Cultural Anthropology Weeks 5-10

Mode of subsistence and broad patterns

(Lecture 7- Environment and Adaption)

-How do humans adapt to different environmental conditions- STRUCTURES?

-What patterns occur among groups who use similar MoS.

-sorts of MoS can emerge in any given environment?

There are constraints that people have to respond to, like temperature and such

(Lecture 7- Environment and Adaption)

Connections and disconnects: From production to consumption

(Lecture 7- Environment and Adaption)

-How are economy, environment, and culture connected in some societies?

-Why have they become disconnected in societies such as ours?

-Can we reconnect to help achieve greater sustainability? Equality?

-What ingrained cultural ideas are obstacles to re-connecting?

Process of acquiring food, producing food, etc. \n \n Specialization lead to certain kinds of advantages, like we are bale to be here today and learn instead of out hunting for food and stuff. Also tend to be more equal

(Lecture 7- Environment and Adaption)

Behavior and Value: function and meaning

(Lecture 7- Environment and Adaption)

-How are environmental and economic behaviors related to functional or adaptive concerns (food, energy, shelter) and how are they structured by meaning and belief?

-How rational are our decisions and behaviors?

(Lecture 7- Environment and Adaption)

Ecology

(Lecture 7- Environment and Adaption)

Study of the home

-How organisms interact with theri environment

(Lecture 7- Environment and Adaption)

Economy

(Lecture 7- Environment and Adaption)

Management of the home

-Management of resources

-Production, distribution, consumption of goods and resources

(Lecture 7- Environment and Adaption)

Modes of Subsistence (MoS)

(Lecture 7- Environment and Adaption)

The social relationships and practices necessary for procuring, producing, and distributing foods

Adaptation for acquiring food in specific environmental conditions

-Has a structuring effect on the society in terms of population density, specialization, locality, equality

-From foraging to industrialism complexity increases, but this is not evolution

There are four major modes

-Foraging

-Horticulture

-Pastoralism

-Intensive agriculture

(Lecture 7- Environment and Adaption)

Ongka’s Big Moka: The Kawelka of Papua New Guinea (1974)

(Lecture 7- Environment and Adaption)

Big celebration, big feast. There are different political authorities through the different modes. \n \n Big men have certain power, like they resemble a chief. Power is like an ability

(Lecture 7- Environment and Adaption)

Foraging

(Lecture 7- Environment and Adaption)

Obtaining food by searching for it, as opposed to growing or raising it

The most sustainable and egalitarian SS

EXAMPLE:

-Hunting, gathering naturally available foods

-Arctic Intuit and San of Kalahari- The Hunters

(Lecture 7- Environment and Adaption)

Horticulture

(Lecture 7- Environment and Adaption)

The cultivation of gardens or small fields to meet the basic needs of a household

-They know here to find resources because they've live there for so long (like how you know where the cinnamon toast crunch aisle is, they know where to find food after the rain, etc) \n -Reliant on those gardens or small fields (like the Ongka) and there are rarely other options. Done through a lot of vegetation and when the fertility is exhausted, the forest comes back

Production of plants using non-mechanized technology, or shifting cultivation

EXAMPLE:

-“Slash and burn” shifting cultivation, non-mechanized agriculture

-Amazonian indigenous groups, Ongka’s Big Moka

(Lecture 7- Environment and Adaption)

Pastoralism

(Lecture 7- Environment and Adaption)

Mode of animal husbandry, which is the breeding, care, and use of domesticated herding animals such as cattle, camels, goats, horses, llamas, reindeer, and yaks

-Reliant on animals and livestock. The animals convert the food that humans cannot eat into food we can eat, like though their milk and such

In places with very different seasons and scarcity of human food, but plenty of animal food- grass, pasture

EXAMPLE:

-Domesticated herd animals

-Maasai and Nuer of East Africa

(Lecture 7- Environment and Adaption)

Agriculture

(Lecture 7- Environment and Adaption)

Intensive, often large scale, produced to be sold via markets

-Not necessarily for market. Think about intensity, a lot of work going on there and tends to be in the same place, take great care of everything.

Replacement of animal power with machines

-Production of plants using plows, animals, and soil and water control

-More permanent and productive than other SS

-Goal is less to produce food to feed a larger community

EXAMPLE:

-Intensive cultivation, permanent, mechanized, market oriented

-Most people don’t produce food, exchange money for food

-USA, BBQaria

(Lecture 7- Environment and Adaption)

Foragers: The Inuit and San people

(Lecture 7- Environment and Adaption)

Can't have agriculture because it's too cold, too much water. They do more fishing. Winter has no vegetation

Two foraging groups in dramatically different environments

Harsh environments with seasonal variation

Artic of Greenland

-Hunting and fishing large animals

Kalahari desert in southern Africa:

-Mostly gathered foods, hunting

-This is their primary source of food \n -The amount of food you bring home and what you bring home and all of those factors are very important and play a big role

Limited cultivation of crops or domestication of animals

(Lecture 7- Environment and Adaption)

Determinism

(Lecture 7- Environment and Adaption)

The environment sets limits on humans

-People are usually against this since it is usually explained like you can't have big cities and stuff in the Amazon, but that's not actually true. It's usually due to diseases

(Lecture 7- Environment and Adaption)

Possibilism

(Lecture 7- Environment and Adaption)

The environment structures behaviors and cultures to some extent, but does not produce inevitable results

(Lecture 7- Environment and Adaption)

AGENCY

(Lecture 7- Environment and Adaption)

Humans are active agents creating their own culture and also changing their environment to suit their needs

-And like LA, if you were just trying on resources around there, that would not work. Humans have obviously adapted to some extent to work around those obstacles

(Lecture 7- Environment and Adaption)

Transitions to Industrial Economy

(Lecture 7- Environment and Adaption)

The Industrial Revolution: replacement of human and animal energy by machines

Production focused on goods and services for wages (which are then exchange for essential items)

Non-industrial society:

