Mixed Blood by Jeffrey M Fish

Kirsty Anne Prescott

April 30th( Due April 30th)

ANT1001 TV24A

Accounting (2nd year)

Mixed Blood by Jeffrey M Fish

Jeffrey Fish's Mixed blood has made me now question the social classes and categories that i have known all my life. Race as can be defined by Britannica as the term that denotes a division of human kind possessing traits that are transmissible by descent and sufficient to characterize it as a distinct human type, example Caucasoid or Negroid. However, this definition that i use to categorize people i meet everyday has now become null and void from reading Fish's piece.

Fish present the two varying definitions of Race from Brazil and United States. The United States has used race as a form of social construct that allows them to categorise individuals on not on their appearance, but by their fore parents. Whereas Brazilians are categorized by the way they look. This presents a case for individuals who may move from Brazil to America. Is the identity that they held for themselves in Brazil now lost because of the differences in the definition of Race?

It now makes me think about the context of Race in my country Trinidad and Tobago , the main racial categories are black or Indian, because that is what the population is comprised of. The number of whites and Asian descendants are limited. However, i am now a resident in the United States and have been characterized as African American, but why can't i be African Caribbean? I don't consider my self American, but i have to conform to America's racial segments.

Racial stratification impacts social inequality especially people of mixed blood. The example that Fish gave of an octoroon who is 1/8 black and 7/8 black is given the derogatory race as black. In times where racial standings were the determinants of jobs and place of residents , these individuals who were not born into a group , but branded by their inferior blood were given the inferior jobs and were categorized as inferior.

As Fish said, race is just a way to justify the exclusion of one particular group of people from others who felt it was necessary. It has no biological or physical reasoning behind it.

Bibliography

Jeffery M Fish, "Mixed Blood". Conformity and Conflict Special Ed. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc.2008.

Baseball Magic by George Gmelch

Kirsty Anne Prescott
April 24th(Due Date April 23)
ANT1001 TV24A
Accounting( 2nd yr.)

Baseball Magic by George Gmelch

George Gmelch's piece Baseball magic is a classic example of a piece makes you rethink what you thought you knew. I would have never linked a relationship between Religion and the practices that baseball teams or individuals have on a day to day basis. It has now become evidently clear that these practices, whether it be eating in a particular spot everyday, or going to church faithfully every Sunday, have tremendous effects on our everyday lives.

Gmelch who presents his case with American baseball players, shows the various taboos and fetishes that these players have and they believe that these rituals are linked to their winning or losing a game. The most alarming factor is that these professional players forget or rather ignore the fact that they posses true abilities and skill, which is how they go onto the team in the first place. They idolize prized possession that they believe give them luck and the lack of these rituals or failure of these rituals doesn't stop them, but merely makes them create new ones to fit their needs. It is as if their skills got them into the sport, but their rituals keep them playing!

These players are not too far from me in my everyday life. If i studied in a particular way and earned good grades, it is more likely that i will continue this study practice and it then becomes a ritual until it fails and i create another one. It seems to be a common trend with the human species, it is how we make sense of the unknown.

Throughout Gmelch ethnography the most common trend that these players had was that they were trying to have control over what they deemed uncontrollable. These rituals gave them stability and hope that they have some effects over reality and even if the winning or losing the game had no co-relation, the fact that they might be able to control the outcome was thrilling.

Overall, we all part take in rituals on a daily basis , whether it be brushing our top teeth before the bottom, eating the skin off the fried chicken last, and it helps us cope with the day to day uncertainties of life. My main conclusion , it is not the power of the rituals that make us satisfied, but the power we give to the rituals that make us feel like we are in control and are masters of uncertainty.

Bibliography

Glench, George. "Baseball Magic." Mc Curdley and Spradley. Conformity and Conflict Special Ed:Person Education Inc.2008

KirstyAnne Prescott
April 22nd(Due date March 26th)
ANT 1001 TV24A Gaunt
Accounting Major(second yr.)

Mother's Love: Death without Weeping

Nancy Schepher's piece Mother's Love is a mind blogging piece that has me questioning my judgment of love everyday. Schepher is an anthropologist who from time to time studies the relationships between mothers and their new born babies in a poverty-stricken area called Bom Jesus da Mata in Brazil. In this society it seems that survival of the fitness is the overall theme. Babies who are ill or have a slim chance of surviving are left to die. "That is harsh and inhumane", one of my friends told to me after i shared this story with her. But is it really? In my own grinding these mothers are "loving" they babies in their own way.
It is generally society's doctrine that your parents do what is best, and in these circumstances these mothers have provided as much as they could. This village has no beneficial resources or even proper health services,neither do they have our society's precious health coverage plan. These mothers do their best everyday and have realized that this is no world for the weak! These mothers rather give their little "angels" back to heaven than let them suffer a dreadful life full of pain and sickness.
Sometimes we often point fingers at other who we think are strange and many of us may consider the neglect of these children as Taboo, but do we ever fry fish the same exact way? So why do these mothers have to conform to our society's notion of love? Not because they don't mourn the way we do does not make them less human. This is a subculture in the many cultures that make up Brazil, and this practice of putting more focus on healthy babies than weaker ones have existed for centuries.
In a sense i think if these mothers were to go against their teaching and cry and mourn for days, they would be looked down upon. They are just trying to cope in their environment and do the best they can with the labor-intensive under-paid jobs that they have. They are not complaining. Why should we? We can never cast judgment on anyone, unless we are in their shoes!!!!