The End?

As we finish up Gebusi, as well as the semester, we are looking at the end. But in culture there seems to be no end. A prime example is the Gebusi themselves, as we read Part I and Part II of the ethnography I concluded that their intimate self-preserving way of culture was ending and Western ideas were taking over, however in Part III, we find that the Gebusi are in fact reverting back to their original culture, ideas, and ways of leaving. I think the Gebusi are a great example of how culture is unpredictable and how it is never the end necessarily. I think the can be sad about the extent of which anthropology and culture play a role in everyday lives. The impact of culture is a never-ending concept on our lives, and the various ways anthropology looks and views culture allows us to realize this. Whether it is religion, social, food, sport, commerce, dress, greetings, or the many other aspects of a lifestyle, they all are connected to culture. Culture is always changing as well which tends to complicate things, but is the change always progressive or different. Like the Gebusi, I would say there is a smaller scale example in American culture that shows that some aspects of culture just never end. In American culture we are always looking for the next best thing, what will work best, who will be best, and what is the most technological advanced...but there is one aspect of American culture that most people are rather fond of, and that is “retro”. Retro fads, that make a comeback in a culture are just as depicting of how even though culture changes the culture of the past doesn’t necessarily end. My “favorite” retro fads that seem to be making a comeback, clothing styles, retro cookware, and rollerblading. Yes all of these things seemed to have gone of style, replaced by things we thought were better, but like the Gebusi maybe we found that American culture without them just wasn’t working. I choose clothing, cookware, and rollerblading in a rather humorous manner, but however they are still great examples. Sometimes though it’s true technological modern things can’t stop the reoccurrence of the good ol’ things. When asked whether I would like to receive an email or a letter, I would say a letter. The feeling of something in a mailbox is one that can’t be replaced by something in an inbox, all though more materialistic this change and advancement is like how the Gebusi culture couldn’t completely change because it didn’t adapt to their needs and wants. It’s important to see that culture is changing all the time, but that doesn’t mean it is always progressing or digressing, it’s just changing. It is a never ending process, and there is a never ending amount of information to receive and learn about other cultures as well as our own. If I learned anything from the Gebusi and retro fads it is that it is never The End.

Changes, O the Changes!

This week we really focused on culture change, and how it effects and is a part of not only single cultures, but also the world system. We started our last ethnography about the Gebusi that also shows how culture change occurs, trough Westernization of the Gebusi clan. Things like clothing, religion, and economic traditions are changed within the Gebusi to a more Western lifestyle. Also as part of a quiz we looked into culture changes taking place around the world currently, I read about plastic surgery in the Middle East and Democracy in Asia, it was interesting to me that a lot of culture change is to something more Western. I know that it makes sense as to why, but the question is it necessary, does it provide positive impact or is it just a step in the wrong direction, it’s tough to know until after changes are already taken place, but through studies such as the Gebusi ethnography and many other articles about culture changes, how it occurs, and its effects. In addition to its effects it is important know how the culture changes occur, through things such a media, advertising, government, colonization, etcetera. It’s a lot of things that play into how culture changes and it is really interesting to think about. As we discussed I was trying to think about culture changes that have been a part of my life and culture and also how I would feel if a totally new culture took over and I lost my current traditions and way of life. To start I would like to focus on culture change in my own life, I really looked at and thought about my life in the country versus my life in the city, and how those two cultures differ. When I was younger I grew up in a farm town, my culture thus included John Deere, pageants, fairs, and dirt roads. We moved a lot progressively moving from small towns to larger ones till we reached the city. In the city my life and thus culture and world around me included sports cars, fashion shows and theatre, shopping malls, and pavement. These two places really provided me with insight into two different cultures, and on a mini scale shows how culture can be adaptive, put a city girl on a farm the crops and animals may die relatively soon, but a farmhand in the city and they will feel overwhelmed. I know these sound like generalizations or stereotypes, but it is so true and I have seen first hand, although I grew up knowing about farm stuff, I have now adapted to a busy,city lifestyle and when I go back to the farm I feel bored because I don’t know what to do down there anymore. My own life reminds me of that children's book town mouse and country mouse, where the mice switch places but can’t survive in each others environments and way of life. For me thinking of city and country in my own life, as well as the story of town mouse and country mouse, I think are very good examples of how culture change can be bad or good, but even little changes are major effects. Its hard to comprehend how if a big culture change came in like the Gebusi handled with Western culture how I would feel about it. I feel like losing traditions would be hard part of change, but at the same time if I felt it was a positive change that would improve my life style then it would be okay maybe. It’s definitely a fine line between positive and negative changes, but either way there are still changes taking place in culture all over the world and it is important to note those changes and learn from and about them. Changes, O the Changes!