-80% of the population is involved in food production

Industrialized society:

-10% of the people produce food for the other 90%

(Lecture 7- Environment and Adaption)

From Foraging to Agriculture

(Lecture 8- Economy and Culture)

2. From small, mobile hunter-gatherer to larger agricultural societies in permanent settlements
   -We started as foragers for the majority of our lives and just lived in permanent settlements like cities
3. Control of food steady food supply leads to surplus and population growth
4. Specialization- not all people need to work in food production, technological advancement
   -With less people working sole on good, this allowed for more development and there can be scientists and governments, etc
5. Norms of reciprocity fade, accumulation of resources and inequality increases
   -Norms of reciprocity, where people looked out for each other, has kind of gone away and people do not really do that. Falls on the family or the government now \n -There is also more inequality and not everyone has the same things or opportunities.  \n -We can accumulate without repercussions for the most part though because there is such a surplus in resources because of control
6. As population grows there is a need for expansion: land, resources, labor
   -Goes to colonialism because now we are expanding and needing to keep going
7. Agricultural societies take over H-G or push them to the margins
   -As agriculture grow though, we need more labor and hence slaves \n -Everything we have today results from many other processes

-Many of the reasons hunters and gatherers are in the areas they are today is because they've been pushed to those areas

8. Inequality on a global scale: colonialism, capitalism, globalization
   -Not really a hierarchy because it's a cost benefit thing.  \n -A forager society might seem easier in one way, but difficult in others. There is no perfect alternative

Language, biodiversity, and cultures are consumed by the more powerful society through conquest (direct) and acculturation (indirect)

Quality of life has improved, but…

(Lecture 8- Economy and Culture)

Physical Disconnect from Environment and Nature: Transitions to Industrial Economy

(Lecture 8- Economy and Culture)

The Industrial Revolution: replacement of human and animal energy by machines

-We do still have agriculture, but have more machines now that have made things easier in a lot of ways and we can produce crops a lot more efficiently \n -Industrial agriculture is also the most fragile because it requires a lot of things to run (like life support) and is like putting all eggs in one basket.

Production focused on goods and services for wages (which are then exchanged for essential items)

-Not so focused on the farmers just eating what they make, but more exchange with others and selling their labor another ways that hey can use to exchange for foreign food. \n -We are not carrying pigs right, we exchange it for other things

Most people live in cities and 10% of people produce food for the rest

(Lecture 8- Economy and Culture)

Anthropology and Economics

(Lecture 8- Economy and Culture)

The study of choices; decisions people make about how to use their time and resources

-How they decide how to use limited resources, how to allocate their time and resources among different alternatives we have (like budgeting our money, or how we use our time to study for an exam, etc)

Econ anthropology: (*Emphasis on cultural element. Like how people in certain cultures make their things)

-How people make, share, and buy things and services

-The nature of work and labor

-What people think is valuable

-Economy is always related to culture

-Questions assumption of economic rationality

(Lecture 8- Economy and Culture)

What is free?

(Lecture 8- Economy and Culture)

What has a price? Is it priceless?

Price is always changing in our economy \n -Like if something's price changes depending on where it came from, etc

How can giving become a way of gaining power?

Gifts are often thought to be outside of economic exchange, or to be without a price…

-BUT…they carry obligations

-Filled with social meanings that vary cross-culturally

-Gift can be used to create a relationship

Solidarity between groups

Essential to sustaining a relationship

Valentine’s Day

Used to create indebtedness and obligation

Foreign aid, debt peonage

(Lecture 8- Economy and Culture)

Giving as Leveling Mechanism

(Lecture 8- Economy and Culture)

When things are given in a society to redistribute wealth in a society \n \n The wealthy gives something back to the community \n \n They then can call upon those people and have them indebted to them since they gave things to them

(Lecture 8- Economy and Culture)

Myths of economic rationality

(Lecture 8- Economy and Culture)

Like the image where the towers used to stand. They made this in memory of the horrible event and while it is obviously nowhere near the value of the original, but it represents it

We always filter cost-benefit analysis through our culture

-How we make economic decisions, but that rationality is always tempered by culture \n -Like what is sacred to you? Dependent on how you grew up and how difficult someone's situation is

Our supposedly rational calculations are influenced by cultural, moral, and historical factors

And often context dependent (“it depends…”)

(Lecture 8- Economy and Culture)

Moral Economy

(Lecture 9- Gold, Econ, Environment)

“Fair” is more important than free market price

Meaning and social obligations matter more than pure profit

\n

Commodification- putting a price on objects and services that previously had no price

-Differences between family, friends, and strangers

-Can be difficult to accommodate prices on some things, like cuddling, because how can you really put a price on that and determine if its fair?

(Lecture 9- Gold, Econ, Environment)

Economic System

(Lecture 9- Gold, Econ, Environment)

Mode of Subsistence provides food/resources, but this is just part of an Economic System

Extraction- production- distribution- consumption- waste- disposal

Acquire food and other resources essential to survival: PRODUCTION

-Be organized in a way to produce goods and services: DIVISION OF LABOR

Have a system that determines how resources circulate through DISTRIBUTION

-Forms of EXCHANGE

Have cultural rules and ideas about CONSUMPTION of resources (and disposal of waste (Only a problem in industrial societies because of the synthetic products made and such))

(Lecture 9- Gold, Econ, Environment)

Modes of Exchange: Reciprocity

(Lecture 9- Gold, Econ, Environment)

Generalized Reciprocity: little thought of gain

Balanced Reciprocity: expectation of eventual return

Negative Reciprocity: Marker exchange of commodities

(Lecture 9- Gold, Econ, Environment)

Generalized Reciprocity

(Lecture 9- Gold, Econ, Environment)

little thought of gain

Who? among kin?

