How can we gain new understandings about sex, gender, and sexuality? What are the relationships between culture and gender diversity? How has the diffusion of Euro-American culture affected the sex/gender ideologies of non-European cultures? This eye-opening account of the differences in how sex/gender diversity is experienced in seven cultures raises our consciousness and challenges our intellectual understandings and attitudes about what we consider natural, normal, and morally right. Nanda's examples, which reveal the complexity of social responses toward sex/gender diversity, are ethnographically well documented and represent various geographical areas and sex/gender ideologies. In classic anthropological fashion, Nanda's text enables us to cross the barriers of cultural difference to a recognition of a greater shared humanity.
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Titles of related interest from Waveland Press: Mascia-Lees, Gender and Difference in a Globalizing World: Twenty-first-Century Anthropology (ISBN 9781577665984) and Mascia-Lees-Black, Gender and Anthropology (ISBN 9781577660668).
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"Precisely because of its wide-range, detail and clarity the value of Gender Diversity extends beyond its target student audience and is an essential reference book for anyone interested in questions of sexual difference, personhood and globalisation." -- The Australian Journal of Anthropology (Vol. 13, No. 1)
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Serena Nanda is professor emeritus of anthropology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York. Her most recent book is "The Gift of a Bride: A Tale of Anthropology, Matrimony and Murder",a novel set in an Indian immigrant community in New York City. Her other published works include CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY, 10th Edition; CULTURE COUNTS: A CONCISE INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY; NEITHER MAN NOR WOMAN: THE HIJRAS OF INDIA, winner of the 1990 Ruth Benedict Prize; AMERICAN CULTURAL PLURALISM AND LAW; and GENDER DIVERSITY: CROSS-CULTURAL VARIATIONS. She also authored NEW YORK MORE THAN EVER: 40 PERFECT DAYS IN AND AROUND THE CITY. She always has been captivated by the stories people tell and by the tapestry of human diversity. Anthropology has been the perfect way for her to immerse herself in these passions, and through teaching, to spread the word about the importance of understanding human similarities and differences.
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56 of 59 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Gender Diversity: Crosscultural Variations,
By K. Tiemann (USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Gender Diversity: Crosscultural Variations (Paperback)
In this lean book, Serena Nanda uses ethnographic accounts to illustrate how diverse cultures construct their sex/gender systems. By doing so, she reveals that these systems are not always binary; male and female, man and woman. Her descriptions of masculinity and femininity in India, Brazil, Polynesia, Thailand, the Philippines, within some Native American tribes and in contemporary Euro-American cultures challenge what some believe is "natural" about gender and, by extension, sexuality. By presenting gender variations historically and as they are currently understood and displayed, Nanda reveals the social, historical and cultural forces that have created changes in these sex/gender systems.This engaging book has eight short chapters. The introductory chapter lays the foundation for Nanda's argument by defining key terms (e.g., gender diversity, sex, gender, sexual orientation, transgendered, sex/gender identity, etc.) with which readers must be familiar to understand gender variation. Chapters 1 through 5 provide ethnographic accounts of multiple genders among North American Indians, the hijra and sadhin of India, the travestís, bichas, and viados of Brazil, the mahu in Polynesia, the kathoey of Thailand and the bayot/bantut/bakla in the Philippines. What some readers will find most interesting and provocative are accounts of how contact with Western cultures influenced existing gender constructs in these cultures. For example, North American Indian men who dressed like women, did "women's work" and were sexually intimate with other men were called "berdache" (an Arabic term for a male prostitute) and demeaned by early Spanish explorers on religious grounds. Chapter 6 focuses on sex and gender diversity in Euro-American cultures. While the present-day view is that there are only two sexes and two genders, Nanda reveals other models of sex/gender that are part of the Euro-American heritage. In the final chapter, Nanda summarizes important ideas from the preceding chapters and compares sex/gender variations. This further exposes the extent to which sex/gender variants challenge the binary concepts of sex, gender and sexuality in Western cultures. She rightly concludes that "the evidence argues against any one-way, cause-and-effect relationship between homosexuality and sex/gender diversity, and a specific sexuality may well emerge from a sex/gender variant role, rather than the reverse...the association between sexuality and sex/gender diversity cannot be assumed, but rather must be examined within specific cultural/historical contexts" (Nanda 2000, 101-02). For those who want to learn more, Nanda includes a reference section that highlights materials that should be of particular interest to "students" of gender. She also provides a list of selected films, explains how each complements materials presented in a particular chapter and where to obtain the film. Some readers may be disappointed that there is little coverage of female gender diversity in this book. However, this shortcoming is not Nanda's. As she explains, socialization, patriarchy and other factors allow male gender variance to occur more frequently than female gender variance. To her credit, where female gender variance is well documented (e.g.,among North American Indians, the s dhin of India and Euro-American variations) Nanda provides ample coverage. In short, this book is a refreshing addition to the literature on gender, sexuality, cultural studies and gay and lesbian studies that should not be overlooked.
