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Full-Text Articles in Anthropology
Is Empathy Gendered And If So, Why? An Approach From Feminist Psychological Anthropology, Claudia Strauss
Is Empathy Gendered And If So, Why? An Approach From Feminist Psychological Anthropology, Claudia Strauss
Pitzer Faculty Publications and Research
Difference feminists have argued that women have special virtues. One such virtue would seem to be empathy, which has three main components: imaginative projection, awareness of the other's emotions, and concern. Empathy is closely related to identification. Psychological research and the author's own study of women's and men's talk about poverty and welfare use in the United States demonstrate women's greater empathic concern. However, some cross-cultural research shows greater sex differences in empathy in the United States than elsewhere. This combination of findings (women tend to demonstrate greater empathic concern, but this typical difference varies cross-culturally) requires a complex biocultural …
Diversity And Homogeneity In American Culture: Teaching And Theory, Claudia Strauss
Diversity And Homogeneity In American Culture: Teaching And Theory, Claudia Strauss
Pitzer Faculty Publications and Research
In teaching, as in any kind of cultural production, you can look at content, or you can look at reception. Here I want to talk about both: the content of what to say about diversity and sharing in U.S. culture, and how that may be received.
Cultural Standing In Expression Of Opinion, Claudia Strauss
Cultural Standing In Expression Of Opinion, Claudia Strauss
Pitzer Faculty Publications and Research
This article explores an underappreciated pragmatic constraint on the expression of opinions: When expressing an opinion on a topic that has been previously discussed, a speaker should correctly indicate the cultural standing of that view in the relevant opinion community. This Bakhtinian approach to discourse analysis is contrasted with conversation analysis, politeness theory (Brown & Levinson, 1987), and analysis of epistemic modality. Finally, indicators of four points on the cultural standing continuum (highly controversial, debatable, common opinion, and taken for granted) are illustrated with examples from American English usage.