#14. Globalized communities

The San People where living in their small, sustainable community when the government started to relocate them (making them victims of development-induced displacement). The reason for the relocation was to utilize the land for diamond exploration, as well as a space for wildlife and tourism. While going to court, they “The government has maintained that the emphasis has always been on persuasion and voluntary relocation”. The government lost 2\1 with the judges. Allowing the Sans people to return to their home. However, there where flaws in the return. The government was “not obliged to provide basic services”. They also took away the donkeys they had attained as an alternate mode of transportation for the water. Many people did not move back, creating diaspora communities.
I think that the government was definitely in the wrong. They tried to force globalization upon a community by moving them around. They took away their land, and when it was finally returned to them, took away what they had provided as basic needs. Basic needs should be accessible to anyone who wants them from a government. To me this is breaking human rights.
I think its great that the Sans people fought back. I think its also great that they continue to fight as they are living in the conditions they are (without the help of the government to retrieve basic needs, in particular, water.) Although not everyone moved back, its great that they had the option.

#12. Communication

The Canela people use body modification as a form of social responsibility. The most important aspect of their body modification is the boys ears. The opening of the ears occurs between the ages of 10-15 and is a rite of passage with a small ritual done in the shade in the front of the mothers house. T“Canela say that boys with open ears are more receptive to the knowledge revealed to them by their elders, it is believe to rise their social status,” It is also believed that this makes them more attractive to females, who then watch them and they “wouldn't act foolishly, nor talk badly to anyone, because he knew that the women were always watching him.”
Now the Canela do not practice ear piercing as it was looked down upon by the Brazilian whom they wanted to impress because they believed it would always end in violence if they did not conform. On the contrary, in North America body modification is done to be counter cultural. It is not exactly looked down upon (anymore) however there are certainly things that are classified as strange. It is slowly being adapted into our culture. There are not really any rituals revolving around body modification in North America. The majority of people who get tattoos are young adults.
I believe body modification is someone choice. If the Canela people wanted to continue practicing such methods nobody should tell them not to. They should not feel as though they need to conform to resist violence. The thing that gets to me is that they stretch their ears, where now in North America (although we may not go to the same extreme)we also do that. It has become one of the most popular forms of body modification, where they no longer partake in this practice. I also think that it is great that body modification is becoming more socially acceptable in Canada. Its a great way for someone to express them self.

#11. Religion

A shaman is someone who is part of a non ordinary reality : “empirical reality; that is, the person interacts with it, sees it, touches it, hears it, feels it”. It is someone who can feel and see spirit by having an altered state of consciousness. He says 90% of shamans use conciouse changing techniques such as jumping, and only 10% use psychedelic drugs.
According to Michael Harner Shamaistic practices “coexists with established religions in many cultures.” He also says that it is typically practiced in cultures with a animism. He believes many people go to a Shamen when all else has failed, particularly a doctors prescription and that even if not everyone speaks to a shamen, everyone has a spirt and “When people get angry, jealous, or have a hostile emotional attitude, they can vent not only verbal and physical abuse, but spiritual abuse without even knowing it” and that we can therefore hurt others souls unconsciously.
I believe there are problems with believing in something you are studying. You will for one, have a very emic view of the situation. Although this is not nessecairily a bad thing, it is (in my opinion) good to get a combination of an emic and etic views of a situation. At some points Harner tries to pursue you to partake in these practices and really believe they work. This is much like Christian missionaries trying to convince the Hmong of god. There are always going to be biases when you are focusing on your own beliefs and when someone starts to practice it themselves, they are surly in for a surprise.

