Ethnography:co-occurrence of anger and grief - Essay Example

?ETHNOGRAPHY CO-OCCURRENCE OF ANGER AND GRIEF Ethnography emerged out of anthropological tradition and it generally means to write about people or cultures. It has its roots from the Greek words, ethnos (people) and graphie (write). It is a methodology for descriptive studies of cultures and people. Ethnographic methods include field work and qualitative methods such as interviews, group discussions, participatory activities etc. These are influenced by other theories, phenomenology, grounded theory, hermeneutics and post modernism. Ethnography has a long history dating back to the days of Homer’s Illiad and Odyssey. In some form or the other, it was prevalent in Islamic empires who wrote descriptions of foreign people they encountered. Missionaries in Mexico and Canada in the 16th and 17th centuries respectively also practiced ethnography. In its present form and format, Ethnography is known from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The first systematic ethnographic community studies in urban environments were undertaken by the Chicago School in the 1920s and 1930s. Today, ethnography encompasses a comprehensive range of studies of every imaginable human group and context such as institutional settings, medical anthropology, religious movements, studies on sensitive issues, extraterrestrial anthropology and so on. Psychological anthropologists strongly opine that biology influences emotions. Mead and Benedict propounded the theory that culture influences emotions. The interactionist school broadly categorized emotions into four major types – sadness, anger, happiness and surprise. Ekman (1974) postulated the basic emotions as happiness, sadness, anger, surprise and disgust. Izard and Buechler (1980) broadened the horizons of human emotions as interest, joy, surprise, sadness, anger, disgust, contempt, shame/ shyness and guilt. Subsequently, Plutchik (1962 and 1980), Epstein (1984), Fromme and O’Brien (1982) and others looked at other emotions, essentially, within this broad ambit of emotions. One of the major models of emotion in the English language is the Circumplex Model of Affect proposed by Russell (1980).  The Circumplex Model of Affect is a spatial model based on dimensions of affect which are interrelated in a very methodical fashion.   Affective concepts fall in a circle in the following order: pleasure (0o ), excitement (45o), arousal (90o), distress (135o), displeasure (180o), depression (225o), sleepiness (270o), and relaxation (315o) .  There are two broad categories of affect, according to Russell : 1. Pleasure-displeasure, the horizontal dimension of the model 2. Arousal-sleep, the vertical dimension of the model.  Therefore, any affect word can be defined in terms of its pleasure and arousal components.  The results of Russell’s study on the pan-cultural aspects of the conceptualization of emotion indicated that groups of words that met the criterion for a depression cluster were apparent in four of the eight culture language groups studied --Indonesia, Japan, Sri Lanka, and the United States.  In the other four cultures, Australia, Korea, Puerto Rico, and Malaysia, it was observed that depression is a less salient organizational construct for these four groups. According to the Macmillan dictionary, grief is a strong feeling of sadness, usually because someone has died. Anger, is the strong feeling you get when you think someone has treated you badly or unfairly, that makes you want to hurt them or shout at them. Co-occurrence of anger and grief occurs generally in the context of bereavements – in personal life and in the case of disasters, infidelity in marriage and illegal or unethical acts. Anger Anger is considered to be the strongest of all human emotions. The Dutch, Italians and the Koreans handle anger, in their own, cultural defined way. People from Asian countries especially, always seem polite and are never seen angry. The reason is that in these cultures you are not allowed to show your anger. Peace and harmony in the family must be kept at all cost, in order not to jeopardize social relationships. Anger is suppressed, pent up and accumulated. Many Asian people experience anger in a passive way; they direct it inward, instead of outward, which develops into somatic problems. In the West, nervous breakdowns, which are an episodic expression of anger as a result of having to put up with a build-up of anger over time, are quite common. Western societies in general still have behavioral codes in which angry shouting matches are not appropriate. However, in South American or Mediterranean countries, it is part of the temperament and perfectly alright. What Westerners, perceive as a fight, to them, is just a matter of a difference of opinion. Grief Grief is universal. In every culture across the world, people cry and want to cry, after the death of a lover, spouse, beloved or a family member. Many pet lovers grieve uncontrollably upon the death of a dog, cat or any other pet, very close to them. According to the attachment theory, humans are attached to other individuals, all through their lives. A child at birth is highly attached to its mother. Subsequently, depending on the family concepts prevailing in the child’s environment, it gets attached to the father, grandparents, babysitters, governesses