On the other hand, the natives of Papua New Guinea dress differently, wear body paint, handmade jewelry, don’t have luxurious items, and use nature…
The Adaptation of the Ju/’hoansi Over the Course of 50 Years In the Dobe Ju/’hoansi written by Richard Lee, Lee writes about a small group called Ju/’hoansi, they know to be one of the world’s best-documented foraging society. Lee was in the field for nearly fifty years working to learning and experiencing their culture, their way of living, seeing their values. Throughout the visits over the years, he got to see the changes happening first on hand. Throughout the book, Lee addresses several values that are important to the Ju/’hoansi’s way of living and how the globalization takes effect over the year he has visited.…
You can learn a lot about someone by the way they tell a story. In Bruce Knauft’s The Gebusi, you can learn a lot about another culture through his eyes. In his book Bruce, presents to the reader stories of a people that will never be the same as they were when he wrote about them. The Gebusi are a cultural group within the Nomad River area of the East Strickland River Plain, Western Province of Papua New Guinea. They live near the northern edge of New Guinea's large south central lowland rain forest.…
Among people and societies different cultures have always been present. Our human capacity for learning, using, and recognizing symbols allows for these cultures to develop and to change. Often times cultures’ beliefs and symbols don’t align with any person not born into that culture. However if that person observes this other culture through open and objective eyes, they can understand the reasons behind other cultural beliefs. Horace Miner’s observations of the Nacirema people in Body Ritual of the Nacirema reveal just how important perspective can be when observing other cultures.…
The article Body Ritual among the Nacirema by Horace Miner is about culture and rituals. Culture is defined as “a system of ideas, values, beliefs, knowledge, norms, customs, and technology shared by almost everyone in a particular society” (Basirico, Cashion, and Eshleman 99). In other words, it’s a way of life in society or a specific geographical area. According to the author, Nacirema is between the Canadian Cree, the Yaqui, and Tarahumare of Mexico, which offer the readers some insight of the true meaning of the text.…
Concerning the Toraja people of Sulawesi, Indonesia and the resentment the grew toward tourist when it came to altering ceremonies to attract tourist, Scollon and Scollon present the reasons for the resentment in the form of four cultural differences. These differences are ideology, socialization, discourse, and face systems. These four cultural differences served as motivation and explanation for the rejection of tourism by the Toraja people. Scollon and Scollon describe ideology as the groups history,, worldview, beliefs, values, and religion.…
In the article “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema,” Miner successfully persuades the audience that American’s fixation and obsession with the body’s appearance and well-being is absurd by using pathos to help persuade the readers to think the same way. He is able to achieve this by allowing his readers to form a view of this “tribe” before they realize mid-way through the essay that this article about people with bizarre customs and rituals are actual modern-day American’s. The author is writing this essay to the general public. He is doing this to inform his readers of a culture called the Nacirema. These people partake in rituals that seem unfamiliar to modern-day humans.…
He notes that the gift exchanging system in the Trobriand Islands is remarkably similar to that of Polynesia’s. This is because people in both regions had the principle of “give and take” in their mindsets when exchanging gifts. Kula is often described as the lesser extensive form of the potlatch. Mauss introduces the practice of Kula by using Malinowski’s explanations of it. Accordingly, kula is presented as the Trobriand word that refers to the ceremonial trade system.…
Different cultures have their own symbols which have specific meaning that pertain their traditions and way of life. Clifford Geertz's Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight manifests the notion that cultures possess rituals that are implicit, resulting in anthropologists attempting to interpret the importance of customs embedded in specific cultures. In the article, it is emphasized that cockfight is one of the significant rituals in the Balinese culture. While being perceived as a simple activity within the community, it holds a much complex meaning that is distinct to the Balinese culture. In the beginning of the article, it displayed the difficulty that Geertz and his wife experienced due to being perceived as outsiders in Bali.…
A gift is viewed as an expression and maintenance of relationships, whereby the objects (gifts) do not hold any monetary value but rather is an expression of sentiment and cultural love. The ideology of the gift in Euro-America according to (Carrier, 1990, p.19-37) is a “reflection of socio-economic situation in which people find themselves in different economic significances of productive and familial relation.” Gifts create and maintain social groups in society, Mauss speaks about the different manner in which gift exchange in Polynesia, Melanesia and North West America. In Samoa there is a system of contractual gifts confined to events such as marriage, childbirth, circumsion, sickness, puberty, funeral ceremonies and trade.…
In Maria Chona’s “Autobiography of a Papago Women” (1936), the author speaks in detail about the Folkways of the Papago people and their change and continuity in the face of encounters with other cultures over the centuries. Maria Chona was very closely connected to the land being that she grew up amongst the desert. Culture was a great deal to her and her family since they followed the traditions that were performed by past generations. However, throughout the years the culture became civilized. There was also acts of extreme cruelty and brutality amongst the Papago and Apache people.…
The importance of cultural concepts in Māori society is evident in the influence they have on governance, social and economic exchange. There are many culture concepts that are important within Māori society, but this essay will analyse three. Firstly, rāhui (restriction). Rāhui is placed by the mana (power) of a person and would stay there until it is lifted and no unauthorised people are allowed to enter the place where the rāhui is placed upon. Second culture concept is manaaki (hospitality).…
Geertz published The Interpretation of Cultures, proposing new ways to theorize culture and new tactics for conducting fieldwork. The final chapter of his book, which will be the basis for this comparison, is an in depth examination of cockfighting in Balinese culture. In contrast to Hurston, Geertz’s narration of his experiences in the Balinese villages does not utilize dialogue to incorporate the voices of his informants. Take, for example, a brief excerpt from Geertz’s recounting of a police raid at a…
t some point during our lives we haven given a gift. Whenever it be a grand gesture, or merely something to say thank you. There is no denying the recipients enjoy great pleasure when receiving the gift. Gift giving is an important part of our lives, we have manifested holidays or specific days designed as excuses to fork out hard earn money for mostly inoperable items such as deep fryers or ties. Scholars believe that as an activity, gift-giving plays as highly important role in the economic surplus and the consumer goods industry of countries around the world and deserves to be understood (Cheal 1998).…
My topic is on Bhaca society and they are a compact ethnic group located in South Africa. Specifically, they are part of the Nguni origin and are located in a country called East Griqualand brimming with mountains. Bhaca life exists in a district referred as Mount Frere. The district of Mount Frere is where the Bhaca found a permanent home. Mount Frere is located in the country of East Griqualand, it is between 3,000 and 6,000 feet above sea level, and around forty five miles from the coast.…