Cultural Anthropology @ KSU - Recently Updated Pages

Facebook

Stockmoe — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 14:08:34 CST

Koobecaf by Kirsten Crandall:
There are basic human needs in every culture: food, shelter, and eventually love. I believe that Facebook is so appealing to American culture because it satisfies the need to be connected, networked, accepted, and loved. Furthermore, Facebook likely grew at the rate it did by doing this duty in the desired “American way.”
Americans seem to have a love affair with the concept of ‘easy’. They flock to any idea, invention, or tool that gets them what they need or want as speedy and painlessly as possible. For example, the average American possess, not only one, but two functional legs yet they choose drive their cars down the street just to get their 5 minutes earlier and with significantly less physical effort. This fact about the American lazy life is no new discovery, however, Facebook shows a new social and community laziness that is now on perfect display every time the site is accessed. Social satisfaction in an instant.
When a Facebook “profile” is on the computer screen, you are looking at a person’s virtual self, waiting to be socialized with. With further exploration of this page, you discover all the ways of doing so. Private messages, public message, list of friends, networks, private and public groups, picture albums, events being attended, and even a “mini-feed” displaying a person’s current Facebook activities. What can you not tell about a person from browsing their Facebook? Nothing. What can you communicate to a person through Facebook? Anything and everything. There is even a list of unspoken social rules for Facebooking, just like in regular American culture. Facebook is an exact online translation of American social life...made easy.
The significant difference between the two worlds is effort. Before the world of Facebook, socializing was “getting out there” and interacting. Now, you do so by sitting on your computer desk swivel chair, clicking the post button. Social fears are minimized: you can delete something you previously did, say something and have the person not find it for another hour, even get to know someone through their profile without them ever knowing. Facebookers create event groups and invite people with a simple mouse click, no fear of rejection or awkward no thank you’s. Facebookers know what old friends, enemies, and ex-boyfriends/girlfriends (that they otherwise would never talk to) did last weekend and whom they are dating now. The growing population of Facebook culture is seeking to satisfy their basic need for human interaction with no human interaction at all. Just imagine what this could do to a society.
The only constant in our world is change. Look at this in terms of technology, constantly advancing. But is this Facebook technology really expanding social abilities and horizons? Or, is the speed in which it is growing actually parallel to the tempo it is closing people into smaller and smaller cages under the façade of socializing and life made easy.
Facebook was a tool made for us to socialize the way we want. But just like every tool given to Americans it can transform to so much more. Will this tool eventually not only be created by us, but become what defines us? And eventually what turns around and creates us into something new?
With a social world designed to emulate what we already have, and with page designers deciding what goes onto Facebook, are we not slowing leaving it up to Facebook how we socialize. Formally unacceptable social interactions could become acceptable simply because it is an option on Facebook. Facebook shows an imagine of the culture it was created for, while also showing the power it has for social boundaries to be changed because of the power Americans have given to this tool.

Koobecaf assignment: Cassidy Fowles: Before the 1900’s the only means of communication was by word of mouth or by mail. Letters took days, even months to reach the intended recipient. By the 1900’s a new wave of communication was sweeping over the nation. Telephones were beginning to become the most popular form of communication. Telephones were used heavily for all forms of communication until around 1990 when the World Wide Web was launched. The internet took everyone by storm and along with it came e-mail. E-mail gave us an even easier way to keep in touch with others. Non-verbal communication began to develop into a trend around the nation as well. Around 1990 the cell phone also began to become popular. Text messaging through cell phones became and still is one the major ways that teenagers communicate to each other. But then in 2004 along came facebook. Primarily set up for college students, facebook is now used by all ages of people. Facebook is currently the second largest network on the web, behind only myspace in terms of traffic. Why is facebook so popular and how is it affecting our culture? The popularity of facebook can easily be explained. Facebook is fast, easy, and takes little to no effort. Facebook is one of the simplest forms of communication we have, other than talking face to face and over the phone. Using facebook you can send private messages, write things on each others walls that you might want others to see, and quickly chat over the chat function. Americans are always looking for the fastest and easiest way to do things, and with facebook you receive both. You can keep in touch with your friends by sending messages like e-mail and you can also check up on them by looking at their most recent pictures, wall posts, and status updates. Americans have almost become obsessed with facebook. We know that when we get on facebook we are not going to just check out what was on our profile, but others profiles. We want to know about other people, and the reason that we have let this almost ridiculous trend get out of hand is because now we don’t know what we would do without it. We want; we need to know what is going on with people, not even friends, but just people. Looking at pictures give us a feeling of jealousy, or admiration. We look at others people’s pictures because we wish we could be like them. We wish that we could dress like them, or go to parties like they go to. Facebook allows us to live through others for split seconds by looking and wandering deep into their profiles. Facebook allows us to do many things that we might not be able to do without it. We can “meet” people that we never would have met without facebook, we can in a sense know everything about everyone, and we can check up on our friends with the click of a button. Facebook is slowing affecting our culture by teaching us that we can “creep” on people and it is okay. While researching for this paper I realized a few things about my own facebook profile. The most significant thing being that everyone in the Kansas State network can see my profile. I was completely unaware that anyone besides my friends could see my pictures, read my wall posts, and check out all of my information. I was quickly able to change that feature using my security function, but the thought of strangers checking out my facebook profile was still a bit nerve wracking. Facebook is a simple way to talk to your friends and keep them up to date on your life. But what facebook is teaching our youth might not be the best example of what communication should really look like. Is facebook just another trend, or will it stay around for good, like e-mail? Only time will tell, but what time has already told is that facebook has affected and will continue to affect us and our culture.

Jodie Schulz
9-15-2008
Anth. Facebook Facebook has become a national event that kids, parents, well anyone has gotten into. Why has it become so popular in our culture? What allows it to become so popular in our culture? How is it changing our culture? First, why has Facebook become so popular in our culture? Well, it’s become a worldwide; way to show how you are, by posting videos, and pics of yourself, for everyone to see. People can find lost ones that they got separated from. Also, they can meet new people from all over the world and get to know them and become friends with them. Facebook is a worldwide event so lots of people like to use it to see what they’re missing and to meet new people. Next, what allows Facebook to become so popular in our culture? The availability, of the website. You can get on Facebook on your phone and check it whenever you want to. Also, assessable, anyone can get one, it’s harmless. You can protect your profile so only a select few can view it, and if anyone violate you, you can turn them in or just block them from your site. Anyone can use it; it’s available and assessable. Finally, how is it changing our culture? Well, we can connect to people from all over the world like we’ve never done before. We have started to use slangs like: “LOL, TTUL.” You start telling people how you really fill about them without them getting pissed at you, hurting you, or even so they can’t see your expression, when they turn you down. They just can leave angry messages or block you from there site, instead of all the harmless things involved. Also, if you’re not available, and people really need to get a hold of you and you don’t have a phone you can message them and next time they get on the computer they will get it and get a hold of you as soon as possible. So it changes the way we talk and compared to when we never had the internet. In conclusion, why it’s becoming so popular, what’s allowing it to become so popular, and how is it changing our culture; is a big part of our society growing, and discovering new ways to talk, react, and connect to other people.

The Koobecaf (Facebook) Assignment By Gina Garcia 9/19/2008 Many Americans are all for the next big thing. That why it is no surprise that so many have joined the Koobecaf, the new popular way to communicate and stay connected. Koobecaf is an organized group online that anyone can join anywhere on the planet Earth that has internet. The American culture has equipped individuals, not only need to stay connected; they like to know the most recent information about one another. A big part of Americans infrastructure is advanced technology. It would be torture for most Americans to be deprived of their ipods, cell phones, and computers with internet. The Koobecaf is simply another form of entertainment for the American culture. It is a system of free communication on the internet for Americans to connect with other people without being face to face. Many Americans like mobility; they are able to message one another on Koobecaf from their cellular phones. They can write on several “friend’s” walls while at their workplace or at education facility. A person’s friend on koobecaf isn’t always a close union with another being, just simply someone they have added or confirmed to have access to one another’s Koobecaf page. Americans can send messages or just look at their “friends” pages. On the Koobecaf many Americans strive to add as many friends possible. The friends that you add without privacy block have full access to the information you put on Koobecaf. This can create unwanted stalkers that hunt after individuals after feeling connected to them by examining their page. Americans also like to separate themselves into groups. They can separate their friends into “circles.” For example one might have all their family members in one, football enthusiasts in another, and girls might have their shopping companions. Americans usually intend using Koobecaf to write on a person’s wall or check their messages, but end up looking at the recent news of what has been occurring on Koobecaf from their home status. This can get Americans stuck on Koobecaf for hours, they love gossip. Gossip is random information about other people that sometimes is not true, but Americans find it amusing anyway. For example: who’s talking to whom, who’s dating whom, who’s in pictures from the big party over the weekend. This is enormous part of why Koobecaf is so popular to Americans. To add to the gossiping, people can post any image, rate one anther based on looks and post anonymous messages. This also adds to image concern within American culture. Many believe in having a certain look that can be unnatural for some. As part of their superstructure Americans are expected to have an image, many in the American culture are body conscious. Most females want to be extremely and unnaturally slim and voluptuous in areas where they are not, while males just want to be big and tall. Whether they are happy with their image or not Americans are all their own individuals. On an American’s Koobecaf page they can show their individuality by posting their activities, interests, favorite televisions shows, films and reading material. They can also pictures of themselves doing these things and pictures at other occasions. Their posting is not limited to that, they can write what ever they desire to on the Koobecaf whether in their notes or on walls. Anyone can create a group for a common interest and make it exclusive or public on the Koobecaf. Increasing their interaction in this group they can have discussions on their own wall. Koobecaf works in American culture because it enforces their want for individuality, their need to stay connected and amuses their obsession gossip and rumors about each others lives.
Facebook assingment by: Brooke Nolte So many companies all over the world are trying to create the next best thing that everybody will want or be a part of. So for teenagers, high school students, college students and parents; there is one website where all of these different groups of people can come together and communicate. Facebook, has taken over society today in many ways that people do not realize. Just a couple years ago it was normal to pick up a house phone and call someone just to talk. Then after that it become the cell phone rage where everybody had a cell phone so many people had started talking on cell phones. After cell phones many people communicated through e-mails because it become easier and a way of saving time. Now with all of the high-technology today many communicate still through e-mail but have expanded communication through text messaging. So why not continue this pattern of communication by creating a website where you can communicate by leaving messages. Because facebook is so popular in today society, people can access facebook form almost anywhere because of technology in cell phones and wireless internet, so people could literally be on facebook at day if they choose to. The culture of America has changed to the fact that many people do not feel the need to speak or meet with other people, instead many prefer just to keep social relationships to e-mails or text messages. In this case many people are missing out on getting to know someone and their personality and because of this a lot of miscommunication is happens. Many users of facebook feel that their personality is shown on their own facebook site. By being able to post pictures of themselves on their facebook , also being able to share your interests and views on facebook. One thing interesting about facebook is it was created so people could keep in contact with each other in your own network. But it has turned into this huge collaboration of people from all different networks being friends with each other. Which is a great idea so student can keep in contact with people that they went to high school with and went to a different university. One problem with facebook is many people are friends with other people and they have no idea who they are and have never met them before. That is when things get tricky because you do not know the little details about people when you meet them over the internet. Facebook has become so popular in American society today because many Americans strive to be able to show their individuality and facebook has given many people a way to show who they the way they want to be seen. Anyone can create a facebook and write about themselves, but nobody will really know if anything they said is true or not. For some people they create these profile that has a cute girl or a cute guy in the picture and will say they do all of these activities just so they can feel better about themselves. So again, instead of meeting with people to keep a connection going and to get to know someone on a personal level many believe they are connected to a person through the internet but the internet is not always correct. Today our society has become lazy and is resorting to fast easy communication, and because of that many people have lost personal connections to others. And the culture of America has changed to the fact that we do not value personal time with others anymore, we worry more about saving time.

