Let's Meet the Amish

Understanding the Amish

            For my Ethnography project, I have chosen the Amish because I have always held some interest for their culture and because I grew up very close to an Amish community. The Amish are located in at least 24 states, Canada, and Central America, however about 80% of the Amish population is focused in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana. I personally grew up about 25 miles from an Amish area in southern Wisconsin, they had a shop called bent and dent which my grandparents frequented. Because their living areas are scattered, the temperature and rainfall varies depending on the area. In the northern United States rainfall varies from year to year happening most often during spring months, there are four seasons in each year, spring, summer, fall, and winter. Snowfall happens during winter and sometimes spring, but levels vary from year to year. There are a lot of temperature variations in their area of the U.S. annually. However, having lived here for decades, other than a change in clothing options during certain parts of the year, they do not need to adapt to the different seasons during the year.

The Amish are a very isolated people, they sometimes open shops and offer their services to other cultures, however they hold themselves back and have no interest in the affairs of others, unless they are directly affected. They typically live in very rural settings, with hand built housing. For these reasons they do not compete with other cultures. The type of plants grown by the Amish again depends on their location, they do grow their own food such as potatoes, corn, tomatoes, etc. However what they can grow is limited by their location, be it the U.S. or Canada. They typically are known to have horses to pull their carriages and some farming Amish have livestock such as cows, pigs, goats, and chickens.

Environmental Stresses and Adaptions

The Amish culture doesn’t have any environmental stresses to adapt to however, culturally they should have adapted to the times and to some extent they have, but they are very firm in their religious beliefs such as not using electricity, cars, etc. The store I mentioned earlier had a register that they never plugged in and the lights were old fixtures that ran on solar and something else, I’m not sure how to explain it, it wasn’t bulbs but more like wires that lit up from an electrical current or something to that extent. The Amish lifestyle could be seen as a threat to their survival because it closes them off from a lot of new technology, such as vaccinations for new diseases and new treatments for old diseases.

Two long term physical adaptations the Amish have developed over time to deal with environmental stress are their lack of pigment, meaning their white skin and their body type, tall but somewhat thick. Light skinned people have a type of melanin in their skin called “pheomelanin” Which is lighter in color in comparison to the type of melanin seen in darker skinned people, white skinned people also have less of this pigment which causes their lighter skin, because the sun is not so intense in the United States where the majority of Amish live, they have adapted to have lighter skin. This helps regulate their absorption of Ultraviolet UV rays through their skin. The Amish’s body type helps them keep warm in the winter and stay somewhat cool during the summer time, making working and surviving easier.

            Some cultural adaptions that the Amish have made over time are the openings of Amish businesses, Allowing marriage outside their religion, and adapting to new languages based upon where they are located, here in America they have learned some English, at least enough to get by in their businesses. The Amish realized through time that just building houses and growing their own food source, was not enough to get by especially here in the U.S. so, they began opening small shops some for clothing, some for food, and even some for furniture. By making these adaptions, the Amish have found it easier to flourish in the environment they live in. By understanding English they can work better with English speaking customers in their businesses. Going back to allowing marriage outside their religion happened because of health problems from children born of incest. Children born of incest not only had physical deformities, but some mental issues as well, the only way to stop it was to allow people into their religion and allow outside marriages.

Amish Language

The Amish language is known as Pennsylvania German (popularly known as Pennsylvania Dutch). I believe the language family for the Amish language of Pennsylvania Dutch is Palatine German since most of their word structure is derived from this language. Although influence of English on Pennsylvania Dutch is over stated, a small percentage of the Amish’s vocabulary is derived from English, however the core grammatical structures are Palatine German. To my understanding there is not a written version of Pennsylvania Dutch, however Amish do read books mainly their bibles in Standard German or English. I can infer that as the Amish have grown somewhat with the times, they have adapted their language to be better suited in their environment. According to my readings although Pennsylvania Dutch is their home language, very few can speak it now and it is not often taught anymore.