Post #10. Feminist anthropology as cultural critique

My focus on this blog was on the articles Reempowering Ourselves: Australian Aboriginal Women by Bronwyn Fredericks and Onward with the Cordillera Indigenour Woman’s Struggle for Liberation, Democracy, and Self- Determination, by Erlinsa Castro-Palaganas in V.35, Spring 2010,
Both of these articles do a good job on issuing cultural critique, making you think about how certain aspects of our society might be affecting people in similar ways. Frederick talks about how colonization has disempowered the “indigenous women’s spiritual and cultural practices accompanied by healing”. They also speak of loss of power. Personally this makes me reflect on whether our own society is representing all cultural groups equally… It might be beneficial for us to create a formal or informal group of people who wish to voice their thoughts: by allowing people to express their thoughts, it may influence others and allow that person to feel as though they have more power. As for changing the future Fredericks says “Through a process of commemorating and remembering the past, Australian Aboriginal women have been reconstructing a useful legacy for the present”

The issue that makes me reflect is the comment “In spite of the enormous natural wealth of the region, a majority of the Cordillera people face widespread poverty and underdevelopment.” The homeless are poorer areas in Canada are like (to a lesser extent) Cordillera. I believe we really need to focus on helping improve the lives of the poorer areas. Like our society larger companies are taking the profit. There is no reason for someone to take an exponential amount of wealth when others are suffering.
Many Cordillera woman decide to go over sees to work, as they are underpaid (paid less then men, even when the job is the same) and even then, tend to end up in prostitution. People should never feel forced into the sex field. This pressure could be reduced by changing living situations everywhere and giving equal opportunities to people (as there are people forced into this industry everywhere)
This author definitely suggests that more focus should be put on the females in the Cordillera people, that fair wages should be implemented and that wealth should be spread. Castro-Palaganas also notes that the woman’s cooperative “Cordillera Women’s Education Action Research Center (CWEARC)” is takings also of action in improving living situations for the woman of Cordillera
Both articles speak about how capitalism has affected them in negative ways. Clearly, although there may be benefits, its not effective at reducing poverty, and certainly not aiding in the preservation of cultures.

Post #9. Social groups and social stratification

Street gangs in New York City are apparently on the fall according to the article Gang Busters by Greg Donaldson. He says that through multiple segments gangs are actually diminishing! Some of these factors include the heroin and crack epidemics, as “of fast money quickly replaced neighbourhood fealty and gang affiliation” . John Jay College also believes that urban renewal has also helped as this has separated the different elthinticities and making it harder to form and ethnic centered gang.
They also note that as street gangs are getting smaller, youth gangs are growing in high school. And that many gang members have particular rivals against there own ethninticity, therefore, as ethnic gangs dimish, so will gang affiliated violence.
I believe while gangs are appearing to dimish as ethnic groups, they will still continue to grow as mixed groups. Probably creating more violence in the future as more groups will want more domains.
I do also believe that separating the areas where new immigrants move is a good idea as they are very venerable. I do believe this is an effective way to slow the process of gang formation. And probably create safer societies.

Post #8. Perspectives on Polygamy

Polygamy to me has more negative effects than it does positive. Polygamy, the marriage of multiple spouses, is more common when a man marries multiple women ( polygyny). Making a type of polygamy legal could help the government influence protnatalism with polygyny or decrease the population with polyandry. However, this would have to be a permanent choice, and would likely set the populatiion to far in one direction. It can also cause the production of an unsustainable amount of children, “he had five wives and more than 30 children”
I believe polygamy creates a lot of social issues. The first being there seems to be issues with sexual abuse among adolescences. Such as the case of Warren Jeffs. “Critics of the sect say young girls are forced into "spiritual" marriages with older men and are sexually abused”.
I also believe polygamy would lead to the domanince of one gender. If one man or woman is entitled to having multiple marriages it places them as more important then the others who “only” look at them.

