Art n'such

Having taken a look at the online gallery at http://www.alaskaindianarts.com/
one can see that the typical works of art displayed are mostly animals done in the style of the indigenous peoples of the Alaskan and pacific region. The blending of indigenous forms with the Japanese technique of silk screening provides the best of both worlds. The use of limited print preserves the integrity of the work by avoiding the western habit of mass production. I believe all art has certain ethnographic properties because one's culture inevitably shapes one's view of the natural and physical world; that might be one of the very defining characteristics of culture is the many representations and manifestations of the human condition.

The art viewed still has that commercial appeal in that it fulfills the western buyer with that popular motif -here is a bird...here is that same bird crazy native style with swirls and archetypical designs. But it is still beautiful if not completely original in style, original in execution.

I do not believe that the artist is really attempting to produce the high art characteristic of Bernini or Rodan, but attempting to produce something visually appealing in which he is largely successful. The web gallery ends with a blerb about the proceeds going to help preserve the artistic tradition of the indigenous Alaskins'.I believe that aim, to preserve the institution that preserves the art is what is really important.

Get out you're on the Diamonds

The indigenous people of Botswana, the San, are under pressure to leave their ancestral home.(http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=37858)The article focuses on the "Botswana government's campaign to remove 5,000 San people from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve to clear the way for diamond mining." The San have cultural and spiritual claim to to the land and "anthropologists say they are the oldest inhabitants of the region, having a traceable record of over 20,000 years in southern Africa." This misuse of government power is forcing the San to become an internally displaced people. The article reports that the government is refusing UN and human rights group's intervention. The San won a court hearing but the government is still trying to stop them from returning to the land. The people lack agency to stem the mechanism of physical coercive force exerted by the strong arm of the government that should be fulfilling a role to protect the people under it's jurisdiction. This article, although from 2007, paints the picture of the San as victims but one can't help but wonder if the discovery of a large amount of diamonds, if mined in an environmentally safe way might not raise the standard of living for the whole country. It's a difficult topic because the mining might have a trickle down effect on the populous and provide strong economical growth. Are the ancestral rights of small minority cultures, however strong the ties are, worth the possible advancement of the dominant cultural majority? It's a slippery slope indeed.

Tattoos and scarification

Tattoos, body piercing and scarification for centuries have been a mechanism for proclaiming difference in satus and social grouping among many culture groups. http://tattoos.com/mieko.htm explains that tattoos in Japan as early as 500BCE served two primary functions such as "a mark of distinction on a man of very high status, and the other is to identify criminals." Such body modifications allow people to communicate with out the use of words; as in the case of the Tahitian's (http://tattoos.com/allen/TATAU.htm) people used these modifications to "indicate a young girl's sexual maturity, freedom from food tapus and other restrictions, [and]genealogy". Body modification in any format separates those from the unmodified establishing a sense of us and them. Body modification may also serve as a ritual or a right of passage into manhood or a celebration of a battle won. Different social groups, both primary,secondary, formal and informal are proclaimed. Establishing different groups in various cultures is very important because they help to reinforce the culture's wolrdview and provide permanence and order both socially and in the cosmos. I have three tattoos and a few piercings and to me they represent different stages in my life, different lesson I have learned just like emotions and intellectual lessons are indelibly etched on my psyche so are these etched upon my body.

Shamanism

Having read the interview with Michael Harner (http://www.shamanism.org/articles/article01page1.html) I find it the most compelling to date. I can't help but be swayed by his view of his universe and the supernatural. According to Harner a shaman is "a person who makes journeys to nonordinary reality in an altered state of consciousness." Harner notes that shamanism is "not a belief system" and "not a religion" but a method of interaction with an unseen world. I don't see any problem with fact that he believes what he studies because anthropology is not a hard science, anthropology, in my opinion, deals solely with subjectivity. Also how is Harner's belief different from the deductive approach to research; where a hypothesis is posed, data collected and assessed then related to the original hypothesis. A researcher often seeks to validate his own hypothesis or already has evidence (or assumptions) which originally led to hypothesis. The findings of a christian anthropologist studying Christianity are just as valid as a non-christian in the same field of study because problems must be tackled from all angles to gain the fullest possible understanding into the breadth and scope of the issue.