Gender roles and Expectations

The Amish have only two specific genders, man and woman. Typically the woman is in charge of raising children and taking care of the house while her husband works and makes money or the family. However there are some cases where the wife may own or run a business in which case typically the husband will help house work. Generally though Amish women with young children almost never have jobs, unless they are working out of the house like stores or bakeries. There are also times where the husband will help with the wife’s work and she in turn helps with his work.

Considering that women are allowed to work on occasion and sometimes own businesses I would have to say there gender roles are not very strict when it comes to work, however when it comes to child raising, that is specifically the wives job until her son is old enough to begin working with his father. Her daughters however, will be taught house and child care duties for such a time when they become wives and generally will not spend time doing outside work with their father.

There are no negative repercussions for a man or woman doing the others job, because typically when it does happen there are reasons which make it acceptable. If the man cannot make enough so the woman works as well selling baked goods or vegetables this is acceptable, the only thing a woman cannot do is be the religious head of the house, she may teach her children religion, but may never be in charge of it

According to my readings children learn their place and gender role at a very young age, they are taught their duties by their mother, until the boys are old enough to work outside with their father and learn their own work for when they become men.

For the Amish there is no in between gender so their biology defines their gender roles. A woman is a woman and must do her womanly duties and it’s the same for a man. On occasion woman may help with a man’s role or vice versa, but their biological genders define who they are.

Sadly odds are that the protagonist in the story, “The Blessed Curse, “would not be accepted for the very same reason, her parents did not fully accept her. The Amish are Anabaptists which is a small part of Christianity, they would see her as an abomination, just as her parents did. I haven’t seen any form of direct punishment which she might have been issued, so I can only be certain that she would be shunned all her life and never fully accepted.

Amish Nutrition and Diet

Traditionally the Amish receive their subsidence through horticulture. The Amish till their own land, grow their own crops, and harvest them, sometimes they also have gardens which they harvest as well. All this depends on the season, certain crops can only be planted during certain times. They also have animals on their farms such as Cows, Chickens, and Pigs. The Amish are not quick to change and show no signs of transitioning into a new form of subsidence anytime soon, if ever.

The main food items that make up the Amish’s diet are typically vegetable and fruits they grow along with meat, milk, and eggs from their farm animals. The foods they receive from their livestock are mostly year round, the vegetables and fruits can be year round, however not if they are to be fresh. Wives are taught to dry out fruits and veggies as well as canning or pickling them, depending on the fruit or vegetable. So for example, while a fresh tomato may only be available for about half the year, they can have canned tomatoes year round.

The Amish do not really have different social classes, the only difference in class might be a man who ranks higher because he is a pastor, but generally everyone is equal.

The Amish generally are healthy nutrition wise, they have access to all the different types of food necessary to be healthy, they grow crops and they have access to meat from their cattle. The Amish are very self-sufficient and do not depend on anyone, especially outsiders. They make use of what they have and do not allow themselves to need extra things. They live fine on what they are able to produce and own, so they do not have any food items that they are dependent on that are hard to obtain. They do not seem to be lacking for any nutrition in any way.

Yes, the Amish produce crops in surplus and preserve them, to eat during the fall and winter seasons when they cannot grow during the cold seasons. They surplus crops they grow as well as meat that they butcher from some of their cattle.

The specialization of labor is hard to say, my first thought was to say no because woman most often only do their duties and no matter if she might be better at a man’s work, it is not acceptable for her to do it. However, when a mother has multiple daughters or sons, each child can be given a job within their gender role, which they are best at. Whether that counts as a specialization of labor I can’t really say, if say a woman produces no daughters or sons then her and her husband all do their gender role jobs alone whether they are best at them or not, the roles will not be switched.

 Yes, the Amish to distribute their goods with each other and sometimes people outside of their religion. Sometimes they sell produce to each other and other times, the women run shops and sell goods to outsiders. They do not however redistribute wealth amongst themselves or outsiders.

