Often in the case of anthropology people like to view the extreme sides of the field; either popular culture, typically seen in the United States, or remote locations only impacted by their local folk culture. In Return to Laughter, Lauren Bohannon, or her nom de plume Elenore Smith Bowen, experiences the latter as she leaves the comfort of her first world culture to spend time with the Tiv tribe in Western Africa. The Tiv is a group that lives quite differently from what Bowen is used to. They live very communally and as team, everyone contributing to the collective betterment of the group, base their entire economy on agriculture, and use witchcraft as a way of maintaining social order. Bowen even remarks witchcraft surprised her when she writes, “despite my training I had thought these people would differ only by externals of dress and custom… I had willfully closed my eyes to all but obviously superficial differences. (Bowen 1964: 144) Witchcraft proves to be at the cornerstone of Tiv culture and forces Bowen to reevaluate herself, her ethnographic method, and what it means to be a real anthropologist. Witchcraft is used by the Tiv to explain elements of the world as well keep the community in order. It is a way to accuse a person that makes it impossible for someone to deny or escape. It labels the accused as a social outcast, making their behavior a model of what the rest of the tribe cannot or should not do. It is such a subjective accusation that the accused has no
The chapter “The Notion of Witchcraft Explains Unfortunate Events” describes how Evans-Pritchard observed and analysed the world of witchcraft among the Azande tribe in Sudan. With his fieldwork in 1937 he wanted to look at how they used spirits, oracles, magic and witchcraft to explain unfortunate events and how they connected death these events to witchcraft (Eriksen, 2010, p.242). In the first part of this chapter Evans-Pritchard writes how witchcraft plays an important role in everyday life among the Zande. He highlights that witchcraft is the root to any failure and misfortune.
American Lore is just like any other lore it has myths, legends, and fairy tales, but American lore shows the history of America and how we live today, with a twist to the story. With Legends, myths, and fairy tales it expresses the way americans think and how creative we can be to come up with these stories from things that could actually happen. Legends are based on historical facts Myths are based on religion and gods and goddesses. Fairy Tales are made believe not real, includes special creatures. Tall tales and legends are more based in American lore and is heavily based on history and the many traditional stories that are spread from generation to generation. American lore is based on, “power social status and prestige, control or dominance over people and resources. Achievement which is a personal success through demonstrating competence according to social standards . Hedonism pleasure or sensuous
Social media has grown into one of the most useful digital marketing tools for business owners and corporations and is designed to feed us information at a fast-moving speed. There are many advantages to this development as well as disadvantages. Information is easily obtainable, instant and causes credibility issues. It is important to know and understand all the benefits and disadvantages before using social media because it can alter how a person may use it.
In order to effectively analyze cultural differences and power struggles that were demonstrated on the macro and micro level, one must understand the environmental dimensions that were associated with the target population. The dominant American culture often unconsciously ignored the cultural differences with the inferior group that was shared in their environment. As the dominant culture, it is always important to be culturally competent and familiar with the non-dominant culture morals and beliefs. Comparatively, the individuals psychological and spiritual dimensions that were influenced by the social behavioral perspective on the micro level, were associated with their target population.
Plants, Animals and Food: When Europeans met Americans, both groups saw animals and plants they had never seen. European horses were big and tall, in contrast to the small animals that the Americans had. Cows and pigs were also imported from the Old World and carried hamburger and pork in America. Asian rice began to grow in America. Likewise, plants and animals from America were returned to the Old World.