etc. Till the child attains maturity, in all the national cultures, the child living with the family, develops attachment with the family members. Upon reaching adolescence, its attachment gets shifted to others such as live in partners. Once the child becomes an adult and gets married, he/ she is attached to the spouse. When the couple have children of their own, they attach themselves to their children and the whole cycle comes back again. Therefore, a human, at any point in time, is attached to someone else. The death or parting of a person with whom the individual is attached, leads to grief. Ross outlines five different stages of grief : 1. The first stage of grieving helps us to survive the loss through a state of shock and denial. It is nature's way of letting in only as much as we can handle. 2. The second stage manifests itself in anger. Anger is a necessary stage of the healing process. 3. The third stage, bargaining, helps us move from one state of loss to another. 4. After bargaining, our attention moves squarely into the present. Empty feelings present themselves, and grief enters our lives on a deeper level, deeper than we ever imagined. This depressive stage feels as though it will last forever. 5. The last stage represents, acceptance of the loss. Death Because death is universal, for centuries, all societies have struggled with the reality of death and created a wide variety of responses to dealing with loss. There appear to be three general patterns of how societies respond to death: 1. Death - defying 2. Death - accepting 3. Death - denying “Death-defying” attitude is the refusal to believe that death would take anything away and believe it could be overcome. The early Egyptians who built pyramids for the Pharaoh included their wives, money, and possessions for the world after death. believed that the Pharaoh could vanquish death. “Death-accepting” looks at death as an inevitable and natural part of the life cycle. Behaviors and events of the dying process are integrated into everyday life. The primitive, non-technological societies such as the Fiji Islanders, where rituals and interactions include casual, comfortable discussions of death, are an ideal example of this phenomenon. “Death-denying” is essentially a refusal to confront death, belief that death is antithetical to living and that it is not a natural part of human existence. In the US, there are few rituals associated with grieving. Rituals are generally replaced by contrivances for coping with grief. There are great differences in the whole array of activities in death rituals such as preparation, home versus hospital, care of the body, attitudes toward organ donation, attitudes towards autopsy among African Americans, Mexican Americans, Romani Gypsies, American Indians etc. Furthermore, differences crop up amongst cultures in the following issues as well - End-of-life care expectations, styles and etiquette of death talk, body-handling preferences, awareness of legal, logistical elements of body removal and disposal, mourning practices immediately following a death, long-term mourning practices and funeral or memorial preferences. Muharram is the period of mourning observed in the first month of the Islamic calendar. It commemorates the death of Hazrat Imam Hussain in the battle of Karbala.  The first ten days of this month are observed as a period of mourning by Muslims. The tenth day, called Ashura, is observed as the day for a public expression of their grief and is a public holiday in India. During this period, women forsake all adornments, even their bangles. All kinds of celebration like marriage are disallowed during this period. Shiah Muslims are celibate for these 40 days. The first ten days however, are the most important and passionately observed as a period of mourning.  Though the ten days of Muharram are a period of mourning for the Sunni sect too, they do not indulge in passion plays and nor do they cry out "Hussain Hussain" because their tradition stipulates grieving in silence. They keep a two-day roza on the ninth and tenth of the month, wear only black clothes and read the namaz and Al Fatiha five times a day. Many experts are of the opinion that Asian cultures are more interdependent than their western counterparts. They are more socio-centric rather than egocentric. Individuality and privacy are not encouraged. In Japan, everything is the company, or the society, or the community. Indians are not as individualistic as western culture, but lie in the median. Another characteristic typical of Asians is that even in situations of acute stress, they refused to seek external support. Pleas for help tend to be viewed as burdensome. The domain of communication further underlines cultural sensitivity. The two communication models - high context and low context, brings out this stark reality. Westerners tend to communicate in a low-context style, using words to explain nearly everything. Asian cultures, by contrast, are high-context cultures, valuing and emphasizing nonverbal communication. Eye contact, gestures, and facial expressions communicate even more than spoken language. Some people might pray, some meditate, many others seek solace in burial rituals and things of that nature. Disasters The emotional consequences of trauma and disaster constitute a vast new field of professional inquiry. