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Virtual Fieldwork in New Guinea lecture
*Goal 1: understand interconnectedness
*Goal 2: expand empathy for people radically different from you
*Goal 3: Dismantle worldviews
--takes us through a tour of Papua New Guinea and briefly explains procedures needed to get permission to study there
--clip from "Lonely Planet" about Port Moresby -- considered by some the most violent city in the world at one time
--clip about the "Rascals" --http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9pIxejtZ1Q
3 Journeys
· Egocentric => Ethnocentric => Worldcentric => Reflexive
· Receiving => Subjective => Procedural => Committed
· Consumer => Creator
Ethnocentrism:
*the belief that one's own cultural beliefs and practices are the only proper ones
*a prison for the mind (you only see your way, in allaspectsof life)
Cultural Relativism
* suspend judgment
* understand others in their terms
* look back on own culture
Cultural Relativism can also be viewed as an antidote for ethnocentrism
Course Goles
Fieldworker's Toolkit: Communication, Empathy, and Thoughtfulness
Participant Observation: Research strategies that aim to get a close familiarity with a group of individuals through examining their religous, occupatoinal, and/or subcultural group through involvement with the people within their natural enviroments over a period of time. Example: In order to understand the dance, anthropologists cannot be wallflowers, they need to get in there and shake their tailfeather!
Then we went into the field together where we immediately faced:
Culture Shock: anxiety provoked by being immersed in a foreign culture (At worst it is experienced as a complete loss of self.)
To illustrate superstructural beliefs, we watched a short video showing my friend who was seriously ill, blaming my father, Melok, for bewitching him. My father washed him. Then the whole community washed him in a very touching ritual that allowed us all to heal our relationships with Tibenim. Unfortunately, he died soon after this. My father is blamed - they say he hid his magic.
Why my father?
His pig had been killed by Tibenim. Challenges our sense of justice. Why should he pay? My father is threatened.
**Learning as we go...
Thoughtfulness means we need a holistic perspective ...
Witchcraft beliefs are ...
Logical: Answers "Why me?" --- Not luck or far-off being, it's Joe next door
Socio-logical:
Looking beyond the surfaces.
* Look for connections between infrastructure - structure - superstructure
* Don't just listen to what is said, try to discover what "what is said" says.
*Thoughtfulness-- different models and theories about the world (Thoughts about everything)
*Communication-- hard to teach, must be practiced in every day life (share and listen)
*Empathy-- only expanded through conscious practice (feel for them)
Participant Observation: Research strategies that aim to get a close familiarity with a group of individuals through examining their religous, occupatoinal, and/or subcultural group through involvement with the people within their natural enviroments over a period of time. Example: In order to understand the dance, anthropologists cannot be wallflowers, they need to get in there and shake their tailfeather!
Then we went into the field together where we immediately faced:
Culture Shock: anxiety provoked by being immersed in a foreign culture (At worst it is experienced as a complete loss of self.)
--the people around you tend to reflect back to you who you are. in a completely foreign environment, this is lost.
But luckily we made friends who helped us feel more welcome and learn more about the culture. Informants = Best Friends (not as great word for it)
Then we built our house, tying us into the social network.
But luckily we made friends who helped us feel more welcome and learn more about the culture. Informants = Best Friends (not as great word for it)
Then we built our house, tying us into the social network.
--the village had a gift economy -- paying somebody is considered an end to the relationship. gift economy creates relationships and a sense of social obligation. this, in effect, forms a web of relations.
Money eliminates the roades between people. The more "gifts" make wider and bigger roades to the people you meet.
After showing a video of building my home in New Guinea, I then used his research to illustrate the ways that the environment, infrastructure, social structure, and superstructure are all interrelated and how the ethnographer engages in an analysis of all of these levels during fieldwork. At the superstructure level, we looked at the prevalence of beliefs in witchcraft.
After showing a video of building my home in New Guinea, I then used his research to illustrate the ways that the environment, infrastructure, social structure, and superstructure are all interrelated and how the ethnographer engages in an analysis of all of these levels during fieldwork. At the superstructure level, we looked at the prevalence of beliefs in witchcraft.
