Cultural Anthropology
Native anthropology" is a set of theories based on non-Western precepts and assumptions in the same sense that modern anthropology is based on and is supported by Western beliefs and values (Jones, 31)
"native anthropologist" differs from an anthropologist who is not native to the society being studied in the following ways. Essentially Anthropologists can be described as either insiders or outsiders.
An "insider" is a person who conducts research on the cultural, racial or ethnic group of which he or she is a member, and an "outsider" conducts research of a native culture from an objective point-of-view. "Insiders" and "outsiders" face different problems.
Anthropology students are generally taught that a person working with his/her own people cannot maintain objectivity and research experiences must be gained from another culture. However, the basic aim of anthropological field research is to describe the total culture of a group of people and it is also…...
mlaBibliography
Scheper-Hughes, N. Culture, Scarcity and Maternal Thinking: Maternal Detachment and Infant Survival in a Brazilian Shantytown. Pp.291- 314
Rosaldo, R (1989). Culture and Truth: The Remaking of Social Analysis: Introduction: Grief and Headhunter's Rage. Boston Beacon Press. Pp. 1- 21
Jones, D. Towards a Native Anthropoloy. Pp 30-39
Cultural anthropology otherwise known as the socio-cultural anthropology or social anthropology is basically the study of culture and is mainly founded on ethnography. Ethnography is based on the methodology of collection of primary data and is purely a product of research where inductive method is used as well as a heavy reliance on the participant observers.
It is considered as the holistic and scientific study of humanity and majorly the branch that focuses on the study of human cultures, myths, practices, beliefs, values, economies, cognitive organizations and even technologies in the contemporary environment.
The significance of the participatory research is to help the individual place the rules of moral conduct, the cognitive structures and the social life patterns in their own socio-cultural context hence becoming very relevant and meaningful despite how 'strange' or 'bizarre' it might look to the persons from other cultures. The concept of cultural relativism goes against the ethnocentrism…...
mlaReferences
International Society for Quality in Health Care, (2011). Culture and quality: an anthropological perspective. Retrieved September 14, 2011 from http://intqhc.oxfordjournals.org/content/16/5/345.full
Stephen T. Bogg, (2011). Culture Change and the Personality of Ojibwa Children. National Institute of Mental Health. Retrieved September 14, 2011 from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1525/aa.1958.60.1.02a00060/pdf
University of Alabama, (2009). Symbolic and Interpretive Anthropologies. Retrieved September
14, 2011 from http://anthropology.ua.edu/cultures/cultures.php?culture=Symbolic%20and%20Interpretive%20Anthropologies
Love Medicine
Cultural Anthropology focuses on how various customs, traditions and background of the individual will influence their lives. These insights offer specific ideas to provide a better understanding of what is happening and the long-term impacts of specific individuals and groups. The book Love Medicine is taking this approach by looking at the changes that are occurring with Chippewa Indians. They are located on a South Dakota reservation from the early 1930s onward. This offers a better understanding of how specific factors influenced their beliefs, attitudes and actions taken. The combination of these elements illustrate how this impacts the study of Cultural Anthropology and its effects on this segment. (Erdich, 2005)
Summary and Cultural Anthropology
Love Medicine is concentrating on how the way social attitudes will influence how someone will sees themselves and the world around them. For the Chippewa, these beliefs impact the person's behavior and how they interact with others.…...
mlaReferences
Bailey, G. (2013). The Essentials of Cultural Anthropology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Erdich, L. (2005). Love Medicine. New York, NY: Harper Trade.
Cultural Adaptations to Environmental Conditions in the Arctic North
The first human occupation of the Americas occurred in erengia during the last glaciation of the region. Later, it was more widely accepted that the primary center of population expansion was in Alaska, subsequently spreading into the Canadian Arctic and Greenland. The physical environment of the populated regions influenced the developing cultures of each group, affected by access to resources, barriers to trade routes, and weather and land conditions. As a result of environmental impact, religion, technological adaptations, economy and food source acquirement varied among the cultural populations, and is still seen in ethnic societies of the Arctic region today, evidence of the cultural sustainability of such adapted groups.
To define "culture," it is the combination of values, practices, and relationships of a population, with a number of factors influencing its development. Considering environment as a key point to cultural development requires the…...
mlaBibliography
Brown, Chris. "Beyond the 'Invented Indian': Acknowledging Original Conservation."