Final Exam Review

sarah091 — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 10:53:04 CST

:Core Terms to Know:
Ethnocentrism: the belief that one's own cultural beliefs and practices are the only proper ones

Cultural Relativism - The idea that one must suspend judgment on other peoples’ practices in order to understand them in their own cultural terms. Only through such an approach can one gain a meaningful view of the values and beliefs that underlie the behaviors and institutions of other peoples and societies as well as clearer insights into the underlying beliefs and practices of one’s own society. Avoid premature judgments until we have a full understanding of the culture in which we are interested. Then and only then, may the anthropologist adopt a critical stance and in an informed way consider the advantages and disadvantages particular beliefs and behaviors have for a society and its members. The most important step of cultural relativism is to look back on ourselves; this may lead to re-inventing yourself or self-discovery. Suspend judgment : understand others in their terms : look back on own culture.

Participant Observation: combination of social interaction and personal observation;
In ethnography, the technique of learning a people’s culture through social participation and personal observation within the community being studied, as well as interviews and discussion with individual members of the group over an extended period of time. Try as we might, we can't be entirely like them, so we use the toolkit to better understand them.

The Ethnographer's Toolkit
communication, empathy, thoughtfulness

Ethnography
a detailed description of a particular culture primarily based on fieldwork.

Fieldwork "Barrel Model" of culture
Infrastructure
technology and economics

Structure (Social Structure)
social and political, kinship and power relations

Superstructure
ideas, concepts and values

Holism
bringing all levels of a culture together and examining it as a whole

Nations / States (How many of each?) 5,000 nations, 200 states

Integration

all aspects of culture must be well integrated to function property

Culture-bound

theories about the world and reality based on the assumptions and values of one's own culture

Cultural Pluralism

small groups within larger societies maintain their unique cultural identity

New Stuff to Know:

Cultural Change
According to Wikipedia:
Cultural invention has come to mean any innovation that is new and found to be useful to a group of people and expressed in their behavior but which does not exist as a physical object. Humanity is in a global "accelerating culture change period", driven by the expansion of international commerce, the mass media, and above all, the human explosion explosion, among other factors.

Acculturation
massive culture change that occurs in a society when it experiences intense first hand contact with a more powerful society.

Diffusion
spread of certain ideas, customs or practices from one culture to another.

Colonization (Strategies and Consequences)

Strategies:
- Colonize to get an area to produce only one cash crop
- Would take land through Physical force and/or Taxation
- Also the "White Man's Burden" played a role where they believed that they were "fixing" these savages.
Consequences:
- Main Consequence: People who were colonized became dependent on the World system
- Market value would trump nutritional value
- Hunger and Malnutrition become more common
- Most would become propertyless and would then be low-wage workers on a plantation.

White Man’s Burden
a poem by Rudyard Kipling; ethnocentric; an expression of the way colonists justified their activities. The belief that they were "fixing" savages and to make them more "cultured."

Huaonari (everything in notes)

The Huaorani story represents the best and worst of humanity coming together. Many people with good intentions having unseen negative consequences – the world system sucking in previously disconnected people ... complexity beyond one lecture, but worth exploring ...

Several books – Savages by Joe Kane --- End of the Spear by son of slain missionary, Steve Saint, Countless Mining Documents and Maps, 2 anthropologists, 2 psychologists, and only 600 people (now 2,000)

Huaorani called the Auca – savages – kill virtually everybody who ever came into their territory. Rubber seekers, Oil seekers ... 1956 ...

The first missionaries to visit the Huaorani were killed by the Huaorani. Story: young couple on beach – others angry – they lie and say foreigners trying to kill them. A sister of one of these missionaries went back the Huaorani, viewing her job as even more important because of their horrific act.

She began working closely with oil companies in trying to control the protests of Huaorani so that oil could be extracted from their land. They were moved onto a reservation and are no longer allowed to hunt (their traditional mode of subsistence) because they are on a "nature reserve" The pollution to their land was devastating.

World System (Core / Semi-Periphery / Periphery)

Corporate Globalization
Rising technology has allowed our environment to be characterized as a global one. “The global economy" gave business the ability to market products and services all over the globe. It has also allowed them to develop partnerships and alliances throughout the world, which has become essential for success in today’s business.”[1] Prior to Globalization, the United States dominated the global economy. In past decades, however, the U.S. share of the global economy has shrunk to approximately 20%. This trend is expected to continue as the economies of many newly industrialized countries continue to grow at a faster rate, this is called the balancing of the equilibrium.

What is a corporation?

Wikipedia Def: A corporation is a legal entity (technically, a juristic person) which has a legal personality distinct from those of its members
Also the corporation is only concerned with making the most money for their shareholders and it does not care how this is done even if the larger population is hurt in the process.

Fetishism of the Commodity
Commodities "Magically" appear without any trace of the power relationships behind their production. This leads into the story of "My Suit" that is sold in NY but has traveled through several countries and low wage sweat shops, but we as consumers don't know that and thus don't care.

Structural Power
power and inequality embedded in economic, social, political and ideological structures
hard power+soft power=structural power
can lead to structural violence

Soft Power / Hard Power

Hard Power: Economic & Physical Force(Ex. British controlling India)
Soft Power: shaping minds (influence: Ex. Gandhi)

Structural Violence
Harm caused by structrual power

Environmental "intergenerational tyranny"
Financial/Material (inequality, poverty, hunger)
Health
Psychological (identity, self-worth)

My Suit
It starts in southern Australia, where wool is produced where Tasmanians once lived until the genocide that occurred there during the colonial era. Much of the current world system rests on a dark history of colonialism.

Then the wool goes to Amritsar, Punjab, India where it is spun into cloth. Amritsar is where there was the horrible massacre about 85 years ago when Britain ruled India. Indians have been forced off their land first by colonial regimes and later by economic pressures from corporate agriculture. Now many of them form a very cheap labor pool - which is why the material is made there for less than $3/day.

Buttons from Canda, shoulder pads from China, and lining from Korea all meet with the material at Hamburg Germany where it all goes to Russia to be assembled for $2/day.

The question posed by the CEO of the suit-making company is this:

"Are we exploiting this labor market, or helping them?"

Is the first world helping to develop the third world, or is the first world continuously UNDERDEVELOPING the third world in order to maintain a vast pool of cheap labor and raw materials?

We find that as a system, corporate globalization is very productive, BUT it creates tremendous inequality, environmental devastation, and is not likely to be sustainable in the long term.

So who is to blame?

It is difficult to point a finger because it is an ENTIRE SYSTEM. It is STRUCTURAL POWER.

We know it is STRUCTURAL because any time you point a finger at an individual, they might defend themselves by saying: "If not me, somebody else." Meaning that the structure creates the roles.

Amritsar
horrible massacre 85 years ago when Britain ruled India; extremely low wage labor

Underdeveloping
Is the "Third World" developing or underdeveloping?

One argument is that it is in a constant process of being underdeveloped

“The Accountant”

South Park’s Wall-Mart

Kathy Lee & Child Labor

Intergenerational Tyranny
Failure to protect the environment.

Context Collapse (YouTube)
From Wesch's blog:
http://mediatedcultures.net/ksudigg/?p=183
The problem is not lack of context. It is context collapse: an infinite number of contexts collapsing upon one another into that single moment of recording. The images, actions, and words captured by the lens at any moment can be transported to anywhere on the planet and preserved (the performer must assume) for all time. The little glass lens becomes the gateway to a blackhole sucking all of time and space – virtually all possible contexts – in upon itself.

You never know when a camera is going to be recording you and where it's going to be.

Seriously Playful Participatory Media Culture
We can what's being thrown at us, remix it and throw it back out there.
Like the participatory Chevy Web site that allows consumers to get on and create their own commercial. But they got what they didn't expect - a commercial that made a social statement against all that they've destroyed and are trying to accomplish.

