Assault On Paradise Chapter Summary

Assault on Paradise: Social Change in a Brazilian Village is a revision in ethnography use of Conrad Kottak’s time during the rapid iconic and social change in Arembepe, Brazil. Conrad Phillip Kottak, now a Professor and Chair of Anthropology at the University of Michigan decided to go out and explore the village of Arembepe, Brazil. During that time, he was a participant in the Colombia Summer Field Studies program in Anthropology, as an undergraduate. During his time in the village, beginning in 1962, he explored the culture of anthropology in Arembepe, a fishing village close to the coast in Brazil. Exploring anthropological views, we see how the impact of modernization, mass media, and events that occurred in the community affected during the 1900’s. At times repetitive, due to his back and forward trips to Arembepe, Kottak shows the honest story of the ecological degradation and social benefits of the changing village, at times presenting himself as just a man, rather than a scholar. …show more content…
Kottak makes it a point to tell the story of an ecological degradation due to social benefits and the changes that are rapidly occurring. We see the values towards work, iconic inequality towards men and women, economic division, manufacturing labor, tourism, fishing, and the introduction to the new technology. As readers, we can connect with how Arembepe’s values the word of family, trying to embrace the new technologies. Although Kottak doesn’t realize it in the beginning, the maturation of the fishing industry and the growth of the city itself actually helps the Village become what it is today. The community begins to notice plumbing, electricity, and tourism brought by new