The Amish have currency that is used to buy and sell goods, but the type of currency depends on their location, Amish that live in the U.S. use our currency, the dollar bill, quarters, dimes, pennies, etc.

The Amish use currency to trade with outsiders, who buy art, quilts, and foods from the Amish. The benefits are allowing for more outside relationships between outsiders and the Amish, this allows more trade which means more money. This is negative however, because it has allowed more people to see their living, which has led to misinformation about them and also people trying to change them, because some outsiders don’t like or accept the way the Amish live and believe they must change because we don’t like it. This is one of the reasons cultural anthropology is so important it allows us to look into things from the inside and to understand why things are the way that they are, we may not accept it, but we can understand it.

Marriage:

Marriage for the Amish is monogamous, and yes cousin marriage does happen, because for so long the Amish were not allowed to marry outside of their church, over generations’ incest began happening frequently, because there were no new suitors.

A young man or woman may pick a suitor to marry from their church only and from then on they will marry and be together until they die, there is no divorce.

The Amish do not exchange anything when they marry, the only thing that might be given is the son’s father may pass down his land to his newly married son, but the daughters receive nothing to give their new husband. Generally it would seem by the order of things that men are more valued, however it could be argued that women are more valued because without women you cannot have children, you have no one to take care of household duties, and that the only reason women don’t bring anything into a marriage is because they are worth so much just by themselves. Still, I think it would be safe to say that men are more valuable in marriage then women just based upon how a marriage goes, the man might have something, but the woman always comes in with nothing.

The Amish practiced incest for a long time because of a lack of new blood inside their tight knit community, so no they have no rules or regulations against incest, although it is less frequent now that marriage is allowed outside of their religion.

The man inherits a farm from his father when he is grown and gets married, then he lives there with his new wife and any children they might have. Some women who marry outside of their religion, go to live with their husbands and never return to the community. If there is no farm to pass on, the couple will live with one of their families and do factory work until they can afford a farm of their own.

The Amish view being gay as a sin that must be confessed and is punishable by their priest. The Amish are fairly certain gay occurrences in their community are very rare and seen in a very negative light.

 Kinship:

The Amish do not really have a descent pattern, because their most important relationship is with god. I wouldn’t say they ignore descent lines, more like they are just less emphasized, than in most other cultures.

The male parent possesses the most authority in the family.

Good property is only passed down to the son, who is newly married, by his father. There are no inheritance rules however, a son may not receive land if their father has none. Generally the only thing passed down through generations is land.

The Amish have do not practice naming patterns, most of their life revolves around work and religion, and do not put much detail into naming of children.

Social Organization:

 The Amish are generally egalitarian, and don’t have any stratified structure. However all individuals are not equal gender wise. What I mean is one man is equal to all other men in the community, but a women is not equal to a man, however she is equal to all other women. Men generally have more social power, but that is not always true, in the event a woman owns a shop of some sort she may be equal to her husband socially, but never above him.  Statuses do not exist, so there are no levels to climb up to or fall down to. Everyone is at the same level and no one person is better than another.

Political Structure

Generally the Amish do not involve themselves in politics and they do not accept government subsidies. Generally the Amish only take part in voting in rare cases when some sort of law coming into place directly affects them in some way. There is no political power, so there is no political power transferring. The laws of the Amish are read and interpreted by their priest, however they are believed to have come directly from the lord himself, and they follow the laws of the lord. The only known form of punishment for breaking these laws is confession to the priest and sometimes a 6-week long shunning of the individual by the entire community.

The Role of Violence

With this image I want you to notice none of them appear angry

in fact the only strong emotion visible is sadness, the Amish are not violent people.