Model of Culture
Superstructure- idea, concepts, values
Social Structure- social and politicalorganization, kinship, power relation
Infrastructure- technology, demographics,economicsystem
Environment
To illustrate superstructural beliefs, we watched a short video showing my friend who was seriously ill, blaming my father, Melok, for bewitching him. My father washed him. Then the whole community washed him in a very touching ritual that allowed us all to heal our relationships with Tibenim. Unfortunately, he died soon after this. My father is blamed - they say he hid his magic.
Why my father?
His pig had been killed by Tibenim. Challenges our sense of justice. Why should he pay? My father is threatened.
--An interesting mix of local beliefs and Christianity from the local Baptist mission.
All the people that have a bad relationship then they wash him to try yo mend them conflict.
**What should we do?
**What should we do?
--you can't be an inactive observer of life; we all participate
**Learning as we go...
--Can't be entirely like them
--"Be true to yourself" is not good enough
--"Be true to yourself" is not good enough
--Must use our special tools -- communication, empathy, and thoughtfulness
Thoughtfulness means we need a holistic perspective ...
--Kin relationships are very close; most people in a village will consider themselves related and call each other "brother" and "sister"
--when someone dies, it shakes up the system; there's always a little tension between families
--sometimes so much tension will be created, as by a witchcraft accusation, that one family will leave and create a new village
--when villages become too large, it also becomes difficult to maintain close relations
They cause others to move out which makes them from getting to large.
Witchcraft beliefs are ...
Logical: Answers "Why me?" --- Not luck or far-off being, it's Joe next door
--it's not a medical diagnosis but an attempt to answer a metaphysical question
--Western beliefs about God and/or luck are not logical. If anything, they are beyond logic.
--Western beliefs about God and/or luck are not logical. If anything, they are beyond logic.
--about 50% of the world's population believes in witchcraft
Socio-logical:
--when someone gets sick, society looks for the root cause
--the fear of reciprocity actually helps maintain order
1. maintains morality (won't piss off Joe)
2. heals relationships (think of the washing / also exchange)
Also, socio-logical belief keeps a balance in the society because it has a tendency to keep people from doing evil due to its consequences
Eco-logical: move out when tensions are too great. Either it heals the relations so the village can live in peace - or it sparks the rift that moves them apart, helping them to live in harmony with environment ... larger villages will have a higher rate ofaccusationand might move out.
1. maintains morality (won't piss off Joe)
2. heals relationships (think of the washing / also exchange)
Also, socio-logical belief keeps a balance in the society because it has a tendency to keep people from doing evil due to its consequences
Eco-logical: move out when tensions are too great. Either it heals the relations so the village can live in peace - or it sparks the rift that moves them apart, helping them to live in harmony with environment ... larger villages will have a higher rate ofaccusationand might move out.
gifts are given to repay the bad relationships
So there we are ... What did I do? ... I did what the rest of my family did - vehemently defended my father as innocent. Nonetheless, there was a loss of life, and the immediate family needed compensation. So we paid them ... I contributed ... This gift will be returned ... re-establishing their bonds ... The most important step of cultural relativism is to look back on ourselves ... (more on this throughout the semester ...)
So there we are ... What did I do? ... I did what the rest of my family did - vehemently defended my father as innocent. Nonetheless, there was a loss of life, and the immediate family needed compensation. So we paid them ... I contributed ... This gift will be returned ... re-establishing their bonds ... The most important step of cultural relativism is to look back on ourselves ... (more on this throughout the semester ...)
Hindu where people are going hungry but they will not eat cows, they are sacred to them. The cows could feed them but a cow is the mother of all things.
Superstructure will not eat it
SocialStructurethey wil not waste the cows when they die.
Infrastructure it is a great source for othersources. Birth to a bull, milk, manure fule.
If they eat them they will not be able to suport them selves.
3 Journeys
Egocentric => Ethnocentric => Worldcentric => Reflexive
self = rules =world = humble
self = rules =world = humble
Receving => Subjective =>
Looking beyond the surfaces.
* Look for connections between infrastructure - structure - superstructure
* Don't just listen to what is said, try to discover what "what is said" says.
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