Anthro Videos

Front 1

Margaret Mead

Back 1

o 1. Who was Margaret Mead’s advisor/professor?
o 2. Where did Mead first study and what was the focus of her research?
o 3. What were some of the controversies surrounding her book Coming of Age in Samoa?
o 4. What did Mead study on Pere Island in Manus?
o 5. How did Mead conduct her field research?
o 6. What did Mead study in New Guinea?
o 7. What did she study in Bali?
o 8. How did Pere Island change after WWII?
o 9. How does Mead’s fieldwork follow or differ from what you’ve read in Yanomamo and Haviland’s text, what we’ve discussed in class, and what you will see in the upcoming ethnographic videos? This question you will need to think about as we continue to go through cultural anthropology.
o 10. How has anthropology changed since the beginning of Mead’s fieldwork career?
o 11. What were some of the problems Mead ran into with the anthropological community? What were the criticisms of her work?

Front 2

Ongka

Back 2

o Where is the video set?
• Papua New Guinea Kaweka
o How does Ongka go about performing his moka? How does his having many wives aid in this?
• Wives look after the pigs, pigs live with people
• Used to plan attacks, pig giving
o How is being a “Big Man” different from being a “Chief” in anthropological terms?
• No authority only persuades
o What do you see throughout the video that represents traditional Highland culture and western, industrialized culture?
• Assembly, men suit, paper dollars, trucks
o How are all of the following tied together in the video? (Environment, economic system, marriage/kinship, status/wealth, social structure, warfare, subsistence, settlement, political system)
• Pig giving
o How is moka a form of reciprocity? Redistribution? Where do you see examples of a market economy?
• Return Moka from earlier gift
o What is the purpose of a moka for a big man? For the community?
• Gain fame and status, social environment
o Where do you see examples of negative reciprocity?
• Attacking enemy if big man is killed
o How is this video similar/different from what you have seen of Yanomamo culture?
• Use much of the environment to survive, warfare is common among enemies, belief in sorcery, Moka is a framework

Front 3

Asante

Back 3

o What economic system is practiced among the Asante of Ghana?
• Bartering and price fitting
o Who has control of the markets?
• Women and her family
o What roles do men and women play in Asante society?
• Men role is labor and security, women in charge
o What marriage practices do you observe?
• Wives live separately from husband
o What is the role of the queen mother in the market?
• She has authority over the price of yams, she settles disputes daily and can give out punishments
o How are the following tied together in the video? (Environment, subsistence, settlement, political system, conflict resolution, Economic system, marriage/kinship, gender roles/division of labor, status/wealth, social structure)
• Market place
o What elements of “traditional life” and western influence do you observe in the video?
• School, paper money, Christianity and Asante religion, cars
o How is this video similar/different from “Ongka’s Big Moka”? How is it similar/different from what you have seen of Australian Aboriginal life?
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o What does it mean that Asante society is matrilineal?
• King inherits from mothers family, all members of royal family are from mothers side
o As seen in “Asante Market Women” and “Ongka’s Big Moka”, marriage is polygamous (more specifically polygynous). What are views in these societies of marriage and its purpose, spousal roles, sex, and love? Are they similar or different from ours in the US? How?
• Marriage is for political reasons, sex is done as a sexual routine where the male rotates between his wives
o How has education changed life for Asante females?
• Education will improve mothers as well as children, women prosper because of their children, school helps women to brake out of traditional role of women

Front 4

Pygmies

Back 4

o Where do pygmies live?
• Central African Republic
o What forms of cultural systems do you see in the video (subsistence, settlement, marriage, etc.)?
• Nomadic living, men and women are considered equal
o What are pygmy houses made of?
• Small branches and leaves from surrounding environment
o What are the children’s, women’s and men’s activities like?
• Men hunt, women build houses and raise children and mothers make baskets and skirts from weaving
o Why do the pygmies go into Bantu towns?
• Receive plantation foods (tobacco, razor blades), they go to Bantu to heard
o What kinds of tools/technology do the pygmies use for everyday activities?
• Machete, wooden bowls, stick shovel to collect bulbs from ground, axe/hammer
o What are some of the problems facing pygmies?
• Deforestation and the industrial revolution
o How is the video similar to/different from the book Yanomamö? (Both are forms of ethnographic studies).
• Similar- live in jungle, nomadic, both danger of extinction
• Different- size difference, different continents

Front 5

Healers of Ghana

Back 5

o How are both Western Medicine and traditional medicine among the Bono people of Ghana in conflict? How are the healers trying to reconcile these conflicting views?
o How are witchcraft and spiritual possession a part of Bono cultural medicine?
o How is illness healed?
o Where do you see the interplay between medical/ magical systems in this society and other cultural systems?
o How is this video representative of medical anthropology, ethnomedical studies, and applied anthropology?
o Do you see any evidence for rites of intensification?
o What methods of getting in contact with the supernatural world do you see in the video? Can anyone get in contact with the spiritual world?