"A Distraction or Cultural Connection"

This week the main topic I feel we discussed was worldly connections and how they influence culture. Through examples in the articles about how the production of cocaine is worldly defined supply and demand process. As we sat and talked about the world system and how people from all over the world influence our survival in our society, as well as we influence theirs, I was a little mind blown about how someone I don’t even know helps me to survive, and I possibly the same or the opposite. One example we talked about in class was the pair of jeans we wear to keep us warm and clothed in our environment, keeps a young girl in China employed providing a means of living for her. I’m not sure if this example of the world system is necessarily positive, but it’s easy to see how our demand for clothes is met and her demand for a job is met, where as in the article about Bolivia and the coca plant the world system doesn’t seem as such a positive thing. In the case of Bolivia, America has a demand for the drug of cocaine, and Bolivia has the supply of the coca plant, but because the drug trafficking and drug war are being fought and tried to be destroyed, many people are attacking the supply system destroying Bolivian’s way of life. I feel like this example of the world system is a more negative example, because there is culture being lost. So as I was trying to decide what to write for this blog, I thought of all the preceding examples and tried to connect them to my life, which made me think of how much probably everything I touch is some how related to the world system and connects me to someone, somewhere in the world living a life way different for me. It is such a big concept I was trying to think of a small scale world connector. Well to say the least as I was thinking I was getting very far, as I was extremely distracted my our cultures favorite networking tool, Facebook. Here I was trying to find an example of the world system and connections, and it was staring me in the face. Facebook, is a huge part of our culture, but I think also part of the world system, which as we talked about is pushing culture out a bit. When you get to the login page, you can set the language, I looked at how many languages were offered and there were a high number of languages, at least 80, this proves that people all over the world are possibly using Facebook. So that girl in China who is making my jeans, maybe just a click away. Not only is Facebook a social network, but I would also say a culture network, individuals can express what they identify themselves with, and who they identify themselves with. In a small way it’s exactly like the world system in a way each person is an individual culture, but each individual is regulated by this overriding system that controls what you can do, have access too, and formats the website for everyone the same. Facebook to me screams culture connections, just in the way you can access many people from everywhere and learn about all sorts of people and cultures, but it also represents to me a miniature version of the world system. So the real question is: is Facebook a homework distraction or just a form of connection and cultural enrichment?

"Break a Leg!"

