Summary of the Fieldwork - Assignment Example

Teacher Anthropology Assignment Summary of the Fieldwork Within the discipline of anthropology, field work and observations have become a critical component in the understanding of unique cultures and ways of life. Such activities provide us with a more comprehensive overview of human civilization, and they enable society to better understand how to function within an increasingly global construct and context. Consider the work reflected in Shakespeare in the Bush, conducted by Laura Bohannan. The context of this story is the work conducted by Bush amongst the Tiv people group in Africa. While visiting there, she was asked to tell a story about her own culture in a way that the elder in Tiv society could identify with. She actually chose the story of Hamlet in an effort to communicate important literary elements from Western culture. She mistakingly felt that this concept would be easy to explain because it is understood by everyone. The Tiv, however, developed an entirely different understanding of the story. As such, the implication is that each culture, or society, truly develops their own interpretation of a story, no matter what the origin of the story might be. Each culture will have a different spin on the story, see potential pitfalls, and even point out elements from the story that the originating culture did not pick up on. No one interpretation should be seen as better or more developed than another, just as no culture should be seen as superior to another. Another example can be reflected in Mother’s Love: Death Without Weeping by Scheper-Hughes. Hughes actually developed the thought process behind this study as she volunteered with the Peace Corps in the Northeastern Region of Brazil. While there, she served in a shantytown community composed of roughly 5,000 workers. Through her observations, she encountered many examples of political repression, violence, poverty, and death that were foreign to her own culture. Through these observations and daily interactions with the culture, quite an impression was made on her. After her time in the Peace Corps was finished, she returned home, but then came back to the exact same community some 15 years later to conduct ethnographic research as an anthropologist. During a 7 years time span, we read that she conducted a total of four different field expeditions. During each of these, she conducted extensive observations and recorded her thoughts and perceptions related to mothers and their children. The book that she wrote actually details the suffering that was witnessed in roughly 100 women based on their family history and reproductive tendencies, migration, and employment histories. She also wrote down extensive anecdotal commentaries. Through it all she noted a correlation between child loss and poverty, and that of a mother’s ability to actually express her innate maternal love through to her children. She found that when conditions were ripe for high fertility and equally high infant mortality rates, then the death of a child becomes normal for poor families. Over time they become desensitized to this reality and no longer grieve in the way that many in other cultures are accustomed to. As such, Hughes draws the conclusion that a mother’s love is not a universal concept as many anthropologists have posited. Another illustration of ethnographic work can be seen in Family Kinship in Village India, as written by David McCurdy. McCurdy’s work was in an agrarian village within Ratakote society. This particular culture is kin-ship centered, which certainly provides many opportunities for observations and parallels to be drawn with other agrarian based communities throughout the world. What made his work so interesting is that he focused a great deal of his book on the differences between his own culture and that of the kinship culture in which he was observing and living amongst. Three of the interesting concepts that he took are: 1) Many connections are made outside of our own kinship network that actually become more important and dominating that within; 2) We should not become dependent on relatives after we finish childhood; and 3) Independence over family loyalty is often the norm, rather than the exception. McCurdy also spent a great deal of his time exploring norms and values in both types of cultures, and noting the differences between each. Critique of the Fieldwork Each of the three respective pieces of fieldwork mentioned in this paper make great use of observation and narrative techniques to communicate various perspectives related to unique cultures around the world. They each use gatekeepers to communicate messages, from the elders in the work by Bush, to the village people in McCurdy’s observations about the kinship networks inherent to Ratakote society. “Ethnographic fieldwork is shaped by personal and professional identities just as these identities are shaped by individual experiences while in the field” (Hoey Par. 8). This certainly appears to have been proven true for these particular researchers. TThese field studies opened the eyes of the readers by allowing them to see different cultures in an entirely new light. Most humans become all too comfortable around those within our own affinity group, but we fail to realize that the differences inherent in others should be embraced. At the same time, however, we can still be near to those who are so far away from our own belief system. Many people believe that the world is becoming entirely too