One of the requirements of the class was to read the book entitled Wisdom from a Rainforest: The Spiritual Journey of an Anthropologist by Stuart A Schlegel. The book was first published in 1999, and it was about the author’s experiences and his own personal transformation while staying with the Teduray society. Through reading the book, the professor wanted to expose his students to anthropological studies and reflect on how different concepts and theories that were previously discussed could be related to the material. “This book is a love story”. As the opening line of the book, it tells a lot of how the author is still in admiration with the now extinct tribe in Mindanao. The book was about how an anthropologist slowly fell in love with …show more content…
With regards to the discussion on religion, I saw that the Tedurays gave much respect to their rituals and the symbols that they use since the meanings attached to them are given a high regard as well. Moreover, I believe that while Schlegel was introducing the Teduray society to the readers, he used a historical particularist point of view wherein he understood the society as a product of the historical events that shaped how the Teduray society came to be. Throughout the book, he leaned towards the symbolic interactionist perspective wherein while describing the culture of the Tedurays, he also told of the meanings they attach to the activities they conduct and symbols they use, and he explained these in relation to their everyday life. Moreover, I realized the importance of language as while there are three main groups of the Tedurays, I learned in the discussion that was distinguishes them from one another is their own language. The language of the Tedurays can also be anaylzedusingthe Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, since they do not have words that reflect their concept of time and age, which reflects the how they perceive the absence of such in their
As far back as Rigoberta Manchu can remember, her life has been divided between the highlands of Guatemala and the low country plantations called the fincas. Routinely, Rigoberta and her family spent eight months working here under extremely poor conditions, for rich Guatemalans of Spanish descent. Starvation, malnutrition and child death were common occurrences here; rape and murder were not unfamiliar either. Rigoberta and her family worked just as hard when they resided in their own village for a few months every year. However, when residing here, Rigoberta’s life was centered on the rituals and traditions of her community, many of which gave thanks to the natural world.
Nomads of the Rainforest is a film which focuses on a tribe in Ecuador called the Waorani. The purpose of this documentary is to discover how this culture has maintained their cultural identity amidst Western culture and remained an enigma. The Waorani were known as savages and likely to attack any outside influence indiscriminately. These people were a mystery due to the fact that their savagery was brushed against the landscape of an egalitarian society in which all people were equal and must contribute to their society. The message of the film is to describe the Waorani lifestyle and how the rainforest is critical to their maintaining their nomadic lifestyle that has been a part of their culture for centuries.
The cultural studies approach is only one way of analyzing an open text such as the story "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong", but it is one of the best ways to determine the social actions of a society and the reasons for their cultural beliefs. Having knowledge of tools such as gender construction, levels of power, and the theme of isolation, the reader becomes personally involved with the characters and the ways in which they are coerced to live their lives.
“She had never said it was love. Neither had he. They were shy. They had been unsure. Now, there would be no time for love. It was in the moment of parting that she knew she loved him” (Yang 21). Love exists as an emotion that persists to be challenging to comprehend, but once one feels it, it seems problematic to let go of it. Kao Kalia Yang wrote the book The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir, which tells of the anguish the Hmong people faced in their excursion from Laos to the United States. Yang uses her unique writing style to present her topic in an enlightening way to her readers. Yang uses the story of her parents to convey the sufferings of the Hmong people and their journey. Her parents make a fitting example of a typical Hmong family fighting to survive and find love in a time of turmoil. Although Kao Kalia’s parents met in unfortunate circumstances and had no home to live in, love kept them and their family together, even when times seemed their darkest.
“The Sambia: Ritual, Sexuality, and Change in Papua New Guinea” is a book written by Gilbert Herdt. It is based on a case study Herdt did during the 1970’s of the culture of the Sambia people. His study took place in Eastern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea. He didn’t know much about their language, however through out his time there he was able to learn their language and customs. As he settled into their village, he mostly slept in the clubhouse with the other Nilangu villagers; however, eventually they built a house for him to stay at. Herdt had a great interest in gaining new knowledge about the Sambia culture.
It is difficult to choose just one lens to analyze different aspects of Diné spirituality because of the importance of integration and interconnectedness with the earth and all its creatures. They have a profound respect for each other as human beings as well as respect for nature. They feel responsible to care for the earth and its creatures because we all depend on one another for survival. Kinship and community is not just between humans but it is also with the land, with the animals and with the insects. Tapahonso illustrates all of these aspects of Diné spirituality beautifully in her collection of poems and short stories through her personal experiences in everyday life as a Diné woman.