-Ex: mother’s love for child

-Foragers and food sharing

(Lecture 9- Gold, Econ, Environment)

Balanced Reciprocity

(Lecture 9- Gold, Econ, Environment)

Expectation of eventual return

Who? Friends

-Ex: “next round is on me”

-Kula ring of Trobriand islanders

Buying a drink for a friend and then expecting them to do the same

(Lecture 9- Gold, Econ, Environment)

Negative Reciprocity

(Lecture 9- Gold, Econ, Environment)

Marker exchange of commodities

-Textbooks

-Shoes

-Gold

More characteristic of a capitalist society, market exchange. If someone doesn't make a profit, then it doesn't make sense \n -Especially seen with gold

(Lecture 9- Gold, Econ, Environment)

Comparison of Subsistence Strategies and Economic Systems

(Lecture 9- Gold, Econ, Environment)

**Exchange \n \n Comparing two subsistence strategies

(Lecture 9- Gold, Econ, Environment)

(Lecture 9- Gold, Econ, Environment)

Mid 1500's, model of the 49ers and we usually see it a positive thing \n \n But miners aren't seen in that same status

(Lecture 9- Gold, Econ, Environment)

(Lecture 9- Gold, Econ, Environment)

Trying to lure people to California in 1948, was only about 20,000 community but then this fueled the growth population

(Lecture 9- Gold, Econ, Environment)

Sierra Pelada Brazil, 1986

(Lecture 9- Gold, Econ, Environment)

All started in 1979 when a little boy found a gold mine and then these phots were taken later. Didn't have a lot of technology back then, it was all done by hand, so a lot more harsh

(Lecture 9- Gold, Econ, Environment)

Research on based in Amazonia in 2014

(Lecture 9- Gold, Econ, Environment)

Very little research is done to actually understand the mines and people just assume they are evil, as you can see with these headlines.

The press will often publicize fake news and exaggerate stories and this has been happening for a long time

(Lecture 9- Gold, Econ, Environment)

The extraction process

(Lecture 9- Gold, Econ, Environment)

They build their house which are just like small tents on the site they don't want to be far because they're working hard. This is all legal \n \n They used to have to dog by hand which is hard because you don't want to spend your time digging up a whole riverbed only to find nothing, so now it is much more efficient

not even chunks of gold, just specs. Everyone had nicknames as well since many were ex cons and stuff hiding. They also don't really have anything they own or anything either, so this is all they have. It's very dangerous since there is no health insurance or anything either and sometimes people just disappear

(Lecture 9- Gold, Econ, Environment)

Modes of Exchange and Reciprocity - “It doesn’t matter if he drinks, it matters if he pays”

(Lecture 9- Gold, Econ, Environment)

Stack bottles and see how high it can go. Even one guy that didn't drink would drink sodas because this is one of the ways they showed their commitment to each other. It was necessary for them to have these bonds to work together in this dangerous field. They all came for dreams of becoming rich.

-Many rules that were unspoken. No police, things kind of took care of themselves. People were often very respectful. Very masculine environment, usually no women. Their hammocks were all like touching, seems like something that would not even be possible. Many did these jobs because they had nothing else to turn to or were chasing after some dream and believed they could get paid more from this than other jobs.

(Lecture 9- Gold, Econ, Environment)

Reciprocity

(Lecture 9- Gold, Econ, Environment)

Often a group of young men that are capable to take on these tasks. They often seen themselves as rejecting the capitalist frontier and taking control of their lives and doing this dangerous work.  \n \n Everyone has a story of the miner who got rich and left on a plane and then bought them that plane. Not sure if it was true or not

-Emerges in extractive industries on the margins of the capitalist world system

-An adaptation to survive dangerous physical labor and the socially corrosive nature of money?

-But instead of resistance or solidarity, excessive consumption may perpetuate further exploitation, and serve the interests of capital

(Lecture 9- Gold, Econ, Environment)

Why do they go to the mines?

(Lecture 9- Gold, Econ, Environment)

They like the prospects they have as working class men. Some allure to it working with all these excavators and no boss, just make sure to find the gold.  \n \n Less than 1% had graduated from high school besides like one accountant from Disney, so this is why surveys are important to look more into it. Moreover, most of them did not really have a prospect for a better future.

Emic

-Adventure, freedom

-No boss

-Can make a lot of money, get ahead in life

-The tale of the one who made it big

\n

But how does this relate to structure?

-All have little formal education

-Limited socioeconomic prospects

-All running away from something- law, family

-Why no rich kids? College grads?

\n “Structural violence”

-Based on your position in society, so lower class working status in this scenario, they are unable to have the things they want and risk trying to get a better life. Many will not be able to go to college and do the things they want, but this is the thing they believe they can do

(Lecture 9- Gold, Econ, Environment)

What is it about gold?

(Lecture 9- Gold, Econ, Environment)

Not valuable because it has some use, but because humans have agreed that it is valuable

-Value is culturally constructed, not a natural expression of inherent value

-Gold is not functional in the same way as food or iron, but humans have agreed that it has value

-Gold valuable across time and cultures

-The gold standard- basis of economic system

-Gold as conspicuous consumption- indicator of status; meaning over function

-Why our fascination with Gold? (Shiny? Rare?)

(Lecture 9- Gold, Econ, Environment)

In popular culture we see gold and wealth may be seen as corrupting force

(Lecture 9- Gold, Econ, Environment)

Ways the society attempts to mitigate things that are extremely valuable

-Stories and myths about gold reinforce the moral economy

-Wagner “The Ring”

-Tolkein “Lord of the Rings”

-King Midas

-Deal with the devil

-Building a stairway to heaven

-“Family torn apart after winning lotto ticket”

(Lecture 9- Gold, Econ, Environment)

Why Marriage? Nature, Culture, and Society

(Lecture 10- Love, Marriage, Family, and Kinship)

Think about nature and culture again

-N: sexual drive, reproduction

-C: societies regulate sexual access to partners into stable relationships

Marriage and other socially sanctioned unions establish obligations fro relationships between:

-PARTNERS

-Parents and children

-KIN (Brother in law or something)

