There are many forms of social inequalities that can be analyzed in the study of anthropology. One of them is social inequality between men and women. Although gender is relatively often studied in the field of anthropology, it is not often approached from the perspective of social inequalities. The observations of Sarah Lamb and Deborah Tannen in their articles “The Politics of Dirt and Gender: Body Techniques in Bengali India” and “Who’s Interrupting? : Issues of Dominance and Control” provide a lot of information to public opinion. topic under study, as are my general observations about the conversations and traditions that take place in the sociocultural setting of the family table. Social inequalities between men and women are often rationalized by the stereotypes that are perpetuated in their respective societies. However, there is an interesting problem here: the stereotypes are different! So which one is closer to the true inherent nature of men and women? Inequalities are rationalized and held in place within culture by making particular reference to the innate differences between men and women. In Lamb's account of land use in India, she mentions how innate differences between the sexes are seen in India to be not only psychological and physical due to the obvious differences in endowments, but, as one saying goes from North India: “Women are like unglazed people. earthen water jugs, which are permeable and easily contaminated to such a depth that they cannot be purified. Men are like pitchers of impervious brass, difficult to contaminate and easy to purify” (Lamb 221). The fact that both men and women are compared to jugs indicates that they are roughly the same shape, but ...... middle of paper ...... s sport and food while women frequently discuss school or work and shopping. The two common topics that overlap most often between the sexes are television and musical theater. While I don't believe my family members accurately represent their gender cohorts in the rest of our society, they are another example of how diverse members of the same group can be in terms of behavior and inequality. Even though men and women are not specifically seen as unequal at the table, there is an idea that the opposite sex has more power - this perpetuates equality in that each believes themselves to be oppressed and is therefore on the same wavelength. . If only men and women around the world could be as equal as Americans at the dinner table, there would be a lot less oppression and the world would be a lot safer..