Anthropology Reflection

Entering the classroom on the first day of the semester, I wasn’t sure what to expect. To be honest, I wasn’t even sure what Anthropology was. That is why I found it fitting to write my first reaction paper on pairing one. Before digging into anything else, I find it important to know and understand anthropology and culture, in order to obtain success in this class. In this paper I would like to focus on in what ways the videos have advanced my understanding, how these videos relate to one another, and how technology is changing the face of culture around the world.

These videos have surely advanced my understanding, considering I walked into this class without any understanding. In the Nature of Anthropology, I discovered that Anthropology

All three videos touch on the diversity of people around the world in different cultures. Video one explains that people everywhere are alike, but very different. My favorite, video two, states that among the peoples in the world we find not uniformity but amazing diversity and variety. In the last video they took a more hands on approach, attempting to study how each society adapts in its own environment. What seemed to stand out the most to me throughout all of the videos was the importance of giving up ethnocentrism. It was expressed in The Nature of Anthropology, every culture is special – regardless of their views and beliefs. The Nature of Culture video states that the chief cornerstone of anthropology is to acknowledging that each culture is as valuable as any other. While watching How Cultures are Studied, the Anthropologist said, one of the obligations and responsibilities of anthropologist is to communicate the very important concept of cultural relativism. I would have to agree with this information, in order to fully comprehend someone or another group of people that is different from oneself, you must be open minded. If you’re not open minded, you will miss the opportunity to understand, learn, or grow. They explained that a lot of cultures are dying because of ethnocentrism, and the death of one culture is a devastating loss to every culture. I hope this sad truth dies before another