Premium
Brief communication: Gender and sex: Vive la difference
Author(s) -
Walker Phillip L.,
Cook Della Collins
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
american journal of physical anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.146
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1096-8644
pISSN - 0002-9483
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1096-8644(199806)106:2<255::aid-ajpa11>3.0.co;2-#
Subject(s) - psychology , sociology , demography
The distinction prevalent in the social sciences between the terms sex and gender is a useful one and ought to be preserved. Sex refers to the anatomical or chromosomal categories of male and female. Gender refers to socially constructed roles that are related to sex distinctions. Use of these terms as synonyms is becoming increasingly frequent in physical anthropology, especially among bioarchaeologists and primatologists. A failure to make the distinction between gender and sex is analytically incapacitating in a field such as physical anthropology, whose strength lies in the integration of biological and cultural information. Am J Phys Anthropol 106:255–259, 1998. © 1998 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.