Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Anthropology: lets start once more, but from the beginning.

Today in Anthropology our new teacher, Patricia Howard, decided it was best for us to start from the beginning since we hadn't learned anything previously.

We discussed the Maori culture and their use of moko tattoos to distinguish class, family, martial status, and other categories. Males usually get full facial tattoos while females only mokos that cover the lips and chin area.
See here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkaGjbt-Oog

Comparisons help us to understand the familiar. An example of this is comparing foreign tattoo practices such as that of the Maori to American tattoo practices. She asked question like; Why do we get tattoos? and Whats similar about the different cultures?

We then reviewed the definition of culture and how its learned not inherited. How its a means of adaptation and how culture is shared (values, norms, ideas, beliefs, and behaviors).

The last thing we talked about was Economics, a.k.a Subsistance strategies, are linked with other aspects of life. Foraging and hunting and gathering cultures such as the San-Kalahari are nomadic, which means they migrate with the changing of seasons. In this culture their diet is 85% Mongongo nuts and 15% meat. The women bring in the nuts and the men bring in the meats. In other cultures like the Netsilik the diet is made up mostly of meat so the men bring in 95% of the food while the women bring in 5%.

Many nomadic cultures are made of of nuclear families since it'd be hard to move about hundreds of people. This face to face interaction helps them establish roles in the community since they are egalitarian. Egalitarian cultures are those with equal access to property, power, prestige and pleasure.

Lastly we learned about Holism, which is how people form societies based upon economics. This is how everything is linked. For example a trip to the grocery store requires thinking about economics and the social organization of a community.

Thats class for 10-14-09
~Namaste~

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