Will respond in more detail later, but I am inclined to agree that humans are sort of hardwired towards some sort of concept of gender (but I...uh, well, I figure I'm cis because...something, I guess, reasons?...but I also struggle with understanding what gender even is and what it means) - so it's this science-fictional thought experiment and it doesn't seem to quite ring true when people attempt single-gender/genderless societies. Plus I suspect the drive to define ones' self and others in highly specific ways varies a lot between individuals and societies/over time (the eternal struggle of trying to understand history of sexuality before LGBTQ+ and straightness were defined identities).
Religion seems almost as hard to define as gender, but that does seem basically universal, too (Daniel Everett is wrong about the Pirahã because his concept of what religion is is so narrow, probably because of his own upbringing, and his anthropology is full of inconsistencies). That's the only cultural group I've ever seen described as being "without religion," but they see spirits that outsiders don't see and have mythic creation stories, which both sound like religious concepts to me.
I don't remember Provenance clearly, but I think the character who put off choosing a gender did pick one eventually? And noone seemed to even consider not choosing permanently as possible (even as a bad thing bad people do), so it felt like the equivalent of a girl holding onto a tomboy phase before realising she Had To Become A Woman. But I may be misremembering!
I may be also! If I ever regain the attention span to read books again, I should reread Provenance, because I do not remember the details at all (although I also haven't read the rock-POV book yet, gotta do that).
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Religion seems almost as hard to define as gender, but that does seem basically universal, too (Daniel Everett is wrong about the Pirahã because his concept of what religion is is so narrow, probably because of his own upbringing, and his anthropology is full of inconsistencies). That's the only cultural group I've ever seen described as being "without religion," but they see spirits that outsiders don't see and have mythic creation stories, which both sound like religious concepts to me.
I don't remember Provenance clearly, but I think the character who put off choosing a gender did pick one eventually? And noone seemed to even consider not choosing permanently as possible (even as a bad thing bad people do), so it felt like the equivalent of a girl holding onto a tomboy phase before realising she Had To Become A Woman. But I may be misremembering!
I may be also! If I ever regain the attention span to read books again, I should reread Provenance, because I do not remember the details at all (although I also haven't read the rock-POV book yet, gotta do that).