Cultural anthropology test 2

Emic

Insider perspective of culture

Etic

Outsider perspective of culture (outside looking in on culture)

Armchair anthropologists

read accounts from exlporing the world —> create documents that said ‘this is what its like to be them’ 

Verandah anthropologists

going to the Gov’t outposts but staying on their verandahs and asked ppl to come to them

village studies

50-60s living with the ppl day in and day out- fades out as native populations have been encountered

multisited research

Travel where the ppl they are studying go

factors influencing fieldwork

Age, gender, sexual identity, funding, class, race and ethnicity

methods of fieldwork

• participant observation

• conversations and interviews

• life histories

• genealogies

• maps, time allocation serveys

• key to key informants

american anthropological association code of ethics

• do no harm

• informed consent

• make results accessible 

• maintain anonymity and privacy 

entering the field

• rapport

  • gatekeepers- give you access or keep you out

  • informant/cultural consultant

  • team work

the integrated whole

• the complex whole(1871) 

• All encompassing; integrated whole (2020)

Whats included in the integrated whole

• how we meet our basic needs—> food, clothing, shelter

• how we organize ourselves to meet those needs

• how we make sense of ourself and the world around us

How we keep it organized

Marvin Harris— universal pattern— Etic (outsider)— how an anthropologist looks at culture

The Universal pattern

• infrastructure- the way a culture meets its basic needs

• structure- organizes

• super structure- meaning

Infrastructure

The dominant way of meeting basic needs—> clothes, food, shelter, reproduction

Food and Food way: Subsistence systems

• Set of practices used by members of a society to acquire food— subsistence system

• Food way— cultural norms and attitudes surrounding food and eating

• changes based on events

modes of subsistence:

• foraging

• horticulturalism— produce and procure—human energy

• pasotralism— animals 

• agriculturalism— produce- permanently modify land 

• industrialism/ post industrialism

Foraging

• gathering, hunting, fishing

• predominant subsistence strategy for 90% if human history

• today found in mostly marginal environments with scarce resources 

• procure— food is out there, no growing or breeding

• uses the most amount of land

characteristics of foraging

• broad spectrum diet

  • wide variety of food in diet

  • the Ache— rain forests or Paraguay

  • the Ju/Hoansi (!Kung)

• flexible and mobile- move with the food

• portable technology

• 70% of their diet is fro gathering

• small populations, small groups

  • 12-100 in band; several thousand in culture group

  • fewer than 5 ppl per sqmi

• land extensive

  • temporarily use of large lands; mobility

• use rights

  • socially recognized access to resoures— contrasts w private property

• division of labor

  • egalitarian

  • complimentary gender role

  • minimal hours per week (as few as 5)

• sustainable

  • environment/resources have time to regenerate 

• myths:

  • dependency on meat; unstable diet

  • lives are “nasty, brutal, short”

  • avoid romanticism 

Subsistence strategy: Horticulturalism

• Gardens and domesticated crops

  • shifting cultivation (not permanent)

  • May have domesticated animals, too

• Complemented by foraging

• 10-12,000 years ago

• population density of 160 per sq km

  • semi-permanent villages of 200-250

• no irrigation, portable hand tools

• Land extensive

• use rights( social rules, not legal documents)

• division of labor

  • complementary

  • appearance of status differential (gender stratification, males ranking higher than females)

  • social inequality

  • more labor-intensive than foraging—garden and village have to move after time

• sustainable with exception:

  • following

  • taxes

The Guarani of paraguay 

• hoticulturalists w/ foraging and yerba mate selling 

  • slash burn “agriculture”—sustainable — clear the land — aren’t using animals for their gardens

• tamoi

• villages

• people of the forest;