In Amish culture violence is not tolerated, they are calm and peaceful people, who value their peace and wellbeing. Violence is very rare in their culture and as such I could not find any form of violence in their culture. The only violence I saw was their form of punishment for gossiping which can be as minor as getting a visit from the priest and the matter being dropped completely to as major as a Six-week ban, where everyone shuns the guilty individual. Violence is viewed very negatively and unnecessary by the Amish, in fact they refuse to defend themselves, if faced with an aggressive neighbor they will simply pick up and move, rather than fight.

Amish Religion

The Amish religion is known as Anabaptist, however they are sometimes thought to be conservative Protestants by outsiders. The Amish religion fits inside Christianity, which is a larger branch of religion that contains multiple religions. The beliefs and practices were originally based off of the writings of the founder of the Mennonite faith, Menno Simmons.

The Amish religion of Anabaptist focuses on monotheism, believing in the lord god and his son Jesus. Anabaptist actually acquired their strange name because unlike typical Baptists they did not believe in infant baptism, instead they believed in adult believer baptisms. They wanted you to be old enough to understand and want what you were being given.  God and his son are the focus of their religion, you may begin to think this would mean polytheistic because there’s more than one deity, however the father, son, and Holy Ghost are considered to be one and the same, just in different forms.

The Amish believe the story most of us are familiar with, the beginning stated in the bible, with god creating everything and making Eve from Adam, I’m sure most know the story. There is no single one factor, practice, belief, or doctrine that is used by all Anabaptists, which I could describe to you, however the dislike and not allowing of infant baptism is universal for all Anabaptists. The amish specifically believe in the virgin mary, eternal life, satan, etc.  Their church practices do not allow women to hold positions of power, and they have a specific church leader ship that is as follows: Völliger Diener: (a.k.a. Full Servant or Bishop), Diener zum Buch: (a.k.a. Servant of the Book or minister), Völliger Armendiener: (a.k.a. Full Servant of the Poor or Full Deacon), and Armendiener: (a.k.a. Servant of the Poor or Deacon). For the Amish, religion runs their life and they could not function without it. Their religion is everything to them, their lifestyle, their work, and their family.

 Art:

Amish art is most commonly expressed in paintings and quilts. The benefits of these art works is money, sometimes paintings are sold, other times they are kept for the house or passed down as a gift, but quilts are always sold unless needed, they are one of the most main stream things women sell.

The only musical expression I can think of is in church, the Amish sing in choirs and during church sessions. The benefit in their eyes is becoming better and more pure for their lord.

For the Amish being prideful is a sin, they do not do performances at all and I would venture to guess it is because they are not to be prideful and vain. To perform in front of the entire community could be seen as a way to act prideful and vain, trying to show off how talented an individual is. That would be very much frowned upon and not allowed.

Religion is a part of everything the Amish do, so of course it does take part in their art. Amish artists make sure to include a balance of humility and simplicity against vanity, every art piece must have this. This is so they do not come off as acting prideful or vain with their artwork. The benefits of this could be that it is a very specific type of art and therefore could be seen as rare and it probably only obtainable from the Amish, which would not be a benefit for them because it is seen as vain, but it is a benefit for outsiders looking to purchase unique work.

Conclusion: Cultural Change

The Amish have been somewhat effected by other cultures, but it is at their own pace. For example the Amish choose to adapt certain new technologies which benefit their cause, but are not seen as lazy or sinful. The Amish use cash registers when necessary, because they benefit their work. However, they do not allow televisions or other electrical entertainment devices. The positive impacts would be showing others they are strong and stand their ground, however the negatives would be the issues and disagreements they run into with other cultures because they refuse to change.

I believe the Amish culture is healthy and thriving, I see no reason to believe they may be in danger of disappearing or becoming something else, the Amish are very firm in their way of life. I don’t believe the Amish will ever lose their cultural identity, because they are too hard working and set in their ways to allow such a change to occur.

The Amish hold a weak role in the modern world mostly because of how small their population is in total. However this is also because of their general reclusive nature towards outsiders. Unless something directly affects them, they do not generally reach out to do anything outside of themselves.

