People have been asking me about extra credit, so one of the suggestions that I gave people was to look at the impact of environmental change on certain peoples. I suggested Tuvalu as one case that you might find interested.
You could use this website as a jumping point:
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/rough/2005/12/tuvalu_that_sin_1.html
There's a bunch of information out there about Tuvalu.
You could look at the impact of global warming on other peoples too, such as the Inuit. Or you could look at the impact of deforestation on people like the Yanomamo in S. America or Semai in Malaysia.
If you choose this route, then make sure to cite your sources and to use more than just the website that I'm emailing to you now.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Monday, December 1, 2008
Be prepared to answer these on the final
I will ask you to answer some, or all, of the following questions using your readings, class discussions, and experiences:
1) Why is it important to protect the cultural heritages of tribal peoples? Why is it of concern to anthropologists? Is there anything that we can take away from studies of such peoples?
2) Linguists estimate that there are over 7,000 languages spoken in the world today. Nearly half are in danger of becoming extinct in this century. Is it important to preserve such languages? Can we learn anything from these languages?
3) Discuss the Trobriand interpretation of cricket? Explain how the game changed Trobriand society. How is this form of cricket different from the cricket played by the British?
4) What is globalization? Is it something new? Is there anything unique about globalization today? For instance, is culture becoming homogenized? If so, then how? Is it becoming more heterogeneous? If so, then how?
5) What does it mean to say that “time is a gift”? How different is “time is a gift” from “time as money”? How might such a view change our lives? Can you think of any negative aspects to this view of time?
6) Bronislaw Malinowski, in his classic essay Magic, Science and Religion, claimed that each of these was a viable mode of cognition and that most societies exhibit all of them in variable proportions. In what ways does magical thinking persist in contemporary America? Is it likely to persist into the future?
7) In the essay “Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight”, Clifford Geertz tries to read Balinese ritual and actions like a text in order to decode the symbols in their society. Leni Reifenstahl, the director of the film “Triumph of the Will”, argued throughout her life that this film was not a Nazi propaganda film, but a documentary. How might a symbolic anthropologist, like Geertz, approach the question of whether this film was a form of Nazi propaganda or a documentary? That is, what do the scenes, colors, and images in the film tell you?
8) What do different origin stories tell people about who they are? Can origin stories coexist in the world?
Reminder: Next Monday is the final for this class. Don't miss this final!
Please email me if you have any questions.
1) Why is it important to protect the cultural heritages of tribal peoples? Why is it of concern to anthropologists? Is there anything that we can take away from studies of such peoples?
2) Linguists estimate that there are over 7,000 languages spoken in the world today. Nearly half are in danger of becoming extinct in this century. Is it important to preserve such languages? Can we learn anything from these languages?
3) Discuss the Trobriand interpretation of cricket? Explain how the game changed Trobriand society. How is this form of cricket different from the cricket played by the British?
4) What is globalization? Is it something new? Is there anything unique about globalization today? For instance, is culture becoming homogenized? If so, then how? Is it becoming more heterogeneous? If so, then how?
5) What does it mean to say that “time is a gift”? How different is “time is a gift” from “time as money”? How might such a view change our lives? Can you think of any negative aspects to this view of time?
6) Bronislaw Malinowski, in his classic essay Magic, Science and Religion, claimed that each of these was a viable mode of cognition and that most societies exhibit all of them in variable proportions. In what ways does magical thinking persist in contemporary America? Is it likely to persist into the future?
7) In the essay “Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight”, Clifford Geertz tries to read Balinese ritual and actions like a text in order to decode the symbols in their society. Leni Reifenstahl, the director of the film “Triumph of the Will”, argued throughout her life that this film was not a Nazi propaganda film, but a documentary. How might a symbolic anthropologist, like Geertz, approach the question of whether this film was a form of Nazi propaganda or a documentary? That is, what do the scenes, colors, and images in the film tell you?
8) What do different origin stories tell people about who they are? Can origin stories coexist in the world?
Reminder: Next Monday is the final for this class. Don't miss this final!
Please email me if you have any questions.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Take Home Quiz
There is no blog post due this week. Your take home quiz (20 pts) should discuss one of the following questions. A thorough response should be approximately 2 pages. You should hand this quiz in by next week.
Oh--You do not need to read the article in your reader about the Zuni origin story. You can, however, read it if you are interested.
1) Religious rituals are religion in action. Describe what in fact is accomplished by religious rituals?
2) What is a revitalization movement? Explain how and why do they come into existence?
I'm looking for detail in your responses. I encourage you to give examples for your responses, e.g. referencing and/or discussing the readings, class discussions, films, etc.
Also, for next week, Paul Tyler, an ethnomusicologist, is going to guest lecture. He's scheduled on the syllabus to speak on December 1st.
This is due by class time on Monday.
Oh--You do not need to read the article in your reader about the Zuni origin story. You can, however, read it if you are interested.
1) Religious rituals are religion in action. Describe what in fact is accomplished by religious rituals?
2) What is a revitalization movement? Explain how and why do they come into existence?
I'm looking for detail in your responses. I encourage you to give examples for your responses, e.g. referencing and/or discussing the readings, class discussions, films, etc.
Also, for next week, Paul Tyler, an ethnomusicologist, is going to guest lecture. He's scheduled on the syllabus to speak on December 1st.
