UNDERSTANDING ISLAM.

1. What are the main points of contention regarding the strained relationship between the christian west and muslim world?

= After reading and understanding the article we see this huge difference between the christians and the muslim. With more than 1billion adherents, islam is the world's second-largest religion after christianity. According to what is written in the article, the information shows that there are more and more topics regarding violence and peace. Many things and the way the muslim practice is considered unacceptable or not happening for the westerners and people all around. like for example,  there was this controversy about "niqab" wearing of the veil around their face and wearing everything black. This is one of the reason their are many problems airing between the muslim society and the others. Mainstream muslims and religious scholars say islam is wrongly blamed for the violence and terrorism. There are million of muslim in the united states. Muslim are also becoming the centre of attraction so therefore the western culture are feeling inferior or dominated in their own society. Also the strained relationship between the christian west and the muslim world is primarily due to misinterpreting each other's religion.


2. Does Islam encourage violence? Explain.

= Muslim people are considered fearful,frustrated,upset and generally angry. The islamic-motivated terrorist attacks issued since 9/11 by muslims in the untied states and around the world. Many non-muslim public officials, commentators, experts and others feel that muslims have not done enough to speak out against terrorism committed in the name of their religion. Many americans believe Islam actually encourages violence among its adherents. I also pity the muslim culture and religion because they actually aren't exposing themselves to violence but for them to get what they want, most of the time they try to accomplish it by violence. Many mainstream muslim insist that Islam is a peaceful religion and that terrorist organisations distort its tenets and teachings in justifying attacks against the west or the other muslims. It is also mentioned how the Islamic doctrine and history sometimes seem to justify the use of violence to protect their faith. We also see how Seyyed Hossein Nasr,  professor of Islamic studies at George Washington university goes by mentioned that islamic culture or religion does not encourage violence. He states that islamic law prohibits the use of force against women,children or civilians even during war. It may also be because of the twin tower attack attacked by the muslim that people all over the world take or see muslim as fearless terrorist. But that is a wrong mindset of the people because the Islamic culture is more than just wars, violence etc. They are the 2nd largest religion in the world after christian. They worship their religion just as we do but people misinterpret them so therefore in order to protect their culture and faith they engage and encourage violence when needed.


3. Is Islam compatible with secular, pluralistic societies?

= As with the issue of violence, Islam's doctrines and history can be viewed as pointing bot ways on questions of pluralism and tolerance.
" there are a great many passages in the koran that support a pluralistic interpretation of Islam."
Muslim countries have tolerated and let the Christian and other religion stay in their countries peacefully, other than the limitation imposed on them. Islam's view of religion and politics as inseparable creates difficult issues. outside the Arab world, most muslims live in practicing democracies with fair to good human-rights records. But some muslim countries both arab and non-arab have either adopted or been urged to adopt provisions of islamic law known as "sharia". They are antithetical to modern ideas of human rights, such as limiting women's rights and prescribing stoning or amputations as criminal penalties. The muslims living in a society less populated by their own religion face different issues. they feel it is difficult to accommodate in a determinedly secular western society where almost all views are equally respected, and none is seen either right or wrong. westerners have always criticised the muslims despite the compromises.


4. Does Islam need a "reformation"? Explain.

= Islam today is revolving differently in the west and in some parts of the muslim world. many muslims writers and scholars in the united states and europe are calling for Islam to adopt to modern times by for example embracing pluralism and gender equality. the westerners believe that Islam religion needs a reformation. They think that the muslim need to change their way of thinking and its moral ideas. What can be done is progressive thinking. but also it is the duty of the westerners and non-muslim societies to equally respect their culture and compromise with the Islamic laws. their should not be any biases within cultures.

Hey guys,

I apologise for not updating my blog lately. I have been stressed with school work and projects. But guess what? I have something very interesting to talk about for all my lovely viewers. I promise to make it worth the wait and I hope that by the end of all you give it a good thought about it and not fall a victim of it.

Over the past few weeks I have been blogging about women in commercials. I have covered issues of the portrayal of women and girls in commercials aimed at men mostly, the dark side of advertising and the effects of these advertisements on women and girls. After reading and researching what I noticed or know is that at the end it is the women and girls who are portrayed unfairly, are objectified to some certain extend and are also negatively portrayed all over the media through television, video games, films, music videos, magazines and many more. And this behaviour of the media is not going to stop.

