HORMONES, SEX, AND GENDER

Anthropologists study human diversity but are sharply divided over the roles of culture and biology in that diversity. The division is clear ly represented in distinctions between sex and gender as biological an d cultural categories, respectively. The disciplinary divide is furthe r reflected in the contrast between the study of sex differences and h ormones by biological anthropologists and the critique by cultural ant hropologists of the value of biological approaches to sex or gender di fferences. This review considers anthropological ideas and debates abo ut sex, gender, and hormones and about the relationships among them. T he rationale for such a review is that divisions over conceptualizatio n and study of sex, gender, and sex or gender differences are partly g rounded in misunderstanding or ignorance of current biological underst andings of sex differentiation in particular and individual difference s in general.