Post #7. Non-Western Medicine

Dr. Timothy McCajor Hall's website on Culture-Bound Syndromes in China four different culture bond syndroms: Suro yang (Koro), Shenkui “semen loss syndrome”, qi-gong psychotic reaction and neurasthenia.
Suo yang (Koro) is also known as genital retraction syndrome (GRS). This is the belief that the genitals will retreat into your body and (according to tradition) says it is typically fatal. The etic view is this is hyperinvolution. Typically this occurs in large epidemics instead of soli individual cases. The cases tend to happen when people are experiencing more stressors then normal. I agree with the author’s comment that “GRS cases seem to be similar in many ways to the Western category of panic attack, with sexual elaborations”.
Neuasthenia (Shenjing shuairuo) which is a kind of “encouraged” Somatisations. The symptoms are similar to our symptoms for “major depressive disorder”. Some symptoms are: increased fatigue, “bodily weakness and exhaustion after minimal effort” “muscular aches, tension headaches; sleep disturbance; inability to relax; irritability; dyspepsia”,
I think a lot of culture bound syndromes are brought on my abundant stressors. They should be signs telling you to slow down. At least in Western societies, I believe a lot of them could be handled without medicine by just taking a vacation (if possible) and relaxing. Cultural myths also have a large influence on culture bound syndromes. For example: yes GRS would probably be frightening, however, the myth says this could cause death... making things much more terrifying (and, in some situations, such as voodoo cases, possibly fatal)

Post #6. Gender and Identity

Couvades (also known as sympathetic pregnancy, or pregnant dad syndrome) is when a male (close to the pregnant woman) experiences some of the same symptoms as she. These symptoms can range from weight gain, morning nausea, “labour” pains and postpartum depression, among others.

Postpartum (and paternal) depression is something that relates not only to females (as many think) but to males as well. This is a common occurrence in our society with “ About 10 per cent of fathers experience depression before or after the birth of a child”. I believe industrialism is one of the main causes for this depression : many different stresses occur after a child is born, financial stress, lack of sleep, etc. Although there are stresses for any new parent I believe the stress on money really exaggerates them in our culture. Our culture has also established that the typical gender role would be for the father to work, as the mother is the one who goes on maternity leave, which may make him feel as though “might not be able to get in there and get involved or have the kind of role they envisioned”

A lot of ethnopsychcology study should be invested in determining how to prevent post partum (and all signs of couvades) as these are not only uncomfortable for the parents, but may “conveys risk to infants and young children”


http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2010/05/18/postpartum-depression-dads.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Couvade_syndrome

Post #5. World Population and Fertility

In the report State of World Population 2007 one of the main topics is the concern of urban growth for the world. More the half the world’s population is living in urbanized areas and this is growing at an alarming rate “By 2030, the towns and cities of the developing world will make up 80 per cent of urban humanity”. They also comment of rate of population growth due to natural causes. Both resulting in an increase in global warming and environmental stress.

“As globalization proceeds, the urban transition is having an enormous impact on ideas, values and beliefs” By changing their living situation, you may also change the way they act. Infant mortality rates will likely go down, not only at birth, but as infanticide as families will be in a secure living situation. It may also decrease population growth as reproductive technologies may be introduced and accepted by the society (and as they may move towards a more industrial mode of life (and reproduction)). Growing cities typically attract many immigrants as well. Even if the immigrants are from a different part of the same continent, different cultures and values will mash and create a more unicultural society.

Urbanisation may be a good thing to eliminate a lot of poverty in many societies, however there are some things that need to be solved as soon as possible to prevent further environmental issues: the more sustainable mode of basic resources must be implemented (as well as introduced here and switched over as quickly as possible). This may not prevent all issues, but will surly slow them. I believe culture loss in inevitable in this situation so we must try to document all the cultures, as well as what they get altered into, or else we may regret it in the future.

http://www.unfpa.org/swp/swpmain.htm

Post #4. Changing patterns of consumption

http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/bindon/Food%20and%20Power%20in%20Samoa.pdf

