class notes...
Ethnography - Long term study of a single location using Participant Observation
Ethnology - Comparative study across cultures
Ethnocentrism - Judging other cultures by the standards of your own culture
Cultural Relativism - Understanding a culture in terms of its own rules and standards
Absolute Cultural Relativism (bad) - No rules and standards across cultures. Every culture can do whatever it wants.
Critical Cultural Relativism (good) - Understand a culture in terms of its own rules and standards, then criticise using terms understandable to that culture.
anthro 101...first day.
Wow.. a class with actual requierments.. this is going to be weird. Weirder still is that this class is full of undergrads who couldn't care less about the material.
When asked "what parts of culture do American's share" today in class, someone from the back said "religion."
Doh!
Oh boy. This is going to be a "fun" class.
anthro 101...and May deadline...
I've taken Middle Eastern Anthropology, People's of Africa, Culture Change, Archaeological Science, Forensic Anthropology, Physical Anthropology, Anthropological Linguistics, and several other Anthro classes, but I've never taken plain old Cultural Anthropology 101. Why? I don't know, guess it just slipped my mind.
At any rate, I'm taking it in Spring quarter. I'm looking forward to it actually. It will probably be more interesting than I think.
Also, I still have a paper to write for the Undergraduate Research Symposium in May! I have to help the others in my group (co-authors) get this stuff together and decide who's going to present. I'm a little concerned that presenting duties might fall to me. I've never done anything like this before, but I suppose I'll need to get used to it if I want to teach someday.
nwac final thoughts...
I'm back at work today, and thinking over the successes, and non-successes of the 58th Annual Northwest Anthropological Conference.
This yearly conference converged in Spokane this year, at the Ridpath hotel. The hotel was nice enough, but some of the "set up" wasn't completely thought through. Mostly, I think this was just a sign of some disorganization on the part of the host university, Eastern Washington. We could have done a bit better, but let's face it, academics don't plan well, and forget things, because they are often pulled several different directions at once. Also, because funding is always an issue in Academia, organizing events like this on little or no budget is challenging, to say the least.
The successes were many, while the non-successes were few, which is always a happy outcome. Some of the non-successes, in my opinion, were expected, while others were simply out of the control of the host university. The Book Room (the place where vendors set up stuff to sell), was too far away, off to the side, and mostly out of view of the conference attendees. This caused a bit of consternation among the vendors, who obviously came to the conference to not only sell their wares, but to gain more exposure for their organizations. Dropping off CD's to the check in desk was draped in loads of good intentions, but somehow I think it could have been done better, been less rife with possible problems, and easier on the minds of the individuals who were leaving their only copy in the hands of people who they didn't know. While this process did in fact weed out two or three Power Point presentations that were flawed, it also had the potential for loss, due to the constant movement of equipment and discs. Loading the presentations on host university computers beforehand, however, worked well, when discs weren't temporarily lost, which happened on the last day (Sat.). Overall, I think the participants were pleased with this part of the conference, the part that I was directly in contact with, since I was one of the two AV Technical Assistants. The equipment itself, had few problems as well.
On a personal note, the only negative part of the entire Conference, was the banquet on Friday evening. I attended only at the request of my colleagues, but wasn't happy with where I sat. I sat at probably the only table in the entire room containing two Bushies. This normally wouldn't be a problem, but the speaker for the evening spoke on who was ruling Iraq after the election. His talk, while mildly interesting, was nothing I hadn't heard before, and I found it odd the things he was telling a room full of Anthropologists. However, the Bushies at my table were muttering during his speech about everything wrong he was saying. These two guys, Marines, had just returned some months ago from Iraq, and had seen more than the speaker had, to be sure, but through the lens of military propaganda. While we know that both the political left and the political right bombard us with propaganda, we also know that the military has it's own brand of propaganda that it disseminates to its troops. The discussion after the speech was of a marginally civil tone, yet laced with typical right wing analogies and examples and left wing examples as well (from the others at the table).
Finally, to end the discussion, that was going nowhere, I forced a change in subject to what the men had seen of looting, what the military was doing to prevent looting, and what strategies could be put in place to change the mindset of the Iraqi people toward looting. It was my opinion that somehow, the Iraqi people need to understand that while it is true that artifacts looted will bring high dollar amounts on the black market, they will be even more valuable in situ later on. The real problem is that Iraqi needs need to be met right now, not later. Perhaps Bush will divert some of the money for the military for financial aid for the Iraqi people, thereby causing looting to become less attractive an option. But until something happens, the looting will continue.
This line of discussion was acceptable to all at the table, and kept us from descending into more left right rhetoric. Nothing disturbs me more than to hear right wingers discuss how wonderful Bush is, when he clearly is not. Their belief is strong, their convictions deep, and nothing changes their minds. Ann Coulter wrote the book "How to Speak to a Liberal, if you must." I would tell my fellow liberals, that if they find themselves in a situation where they find they are speaking to a conservative, simply don't speak, for nothing you say will change their minds.
Nevertheless, the conference was full of many, many well presented papers and talks. The open panel discussion about Native American artifacts was important and lengthy, and some awesome papers about theory were presented as well as ethnography and archaeology. All in all it was a highly successful conference.