Bibliography

Link for location: http://pittsburgh.about.com/cs/pennsylvania/a/amish.htm

Physical Adaption links: http://anthro.palomar.edu/adapt/adapt_4.htm

http://anthro.palomar.edu/adapt/adapt_2.htm

Links to culture: http://www.amishnews.com/amisharticles/traditionalfamily.htm

http://www.religioustolerance.org/amish.htm

Language Link: http://groups.etown.edu/amishstudies/social-organization/language/

Gender Links: http://groups.etown.edu/amishstudies/social-organization/family/

Food Link: http://amishamerica.com/what-do-amish-eat/

Violence Link: https://cas.uab.edu/peacefulsocieties/societies/amish/

Currency Link: http://people.howstuffworks.com/amish1.htm

Religion Links: http://www.religioustolerance.org/amish.htm

http://www.anabaptists.org/history/what-is-an-anabaptist.html

http://www.religioustolerance.org/amish3.htm

http://www.religioustolerance.org/amish4.htm

Marriage Link: http://www.everyculture.com/North-America/Amish-Marriage-and-Family.html

http://amishamerica.com/amish-and-homosexual/

Kinship: http://www.jamardaresources.com/cersample/subpages/amish/amish_kin_soc_fac.htm

Social Status: http://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ796146

Political Structure: http://groups.etown.edu/amishstudies/social-organization/government/

Art Link: http://www.welcome-to-lancaster-county.com/amish-art.html

Week 7 Art in culture

I would venture to guess that the artists were telling a story about animals and how important they were to the artists. I might venture further and say the artists were attempting to show us how important these animals could be to everyone.

It would seem that the artists worshipped these animals and portrayed them as special entities which should be respected, the story they drew was more about the animals. Therefore they did not draw many people, because that would have redirected the importance to the humans.

I could perhaps say that with all this art work they may have had a lot of time on their hands, but I can’t be sure some of their art may have taken hours, days even or it could have taken only a few moments, there is also the possibility the elderly who had nothing but time, made the art. If I’m being honest there are many different directions into their life that the art could show me, but I could never say for certain just what the art was intended to say about them. My best guess would be that their life revolved around the animals they depicted, for food and possibly for worship.

Well the area where the paintings are located is a problem in itself, the majority of the paintings are either high on the cave walls or on the ceiling of the cave. I don’t believe that logically any of these early humans were tall enough to reach such places, they would have had to find a way to reach. I would speculate the possibility of one member riding on another members shoulders in order to reach such heights. Then there is the more basic matter of finding a mixture to use as paint and then changing the color for different animals, I would assume plant life was used, possibly mixed with dirt, clay, or even perhaps animal blood.

I might speculate the possible reasoning for this art to be storytelling, possibly a way to record historic events, or it might also be simply art for the eyes of their tribe and future tribes, like us, to enjoy.

Like the art in Lascaux caves, we still today sometimes make art that tells a story, some may even argue that all art tells a story. Also like the prehistoric art, we have art that depicts large portions of our history a prime example might be paintings made that show the death and gore of the civil war. Early humans may have used art much in the same way as we use it today, to tell stories and to show a visual depiction of historic events. We have developed over time things to actually draw on, rather than using the land or buildings for art, in most cases. For early humans the land was all they had to show us pieces of their world and their lifestyle. We still paint as they did, we just have a different sort of canvas.

An American Painting of the Civil War.

I find that after watching my very first acapella movie, Pitch perfect and Pitch perfect 2, that I am addicted to acapella, it is amazing to me to see what just a few people can do with only their voices to use for sound. Before reading these instructions I will admit I had spaced out music as a form of art, not sure how I could forget as much as I enjoy music, but all the same.

First Link is a video of the Pentatonix: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P95_pCbCPZw

Second Link is from Pitch Perfect 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3U2ew2-LOQ

In the second link you can actually see a contest between 

multiple acapella groups known as a "Riff Off."

