I chose the word interesting because I think that is the best way to describe them! They are an interesting population because little is known about them and they have very different rituals compared to other populations. In the article it talks about how they have shrines in their homes and how they think that the human body is ugly and they spend a good majority of their days in their homes at this shrine worshipping. I think it's interesting of them because most tribes or other cultures don't really spend time doing that, they spend their time trying to survive and worship their Gods.
I chose the word secretive because the Nacerima are very secretive with everything they do. Their bodies are a secret they don't let anyone see them. If the women get pregnant they hide the pregnancy as much as possible and even the women have never seen their partners naked! They have chest built into the walls of their shrines but it's a secret whats in them usually. They have an ancient secret language only the medicine men know. They have a lot to hide.
Unusual might be an understatement but it describes them because honestly what they do can be a little off the wall. They have a slight obsession with their mouths and perform a lot of rituals on them yet they are also afraid of the mouth. They believe that if it weren't for the mouth rituals everyone they love or know would leave them.
They are definitely an extreme bunch because they purposely inflict pain upon themselves (again with the mouth), they scrape their faces and the women stick their heads in the oven for about an hour. It doesn't really go into detail of why though in the article but either way they take some pretty extreme measures.
And finally they are a very hopeful bunch. They depend on their medicine man for a lot and in the end they hope to become perfect (or at least that is the impression that I get). They hope that by putting themselves through pain and extreme rituals that in the end they will be cured and ok.
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1. After learning that we (Americans) were reading about ourselves, I think the words that I chose were pretty accurate.
2. I don't think that any of my words exhibit ethnocentrism but one that might be boarder line could probably be the word unusual. I do feel that my words are free of bias though because they're pretty neutral. I think that extreme and unusual are biased because they have a slight negative connotation. Secretive, hopeful, and interesting I think are unbiased because they can be associated with good or bad usually so they aren't really harmful words.
3. Intense can replace extreme and unique can replace unusual.
4. It's important to try and avoid ethnocentric judgements because then it just diminishes the people and their culture to the point where a lot of people will look at them like they're ignorant but they really aren't they just convey things differently than we do. I don't think it is possible to completely avoid ethnocentrism as a Cultural Anthropologist just because at one point or another no matter who it is they will have a biased view on something just because they experienced this one time or that happened to one of their co-workers so they think it will happen to them too.
1. After learning that we (Americans) were reading about ourselves, I think the words that I chose were pretty accurate.
2. I don't think that any of my words exhibit ethnocentrism but one that might be boarder line could probably be the word unusual. I do feel that my words are free of bias though because they're pretty neutral. I think that extreme and unusual are biased because they have a slight negative connotation. Secretive, hopeful, and interesting I think are unbiased because they can be associated with good or bad usually so they aren't really harmful words.
3. Intense can replace extreme and unique can replace unusual.
4. It's important to try and avoid ethnocentric judgements because then it just diminishes the people and their culture to the point where a lot of people will look at them like they're ignorant but they really aren't they just convey things differently than we do. I don't think it is possible to completely avoid ethnocentrism as a Cultural Anthropologist just because at one point or another no matter who it is they will have a biased view on something just because they experienced this one time or that happened to one of their co-workers so they think it will happen to them too.
Five submissions noted and points awarded. Full comments and score will be posted after Part B is submitted.
ReplyDeleteHi Chyann,
ReplyDeleteSecretive was a very great word to choose. I did not notice how many things they chose to hide until I read your description. The idea of secrecy can go for the same in our culture. We chose to be as private as possible in order to feel a sense of safety perhaps. There is also a lot to hide, as you stated. The word that caught me by surprise was “hopeful.” I sort of stated the same thing in my blog but steered more to faith. If these ceremonies to cure the sick hardly have any progress, then it is only hope that keeps them going back. Great article!
Marlon
I appreciate your opinion on the first section of Part B, but can you expand? Keep in mind that these posts are essentially papers, not tweets, and your explanations on each point should be thorough.
ReplyDeleteI tend to agree that you avoided a sense of ethnocentrism by generally choosing positive terms, but even positive terms can be ethnocentric if you are choosing them in comparison with another culture. "Extreme" and "unusual" are clearly more biased, but you use terminology in your other descriptions that indicate the bias in your selection, such as:
"...most tribes or other cultures don't really spend time doing that..." (For interesting)
"...because honestly what they do can be a little off the wall. They have a slight obsession with their mouths... " (for secretive)
"...in the end they hope to become perfect..." (for hopeful, and you acknowledge that this is your interpretation)
So your bias is even clearer in the explanation of your descriptors, rather than in the descriptors themselves.
I'm not sure "intense" avoids the problems and it doesn't really equal, what you were trying to say with "extreme", but consider whether your impression of "extreme" was accurate and non-biased in the first place. "Unique" works, but aren't all cultures unique? Was this a useful descriptor in the first place?
"...they really aren't they just convey things differently than we do."
Ah, there is the key there. A cultural anthropologist needs to recognize that cultures are "different". There is no bias in that statement. Once you recognize that simple fact, without providing comparative terms to that description (e.g., "better", "primative", "advanced"), you can describe them without the implication of judgement.
Correct, cultural anthropologists are human and subject to human error. They can strive to avoid bias but it is unrealistic to assume any could actually achieve that level of perceptive perfection.