ADAPTIVE explanations for marriage

-Establishes defined boundaries (Like the ring on the finger puts a boundary showing that you are no longer looking for a partner and are spoken for)

-Limits conflict over sexual partners

-Ensures reproduction, support for children and elders

-Creates new kin alliances and sharing of resources

(Lecture 10- Love, Marriage, Family, and Kinship)

Changes in American Marriage

(Lecture 10- Love, Marriage, Family, and Kinship)

Typical is father works, mother home, typical house in suburban area, etc

The heterosexual, monogamous marriage of the 50s has changed dramatically

Note how changes are related to economic and technological shifts

-Sex without reproduction (birth control)

-Same sex marriage now legal

INCREASING: marriage age, birth of first child, divorce rate

DECREASING: number of children

CHANGE: residence, division of labor
(Usually seen in industrial, agricultural societies and related to class as well \n \n People also usually used to live in the palace they grew up, but now people more move to other places \n \n Also usually the higher one's education, the later they would get married, but not so much now. The ability to have children is extended now with technology)

(Lecture 10- Love, Marriage, Family, and Kinship)

Marriage

(Lecture 10- Love, Marriage, Family, and Kinship)

Marriage is a more or less stable union between two people who may or may not:

-Live together

-Be sexually involve

-Reproduce

Includes same sex and multiple partner marriages

(Lecture 10- Love, Marriage, Family, and Kinship)

Dowry

(Lecture 10- Love, Marriage, Family, and Kinship)

Families begin saving gold when girl is born

Pays for wedding expenses and for settling in

1500 people went to Ravi’s wedding

(Lecture 10- Love, Marriage, Family, and Kinship)

Sexuality, Romance, and Culture

(Lecture 10- Love, Marriage, Family, and Kinship)

Cultures differ in:

-Age that sexuality begins and ends

-Ways that people make themselves attractive

-Importance of sexual activity

Kissing?

-Like that chant from the beginning, kissing seems ton start this long term romantic engagement, but as seen in the article, it is not universal romantically

Linked romance for us, but this is not universal

-Sapiens article: 46% of cultures sampled engage in romantic kissing (Some thought it was to determine if the person is healthy or not. Others thought it was revolting though having two mouths put together and exchange tongues and such)

-More common in stratified, complex societies

-Many cultures have non-romantic kissing

(Lecture 10- Love, Marriage, Family, and Kinship)

How is love constructed in our society?

(Lecture 10- Love, Marriage, Family, and Kinship)

Objections to arranged marriage because of lack of choice, romance

Based on individualism of culture, we understand agency and choice as crucial

-We want that option and choice. Like controlling your own destiny with anything like wanting to get better at sports or whatever

But popular view of love has some special qualities

-Mind/Body: listen to your hearty, feeling, tingly, like walking on air; forget the pragmatic!

-Structure/Agency: fate, predestined, written in the sars, soul mate

-Love against all odds (but rarely class) (Like a rom com, two people meet and there is this spark and they find love)

So these vary by gender? Who benefits?

-Not necessarily the princess in the castle waiting anymore, times are changing \n -Can be seen in films where most women are only there to help drive the plot for the male main character and not having their ow agency

-This idea too that when you feel something to just go for it, which benefits men more than women

Forager lessons

-Women bring home more food, but men bring home the more big meat, so they have the power in that society. The power in a relationship is how much you contribute to the household

Different from our society

-So for women, education leveland such is important for them to contribute 

-Important for understanding the broader context of why we are the way wea re with love

(Lecture 10- Love, Marriage, Family, and Kinship)

Love Connections and Differences

(Lecture 10- Love, Marriage, Family, and Kinship)

-Romantic love is not universal

-In general, people search for status equals (or better, is possible)

-Differences In mate selection related to emphasis on individual (industrialized) vs kin group

-Gender ideologies influence how we conceptualize love, and sexual differences

-Kinship also important…

(Lecture 10- Love, Marriage, Family, and Kinship)

Kinship

(Lecture 10- Love, Marriage, Family, and Kinship)

Culturally defined relationship established on the basis of blood ties or through marriage \n

Kinship system- Kin relations, kin groups, and terms for classifying kin in a society

\n Most small-scale societies are organized around kinship

-Industrial societies organized around institutions

Important to understand

-Families

-Descent

-Residence

(Lecture 10- Love, Marriage, Family, and Kinship)

Types of Families

(Lecture 10- Love, Marriage, Family, and Kinship)

The nuclear family is organized around the conjugal tie, the relationship between husband and wife

\n

The extended family is based on consanguineal, or “blood”, relations extending over generations

-Property

(Lecture 10- Love, Marriage, Family, and Kinship)

Rules of Residence- Patrilocal

(Lecture 10- Love, Marriage, Family, and Kinship)

A woman lives with her husband’s family after marriage

(Lecture 10- Love, Marriage, Family, and Kinship)

Rules of Residence- Matrilocal

(Lecture 10- Love, Marriage, Family, and Kinship)

A man lives in the household of his wife’s family

(Lecture 10- Love, Marriage, Family, and Kinship)

Rules of Residence- Neolocal

(Lecture 10- Love, Marriage, Family, and Kinship)

A couple establishes an indepedent household after marriage

(Lecture 10- Love, Marriage, Family, and Kinship)

Lineage

(Lecture 10- Love, Marriage, Family, and Kinship)

Group of kin whose members trace descent from a known common ancestor

(Lecture 10- Love, Marriage, Family, and Kinship)

Lineage- Bilineal

(Lecture 10- Love, Marriage, Family, and Kinship)

Tracing descent through both matrilineal and patrilineal links

(Lecture 10- Love, Marriage, Family, and Kinship)

Lineage- Unlineal

(Lecture 10- Love, Marriage, Family, and Kinship)

Through either matrilineal or patrilineal links; M or W dominant in terms of status, descent, locality

-Patrinilean 45%

-Matrilineal 15%

(Lecture 10- Love, Marriage, Family, and Kinship)

