1. Diversity: Diversity is a word that stood about to me because of how diverse the world is. This word is powerful because it shows how different cultures are but that different can mean beautiful. When I think of this word I paint this beautiful image in my mind of different cultures coming together in harmony. Diversity being applied to the Naciema means that they are different but it can be a beautiful thing.
2. Rituals: When I think of this word tradition comes to mind. The Naciema have rituals that have been passed down. For example they have some when it comes to woman and having them line up for men. Woman when they are expecting also have the tradition to cover up. This shows that they have a rich culture with rituals and traditions passed down.
3.Imitate: The poorer families try to imitate the richer families. This shows that it is a shared thing among cultures to value the rich. The Naciema imitate the rich by applying pottery plaques to their walls. In Southern California we try to imitate the rich and it comes to show that the miners are not that different to us as we think.
4. Latipso: This reminded me of being in quarantine, the ritual is that the very sick enter the temple naked. Miner writes that they enter this temple as a way to seek healing. The way that was described painted the picture in my head that they were entering a place that was sacred. It also seems like something supernatural that they enter and get healed.
5. Practitioners: They are like doctors but to the supernatural and cast out demons. This reminded me of the first surgeries they found on fossils with holes in their skulls. The hole was drilled to release the demon from the persons head. Practitioners are the villages specialist when it comes to the paranormal.
Part B
1. As an American I believe that my words were not as bias because i tried to pick words that can relate to the American culture. When i picked a word I tried to connect that word to my culture and my beliefs in a way of connecting both cultures. I am also from Mexico and I also tried connecting the Naciema to my Mexican-American culture.
2. The one word were I see some sort of judgement is in the last word. When it came to practitioners i was surprised that they had theses kind of doctors. It reminded me of supernatural shows that i watch on Netflix. I was a little bias because I do not see a lot of supernatural things in American Culture. Then I got thinking about my Mexican culture and i realized that their is a lot of supernatural things going on in that culture. With that I started to understand the Naciema culture and stopped myself from having any judgment.
3.I was bias when it came to saying the word " supernatural" because I truly do not believe in the supernatural. Like i stated in my previous question I then had to connect this to my Mexican culture because in my culture they do practice supernatural things such as in Naciema culture. To remove the bias I would replace the word with " spiritual because I think that in every culture there are some spiritual aspects.
4. I believe that it is wrong to be bias when it comes to other cultures. It is not impossible to avoid being bias. All we have to do is embrace each other and find a common ground. In the end we all belong to the culture which is mankind and need to find the beauty in each other. As an Anthropologist it is easy to find bias because we are constantly learning and trying to understand others. That is what i think is key is learning and understanding because we will find beauty in things we do not know.
2. Rituals: When I think of this word tradition comes to mind. The Naciema have rituals that have been passed down. For example they have some when it comes to woman and having them line up for men. Woman when they are expecting also have the tradition to cover up. This shows that they have a rich culture with rituals and traditions passed down.
3.Imitate: The poorer families try to imitate the richer families. This shows that it is a shared thing among cultures to value the rich. The Naciema imitate the rich by applying pottery plaques to their walls. In Southern California we try to imitate the rich and it comes to show that the miners are not that different to us as we think.
4. Latipso: This reminded me of being in quarantine, the ritual is that the very sick enter the temple naked. Miner writes that they enter this temple as a way to seek healing. The way that was described painted the picture in my head that they were entering a place that was sacred. It also seems like something supernatural that they enter and get healed.
5. Practitioners: They are like doctors but to the supernatural and cast out demons. This reminded me of the first surgeries they found on fossils with holes in their skulls. The hole was drilled to release the demon from the persons head. Practitioners are the villages specialist when it comes to the paranormal.
Part B
1. As an American I believe that my words were not as bias because i tried to pick words that can relate to the American culture. When i picked a word I tried to connect that word to my culture and my beliefs in a way of connecting both cultures. I am also from Mexico and I also tried connecting the Naciema to my Mexican-American culture.
