Question: What causes hermaphrodism?

I was asked this question in class the other day, and did not know the answer. So I looked it up, because it's really interesting to me to learn about genetic anomalies and issues related to sexual identity.
Google found me this link:
http://www.emedicine.com/ped/topic1492.htm

First of all, there are apparently many kinds of intersex conditions. Having a complete set of both male and female bits is one of a range of five similar conditions.
Here's an interesting quote from the site:

The internal ducts and external genitalia may vary in development, since
the presence of apparently male or female gonads does not necessarily correlate
with the patient's gender identity.

What does this mean?

Let's step back and look at this not through medical eyes, but through anthropological eyes. What can anthropology tell us about what makes men, men and women, women?

There is a distinction between sex and gender in science, and this is important. Sex is your plumbing, which is usually related to what set of sex chromosomes you've inherited, while gender is a social identity. While there are normally two basic biological sexes (remember - males are definied by being the ones with smaller gametes!), any culture can create as many categories of gender as they need. In Native North American cultures, there are frequently three genders: male, female, and two-spirit. A two-spirit individual may (often) have male plumbing, but will identify in all other ways as a woman, or the other way around - female plumbing, male clothes and behavior patterns.

And this is just the simple part.

What about those people who have bits of both sex's plumbing?

These individuals are commonly labeled "intersex". But plumbing is only part of an individual's overal gender identity. The mind, the behavior patterns, all of these are as important, if not more important, than the actual ducts and pipes a person is born with.

What do you think?

Thought of the day: Mendel! Peas! Aaagh!

Mendel and his derned peas. Mendelian inheritance is so important to understanding inheritance in general, but gosh, peas are boring. As are most normal discreet traits in people - by normal, I mean stuff like attached earlobes and sticky earwax, cleft chin, tongue-rolling, and the ever popular PTC tasting. (Sorry to those who are tasters! Anthro is not usually about torturing students with nasty tasting paper, really! )
But what I think is cool about Mendel is how he figured out inheritance without seeing chromosomes, or seeing meiosis in action. And how he wowed everyone with statistics. Basic stats to us now, but way above most scientists' heads at the time.
Maybe next time I'll forgo talking about peas altogether and talk only about human traits, and do Punnett squares related to the normal traits and also the interesting diseases, like albinism, Tay-Sachs, and such. But it's like denying 7 years of undergrad and grad training to skip the peas!

but maybe it's time for a new leaf (pun intended).
Pass the peas, please.
Let's talk disease!

Thoughts?

Worms and Evolution

Here is a well written post by a science blogger about the importance of worms in evolution.
John Hawks has already posted on this, but in case you missed it the post begins with this question:
Quick - What was Darwin's most popular book?
Click below to find out - you'll probably be surprised!
http://scienceblogs.com/evolvingthoughts/2007/01/in_the_mud_1.php#more

Welcome~

Hello - I'm Erika, an adjunct professor of Anthropology. I am starting this blog as a way to communicate with my students in an informal way outside of the classroom. I'll be posting links to sites of interest, my reactions and opinions to news from the world of anthropology, and some stuff I find fun or cool (which may or may not be anthropological).
This is a bit of an experiment in connectivism. One of my interests is how technology impacts our social lives, sometimes for the worse, and sometimes for the better. I'd like for this blog to enhance the student-teacher relationship by creating a way for us to explore topics together outside of the classroom, but in a less formal way than through Blackboard. You'll find out more about my interests, likes, dislikes, etc., and hopefully you students will be better able to relate to me in class and outside of class. Through your feedback, I hope to become a better professor as well.

But mostly, I hope to have fun with this, and I hope you do too!