Cultural Hegemony

(Lecture 11- Sex, Gender, and Sexuality)

Ideas of the ruling class come to be seen as the norm

As universal ideologies, perceived to benefit everyone, although benefit the ruling class more

-Benefit everyone, but mostly ruling class. Almost like a heroic idea through going to work everyday as a worker

Justifies the status quo as natural, inevitable and beneficial for everyone

Reinforced through ideology, and expressed everyday as normal

-Capitalism

The invisible hand will work it out

Hard work is rewarded (if you fail its because of your deficiencies)

-Racism

-Sexism

(Lecture 11- Sex, Gender, and Sexuality)

Anthropology, Agency, and Social Change

(Lecture 11- Sex, Gender, and Sexuality)

Most of us reject explicit bias (like racism or sexism)

Fighting against bias for equality

Cultural relativism and cross cultural comparison can help see the cultural specificity of our beliefs and ideologies, and possible alternatives

-Going to other societies and stuff can help one better understand things. Like you might think you understand men and women based on paper, but really living in another society and seeing how things work gives you a  greater understanding, but we are socialized into a world where the bias already exists and seems normal

Awareness of cultural bias and structural privilege helps to take off the lenses that make inequality seem natural, recognize how we may inadvertently facilitate and reproduce domination

-Looking at the cultural system and looking more broadly at things. The difference in how our society does things to another- structures inequality

Intersectionality: gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, class

-Like a group fighting for women's rights or something sometimes fail because they fail to consider other elements like class or something. You have to consider the intersectional identities; get a more holistic sense

(Lecture 11- Sex, Gender, and Sexuality)

Sex

(Lecture 11- Sex, Gender, and Sexuality)

Biological differences between male and female

(Lecture 11- Sex, Gender, and Sexuality)

Gender

(Lecture 11- Sex, Gender, and Sexuality)

Social classification of masculine and feminine

-The cultural characteristics assumed to be linked with a man or woman

(Lecture 11- Sex, Gender, and Sexuality)

Gender and Ideology

(Lecture 11- Sex, Gender, and Sexuality)

A society’s gender ideology is its totality of ideas about sex, gender, and the natures of men and women, including their sexuality, and the relations between the genders

-Even just thinking that there are differences between male and female is a gender ideology

(Lecture 11- Sex, Gender, and Sexuality)

Heteronormative

(Lecture 11- Sex, Gender, and Sexuality)

Denoting or relating to a world view that promotes heterosexuality as the normal or preferred sexual orientation

-Often part of bigger package including gender, race, and class privilege

Structures in society encourage binary (M/F) and heteronormative…

(Lecture 11- Sex, Gender, and Sexuality)

Enculturation into gender roles begins early and continues throughout life

(Lecture 11- Sex, Gender, and Sexuality)

Imagine that you are going to have a child. All of these decisions relate to gender norms

2. How do you interpret the kicking in the womb?
   2. Dancing or kicking? (Some people will say "oh my little ballerina is dancing" or "oh they're kicking a soccer ball". How can you determine that before they are even born?)
3. What color will you paint the room?
4. What will the first toys be?
5. What activities will you encourage? (Might change as they grow older and you see what kind of things they like and dislike)
6. What characteristics will be encouraged? (Like boys have short hair and girls have long hair. Like Professor Hoelle's son was tired of being misidentified as a girl because he had long hair)
   2. Aggressive and adventurous?
   3. Polite and deferential?
   4. Sharing
7. What challenges will they face? (And then finally they will have to face many challenges once they go beyond grade school and such in the real world)

(Lecture 11- Sex, Gender, and Sexuality)

Gender and Popular Representation

(Lecture 11- Sex, Gender, and Sexuality)

Bechdel test

-Comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For, 1985

Does a film pass the test?

-It has to have at least two women in it

-Who talk to each other

-About something besides a man

Prominent roles for women are increasing, but many still fail the test

New questions arise: What does a positive representation of women look like?

(Lecture 11- Sex, Gender, and Sexuality)

Student Research: Gendered responses to Bike Crashes

(Lecture 11- Sex, Gender, and Sexuality)

Student observed bike crashes at common spot for crashes

When women crashed

-They were helped more often than men

-They accepted help more than men

NATURE/Culture: if all humans have an equal capacity to perceive pain why help the women more? Why do they accept?

Related to gender norms about chivalrous men and delicate women, “damsels in distress?”

(Lecture 11- Sex, Gender, and Sexuality)

Cross Cultural lessons on empowerment from Foragers

(Lecture 11- Sex, Gender, and Sexuality)

“Society and Sex Roles” Ernestine Friedl

In foraging societies

-Men hunt more than women

-Why? Interplay of biology and culture

-Meat is rarely the major thing in their diet, so that's not the reason now. Men just often hunt more and women also breastfeed for a long time, have a lot of children to make sure they can live long enough. So when women are breastfeeding, being pregnant, and sort of strained to the house with children, it can be more difficult for them to hunt. \n -If they weren't bearing children, this would not be a problem. So this is not due to their biological differences, but because of a women's supposed responsibilities

Inequality is less in foraging societies, BUT when there is large game

-Males acquire status and power by controlling the distribution of scarce resource (meat from big animals)

Gender relations are more egalitarian when there is smaller game and other sources of food

-Usually more equal when there is a smaller game so nor one has more control over a big amount of food; evens out better

More equality when men and women contribute equally

Does this apply to us? HOW?

Empowerment is related to some extent on the ability to control of resources, or bring home the bacon = autonomy

-The more when both parties can bring things home, then the more equal it is because once someone starts to bring more home, it takes that power away \n -The economic security of having your own income is essential

(Lecture 11- Sex, Gender, and Sexuality)

Why are women associated with nature? men with culture?