Terralingua. 1997. Partnerships for Linguistic and Biological Diversity. 4 Mar. 2004. http://cougar.ucdavis.edu/nas/terralin/paper006.html
Freimund, Wayne et al. "Principles of Koyukon Worldview." Native American Perspectives on Wilderness Preservation & Management. 1997. Wilderness.net. Chapter 12, 225-235. 4 Mar. 2004. http://www.wilderness.net/wmdep/crookston/Readings/nelson1.pdf
Greider, Brett. "Religion and Region." Religious Studies Web Resources. 20 Jan. 2003.
individual may have about a particular group of people can drastically effect their attitude and behavior towards that particular group of people. When two people from different cultures, with their own biases and cultural thinking, are faced with the prospect of interacting, these preconceptions can emerge in the form of confusion, misunderstanding, and even anger.
One situation that comes to mind occurred while a friend was visiting her boyfriend. His mother happened to be staying with him at his home for an extended period of time. On one particular visit, my friend left her boyfriend's home without saying good bye to the mother.
In American culture, this would not present any particular problem. In American culture it is typical to only announce a departure to a group if the individual is present with that group, or to the host only. However, my friend's boyfriend was Chinese, and in Chinese culture it…...
Culture of Sinhala Elite and Shiv Sena in Post-Colonial Asia
This paper considers the issue of culture within the context of post colonial Asia. The paper examines the cultural strategies of two cultures; the Sinhala elite and Shiv Sena and how these groups developed and emerged, redefining their own identity.
eligion and politics old ways destroyed by new regimes and ideologies
eligion is a man made concept, as such all things connected to this can be seen as pure superstition and non-existent, yet from an anthropological point-of-view the religions and superstitions of other races is seen as an important and integral aspect of research and calls for an open and understanding mind. Man has since the dawn of time been involved in one form of symbolism, whether it be through cave paintings or making idols of goddesses.
eligion and ritual are always part of the world of Man, it has been there since man…...
mlaReferences
Brow, J (1996) Demons and Development: The Struggle for Community in a Sri Lankan Village (Hegemony and Experience - Critical Studies in Anthropology and History) University of Arizona Press;
Everson, M (1991) The study of ritual as an aspect of human religiosity Mankind Quarterly, Fall/Winter91, Vol. 32 Issue 1-2, p57, 19p
Hansen T, B (2001) Wages of Violence: Naming and Identity in Postcolonial Bombay. Princeton Univ Pr
Hopkins (2001) [online] accessed at http://www.apocryphile.net/jrm/articles/hindudiff.html
Race is one of the most bedeviling of anthropological characteristics. The concept, with the barest tips of its roots in biological realities and the rest of the plant firmly grafted to cultural and sociological constructs, is one of the first concepts that anthropologists dealt with vigorously in terms of the history of the profession. Ideas about race both helped establish anthropology as a discipline in its own right (distinct from history, political economy, philosophy, comparative religion and ethics) and kept it from being entirely assimilated into the post-colonial mindset. Like the poor for the rest of humanity, the idea of race - for both good and ill - seems always to be with the anthropologist.
Thus it is hardly surprising that Roger Lancaster should become fascinated with the concept of race during his fieldwork in Nicaragua. For the milieu in which he is working provides a fascinating swirl of ideas about…...
High-Speed Internet and Society
Cultural Anthropology concerns itself with the intricacies of cultural development amongst the human species. One innovation that has impacted the way a society or population develops culturally is the Internet. As the Internet becomes more ubiquitous, prices for Internet subscription drops thereby increasing the number of people who can afford Internet services. Additionally, market pressures amongst cable and Internet companies have brought about trials to improve the quality (i.e. The speed of Internet connectivity) of the Internet. The purpose of this essay is to examine the potential effects inexpensive high-speed Internet service may have on society.
"Fiber for Communities" is a Google initiative that seeks to install fiber optic lines that will bring gigabit-per-second Internet speed to 500,000 people in Kansas City by 2012. Gigibit-per-second Internet speed is blazing fast, consider the realities it brings as described in the AP article, Google Picks Kansas City, "The company [Google]…...
mlaWorks Cited
"Google Picks Kansas." Times Free Press. Tennessee, Chattanooga. 31 Mar. 2011.
Web. 7 May 2011.