However, the media has put so many restrictions on how society is to define women. but noticing at what is existing already , the looks of the woman allowed to appear in the media particularly in the fashion industry or lets be precise and say models acted as a force on the average woman by defining beauty as tall and  slender as the models in magazines and advertisements. Beauty for them was to look like models who probably starved themselves to get that zero sized body which to me is not a healthy body. Eventually at the end, all they succeed in doing is by putting a strong influence on women's self esteem and confidence. Men and society have started to view women as people without rights, caretakers or leaders and started to view them as objects of sexual desire.

Like I mentioned earlier there are many ways where the women are girls are portrayed by the media so therefore I will be focusing more on the different medias where girls are portrayed.  For example lets see how female are displayed in movies. Being a girl child, I have grown up watching disney and princess movies. When we were young, we thought that in order to look just like the princess and feel special or wanted we should be dress and look like the princesses but now I realised that what I used to think before is completely different from what I think now. Reality check, for example in the movie snow white, snow white is expected to clean up after everyone else and guard the house where the dwarfs lived in the forest and also in cinderella, cinderella has been treated as a maid by her step mother and her step sisters. It is sad to see how women are dominating women here. Therefore, young girls are likely to expect them doing the same thing  as they grow up. Like wise in music videos girls are portrayed as in driving fancy cars with their arms around the men and wearing provocative clothing where they show off their bodies for the rest of the world to see. Music videos use girls to popularise their video making girls the centre of attraction to the men with money to have. For example in the video blurred lines, we see hot models not appropriately dressed for the viewers to view them. If they continue to act that way then we wont have any option but to let men use and view girls as an object. But on the other hand what I noticed was how male in the same video was dressed in suits looking all smart. The video is going to have a huge impact on the youth.

Women are also advertised in magazines. Between every pages of a magazine we come across models or girls with their perfect slender body advertising different products like clothing brands, perfumes etc. By looking at these advertisements we get the slightest thought that maybe if we use the same product as them then maybe we can achieve the look like the models who is supposedly wearing it. Here, advertisements are transferring our mind to think that we can change our physical appearance all together. Teenagers are influenced and hence becomes a victim of it. Many young teenage girls have started to view their body image comparing themselves to what they see in the ads and this also hampers their health in some ways.

As mentioned earlier, there are millions of women watching television all the time. It is the easiest way of communication to women everywhere. Television is like a platform where women are portrayed in many identities such as house wives, decorative elements, sex objects dependent on men. Women's portrayal in televisions or in any other media is wrong because it is highly judged, misinterpretated and also misrepresented by the society. The appearance of the women on television, are not comparable to the average women  in real life and we as young children also notice this since we are socially connected with the media through televisions, movies, music videos and advertisements. Children are affected because they realise the differences between the men and the women where men are mostly portrayed as leaders, boss, dominants, successful, rich, sporty, independent and strong. Whereas, women on the other hand are mostly reckoned to be whining, crying, creating dramas, being a housewife, submissive under the men, dependent etc. What we do not realise is that women and men are both equal but it is due to the media's creation for portraying women wrongly all over. It is also a shame to see that we allowed this to happen just in front of our eyes unknowingly.

HOW COOKING FREES MEN.

1. How did cooking of food allow our ancestors to reconstruct the working days?

- Cooking of food changed the way our ancestor ate. After cooking of food, the food eventually became softer and it was easier to eat in a way saving time and energy while chewing. Cooking of food also made life easier for our ancestors. they now had more time to hunt and gather and it reconstructed the working days of our ancestors.

2. What is the sexual division of labour and why does its evolution centre on hunter-gatherers?

- By the term sexual division of labour it simply means the work or labour divided between men and the female or it could also refer to men and women making different and complementary contributions to the household economy. Its evolution centres on hunter and gatherers because the gendered division of labour is human universal. And it is also assumed to us that it had spread across the globe sixty thousand to seventy thousand years ago.

3. What are the two major feature of sexual division on labour represented by the Hadza?

- The two main features of sexual division on labour represented by the Hadza are that men and women both spend most of their time hunting and gathering, like seeking for different kind of foods and at the end it is feasted by both the sexes. Both the men and the female hunted and gathered on their own since it was practiced that way.

4. How has the division of labour by sex been thought to have affected society as a whole?

- The division of labour by sex not only affects the society but also the household subsistence. It bought about strong family bonds. The foods that they collected were all shared among each other. It also indirectly affects us for they made us who we are today.