Example: YouTube

Kurzweil and the Singularity- singularity= the point beyond which human existence is radically changed forever

Transhumanism-quest to enhance humancapabilitiesand overcome disability, disease and death
-Concerns:
-Crisis of Significance and Meaning
-Genetic Divide
-Existential Crisis (literally)

4 Things to Burn into Your Soul
-we are the structure
-it is what we make of it
-participation is not a choice
-how we participate is perhaps the most important choice

____ 1. Amritsar, India is now known for extremely low-wage labor. What else is Amritsar known for that partially explains why labor is so cheap there?

a.	The Annual Amritsar Bovine Festival
b.	The Amritsar Massacre
c.	The Amritsar Market
d.	Amritsar Oranges
e.	Amritsar Apples

____ 2 What is the function of the semi-periphery in World System Theory?

a.	It has no function.
b.	It provides the periphery with cheap labor
c.	It acts as a political buffer between the core and the periphery
d.	It provides the core with high profit consumption goods
e.	b and d

____ 3. What is “The White Man’s Burden”?

a.	a poem by Rudyard Kipling
b.	ethnocentric
c.	an expression of the way colonists justified their activities.
d.	all of the above
e.	none of the above

Answers: 1. b 2. c 3. d

Koobecaf2008

BeccaE — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 09:39:12 CST

Koobecaf: A Culture of Its Own
Koobecaf, an international phenomenon that has swept the American culture with fascination and captivation, has taken over the social communities beginning with college students. It is a curious “society” that most are entrapped by but few are disturbed by, believing that it is a disconcerting habit. There are many aspects of koobecaf that intrigue the American society. The social network has persuaded people to use this connecting tool and allow them to build on and create a “culture” most commonly known as koobecaf (facebook). Why is koobecaf expanding so quickly in the United States, why is it consuming the American society, and how is it changing our culture?
Beginning with the infrastructure of the koobecaf, sda koobecaf (facebook ads) allow businesses and companies to advertise to this society. Not only is this appealing to the members of koobecaf, but it brings in a new crowd of businessmen and women by advertising their products to the users of facebook. Another component to the infrastructure of koobecaf is the tekarm (Market). Here, members of koobecaf can sell their unwanted or unused things. It is similar to ebay. These two elements also play into super structure of the ‘Barrel Model’ because it proves how materialistic the American society is; Americans are all about a materialistic lifestyle.
The social structure of koobecaf is more complex. Since this society is created for social purposes, it contains smaller groups inside of the culture as a whole. Spuorg (Groups) break the Americans into types of cliques. Support groups, clubs, organizations, classes, and fun/pointless groups allow people with the same ideas and interests to combine and work together to share their individualism yet feel ‘accepted’; acceptance is important to Americans. Koobecaf also is used for people to invite and advertise parties or Stneve (Events). The advertisement of the events can also lead into the infrastructure, especially if it’s an event to make a profit. More elements of the social structure of koobecaf include: setadpu sutats (Status Updates), sdoom (Moods), sdneirf pot (Top Friends), and stsop llaw (Wall Posts). The majority of these elements show the significance of the American values of friendship and families. People in the United States want to be among friends and need to feel a sense of being accepted.
Finally, the super structure elements are comprised of sotohp/soediv (Photos/Videos), ebut uoy (YouTube) posts, and seton (Notes). Through these, the population of koobecaf shares their ideas, values, and moral and ethical beliefs. They post about love, suicide, religion, ideas, fears, and many more harsh and serious topics. Individualism is greatly showed through these applications. For the American people, individualism is the key in order feel as if they ‘belong’. It sounds like an oxy moron, but in reality, American people have a desire to be accepted by the general public, but to also be recognized as individuals.
Koobecaf has expanded so quickly and consumed the American public because of our money-hungry economy and the desire to be accepted but to also be able to show individualism as well. Unfortunately, koobecaf is and has changed the American culture. For our younger generations, who are beginning to use koobecaf, see what is thought of as sexy and mimic the ‘individualism’ of the older users of koobecaf. This takes away from the childhood and innocence of children. They continue to “grow up” to quickly and the rate at which they do this is increasing. Even though it seems minute, it is a problem that the users of koobecaf are creating and have created. Although, not all changes in the society are bad. Facebook is now a verb according to the Americans, therefore, koobecaf has changed our language as well.
Koobecaf has its positive and negative aspects. It is a strong community that will continue to grow in the American culture. We need to find ways to communicate more intimately but Facebook is still a useful tool that has great impacts on our society.

Detinu's Kinship &Social Organization

ruane — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 11:41:34 CST

The Detinu culture has a unique blend of present day America's kinship patterns mixed with its own original ideas of social structure that pertain to the society. With the desert conditions faced by the people of Detinu, they feel this is the best way to organize their society.

The people of Detinu have adopted a Patrilineal Descent with a patrilocal style of living having the men do most of the work in a pastoralistic society. Normally the Iroquois kinship system would be adopted in this situation, but the people of Detinu choose to follow the Eskimo Kinship system. This is an important role for the people so that the villages within Detinu do not become overcrowded. Also beneficial is the consistency of our semi-nomadic practices. In accordance with the Eskimo system, the people of Detinu recognize their biological parents as mother and father and their siblings as brother and sister. The Detinu feel that the Eskimo Kinship System best represents their family values of respect for elders and their close knit families and society.

Detinu maintains a patrilineal descent for the fact that they are a polygynist society. Men are responsible for most of the work in this culture so it is only proper for land inheritance to be in the man's favor. This makes an organized horticulture system possible for the people of Detinu. Animals are inherited through the patrilineal descent as well. This is important for the men because they are the ones who herd the animals and travel around the country. The last thing inherited through the patrilineal descent is foraging rights to certain areas of the land. This is important for the men so they are able to provide for their families.

There is a two step hierarchy of elders and non elders. Age is the only aspect that gives an individual respect. Elders of the families have the most respect and are therefore the ones who decide who should marry the younger individuals of the culture. Age is split up into several distinct groups. The first stage is obviously known as infancy. Because the men of the culture are usually moving around or working, it is the mothers' job to take care of the kids. An individual is an infant within the culture until the individual can walk. Once an individual can walk they move up the system to be a youngling. Parents are required to give their maximum attention to the younglings as this is the period of life where the brain is developing the most. The youngling stage lasts until it is evident that the individual is going through physical changes (puberty around age 13) and are then called adolescents. Once an individual becomes an adolescent, they must gain independence to prepare them for adulthood. The parents begin to let the individual do things on his or her own while still providing a roof to live under and food. Adulthood is reached once the individual gets married (or leaves their parents house) to one or more women to start a family of their own. An adult becomes an elder when one of their children gets married. The more elders in a family the higher class the family has. This gives the people of Detinu social mobility. Once an elder of the family dies it is considered a great loss because it is a loss of a loved one and it means the family loses respect. This indicates that the society is slightly stratified due to age but it also reflects their belief in ancestral spirits. The loss of an elder is a tragedy to the entire family but there are many rituals that can satiate the families pain (See Religion of Detinu)

In order to further explain the social structure of the Detinu I will compare it to the people of the Tuareg desert culture. The people of the Tuareg are in favor of slavery and discrimination as they consider themselves "red-skinned". The people of Detinu may be slightly age stratified but they do not discriminate against any group for their skin color, values or any other reason. In that sense the people of Detinu could be considered egalitarian.The Tuareg also include a caste system in their social system. It is divided between that of the nobility vs. herdsmen and warriors. The people of Detinu see no reason to have a caste system, therefore all elders are treated with the same rights no matter their occupation. People of Detinu instead focus on building social relationships with all people of their land.

art & cultural values ~unique ulla

Ullap — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 17:10:03 CST

Environment: Out of the hearts of the Shiskabob people, they treasure wholeheartedly the land of which has been given by their god, LaBu-Ku. Their existence fully depends on the land, which they live. They value everything about their land because the land provides them with all needed for the Shiskabob family. Many comment on how the culture is soak in harmony. The reason for the beautiful harmony of the culture is due to the richness of the island.

Subsistence & Exchange: The subsistence plays another valuable role in the Shiskabob culture. Since they are very rich in food and water, they know how to utilize every small to large amount, without any waste. They value thier bodies by training themselves to stay in good health. Sago is vital to the Shiskabob diet, processed from palms that self-propagate in the forest. This food is supplemented by garden produce—bananas, pandanus, breadfruit, pitpit, sugarcane, taro, and sweet potatoes. Protein is the result from wild game, lizards, fish, crayfish, and pigs.

Language and Gender: The Shiska-bobians are very diverse in speaking two separate languages. The reason for the two separate languages in this culture is to force the men and women to become both passively bilingual. At a young age, the boys are taught on how to speak the women’s language until they mature into puberty. At that time, the men are allow to disciple the young boys and when they are ready to participate in the daily life of men, they will than learn how to speak the men’s language. The men are softer-spoken due to their days of hunting prey and the need to blend in with the forest. The women are louder speakers due to the shouting across their gardens and to reassure them of their children listening. Due to the loud speaking, it is easier for the women to lead in conversation, especially while in large groups. Since the men and women have a language barrier, both learn to adjust their style of speaking, while in conversation with one another. Throughout the changes of leaders, within the Shiskabobians, the community is required to adapt to the new leaders language whether the individual is a male or female, in order for them to follow the most proficient leader. In the Shiska-bobian culture, men and women have different duties while the culture remains egalitarian. Women are in charge of farming and play a major role in teaching the children until they reach puberty. As for the men, they are in charge of the hunting and bringing food back to their village. This is a huge core value for the Shiska-bob culture.

Kinship & Organization: Another value of the Shiskabob culture is thier kinship and organization. The culture is based through an exogamous marriage system and is matrilineal throughout the Shiskabobians. However, the kin of a family will easily be relatable to both their mother’s side of the family as well as their father's due to the egalitarian nature of the culture. The boys and girls are given roles that are vital to the culture. When they are fully mature in their preparation, they soon emerge into what seperates them as men and women. This also brings about a unique culture.

Religion: The Shiskabobs culturally believes in only one god name LahBu-Ku and other spirits. LahBu-Ku is known to be transgendered. This is important to the Shiskabobs because they believe that LahBu-Ku controls everything from the sky to water and to land. Another sacred role to the people is providing an animal sacrifice. This brings joy to LahBu-Ku who than cries out tears in supplying for the Shiskabob with water and will not bring about a famine in the land. Another value is the sacred of the trees. They believe that the spirits live in the trees and eveytime it is cut down for useful causes, they began a ceremony called the Sheewa, which is a feast put together from all the other villages.

Technology: Since the Shiskabobs are provided with more than enough resources, they use trees as shelter, stones and bones used for tools or hunting purposes. They plays a major role because it helps them survive and to become sucessful.

Arts: The ultimate artistic expression is the composition and performance of Shiskabob songs and the proper execution of the accompanying dance. Visual arts are not highly developed, except in the elaborate costumes of the Shiskabob dancers. they are very talented in music, dancing, and singing. Both male and female are good at all. One of the main instruments that are played this culture is the acoustic guitar. Usually, you will see an acoustic guitar placed in every home. Another vital arts are tattoo's.