97)
omen's shoes have also evolved over the years. According to "Italian Fashion: The History of High Heels," only men wore high heels originally; they were a sign of wealth and leisure, as well as an excellent way to keep shoes in stirrups. 14-year-old Catherine de Medici requested a pair of high heeled shoes from Paris; this fashion move made heels popular for women as well.
One of the biggest fashion bombshells is the invention of the stiletto in 1950. This shoe's construction was made possible by the addition of a steel core and were difficult to break. It also lifted the sole up. The 1940's focused on a male centric version of women's dress, since women were working at men's jobs at the time. omen loved stilettos because it was a welcome return to femininity; when the men came back from war in the 1950s, they were expected to give up…...
mlaWorks Cited
Cox, Caroline. Stiletto. New York: Harper Design International, 2004. Print.
Downey, Lynn. Levi Strauss & Co. Charleston: Arcadia, 2007. p. 8. Print.
Kuhl, Jackson. "The first blue jeans: blue color is everlastingly appointed by the deity to be a source of delight." Calliope Sept. 2010: 2+. Student Resource Center - Gold. Web. 9 May. 2011.
Ownby, Ted. American Dreams in Mississippi: Consumers, Poverty & Culture, 1830-1998. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 1999. Print.
4). This idea has since been abandoned. The mythology of the Amazons, a matriarchy of warrior women, has been discounted as no more than a myth, one deriving from the deep-seated fear on the part of males that they might lose their power and authority. In matrilineal societies, men tend still to monopolize the rights of power. Some Chinese anthropologists believe the stories of true matriarchal societies in some regions of China in the past, but this is uncertain. A matriarchy would be presumed to be less warlike and more nurturing as a social order and would not subordinate men in the way men have done to women in the patriarchal society.
The formulation and operation of power in the largely patriarchal social order in the world today divides along other line than gender, with political action influenced most by ideology, religion, divisions of power, and other aspects of group…...
mlaReferences
Adler, F. (1983). Nations Not Obsessed with Crime. Littleton, Colorado: Fred B. Rotham and Co.
Berry, J.M. (1997). The interest group society. New York: Longman.
Crapo, R.H. (1993). Cultural anthropology. Sluice Dock Guilford, Conn.: Dushkin.
El-Awa, M.S. (1982). Punishment in Islamic Law. Indianapolis, Indiana: American Trust Publications.
communicative processes of humans to those of non-humans, taking as a primary example the member of the primate family the chimpanzee with follow up examples from birds, members off the canine family and cats. Bibliography cites no sources.
Human and non-human communication, a comparison of interspecies speak
Humans and animals are very different creatures, however if we look at the differences in communication we can see that although humans have the ability to form words in their form of communication, animals also have their own unique way of communication, birds chirp and whistle, primates hoot and stamp the ground and wolves or those of the canine family growl, use their ears and tails in their own form of sign language.
Moreover if we compare the system of communication with that of those that are closest to the human race but are not human, this is the primate family, for this comparison we…...
Cultural Schemata Theory:
Together with formal schemata and linguistic schemata, cultural schemata are some of the main types of schema theory, which is a hypothesis on how knowledge is gained and processed. Actually, schema is a technical word used by cognitive supporters to explain how people arrange, process, and store information in their brain. Notably, schemata focus on how people arrange information to long-term memory in relation to experiences, attitudes, values, strategies, skills, and conceptual understanding. The schema theory is founded on the belief that every act of an individual's understanding includes his/her knowledge of the world. The received knowledge is in turn organized into units that contain stores information.
Understanding Cultural Schemata Theory:
Cultural schemata is also known as abstract, story, or linguistic schema and is developed on the basis of people's basic experiences ("Schemata Theory in Learning," n.d.). Cultural schemata theory is described as the pre-existing knowledge about cultural elements of…...
mlaReferences:
Fuhong, T. (2004, April 10). Cultural Schema and Reading Comprehension. Retrieved December 5, 2011, from http://www.celea.org.cn/pastversion/lw/pdf/TanFuhong.pdf
Gilakjani, A.P. & Ahmadi, S.M. (2011. June). The Relationship between L2 Reading
Comprehension and Schema Theory: A Matter of Text Familiarity. Journal of Information and Education Technology, 1(2), pp. 142-149, Retrieved from http://www.ijiet.org/papers/24-K002.pdf
Gudykunst, W.B. (2005). Theorizing about intercultural communication. Thousand Oaks:
Cultural Briefing Document Zurich Switzerland
The LJ Products Co. is proud to announce that one of our executive staff will be joining our staff in Zurich Switzerland in January of 2012. Mr. Didier Burkhalter will be joining our Zurich staff as chief financial officer. Mr. Burkhalter will report directly to the CEO and other members of the board. To make Mr. Burkhalter feel welcome in his new position it is requested that all staff members read the following briefing prior to his arrival and that they become familiar with the customs of Mr. Burkhalter's country of origin. All staff members should extend Mr. Burkhalter a warm welcome by familiarizing themselves with his customs. The following summarizes many of the customs of Swiss society, using American culture as a reference point.
