Youth
Ricciardelli, L. A., McCabe, M. P., Ball, K., & Mellor, D. (2004). Sociocultural influences on body image concerns and body change strategic among indigenous and non-indigenous Australian adolescent girls and boys. Sex Roles, 51(11), 731-741.
Abstract: Sociocultural messages about the ideal body build have been studied predominantly among White adolescent girls. In the current study we examined the relationships between perceived sociocultural influences, body image concerns, and body change strategies among 47 (22 boys and 25 girls) Indigenous Australian adolescents. These relationships were compared to those from 47 non-Indigenous adolescents (predominantly from an Anglo-Saxon background), who were matched on gender, age, and school grade. In the center of the study - a stereotypical, idealized body, read more about the canon of the body in culture in prime essays, in this case you will be able to objectively evaluate the objects and subjects of the study. Overall, the sociocultural influences were found to be associated with body image concerns and body change strategies among both cultural groups. The only exception was that the sociocultural influences were not associated with the Indigenous girls' levels of body dissatisfaction or body image importance. These findings are discussed in relation to past studies of White and Black girls.
Men Engaged in Violence
Brownridge, D. A. (2010). Intimate Partner Violence Against Aboriginal Men in Canada. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology (Australian Academic Press), 43(2), 223-237.
Abstract: Using a large-scale representative sample of Canada collected in 1999, this study examined Aboriginal men's elevated risk for violent victimisation relative to non-Aboriginal men. Aboriginal men reported about 2.5 to 3.5 times the risk of intimate partner violence victimisation compared to non-Aboriginal men. Aboriginal men's elevated risk of violence was greatest on some of the most severe forms of violence and appeared to be due to their relatively higher levels of unemployment and relatively younger average age. While future research is needed to disentangle the complex interplay of colonisation and risk factors for understanding Aboriginal peoples' elevated risk of intimate partner violence victimisation, the current study demonstrates that gender is also worthy of consideration.
Suicide
McCalman, J., Baird, B., & Tsey, K. (2007). Indigenous men taking their rightful place: How one Aboriginal community is achieving results. Aboriginal and Islander Health Worker Journal, 31(4), 8-9.
Abstract: The Yaba Bimbie Men's Group, in Yarrabah, Queensland, was established in response to a health needs assessment of Yarrabah that highlighted the high suicide rate in the community. It works with boys and men to promote cultural identity and a sense of belonging. This article describes the background to the formation of the support group, its operation and its achievements. There is evidence of change at the personal level and at the community level. Suicide rates have dropped from three to four per year in the 1990s to a low of two over the last nine years.
Sports
Abstract: Since the 1970s, the pace of social, economic, and political change has accelerated throughout the Canadian Arctic. In the Copper Inuit community of Holman, change has been accompanied by an increase in recreational facilities and activities organized by the local Hamlet Council and paid for by the Government of the Northwest Territories. Recreational involvement, primarily in the form of competitive team sports like hockey, provides a valuable outlet for Inuit teenagers and young adults who find it difficult to adjust to the new northern social order. The AA. examine the most visible of these sports -hockey- and discusse the effects that game involvement, violence, and ritualization of injury have upon young men's sense of control, status, and self-esteem.
Barney, D. D. (2003). Health Risk-Factors for Gay American Indian and Alaska Native Adolescent Males. Journal of Homosexuality, 46(1-2), 137- 157.
Keywords: Health; Males; American Indians; Eskimos; Risk Factors; Adolescents; Homosexuality; Heterosexuality.
Abstract: Having multiple identities as a homosexual American Indian or Alaska Native adolescent male increases the likelihood for poorer health & diminished well-being. This study assessed the differences in self-perceived health status between gay adolescent males & their heterosexual counterparts. A national nonrepresentative sample of 5,602 Indian & Native adolescent males was surveyed about issues of sexual behavior, physical & sexual abuse, mental health status, substance use, attitudes about school, participation in violence, & access to health care. Results indicate that there were no real differences between gay & heterosexual male respondents for substance use or attitudes about school. Statistically significant differences were found, however, in areas of mental health, as well as physical & sexual abuse. Gay adolescents were twice as likely to have thought of or attempted suicide. Gay adolescents were twice as likely to have been physically abused & nearly six times more likely to have been sexually abused. Gay American Indian or Alaska Native adolescent males constitute a very vulnerable population & are clearly in need of targeted health & social services. Unfortunately, the benefits seen by adults of the "two-spirited" gay & lesbian American Indian movement have not been accessible to Indian & Native adolescents. 2 Tables, 3 Figures, 49 References.
Abstract: Describes male gender-mixing statuses, such as Native American berdaches, which consist of men who assume the cultural, symbolic attributes of women to attain the status of not-men. Not-men are a culturally defined gender status whose indexing features include women's dress and behavior, occupational inversion, some cultural traits of men, and the absence of sexual relations with other not-men, which forces them to seek other-gender status men or women as sexual partners. It is suggested that the frequent equation of gender-mixing statuses with homosexuality is misleading.
Abstract: The article highlights how Native American societies view transgender people by focusing on native traditions that existed in the past before they were changed by the views and values of Euro-American culture. It examines Native American societies to underscore how distinct cultures approach both sex and gender in orthogonal ways. It also discusses the conflict between the scientific view of sex and gender that exists in western thought and concludes with a discussion on what transgenders mean to these societies.
Abstract: In this article, I examine the ways in which men in the Green Country Two-Spirit Society of Oklahoma use the annual gathering to compensate for the lack of opportunities to express sexual identity and gender difference within mainstream Native cultural contexts.1 I also explore how the gatherings reveal two-spirit identity as a compromise of one’s sexual, gender, and racial identities.2 First, I will discuss the development of two-spirit identities, societies, and gatherings. Second, I will look at the manner in which two-spirit gatherings draw on Native cultural traditions. Two-spirit men have developed alternative communal spaces in which to express both their indigenous and their sexual and gender identities. The cultural practices of gatherings represent the crossing of established boundaries, as well as the reconfiguring of what it means to participate in traditional Native practices. Two-spirit gatherings also illustrate the complex role played by sexual and gender identity in the shaping of social identities in public contexts.
Part of a book - no abstract available
Abstract: This paper describes findings from fieldwork conducted among Pitjantjatjara tribespeople of Central Australia between 1989 and 1997. The study examined the impact of a distinctive gender system and practices of masculinity, particularly sexual and ritual practices, on the risk of contracting sexually transmissible infections and other blood-borne diseases. The research was designed as an ethnography of masculinity, conducted via participant observation, life history interviews, ritual analysis, and critical reflection on the work of early ethnographers. The paper presents selected field data, examined in the light of early twentieth century anthropological description of Pitjantjatjara sexuality. It identifies a systematic deflection of male same-sex attraction away from possible resolution through sexual practices between men. Key components of this deflection are the ritual construction of a culturally distinctive masculinity, the inextricable linkage between masculinity rites and the system for arranging marriages, and the cultural coding of the penis during ritual. The paper concludes that although men may feel erotic attraction for each other, the gender and kinship systems of the Pitjantjatjara conspire to limit completely the possibilities for the physical, sexual expression of this attraction. The findings reported here add to our understanding of the cultural basis of heteronormativity.