Koobecaf paper By: Caleb Linn

clinn@k-state.edu — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 18:57:08 CST

Caleb Linn
Recitation: Frankie 4:30 Wednesday
12-12-08
Koobecaf

Facebook has evolved into the focal point for all social activity for the you of our nation. The reason for this is Facebook and its constant flow of new news creates a social environment without people having to physically be somewhere. Anyone who decides to check it out just once is just as likely to get completely hooked as someone that loves puzzles and sees a crossword for the first time. The first time it seems all right and you don't test it out for very long before you log off. Then curiosity gets the best of you and you can't resist another taste of the news feed.

Depending on the person you can become obsessed and have to log on several times a day or try to discipline yourself and only give in a couple times per day. Facebook has completely changed the way that we communicate in our society. It seems like the traditionsal conversation is almost a foreign concept to us now. Cell phones were even beginning to take a back burner until Internet access on our phones allowed us to log on to Facebook. The reason that the traditional conversation is fading is because we see Facebook as a much better convenience to us. It allows us to talk to several people at the same time and keep up with how our friends are doing without having to physically ask them or call them. The Facebook chat feature was an ingenious addition to the site. Though it has quirks, people are willing to deal with it because it is so much easier to talk on Facebook than another instant messenger in another window. The funniest thing that I see and do myself is how we make new acquaintances. Any time we meet someone new, instead of trying to get together with them again and get to know each other by physically being in the same place enjoying time together, we take our first opportunity to get on Facebook and check out who theyare and what they're all about. If they're profile is blocked then we add them as a friend just to see they're profile. Whether you ever see that person again at least you can say you know that person and know what they're doing.

For the people we actually do talk to, the conversations have changed. Instead of getting together with our friends, we message them or try to catch them on Facebook chat. It is a benefit to people who may be really shy to talk to someone they really like but are too scared to talk in person. In reality though, those people will probably never come out of their shell if they can't muster up the confidence to talk to the person face to face. Even when we plan events, they are no longer by phone or email. Facebook has made it more convenient again. We just make a group or event on Facebook and usually get more guests than we plan for.

I think it's hilarious how obsessed some people can become to it. I know people that are on Facebook more often than not during the day. Whether it is to talk to friends, catch up on the gossip, or to play with the many games and applications, they can't resist from getting on. I would love to experiment how pwople would reace if Facebook were take away for a week. I bet it would be like taking a cell phone away from a teenage girl or take away a baby's favorite toy. People would go crazy! No one would know what to do with their spare time or what is going on in the world. They would actually have to resorty to calling their friends to see what is happening on the weekend or talk to people about how they're feeling instead of posting it on their status or writing a note about it. Facebook has become the new and revamped MySpace. Until the next one comes along it will continue to be popular in the teenage to young adult age group. It has begun to branch out to younger and older age groups as well. Since it is free, I don't see anything stopping it on its path to total communication domination.

Koobecaf by Libby Coulter

LibbyCoulter — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 09:11:05 CST

The strange phenomenon that once took the Nacirema college students by storm is now clenching a larger demographic: the World. Students who go abroad now join the networks of the foreign cities they stayed in and connect with their new overseas friends. How can Nacirema students stay so well connected with friends divided by oceans? Koobecaf. Koobecaf plugs over 100 million people into an alter-universe, where they can be whoever they like. Koobecaf allows users to create a profile of them; however, there are no restrictions on who joins. A med student at KU has even created Jessi Banks, a fictional person who she uses to check out the other ladies who write on her boyfriend’s wall. Koobecaf allows people to do crazy things. Koobecaf has made stalking legal… or at least easier. There is the option to report frauds such as this, however, the termination of their virtual life lies in the hands on the Koobecaf King: Mark Zuckerberg. If he is too busy to assist in such menial tasks, his cronies do it for him. They are also responsible for keeping Koobecaf clean. They eliminate all offensive content and report inappropriate users. Koobecaf is a society that has values and morals, however, it appears the greatly value censorship. From the comfort of their homes, Koobecafians can “poke” someone miles away. Naciremas are so used to this technology infused culture that they do not find this to be strange at all. They think that such instant voiceless communication is the norm. It is free and convenient. It seems Naciremas would have it no other way. This feature in the Koobecaf world is something that says, “Hey, just reminding you that I am here!” This shows how Koobecafians desire to be noticed, even if it is for something as menial as a virtual poke.
The social structure is very important with Koobecaf. Its importance is, perhaps, the backbone of the Web site. Members can message each other, write notes on each other’s main Koobecaf page and see lists of upcoming parties. The strangest of these communications is the “poke.” Koobecaf users can click a button and “poke” another Koobecaf user. There is nothing that comes out of these actions other than a small note on the page of the “poked” alerting them of the action. When Koobecafian is logged on to their virtual world, to further determine one Koobecafian from another, ‘network groups’ classify each member of this society into groups of similar interests and experiences. This desire to belong to a group of others goes so far that some Koobecafians belong to networks that they had barely visited as well as the networks they were born into or studied in for months at a time. Some of them belong to as many as seven networks! The superstructure of Koobecaf includes all the emotions, values and beliefs of Koobecaf. The most central of these is that Naciremas and Koobecaf users all feel the same desire for contact with those of their kind. Relationships are valued beyond material goods for these people. Koobecaf helps link users who might have lost a connection with someone otherwise. The beliefs in the power of connections is what drives Koobecaf users to add new friends, send messages and even “poke” other users. Koobecaf has radically changed the validity of relationships and even the standards of many of its users. Knowing someone is not completely finalized until someone makes the choice to friend the other. “I don’t even know that girl… We’re not even Koobecaf friends!” is a common phrase when describing a random encounter. On the other hand, many Koobecaf users friend people the have never met people they friend. They click “add friend” or “accept” in a relentless effort to gain virtual popularity. Without Koobecaf, could you imagine a complete stranger saying they know you and you just going along with it? That was socially unacceptable… until Koobecaf. Even relationships between significant others is not finalized until it is broadcast across Koobecaf. Their relationships are invalid without Koobecaf confirmation, face-to-face conversations are considered faux-pas and it is just crazy to think about socializing with anyone if the Koobecaf has changed drastically in the four years it has been in use and will continue to change and grow with its users. Even when its users grumble and gripe about new formats and applications, Koobecaf still manages to keep them hooked. Koobecaf has staying power rooted deeply in the users needs to feel connected and heard.

Yehsreh Sex & Marriage

hannigan2012 — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 22:06:04 CST

Instead of practicing monogamy, the Yehsreh practice mostly polyandry for a few key reasons.
One main reason is for protection of the area and the people living inside the town. Another reason for their use of polyandry is because since the males often travel the furthest for trading, men are always needed to have in the village.
Although polyandry is the most widely practiced among the community, monogamy is accepted as well, mostly before the woman marries her second husband.

In order to keep up their way of polyandry the Yehsreh women marry men one at a time in order to get to know them better. Aside from that the men do not need to be related in any way or for that matter even know each other to become family. The Yehsreh women can have two to four husbands at any given time and as many children she wants. The children will be shared between the men and treated as every ones' children, even if they are only fathered with one man.
In order for the villages to stay at a good level of inhabitance most husbands move in with the wives family as in a matrilocal society, but in certain cases neolocality is accepted in order to keep the village numbers down.

Polyandry is a situation in which the woman marries more than one husband and the most common will be fraternal polyandry and is common among Hopi Indians in North America. This is usually occasioned by a sex-ratio that is in favor of women, being more men that women; also common in matri-local communities in Africa.

The marriages are most commonly arranged for four main reasons. The wife's mother chooses the new husbands with input from the wife and her other husbands. The reasons that arranged marriages are used is because that they are easier, they create alliances and connect families together, and because they are extremely logical. Arranged marriages also allow love to be possible, but not as the leading factor in the motivation for marriage. After marriage the husband will move in with the
wives mother and join the household. This creates a close sense of
community and love for one another.

Detinu's History

Chris75 — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 21:22:23 CST

History of the Detinu

Round 1: The Detinu, a peaceful civilization that combined pastoralism, horticulture and foraging that resided in the desert. Well all that was not meant to last to long after 1450. The Evanave to the north arrived shortly after the year 1450, the Detinu tried to make a peaceful alliance but the Evanave had other plans. They conquered Detinu with no mercy, and tried to pass the event off as a peaceful takeover. Once colonized the values of the Detinu society took a drastic change. Our focus changed from survival and peaceful alliances to survival and escaping from our colonizers, even if that meant tricking them and stealing from them. Our only benefits of being colonized were being fed and that we could travel to other lands, but that came at a high price, our freedom. Our leader though acted as a spy and explored the world behind our colonizers backs.

Round 2: In the year 1650 the Detinu had a natural disaster, a sand storm of course. The Detinu lost five of every twenty-two people in the sandstorm. In the year 1676 the Detinu were put to work harvesting cotton to make fruit loop necklaces for the colonizers, now the Detinu were basically slaves. Since our core values had changed as a society some members stole a wad of cash that the Evanave had left unknowingly with the cotton. In the early 1700’s the colonizers wanted to desecrate our Sacred Camel so that they could take our natural resources. They also wanted to make us give up all of our military power; they were abusing their power over us and were not very understanding of our civilization. Since we refused to give up our religious item they were considering genocide but instead just settled to kill the people holding our Sacred Camel, Mitchell, and then ran off with it. They eventually returned our sacred item, but it wasn’t the same anymore. We also had to harvest our natural resource

Round 3: We were not strong enough to free ourselves, but we were strong enough to free our allies to the south, the Yehsreh. Their independence lasted about 15 years before the Evanave returned, but it gave the Detinu enough time free themselves in the year 1820, it only lasted for about 20 years as the Evanave returned. The Detinu were put back to work to harvest more cotton once they were recolonized.

Round 4: By the year 1900 our population had grown enough that our military power had increased, but it wasn’t enough to free ourselves. In the early 1900’s the Evanave made the Detinu shift from harvesting cotton to assembling the valuable fruit loop necklaces. Due to the recent rebellious acts, such as our short stint of freedom in the 1800’s, tensions between the Detinu and the Evanave have risen.

