Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Life without Fathers or Husbands
Kirsty Anne Prescott
March18th( Due March 19th)
Ant 1001 TV24A/ Gaunt
Clifford Geertz: Life without Fathers and Husbands
Can you imagine a place where marriage, jealously towards partners and even husbands don't exist? Well there was once such a place. Geertz did a review of anthropologist Cia Hua who conducted field work on the Na tribal group of Southern China. This group like no other had a matrilineal meaning all the mothers and her sisters and their offspring shared the same household and in this culture it was called Consanguineous(Geertz 78).
Geertz stated" There is no marriage in fact or word. Sexual intercourse takes place between casual or opportunistic lovers"(Geertz 76). It is there custom for a man to routinely visit a woman in the middle of the night without fear of persecution. It is astonishing to know that there consider incest to be taboo, however, "A man is free to sleep with his mother's brother's daughter"( Geetz,77).
The most thrilling part of this story was why the man had to visit the woman, instead of being vise versa. It is said if a woman may never visit a man because she may be scorned. This form of social duty was created by their God who was in charge of setting the rules Abaodgu. He did an experiment where he sent a woman to a man's house. In order to reach the man she had to make her way through 9 doors, and at dawn she had gotten through 7 of them. The experiment was repeated with a man in quest for a woman and he only made through 3 doors. Abaodgu thus concluded that women were too passionate to do the visiting( Geertz, 80).
It is really sad to confess that we who consider ourselves "normal people" always seek to change anything that does not coincide with our norms. The People's Republic of China staged there first move against the Na tribe's tradition, by trying to encourage the formation of nuclear families(Geertz,81). It was eventually made law that all qualifying counterparts must be married and if not you were considered as an outcast. Geertz stated " This change was ruinous for the Na"(Geertz,82), and I must agree. This "Cultural Revolution" robbed them of their culture and forced them to be ascribed to what was considered normal.
Biography
Conformity and Conflict, David McCurdy, James Spradley-Life without Fathers and Husbands by Clifford Geertz (75-83).
March18th( Due March 19th)
Ant 1001 TV24A/ Gaunt
Clifford Geertz: Life without Fathers and Husbands
Can you imagine a place where marriage, jealously towards partners and even husbands don't exist? Well there was once such a place. Geertz did a review of anthropologist Cia Hua who conducted field work on the Na tribal group of Southern China. This group like no other had a matrilineal meaning all the mothers and her sisters and their offspring shared the same household and in this culture it was called Consanguineous(Geertz 78).
Geertz stated" There is no marriage in fact or word. Sexual intercourse takes place between casual or opportunistic lovers"(Geertz 76). It is there custom for a man to routinely visit a woman in the middle of the night without fear of persecution. It is astonishing to know that there consider incest to be taboo, however, "A man is free to sleep with his mother's brother's daughter"( Geetz,77).
The most thrilling part of this story was why the man had to visit the woman, instead of being vise versa. It is said if a woman may never visit a man because she may be scorned. This form of social duty was created by their God who was in charge of setting the rules Abaodgu. He did an experiment where he sent a woman to a man's house. In order to reach the man she had to make her way through 9 doors, and at dawn she had gotten through 7 of them. The experiment was repeated with a man in quest for a woman and he only made through 3 doors. Abaodgu thus concluded that women were too passionate to do the visiting( Geertz, 80).
It is really sad to confess that we who consider ourselves "normal people" always seek to change anything that does not coincide with our norms. The People's Republic of China staged there first move against the Na tribe's tradition, by trying to encourage the formation of nuclear families(Geertz,81). It was eventually made law that all qualifying counterparts must be married and if not you were considered as an outcast. Geertz stated " This change was ruinous for the Na"(Geertz,82), and I must agree. This "Cultural Revolution" robbed them of their culture and forced them to be ascribed to what was considered normal.
Biography
Conformity and Conflict, David McCurdy, James Spradley-Life without Fathers and Husbands by Clifford Geertz (75-83).
