ANTH101 Final Exam

globalization

- contemporary widening scale of cross-cultural interactions through movement of money, people, goods, images and ideas
- driven by communications, migration, and global finance

globalization questions

• How have historical relationships and connections shaped the present?
• How does the desire for certain products today shape relationships between producers and consumers?
• Is globalization good or bad for the people and places involved?

globalization and technology

Communications technologies mean that people are connected to one another in new and transformative ways.

globalization and food

Popularity of international cuisines in United States fueled by: transportation (new ingredients), migration (new populations), media (influence on taste)

Big Mac Attack (Watson) question/findings

• Is the popularity of McDonald's around the world a case of "cultural imperialism"?
• McDonald's in asia tailored to local preferences, restaurants as leisure centers, birthday parties

localization

creation and assertion of highly particular, often place-based, identities and communities. A side effect of globalization.

commodity chain

The links through which a product passes as it is transformed and distributed from producers to consumers.

multi-sited ethnography

Fieldwork in multiple sites, looking at connections. Method used to study commodity chains.

Doane and West's Research Questions

How is the sale of coffee tied to particular narratives about indigenous peoples, pristine nature and culture, and development?

Environmentalism

Depiction of "primitive" peoples living in a "wild landscape" untouched by modern world.

What gets left out of marketing narratives?

Colonialism and culture change, Relationship to the nation-state, History of coffee production, Market intermediaries, Labor process (2 hours per lb.), Dependency on consumer demand

Globalization and Inequality

Profits derive from unequal relationships between producers, consumers, and marketers across global commodity chains.

globalization key points

• Globalization entangles people in complex economic networks.
• Globalization involves processes of localization (Watson).
• Motivations exist at both sites of production and consumption.
• Globalization connects people in virtual relationships via marketing (example: coffee commodity chains).
• Globalization may involve unequal power relationships and exploitations.

material culture

objects people make and use, including simple technologies and the commodities of modern life. Used to accomplish tasks, communicate with others, define themselves, control others.

how do Mayan people use traditional dress?

o be fashionable
o communicate their identities
o communicate their town of origin
o earn a living

International Intellectual Property Law

Treaties and trade agreements that set global standards for copyright, patent, and trademark law. Based on Western models of private property, ownership, and capitalist market exchange.

Intellectual property and imperialism

does the globalization of intellectual property law advance one culture at others expense through differential economic and political influence?

Key Findings: Why do people copy brand names and logos?

• Brands are everywhere: imports, second hand clothing, cartoons and other media.
• Brands index class and status, a relationship to fashion.
• Most people can't afford originals.
• For producers, part of presentación (a professional way of marketing your products).

Key Findings: The Ethics of Copying

• Valuing creativity and innovation.
• Localization
• Adapting popular looks and labels to the tastes of local consumers
• Concerns about price-based competition given commitments to community-based development.
• Copycats (copiones) copy in ways that are unfair
• Individualism said to drive unfair copying.

Key Points: Cultural Politics of Style

• Fashion emerges from a dynamic process of imitation and innovation.
• Maya workshop owners are designing and making "fashion."
• Criminalized when working with the looks and logos of the globalized fashion system.

sex

The reproductive forms and functions of the body that distinguish males and females of the species.

gender

The cultural expectations of how men and women should behave.

Margaret Mead's and gender

•Gender is culturally constructed.

Margaret Mead's research question/method

• Research question: Are male/female differences universal (found in all societies) and invariable (remain the same through time)?
• Research method: Comparative approach that demonstrated that differences between men and women are NOT innate (NOT biologically determined).

Sex and Temperament in Arapesh society

no significant difference in temperamental traits; peaceful society, cooperative and nurturing

Sex and Temperament in Mundugumor society

no significant difference in temperamental traits; aggressive society

Sex in Temperament in Tchambuli society

considerable female political power, men concerned with appearance, women concerned with work

What is meant by "humans are a sexually dimorphic species"?

males and females have different sexual forms to enable reproduction.

Why are women so often subordinate to men?

o Hypothesis 1: Women's role in childbirth and infant care.
o Hypothesis 2: Men usually hunt in foraging societies (most of human history). Association with meat - difficult to obtain.
o Hypothesis 3: Influence of European colonialism. Privileging of men by colonial systems

Biocultural Perspective to sex and gender

• Sex differences matter, but in different ways in different societies.
• Men often occupy dominant roles, though egalitarianism is possible.
• There is diversity in how gender is enacted, even if men most often occupy dominant roles.
• Focus on the male-female dichotomy leaves out other important gender/sex formations

gender roles

The tasks and activities a culture assigns to different genders.

gender stereotypes

Strongly held ideas about the characteristics of men and women

gender ideology

beliefs about the appropriate gender roles and social positions of men and women. considered to be important truths and natural facts.

gender stratification

What men do is often more highly valued than what women do--legitimized by gender ideology

Gender Construction

A process of enculturation that starts at birth (dressing, naming), when a sex category becomes a gender status.

