Re: Pair-wise

Ruby Rohrlich (rohrlich@GWIS2.CIRC.GWU.EDU)
Tue, 23 May 1995 20:52:28 -0400

Bret. I hope you won't mind if I take issue with your phrase "the
opposite gender." I think you mean "the opposite sex." "Gender" is the
social roles that each sex plays; it is not synonymous with "sex.."
Also, I have never believed that men and women were opposite to each
other; this too, is a social construction. I think we have far more in
common that is usually recognized -- especially physically,
physiologically, mentally, etc. etc. Best regads. Ruby

On Sun, 21 May 1995, Bret Diamond wrote:

> On 5/21/95 Robert Thornton writes:
>
> > as a nominal'prisoner' as an enemy alien. So, even Malinowski did
> > not intend, in the first place, to do his field work alone! It just
> > worked out that way. Nevertheless, it seems unlikely that either he
> > or Witkacy could have collaborated on any product-- and I think this
> > is really the point. While one can share the experiences of
> > fieldwork, one can not make much headway in a group or committee on
> > sorting it out and writing the final product. That is an individual
> > product. Anyone who has ever worked with even a co-editor will know
> > how difficult it can be, and in that case, neither of you is
> > responsible for most of the actual text! I can not imagine trying to
> > wirte something in a team or in a pair. The fact that it almost
> > never happens, makes the idea that it should happen look more like a
>
>
> However, if Malinowski had taken a female colleague with him to the
> Tobriands, perhaps he would not have been so lacking in his research
> about the opposite gender. Feminist Anth has, in my opinion,
> successfully shown that many of the great early ethnographers were woefully
> lacking in cross-gender comparisons. I believe that this shortcoming of
> anth continues today, a relatively recent example would be Paul Taylor's
> work amongst the Korowai. Due to Korowai custom, Paul Taylor was unable
> to interview any of the women, and his producer, Judy Hallet, did not
> speak the language. If I were in a position to write research grants, I
> would highly favor male/female research teams over solo, single-sex
> efforts. Just my thoughts...
>
> Bret
>