Judith K. Brown

The North American Berdache [and Comments and Reply]

The status of berdache among North American Indians was filled by persons, usually male, who remained members of their biological gender but assumed important social characteristics of the other gender. Concentrated in western and midwestern North America, berdaches were few. The status tended to disappear after Indian societies came under outside political control. Male berdaches, particularly, combined the social roles assigned to both genders. They could dress like women, combine male and female dress, or alternate modes of dress. Their occupational role permitted a combination of male and female work to achieve exceptional productivity. Gender mixing also characterized their sexual behavior; often homosexual, they showed strong tendencies toward a bisexual orientation. Their transformation often required supernatural validation. The ritual roles of male berdaches, like other features of their status, rested on their definition as nonwomen. Traditional explanations of the berdache status seem based upon misunderstanding of its features. It was not a status instituted for homosexuals; homosexuality was a reflex of assuming the status rather than a factor promoting its assumption, and much homosexuality occurred outside it. Nor was it designed for males who feared the warrior role or the male role in general. We suggest that while women could engage in high-prestige male activities, such as warfare, without changing their gender status, they insisted that males who entered the female occupational sphere assume an intermediate gender status.

Ecological Theory and Ethnic Differentiation Among Human Populations [and Comments and Replies]

The formation and maintenance of distinct ethnic populations within multiethnic communities is proposed to be functionally equivalent to the process of species diversification in multispecies communities. This paper suggests that while these processes operate through different selective mechanisms-one social and the other genetic-ethnic boundaries, like species boundaries, function to regulate the behavior of potentially competing populations in relation to each other and to available resources. The similarities between these two boundary-formation processes are defined and explored in an attempt to place a traditional anthropological concern within a broader theoretical perspective.

Cross-cultural Perspectives on Middle-aged Women [and Comments and Replies]

Several exploratory cross-cultural studies have suggested that positive changes take place in the lives of women in non-Western societies as they age beyond the childbearing years. They are freed from a variety of restrictions. They are given authority over certain specified kinsmen, and they are provided with opportunities for achievement and recognition beyond the household. The fact that such changes are more dramatic in some societies than in others is examined, as well as the reasons for the positive nature of these changes. Psychoanalytic theory, sociobiology, and the works of Goody, Gutmann, and the Whitings all provide useful points of departure for explanations, yet no theory fully accounts for the findings. My own interpretation stresses the relationship of a mother to her adult offspring.

Sanctions and Sanctuary: Cultural Perspectives on the Beating of Wives@@@The Presence of the Past: Male Violence in the Family

Patriarchal contributions to the construction of male violence the contributions of the modern family to male violence the contributions of the modern family to male violence the contributions of male gender construction and reproduction to male violence, female target - the low self-esteem and high emotional dependency nexus what can be done to prevent male violence? conclusions.