Acapella Groups such as the well-known Pentatonix, use their voices to create or re-create music. It is a form of entertainment for most, but there are even events where groups compete to see who is the very best, such an event was depicted in the Pitch Perfect movies. They attempt to communicate just how powerful voices can be, they can replace instruments along with the well-known ability to sing.

Acapella is pretty universal culture wise, there is not one specific culture that does it, however it may have originated in one specific culture before it spread world-wide. Generally the singers dress according to what they are singing or where they are, there is no specific form of dress. I have only heard acapella done in English, but I am sure it is done in other languages as well. As for behavior, not really although sometimes and especially during competitions they must choreograph a dance set to go with their singing.

 I might get a bit of negative feedback for this, but honestly I believe that Acapella is very beneficial to newer generations, because it gives some of them something constructive and beneficial to them to look forward too. Instead of another Justin Bieber or Miley Cyrus, pop stars who can get away with almost anything are not very good role models. However Acapella gives viewers not only something to watch, but if they decide to try it. It will help them become active with dance moves as I mentioned before and it will help them learn how to exercise their vocal cords to different things such as mimicking instruments and other sounds. Kids get to see people who worked very hard to be able to do what they do and the hard work doesn’t end, they are constantly improving and learning new techniques to compete with. I would love to see a lot more kids doing this than playing video games, shooting up neighborhoods, doing drugs, dropping out of school, etc. I think they just need something constructive to become interested in and to help them see a different way to go. Other benefits are a form of entertainment and a healthy outlet for people interested in dance and music. I can’t really think of any detrimental effects of it, other than gaining a new way to use your voice for more than just talking or singing.

The Yanomamo Indians

The Yanomamo rules against killing differ from that of Western cultures by allowing revenge killings. For most Western cultures killing is only completely okay in war or if a person is sentenced to the death penalty. It also sounds like even if the Yanomamo cannot find the culprit guilty of the killing, but know his tribe, then they are more than willing to take it out on his tribesmen if he cannot be found. Here it is only legal to kill a criminal who has been convicted and sentenced to the death penalty, even if sometimes the wrong person is convicted, generally in western cultures, the killing ends there and is not considered revenge killing. Sometimes even a death of natural causes, although this was believed to be almost non-existent because there was always someone or something to blame, can start a streak of violence, killing, and carnage.

Revenge killing for the Yanomamo’s is the ability to go after a tribe when one of its members has killed a member of your clan. When a family member is killed, this may lead to revenge killing for the tribe guilty of committing the crime, woman might also be abducted in return for what was lost. To put it bluntly for the Yanomamo vengeance killing is completely legal and seen as normal.

Once you have the status of being an unokais, you are feared by non-unokais and can become rather wealthy, but can be sought after by other unokais who are looking to become more feared. The benefits of not being a unokais is that you would not be as sought after to be killed as a unokais. A man might choose the unokais path to become stronger and more feared, also wealthier rather than living the normal non-unokais lifestyle.

Revenge killing helps shape political structure by placing the more successful killers known as “Headman,” at the top of the social pyramid, able to run their village and make beneficial rules for their own gain, whereas lesser men must bow before him and do his bidding. This allows for stronger leaders, because of how much work and strength they need to make their way to the top.

Revenge killings help shape social status and social groups, a tribe who has better killers will be more high standing and powerful than that of a tribe full of cowardly warriors. One way revenge killings help social status specifically is when one tribe houses a very strong leader or unokais because people from other tribes will hear this and fear the leader and therefore hesitate to mess with his tribe. The more well known a warrior is puts him in more danger, but can also make his village safer for those who fear him.

Revenge killing generally begins with kinship, when a kin member is killed the chain of revenge begins. Personally from my understanding, I believe that without kinship or the care for one’s family, there would be no need for revenge killings at all because they would have no reason. Revenge killing could not exist in theory without kinship.