(Lecture 11- Sex, Gender, and Sexuality)

2. Physiology
3. Social roles
4. Psychology

(Lecture 11- Sex, Gender, and Sexuality)

Why are women associated with nature? men with culture? -Physiology

(Lecture 11- Sex, Gender, and Sexuality)

Things we're born with

Body and functions are more involved with reproduction, whereas men are free from such biological constraints to pursue projects of culture

-Expressed in different ways like childbirth and breastfeeding. The burden of producing children is all put on women having to give birth and then breastfeed them. \n -Puts women on this realm of nature where men don't really have that constraint. They can want to be a good parent and everything, but they don't have that biological connection. So men feel the need to influence world outside of that and produce things that aren't natural (buildings, agriculture) \n -Or even like menstruation being connected to the moon. This idea of just women being connected to nature

More controlled by nature

Who benefits- a woman or society?

(Lecture 11- Sex, Gender, and Sexuality)

Why are women associated with nature? men with culture? -Social Roles

(Lecture 11- Sex, Gender, and Sexuality)

Reproduction and child rearing confine women to domestic sphere

Become care giver for children

-Children have no inherent culture

-Brings children from nature to culture

Commitment to family over society

(Lecture 11- Sex, Gender, and Sexuality)

Two Types of Status- Ascribed

(Lecture 12- Race and Class)

“born into”

-Race: perceived physical differences, usually based on genetic ancestry

-Ethnicity: social group of people who identify with each other based on (Jewish, Mexican, Asian, Hmong)

Caste: does not permit alteration of rank

(Lecture 12- Race and Class)

Two Types of Status- Achieved

(Lecture 12- Race and Class)

Choice/permits individuals to alter their rank

Class: a person’s or group’s position in society founded in economic terms, as “achieved” by the individual

(Lecture 12- Race and Class)

Class Systems

(Lecture 12- Race and Class)

A class is a category of persons with about the same opportunity to obtain economic resources, power, and prestige

-The same rank as they are born throughout their lives \n -People have different opportunities, resources, etc based on the class theta re born into \n -Like having a bad neighborhood is probably due to the people living in that area. If you wanted to go to a better school, that would only be possible if you had the money to pay for a private school

And ranked hierarchically in relation to each other

-Upper, middle, and lower class

-The 1%, the 99%

Movement between the classes: social mobility

Class is reproduced in a stratified society

-People are born into a class and stay in that class for the rest of their lives

(Lecture 12- Race and Class)

Expressions of Class; Performance

(Lecture 12- Race and Class)

Class linked with economic, socioeconomic status, city or neighborhood, and education level

A subculture with attitudes, behavior, lifestyle, and values

-How people dress, behave, etc.

Comes with a “script” for what you do and how you do it. Speech, dress, gestures, etc

-Cultural capital (Posture, the words you use. Like if you go in a fancy restaurant, you worry how you act and if you really have that cultural capital)

-Like the green thing, he would probably have a marked version of how he would speak, since it is very strange, and be seen as working class

Class position and performance of script determines access to spaces, resources, rights, benefits, opportunities

-Linked with race and ethnicity

(Lecture 12- Race and Class)

How is class or social rank communicated?

(Lecture 12- Race and Class)

-Clothing, dress, or “uniform”

-Behaviors, hobbies, manners

-Speech

-The body

-Symbols of status, wealth

-Use of honorific titles (Sir, Dr)

-Interactions, greetings

(Lecture 12- Race and Class)

Trobriand Yam Houses

(Lecture 12- Race and Class)

Trobriand headmen displayed yams on racks outside of houses and these were bigger than those of commoners

Conspicuous consumption: we don’t carry around pigs to show value. We represent value through symbols and objects

-The head men, the most powerful political figure, will display the yams outside of the home to show their status

How do people in our society show their pigs or yams in a symbolic sense?

-Through the house we have, the cars we own \n -Status can be communicated through a symbolic way

(Lecture 12- Race and Class)

Value of Different Cars on UCSB Campus in Terms of Pigs

(Lecture 12- Race and Class)

1 pig = 100 dollars

Prices in 2017. Maybe a bike is worth 2-3 pigs. \n \n The cheapest car was worth 245 pigs. Can you imagine trying to represent this in yams and the order in way things seem? It's part of lying in a society where things are connected. Difficult to swallow for some people

(Lecture 12- Race and Class)

What is Race?

(Lecture 12- Race and Class)

a concept that organizes people into groups based on specific physical traits that are thought to reflect fundamental and innate differences

-Not so much distinguished in specific groups, but inherited fundamental differences. \n -Doesn't seem so bad, but it really only states to show once certain things are "marked" and outcasted as not "normal"

Occurs when two formerly separate groups meet through colonization, slavery, migration, and other large group movements

Cultural construction based on physical characteristics such as skin color shape of facial features, hair color or type

-What is considered a race or White or black changes across time

-Varies in places: USA, Brazil, and India

(Lecture 12- Race and Class)

Jane Elliot Experiment

(Lecture 12- Race and Class)

The blue vs brown eyes a complete construction with no biological or intellectual basis for difference. But has very real consequences

Self fulfilling prophecy

-“Marked” students begin to behave badly, lose self esteem, express anger, do badly in school

-These behaviors are seen as proof of inherent inferiority

-Less likely to succeed in the long run

Following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. She did this experiment to teach her class about racism.  \n \n This experiment cannot be done today as you might get fired, but we have the archives \n \n Truly shows the power of social construction with race and the real world consequences it has. \n -You see one kid with his head down and beating his head while the other kids laugh at him. See one kid mouthing curse words and chants and acting out.  \n -If a kid is marked and seen as different, it has affects on them

(Lecture 12- Race and Class)

Race in Brazil

(Lecture 12- Race and Class)

Similar to USA

-Indigenous, European, and African roots

-History of slavery and abolition

But, Brazil is different in terms of racialization/construction of race

-The most “intermarried” country in the world

-Race is understood as more of a continuum than a dichotomy

USA: “one drop rule” = dichotomous

-Racial category depends on:

Physical features: more than skin color - hair texture, shape of facial features (Someone can be white and have other kinds of features)

-Class and context

Money “whitens”

(Lecture 12- Race and Class)

Race and Class in Brazil

(Lecture 12- Race and Class)

Race is supposedly not a factor in the “racial democracy”

-Gilberto Freyre and Franz Boas

-In the US there is the idea that your race does not really matter.  \n -However, Brazil is more focused on race and people of white and lighter skin have more access to a higher economic status and such.