Round 5: By 2008 our population had grown a lot so we gained some military power, but it still wasn’t enough to free ourselves. In 2030 the Detinu ended up striking a deal with the Evanave. The Evanave agreed that if the Detinu assembled enough of these fruit loop necklaces then they would grant the Detinu freedom and food. FREEDOM.

Comments: The relationship between the Detinu and the Evanave seemed very similar to how the British treated India. When Ghandi used non-violent resistance the British responded with brute force and eventually a massacre. The Evanave reacted the same way to the Detinu’s resistance by killing the one holding the Sacred Camel. The way the Detinu reacted however was more like what the American colonies did to Great Britain. Sneaking around behind their colonizers backs, making alliances, trades, and eventually attempts at freedom.

Language and Gender (Sarah)

sarah091 — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 19:34:54 CST

The Reab Rewop culture is a combination of the Lineal System, and the Eskimo System. Our people have a lot of respect for each other, especially for their elders. We are a mobile egalitarian society that practices polygyny. A nuclear family lives in the same tee- pee with all of their children. The marriages are arranged, with two wives per man. Generally one of the wives takes on the role as the worker wife, who does the majority of the chores. The other wife will make attending to the children her main priority, but the husband treats them both equally. The chief of the tribe is always a male, but women are not excluded from political decisions.

There are different roles for different age groups and genders as well. Children and teens will hunt small animals, and are in charge of gathering vegetation. The girls will be tau ght how to make clothes from their mothers. The men will hunt the larger animals, and fish. If there is any large fish hunting going on, two men will work together in the boat. On will be in charge of throwing the Yari (the word for the spear), and the other (the more experienced of the two) would be in charge of helping to pull it into the boat once it is hooked. the men will also be trained to fight in battles, though we are a pacifist community that avoids fighting until we are forces to fight to protect ourselves.

Our culture has developed ways to greet each other, and ways to say goodbye.

Handshakes

Between women- link the thumbs, (of opposite hands) and place back of the hands together. (vertically) This means we support each other.
Between men- grab each others forearms (of opposite hands) in a short “handshake”
Between a woman and a man- Link thumbs (of opposite hands) with both people’s palms facing up (horizontally). Means, “We are equal.”

There is only one way to say goodbye, and that is to tap the back of your heal to the other person’s back of the heal (your right foot would go to their right foot), and then immediately do the same with the left foot. The proxemics of this culture is a little closer than that of the the current day American culture. It is about fifteen inches. Keep in mind that for the majority of the year, these people have many warm layers on, therefore fifteen inches does not seem as close. Families are especially used to being very close together because when the all get settled down to sleep, the more children they have, the more cramped the tee-pees can become.

Throughout time, cultures become more complex and involved and they need to keep records about their societies and about encounters with other societies. Our culture has a developed spoken language at this point, but our written language consists of mostly picture symbols that are used on each family's totem pole or "address pole." These have been passed down to tell stories that will tell the history of the family, and the elders in the family keep them. In getting to experience this culture for the amount of time that I did, I was able to meet a family that had just had a second wife join in marriage with the husband. She was able to have her piece of history carved on the family totem pole, just as the other wife had a few weeks prior when she was wed to the man. This family was very friendly to me and I was able to see that there was no favoritism in this relationship. They treated each other equally and respected each others ideas, and appreciated each others work.

Language is the most developed human system of communication. As time goes on, there will surely be more development of our cultures written and spoken language. Although cultures that depend on talking often have rich traditions of storytelling and speech making. It was the development of symbolic designs such as seasonal calendars, kinship relations, trade records, etc. that writing systems emerged, including the alphabet. Over time these can evolve into more stylized symbolic forms. About two thirds of today's languages have existed only in spoken form, and many others have been documented in graphic symbols of some sort. Gender is often reflected in language use. This can be seen in the spoken form of language of the Raeb Rewop culture as well.

Some parts of the world than had developed writing systems early on are in western China where symbols that were carved into an 8,600-year-old tortoise shell were found. This may represent the earliest evidence of writing anywhere. The Egyptians had a fully developed writing system of hieroglyphics about 5,000 years ago, and it was used for about 3,500 years. One other earliest systems of writing with an alphabet is called cuneiform, which is an arrangement of wedge-shaped imprints developed mainly in Mesopotamia. Our culture, at this point, has yet to develop any form of alphabet.

An example of a culture that is similar to ours with our languagedevelopmentwould be the largest of the Proto-Siberianlanguage group, the Palaeo-Asiatic group. This family of languages is spoken by about 15,000indigenousinhabitants of Siberia. In a polysynthetic language, a number of word elements are joined together to form a composite word that functions like a sentence in Indo-European languages. Most Paleosiberian languages did not have their own writing system in the past. Today their scripts are all based on the Cyrillic alphabet. The first written language for the Altaians was established in the 1840s by a Russian missionary. Its development was interrupted in the beginning of the twentieth century. In the 1930s a new written language was established, becoming the basis for the development of education.

When we come in contact with other cultures, it is usually the men who will take whatever we plan to trade with them. Although, if the other culture is predominantly women, the chief's wife will be present. If the other culture speaks a different language, the Reab Rewop people will put down all weapons and immediately offer to them our gifts of peace, like tea. Our gesture of offering to them, will be to place our gift in front of them, and then clap our hands and extend then palms facing outward toward the people.

Words

“Shiverage”- Stands for “brrrr”
“Yari”- name of fishing spear
“shivermetimbers”- this is the verb if we are going to build a house (a.k.a. tee-pee)
To say “I like you” you would pull down one lower eyelid of one eye when you are looking at someone. If you would like to make it publicly know that you like someone, you would give them a "bear hug" while patting them on the shoulders.

To show dislike you bite you lower lip while they are talking to you. If you want to make it publicly known that you don't care for someone, you would make fists with your hands, and pound your knuckles together.

Usually you will not see the negative gestures between men and women, just in female to female contact, or male to male. It is just socially very rude to treat the opposite gender this way. If you are of the same gender as another person, you can be a little bit more informal.

Children are expected to show respect to their elders. Even after they are married, they are expected to keep a watchful eye out to see if they could lend a hand to their parents. Many times, as some of the older people become widowed, they will "move in" with their other widowed friends, and help take care of each other, and keep each other company.

Unless there is an spiritual activity, or other activity going on that would involve the whole community, men and women do not get to spend a lot of time together, being that they have different daily jobs in the community. They do respect each other being that neither could live without the work that the other does. The fathers spend time at home at the points in the day that are not good for hunting. The fathers will start taking the boys with them to watch them hunt at about the age of 10, or earlier if they feel they are mature enough.
If there is an argument between any group of people, no matter the gender, they are encouraged to agree on a time to sit down and talk about things. If things are tense, they are required to have other bystanders there who are not directly involved in the matter, but will keep the people or groups from getting out of hand, though this rarely happens. If they are still not able to resolve the matter, the chief will get involved and after praying to the bear, he will make a final decision on what will happen. The chief has the most influence on the tribes decisions, but each important decision is made with the general consensus of the group.

Sources:

http://www.npolar.no/ansipra/english/items/Russ_north.html

http://www.everyculture.com/Russia-Eurasia-China/Altaians-Orientation.html

Cultural Anthropology: The Human Challenge

Art & Music Lecture

ERSull — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 16:31:57 CST

April 8th 2008

Main Points

art IS life.
Art provides meaning to life.
Art expresses identity.
Art connects us ...
Art is everywhere all around us.

We tried Tuvan Throat Singing
Understanding Tuvan Throat Singing requires
Interpretive Approach: seeking the meaning of another culture's art & symbols, requires rich body of ethnographic knowledge

Inuit Throat Singing (girls in each other's throats)
Inuit Song-Dueling is like 8-Mile Rap Battles in Detroit

Saami Joiking - Individualism / Pastoralism

Kanak of New Caledonia - Participant Music

Australian - Didjeridoo - Songlines and the Dreamtime
Songs actually work like maps guiding through a sacred landscape, connecting them with the dreamtime and their distant ancestors.

Navaho Sand Paintings (see Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandpainting)

These examples illustrate how integrated art is with life throughout the world. The moment you recognize that art is life, you become the artisan of your own life - you recognize your own freedom to create your life as you want it to be.

We ended by looking at examples of:
Syncretism: merging previously separate traditions

New Religious Movements

ERSull — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 16:29:43 CST

Religion Discussion
What is the religious landscape in America? How is it changing?
New Age Spirituality
Fundamentalism
Rock-Star MegaChurches

76-84% Christian ...
75% say they pray to God on a daily basis
Only 33% actually make it to church each week,
Only 40% can name more than 4 of the 10 commandments
And barely half can name even one of the 4 gospels.
60% believe the Bible is literally and completely true
75% agree that the Bible teaches that "God helps those who help themselves."

Emphasizes Individualism - Independence, etc. But yet there are many important differences:

224 Million Christians
42 Million Non-Religious
4 Million Judaism
2 Million Muslim (Islam)
1.6 Million Buddhist
1 Million Hindu

Over 60 Million Non-Judeo-Christian. (about 22% of US Population) See comparison of survey statistics at http://www.adherents.com/rel_USA.html#religions

Bottom line: We live in a Pluralistic Society. (many cultures - many religions)

THE QUESTION: What role should religion play in a pluralistic society?

Saddleback Showdown: Barack Obama & John McCain Faith Forum
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtIl3IfZvK4

We then looked at how Joseph Campbell's studies of World Religions have inspired movies like Star Wars, the Matrix, and many others. We analyzed the Matrix in depth, demonstrating how it is weaving together themes from Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism.

Ethnography of Now

ERSull — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 16:26:34 CST

In the past 200 years, one institution has come to dominate human existence:

THE CORPORATION ...

* Legal Person (with no moral conscience)
* accountable to stock holders
* not to stakeholders
* relatively recent (after the 14th amendment ... between 1890-1910 there were 307 cases brought to the court ... 288 on behalf of corporations, just 19 for people.)

STRUCTURAL POWER
power and inequality embedded in (and produced by) economic, social, political, and ideological structures
* Hard Power + Soft Power
* Not In Individuals ("if not me then somebody else")
* Can lead to structural violence

STRUCTURAL VIOLENCE
* Environmental (Intergenerational Tyranny)
* Inequality (IMF example from Jamaica)
* Health (McDonald's Advertising, etc.)
* Psychology (example of Dove and Axe)

Next class ...