5. Why does the author believe that cooking food was an essential factor in allowing for the sexual division of labour?

- Cooking made life easier for us and our ancestors. The time wasted in chewing raw food could now be utilised for something more productive like going hunting or gathering. We know that cooking makes food tastier and delicious. The fire here played a important role for it did justice to the people. They could now eat after dark. Men and Women both had enough time to do their work for they didn't have to wait for the food to be cooked or to be chewed properly to get digested.

Right from the beginning of the anthropology during the 19th century, have tried to classify cultures of the world in a meaningful way by that would help explain a wide range of behaviour patterns. Therefore the anthropologists classified the cultures into four different categories which were: 

• PASTORALISM. 
• HORTICULTURE.
• FORAGING.
• INTENSIVE AGRICULTURE. 

1. PASTORALISM: Living made by the people by tending herds of large         animals in a subsistence pattern. the species of animals are domesticated herbivorously. Some of the animals the pastoralist herd are horses, sheep, goat and even camels depending on which region they belong to. there are two kinds of pastoralism. 

* Transhumance pastoralism and 

* Pastoral nomads. 

In transhumance pastoralism they migrate in a cyclic pattern. This is a kind of seasonal migration between the same two location in which they have permanent houses etc. They depend less on domestic food than the nomadic pastoralism. Whereas in pastoral nomads they also follow a seasonal migratory pattern that varies from year to year.they do not have permanent settlements but rather they live in tents and dwellings. they are self sufficient when it comes to food as well. 

Pastoralist societies are mainly male dominated and the division of labour is based on gender and age. 

2. HORTICULTURE: It is a small scale, low intensity farming which involves part time planting and tending of domesticated food plants. Their farming subsistence is based on hunting and gathering mostly. Horticulture is practiced successfully in tropical forest areas in tropical forest areas in the Amazon basin and on the mountain slopes of in south and central America and as well as in Africa.they have a shifting pattern of field use where they use slash and burn process. The population density is more than foraging and pastoralist. They are hence more productive. They aren't only engaged in farming but also in selling goods in the local market.their method of cultivation is very simple where no large beats or machines are used but are all done by hand. They have no proper irrigation facilities as well. 

3. FORAGING: Foragers generally have a passive dependence on what the environment contains. it is the most ancient of human subsistence pattern. We see that they do not plant crops and the only animal they domesticate is dog. They  usually depend on their muscle power to carry out task or works. they don have much choices regarding occupation. Men are engaged with hunting whereas women gather. Most foraging societies do not have permanent year round settlements. They live in tents, small dwellings,brush huts etc. There dwelling depends on availability of water and food. the migration is limited as they travel on foot. Foraging population density is relatively low as compared to other subsistence pattern. Activities depend on gender and age. The anthropologist have also identified three major variation under foraging subsistence pattern, and they are:

1. Pedestrian (diversified hunting and gathering on foot)

2. Equestrian (hunting large mammals on horseback)

3. Aquatic. (concentrating on fish and other water mammals from boats)

4. INTENSIVE AGRICULTURE: It is the primary subsistence pattern of large scale, populous societies. Here, in this pattern more food is produced compared to other subsistence patterns. they started to gain importance as the human population started to grow. They are provided with all the resources needed for farming or agricultural purposes. They have permanent settlements. More and new jobs are approved in their societies. 

RITES OF PASSAGE:


Culturally  defined activities associated with the transition from one place or stage of life to another.

SOURCES:  www.highered.mheducation.com

                     Cultural Anthropology, 9/e

                     Conrad P. Kottak, University of Michigan.

Rite of passage, ceremonial event, existing in all historically known societies, that makes the passage from one social or religious status to another. this article describes these rites among various societies throughout the world, giving greatest attention to the most common types of rites; explains their purposes from the viewpoints of the people observing the rites; and discuss their social, cultural, and psychological significance as seen by scholars seeking to gain an understanding of human behaviour. 

SOURCES:  www.britannia.com

                     Encyclopaedia Britannica.

 REFLECTION ON YANOMANO.