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, PSTD post-traumatic stress disorder, was on a steep rise. In the areas hardest hit by the tsunami, helping victims deal with the emotional effects of the breathtaking loss and devastation became a herculean task. Experts in psychological and cultural issues point out that all human experience can be encapsuled in three major dimensions: the universal, the group, and the individual. During a disaster, the universal gets stimulated immediately since everyone was together in their experience of the shock, of the need to survive and even in the first experience of grief. Universal human experience demands what virtually all experts in trauma recommend as an essential first response: immediate attention to the most basic human needs of food, water, shelter, sleep and medical attention. The Indian culture varies like its vast geography. People speak in different languages, dress differently, follow different religions, eat different food but are of the same temperament. So whether it is a joyous occasion or a moment of grief, people participate whole-heartedly, feeling the happiness or pain. A festival or a celebration is never constrained to a family or a home. The whole community or neighborhood is involved in bringing liveliness to an occasion. Likewise, an Indian wedding is a celebration of union, not only of the bride and groom, but also of two families, maybe cultures or religion too! Similarly, in times of sorrow, neighbors and friends play an important part in easing out the grief. Infidelity The language of love transcends all borders, but the dialect of adultery is sometimes lost in translation. Studies on cheating in Japan, South Africa, France, Indonesia and the United States, indicate that there is no country in the world where people are immune to temptation. Men are more likely to cheat, as are those in the lower-income bracket. Among North Americans, marital lapses are widely perceived as the first step toward divorce court. In Europe and beyond, infidelity is simply considered an unexpected challenge to overcome. Studies have confirmed that women cheat more, in Britain, than men. India is a land given to apparent contradictions in their attitudes towards sex. India is home to the first literature on sex. Sexual education was practiced through art and literature. As in all societies, there was a difference in sexual practices in India between common people and powerful rulers, with people in power often indulging in hedonistic lifestyles that were not representative of common moral attitudes. The following chart presents the sexual attitudes and tendencies of humans the world over. In Japan, infidelity is accepted. One can marry and sleep with other women, if one wants. In the US, it is all about love and cheating is wrong. In both countries, however, most people cheat anyway. In Japan, everybody is upfront about it and families stay together. Americans go around pretending they are faithful and when it is found out, families suffer from divorce or internal problems. Justice  Justice, in the sense of a distributive equity, is experienced by men in three major guises: as moral justice, social justice and legal justice. In the domain of justice too, similarities and differences abound among various cultures globally. Similarities exist the world over in the nature of justice being based on the principle of the wrong doer being punished and upholding the righteous acts of individuals in a society. Also, justice must not only be done but also appear to have been done. The time component also becomes important in that justice needs to be delivered speedily and in time. However, the principles governing individual morality, justice in the society and the State and the role of law, vary greatly. Fundamental rights and fundamental responsibilities of citizens around the world, also vary. In India, individual privacy is no big deal whereas in the Western cultures, this is of utmost importance. Carrying a gun is legal in the US while in most of the countries in the world, it is illegal. The manifestation of wealth by unscrupulous means is, in all parts of the world, unethical. But, the dispensation and distribution of justice for such illegal and unethical acts, is remarkably varied. The Indian judicial system is viewed to be very slow in its operations. In the US, justice is meted out fairly quickly. Islamic justice is known for its brutality and the sheer speed of delivery. The Japanese and Chinese countries too, are relatively slow, in the cause and distribution of justice – civil or criminal. The African countries and the less developed countries, through their autocratic and dictatorial regimes, hardly practice judicial probity, worth its name. Conclusion In most of the cultures across the world, anger and grief are not viewed as strictly disparate emotions and its co-occurrence exist in almost all domains of individual and social lives. At the macro level, manifestations of this co-occurrence in the contexts of death and bereavement, infidelity in marriage and in morality and righteousness, are, by and large, similar. However, at the micro level, the various components of culture vis-a-vis the attitudes, beliefs, assumptions and the value framework, do clearly exhibit marked differences across various national cultures. Read More