Blogg goes to jail

There are many self-help groups available for prison inmates and their families and victims as outlined http://www.cfcn-rcafd.org/text/cfcn.html Some of the services offered are that of the Canadian Families and Corrections network (or CFCN) Their goal is "Building stronger and safer communities by assisting families affected by criminal behavior, incarceration and community reintegration." This organization offers counseling, virtual tours of the institution, an E-newsletter, and a resource toolkit developed specifically for federally sentenced women and their families as they prepare for reintegration into the family and the community. There are many opportunities for study by a cultural anthropologist in the corrections system. Prisoners are a social group because they are a cluster of people beyond a domestic group related on grounds other than kinship. They represent a primary group, like inmates in the same cell block. Or a secondary group like families and victims of inmates who share a common bond but never meet each other personally.Someone said you can tell a lot about a culture by how they treat their criminals. Rehabilitation not incarceration need be the central focus of our judicial system. Anthropologists may wish to study the correlation between criminal behavior and social stratification. Cultural anthropologists may also wish to study prison culture, rehabilitation, status and roles both inside and outside prison walls.

Culture- Bound Syndomes in China

Timothy McCajor reports on the phenomena of culture-bound syndromes in modern China. The author goes on to describe such syndromes as Koro, the famous genital retraction syndrome where the afflicted believes their genitals are retracting into their bodies. The author notes that, "local tradition adds the warning that such an occurrence is usually fatal." Other examples of CMS's include Shenkui, semen loss and excessive Yin (negative/female energy)The symptoms vary in each affliction and modern medical anthropologists are attracted to this phenomena. Western culture seems to love to classify things and provide a comprehensive etic explanation for all culturally emic occurrences. The article supports my supposition by claiming that they "have been of interest to medical anthropologists and ethnopsychiatrists in that they do not have a one-to-one correspondence with a disorder recognized by Western [medicine]" It is this quest for a "one-to-one" explantation of these CBS's that I find to be most troubling. Clearly not all cultures are analogous on a one-to-one basis. Doctors are too quick to label such CBS's like the Windigo as hysteria or psychosis or even hallucinations. Thankfully the author concludes that "The concept is problematic, however, in that it is not a homogeneous category, and the designation of 'culture-bound' can imply that the illness is somehow 'not real', or that a patient's experience can be dismissed as merely exotic."
Often new diseases have only surfaced in specific geographic regions (like malaria, or Ebola) so it is naive to assume that western culture is so prevalent and knowledgeable as to be able to explain and categorize all afflictions everywhere.

http://homepage.mac.com/mccajor/cbs_intro.html

post #6

Will Roscoe's 1991 book "The Zuni Man-Woman" highlights the prestigious role of women in Zuni culture. More so, Roscoe discusses the berdache tradition with the Zuni. The reading describes a berdache as "men who do woman's work and wear woman's dress." Although the Zuni have clearly defined gender roles the propensity of the berdache tradition further shows that gender roles are acquired culturally, not inherited biologically.
The Zuni people follow a matrilinial descent and hold a matrilocal residence.Men were often absent from the house altogether. The high status of women shape how the Zuni view their world. Where in our western culture blurred gender roles are often met with disdain and scorn. The article shows that the Zuni berdache is a respected member of the community often "working twice as hard as any man or women."
The ongoing struggle of gays and lesbians in today's western culture, especially with same sex couples adoption, has brought to light the argument that children being exposed to a household without a strong male role model can lead to gender confusion. Roscoe reports that "Zuni boys were asked who they would like to be if they could change themselves into anything else, 10 percent wanted to be their sisters or mothers." Is this trend is further evidence of confusion and gender distortion or "simply as a reflection of the prestige of female roles."
Where sex is biological gender is clearly a social and cultural construct.

http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/onlyDifferent.txt