• current pressures

  • horticulturalism no longer sustainable

  • tamoi losing influence

  • families moving; men leaving for cash economy

  • indios; depression and suicide

Pastoralism

• herding 

• 10,000-12000

• at least 60% of diet from animals and animal by products 

• trade with horticulturalists/agriculturalists for plant products 

• mobile and nomadic groups: dependent upon herd animal 

  • population density: 10 / km²

  • families and clusters of families

• land extensive

  • dependent upon grazing needs of animals

• use rights and private property

  • use rights; migratory routes;grazig lands

  • private property; animals inherited

• division of labor

  • men herd larger and widely ranging animals

  • women herd smaller and less widely grazing animals

  • children herd

• sustainable

Subsitence strategy : agriculturalism

The cultivation of domesticated plants and animals using technologies such as irrigation, draft animals, mechanization, and inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides that allow for intensive and continuous use of land resources

• staple crops

• increase in pop density

• division of labor

• specialization occupations

• surplus

• wealth inequality

small scale farming — small plots of land to feed household

agribusiness— invest capitol into large scale machinery— food for porfit

• a technological advance

• more labor-intensive— greater number of children

• food shortages, malnutrition, and famines

  • a problem of distribution

• lower quality of life

  • expansion of social inequality

  • increase in violent conflict between communities

  • environmental degradation

Subsistence strategy: Industrialism/ post industrialism

A subsistence strategy marked by intensive, mechanized food production and elaborate distribution networks 

• highly complex

• dominated by market economies

• extensive subgroups and social status

• economic specialization

• distinct institutions to serve political, economic, legal, and religious needs

post: society based on information services, and technology rather than manufacturing of goods

Reece’s black food geographies(Article 12):

• being an expert in your own lived experiences 

• food apartheid 

• creating geographies in spite of anti black racism 

• “food desert” v. supermarket redlining 

• from a societal problem to a community burden

• community planting day and health fair 

• community garden more than just abt growing food/garden as community 

anthropocene:

“ the period in geological time in which the effects of human activities have altered the fundamental geochemical cycles of the earth as a result of coverting forests into fields and pasture and burning oil, gas, and coal on a large scale

The universal pattern cont.

Dominant pattern of fertility in a culture(sex)

population measures:

• fertility - rate of pop is up due to reproduction

• mortality- rate of pop is down due to deaths

• migration- rate of pop changes due to movement of people from one place to another

Foraging mode of reproduction

• low fertility, low mortality - pop stability

• birth spacing

  • breast feeding

  • low body fat

women aren’t always ovulating due to strenuous work and low body fat

agricultural mode of reproduction

• high fertility, declining mortality- rapid pop growth

• pronatalism

industrial mode of reporduction

• replacement level fertility - low fert low mort

children are expensive

science and reproduction; science and increased longevity

below replacement level fertility

2.1 births

post industrial mode of repro

• below 2.1 births/woman

fertility decision making 

• family level

  • labor

  • old age support

  • infant and child mortality levels

  • economic costs of having children

• state level

  • government demands for people

• global level

  • IMF, Pharmaceuticals, ideologies 

fertility control:

• direct and indirect methods of fertility control

• induced abortion/ spontaneous abortion

  • economic and social factors

  • ideal culture v real culture

  • infrastructure v super struc

death w/o weeping

• life expectancy of 40 years

• high infant mortality rates

• letting go 

• support for detachment 

NE Brazil favelas

• proximate: dehydration

• intermediate: starvation/neglect

• ultimate: poverty

culture and mortality

• violence

  • femicide

  • public violence: ethnocide and genocide

  • epidemic

  • diseases of development

Migration

Internal migration

within borders

ecology

The relationship of an organism to other elements within its environmental sphere.

foodways

a focus on the role of food and food related behavior in a cultural group

cultural ecology

the way people use their culture to adapt to particular environments 

physical environment

the world they can experience through their senses

cultural environment

physical environment  in terms that seem most important to their adaptive needs and cultural perspective

subsistence strategies

different strategies to meet material needs, strategies affect their complexity and internal organization aswell as their relationships tp the natural environment and to other human groups— to classify different groups into five types: foragers, horticulturalists, pastoralists, agriculturalists, and industrialists

agribusiness

exploitation of land by outsiders often to turn a profit 

Forest development the indian way(article 9)

