Works of Katherine Boo and Csilla Dallos - Essay Example

Comparison of Approach Oftentimes the differentials that exist between the under-developed world and our own society are so stark that they make it difficult to realize or gain an understanding into the ways in which such realities define the lives of so many millions around the globe. Though our own society suffers an array of social inequalities, the extent to which these are exhibited pale in comparison to the ways in which abject poverty and lack define the lives of so many within other societies and nations. As a means of seeking to shed a level of understanding as to how this differential exists and the true way in which these individuals integrate with the lives that they must live, this analysis will analyze and discuss the works of Katherine Boo and Csilla Dallos in their books: Behind the Beautiful Forevers and From Equality to Inequality. As a function of this level of analysis, it will be the hope of this author that the means by which journalists and anthropologists seek to develop a picture of life is far superior to any qualitative method that might otherwise be used to engage individuals with the realities of life that many around the world must engage with on a daily basis. The first of these authors that will be discussed is that of Katherine Boo and her novel entitled Behind the Beautiful Flowers. As such, this piece deals with the level of poverty that exists just beneath the surface of modern day India. Whereas the progress that the Indian economy has realized within the global economy within the past several years have allowed for impressive growth among certain segments of society, the burgeoning masses of India’s millions have largely been left out of the largesse that this development has affected. As a function of explaining the realities that govern the lives of these untold millions, Katherine Boo decides to focus in on a small slum community within Mumbai. The reader is instantly made aware of the fact hardships and depravity that faces the inhabitants of the slums on a daily basis. Concerning many of the realities that she saw exhibited on a daily basis within the slums, Boo states the following: “...much of what was said did not matter, and that much of what mattered could not be said” (Boo 19). Later on in the story, the author describes a situation that expertly sums up the pain and misery that the inhabitants of the slums experience on a daily basis, says Boo, “I tell Allah I love Him immensely, immensely. But I tell Him I cannot be better, because of how the world is” (Boo 44). As one can readily see, such experiential additions far outweigh the overall level of understanding that one may hope to gain from a mere statistical or quantitative review of the situation. As the book notes, the effects of poverty that is exhibited within the slum is stunning. For instance, whereas many within our own society would rue the thought of having to look forward to an entire life of menial labor working at a hotel, such a job is precisely what Abdul, the eldest son of Zehrunisa dreams of seemingly day and night. Such a personal tale of dream and aspiration helps to put into perspective the cold hard realities that define the lives of those who dwell within the slums. The means of this particular example was to engage the reader with the alternate reality that exists within the slums. Whereas a particular job may be seen as menial and demeaning within other societies, it was longed for and dreamed of in the slum. It is at this juncture that the reader and/or researcher can come to a general and overarching appreciating for the fact that the traditional understanding of poverty as living without the means of support, comfort, and ease that many in other strata of society and/or cultures take for granted is an insufficient means of understanding the realities of life that constrain the lives of the inhabitants of the slums. This is due to the fact that the traditional understanding of poverty and want has been concentric upon seeking to explain situations based on a quantitative level of reasoning. Due to the fact that such a level of poverty is so far beyond what can be appreciated from such a unit of analysis, the reader is best served by the approach that Boo makes. Similarly, the second book which will be briefly discussed is that of Csilla Dallos’ From Equality to Inequality: Social Change among Newly Sedentary Lanoh Hunter-Gatherer Traders of Peninsular Malaysia. As a function of his particular research, the author seeks to build an understanding of how global culture and economic changes has a very real toll on the way in which many individuals live their own lives. If one considers this within the framework which has been previously discussed, i.e. the framework of seeking to paint such an issue in a quantitative sense, it is necessarily understand that the human affects that these environmental and lifestyle changes have affected cannot be effectively integrated in such statistical terms. Rather, a basic comprehension of the nuanced means by which humans integrate with changing realities that can only be provided by anthropological or sociological research is best to integrate with. Regarding the way in which the society of these hunter-gatherers has built a complex society with traditions that cannot be readily expounded or understood within the context of quantitative research or a statistical analysis of there merits. Says the author at one point regarding egalitarian politics, “Regardless of organization, the goal of egalitarian politics is to regulate the relationship between younger men and elders and to ensure that in spite of younger men’s physical superiority, the status of the elders is continually maintained” (Dallos 72). Due to the fact that such a complex social order establishes itself over a very long period of time in a nuanced manner, it would be completely pointless and rather wasteful to seek to explain this concept to the reader in either statistical or quantitative terms; rather, it demands an approach which the writer has engaged. Similarly, Dallos utilizes the example that Tabot integrated. Says the author of Tabot, “Lanoh did not like to stay upland. It is not our nature to stay there. From the beginning we have liked to stay lowland, near the water, near the river” (Dallos 20). As a means of integrating this particular story into the work, the author is able to integrate a level of landed connection that the inhabitants of the place feel with relation to the scenery and landscape that their ancestors have become so accustomed to. Both of these authors have been able to succinctly and expertly engage the reader with the subject matter at hand by engaging with the correct means of explanation for the right subject matter. The age old debate between which methods to use, quantitative or qualitative, will never be solved; rather, the best approach is to seek to find whichever tool is most useful for the operation at hand. However, for the two authors that have been gauged within this brief response, the answer to such a question is a resounding one. Due to the subject matter and the means of analysis that would lend the most understanding to the reader, it is fundamentally important that the authors shied away from a quantitative or statistical approach to the subject matter as this would not be able to express the full gravity of reality that the alternate approach which has been engaged in has done. Works Cited Boo, Katherine. Behind the Beautiful Forevers. New York: Random House, 2012. Print. Dallos, Csilla. From Equality to Inequality: Social Change among Newly Sedentary Lanoh Hunter-Gatherer Traders of Peninsular Malaysia. New York. Penguin Books, 2011. Print. K.L.P. Verheyen, et al. "Quantitative Versus Qualitative Approaches: A Comparison Of Two Research." Preventive Veterinary Medicine 108.4 (2013): 313-320. Academic Search Complete. Web. 18 Mar. 2013. Read More