From the articles we read this week and also from the book Guests of the Sheik, I really got how important and prevalent rituals are in culture and our everyday lives. In the two articles on America’s favorite past time, baseball, it was entertaining to read how many players have several rituals, as well as taboos, they believe will help them play better or keep them from bad luck. These rituals ranged from eating chicken to watching movies to stepping on a particular base, and the taboos of which the players avoided were also widely ranged including avoiding base lines. In these two articles it was very clear how superstitious our cultures can make us. In Guests of the Sheik, their rituals are heavily religious, but also shape their culture and gender roles. The women and men are pretty much separate, women wearing abayahs or coverings because for a man to see her without would be taboo. Although their religious rituals and taboos seem unusual to us, it was clear throughout the novel the rituals brought them joy and the taboos they avoided kept them out of bad luck, so to speak. Rituals whether religious or part of a game really become a part of a person and their culture and guide the way they think and/or do.
So after reading about many other peoples rituals and taboos, I began to think about mine and how they shape my everyday life or activities. The first rituals and taboos I thought of were the ones I learned growing up in the theatre. The first always say “Break a Leg!” (this ritual brings luck to performers), however on the flip-side the taboo would be to say “Good Luck!” to anyone before they step on stage. Another verbal taboo, “Macbeth”, that’s another no-no in the theater, unless you want it cursed. My theater in particular had it’s own ritual, we had to have a red rose painted on every set of every show we did (the reason and myth behind it can’t be revealed...it would be a taboo), but anyways the rose brought us luck and guidance throughout a production. I can think of one a set almost went without a rose, and half an hour before the show started our two story house, lost it’s second story, so as the wood and that mess was being cleaned up, we were sure to get that rose on the set before anyone stepped foot on the stage again. This occurrence only reinforced our ritual, we believe it brings us luck because of events like that one. I also had many pre-show rituals, I had to listen to a certain song every night, then find my own quite place backstage and just sit until it was go time. I really believed these rituals worked, and they shaped my theatre experience and culture, much like the baseball players rituals in the articles and the religious rituals in Guests of the Sheik.
It’s easy to get caught up in rituals and taboos, because they are all around us. Common taboos such as don’t walk under a ladder, or crack a mirror cause me to be cautious on a daily basis around both a ladder and a mirror. Even getting ready in the morning for the day, I know it’ll be a good day if I go through my little morning ritual of listening to Jason Mraz, getting ready, and putting on my lucky necklace and ring. It’s these rituals that give us confidence and joy to walk through our own lives and cultures. Although at times they seem silly, these many rituals and taboos seem to shape culture and give people joy...so what the heck seize the day and “Break a Leg!”

Daunting Definitions

This week we discussed what marriage and kinship is in terms of different cultures. If I learned anything it’s that there is not a definite definition. Many cultures have many different ideas about what a marriage should be, consists of , and what it is based on. In some cultures like the Tibetans in Goldstein’s article marriage recognize polygamy, while others such as Indians in Nanda’s article recognize arranged marriage. We read about various types of marriage including polygamy, arranged, walking-marriage, and monogamy. Even classifying marriages though doesn’t even begin to include all types of marriage. Because even if a culture believes in monogamy, doesn’t mean it’s between just a man and a woman the dominant culture norm in America. Polygamy comes in different forms as well depending on if it is multiple wives or husbands. Some marriages are consecrated and recognized legally, others are much, much more casual. However even though there are many differences in the types of marriages we read about, it was clear there was an underlying theme in all of them, all of the marriages were based on the society and culture around them. Although a polygamous marriage seems crazy to us, to the Tibetans it is justified by the need for a family to stick together to farm, much like we in America need a monogamous secular family in order to move around. There are many other cultural norms that play into a culture’s view on marriage, in America we base it on love and monogamy a little bit because of our Christian background and values that the country was originally founded on, other cultures have the same kind of reasoning and influences behind their definitions as well. The idea of defining what is marriage seems rather daunting when exploring how different every culture views it, however the idea that the definition of marriage is based upon culture is very clear.
One of my favorite quotes from our readings this week was in the Nanda article on arranged marriage, there was an Indian girl who said something to the like of hearing about how American girls had to worry all the time about finding the right guy to marry, but for her and the girls in her culture they could enjoy their life and let their parents do the worrying. I think this quote struck me the hardest because it really showed how our definitions of marriage effect our everyday life and even our personal happiness. As I thought about my conversations during the week, there wasn’t a day I couldn’t think of where I hadn’t talked to at least one friend about dating and finding a guy. Considering myself pretty young I guess this is shocking to me, because I don’t feel like the worries of marriage are something that affect me, but even the process of dating is something we have learned from our culture as something we should worry about because it leads to marriage. The girls in India have learned to spend their youth enjoyably, and let their parents worry about who is right for them. Our definitions of marriage effect our definitions of life, which both definitions seem to come from our experiences and enculturation with in our culture. Wow that’s a lot of defining!!!!

