Cultural Gender Roles Essay

Cultures within the United States, as well as other countries around the world, possess certain gender normality’s, values, identities, and roles. While growing up, children learn from the people they are surrounded by. This socialized process of enculturation introduces the foundation of certain cultural gender roles, typically associated with biological sex. According to Lisa Gezon and Conrad Kottak in their book Cultural Anthropology (2014), gender roles are defined as the “tasks and activities that a culture assigns to each sex” (146). A gender role is a socially constructed concept of how males and females are expected to behave and act. Psychologists, biologists, and anthropologists who have studied study human behavior have concluded that human behavior is a result of not only being genetic and environmental, but a combination of the two factors. Most cultures around the world traditionally have two genders that serve as a basis for …show more content…
Considered to be a sub-caste throughout India, Hijra’s, according to the article Hijra’s are Women: Third Gender Rights in India, are defined as “men who dress and act like women… [These men] wear women’s jewelry and brightly adorned saris.” True Hijra’s typically repudiate sexual practices by participating in being reborn as a Hijra by undergoing castration. Hijra is derived from the word “Urdu,” which means “impotent one,” and within their native countries Hijra’s are viewed as social pariahs both presently and in the past. Hijra’s have suffered persecution such as the alienation of being shunned from their society as well as families, which has forced Hijra’s to beg or work as prostitutes. Since being labeled as a pariah, Hijra’s live under the guidance of a Guru, a spiritual teacher, who acts as an informant into the culture of a Hijra, as well as providing basic needs such as food, clothing, and