Alternative Cultures of Masculinity: An Anthropological Approach

Abstract

Even a cursory review of cross-cultural studies of men and masculinities could result in the depressing conclusion that men are dominant in most if not all societal spheres in most societies today and historically, and therefore that there must be something essentially human (and even more fundamentally, something biological) about unequal gender relations if there is such a common pattern. Yet the same comparative analysis that might persuade us to believe in the ubiquity of male supremacy can also, in the classic anthropological tradition of the negative instance, be inspiring and hopeful as we examine a myriad of exceptions in societies around the world today and in the past. Indeed a closer reading of contemporary and historical gender relations forces us inexorably to an appreciation of the profound diversity, tolerance, and cooperation in gender relations, often alongside and in simultaneous contradiction to the more often remarked upon power imbalances and divisions.