Marvin Harris

It is difficult to judge different societies because what might be the norm in emic perspective, can be seen as strange from an etic perspective. Ponijao was cleaned by his mother saliva and Bayarjargal had his face washed by his mother’s breast milk. These might seem as strange acts from a western perspective. On the other hand, they are considered normal in an emic perspective. The film rarely shows any clear interaction of the father in the Mongolian sitting also, but it shows prominent father interactions in the Japanese and American ones. The film shows that there are no underlying basic differences between these four different cultures. The mother, in all these cultures, has the main role in this demanding task, the father’s rule is not visible in some cultures such as Namibian and Mongolian, but it is clearly prominent in modern societies such as the Japanese and American sittings. The Namibian and Mongolian cases remind me of what my father used to tell me about the upbringing of children in his generation more than half a century ago in Saudi Arabia. Children were rarely cared for in the way they are cared for now which is almost similar to the Japanese and American cases. He points all the time to the advantages, as he claims (!), and to the many experiences that he acquired during his childhood. He emphasizes in particular self –reliance and shouldering responsibility from early age. It seems unfair for the Namibian child to be brought up in such a poor…

Studying the human culture with looking into another culture from an up-close and clear perspective can make us understand a better meaning of their culture and their way of living. By looking at another culture without being objective or biased can be a burden for most people. With that said, we must use emic and etic perspectives to study their culture. Emic is a perspective from an insider’s view examining a culture from the inside of the culture itself. Etic perspective is studying the…

Emotional granularity is the ability to describe one’s emotional experiences while being sensitive to both valence and level of arousal. For instance, those high in emotional granularity can effectively distinguish anger and sadness from a general unpleasantry, or excitement versus calmness from feeling “good.” The most common method used to assess emotional granularity is to have participants rate the intensity (e.g., 1 = very slightly, 5 = extremely) to which they experience a variety of…

In The Cultural Ecology of India’s Sacred Cattle, Marvin Harris describes the Hindu sacredness of cows as being more influenced by economy than theology. He calculates the economic advantages and disadvantages of cows and the consequences of illegalizing cow slaughter, without considering the possibility that these may have come from theology. In the first paragraph, Harris admits that he has never been to India and all of his research is based off of reading. He admits this may lead to some…

Introduction: “Good to Eat: Riddles of Food and Culture” is the title of the book which was written by Marvin Harris in 1985. “Small Things” is a chapter of this book in which the author Marvin Harris has described the facts about cultural norms and use of insects as a source of food in different cultures. He clearly describes why people eat insects in some cultures and why some cultures especially western are against eating insects as food. According to Harris people eat the things as a food…

My life is perfect, I have the perfect family, the perfect friends, and the perfect house. I was thinking to myself. School just started for the day and I was sitting in homeroom. It was a beautiful Thursday morning and I couldn 't wait for the weekend because my family and I always go to the pumpkin patch. The bell rang and the teacher walked in. A couple minutes later the announcements came on the loudspeaker. Blah, blah, blah, I thought to myself. Announcements were so boring, all they…

themes. Top 40 hit songs performed by The Weekend include "Can 't Feel My Face," "The Hills," and "Earned It" have all earned a place in the top 5 of Billboard 's The Hot 100. Since The Weeknd is a Billboard topper and is musically similar to Frank Ocean, Jesse will probably also enjoy Frank Ocean and Channel Orange. Many influential artists for Ocean are also artists Jesse enjoys listening to. MTV lists Ocean 's influences as being Beyonce, Marvin Gaye, Mos Def, Prince, Kanye West, Pharrell…

Since my birth, my curiosity of Waylon Pallidum has been insatiable. Waylon is not a part of our family, but he has been practically adopted. The long story short about Waylon, and this will confuse you - he has been alive for centuries, and he will never die. No, that is not a metaphor, this is not a poem. Waylon is not a prized possession that has esteemed a title worth personifying. Waylon is not a creative way I’ve decided to express my mind’s ability. Waylon is a human, a person who has…

In this week’s module, we learned about Motown Records and its founder Barry Gordy. I believe that Gordy’s vision during Motown’s early years was the driving force behind its phenomenal success. The time he spent working at the Ford assembly plant influenced his vision. He watched sheet metal transform into automobiles on the assembly line. He applied this concept to the artists that Motown signed. He gave them the tools that they needed to be world-class artists, accepted by the white…

After dinner, coffee was served in the “Petit Salon”. The Baron de Valfort offered a glass of Charteuse to the ladies. Afterwards, he called Étienne, and speaking in his ear, gave him some mysterious orders. I could not make out what he had whispered to his valet, however, I did not have to wait long to learn what he had been so cagey about. “My friends,” he said, raising his arms, in a high gesture, meant to capture our attention, “you are, in a moment, ‘a vintage moment’, if I may say so,…