Gender and Sexuality (first edition)

Learning Objectives: Identify ways in which culture shapes sex/gender and sexuality. Describe ways in which gender and sexuality organize and structure the societies in which we live. Assess the range of possible ways of constructing gender and sexuality by sharing examples from different cultures, including small-scale societies. Analyze how anthropology as a discipline is affected by gender ideology and gender norms. Evaluate cultural “origin” stories that are not supported by anthropological data

A Funeral as a Festival: Celebrations of Life in the Mosuo Tribe in China

This article attempts to provoke a discussion concerning the definition and nature of festivals by considering the process of Mosuo funerals in Southwest China as a festival event. The role of women and men in daily life and within the funeral ceremony is discussed – the Mosuo is a matriarchal society – as are the vernacular architectural settings which have evolved for both ritual and everyday activities. The article looks at the religious perception of death in Mosuo culture, which considers funerals as celebrations of a life cycle including birth, growing up and death; through onsite observations, it documents the process of a Mosuo funeral in relation to its physical space. Even though, unlike most other festivals, funerals occur at unpredictable times, it is argued that for the Mosuo the funeral event is also a festival