anthropology 1000

test two

“Ownership” of waterholes

ju’hoansi/people of the Kalahari desert or sometimes known as n’ore define a territory or resource area that surrounds a reliable waterhole.

it serves as a foundational social/ economic unit for their hunter-gatherer lifestyle.

nobody OWNS property- no private property

Political leadership and conflict resolution among the ju’/hoansi

Mobility- allows kinship to be fluid

if a disagreement forms, it allows tensions to lessen.

methods such as laughter and joking helps resolve conflict

group fissioning- people separate (family)

hxaro exchange- objects are exchanged.(trading relationships)

Ju’/Hoansi inter-ethnic relations

inter-ethnic relationships marriage between Herero, and Tswana.

juhoansi women marry Herero or Tswana men as they posses livestock and wealth.

marriage between juhoans men and Herero/tswana women are non existentbc juhoansi men lack cattle/material wealth.

state presence in ju’/hoansi territory

historically the ju’/hoansi operated entirely outside the framework of nation states, they governed themselves.

expansion of state presence by Botswana governments has fundamentally transformed their territory, shifting them from independent foraging to state citizens

sedentism and sharing

sednetism: the ju hanse are forced to live in permanent settlements. their capacity to engage in their life style (hunter gatherer an hxaro exchange) is changed.

settling in permanent villages has disrupted sharing (hxaro)

impacts of wage work and migrant labor

rosie the riveter documentary- wartime labor and migration impacts on women.

ju hoansi moving to sedentary lifestyle bound to wages (working at herding posts)

labor fundamentally reorganizes culture, family, gender roles and power dynamics.

Kalahari debate

how we should understand the impacts of colonization on the ju’hoansi.

debates over the history and status of the juhoansi people.

ju’/hoansi experiences of colonialism

loss of land, stripped of their hunting land, criminalization of foraging, forced sedentism.

direct vs. indirect colonial rule

European powers used to govern colonized populations.

who holds immediate authority europeans (direct) or indigenous leaders (indirect)

takes local political structures such as the ju hoansi and replaces them with European systems

orientalism

idea that knowledge produced in colonial context was heavily biased

highlights the deficencies

links between scientific racism and christian hierarchy

Scientific racism: following the enlightenment, the rise of scientific thought on racism. a hierarchy was created. other races than white europeans were made out to be un-superior.

characteristics as small as the facial slope of their faces determined their superiority.

these two ideas are mainly linked because science literally borrowed christian theology to “prove” white supremacy.

nature/nurture debate and gender

human behaviour driven by nature (biology) or culture, environment, learning (nurture)

Anthropologists argue that humans are bicultural creatures- in which our biology gives us the capacity to learn, but nurture (culture) shapes our actual behaviour/beliefs

to meet standards in gender roles.

you reflect the society you’re socialized in.

culture and personality perspective

argues that psychological traits are shaped entirely by culture rather than biology through upbringing and socialization

political economy and gender inequality

examines how political power and economic systems interact to create or maintain social hierarchies, poverty and uneven resource distribution

it focuses on how global markets, state laws and historical records actively produce inequality

gender division in labor. women are paid lower, systemic exploitation of women’s labor.

gender in industrial society

welding was a common job for women back in the day.

shifted from household to public paid work that was traditionally assigned to men.

when you have a division, breadwinner vs. household

it is that the breadwinner has a higher social status.

in ju hoansi culture, it is that women are the breadwinners/providers in their society. ju’/hoansi culture is relatively equal when it come to gender.

Animism and Mana

animism: the idea that the external world is animated by spirits, and that there is no access or control on these spirits.

mana: spirits can be mobilized and used to benefit humans

spirits are referred to as “arutam”

purposes and structure of ritual

patterned symbolic actions of cultural values, that build community and guide social transition.

ritual activity is for transformation and becoming something new (marriage, commencement, death)

stages of ritual include, separation, liminality and reintegration

Globalization

reshaping of local conditions by powerful global forces.

material culture studies

the study of how human made objects shape and are shaped by human behaviour, social relationships and cultural beliefs

Commodities we consume must be balanced with their materiality

cultural improvisation, cultural enhancement, and cultural dependence

different ways that humans interact/rely on culture

improv: the ability to adapt

Enhance:builds upon existing cultural knowledge

dependancy: humans are biologically reliant on culture to survive

Economic anthropology (production, exchange, consumption)

production: tells you about the people, process of transforming raw materials

exchange: not about wealth, but expanding social status and relationships, how goods move through society

Consumption:act that displays who we are as people through the objects we consume

Yamor fiesta and ethnic relations

a week long festival used to draw in tourists in otavalo Ecuador

thanking the gods for harvest

chica: ceremonial drink made of corn symbolizes diversity and abundance

Hxaro exchange and Ju’/Hoansi notions of wealth

delayed non equal gift exchange practice by the ju hoansi

wealth is social not material

sedentism and changes in ju’/hoansi subsistence

sedentism is the practice of living in one place for a long time

change shifted their agriculture, diets, mobility etc

state directed land tenure changes

government led laws/ policies that alter who owns, controls, or occupies a piece of land

ethnoarchaeology

methods sometimes employed by archeologigists/ cultural anthropologists to learn about past human behaviour/ population

Justification for colonialism

a collection of religious, legal and racist ideas used by a powerful nation to morally excuse exploitation of other societies

sex and temperament

Margaret mead

personality traits are culturally taught, not biologically hardwired to your sex.

like arapesh- men are nurturing and women are assertive, mundugumor- both assertive and tohambuli- are both nurturing.

symbolic explanations for gendered hierarchies

nature vs. culture

domestic vs. public

public/domestic dichotomy

men vs. women, gendered hierarchies, one sex more dominant than the other in public. men= public and women = domestic

anthropology of religion

religion in some societies serves as a mechanism for regulating peoples interaction with the environment

religion and cultural ecology in India and Bali

religion is used as a tool to manage nature

these cultures use religious rules, temples, and rituals to protect water, forests and farming

Hinduism and zebu cattle worship in india

bali and the water temple priest/ balinese subak water system- zero pesticides

warí compassionate cannibalism

it is critical for spirits to go after life. this helps too deal with sadness an grief of a passed kin, the earth is vowed as “dirty” and that those passed kin should be with those they love and not the ground.

sketching as a field method

research technique where the researcher draws environments, interactions etc to capture data that words or photos may miss.

faja

faja belt- part of how women dress, holds the skirt in place.

buying a new belt for each occasion, serves as a marker of prosperity, marks you as indigenous

older women wear right belt on their hips, younger women wear it on their waist to mark a more feminine look

and the belts are worn out they become used for other things like to tie.

ethnic revitalization in Otavalo

the process by which otavalo people of Ecuador used global textile trade to gain wealth and political power