ANT100 Exam 3 - First Half

Pseudoarchaeology

the interpretation of the past from outside the archaeological science community, which rejects the accepted data gathering and analytical methods of discipline

What motivates pseudoarchaeologists to make claims about the archaeological record? What methods do they use to convince readers of the "“truth” of their claims?

Pseudoarchaeologists are often motivated by a desire to promote specific, often non-scientific, narratives about the past.

They use techniques like exaggeration, dramatic conclusions, and selective use of evidence to persuade readers that their claims are credible, even if they lack scientific support. 

Why are claims that archaeological sites are built by aliens, ancient Phoenicians, Vikings, etc, false? What’s missing in these arguments? What’s missing in the archaeological record to support them?

(Lack of) evidence

How do pseudoarchaeological claims perpetuate white supremacist ideas?

Pseudoarchaeological claims often promote discriminatory ideas by denying or downplaying the achievements of some cultures and attributing them to a mythical "superior" culture, aliens, or lost civilizations. 

What claims do pseudoarchaeologists make about professional archaeologists and their findings? (What do they accuse the archaeolgists of doing?)

Pseudoarchaeologists paint archaeologists as closed minded and unable to see outside of the confines of their own tradition.

What specific ways do the people in the film My Avatar is Me choose to express (or hide) their disabilities and other elements of their personalities when interacting with other in Second Life? (What is visible and invisible online?)

People in the film My Avatar is Me are able to give their avatars wheelchairs, prosthetic devices, and other assistive technologies.

They are also able to alter limb lengths and proportions, etc

Embodiment

How experience (including culture, social norms, beliefs, etc) is materialized and manifested in the body

Stigma

Negative attitudes, beliefs, and stereotypes about something

How do Second Life participants in the film view and represent their disabilities?

Second Life participants view their disabilities as a part of who they are.

Social Personhood

Varies cross-culturally and is a process of becoming, learned through socialization and adaptive learning

Augmentation (in reference to avatars online)

• When people have an avatar online, they don’t think of it as a limitation

• It gives them the freedom to express themselves in a way that they can’t in the real world

• Some people choose to hide their disabilities through their online avatar while others don’t

Virtual vs the “real world”

In the “real world” people with disabilities are subject to stigma. But the virtual world fulfills them.

What role does the Tourism Industry play in the global economy?

Tourism employs millions of people around the world and is one of the biggest industries.

National branding

A country's strategy to convey a particular image of itself beyond its borders to achieve certain beneficial goals (attract investment, tourism, talent, and international recognition)

To whom should tourists be responsible when traveling?

Tourists have a responsibility to the local community, environment, and other visitors when traveling. This includes respecting local customs, supporting local businesses, minimizing environmental impact, and being considerate of other travelers. 

What aspects of tourism make it a '‘sacred’ journey?

• Tourism as expressive culture

  • “Diversions from the ordinary, they make life worth living” (Graburn, 22)

  • It’s an institution “that humans use to embellish and add meaning to their lives”

  • Performances of identity

• Tourism as “sacred”

  • Not work, not at home

  • It’s “exciting, renewing, and inherently self-fulfilling” (28)

  • Must be morally justified by the home community

How is tourism an expression of the traveler’s identity? Of a nation’s culture?

Tourists can connect with their own heritage, while simultaneously experiencing and absorbing the cultural identity of their destination.

Nations, in turn, can use tourism to showcase and promote their cultural identity, both internally to citizens and externally to international visitors. 

Rite of passage

An event that marks a significant transition that involves the movement of one stage of life to another.

Tourism as a rite of passage

Exit normal life —> symbolic death —> liminal period, transformation —> reenter normal life

Cultural heritage

Encompasses the tangible, natural, and intangible legacies passed down from previous generations, shaping a community's identity, history, and sense of belonging. (Tangible examples: buildings and artwork, intangible examples: traditions, knowledge, and practices)

Heritage as a Cultural Paradigm of a global world:

• Heritage is a new mode of Cultural production in the present that has recourse to the past

• Heritage is a value-added industry

Critiques of the Cultural Heritage model:

• freezes culture at a point in time (inscription)

• leads to new forms of institutionalized cultural hierarchies and bureaucracies (new structures of power)

• The List itself confers value on the listed items (creates them as “heritage”)