The Idea of Government in terms of Anthropology - Essay Example

AnthropologyQuestion 1The tribe in discussion is the Maasai of Tanzania in Africa whose livelihood originally has been cattle rearing and do not engage in crop farming. They rely majorly on their cattle and the rest of the products needed are acquired through trade. Their livelihood requires large grazing land since they have to shift to other parts of the land to allow grass to grow. This has however been threatened by government and private developers who have taken over majority of their grazing land and turned it into national parks, reserves, and building site.

This has led to many of the Maasai buying private land or selling off their cattle to seek other livelihoods. The government needs to allocate land for them and avoid developing into their land since that is not only their settlement area and source of livelihood (through provision of grass for their animals) but because it is a way of preserving their culture.Question 2It is true that the government supports development and economic policies which benefit the rich more than the poor or the minorities.

The evidence of this is in various development sectors starting from the most important one which is health. In the US for example health policies recently have been in favor of the rich and especially with the private insurance companies offering better services than the government but at a higher cost but the government does nothing about it (Ferraro and Susan 308). When the world was facing economic crisis since 2008, the government did nothing to help those who were being sacked or retrenched, instead it concentrated on bailing out banks and other companies from debts and it is an open secret that they were doing this due to the huge investments that were there and which were owned by the rich.

The governments also pay more attention to their politicians’ needs than they do for the common man who is either the poor or the oppressed or both; this is true for African countries mainly.Work CitedFerraro, Gary, and Susan, Andreatta. Cultural Anthropology: An Applied Perspective. New York: Cengage Learning, 2009. Print.http://www.survivalinternational.org/tribes