• Guarani

  • gardening and hunting

  • cash- selling goods from the forest— yerba mate

  • mine the forest for its wealth w/o destorying it

• Deforestation in the amazon

• almost 80% of paraguays deep forests have been cleared or seriously eroded

• world is looking for models of development that promote growth

• sustainable development

  • 1. recognizes resources are finite and protects them

  • 2. emphasizes the relationship between economic, ecological, and social systems striving to protect all three

  • 3. promotes social stability by distributing the benefits and raising the standard of living of all people

• guarani culture emphasized sharing and cooperation 

• general welfare not individual

• tamoi— comanded respect from the community

• ppl of Itanarami saw themselves as part of the forest 

• promote biodiversity

• allow environment time to recover

• farming in hand with maintenance

  • slash and burn - shifting

    • veraju (male) did the slashing, kitu (wife and woman) and children helped burn— kitu picked and harvested crops

    • moving to a new area to let the soil get better on year 4 

• farming isnt their only subsistence base— hunting, game, fish, and forest products were also there to help meet needs 

• ecological zones

  • 9 resource zones 

  • use forest to the best of their abilities 

• recently intensive commecial development has taken over the region which Itanrami lies 

• colonists are taking over 

• guarani lost their ability to survive as an independent ethnic group

The truth about sustainable palm oil (10) 

• Marind

  • forced off of their land

• NGO’s have raised alarm over palm oil - industry burns biodiverse forsets, poisons rivers with pesticides, appropriates indigenous peoples lands, exploits workers, and destroys orangutan environments — led to emergence of sustainable palm oil standards

• indigenous ppl are displaced by agribusiness

• the Marind feel dispossessed with forest organisms which they view as kindred spirits and companion species

• the land was taken without their permission

• people were hired from outside the area and never lived with the forest

  • evaluate plantations and compartmentalize the landscape into zones of high and low conservation value based on guidelines by sustainable palm oil

  • Marind say that they dont understand the plants and animals— those that fall outside of the zones are exploited

• Marind are not allowed to use the areas they used to

• They have a familial relationship such as father and brother with the plants 

• consider giving a voice to indigenous communities 

part 4 

• economic system

  • provision of goods and services to meet biological and social wants

• production

  • rendering material items useful and available for human consumption

• allocation of resources

  • cultural rules people use to assign right to the ownership and use of resources

• technology

  • cultural knowledge for making and using tools and extracting and refining raw materials

• division of labor

  • the rules the govern the assignment of jobs to people

• livelihoods

  • the capabilites, assests, and activities to make a living

• unit of production

  • the persons or groups responsisble for producing goods, follows a pattern similar to the way labor is divided in various societies

  • household

    • a group of people who eat from a common pot

• distribution

  • market exchange, reciprocal exchange, redistribution

    • market exchange- transfer of goods and services based on price, supply, and demand 

    • reciprocal exchange- transfer of goods and services between two people or groups based on role obligations 

    • redistribution- transfer of goods and services between a central collecting source and a group of individuals 

• neoliberalism

  • the shift in economic policies in capitalist countries that have moved toward a philosophy that emphasizes the free movement of goods, capital, and services, with cuts to public expenditure for social services.

• capitalism

  • an economic and political system in which a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit.

Reciprocity and the power of giving (13)

• The concept of gift giving varies across cultures, with some societies expecting reciprocity, while others view gifts as unconditional.

• In many non-Western societies, gift giving is a way to maintain relationships, nurture mutual obligations, and even humiliate rivals, as seen in the potlatch ceremonies of the Kwakiutl people.