How to save the world ...

4 Things to Burn into your soul and never forget
* We are the structure.
* It is what we make of it.
* Participation is not a choice.
* How we participate is perhaps our most important choice.

Examples

Shell Protest

Ray Anderson’s Epiphany
* Consumers come to him
* He reads a book (The Ecology of Commerce)
* He begins to transform the corporation from the inside
* Tells others
* THIS VIDEO

Great Hope for our future – the powers we can have ...

Another great threat – Corporations vs. Seed Saving ...

* India: for thousands of years have been saving seeds.
* They exchange seeds with one another
* Ensures biodiversity

Seed Laws --- Forced to buy seed => suicides (can’t survive)

Violate the Laws – Over 2,000 villages have dedicated themselves to violating the laws and saving seed => Corporate Response: Terminator Seeds

Yes Men

Some of the same processes happening right here, including a rise in farmer suicides (x2 the normal population rate)

Internal Colonization (The Accountant)

* lease land
* can’t pay (price driven lower by corporate farm)
* corporate farm buys land
* must sell labor
* media sells him his culture right back to him (starts acting country instead of being country)

The System Has all of us --- Yet we all matter ...

THE KEY IS VISION
* See the system
* See how we all contribute
* See that we are all interconnected

RIGHT NOW WE ARE CONSUMERS AND LOWER LABORORERS
BUT NOT ALWAYS

REMEMBER
* see who makes your life work
* what makes your life work (what is taken from the earth)
* have a vision of all others you are connected to
- presently
- AND future generations

WE ARE A GLOBAL VILLAGE

We’ll need the skills of VILLAGERS to survive

What are those skills
* SUSTAINABILITY – friends in PNG could live indefinitely
* MUTUAL VISIBILITY – THE GIFT
We need to TRULY see each other ... NOT like in Cannibal Cultures ...

COMMUNICATION
Learn – talk – care2.com

EMPATHY
Must stop seeing “them” as a “them” – That’s true dividuality ...

THOUGHTFULNESS
* See that we are related (no blame game)
* Luk Luk -

Globalization and the Global Garment

ERSull — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 16:21:55 CST

... focusing on what happened after colonization, namely the rise of "CORPORATE GLOBALIZATION"

The first clip illustrated how corporations can drive people off the land simply by underselling them. They can no longer compete with the big corporations so they are forced into the city and into the cheap labor pool.

One of the most interesting aspects of corporate globalization is "The Fetishism of the Commodity," which means that commodities "magically" appear without any trace of the power relationships behind their production.

So Let's follow a commodity - My suit.

It starts in southern Australia, where wool is produced where Tasmanians once lived until the genocide that occurred there during the colonial era. Much of the current world system rests on a dark history of colonialism.

Then the wool goes to Amritsar, Punjab, India where it is spun into cloth. Amritsar is where there was the horrible massacre about 85 years ago when Britain ruled India. Indians have been forced off their land first by colonial regimes and later by economic pressures from corporate agriculture. Now many of them form a very cheap labor pool - which is why the material is made there for less than $3/day.

Buttons from Canda, shoulder pads from China, and lining from Korea all meet with the material at Hamburg Germany where it all goes to Russia to be assembled for $2/day.

The question posed by the CEO of the suit-making company is this:

"Are we exploiting this labor market, or helping them?"

Is the first world helping to develop the third world, or is the first world continuously UNDERDEVELOPING the third world in order to maintain a vast pool of cheap labor and raw materials?

We find that as a system, corporate globalization is very productive, BUT it creates tremendous inequality, environmental devastation, and is not likely to be sustainable in the long term.

So who is to blame?

It is difficult to point a finger because it is an ENTIRE SYSTEM. It is STRUCTURAL POWER.

We know it is STRUCTURAL because any time you point a finger at an individual, they might defend themselves by saying: "If not me, somebody else." Meaning that the structure creates the roles.

So what can we do?

http://www1.worldbank.org/economicpolicy/globalization/

Possibilities and Pitfalls of Globalization

ERSull — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 16:18:13 CST

2 sides of Globalization ... the good and the bad.

back to Yali’s Question – Why are we unequal? Why are we so poor and you so rich?

Diamond’s answer (Guns, Steel, Production of Cereals to 4 groups)
- Answer incomplete – Why now? Why still? Why is it growing?
Why are some starving? (The world is more unequal now than ever before)

The World as a System
Diamond has the wrong question: “Why is our system better than their system?”
A: We are one system.

Start with BIG QUESTIONS.
How DOES the world work?
How are we all interrelated?
Why are "we" so rich, and they so poor?
Why do the rich keep getting richer?
Why do we fight?
-- How can we survive as a species for the next 100, 1000, 10000, 1 million years?
-- How can we assure equality and human rights to all?
o What are rights?
o Who decides?
o What is "human"? (What is human nature?)
-- What societal/world changes should be encouraged? Discouraged? Why?
-- Who are you? Who are those around you? (pluralize your answer)
How do you fit into the world?
IS GLOBALIZATION GOOD OR BAD? or asked in a better way ...
WHAT IS GOOD ABOUT GLOBALIZATION, and WHAT IS BAD ABOUT IT?
WHAT ARE ITS POSSIBILITIES?
WHAT ARE ITS PITFALLS?
UNDERDEVELOPMENT

World System develops through colonialism ...

Let's take a closer look at colonialism - as it sets the stage for the World System as we know it today.

Justification for Colonialism:
This poem expresses some of the justification for colonialism (which illustrates the ethnocentrism of the time)
"The White Man's Burden"
Take up the White Man's burden -
Send forth the best ye breed -
Go, bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait, in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild -
Your new-caught sullen peoples,
Half devil and half child.
- Rudyard Kipling 1899
It is also illustrated in this political cartoon:
Colonized peoples were drawn into the global market through 2 colonial strategies:
1. Force locals to grow cash crops through Physical Force, Taxation, or Sanctions (Africa)
2. Take the land and run plantations (Sri Lanka – Sumatra)

Consequences of Colonialism on Local Economies
1. Market value trumps nutrition value (grow cash crops for money, while suffering malnutrition) - Sugar, Tobacco, Coffee, Rubber, Chili Peppers

Single crop cultivation (often non-nutritious) – Ghana => Cocoa, Liberia =>Rubber
Nigeria => Palm Oil, Uganda => Cotton

2. Hunger and unsustainability

3. Most become property-less low-wage laborers - Policies ensure this – taxes, reservations, own all the good land, subsidies on imports

Colonialism created the "World System"

World System Theory was created by Immanuel Wallerstein to try to map and understand global economic flows and their social and cultural consequences. The following diagram summarizes his view of the World System.

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/wallerstein.html

We then looked at the Huaorani of Ecuador to show how the world system works.

The Huaorani story represents the best and worst of humanity coming together. Many people with good intentions having unseen negative consequences – the world system sucking in previously disconnected people ... complexity beyond one lecture, but worth exploring ...

Several books – Savages by Joe Kane --- End of the Spear by son of slain missionary, Steve Saint, Countless Mining Documents and Maps, 2 anthropologists, 2 psychologists, and only 600 people (now 2,000)

Huaorani called the Auca – savages – kill virtually everybody who ever came into their territory. Rubber seekers, Oil seekers ... 1956 ...

VIDEO ONE: END OF THE SPEAR

The first missionaries to visit the Huaorani were killed by the Huaorani.

Story: young couple on beach – others angry – they lie and say foreigners trying to kill them.

A sister of one of these missionaries went back the Huaorani, viewing her job as even more important because of their horrific act.

She began working closely with oil companies in trying to control the protests of Huaorani so that oil could be extracted from their land.

VIDEO TWO: Working with Oil Companies – moving them onto reservations

They were moved onto a reservation and are no longer allowed to hunt (their traditional mode of subsistence) because they are on a "nature reserve"

The pollution to their land was devastating.
Neighboring Cofan went from 15,000 to 1,000 today

VIDEO THREE: Pollution => Protests in Quito

They are now forced to work to make enough money to eat and survive.
The videos illustrate the world system.
The CORE are the largely US-based oil companies.
The SEMIPERIPHERY is Ecuador, through whom the US oil companies obtain mining rights.
The PERIPHERY are the Huaorani who give up their raw materials (oil) and are then forced into working, providing cheap labor for their own exploitation.

There is $1.5 billion worth of oil on Huaorani land ... enough to power vehicles in the USA for 13 days.

Culture Loss video

Carlton Brown on Oil

We talk about “the economy” and we don’t see Yali ... the rubber plantation worker ...

Luk Luk and Tiin Tiin – We don’t see Yali

The tremendous growth of Europe and America is at least partially on the backs of the colonized – and now on the third world ...

Religion and the Supernatural

ERSull — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 15:04:43 CST

Professor Wesch started with the Buddhist story of THE MUSTARD SEED

The reputation of Buddha Shakyamuni had spread far and wide. Not only was he renowned as a great, compassionate and fully enlightened human being, but also as a skilled teacher and a miraculous healer who could even bring the dead back to life. One day, a woman approached him after a teaching begging that he do something to restore her dead child to her. The Buddha listened patiently to her plea and saw how great was her despair. He said to her, "Mother, if you bring me just one mustard seed from any household in which no person has died, then I shall revive your child." The woman was greatly encouraged by the Teacher's words. She traveled from door to door throughout her own village, but could not find even a single residence in which no one had died. She went out of town, wandering to this hamlet and that in search of the tiny seed that the Buddha had requested. Days later, muddy and footsore, she returned to the place where the Buddha and his followers were passing the rainy season.
She was ushered into the Teacher's presence worn out, but not discouraged. "Master, try as I might, I could not locate the token you requested as an offering. But I have come to understand that death visits every household and eventually, every single one of us. I would like now, to 'enter the stream' and work towards the liberation that the teachings provide.

Religion responds to BIG QUESTIONS:
Why death?
Why life?

The world is much more than what meets the eyes. We experience great sorrows - and great elation. We experience death - We fall in love - and sometimes we have what for lack of a better word we might call "the religious experience" --- all of these experiences are beyond words. And then there is the world itself. Where did it come from? It too is beyond words. You can say it is the Big Bang - but what was before that - You can say it was God, Allah, Spiderwoman of the Hopi, Afek of the Nekalimin, any number of thousands of Gods that Humans put their faith in ... but is that just a word we place on something unexplainable? Ultimately the ground of our being is a mystery - as humans we name it by many names ... You have probably heard of several religions - Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam ... there are in fact no less than 5000 religions. Each one as adamant as the others that they have the right answer in their pocket. Great diversity - yet remarkably similar as well.

