Final answer:
The anthropological understanding of gender explores how cultures construct gender roles and sexual practices. In Hawaiian culture, there are gender categories such as mahu and hānai. These categories differ from the larger American culture, which has a rigid two-gender system.
Step-by-step explanation:
The anthropological understanding of gender focuses on how cultures construct gender roles and sexual practices. It explores how people's ideas of gender are formed in their minds, bodies, social institutions, and everyday practices. Cultural anthropologists have discovered great diversity in human systems of gender and expressions of sexuality.
In Hawaiian culture, there are gender categories known as mahu and hānai. Mahu refers to individuals who embody both masculine and feminine qualities, and they are often regarded as a third gender. Hānai, on the other hand, refers to a practice where children are raised by someone other than their biological parents, which allows for more flexible gender roles.
When comparing to the larger American culture, Hawaiian gender categories differ from the rigid two-gender system prevalent in European and Euro-American societies. Hawaiian culture embraces the idea of multiple genders and allows for more gender flexibility, contrary to the stigmatization of non-conforming individuals in American society.