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…

matter what color. Berry Gordy, who is the father of Motown tried many occupations like a boxer, a record store owner, and even an auto worker. He didn’t have any luck, so he decided to try having a record label. He started out with a loan of $800 from his family, and with that money he created Hitsville U.S.A. founded in 1959, in Detroit, Michigan. He discovered Smokey Robinson and the Miracles in 1957, and then he started building his group of artists. Just within a couple years this record…

1. What ideas or points did I identify with this week? Some ideas/points I identified this week are the pros/cons of being a freelance musician and challenges ones is faced with as a musician. A freelance musician is an independent worker who performs for a living. This musician may perform at parties, clubs, studio recordings, hotels, formal concerts, etc. One must also take in count how much expenses are when one is a freelancer. Some may even need a second job. 2. What ideas or points…

To get the listeners attention, the Blacked Eyed Peas start their song “Where is the Love?” with a question. When you start a song with a question, it makes the listener think that something important is going on. Although this song came out eleven years ago, it continues to have relevance today. The fact that people still listen to the song today means that it has had an impact in their lives. Three rhetorical ideas that are in this song are logos, ethos and pathos. Logos is the basic logic…

police killing young black men like ,Michael Brown, Tamir rice and Trayvon Martin. These are the same issues Marvin Gaye called out in 1971 in his iconic song What is going on? “Marvin starts the song by saying Mother, mother There's too many of you crying Brother, brother, brother There's far too many of you dying You know we've got to find a way To bring some lovin' here today.” When this song was written America was involved in the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement was alive and…

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…