Cultural Construction of Gender & Race
This is the prompt that my teacher gave me and the links for the sources are the underlined parts. The underlined sources need to be used and citated in AAA style. Needs a clear argument and evidence
Anthropologists argue that there is no scientific basis for race. Race is not biological, it is instead culturally constructed. Carol Mukhopadhyay argues we should get rid of the term Caucasian. Yolanda Moses questions if we should still be using the term “people of color.”
Similarly, anthropologists argue that while sex is rooted in biology, gender is a social construct with each culture defining its own gender norms and gender identities. Anthropologists find that masculinity and femininity are not always associated with the same characteristics cross-culturally and not all cultures utilize binary gender models. The Indian Hijra gender category and the Native American two-spirits identity challenge the assumption of the gender binary being a staple of traditional cultures. Contemporary LGBTQ+ activists and community members look to the diverse manifestations of gender, sex, and sexuality in their efforts to create a more accepting and inclusive world at home.
What do anthropologists mean when they argue that race and gender are social constructs? How are gender and race socially constructed? If gender and race are two of the major ascribed statuses, what does it mean to say that they are socially constructed? What might be the purpose of arguing that they are rooted in biology? How are gender and race ideologies both tied to theories of biological determinism?