The students for a democratic society explain the changes took over the culture of America within the past few years. The government systems or organizations are manipulated and shows no interest towards people rather than “of, by, and for the people.” The threat of war, overpopulation and technology are testing the country’s commitment towards democracy and freedom. The fact is that each individual shows interest in his/her own progress and does not show any interest towards its own fellow people. The institutions and government organizations show a lot of interest towards their profit, but least interest towards the growth of the nation as a whole. Investors bought the skills and potentials of intelligent people for their own profit. There
Throughout the 1960s there was a cultural phenomenon that started in the United States and spread like wildfire to multiple other cultures in the world. This phenomenon was also known as countercultures. This decade raised the 76.4 million Americans born during the baby boom generation. The babies of this boom entered their teen years during the 1960s and they definitely embraced a multitude new standards, dramatically different from the way their parents were raised. While some encompassed new ideals in dress, music and movies others joined countercultures and rebelled against the social norms with poetry, novels and art. Three of the most altering countercultures were the Hippies, the Sexual Revolution and the Gay Liberation.
While America was being formed it was influenced by three different cultures, early native Americans, explorers, and imperialist and the colonists. Each of them treasured different things. The native Americans cared more about nature and supernatural things, while colonials cared more about religion and unity.
A) There were a couple of things that surprised me when I started citizenship classes. First, the urge that some students had to feel like they were a part of the American culture. During, some conversations that I held with students, some felt like they were not a part of the American culture, nor their native country. In all, feeling alienated and shunned by non-immigrants in the United States. In lecture, we spoke that migrants felt like “they were not here, nor there,” and I can only imagine what it is like not to be a part of society, simply because they made a sacrifice to improve my family’s lives. We also, have to take into consideration that many of the students were aware that they were still at risk of deportation, being
When Europeans started to travel to the Americas, they had other Intensions in mind; to bring with them the Christian religion. The men that arrived there began to have relations with indigenous women, which lead to a mixing of cultures. Although the European men overpowered the indigenous people, there were some who continued to worship their own beliefs privately (Bentley, Ziegler. Pg 539)
My preliminary thought (being influenced by American culture) is that it is unjust to force someone to comply with – at least some of – your beliefs. However, I also hope I can rationalize that idea. The word “force” connotatively implies, ‘to impede upon something’; in this case the impediment would be upon a form of freedom, since one is not free to make choices in what they believe. Arguably, the freedom to make choices (especially concerning beliefs) is not a human law, but a natural law of intrinsic origin, and thus, it would be unjust to hinder it.
Think about what we’ve studied in ENGG 1100. What are some things Americans values in their culture? Why?
I grew up in a small town, which was highly populated with individuals of Basque descent. My grandfather severed in the military and was stationed in Basque Country. Despite the large Basque population surrounding me, I knew very little of the culture and traditions commonly found within the Basque Country. “The homeland of the Basque people, commonly called the Basque Country, is located on the Bay of Biscay at the western end of the Pyrenees mountain range, straddling the border of France and Spain. The nearly 8,000-square-mile Basque Country is divided into seven administrative districts, four in Spain and three in France. Basque culture is distinctive from that of the rest of Spain in many ways” (Thomas, par. 1). This assignment has allowed me the privilege to interview and spend time with Maria Begona Narvaiza-Peck. I was able to experience the Basque culture through conversation, photographs, museum, and meals.
To non-practitioners words like witchcraft have dark connotations. Over time it has been associated with evil doing and manipulative magic. Folklore – written essentially by men, has cast a dark shadow over the entire subject of Wicca, Witchcraft and the incorporation of spells. To the lay person even hearing the words sends up red flags flying in the fables of falsehoods. My articles are about shedding the light on a severely misunderstood subject.
American culture refers to the traditions and practices of the people of the United States. Culture comprises of the nature of buildings, religion, music language and marriage. The population of the United States is more than 320 million people making it the most culturally diverse country in the globe. Books such as Crabgrass Frontier, Manifest Destination and Muscular Christianity are important sources of information about American culture. This paper is a reflection on the methods that these books use in providing information about the evolution of the US culture. The paper examines the relationship between these three sources and ways they challenge or inform an understanding of the American society during the late 19th and early 20th century. There is an analysis of the efficiency of the issues tackled by these books in influencing the contemporary discourse surrounding American culture. The major argument of this paper is that Crabgrass Frontier, Manifest Destination and Muscular Christianity provide reliable information about the evolution of the US culture and they supplement each other through the use of relevant examples.