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.   

  

SURAT ALI IMRAN 
                                   - FAMILY OF IMRAN 

Reflection on what I read on "SURAT ALI IMRAN" taken from the Quran.


The religion in the sight of Allah is Islam. Allah is the ever-living and the sustainer of existence. Their is no deity except Allah. It is said that Allah the mighty has sent Muhammad, which they consider the book of truth.Muhammad revealed the "Torah" and the "Gospel" and most importantly the "Quran" for the muslim people. Allah knows everything and nothing can be hidden from him in earth nor in the heaven. He is the creator of human beings. Those who disbelieve in Allah are the ones adding fuel to the fire. They shall receive punishment as well. I feel that the people who are against Allah are very much hated. the Muslim people view Allah as the only deity. Well, we can't say anything on this matter because each individual have their own of predicting things. And those who will fear Allah will be the gardens in the presence of lords. The believers shall be forgiven of their sins as they believe in their mighty, the wise and the exalted Allah.

"Our lord, surely you will gather the people for a day about which there is no doubt. Indeed Allah does not fail in his promises." 

I really like this sentence because we believe in god because we trust them. We feel that they will be there for us in our bad times and when we need them the most. That's one of the reason why people have faith on their own religion's god. We want the trust returned to us that we bestowed on our deities. It is more than enough when god never fail on their promises because for many people, they depend on the prayers spoken to god. 
I think all the religions are pretty much the same, where they find their own deity superior. We cannot judge them because we belong to the same society. Well for me, There is only one god who takes in many forms like Buddha, Jesus Christ, Allah, Ganesh and many other deities. 

SMALL PLACES, LARGE ISSUES. 
An introduction to social and cultural anthropology. 


1. What is the common "common concern" that all anthropologists share?

Every anthropologists have their own way of thinking or viewing anthropology. Although they have mid-ranging and are engaged in highly specialised interest, what they all share in common is trying to understand both connections within societies and connections between societies. The anthropologists wish to discover general, shared aspects of humanity or human societies. 


2.What do you think Eriksen means when he says: "As an ethical principle, however, it is impossible in practice, since it seems to indicate that everything is as good as everything else, provided it makes sense in a particular society. It may particularly lead to nihilism" page-7

Here, what Thomas Hylland Eriksen is actually trying to relate from the above statement is that cultural relativism cannot be practiced in a society or among cultures from an ethical point of view. Because what we consider right in our society may seem unapproachable in other societies. And at the end this might lead to nihilism. (life is without any objective meaning, purpose or intrinsic value.)


3. Paragraph response: 
Erikson says anthropologists, "warn against the application of a shared, universal scale used to be in in evaluation of every society."page-6 Why is this the case? To what extend do you agree or disagree with the approach? Why ? 

The above statement come under the problem of ethnocentrism, which is just the opposite of cultural relativism. We should not judge people under the basis of culture. We should learn how to appreciate it and try to put cultural relativism in action instead of ethnocentrism. I think I agree with the sentence because we should not compare strangers with our societies and put ourselves on top. Instead of doing that, we should call for an understanding of different societies as they appear from the inside. He also mentions that the above statement can be read as an warning against ethnocentrism. 

  

Vocabulary  Research !


1. EMIC: Emic in anthropological term means how the local people think. How they perceive and categorise the words and their rules of behaviour. Also, how they imagine and explain things. It can also be described as a behaviour or a belief in terms meaningful to the actor, which is an emic account comes from a person within the culture.

2. ETIC: Etic shifts from the focus from local observations,categories,explanations, and interpretations to those of the anthropologists.It realises that members of a culture often are too involved in what they are doing to interpret their culture impartially.An etic also accounts to a description of a behaviour or belief by an observer, in terms that can be applied to other cultures, which means that etic attempts to be 'culturally natural'.

*What we see here is that, both EMIC and ETIC approaches to anthropological research and it has been widely recognised, especially in the area of interest that concerns the characteristics of human nature and as well as the form and function of human social systems.

3. AGENCY: It is the role that each individual play in interpreting, using, making and remaking culture in terms of anthropological meaning. We can be more clear by saying that, it is the concept that each human individual within a culture has the ability to determine and choose by their own free will, actions, beliefs etc. Each individual should be independent and should be able to make their own choices. 

4. STRUCTURE: Structure is the recurrent patterned arrangements which influence or limit the choices and opportunities available. 

5. HOLISM: Holism in anthropology is the assumption that any given aspects of human life is to be studied with an eye to the way it is related to other aspects of human life. In other words, holism emphasis upon studying the relationships among all aspects of culture rather than 'whole' cultures.It is also the study of the whole of the human condition; tht is past, present and the future.

10 MINUTE OBSERVATION ! 

Me and kelly at school :) 

I decided to observe my friend, Kelly Dolma Tshering Gurung for my 10 minute observation assignments. I chose her because she does all the weirdest and silliest thing that I could do :D I further decided that i would observe her eating. Wouldn't that just be the best thing to observe, people hogging. 

So it was a fine sunny and bright saturday afternoon. kelly and I decided to go out for a lunch after our basketball practise. We went to Fire and Ice Restaurant for lunch. We just love pizza. I did not start observing her right when the waiter bought us menu.I wanted to observe her when she was eating. But I must say, people can get very choosy when it comes to food and one of them was kelly, she took her own sweet and long time deciding what she wanted to eat and drink.  Yes, so when it came to food  she always tried new things. While we were busy chitchatting,our drinks arrived few minutes after. She had ordered cinderella and it was a fancy drink. She didn't finish the entire drink before the food like I did. I think she wanted to keep space for her pineapple pizza.