2. The one word were I see some sort of judgement is in the last word. When it came to practitioners i was surprised that they had theses kind of doctors. It reminded me of supernatural shows that i watch on Netflix. I was a little bias because I do not see a lot of supernatural things in American Culture. Then I got thinking about my Mexican culture and i realized that their is a lot of supernatural things going on in that culture. With that I started to understand the Naciema culture and stopped myself from having any judgment.
3.I was bias when it came to saying the word " supernatural" because I truly do not believe in the supernatural. Like i stated in my previous question I then had to connect this to my Mexican culture because in my culture they do practice supernatural things such as in Naciema culture. To remove the bias I would replace the word with " spiritual because I think that in every culture there are some spiritual aspects.
4. I believe that it is wrong to be bias when it comes to other cultures. It is not impossible to avoid being bias. All we have to do is embrace each other and find a common ground. In the end we all belong to the culture which is mankind and need to find the beauty in each other. As an Anthropologist it is easy to find bias because we are constantly learning and trying to understand others. That is what i think is key is learning and understanding because we will find beauty in things we do not know.
Part A of your post was a job well done. I agree and understand why you picked those words. Your post about practitioners helped me gain a better understanding of what it meant. I really enjoyed reading number 3 and 4 of Part B. I can relate since I grew up in a Latin family. Our culture is was makes us who we are and I think you did a great job explaining how we define spirituality. Great job!
ReplyDeleteMy original comment is missing from Wednesday. This concerns me and we need to keep an eye on that.
ReplyDeletePart of the problem with the words you chose is that they are not "descriptive". They are nouns or verbs. We needed adjectives. "Diversity" doesn't describe the culture. "Diverse" could. "Rituals" are practices. "Ritualistic" could describe a culture that tends to practice rituals regularly. "Imitate" is a verb. How can you change this into a word that describes the culture? "Latipso" is a hospital. How could you change this to describe the culture? "Practitioners" are doctors, dentists and other medical professionals. Again, how can you change this to describe this culture.
So I agree that your words don't carry bias, that is generally because they don't describe. They name. Cultural anthropologists generally don't get into trouble with bias when they just name something. Where they get into trouble is when they try to describe or even explain a culture, and that was the focus of this particular assignment.
While I see your point on the term "practitioner", it is only biased because you are choosing a definition that indicates bias. The word itself doesn't suggest this.
" I believe that it is wrong to be bias when it comes to other cultures."
Note that the point of this assignment is to avoid judgment and bias, and that would include any evaluation of anything being "wrong". :-) We are speaking as cultural anthropologists here. It isn't actually important to judge using biased descriptors as "wrong". A better descriptor is that it would be "misleading" to those reading your work, and that is a key point here. This is an issue of communicating information about a culture as accurately and bias-free as possible, not because it is "wrong" but because you don't want to perpetuate misconceptions and your own bias to those reading your work.
"All we have to do is embrace each other and find a common ground."
That might be a social goal, but not the goal of a cultural anthropologist in communicating to the scientific community, which is what we are talking about here. The goal there would be accurate communication of information free of personal bias and judgment. Unbiased information can ultimately lead to those social goals, but that isn't the primary reason why avoiding bias in anthropological writing is important.
Hey Ivette,
ReplyDelete(part A)
I'm going to have to say that I agree with the fact that some of your words can be played around to be distributive, but none the less, I did enjoy reading your thoughts on this assignment. You used the words, "diversity, rituals, latipso, practitioners, imitate" and I do say that these words play an important role to explaining who the Nacerima people were. You stated that practitioners are like doctors and looking close into that, I agree. I personally did not make that connection. This person that takes out the demons could be like a modern day doctor. I saw a connection between the mouth-man and a dentist (for the reason that they deal with mouths and decaying teeth).
(part b)
For your second part of the assignment, I liked the fact that you included that you are also Mexican (not just American). I too am Mexican and sometimes it is hard to separate the two cultures and not compare them. Being American has its perks, just as being Mexican, but none the less I do see how they are so different. The goal may be to be unbias, but that may take some work to accomplish, because we are so used to only seeing our ways. I do agree that it probably does get hard for an anthropologist to stay unbias because of the variety of cultures they are involved with, but I am also sure that they learn how to (not be bias).