Cross-Cultural Perspective on gender

o Gender is constructed through enculturation (Direct transmission, Observation)
o Gender is maintained through formal social control and informal social control.

what does it mean when an identity is "unmarked"?

It is considered the norm.

Ex: "doctor" (assumed male, unmarked) vs. "female doctor" (marked)

gender: Kabre people of Northern Togo

children are androgynous at birth, don't have gender until they are old enough to be taught how to be men or women.

Deborah Tannen's Research Findings on gender

The enculturation of boys and girls in the US into different styles of play and communication shapes their adult relationships

differences in socialization by gender

• Girls: smaller, intimate groups organized around sharing of thoughts, feelings, and impressions
• Boys: larger, inclusive, more hierarchical groups involving competition for status

differences in non-verbal communication by gender

• Boys and men: avoid eye contact and position themselves at angles rather than face-to-face.
• Girls and women: look one another in the eye and gesture to confirm engagement in conversation.

Report talk

Men tend to privilege the collection and presentation of information in their communication.

Rapport talk

Women tend to privilege communication that builds up and sustains relationships.

What did linguistic anthropologists conclude from researching courtrooms?

report talk is considered more reliable than rapport talk

gender variance

Gender expressions that diverge from the norms that dominate in a given society

transgender

People who inhabit different gender than what was socially prescribed.

Gender in Oaxaca, Mexico

• Well-defined gender roles.
• Gender segregation in domains of work, caregiving, and religious activities.
• Expectation is for everyone to marry or to cohabitate in heterosexual pairs.

Marimachas (Oaxaca, Mexico)

married women who have sexual relationships with other women.

Muxe (Oaxaca, Mexico)

people who are understood as male but who have certain feminine characteristics.

Xanith (Oman)

third gender that has access to women's spaces, dressed "between" men's and women's styles, and retains their legal status as men

Women-men and men-women (Native North America)

inhabit elements of both gender roles, considered to occupy distinct category.

hijras (Nanda)

usually born male or intersex, wear women's clothing and adopt feminine gender roles, not men or women

Sādhins (Nanda)

• born female and voluntarily renounce marriage and sexuality before puberty
• wear men's clothes and short hair, engage in men's work, but keep feminine names
• not men or women

sexuality

A pattern of human behavior that involves erotic and emotional responses to others. Includes preferences, desires, and practices

Navajo genders

Five genders: men, women, intersexed nádleehe, masculine-female nádleehe, and feminine-male nádleehe

Nádleehe

Someone who is in a constant process of change

impact of colonialism on construction of gender and sexuality

o Changing economic system, work roles.
o Religious conversion and Christian morality.
o Criminalization and disparagement of third genders by state officials and community members o Enforcement of "heterosexual" sexual behaviors.
o Loss of cultural practices, cultural knowledge, role models, and traditions.

Two-spirits

different from gay, lesbian, queer identities, not based primarily or at all on sexual desire or sexual behavior.

female sexual identities in Thailand

• Tom: masculine woman attracted to dee
• Dee: feminine woman attracted to tom
• Not considered same-sex desire, because tom and dee seen as different genders.

longitudinal research

• Repeat visits allow you to carefully document changes over time.
• First visit: collect benchmark data against which future changes can be assessed.

___________ is the basis of social identity in Papua New Guinea

reciprocity

Kogwayay

• Gebusi term that means (more or less) culture.
• Kogwayay: All of the things - traditions of dancing, singing, and body decoration - that set the Gebusi apart from all others

Gebusi Adaptive Strategy

Foraging + Horticulture (felling the trees on top of the crop) + Semi-domestication of pigs + Semi-nomadism with permanent dwellings

personhood

The state of being a full person, with all rights, recognitions, and obligations that belong to humans in a given society.

Sympathetic Magic (James Frazier)

Magical rite that relies on supernatural powers without working through a specific supernatural being (spirit, demon, or deity).

Law of similarities (Gebusi sorcery)

Similarity between magical rite and desired goal. Ex: Poking a "voodoo doll" produced pain in victim's body.

law of contagion (Gebusi sorcery)

Things that have been in physical contact with one another have an effect even after contact.