Anthropology is the study of the development of humankind within their different cultures. When one looks inside a culture, they can see the true aspects and meanings behind a societies behavior and traits. By following the principle that is cultural relativism, one can also determine that no culture truly surpasses another culture, and that each society has key differences that are important to its culture and location. This is a method that can also be seen in many intriguing films from this semester, one in particular being The Emerald Forest. Throughout this essay, this film will be analyzed around one character who greatly represents what it means to truly immerse oneself into a different culture to gain a new perspective, and many key terms in anthropology will be explored through 4 different films from the semester.
Following the Mexican Revolution, many professionals studying their fields (i.e. anthropology, writers, painters, etc) were allowed to trace the roots of the different cultures of Mexico, including the Indian culture although this remains well hidden except for the tiny village of Hueyapan. However, the question remains: Should anthropologists and others alike focus their research closer to home? I will explore this topic through the use of the book Being Indian In Hueyapan: A Revised And Updated Edition, written by Judith Friedlander. Friedlander is an interesting character by beginning the book with a description of Dona Zeferina’s family and how they lived.
Being a culture under pressure from both sides of the contact zone, there needs to be passion and emotion or else the culture might disappear into history. Anzaldua’s text makes great use of passion and emotion while merging the ideas of multiple cultures together through the tough experiences in her life. Autoethnographic texts give perspective to outsiders on how a culture functions from the inside point of view. Anzaldua’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” excellently portrays her culture’s plight and creates a fiery passionate entrance for her culture in their uprising through the contact zone.
Women such as S. Alice Callahan wrote a novel entitled Wynema: A Child of the Forest. Her book is composed of a deep understanding and appreciate that connected both a white teacher and her Native American student. Through mutual comprehension and respect, their loving relationship, known as a “sisterly” bond, broke down intercultural barriers imposed on the people of the time. Although this book is thought to be a pure work of fiction, it does not sway in its accuracy. Callahan’s work strove to show the humanized and sensitive side of a Native American bond, and the white teacher’s appreciation of someone who is different from them.
Personal experience and reflexivity should be used within anthropology as a tool to reflect on the culture that is being studied and not a refocusing of attention on the self. Works such as Dorinne Kondo’s “Dissolution and Reconstitution of Self,” use the idea of reflexivity as a mirror in which to view the culture being studied in a different manner. This use of reflexivity allows for the focus to stay on the culture being studied. A move away from this is the new branch of humanistic anthropology represented in this essay by Renato Rosaldo’s “Grief and a Headhunter’s Rage” and Ruth Behar’s “Anthropology that Breaks Your Heart” allows anthropologists to use reflexivity as a way to explore universal human feelings. For me, this is not the study of anthropology as much as self-reflexive psychology. The focus shifts from culture to self. The anthropologists completely understands the feelings of the people he/she is studying. I think that it is rather ambitious to state that emotion is univeral, and I do not think that it is the job of anthropologists to do so. The reflexive voice is a necessary aspect of ethnographic writing, but the anthropologist must be careful not to shift focus from concentrating on culture to concentrating on herself.
The book Monique and the Mango Rains is written on the backdrop of one of the poorest countries in the world where people are uneducated but they have their own culture and customs which they follow ardently. However the practices somehow match with the current world of hypocrite people but unknowingly they are present in the small village Nampossela of Mali where author interacted with Monique the central character of the
The Return to Laughter is a fictionalized account by Elenore Smith Bowen about her experiences with the Tiv culture in Africa. It describes her struggles to learn and understand the local culture and beliefs, and juxtaposes her own conflicts, morals and beliefs. Bowen engages in what anthropologists termed participant-observation. The anthropologist made a few mistakes that provided revelations about herself and the Tiv people. Language difficulties provide the greatest barrier: as when the researcher is trying to understand the context of the conversation, while still struggling with the intricacy of a difficult language. Secondly, like most anthropologists Bowen knew that social relationships are a research requirement: informants are needed, yet she quickly realized that identification with one family, status or group in the society could hinder other critical relationships. These lessons are among a few that the anthropologist seeks to overcome. This essay will discuss that culture and language are dependent on each other and how forming social relationships can propel research and reveal insightful knowledge into a culture, while possibly hindering other useful information.
... of the elite. The elite is very apparent in our time because there are a lot of problems in the American country and it seems like we haven’t really learned from Sinclair—we haven’t really learned from the people who wrote and lived early 1900s.
Rainforests, should we cut them down or not? Probably one of the biggest questions the world has to overcome. Sure, rainforests supply us with a lot of resources and we could surely not live without cutting some of them down, but should we be cutting them down at the rate we are? To be exact, the statistic estimates 1.5 acres of natural rainforests are being destroyed every second. While this practise supplies us with resources like timber for furniture, it also reduces the amount of oxygen supply.