• Anthropologists, such as Richard Lee and Rada Dyson-Hudson, have learned that gifts can be perceived as carrying obligations, and that recipients may belittle gifts to diminish the expected return, as observed among the !Kung and Turkana people.

• The practice of gift giving is a universal phenomenon, observed in various cultures, including the Siuai of the Solomon Islands, the Kwakiutl of British Columbia, and the Mount Hagen tribes of New Guinea, where it is used to gain prestige, shame rivals, and establish social relationships.

• In Western societies, gift giving also exists, often taking the form of reciprocal exchange, as seen in the practice of "swapping" in an Illinois ghetto, where residents exchange goods to guarantee security and create a sense of community.

• The concept of gift giving is also relevant in modern societies, including in scientific communities, where researchers exchange knowledge and citations to build their reputation, and in international relations, where nations use gifts, such as foreign aid, to exert influence and gain prestige, highlighting the complex and sometimes ambiguous nature of gift giving.

finance, fafsa, and households

• The household plays a crucial role in capitalism, despite the rise of finance and the notion that individual responsibility is paramount.

• Financial capitalism relies on households, but obscures their significance by hiding them behind fictional individual contracts, such as debt and credit agreements.

• The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) in the US is an example of how financial processes depend on household economies, but its nuclear family model does not reflect the complexities of modern American families, as noted by scholars like Jane Guyer and Sylvia Yanagisako.

death without weeping 

• The author, a former Peace Corps volunteer, lived in a shantytown called Alto do Cruzeiro in Northeast Brazil, where they witnessed high infant and child mortality rates.

• Many mothers in the community, including Nailza de Arruda, seemed indifferent to the death of their infants, attributing it to the child's supposed desire to die, and would often neglect those they perceived as unlikely to survive.

• The author discovered a pattern of "mortal selective neglect" or "passive infanticide," where mothers would nurture only the children they believed would thrive, while leaving others to die, and used the story of Zezinho, a malnourished toddler, as an example of this phenomenon.

• In the Alto do Cruzeiro, mothers often develop emotional detachment from their infants due to high child mortality rates, with an average of 3.5 child deaths per woman.

• Women in the community distinguish between "natural" child deaths and those caused by supernatural forces, and may categorize infants as having "child sickness" or "child attack" if they appear weak or doomed to die.

• The emotional detachment and selective neglect of infants are seen as survival strategies in an environment where resources are scarce and child death is common, with 70% of child deaths occurring in the first six months of life.

• In the Alto do Cruzeiro community, many infant deaths occur due to malnutrition, and the city-employed doctors and the church often fail to provide adequate support to the mothers.

• The local Catholic church, under the new regime of "liberation theology," no longer celebrates infant funerals, and the burial process is often casual and without ceremony, with children sometimes burying their peers.

• Despite initial high infant mortality rates, the introduction of a public national health care system, access to clean water, and other changes have significantly improved the situation, with mothers now expecting to see their children survive and having control over their reproductive lives, as noted by the author, Nancy Scheper-Hughes, in her long-term ethnographic research.

modes of consumption

consumption: process of buying, eating, or using a resource, food, commodity, or service

the dominant way of using up goods and services

• needs

• wants

• status

minimalists and consumerist modes of consumption

minimalists

• limited demands, sustainable means of achieving them

• foragers

• personalized

• sharing/equality

consumerists

• infinite demands, inadequate means of achieving them 

• post industial societies; globalization

• depersonalized 

• class based inequality 

the violence of the american dream

• concrete killing fields

• economic decline and lack of legal jobs

  • migration and decline of industrialization

• the normalization of violence

• peace is good for business

• criminal justice system and corruption

• colonial history of Puerto Rico

  • limited status as unincorporated overseas territory

  • citizens without voting rights in US elections

  • financial instability in the early 2000s

• Subsistence strategy: post-industrialism

Use rights v private property 

Use right: sociallly accepted rights to use land (not legal)

Private property: Inherited and legal