polarized. These field experience illustrate the opposite. While individuals will likely always want to associate within their own group, it has been shown that they can still respect other people and other cultures, just as they respect their own. At the same time, anthropologists do often struggle with culture bias. Bush, for example, assumed that the African people group she told the story to would see Hamlet through the same cultural lens as she did. This illustrates a feeling of cultural superiority that many around the world carry with them. Rather than understanding the reality that if one culture never has any interaction with another then they cannot possibly react in the same manner, we often wrongly assume that other cultures can quickly assimilate into our own way of life. In addition, it assumes that various situations in life can be explained away in a similar fashion, but neglects to consider that each society interprets events in a different light. Theoretical Perspectives The work by Scheper-Hughes demonstrates the theoretical perspective of cultural materialism. The researcher dealt with poverty and extreme emotional distress on the part of the rural Brazilians that she observed. As such, much of the conclusions that were reached involve the notion that poverty equates to high rates of infant mortality, which in turns lessen the bond that mothers feel with their children. This work has groundbreaking implications owning to its ability to explain how a perceived lack of wealth does contribute somewhat to the breakdown of society in many respects. In essence, this particular theoretical perspective, coupled with that of structuralism and cultural constructionism, are reflected to some degree in each of these three ethnographic studies. Consider as well, for a moment, that the structuralist perspective is staged around the idea that the components of a society are built to ensure stability, and if a component is not adding value it will not continue on to future generations. This was demonstrated within the work that McCurdy conducted. While discriminating and racial intolerances does not improve a society, from a structural perspective it does have certain benefits for individuals who have biased or racist tendencies. According to this particular theoretical framework, there are five different concepts that from the basis for the set of beliefs inherent in any dominant group. There are also two related cultural ideologies, with the first being a moral justification for structuring a society around purposely denying a group of their rights and privileges. The second racial ideology involves a group trying to justify current social practices, and works as a social rallying point for social group actions. In the work by McClure, this can be seen as he illustrates the differences in the norms and values that respective cultures adopt across and throughout generations. Additionally one of the myths Richard T. Schaefer (2012) writes about is “if there were any major societal change, the subordinate group would suffer greater poverty, and the dominant group would suffer lower living standards” (p. 16). The structuralist perspective also has six dysfunctions when considering how racism and prejudice impacts a society. The dysfunctions acts as a catalyst to causing stability issues and interrupts how a society operates. One example would be when prejudice views negatively impacts the dominant group by underutilizing abilities and skill sets of the minority group. Another example is when such racist views, and the treatment of a group of people negatively impact international relationships, which can have a cascading negative effect on current and future global trading abilities. Each of these components, to one degree or another, is reflected in the three ethnographic studies presented here. In the end, cultural constructionism perhaps best explains the cultures being described by these three researchers. This particular framework encourages us to look beyond the social environment in a culture and towards the broader context of cultural influences that influence behavior within a people group. This most typically includes an examination of customs, religion, biology, resources, tools, and language. We see this reflected in the construct of each of the three cultures present in these studies. The cultural lens that each society views their actions dictates their own world view. At the same time, the researcher brings their own understanding of society with them to the observation, and their ability to discern the differences between the two are often clouded. As a result, ethnographers must then set out to construct an entirely new definition of the society in which they find themselves in. In the end, each society existent in the world uses a set of tools, such as language and other symbolic systems that help individuals function in a corporate fashion, to affect the way that they think and act. This dictates our own philosophy about the world and enables us to find meaning and purpose. As a result, all individual cultures are unique in their understanding of various social situations, and this is a reflection of cultural constructionism. Works Cited Hoey, Brian A. “What Is Ethnography. Brian A. Hoey, ph.D. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Nov. 2012. http://www.brianhoey.com/General%20Site/general_defn-ethnography.htm. Schaefer, Richard. (2012). Racial and Ethnic Groups (13th ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Read More