

            2002    Sexualities and Genders in Zapotec Oaxaca. Latin American Perspectives 29(2):41-59.

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Week 15:  December 6 and 8

Final Thoughts

Kellogg, Susan

            2005    Fighting for Survival through Political Action and Cultural Creativity:  Indigenous Women in Contemporary South and Central America. In Weaving the Past:  A History of Latin America's Indigenous Women from the Prehispanic Period to the Present, pp. 127-168. Oxford University Press, New York.

 

Chant, Sylvia

            2003    Conclusion:  Looking to the Future. In Gender in Latin America, edited by S. Chant and N. Craske, pp. 254-260. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick.

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Final Exam (all course material): Thursday December 15 2016 12-2:30 pm in regular room