How do we explain this diversity?

Worldwide we find that religion expresses, explains, and legitimizes cultural practices, values, and the socio-political order.

In other words, it FITS into the barrel.
And if the barrel changes - so does the religion.

Example: UNILINEAL DESCENT GROUPS - CORE VALUE ON FAMILY GROUP (DESCENT GROUP)
Dobu and Sir Ghost

PAPUA NEW GUINEA - RELATIONALISM Animism - Sinik and "relating to the world" a video was shown illustrating this.

INDIA - HINDUISM ... INDRA'S LESSON

"There is a wonderful story in one of the Upanishads about the god Indra. Now, it happened at this time that a great monster had enclosed all the waters of the earth, so there was a terrible drought, and the world was in a very bad condition. It took Indra quite a while to realize that he had a box of thunderbolts and that all he had to do was drop a thunderbolt on the monster and blow him up. When he did that, the waters flowed, and the world was refreshed, and Indra said, "What a great boy am I."

So, thinking, "What a great boy am I," Indra goes up to the cosmic mountain, which is the central mountain of the world, and decides to build a palace worthy of such as he. The main carpenter of the gods goes to work on it, and in very quick order he gets the palace into pretty good condition. But every time Indra comes to inspect it, he has bigger ideas about how splendid and grandiose the palace should be. Finally, the carpenter says, "My god, we are both immortal, and there is no end to his desires. I am caught for eternity." So he goes to Brahma, the creator god, and complain.
Brahma sits on a lotus, the symbol of divine energy and divine grace. The lotus grows from the navel of Vishnu, who is the sleeping god, whose dream is the universe. So the carpenter comes to the edge of the great pond of the universe and tells his story to Brahma. Brahma says, "You go home. I will fix this up." Brahma gets off his lotus and kneels down to address sleeping Vishnu. Vishnu just makes a gesture and says something like, "Listen, fly, something is going to happen."

Next morning, at the gate of the palace that is being built, there appears a beautiful blue boy with a lot of children around him, just admiring his beauty. The porter at the gate of the new palace goes running to Indra, and Indra says, "Well, bring in the boy." The boy is brought in, and Indra, the king god, sitting on his throne, says, "Young man, welcome. And what brings you to my palace?" "Well," says the boy with a voice like thunder rolling on the horizon, "I have been told that you are building such a palace as no Indra before you ever built." And Indra says, "Indras before me, young man- what are you talking about?"
The boy says, "Indras before you. I have seen them come and go, come and go. Just think, Vishnu sleeps in the cosmic ocean, and the lotus of the universe grows from his navel. On the lotus sits Brahma, the creator. Brahma opens his eyes, and a world comes into being, governed by an Indra. Brahma closes his eyes, and a world goes out of being. The life of a Brahma is 432,000 years. When he dies, the lotus goes back, and another lotus is formed, and another Brahma. Then think of the galaxies beyond galaxies in infinite space, each a lotus, with a Brahma sitting on it, opening his eyes, closing his eyes. And Indras? There may be wise men in your court who would volunteer to count the drops of water in the oceans or the grains of sand on the beaches, but no one would count those Brahmin, let alone those Indras."

While the boy was talking, an army of ants parades across the floor. The boy laughs when he sees them, and Indra's hair stands on end, and he says to the boy, "Why do you laugh?" The boy answers, "Don't ask unless you are willing to be hurt." Indra says, "I ask. Teach." (That, by the way, is a good Oriental idea: you don't teach until you are asked. You don't force your mission down people's throats.) And so the boy points to the ants and says, "Former Indras all.Through many lifetimes they rise from the lowest conditions to the highest illumination. And then they drop their thunderbolt on a monster, and they think, 'What a good boy am I.' And down they go again."

This story illustrates some core values of Hinduism:
Cycles - Reincarnation
Each person has their place (Caste)
Subdue individuality - Be humble. These are the Virtues.

Cycles appear in many myths associated with planting and agriculture due to the cycle of seasons. Note the use of 432 in the story above. 432 also appears in stories throughout Indo-European speaking regions and still exists within the cycles that dominate our lives today - the clock (60 seconds * 60 minutes * 12 hours = 43,200 units in one cycle).

A few more examples:
Mayan – cycles like the Hindu tradition - AGRICULTURAL (CORN) El Castillo Temple
91 steps x 4 sides + 1 = 365
52 years in a cycle / blocks at the base
Equinox - Snake - Kulkulkan (head at base)
Origin at "Snake Mountain"
Snake represents cyclical REBIRTH (sheds its skin)
Hunab Ku - Creator God
First humans were made of CORN (reflects corn agriculture)
13 compartments in 7 levels - different god in each -
Cycle: Agricultural (Corn)
Order and Organization - Reflected in levels and compartments (imitate bureaucracy) The current Katun will increment about ten years from now (13.0.0.0.0 will be on December 21st, 2012)
Interestingly, the Mayan religion is no longer practiced by Mayans, but has been adopted by some US Americans practicing New Age Spirituality:

New Age Spirituality

Individual selects own beliefs from many world religions
Main Idea: All is one, and all is spiritual
Emerged in late 1960s, early 1970s

Pantheism
The belief that the universe and all within it is God (I used the example of "God" in Los Angeles, a man who is a pantheist who actually legally changed his name to God in recognition of his belief that everybody and everything is God.) To reiterate the main point of this lecture, worldwide we find that religion expresses, explains, and legitimizes cultural practices, values, and the socio-political order. In other words, it FITS into the barrel. And if the barrel changes - so does the religion.

http://www.pantheism.net/

Political Organization, Law & Order

ERSull — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 15:02:19 CST

The Complexity of Groups
2 people = 1 relation
3 people = 3 relations
4 people = 6 relations
5 people = 10 relations
12 people = 66 relations
35 people = 600 relations
50 people = 1225 relations

Bands, Tribes, Chiefdoms, and States
Uncentralized to Centralized
Influence and Power

The Cheyenne.
Between the 1700s and the late 1800s, their political organization could be mapped out like this:

The Warrior Societies were generally made up of young men who fought wars. The Council of 44 was a group of 44 mostly elder men who were considered Peace Chiefs and also arbitrated internal affairs and conflicts. When the council of 44 met, the most important 5 chiefs sat in the following way, each of them representing different elements of the world ... Their leadership was sacred, and as leaders they were elevated beyond selfish concerns. When one chief's wife was stolen from him, he simply stated very calmly, "A dog has pissed on my tipi," showing that such things could not be of concern to him because his first and most sacred priority was to the tribe as a whole. In this way, such leaders become self-less, acting for others and not for themselves. As white settlers moved into the region the resources of the Cheyenne became more scarce. Eventually war broke out. A number of treaties were signed, but few lasted before violence once again broke out. Hundreds of Cheyenne were killed without much of a fight while they were living near a government fort under the illusion that they would be safe there. This was called the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864. In 1876 the Cheyenne defeated Custer and his troops at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. Within a year they were all captured and sent to live on reservations. Eventually they came to live on 2 reservations, one in Oklahoma and the other in Montana.

Video "Cheyenne Warriors" shows life on the Northern Cheyenne reservation today.

Today the Cheyenne have a political organization which they describe on Norther Cheyenne the netas:

The Northern Cheyenne Tribe was organized in 1936 and operates under a constitution consistent with the Indian Reorganization Act and approved by the Tribal membership. Today the Tribe is a Federally-chartered organization with both governmental and corporate responsibilities. The governing body is a Tribal Council headed by a President, who is elected at large to serve a term of 4 years. The tribal council consist of members elected from each of the five districts. The Vice President and a Sergeant-at-Arms are elected by the tribal council from within its number and a Secretary and Treasurer are appointed outside its number. The Secretary and Treasurer have no vote. The tribal council consists of members elected from the Ashland, Birney, Busby, Muddy, and Lame Deer districts in the proportion of one member for each 200 population and an additional member for each major fraction thereof. The current governing body has 19 members.

Barral model of the USA

Individualism and self expression
-
DEMOCRACY
Social Mobility
Nuceular Familys
Love Marraige
-
Market Economy
Industrialism

Democracy

Democracy fits with American culture - particularly our values and ideals of individualism and self-expression.
But after reviewing the culture of the Nekalimin, we face the difficult question: "Could Democracy work there?"

Relationalism
Witchcraft
-
Egalitarian
Ambilineal Descent
Arranged Marriage
-
Reciprocity/ Gift exchange
Horticulture/ foraging

Traditionally, Nekalimin Political Organization had these features:
* Great Man / Big Man Leadership. No "power." Just influence.
* Seek agreement and consensus.
* Individual opinions are not valued.

This emphasis on consensus rather than individual opinion is prevalent throughout Papua New Guinea. Papua New Guinea became an independent democratic state in 1975 after Australia left. The first elections were held in 1977 and every 5 years after that. So how does democracy work there? What does an election look like?

First, all members of a tribe will "Pasim Tok" - "Fasten Talk" (Come to a consensus)
They vote by tribe, usually for a member of their own tribe. They do not vote on issues
There are over 1,000 tribes, and 2,875 candidates contested for 89 seats in 2002

There is much at stake, and this leads to tribal fighting & general election mayhem. In 2002, a person couldget elected with little more than 2,000 votes and then tends to direct all state funds to those 2,000 people at the expense of the other thousands of people who receive nothing or very little. In short, democracy did not work very well there.

What about other aspects of the state government?

What about law?
A local officer along with hundreds of others decided to get rid of witchcraft in the community. This brought two very different systems of social control into conflict.

The law transformed witchcraft from a problem between two people in a relationship into a crime against the state, punishable by law. Ultimately people rose up against the law and re-instituted.

Conclude with discussion of media and politics.
The impact of TV on politics, from Postman's Entertaining Ourselves to Death
... musings about the future of politics and new media.