 A wealthier man, who has killed more than most men has a better chance of attracting or capturing wives and reproducing more frequently than a poorer or lesser man.

We have laws because while most of us may not want to do it, some of us might and those few people can continue to multiply and create a larger generation raised with the same beliefs that they share. Sometimes even having a law against it doesn’t necessarily prevent it. We also have to protect our population, the Yanomamo population fluctuates and gets lower because of all the killing they are allowed to do and then the non-ending cycle of revenge killing that follows their path.

Family Kinship

            I chose my mother to interview. I chose her because she is the only blood family member I live with currently other than my little sister and because she knows a lot about our families’ history. My mother was born in Rockford Illinois, during the 1970’s. She was raised in the bad side of a bad town, her father’s family came from the richer side and her mother from the poorer side. Both my mother parents were white, but from different social backgrounds.

I found my interviewing to be full of questions and sometimes I repeated myself. I did have a bit of trouble not inputting my own knowledge when it came to locations of relatives, I found I knew a few that my mother did not. I did not experience any discomfort or awkwardness, so therefore my interview was not affected. I think it would be easier to interview someone unrelated to me as it may prevent bias as well as making asking questions easier because I know nothing and am staring off with a blank slate.

I would describe my families kinship pattern as fission because as new generations have been born the family has seemed to split up into close knit groups and mostly only interact within those groups. I have found unsurprisingly that most of my family is not close and especially not close to my EGO, in fact I find I am closer to my Step mother’s family than my own. When we’re discussing socialization for my family it is hit or miss some of us are very social and others are not. There is not a strong emphasis towards either side in my family. The attitudes between generations seem to be slightly more aggressive when it comes to younger generations, the older clans seem to push the younger to be better and to do more. The trend for my family seems to be smaller clans with around 3 children it is rare for a woman in my family to have more than that. There did not used to be ethnic differences in my family, until my mother (Ego) got married to my step mother. It had a huge social impact because most of the older generations in my family were racist to an extent and did not like the idea of having another race brought into their family, especially another woman. When my mother made her decision many of my family cut her out and stopped speaking with her, slowly some are working around their beliefs to have a relationship with my mother. For me personally it has helped make my relationship with my mother stronger and I accept my step mother with open arms, she is one of my idols that I look up to.

I know the relatives on my mother’s side very well, but not my fathers as I did not meet him until a few years ago. I socialize with my mom frequently as we live together, since my father and I do not live together we do not speak much. In the past for me personally my maternal grandfather seemed to have the most pull and authority in the family, he raised me for the first 8 years of my life and that authority kind of stuck with me until he passed away, then the biggest authority figure became my mother. Today my mother is still the most influential for me towards our family, our family is not a close one so I could not honestly speak for everyone else as I am sure all their answers would differ.

To my knowledge whether people married in to our family or were born into our family by blood, they are both treated the same there are no different levels of equality based on blood or gender.  None of my family members have shown a different attitude other than a lesser punishment for females when they do wrong. For example when my brother would get into trouble he may be given corner time or a spanking, but a female would either get shorter corner time or be grounded to their room for a period of time. Through this process I don’t really feel I have learned anything new or different about my family other than just how much we lack closeness which I already had a general idea about. I was surprised to realize just how racist and against LGBT some of my family was, I knew how they felt about it, but not quite how deep their hatred went. I can honestly say were I not already distant to those certain family members then I would have been less interested in being close to them after knowing this.

Interview:

Generations:

·         Maternal Grandparents: Grandfather-Jesse and Grandmother-Mary Smith (both Deceased) talked a lot with grandmother and was close to her.

·         Parents: Mother-Debbie (Smith) Lives in Decatur Illinois and Father-William Sanden Buried in Durand Illinois.(Father Deceased) Closer to father and communicated frequently until he died.