Next year the conference will be in Seattle. Not sure if I'm going to go or not, but one thing is for sure, if I DO go, it will be to present a paper, and NOT to work with AV stuff!
completed paper, and final thoughts...
Thus completes my first Anthropology class at Eastern Washington State University, and HERE is my paper, completed.
Some final thoughts on the class I took, Peoples of Africa. First, and foremost, I'd have to say that there is too much content to cover in this course for one quarter. It should be a two or even three quarter course. Other than that, the course content, what I learned from the professor, and the readings, was very interesting and valuable, at least to me.
As we, as westerners, think about Africa, we need to remember it's grand diversity. Africa is several different places. It is Muslim and middle east influenced in the north, and Christian in the sub saharan regions. It is pastoralists, urbanists, modernists, nomadic, and in rare occasions, hunter-gatherer. Africa is tribes. This last point, we as westerners, don't understand fully. Which is why we don't understand ethnic conflict, such as was seen in Rwanda and Sudan.
Africa is politically unstable. But this, too, we do not understand fully. We want to import capitalism, American style, to Africa, and it doesn't work, because it appeals to greed. This doesn't work for Africans, not because they are especially egalitarian, but because they despise disparity, and American style capitalism thrives on disparity, creates disparity. In addition, soviet style socialism only seems to work on rare occasions in Africa, and is often a recipe for revolution. Still, perhaps some sort of African style socialism will emerge in the hopeful countries of Ghana and Kenya, two of the best examples of good government in sub-saharan Africa. Perhaps, someday, Pan-Africa will work, at least on a regional scale, but who knows, it's all very unstable now.
To that instability, our professor seemed to indicate, that for better or for worse, religion and it's prescripts, was the only thing currently keeping Africa from tearing itself apart. Ironic, I would say, in the least, knowing what initial damage the import of religion had on Africa. Still, it's possible I suppose. As I witnessed first hand, religious groups can ease the pain and suffering of many of the people in Africa who have been thrown suddenly into the disparity of capitalism and greed in urban areas. I wonder about the future though. With disease rampant, education faltering, and a new, more deadly form of AIDs appearing on the scene now, the future seems grim.
One more topic, close to my own heart regarding Africa, is Africa's children, of which there are millions. Owing to the fact that I lean heavily to the nurture side of the nature/nurture debate, this one concerns me greatly. Millions of children in Africa are growing up in loveless orphanages, or loveless homes. Feral children, if you will. What possible future will this have on Africa, when feral children, who have known no loving embrace, and are becoming more and more sociopathic, are released on the world? I don't know.
All is not gloom and doom, however. These challenges are NOT insurmountable. The problem is western blindness, as it has been for years.
almost final draft...
I've been working off and on for the last few days on the conclusion to my research paper. It's not that it's an especially long conclusion, I just had to think about it for a bit. Anyway, there's a PDF format version of the document HERE.
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
100% American...
I was reading this today about acculturation, and it struck me as funny (Quoted directly from Culture Change and Modernization: Mini Models and Case Studies, Louise S. Spindler):
"Our solid American citizen awakens in a bed built on a pattern which originated in the Near East but which was modified in northern Europe before it was transmitted to America. He throws back covers made from cotton, domesticated in India, or linen, domesticated in the Near East, or wool from sheep, also domesticated in the Near East, or silk, the use of which was discovered in China. All of these materials have been spun and woven by processes invented in the Near East. He slips into his moccasins, invented by the Indians of the Eastern Woodlands, and goes to the bathroom, whose fixtures are a mixture of European and American inventions, both of recent date. He takes off his pajamas, a garment invented in India, and washes with soap invented by the ancient Gauls. He then shaves, a masochistic rite which seems to have been derived from either Sumer or ancient Egypt. (Linton 1936:326-327)
When returning to his bedroom, our American uses a chair of southern European type, puts on clothes patterned after the skin clothing introduced by Asiatic nomads and shoes made from skins, using a process invented in Egypt. His bedroom window is made of glass, also invented in Egypt. At breakfast his plate is made of pottery originating from China, he uses a fork invented in medieval Italy, and a spoon derived from a Roman model. His breakfast consists of borrowed items: orange (eastern Mediterranean), cantaloupe (Persia), coffee (Abyssinia), sugar (India), wheat for his waffles (Asia Minor), syrup (invented by [American] Indians of the eastern Woodlands), egg (Indo-China), and ham (eastern Asia).
When our friend has finished eating he settled back to smoke, an American Indian habit, consuming a plant domesticated in Brazil in either a pipe, derived from the Indians of Virginia, or a cigarette derived from Mexico. If he is hardy enough he may even attempt a cigar, transmitted to us from the Antilles by way of Spain. While smoking he reads the news of the day, imprinted in characters invented by the ancient Semites upon a material invented in China by a process invented in Germany. As he absorbs the accounts of foreign troubles he will, if he is a good conservative citizen, thank a Hebrew deity in an Indo-European language that he is 100 percent American (Linton 1936:326-327)"
Amazing, isn't it?