TV Politics in the USA

The Mass Media & Politics: An Analysis of Influence
http://www.progressiveliving.org/mass_media_and_politics.htm

New Media = New Politics?
FlashMobs
Belarus FlashMobs
Do Tank

Mark Wagner Koobecaf

Mark56 — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 14:45:21 CST

Mark Wagner
Cultural Anthropology 8:30F Waters

Koobecaf: A nation of persons plugged into a digital alter-universe, where a person’s persona take higher becomes more real than reality itself. This latest contagious coalition, known to be more persuasive than either the Ecapsym or Agnax agencies, consists of a league of men and women of all ages, corporations big and small, and causes/beliefs, all which are growing exponentially, leading to an information overload crisis across the planet. As an individual gets plugged into the system, a non-binding contract has been virtually commissioned, absorbing all the latest subjects’ personal information, including their interests, hobbies, address, friends, and academic information.
The coalition of Koobecaf inhabitants exceeds 100 million participants. Each subject with a unique identifier and catch phrase voluntarily plugs themselves in. A society, continually developing in framework and layout, has set up a successful economic niche, where the subjects extra possessions are organized and bartered off for various goods, including a substitute for gold. Corporations in the network act not only as a recruiting base, but take advantage of the network to strategically place advertisements on an individuals digital alter-universe, according to subjects interests, and other personal information that it stored in the subjects database. Doing so by using advanced mathematics known as the Lexicon, which forms graphs out of the subjects information, relations their interests to corporations, sponsorships, and advertisements in an effort to take a subjects goods with they received from bartering. The corporations thrive off of the Koobecaf lack of privacy, leaving the blissfully ignorant subjects in the hands a network they trusted for privacy.
The subjects involved in the Koobecaf experiment have evolved with the framework of Koobecaf, not only changing the framework as a whole, but changing the ways of communication and means of communication. When a subject is plugged in they have the ability to instantly contact others connected in the system, from any location where the subject plugged themselves in. Not only can they contact privately or publicly through multiple methods, but the subjects are each assigned to Koobecaf ‘network groups’, as a way of further classifying their individual interests, and to communicate with those of similar interests. However, participants are encouraged to follow the rules and regulations of their contracts with Koobecaf. Their participation in the Koobecaf experiment will be terminated by the Professor Mark Zuckerberg and his cronies, which is known to cause subjects to go through withdrawal of the program.
The impact of the Koobecaf experiment does not end there. It has also affected the morals and beliefs of the subjects when they are plugged in and out of the experiment. It has modified the ethics of the participants in the way they interact. When subjects are not using the Koobecaf, their life in reality is altered. Their relationships are near non-existence, face-to-face conversations are considered faux-pas, and it would be considered to immoral to interact physically with another while unplugged. While plugged in, participant actions modified to a modest and humble poke, while daily conversation takes place in the safety of a specified zone. The subjects also have formed a different version of the arts. They reminisce over their unplugged relationships with montages of self-created print-sketches, usually consisting of two or three participants with various facial expressions. This artwork has become an obsession for subjects who repeatedly return to the alter-universe to see if Koobecaf is the host of new print-sketches consisting of themselves.
The Koobecaf experiment has become a dangerously addicted nation of persons. The relationship between the experiment and the subjects has become mutual however, for as the experiment flourishes, the benefits are descended upon the subjects. These benefits have made the culture of the Koobecaf users become egocentric and ignorant of their lives outside of the experiment. Koobecaf has evolved into more than just a program to test the connecting powers of individuals, but a lifestyle. Through its unique economy, networks of corporations, and the arts and morals all converging into the subjects mind; the threat of information overload increases by the second with the massive constant upload of information available through the Koobecaf framework.

Yehsreh Subsistence and Exchange

ealong90 — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 14:16:25 CST

Subsistence and Exchange is important and vital for any culture’s survival. Yehsreh tribe has a unique way of surviving in their environment.
Horticulture will be Yehsreh main source of protein and calories. A community garden created by a slash-and-burn technique, or swidden farming, but instead of burning the wood from the fallen trees it will be used for building rafts for trading and traveling and tree houses to keep the villagers safe from predators and heavy rainfall. The garden will be the center of the community. The women of the Yehsreh tribe will be in charge of tending to the garden and gathering the fruits and vegetables. Foods grown in the garden will include fruits, vegetables and spices. Other fruits grown in other areas such as coconuts, bananas, pineapples, berries and nuts will be picked for food as well.
The Yehsreh tribe is much like another native tribe of the tropical rain forest, the Yanomamo. The Yanomamo also depend on the forest for means of survival. Hunting and fishing is an important way of survival, but horticulture is the most important amount the two. Slash-and-burn horticulture is practiced among both tribes and both use their access resources from farming for the creation of their shelter. Like the Yehsreh, the Yanomamo rely on horticulture, fishing and hunting as a way of survival. The Yanomamo, as well as the Mekranoti Kayapo tribes of South Africa, use swidden farming like the Yehsreh, although the Yehsreh do not burnt he debris like their fellow farmers do. The Mekranoti Kayapo immediately burn the debris left over from slashing and clearing the part of the rain forest they are going to garden on next, whereas the Yehsreh use all of the resources they can. The Yeshreh would use the debris burned by the Yanomamo and the Mekranoti Kayapo to build their tall tree houses or their hunting and fishing tools. Horticulture is very important among many cultures in the tropical rain forest.

Since human beings can’t live without water, living in the tropical rain forest is obviously an advantage for the Yehsreh tribe since we are surrounded by rivers and streams, and will have an abundant amount of rainfall. Within the Yehsreh community, the children will be in charge of collecting water for their tribe. The surrounding water will provide a plentiful amount of fish for the tribe. Hook s created from bone and nets created from vines and grass will be used for catching the fish. The Men will not only be in charge of fishing but also the hunting of small game. They will use sharpened spears to kill birds, pigs, deer and other small animals as well. Insects are also eaten within the Yehsreh tribe.

As we all know, the presence of insects isn’t always a good thing. The smoke from lit fires will keep them away and keep the tribe warm. The fire will also serve as a nice source for cooking the meat from small game caught by the men. Domesticated monkeys will serve not only as pets to the Yehsreh tribe but also as trained food gatherers. Poison from fish and frogs will be used as a weapon in hunting and fishing as well.

The rafts created from our swidden farming will be used to travel up and down the rivers to exchange goods and resources with other cultures and communities. Our culture will not use money as our way of an exchange system, but instead the Yehsreh will use trade to acquire the items they want and need. Generalized reciprocity will be practiced among the people of our village, and negative reciprocity will be practiced outside our village to exchange our rare resources with those rare resources of neighboring villages.

We will use our rare resources within the rain forest such as honey, spices and cocoa beans to barter and trade with the societies who have resources that we don’t have. The men of the Yehsreh tribe will travel long distances for exchange and trade and the women will only travel to neighboring villages. Yehsreh will trade with whomever possible.

The subsistence and exchange among the Yeshreh tribe connects with just about every other aspect within their culture. Subsistence obviously has many connections with the environment that the Yehsreh live in. The environment is their means of subsistence and exchange, and without that they would have no way of surviving. The subsistence plays an important part of the family and household because each family member has a special role that they have to fulfill in order to keep their horticulture strong. The “jobs” that members of the Yehsreh perform also depend on what gender you are. Men, women, children, young adults, and elders all perform different tasks that help their way of subsistence flourish. The Yehsreh value the land that they live on because it gives them their food and shelter and helps them survive.

The Yehsreh tribe is unlike any other tribe. The tribe uses it’s location to the fullest, taking advantage of every resource possible. The gender roles play a major part of the tribe’s every day activities. Not many other cultures will have an abundance of natural resources and convenient location like that of the Yehsreh tribe.

Works cited:
1. http://www.globio.org/glossopedia/article.aspx?art_id=6
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yanomami
3. Haviland, William A.; Prins, Herald E.; Walrath, Dana; McBride, Bunny. Cultural Anthropology, The Human Challenge. United States of America: Thomas Wadsworth Corporation, 2008.

Family & Household of the Peek-a-Boo

jbree — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 10:03:59 CST

FAMILY AND HOUSEHOLD by James Breeding
The Peek-A-Boos are a Matrilineal decent group where the lineage is traced back through the mother’s side of the family. In most cases the male will move in with the wife’s family's house. The houses are built from our cultures natural resources, which are started off with a strong base from rock and are cemented together with clay and straw. Then comes the skelatal structure of the house which is made from strong wood. The siding of an accumulation of wood and clay, then comes the roof which is manly made from big strong stacks of straw which is lade in layers accross the roof. (what are the houses like?). Marriages are in the form of a monogamous marriage where you have multiple spouses. Peek-A-Boos form a nuclear family consisting of one or two or more parents and dependent offspring, which may include(Western terms) a stepparent, step-siblings, and adopted children. The kids call their dads dad even if they are not their biological father. The mother and grandma are the most important in our cultural. We run off the Iroquois System Kinship reckoning in which a father and father's brother are referred to by a single term, as are a mother and a mother's sister, but a father's sister and mother's brother are given separate terms. Parallel cousins are classified with brothers and sisters, while cross cousins are classified separately but not equated with relatives of some other generation. Males are responsible for the hard labor work which would consist of hunting, and building. The females are responsible for the lighter work, such as cleaning, cooking, gathering, sowing and they are responsible for all the farming that is conducted in our culture. All the elders are kept separate from the group in the city and are responsible for all the major decision that would occur in our culture such as war, and important decisions regarding our society. They are also responsible for the upbringing of the children and the passing down of cultural traditions. The children stay with the elders in the city and are responsible for learning the cultures core values such as cooperation, descipline, and respect when they are of age they will be brought back to their immediate mothers were they will learn how to farm. Once the boys are of hunting age they will be brought to their immediate father where they will have their first hunting ritual. Girls will stay with their mothers and continue to go through the everyday practices that their mothers go through. Our cultures family house hold manly is associated with many of the cultures seen out in western Africa in todays societies. The strength of there cultures are darived from their elders, and many of the tribes look to there elders for advice and majoring dicision making. We are also related to them in the fact that our elders are responsible for the up bringing of the children during their early years of life. A lot of the tribes have a very strong family base, and rely on the whole sturcture of the culture to get through every day events. The sending off the dead is also closely related to our culture with the burning of the bodies.

Good start and nice integration of culture, but lacking many details and need more examples. III-
Peek-a-Boo Homepage