Cultural Dimensions
Hofstede's cultural dimensions is the most widely used system for developing a framework that assesses national cultures and organizational cultures. Hofstede's…...
mlaReferences
COMMUNICAID GROUP LTD. 2009. Doing Busineass in Switzerland: Swiss Social and Business Culture. [online] Available from: [accessed to December 2011}.http://www.communicaid.com/access/pdf/library/culture/doing-business-in/Doing%20Business%20in%20Switzerland.pdf
EDIPLOMAT. 2011. Switzerland. [online] Available from: [accessed to December 2011}.http://www.ediplomat.com/np/cultural_etiquette/ce_ch.htm
EXPATICA. 2011. Management Culture in Switzerland. Expatica.com. [online] Available from: [accessed to December 2011}.http://www.expatica.com/ch/employment/employment_information/Management-culture-in-Switzerland_13331.html
HOFSTEDE, G. 2001. Culture's consequences: Comparing values, behaviors, institutions, and organizations across nations. (2nd ed.) Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Cultural epresentation of Social Class
Social class is a reflection of more than the material conditions of the lives that people live. Objective resources such as income are responsible for shaping up some cultural practices as well as behaviors which signal social class. These signals end up creating cultural identities among the people in the upper and those in the lower classes. This makes people get rooted perceptions that are subjective in terms of social classes. The paper will look at how culture which is related to social class impacts identity and pride within individuals within specific social classes.
Social classes have a great influence on people thoughts, feelings and their actions. Social class is a form of cultural identity which is constituted in various processes. First of all the social class that someone belongs to is determined by symbols such as wealth, preferences and social behaviors such as the language they…...
mlaReferences
Gabrenya, W.K. (2003).Culture and Social class. Retrieved June 26, 2013 from http://my.fit.edu/~gabrenya/social/readings/ses.pdf
Menon, D. (2011).Social class as culture. Retrieved June 26, 2013 from http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/news/releases/social-class-as-culture.html
Cultural Observation of Dress
Why do all humans engage in the act of dressing the body? Consider how dress relates to both the physical and the social needs of the wearer.
Everyone dresses according to social factors and to make themselves more physically appealing to other. This helps them to be seen as hip and enhance their appearance. These variables ensure that the social and individual needs of the person are met. This is when they will have greater amounts of self-confidence. (Eicher, 2008)
f all humans dress themselves for the same basic reasons, why do we look so different from each other? Consider the influences of culture, age, gender, and other factors that distinguish people from one another.
People look different based upon their cultural background, age and gender. These elements are combined together to provide the person with a unique sense of style. This is used to make everyone different from one…...
mlaInside a corporate atmosphere everyone is expected to dress in a suit and tie. This helps them to appear to be more professional. These cultural variations are different from what I wear in normal society. They require distinct ensembles and do not overlap into these areas. (Eicher, 2008)
Update Miner's article on Nacirema (Reading I.2), and describe a currently popular and familiar grooming or dressing activity using Miner's technical writing style. Avoid ordinary words -- that is, lay terminology -- where a more abstract or scientific word will more accurately describe the activity to someone who is totally unfamiliar with the activity. Next, read what you've written and write down your reactions to how this changes your perception of the dressing activity.
Miner's article is discussing the appearance
I. Introduction
II. Body
1. In the intricate tapestry of American society, the issue of gun ownership is often viewed through a lens tinted by racial biases. This essay, titled "Race Colored Lens: Examining Reported Gun Ownership," delves into how these biases not only shape public perception but also influence the statistical reporting and analysis of gun ownership across different racial groups. By exploring the historical context, current data, and the implications of these biases, we aim to uncover the layers of complexity that contribute to the disparities in reported gun ownership rates. This introductory paragraph sets the stage for a comprehensive examination of....
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