BUT, darker Brazilians tend to be poorer

-Race and social class are interlinked

“Whitening” through wealth

-A person’s racial category becomes whiter in response to rising status

-Even if a a person was white, if they were poor, they would not be considered as white if they were rich

People self identify as whiter than they are categorized by others

(Lecture 12- Race and Class)

Race in India

(Lecture 12- Race and Class)

An extremely diverse society, but not different “races”

-Diverse, but not exactly a lot races, like what we consider here in the US

Race is related to: colonialism, the caste system, religion

-This is what structures their society more

Colorism, social hierarchy based on graduations of skin tone within and between racial/ethnic groups

In our society

Similar dynamics in the USA

The “dark” or “light” brother/sister
-Hierarchy based on skin tones and ethnic groups and even within families

Fair and lovely beauty products

-You can see in the ad the transformation from darker to light skin, hinting at success when your skin is lighter

Lighter skin- “fairness” is associated with remaining INDIAN but also with social mobility

Marriage

Career

Modern

(Lecture 12- Race and Class)

Whiteness/Fairness and Beauty

(Lecture 12- Race and Class)

Latin America

-“Good” hair and “bad” hair (Good hair is like straight and flowy while bad hair tends to be African hair)

-Brazilian Plastic Surgery (You have the ability to change certain facial features)

Race may be a cultural construction, but it has

-PHYSICAL IMPLICATIONS (Like the procedures people are seeking out)

-Contributes to continued inequality (Everything in their life is oriented around becoming white in Brazil)

Anthropologists conduct research to debunk the myth of racial superiority (following Boas; example) and expose racism in its many forms;

-How it operates in classrooms, and beauty. Places where inequality is less understood

While also showing how racism persists and continues to negatively affect some groups

-If you want to change things, you have to understand how it permeate other parts of society

(Lecture 12- Race and Class)

Ritual

(Lecture 13- Religion, Belief, Ritual)

Patterned repetitive behavior usually focused on supernatural realm, but can also be secular (non-religious)

-Patterned way of behavior, does not have to be religious.

An unwritten code of behavior

(Lecture 13- Religion, Belief, Ritual)

Rituals related to timing- Periodic Ritual

(Lecture 13- Religion, Belief, Ritual)

Performed annually to mark important events

-Harvest (Instead of thanksgiving, some other countries celebrate the fertility of the harvest around a certain time)

-Birthday

-Christmas

(Lecture 13- Religion, Belief, Ritual)

Rituals related to timing- Non-periodic rituals

(Lecture 13- Religion, Belief, Ritual)

Occur n response to unplanned events in a person’s life

More on an individual level, but can apply to a societal level. Like everyone understands what a marriage is, even if it does not directly involve them

-Baptism

-Marriage

-Puberty

(Lecture 13- Religion, Belief, Ritual)

RITES OF PASSAGE

(Lecture 13- Religion, Belief, Ritual)

Events that mark a change in status or life stage

Examples

-Military basic training (Someone who was not in military training, to someone that is then one with the ranks)

-Fraternity and sorority

From pledge or brother or sister

-Ceremonies marking transition to manhood and womanhood worldwide- examples?

Three phases

-Separation physically, especially, symbolically, from normal life (Removed form their normal life and isolated. Symbolically you see them (Like the military, they cut away their hair and strip them of their previous clothes and put on the uniform))

-Transition or liminal phase- in between, undefined stage (Means an in-between (twilight). This space, the person is on their quest and training, will they make it to that next stage or fail and withdraw?)

-Reintegration into society as individual with new status (If they do make it, then they are reintegrated into that society as a full member and accepted (like becoming a sergeant, you get certain privileges and respect))

(Lecture 13- Religion, Belief, Ritual)

Rituals of Inversion

(Lecture 13- Religion, Belief, Ritual)

Ritual in which normal social roles and order is temporarily reversed

-Things that aren't typically accepted or seen as normal are for the time being

Anonymity and masks contribute to abnormal behavior

-Carnival in Brazil

-Mardi Gras in New Orleans

-Halloween in IV

“Anti Structure” normal rules are suspended

A temporary time of liminality

And may experience communities- a sense of unity with strangers/people would not normally associated with (Like dancing and other kinds of activities)

-Release of social pressures and temporary equality

-People can be free for some period of time. The difference between rich and poor and sex and gender and everything change during this time. People might dress in ways that don't normally represent themselves..

This also occurs under a completely different set of circumstances..?

-Can be seen when disasters happen as well. An inversion in situations like that \n -Or like if you live in San Francisco and have some kind of conversion where people celebrate something in the streets, this unity of being in the same street together and people wouldn't normally act like that

(Lecture 13- Religion, Belief, Ritual)

Rites of Intensification

(Lecture 13- Religion, Belief, Ritual)

Reinforce values and norms of a community strengthen and group identity

-These ideas of being part of a community. Events where people are moving in the same coordinated way.  \n -Like if there is a song that everyone sings \n -Strengthens this group's identity through chanting and other things

(Lecture 13- Religion, Belief, Ritual)

Rituals, superstitions, and magic

(Lecture 13- Religion, Belief, Ritual)

May also be designed to influence outcomes or control fate

Cause? → EFFECT

-How do rituals work?