Napoleon Chagnon known as one of the most controversial anthropologists spent more than 60 months in Yanomani, which is a tribe in Amazon, which is one of the isolated places and the widely known places in the world. He went there to study about the people of Yanomani, known as the “Yanomamo’’, their culture and their society. The people of Yanomano are very simple since they are tribal. Like all the other anthropologist even Chagnon felt vey difficult to adjust to their society in the beginning, but later as the time passed by he felt like he belonged there. The Yanomamo fall into the category of tropical forest Indian called Foot people. The Yanomamo are described pretty clearly by the author. We get to know a about how they live in their tribe which is different from how we live our life. The Yanomamo have a rich and complex language. When it comes to clothing, it’s more about the decorations than the protection. Dress code seems neutral for both the boys and the boys. Their daily life envolved gardening, hunting, collecting wild foods and firewoods, fetching water, gossiping and also making their own material possession such as bows, hammers, arrows and colourful pigment that they colour themselves with. They work for 3 hours a day. Their villages are spacious and have open grounds for their own adventures. They are also very public. Some villages are very small with just 40 to 50 people and of the larger area they can be up to 300 people or more. Their life expectancy is short because most deaths are the results of evil spirits, which means that superstition plays a very important role in the lives of the Yanomamo. Many deaths have been occurred due to the influence of the evil spirits. The young boys and men are taught to be fierce and are rewarded. Whereas for young girls, they take up duties from a very young age and their future entirely depends on the adults and their families. She is given for marriage for the benefit of her family. Further we understand that war and warfare, is also very common. But what the author noticed was that the war was mostly over women. We see how women play an important life in the men’s life. They were also very much concerned about their status.  Napoleon, the author was impressed about the importance that aggression played in shaping their culture. He also left that as the time went by things also changed among the Yanomamo during his research. Lastly, I  realized how different we are from other cultures which we never even knew existed. It’s always interesting to know and learn new things. I feel that the Yanomamo are satisfied with what they have and they believe what they do like all the other cultures. The article about the Yanomamo was like a story, interesting and simply beautiful. 

                    

     IA: 1HOUR OBSERVATION.

The day was just so perfect and fine. It was a pleasant day indeed. On 20^th September, I decided to observe my locality, Boudhanath Stupa, which is known for its beauty, rich cultural heritage and tourism site for my 1 hour observation for my IA.

4:20 PM.

Just when I began my observation, I saw two Taiwanese ladies accompanied by a guide who was pointing and explaining them about the Stupa just beside me.  They were taking pictures of the Stupa and I could see smile brightening their face. Then I looked straight and my eyes happened to see an old Anila (lady monk) dressed shabbily unlike the other monks sitting beside the temple spinning her prayer wheel. I wondered why was she sitting on the floor. Then I saw she looked after the shoes of the people who visited the temple. She was paid five rupees for each shoe. She was also asking people to give her money. Some did and some just ignored her. People were receiving holy water from a man who looked after the temple. Just beside the temple there was an entrance to the roof of the Stupa and I saw many people making their way through the narrow entrance door. I saw many small groups of people up in the Stupa. I saw couple, family, group of tourist, friends and some of them were alone. We actually go up to take Kora (rounds) around the Stupa, because its in our culture. But what I saw made me upset because they weren’t doing what they were supposed to. I guess majority of them just came to hang around because all I saw was them taking pictures with the Stupa, some were dating in one corner and others were laughing and talking like it was a park. But the foreigners seemed more loyal to me because though they knew nothing about our culture they took rounds around the Stupa and at the same time took pictures. They took exact three rounds and got down. But the other groups I was observing along with the tourists were still in the exact position doing what they were doing. I actually realized how many of us see boudhanath Stupa, as one of the places where people meet up, hang out and had fun. I didn’t like what I was observing so I decided to drift my eyes somewhere else just when I was disturbed by an excuse me. I saw three American ladies. One of them asked me where they could exchange currency. I couldn’t leave my spot so hence I showed them the direction. They seemed pretty clear with the direction. They thanked me and left the monastery. I looked down and saw many people doing their regular Kora around the Stupa. Most of them had Maney (holy beads) in their hands. To be honest, majority of them were old people. I later noticed few pigeons feeding on the left over grains from the morning. They were enjoying their meal. Suddenly the weather started to change. The dark clouds covered the sky and it started to get gloomy. In no time all the pigeons flew away. There was raindrops on my copy and realized that it was starting to rain. People began rushing and running to find a place where they could wait for the rain to stop. The spot that I was observing was a quarter of the entire Stupa, so therefore the monastery was their only option. In a minute the monastery was filled with people. I looked at my watch and it was almost time. I had 8 more minutes. I last thing I observed was a lady who was talking so loudly over the phone that made everybody look at her. The few minutes remaining I observed how some people of them were still taking Kora in their raincoats and umbrellas. I stopped my observation at 5:20 PM. While reflecting on what I observed I then realized how diverse Boudhanath Stupa was. I was proud to be a part of such locality. I learned that observing a particular place can be challenging but it was worth it.

Thank you.