Friday, March 6, 2009
Life Without Chiefs
Kirsty Anne Prescott
March 6th( Due March 5th)
Ant 1001 TV24A/ Gaunt
Marvin Harris: Life without Chiefs
Marvin Harris' Life without Chiefs brought to light a great phenomena which I was not aware of. Harris claimed that for about 98 percent of our existence as a species, most of our ancestors were hunting and gathering bands containing no more than 50 people (Harris,96). He continues by showing how effectively these bands functioned without the everyday norms of judges,policemen and many others whom our society greatly relies on.
In Harris' piece he says the reason that these small group were functioning so effectively was because of there principle of reciprocity. As he states,"In reciprocal exchange, people do not specify how much or exactly what they expected to get back or when they expect it back(Harris,96)." He gives an example of another ethonographer Robert Dentan who worked in Semi of Central Malaysia, where it is impolite to say Thank you for the meat porvided from another hunter. It is impolite because it suggests, " That one has calculated the gift and that one did not expect the donor to be so generous(Harris,99)." This is so different from our present time where it is impolite not to say thank you for anything given to us.
This change led me to think that it had to do with the changes from headman, to big man and then finally to chiefs. The village man's quest was not one of power, his only job was to lead by example. They gave more of what they had to everyone else and it then became competition between many village men who can give more generously and thus big men arose. Big men had also struggled with competitors for generosity and the reciprocity was change when chiefs arose. Not only did the chiefs have dominion over multiple villages, but the villagers were now giving to them instead of the reverse( Harris'99-101).
"From peaceful origins, humans created and mounted a wild beast that ate continents (Harris, 102). This line sums it up, the rise of political systems have changed the way we operated as society and can not be reversed. However, I pose the question, Can we ever go back to the times of Village men? Would it change the quest for power and greed that we now posses?
Bibliography: Harris, Marvin. “Life Without Chiefs” In Conformity and Conflict: Reading to Accompany Miller, Cultural Anthropology, 4 ed., ed. Spradley and McCurdy. Pearson, 2008, Chapter 10.
March 6th( Due March 5th)
Ant 1001 TV24A/ Gaunt
Marvin Harris: Life without Chiefs
Marvin Harris' Life without Chiefs brought to light a great phenomena which I was not aware of. Harris claimed that for about 98 percent of our existence as a species, most of our ancestors were hunting and gathering bands containing no more than 50 people (Harris,96). He continues by showing how effectively these bands functioned without the everyday norms of judges,policemen and many others whom our society greatly relies on.
In Harris' piece he says the reason that these small group were functioning so effectively was because of there principle of reciprocity. As he states,"In reciprocal exchange, people do not specify how much or exactly what they expected to get back or when they expect it back(Harris,96)." He gives an example of another ethonographer Robert Dentan who worked in Semi of Central Malaysia, where it is impolite to say Thank you for the meat porvided from another hunter. It is impolite because it suggests, " That one has calculated the gift and that one did not expect the donor to be so generous(Harris,99)." This is so different from our present time where it is impolite not to say thank you for anything given to us.
This change led me to think that it had to do with the changes from headman, to big man and then finally to chiefs. The village man's quest was not one of power, his only job was to lead by example. They gave more of what they had to everyone else and it then became competition between many village men who can give more generously and thus big men arose. Big men had also struggled with competitors for generosity and the reciprocity was change when chiefs arose. Not only did the chiefs have dominion over multiple villages, but the villagers were now giving to them instead of the reverse( Harris'99-101).
"From peaceful origins, humans created and mounted a wild beast that ate continents (Harris, 102). This line sums it up, the rise of political systems have changed the way we operated as society and can not be reversed. However, I pose the question, Can we ever go back to the times of Village men? Would it change the quest for power and greed that we now posses?
Bibliography: Harris, Marvin. “Life Without Chiefs” In Conformity and Conflict: Reading to Accompany Miller, Cultural Anthropology, 4 ed., ed. Spradley and McCurdy. Pearson, 2008, Chapter 10.
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