MAGIC is key to understanding ritual

-What is the role of magic in people's lives? Emic understanding of it

(Lecture 13- Religion, Belief, Ritual)

CARGO CULT

(Lecture 13- Religion, Belief, Ritual)

Melanesia

Followed contact with colonial societies and intensified during WWII

Islanders’ observed that cargo (goods) was the source of power of Europeans and Americans

-Observing the gear (guns, airplanes) that the Americans had and the Melanesians thought it was the power of the colonial deities was because they had those things, like a contagious magic. The power of their things is because they had these things, so they did these rituals to resemble the people they had seen

Rituals based on imitation of white man will bring cargo and material wealth

-Military marching and uniforms

-Made airplanes and runaways to coax the cargo (Goods and wealth from the sky to them)

-“John Frum”

(Lecture 13- Religion, Belief, Ritual)

Baseball rituals

(Lecture 13- Religion, Belief, Ritual)

Attempts to influence the outcome, control fate

Individual rituals

The culture of baseball and sports in general, but with some differences

Most rituals grow out of exceptional performances. When a player does well, he seldom attributes his success to skill alone. Assumes it must be something else that they did that brought them luck

A behavior is rewarded repeat behavior and hope for same reward

-Pigeons and food

-Physical effects: Pavlov’s dogs

(Lecture 13- Religion, Belief, Ritual)

Magic and baseball

(Lecture 13- Religion, Belief, Ritual)

“BASEBALL MAGIC” GMELCH

-Magic: used to control chance

Reduce risk and uncertainty

Trobriand Islanders for fishing

-Different rituals for inner and outer lagoon

Baseball players

-Different for pitching, hitting, and fielding

In this case, ritual means behaviors done to produce an outcome, but with no empirical connection between means (e.g., tapping home plate three times) and end (e.g, getting a hit)

-Almost like a placebo effect

-Cause & Effect

Believing in supernatural forces can improve performance

Similar to a placebo, it creates enhanced confidence

-Doesn't mean people really actually do better with these things or have an empirical influence. (like those that take placebo report positive impacts because they believed it would)

(Lecture 13- Religion, Belief, Ritual)

Superstitions

(Lecture 13- Religion, Belief, Ritual)

More bad things people believe, opposite to charms

-Walk under a ladder

-Break a mirror

-Walk into a building with an open umbrella

-Kill a ladybug

-Spilling oil in a gold mine

-Sour grass

Some of these are related to historical contexts/accidents

May be maintained because they are functional-encourage behaviors that are beneficial

(Lecture 13- Religion, Belief, Ritual)

Taboos

(Lecture 13- Religion, Belief, Ritual)

Not laws, but things people don't do because they assume to have bad outcomes

From Polynesian word meaning “prohibition”

A prohibited social behavior, usually unstated, but widely acknowledged

Breaking a taboo may bring bad luck

-Walk under a ladder

-“Good luck” instead of “break a leg” to a thespian

-Mentioning a no-hitter to a pitcher

(Lecture 13- Religion, Belief, Ritual)

Fetish

(Lecture 13- Religion, Belief, Ritual)

Term for a lucky object

Charms and supernatural objects believed to embody supernatural power

-Do you have a “lucky”

Rock

Rabbit's foot

T-shirt

Pencil

(Lecture 13- Religion, Belief, Ritual)

All societies have religion

(Lecture 13- Religion, Belief, Ritual)

A social process that helps to order society

Provide its members with meaning, unity, peace of mind

The degree of control over events they believe is possible

(Lecture 13- Religion, Belief, Ritual)

Syncretism

(Lecture 13- Religion, Belief, Ritual)

Merging two or more religious traditions and hiding the beliefs, symbols, and practices of one behind similar attributes of the other

Change and mixing applies to food, culture, music, rituals, etc

-Like African religions were changed and hidden

(Lecture 13- Religion, Belief, Ritual)

Santo Daime in Acre, Brazil

(Lecture 13- Religion, Belief, Ritual)

Mix of

-Catholicism

-African animism

Belief that all living and nonliving objects are imbued with spirit

-Indigenous shamanism

Intermediaries between spirit and human world

Between gods and humans and can move back and forth. 

Many distinctions between gods and humans and humans and nature

Ayahuasca: a brew of jungle plants with psychoactive properties that is used in religious ceremonies and by shamnas to enter into vision

(Lecture 13- Religion, Belief, Ritual)

Voodoo

(Lecture 13- Religion, Belief, Ritual)

Another African religion

Haiti, 1980s: Claims of people who had been buried coming back to life- ZOMBIES

WHY?

Anthropologist Wade Davis Analyzes zombie powder

Crushed skulls, lizards, and toad eyes, and puffer fish poison

-Puffer fish has Tetrodotoxin = temporary paralysis

-Datura root = hallucinogen

-When you put these things together, you have people who become paralyzed and essentially dead and when they awaken, they are hallucinating and so this is where zombies came from

But does this fully explain it?

(Lecture 13- Religion, Belief, Ritual)

Religion, Morality, and Society

(Lecture 13- Religion, Belief, Ritual)

Hallucinogens and Neurotoxins play a role, but so do societal beliefs and norms- the moral economy

Religions and societies have ways of enforcing behavior that serves the interest of the society

Those turned into zombies had violated moral codes

-Like a woman who had stolen a lot of land from people and they didn't like her and so she became a living zombie \n -Violation of the public rules, not killing them or sending them to jail, but making sure they learn their lesson

Reciprocity and leveling mechanism

-“The golden rule”

-KARMA \n Sorcery

-Zombies

-Even for non-believer: “will get what is coming to you”

(Lecture 13- Religion, Belief, Ritual)

Health System

(Lecture 14- Health and Body)

Crazy how much this perspective and medical authority and stuff has changed since the pandemic. About understanding health in a broader sense

All cultures have a health system which includes

-Perceptions and beliefs about the body

-Classifications of health problems

-Prevention measures

-Healing/healers (Who are the healers in society. Connected to doctors and stuff and this sacred voice of authority, at least historically.)

(Lecture 14- Health and Body)

Disease

(Lecture 14- Health and Body)

Biologically-based health problem that is objective and universal

-Bacterial or viral infection; broken leg; measles

Conditions that can be identified and have certain causes

(Lecture 14- Health and Body)