This is due by class time on Monday.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Magical Thinking
GOD IS IN THE TV
When I saw the question asking how magical thinking persists in contemporary North America I could not help but think of water stains on the side of buildings and Hispanic dinner plates. Move the beans. . .move the rice. . .IT IS MARIA!! I remember watching shows like ripley’s believe it or not on how people would see religious figures in the oddest places such as on a dinner plate or in the form of a potato they grew in the back yard.
There are also shows that bring crews into houses where spirits roam about, they show you the orbs in pictures and forms of white noise. They not only want to spook you but also prove that spirits live on whether they are nice spirits or troubled ones.
MURDER BY OUIJI BOARD?
Now I am not a superstitious person and I need to experience something first hand in order to be effected in anyway and that’s why in high school I paid no attention to the ridiculous tradition of the Ouiji Board. Communicate with the dead? I thought it was stupid. Apparently the group of us made contact with a male spirit, a nice one, living in my ex-girlfriends house. It was all fun and games until the spirit informed us that someone close to one of us would die in the next few months.
I forgot how this was derived by the board but that message was conveyed to us somehow. There were about 10 of us down there that night and I forgot all about it. Even a couple years had passed before I realized that my friends mother died suddenly about 3 or 4 months after that Ouiji Board night. It was an untimely death and has ruined the lives of my friend and the rest of his family, after recalling those events I will never mess with a Ouiji Board again.
When I saw the question asking how magical thinking persists in contemporary North America I could not help but think of water stains on the side of buildings and Hispanic dinner plates. Move the beans. . .move the rice. . .IT IS MARIA!! I remember watching shows like ripley’s believe it or not on how people would see religious figures in the oddest places such as on a dinner plate or in the form of a potato they grew in the back yard.
There are also shows that bring crews into houses where spirits roam about, they show you the orbs in pictures and forms of white noise. They not only want to spook you but also prove that spirits live on whether they are nice spirits or troubled ones.
MURDER BY OUIJI BOARD?
Now I am not a superstitious person and I need to experience something first hand in order to be effected in anyway and that’s why in high school I paid no attention to the ridiculous tradition of the Ouiji Board. Communicate with the dead? I thought it was stupid. Apparently the group of us made contact with a male spirit, a nice one, living in my ex-girlfriends house. It was all fun and games until the spirit informed us that someone close to one of us would die in the next few months.
I forgot how this was derived by the board but that message was conveyed to us somehow. There were about 10 of us down there that night and I forgot all about it. Even a couple years had passed before I realized that my friends mother died suddenly about 3 or 4 months after that Ouiji Board night. It was an untimely death and has ruined the lives of my friend and the rest of his family, after recalling those events I will never mess with a Ouiji Board again.
Magic, Science and Religion
In reference to the reading by Malinowski I shall reflect on a statement that stuck out for me. There was a line that proposed the thought that was brought up on how those of a clan worship the God of the clan which means that the God of the clan can be nothing else but the clan itself. It was a bit confusing at first and I had to read it again but it reminds me of how I view God or any religion for that matter.
A religion, I believe for what the reading was attempting to inquire, is best utilized without a literal sense. Thus this God being the clan itself means that for those who worship the God, the clan will benefit from it. Now to my belief that God or any form of higher power from any religion is an energy or mindset that benefits the good in the world. Lack of this energy or mindset plummets individuals and promotes evils. Both understandings are quite similar. . .
A religion, I believe for what the reading was attempting to inquire, is best utilized without a literal sense. Thus this God being the clan itself means that for those who worship the God, the clan will benefit from it. Now to my belief that God or any form of higher power from any religion is an energy or mindset that benefits the good in the world. Lack of this energy or mindset plummets individuals and promotes evils. Both understandings are quite similar. . .
Monday, November 17, 2008
Spiritual Ritual
The human psyche is centered on a system of wants and needs. When we are in our first minutes of life we cry for the milk of a mother’s breast. We cry when we want sleep, and we cry when we don’t feel good. It is an essential, inherent human nature—to want something. Through religion people satisfy a want, and—for many—a need. The religious rituals practiced are a means of salvation or enlightenment, whether we are Buddhist, Christian, or Hindu.
A ritual is a practice that acts as a device, a bridge between the mortal and immortal, the physical and the spiritual. Catholics use communion to unite the bodies of sinners with Christ and purify the body. For some it is a symbol. For others it is very real. Buddhists practice paths of enlightenment, not worshiping Buddha, but building their person through enlightenment. Their goal is to create something sacred in themselves through ritual.
Again, rituals are a connection, an activity that makes the spiritual ascertainable to those who practice them, satisfying their need for connection.
A ritual is a practice that acts as a device, a bridge between the mortal and immortal, the physical and the spiritual. Catholics use communion to unite the bodies of sinners with Christ and purify the body. For some it is a symbol. For others it is very real. Buddhists practice paths of enlightenment, not worshiping Buddha, but building their person through enlightenment. Their goal is to create something sacred in themselves through ritual.
Again, rituals are a connection, an activity that makes the spiritual ascertainable to those who practice them, satisfying their need for connection.
Ritual; The Need for Structure
The need for ritual in religion comes from the same place as religion itself. They provide control in a world of chaos. These rituals give us order, as well as, something to pass on to the next generation. Ritual are a sign of the level of commitment one has to their beliefs. They represent devotion and self discipline. One adhere to the rules and structure of rituals as a sign of faith. The rituals may seem ludicrous at times. but they are a test. A test to one level of seriousness about their faith. They are meant to weed out those who claim to believe from those who do believe. One must not see rituals as a burden or tedious, but as challenges and necessary if they are true believers.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)