Bogay sorcery (Gebusi)

sorcerer ties up feces -> illness, burning -> death

example of parcel sorcery

ogowili sorcery (Gebusi)

magical warriors kill and eat insides of victim in forest, then cast a spell to give them amnesia

example of attack sorcery

Dugawe's Story

gebusi man kills himself after fighting w/ wife over her affair

women mourned and threw themselves over his body, men investigate sorcery as cause of death

levirate marriage

widow marries clan "brother" of dead husband

What does kinship shape?

social order (who's considered socially close or distant)

daily life (who you interact w/ and how)

clan

permanent social group whose members pass down membership through descent (patrilineal)

Gebusi marriage

clan sister-exchange

sorcery accusations are often made due to...

a buildup of resentment

Gebusi Sexuality

• Normative monogamous heterosexuality
• Male-male sex associated with ritual and spirit séances

Constructing Gender in Gebusi Society

Sexual practices shape men into men

Through spirit séances, where men interact with female spirits, men construct images of feminine ideal and work out gender norms.

Gebusi initiation rites

• Separation: Adorning initiates to set them apart visually.
• Liminality: Bearing heavy wigs and long walks, receiving lectures on Gebusi values and male secrets.
• Incorporation: New costumes, ritual feasting, participation in ritual exchange with sponsors, dancing with women.

Gebusi initiation symbolism

• Young men begin as yellow initiates, end as birds of paradise

o Yellow = in between.
o Red = menstrual blood, symbol of fertility.
o Bird of paradise: symbol of communion with women and spirits

Gebusi symbol system

Social death, physical death, male fertility, dangers of social life, life through exchange, female fertility

What Does Longitudinal Research with the Gebusi Reveal about Globalization?

Interconnections and changing life ways among the Gebusi reflect longer histories of contact, movement, and colonialism.

Gebusi modernity and tradition key points

• Old ways of life alternatively celebrated, mocked, and treated as folklore.
• New emphasis on markets, monotheism, and nationalism.
• Ritual feasting remains important.
• Blending of old and new into hybrid beliefs and practices.

applied anthropology

Outside entities pay anthropologists to conduct research with local people. Research must satisfy goals and objectives of funding organization.

engaged anthropology

Research is driven by needs of local populations. Collaborative work that actively facilitates plans and desires of local people.

Legacy of colonialism (Gebusi)

reliance on extractive industries that benefit former colonial powers.

Theoretical contributions to anthropology

Critiquing assumptions, practices, and discourses of development.

engaged anthropology

Working with organizations and communities to design culturally appropriate and socially sensitive projects.

roots if international development

• Began at the end of colonialism (post-World War II)
• Development initiatives proposed to:

o Bring people into capitalist system.
o Develop industries and markets.
o Make friends and allies.

intervention philosophy

• An ideological justification for shaping a population in specific directions.
• Today's intervention philosophy: development.
• Guiding principles: industrialization, modernization, Westernization, and individualism
• Idea that progress is only possible through intervention by First World nations (former colonialists).

common problems in international development

- over-innovation
- under-differentiation
- socioeconomic disconnect
- unacknowledged agenda

over-innovation

Projects may fail because they are not economically or culturally compatible. Can't assume that people are willing to make dramatic lifestyle changes for sake of "efficiency."

under-differentiation

Projects may fail because development agents take a uniform approach to problem-solving that neglects cultural variability and differences

socioeconomic disconnect

Projects may fail because development workers are often socially and economically detached from the "targets" of development.

unacknowledged agenda

- Projects may fail because power dynamics shape the intervention in ways that do not benefit the "targets" of development.
- Key Questions: What power dynamics shape development interventions? Who stands to benefit most from development projects?

race and development key questions

• How is racial identity constructed through development encounters? • "How do images of dark-skinned people in developing countries as an almost objective reality perpetuate a certain image of 'whiteness'?"

race and development key points

• Ongoing depictions of "Third World" (Black and Brown) peoples as impoverished and helpless
• Ongoing portrayals of "First World" (White) people as saviors
• An image and idea of whiteness that is "created and recreated through the discourses and actions of development institutions."

medical anthropology

• Why do certain diseases and health conditions affect particular populations?
• How is illness culturally constructed, diagnosed, managed, and treated in different societies?
• How does a desire to intervene and improve global health on the part of Westerners participate in development and tourism projects that anthropologists sometimes critique?

disease

psychological condition. Focus of western biomedicine

illness

actual experience of the disease. varies cross-culturally.

therapeutic processes

clinical, symbolic, social support, and persuasion