Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Anthropology: Meanings

10/21/09

-Certain symbols in a society are repeated and show the core values of the culture.
Ex. Baseball= 'America's pasttime'

-Modularity- idea that everything has it's own place
This idea is practiced solely in the midwest because in other regions every aspect of life is connected.

-Panopticon- seeing everything in a room standing from one place
Ex. Prisons and classrooms

Beliefs

-Ritualized myths, stories, and dramas show our worldview, our most cherished values. Ex. Cop shows show good vs bad and chaos vs order

-Everyday rituals reinforce our beliefs, what we do says something about what we believe Ex. Washing our hands prevents sickness

Magic

-definition: an attempt top manipulate the laws of nature for good or evil; used to accomplish goals
Ex. crops, fertility cure of illness

-You call on supernatural when there's a gap in information or need to have powers to solve a problem. Ex. ghost sickness (navajo in 1920's)

Types

-Sorcery and witchcraft: innate psychic power to cause harm
-Sypathetic/imatative: bruning effigies
-Contagious: things once in contact can influence another person
Ex. Voodoo dolls

Monday, October 19, 2009

Anthropology: Symbols

10-19-09

Today in ANT 160 we discussed the use of symbols in real life.

In anthropology the question that helps the anthropologists analyze cultures and information is 'What does this mean?'. Anthropologists interpret,translate, compare, and explain the information that they gather.

Culture is largely expressed through symbols.

Symbols

-Are learned/not universal/ arbitrary(random)
-Are conventional/negotiated/ the norm/ habitual
-Guide our actions.
-Can be secular (not religious) or sacred.
-Are often complex.
-Aren't always agreed on.
-Encourage negotiation and dialouge.
-Are reinforced in rituals.

Language

-Is a collection of symbols.
-Is about learning the meaning/ context.
Literal VS connotation

Meaning

-Can be extended with metaphors or metonyms-context is essential.
-Metaphors=Something is like something else
-Metonyms=Substituting part for a whole
Ex. the crown=royal

Ritual

-Symbolic action/formal behaviour. (Acts, utterances, and objects)
-Condenses meaning (ex.voting)
-Not always religious, but always associated with belief.
-Highly formalized.
-Equalizes situations.
-Involves change.
-Social conciousness achieved.
-Worldview=Set of ideas and assumptions about the way the wrold works.
-Key scenarios=Action considered correct and successful. (note~ this is subject to perspective.) Ex-OCD

Interesting things

-Women in malaysia have key scenarios such as the Latah and semangat.
-referent- the thing or idea that a symbol, word, or phrase refers to.
-Paralanguage- supports language (ex. gestures and facial expressions)

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~