For generations, elders have passed on family traditions, gender roles, and beliefs to younger family members. Children are entrusted to continue their grandparents' legacy through understanding and following cultural teachings. Semai elders, like many American grandparents, share their life lessons and family values down generational lines. This paper will explore the Semai society, their beliefs and values, political organization, economic organization, and challenges they face in the future.
The Semai people, a horticultural society, are highly recognized as a non-violent and peaceful tribe who resides in the Malay Peninsula in Southeast Asia. There are about 15,000 Semai living in the Malaysian mountains. Their populations are normally less than one hundred tribesmen. Their primary means of securing food is through hunting, gathering, fishing, trapping and growing rice (Robarchek, 1979). Semai are referred to as "shifting cultivators." This means they wear out the productiveness of the soil in one area through crop cultivation for a couple of years, and then they move on to fresh land to repeat the cycle (Carey 1976). As a horticultural society, women are the primary food providers. Women have more knowledge of plants, how and where to grow them, how much sun and what type of drainage is needed for the plants to bloom. The Semai men are more familiar with animal behavior so they were involved with animal domestication (Nowak and Laird, 2010, p.89). Beyond food responsibilities, Semai are one of the few cultures remaining where no one is higher status than another. "The place of women in these societies supports the argument of those who believe that sex roles are not fixed, that if there is natural order, it ...
... middle of paper ...
...rom http://www.mnstate.edu/robertsb/380/Society%20and%20Sex%20Roles.pdf.
Fry, D. (2010). Overwhelming Terror: Love, Fear, Peace, and Violence among the Semai of Malaysia Asian Ethnology, 69(1), 202-204. Retrieved from ProQuest Religion Document ID: 2127543421).
Nicholas, C. (1992). Merchant Capital and the Simple Reproduction Squeeze
In Semai Society. Retrieved from http://www.coac.org.my/codenavia/portals/
coacv2/images/articles/Simple%20reproduction%20squeeze.pdf.
Nowak, B., & Laird, P. (2010). Cultural anthropology. San Diego, Bridgepoint Education, Inc. https://content.ashford.edu.
Robarcheck, C. (1977, November). American Ethnolgist. Retrieved August 26, 2011, from Vol. 4, No. 4 (Nov., 1977): http://www.jstor.org/stable/643630.
Robarchek, C. (1979). Conflict, Emotion, and Abreaction: Resolution of Conflict among the Semai Seno” Ethos 7:104-123.
Valerie has successfully portrayed the picture of change in gender role within the ethnic community. She has cited an example of Sansei. In the book, it is said that the older generation was purely patri...
"On Food and History." 'On Food and History' N.p., 13 May 2008. Web. 25 Oct. 2013.
Back then, it was unacceptable for a woman to take care of a man. However, that belief no longer exists because education is now deemed important. Having a woman help in the house can help meet the bills. Moreover, when kibar families started sending their daughters to school, the community no longer considered educating women a disgrace. The kibar are families whose wealth has been passed on for generations, who live together in a large complex, and share a budget (Meneley 1996: 64-65). In other words, kibar’s financial status can be the equivalent of rich people in the United States. As a result, of the community moving forward, as well as, their views towards kibar families, Zabidi women’ roles have transformed from a passive to an active role inside and outside the household.
Since the beginning of time, mankind began to expand on traditions of life out of which family and societal life surfaced. These traditions of life have been passed down over generations and centuries. Some of these kin and their interdependent ways of life have been upheld among particular people, and are known to contain key pieces of some civilizations.
Shakespeare in the Bush. In Anthropology 09/10, edited by Angeloni Elvio, 56-59. New York City: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
There are many different cultures and groups of people that we don’t know anything about. There are a lot of people in the world trying to close that gap. People like Catherine J. Allen, author of The Hold Life Has and Napoleon A. Chagnon, author of Yanomamo. In each of their respective books, they brought us closer to societies I had never heard of until now. We learned about the different aspects of the lives of the Sonqo (Allen) and the Yanomamo (Chagnon). They brought us insight on certain things like gender differences, family relationships and how where they live affects their lives. In this following essay, I’ll be discussing gender differences in both the Sonqo and Yanomamo societies as well as how each tribe uses kinship, reciprocity
Stanford, Craig B., John S. Allen, and Susan C. Antón. Exploring Biological Anthropology: The Essentials. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2010. 17. Print.
Dentan, Robert Knox. 1968. The Semai: A Nonviolent People of Malaya. Orlando, FL: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc.
Ember, Carol R., Melvin Ember, and Peter N. Peregrine. Anthropology. Thirteenth ed. Boston, MA: Prentice Hall, 2011. Print.
1. Stanford, Craig. Allen, John S. Anton, Susan C. Exploring Biological Anthropology second edition. Pearson Education, Inc. 2008. Pages 238-420.
D. Adamson, C. (2007, Winter). Gendered Anxieties: Islam, Women's Rights, and Moral Hierarchy in Java. Anthropological Quarterly, 80(1), 5-37. Retrieved May 24, 2008, from Academic Search Alumni Edition database.
Schultz, Emily A. & Lavenda, Robert H. 2005, Cultural Anthropology, 6th edn, Oxford University Press, New York, Chapter 3: Fieldwork.
... Chapter 25: Origins of Food Production. Oxford University Press. University of California Davis. Pg 476, 482, 478, 479-480
Every culture has several similarities and differences that impact the way they do things. Several of these cultures have distinct traits and traditions that make them differently from other cultures. I believe these differences make each culture different and unique. The two cultures that I have chosen to compare and contrast with each other is Kenya and India. In this paper I will discuss the similarities and differences in each of the culture’s families in context, marital relationships, and families and aging. These are important aspects of these cultures and to examine them will give me a better knowledge of both of these cultures.
joint family system and respect to elders - it has been a land steeped in