Globalization has had a large effect on Samoa. One of the main issues is the change is diet that has occurred. The introduction in western foods has changed the mode of production in most of the Samoa area. Before introduction The Samoans practiced farming and fishing, growing items such as “ breadfruit, banana, taro, giant taro, and coconut.” Samoans would also pasteurise pigs and chickens, as well as exploit sea creature such as fish and turtles. They where accustom to the mode of exchange Redistribution decided upon by the council (fono), where everyone received a different amount of food, but was never hungry.
After the introduction of Western foods not only Samoa did not want to return to their previous patterns of farming and fishing but local production would be insufficient to support their larger population. They turned into a monopolized community and started producing cash crops sold at local marketplaces. Over exploitation began to occur and the chiefs suggested going back to the “the traditional management system of
tapu or sa (forbidden), where the village fono (council of chiefs) would once again
regulate the taking of reef resources”. However, the Samoan people did not want to go back to their old ways, instead they continued to exploit the reef. New foods have been added to their diet, including rice, and steak (for a semi-important chief) while the production of there traditional foods are still taking place.
Another important aspect in the rate of obesity has raised, “families have
found ways to keep their reduced caloric intake in excess of their caloric requirements,
resulting in the continuing increases in rates of obesity (McGarvey et al., 1993).” creating more health problem then there previously was.

Personaly I think when the introduction of a monopolized economy takes place we should take more caution. New health issues ,smaller calorie intake and the general depression such actions can cause should be taken much more seriously. This is much like this Moskito indians and there boom-bust system: going from an economy of generalized receprocity or redistribution, to monopolized economy where people need to be more independant and rely upon themselves. Even worse, once the resources are exploited, who knows what will happen.

Post #3. Non-industrial economies in the 21st century

There are many different economic and ecological factors why civilizations collapse. By studied different societies (the Maya, Mesopotamia, Mali, Songahai and the Anasazi) before and after they collapsed archaeologists have interpreted one of the most common issues, relating both the economic and ecological aspect is trade (what they had to trade).
Some cultures such as the Anasazi changed the mode of production from foraging (extensive) to agriculture (intensive) which helped them build relations and a stronger economy, however, by relying so heavily on agriculture for the economy, when ecological factors came into account as they suffered from a very extensive drought : “1125 and 1180, very little rain fell in the region. After 1180, rainfall briefly returned to normal. From 1270 to 1274 there was another long drought” making agriculture nearly impossible.
Another example of how a change in mode of production hurt a society is the Mesopotamia who used irrigation practices to retrieve water for their crops. However, unless you use a more nomadic approach such as horticulture to much salt will remain on the field which may cause toxic soils and erosion (with to much runoff) : “The same process that allowed farming in this region also eventually made it impossible to farm.” Leaving this community to find a new mode of production.
Another issue is that as a communities wealth and power grew they received more invaders. “The riches of the gold and salt mines drew invaders”. Taking over the community.
Incidents such as these are most certainly still a possibility for our society. We should have enough indigenous knowledge, however accidents such as over irrigation or too much erosion (both natural and human influenced) still occurs especially in large scale particularly in industrial collectivized agriculture areas.

http://www.learner.org/interactives/collapse/index.html

Post #2. Anthropology and anthropologists online

The Canadian Anthropology Society (CASCA) is a group that “promotes the anthropological profession in Canada”. It encourages the anthropology community to submit information of their finding and will publish them in their Newsletter which is released twice a year. This enhances the availability of the research and helps the anthropologist follow the American Anthropological Associations (AAA) Code of Ethics. The Newsletter Culture also advertises ethnographies and other publications by Anthropologists. Culture also informs you about many of the activities and updates in the anthropological community, such as updates in the faculties in the universities. The CASCA also posts job opportunities on their website as well as take postings for jobs that need to be filled. You may also sign up on an e-mail list (listserv) and receive information “of interest to CASCA members”.

I believe this is a very good site for anthropologists, and people interested in the field. The newsletter is very interesting and gives you a very good idea of different books, ethnographies, papers among other information related to anthropology.
The job posting section is another of my favorit aspects of this website. It would certainly simplify the work of an anthropologist by looking on this website to find a few available jobs, or help people find employees for positions they are looking for. However, it of course does not have all openings, which would be amazing but nearly impossible.
http://cas-sca.ca/casca/index.php?option=com_content&view=frontpage&Itemid=2&lang=en