Backwards

This week we discussed gender and the effects of culture upon gender. Lassiter uses the image of grafting, to explain how we learn culture, especially that of gender roles. I thought the big picture of this week was how much enculturation really happens and how we are so deep in our culture we don’t even realize we were taught to think a certain way. There were a lot of good examples to explain this big picture, starting with gender. Sometimes we forget that sex is purely biological, but all the stuff that defines our gender and our roles in our gender are taught to us. I love the Fischer Price commercial which really showed how gender is seeped into our media as well, girls are cutesy and play with dolls and boys are rough and rowdy and play with cars. Although this may be true in America these standards and gender roles aren’t necessarily true in all cultures. A second example of enculturation is the teaching of beauty, in America we obviously put emphasis on being thin, so the article on the fattening room seems unfathomable to us, again something we were taught by standards of society and the media around us. To the Nigerians being fat is a sign of beauty and to them it could possibly be unfathomable that people get surgeries such as lypo, or starve themselves, or go on crazy fad diets in order to be thin and look good. These examples of beauty and gender really reflected the big picture of enculturation, because gender and beauty aren’t things we necessarily attribute to culture first off,we don’t realize all the roles and standards we put with these things, especially gender, are taught to us not encoded in our DNA.
When I was thinking about this week’s topic and big picture I thought it was interesting how everything I read on gender roles really related women to the nurture and housework gender, in many different cultures, but especially our own. So although I know this stereotype from some of my favorite tv shows like Leave it to Beaver or The Brady Bunch, to me it was still almost culture shock to read, because I guess I learned and lived/ was enculturated much differently. I grew up where the male/father did all the domesticated work, cooking, cleaning, caring for the kids, (and driving the mini-van) because his schedule as a teacher allowed it while the female/mother was the business woman/CFO busy at work. I thoroughly loved how my life seemed backwards to these culture norms presented about gender. Although I know there are many other families like this in our culture and probably other cultures as well, it really allowed for me see how culture and gender are taught and not inherited. I had a “backwards” view almost or at least was able to take a step back and see how different families even provide their own twists on enculturation with in a culture. What I learn is not what every one else learned about their culture, and in the big picture of the world it’s important to recognize that. Although another culture seems backwards, we must recognize what we learned is not what everybody else learned.

Culture Matters!!!!