STARTED OBSERVING HER FOR 10 MINUTES WHILE EATING:


 Finally my Hawain pizza and her pineapple pizza arrived. She immediately took out her cell phone and started taking pictures of food. Well, firstly I observed that she loved taking pictures.Then both of us took selfies as well. I even observed that she liked things that looked fancy even if it was food, because both her drink and her pizza did stand out. I also think that people who would like to take kelly for dinner or lunch should definetly take her to a fancy restaurant. Good luck guys ! We both began eating our food and I had to remind myself to observe kelly as much the pizza was asking me to eat it. While eating we kept talking but I noticed that I was the one doing the talking more than her. She kept on flipping her straight brown hair while eating. My friend surely is pretty, actually all my friends are :) She ate slowly and gracefully. Suddenly she got reminded of an incident that took place when we were in our spanish class. She reminded me as well and we both burst out laughing and didn't care who else were present in the restaurant at that point of time. She was laughing out so loud that her tears started pouring out of her eyes. Yet again, our laugh was broken by the delicious pizza who was waiting to be eaten. I also observed her looking at the other customers who were in the restaurant. While eating she would play with the food and sometimes she would be in her own world for a while. I found that very strange. Maybe she was feeling kind of awkward because she knew that I was observing her for like 10 mins. She told me that she would waste food if she didn't like it but she was happy with her decision of ordering pineapple pizza. It was so yummy ofcourse. I asked her if she loved food and then she answered, Who doesn't Tsering. Yah, but who doesn't right ? Food is god and heaven's combinations. I looked at my watch and saw that it was almost 10 minutes. So I wanted to observe her for the last few mins and my last observation was that she eats really slowly and ladylike. I think she chews 32 times each time she has food in her mouth because when she was just over with 5 pieces of her pizza there I was saying goodbye to my last 2 pizzas. Seriously, how sad can that get ? Lastly, concluding my observation, I feel proud to say that my friend, my amigo eats like a queen. Very royal and gracefully indeed. I feel proud that I have friends that even looks her best while eating. 


I was very excited to observe kelly for 10 mintues because you never know what she could do to make you smile for the entire day. But it would be fun making them feel awkward for like 10 mins. I chose to write what I observed when she was eating. I chose these details because that's what I observed. I think the data is pretty much relevant to the social context of the person I observed. I mean what more could I observe when I was only given 10 mins. Next time if I was to observe someone again, I would chose to observe someone doing something more intensely like someone playing a musical instrument or someone playing sports or painting. And I  would also observe them more carefully and seriously.  


Kelly told me that she felt kind of awkward knowing that she was being observed for 10 mins, but she also told me that her awkwardness didn't last long because I was her friend and she felt comfortable. Kelly is a smart and a fun girl so even if someone else were to observe her, they would definetely enjoy observing her because of her graceful and girly charm :)

Her beautiful picture with food. 

THANKYOU :) 

CULTURAL RELATIVISM AND UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHTS 
WRITTEN BY : CAROLYN FLUEHR-LOBBAN.


" Understanding the diverse cultural contexts where harm or violence may take place is valuable and important, but suspending or withholding judgement because of cultural relativism is intellectually and usually irresponsible." 


The reason for choosing the above quotation is because I agree with it. First of all, we all come from different cultural backgrounds. Understanding someone's culture is not easy. We may be "For it'' or either "Against it". But it is our responsibility to accept what culture  they follow and support them the,. Like in some culture, harm and violence may be a part of its traditions that they follow. So we should understand their cultural contexts because it may be valuable and important to them but suspending or withholding judgement because of cultural relativism is very irresponsible, because we cannot be careless and just say anything against their culture because t may seem wrong to us. Ethnocentrism should not be practised in such situation.

Well, for the argument part, the writer is basically trying to convey us the message that both cultural relativism and human rights should be followed by all the anthropologist and the people. The author feels that the anthropologists should try or choose to protect and promote human rights. We should also stop misusing cultural relativism. Like for example, any harmful or discriminating act that are done to an individual according what culture they belong should not be ignored because they have their own human rights. They do not choose to follow it but are compelled to accept it. In such situation where is the human rights that they have be granted universally?

The writer also mentions about "Female circumcision" being practised in Sudan. The females are compelled to follow it. And the ones who are uncircumcised are not respectable. Even the daughters for that matter have few chances of getting married if they are not circumcised. This is affecting all the female in the society. Where are the human rights that they are granted ? Even if they are granted they do not have the power to use them because the society wouldn't accept it. It is not right and just to think and follow cultures or tradition that has been practised for ages and neglect the circumstances involved in it. 

I do not have any reasoned criticism or counter argument that I want to make. I agree with what the writer have to say. Also, I do not have any experienced  situation or incident which supports or challenges the argument. 

Lastly for the implication part, I agree with what the article had to say. We should not take cultural relativism as an excuse and ignore the human rights given to the people. Human rights are more important than cultural rituals, traditions or customs. It has also given me a better perspective of viewing the entire cultural context where harm and violence still prevail and where Human rights are completely ignored.