17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A breakthrough study - accessible, too!,
By
This review is from: Gender Diversity: Crosscultural Variations (Paperback)
A masterful, highly readable survey of an important and fascinating subject. This indispensable, seminal work is concise, but far-reaching. It describes the varied manifestations of gender diversity in a way that permits the reader to perceive the patterns and deeper meanings that underlie cultural differences. This may be the first cross-cultural survey of gender diversity to describe "the trees" in such a balanced and objective way that the reader may see and understand "the forest." Anyone interested in the deeper, changeable nature of human sexuality will find this book to be both provocative and illuminating. A wonderful expansion of the author's classic study of the hijras of India, Neither Man Nor Woman.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The forest and the trees,
By Ashtar Command "Seeker" (Stockholm, Sweden) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Gender Diversity: Crosscultural Variations (Paperback)
Serena Nanda's short book (only about 100 pages) is an excellent introduction to the subject of "gender diversity". We get to know "berdaches" among North American Indians, a caste of emasculated transvestites in India, effeminate male transvestites and macho gay men in Thailand, and celibate women living like men in Albania. There are also chapters on the Philippines, Polynesia and the contemporary West. The section on the Western world is the shortest one, presumably to emphasize that "gender variants" aren't uniquely Western or modern. There are a few illustrations, including a photo of a transvestite Crow Indian warrior named Finds Them And Kills Them. The book ends with a bibliography and a list of movies about gender variants. I suspect Serena Nanda's intended audience are freshmen anthropology students, but "Gender Diversity" could be read by the general reader as well.
However, I also have some criticism of this book. Nanda claims that gender diversity proves that binary thinking (male/female) isn't universal. I beg to disagree. Most of the gender variants described in her book presuppose an already established binary opposition between "male" and "female". Why else would the most common gender variant be a male wearing women's clothing? Why are such persons expected to do traditional women's work? Why do they establish sexual relations with other men, who don't cross-dress and hence act as typical males? Obviously because the whole point of the gender variants is to reinforce the dichotomy between "male" and "female" identities. Indeed, the transvestites described in the book don't look like a "third" sex or gender, despite Nanda's analysis. Rather, they simply look like a combination of the two main genders, men and women. The group that comes closest to being an actual third sex are the male Hijras in India, who emasculate themselves and are supposed to live a celibate lifestyle. They are even organized as a special caste within Hindu society. But even the Hijras mimic and parody the mannerisms of women, showing that their status as a third category is relative. My guess is that gender variants emerge precisely because most societies think of "male" and "female" as opposites. Of course, such a rigid distinction is unnatural, due to individual human variation. There will always be men who act more "womanly" according to the cultural standards of their society, and women who act more "manly". The equally rigid categories of "male acting like a female" and "female acting like a male" are presumably established by society as a way of accommodating the deviants, and in more oppressive societies, to control them as well. Nanda is probably right on another point, however. She believes that there is no direct connection between transvestite gender variants and homosexuality. True, the overt sexuality of the gender variants *is* homosexual, since a cross-dressing male is supposed to have a "normal" male partner. While this might tempt actual homosexuals to become cross-dressers, Nanda suspects that the homosexuality is effect rather than cause. A gender variant is supposed to have a relationship with a person who is (biologically) of the same sex. That's simply part of their social identity. Indeed, it might as well be the "normal" partner of the gender variant who is homosexual! Nanda points out that many societies in the past didn't condemn homosexual acts as such, nor did they consider "the homosexual" to be a separate category or identity. Rather, the distinction was between the "active" and "passive" sexual partner. "Active" male homosexuals were therefore seen as normal males, while "passive" male homosexuals were classified as women, and often regarded with even more contempt, since men are supposed to be "active". This means that "active" male homosexuals didn't need to join the transvestite "third gender". They could stay male. It was the "passive" partner who became part of the cross-dressing subculture. Apparently, this distinction still exists in modern Thailand, where self-described gay men emphasize their masculinity, and refuse any contact with the transvestite group known as kathoey. As a good anthropologist, Nanda emphasizes the variation in gender roles in different cultures. But judging by her own book, the similarities are just as striking. All societies described in the book seem to have a strict dichotomy between "male" and "female", as already mentioned. This is true of both the patriarchal cultures (such as Brazil or Thailand) and the more complementarian cultures (the American Indians). In all these societies, cross-dressing is a marker of the alternative identity. In most of the American Indian cultures, the gender variant also took up the trade of the opposite sex (there were exceptions). In patriarchal societies, the male gender variants are usually prostitutes (even the supposedly ascetic Hijras often work as such) and there is a connection between their subcultures and the patriarchal distinction between "active" and "passive" homosexuality. Female gender variants are less well-known. In more complementarian societies, they seem to have sexual relations with "normal" women. In patriarchal societies, by contrast, they are supposed to be celibate, and their "male" status is somewhat shaky. Nanda describes a "sworn virgin" in an Albanian village, who lived as a man, since her parents lacked male off-spring. By becoming a "man", the sworn virgin could inherit the family property. Being socially a man in a male-dominated society did entail more freedom, but any sworn virgin who broke her vow of chastity could be stoned to death by the "normal" males! It's curious that the author of this book can't see the forest for the trees... Still, I recommend the book. It might encourage you to think in new ways about the issues of sexuality, homosexuality and transvestism.
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