This week we encountered forms of Ethnography work in the form of literature as also in the form of film. Both forms were really effective in capturing the ethnographical work of studying the !Kung, specifically the !Kung women lifestyles. The literature about the woman Nisa was filled with information about the life a of a !Kung woman. We read about daily routines, family life, marriages, sex, childhood to motherhood, work and play, food, and survival. We also were able to view these things in the film through the woman Nai. Both depicted the same culture, which compared to ours is completely different, but even compared to each other there were slight variations. Even though our cultures were very different I think there were underlying similarities in womanhood between cultures that the ethnographical work allows us to see. I thought motherhood was an underlying tie all cultures have in common, although the way raising children differs, the importance of a mother in an infants life is an equally shared concept. However after reading this novel and seeing the intricacies of this completely different culture it is important to note the differences as well, the life of a !Kung woman is completely different from anything I could ever imagine living. In return I also thought about how hard it would be for a !Kung woman would have living in our culture. Unfortunately at the end of the film it seems like the culture of Nai is being suffocated by those who are trying to modernize it. I thought it was really important to take from the novel and film how the ethnography work not only allows to get facts on how another culture works, but also how it allows us to see how other people live happily and feel successful. For the !Kung women first menstruation entitles a celebration and ritual, in our culture the “Sweet Sixteen” entitles a celebration and ritual, both are times of happiness and marks of maturity in their individual cultures. In our culture we measure happiness and success mostly with money, but for the !Kung everything is treated equal but a great hunt or gathering or the ability to care for one’s family is the measure of happiness and success. These differences are extreme, and some as in Nai’s story feel the need to change them, but I feel like these differences are enriching and enlightening. Consider how nice it would be to live a culture focused on people and the care of others, and your happiness and success depended upon your relationships not your earnings. It could be a great way to live sharing and caring, opposed to climbing the corporate ladder. These differences are exactly differences and ethnographical work allows us to see that and compare. The reading and film really showed that “big picture” of the importance of ethnographical work and its ability to tell a story of another culture. Sometimes we get so immersed into our own culture anything outside of it seems strange, and I’ll admit I would say some of the stuff I read in Nisa definitely brought on some strong reactions of questioning why anyone would ever do that, but after watching the film on Nai and seeing them in westernized clothing instead of their traditional dress really hit me. If we are all the same there won’t be anything to compare to and learn from, even learning about our culture in those comparisons and the possibly the coolest discovery of all ideas and important things that occur through multiple cultures. Exploring all of this Ethnographical work this week gave a “big picture” of the importance of studying other cultures is and how much one can learn, if I learned anything at all it is that CULTURE MATTERS!!

Say Whaaaaaat??!!

This week’s readings dealt with the topic of ethnography and fieldwork. All of the readings gave many reasons and examples of why fieldwork can be difficult and the many challenges a researcher may face when emerged into another culture. The purpose of ethnography as Lassiter puts it is to get data from the “native's point of view” and although that is the goal, it is also the difficulty. It especially difficult when as a researcher you don’t have a trusted friend, that’s why an informant is important, especially in communication terms. I think in the last two articles by Lee and Bohnnan really represent how key communication is in the big picture although both of these articles were about two separate incidents one with an insulted outsider and another with a very frustrated outside storyteller, they both show the importance of communication and understanding how it is used, and the difficulties that different interpretations and customs bring to a conversation, story, or act. I think all the online articles are also good examples of how acceptance and trust and gaining these things are a big part of ethnography and getting good data, for example in the Chagnon article the Yanomamo totally lie and the research is basically false because in their culture it is unacceptable to speak of the dead, so all of the genealogy research being done was completely taboo. All of the stories and articles provided examples of the many difficulties faced in fieldwork including communication, trust, ethics, and culture shock.
Many of these moments in the reading I would call “Say Whaaaaaat??!!” moments in my everyday life. A “Say What??!!” is something, someone, or somewhere that surprises you, disgusts you, frightens you, etc. (depending on the inflection in your voice) in everyday life. As an ethnographer you are likely to encounter these moments all the time, for example in the Lee article when he found the biggest bull and all the townspeople said no it’s too skinny, I would say “Say Whaaaaaaat??” in astonishment, because it’s not the reaction I would expect or any custom I am used to. Even within my own culture I find myself saying this phrase for example a few years back remember purple and green ketchup, when I saw that commercial I can promise you the first two words out of my mouth were say and what!! It’s those tiny culture differences that catch you off guard or that you don’t understand that cause you to question “Say Whaaaaaaaat??”. Communication is so important too that when I don’t understand something, like an explanation or definition, this phrase comes in handy in getting people to repeat or explain differently. So I guess my connection to the reading with my little phrase and so call moments is this: As an ethnographer I would have a lot of “Say Whaaaaat??!!” moments! The reason for this would be because the challenges of ethnography including culture shock and communication are so fervent as the many articles we read proved. The study and action of fieldwork is filled with surprising information all the time and as much as it is interesting, it can also be difficult to comprehend and adapt to causing one to think “Say Whaaaaaat??”!!!