·         Ego and Siblings: Cindie Sanden (Ego), Sister-Leslie Duncan (Sanden) lives in Illinois, Brother-William Sanden Jr. lives in Pennsylvania. Speaks to sister often and is somewhat close to her, is not on speaking terms with brother.

·         Maternal Uncles and Aunts: Dewey living unknown (not close and does not speak frequently), Frank lives in Rockford Illinois (not close and does not speak often), Theresa lives in Rockford Illinois behind frank (not close and does not speak often), and Jesse lives in Mississippi (somewhat close, speaks off and on through a third party).

·         Paternal Uncles and Aunts: Sharon Pickett lives in Rockford Illinois (Close and speaks regularly), Susan Meldrum lives in Rockford Illinois (not close, barely talk to each other), Jeri-Ann Kernz lives in Wisconsin (very close, talk together often), and Craig Sanden lives in Winnebago Illinois (not close and talks rarely through social media).

·         Maternal Cousins: (Franks kids live in Rockford Illinois with father, not close and not on speaking terms) Nichole Smith , Megan Smith, (Theresa’s Kids living unknown, not close and not speaking) Mary, Jessica, Dawn, (Jesse’s kids living unknown, not close and not speaking) Christie Smith, Jesse Jr.

·         Paternal Cousins: (Jeri’s Kids) Luke Knutowski lives in
Wisconsin he and ego are very close and speak often, Kara location unknown (somewhat close and they speak occasionally), (Sharon’s Kids live with her, somewhat close and speak occasionally) Kevin, Kyle, (Susan’s Kids location unknown, not close and not speaking currently) Craig, Katelyn, (Craig’s Kids location unknown, not close and not speaking currently) Ryan, and Patrick.

·         Siblings Children: Nephew-Christopher living with Leslie, Niece-Macey living in Rockton Illinois, and Niece-Alicia living with Leslie (Children to Leslie, not close but speak occasionally), and William Jr. has no children.

·         Children (close to all children and speaks to them often): Daughter-Zoey White living with mother (me), Son-Zackary White living in Kansas with father, and Daughter-Samantha White living with mother.

·         Paternal Grandparents: Grandmother-Beverly and Grandfather-Gerald Sanden living together in Rockford Illinois, not close and not speaking currently.

She talks to her mother the most, but spends her holidays with her two daughters and her loving wife. If she needed help or a place to stay she would turn to her mother. She will not communicate with her brother and the reason is private. My subject does not know much about a majority of her cousins, but she remembers their names very well. My subject’s family is geographically spread out from her and I, but most live in the Illinois/Wisconsin area, so not quite geographically diverse. To my subjects knowledge none of our family members have migrated to another country. She believes the family has decided to stay close together in case someone needs help or in case of another death in the family as her grandparents are very old.

Hunting/ Gathering or Agriculture?

Part 1: Agriculture or Hunting/Gathering

The benefits of hunter gatherers is, lots of necessary nutrients found only in meat such as protein.

The benefit of agriculture is, its’ somewhat easy and you can grow enough to feed an entire community, during a good year.

The disadvantage of hunter gatherers is, lack of game or animals to hunt, if all a group is eating is meat it would be very easy to end up taking out your entire food source over a long or short amount of time, given the size of your population.

The disadvantage of agriculture is issues with our jaw structure and dental structure as well as a large lack in nutrients which has been proven to cause deteriorating health and a rise in infectious disease. There are also, bad crop years where growing is very difficult or impossible because of weather conditions.

I believe hunter gatherer’s provide a healthier diet, even though the food source for them is not guaranteed, it contains more nutrients and a lot less health problems than agriculture poses. It reminds of the saying that the easiest or fastest way is not always the best. Hunter Gatherer’s not only get meat from protein, but can also get nutrients from wild plants and berries as well. Where as in agriculture it is only planted crops, which lack nutrients found only in meat. Although this is up for debate if anyone cares to comment I would love input if someone disagrees or agrees and has more to say to that effect.

I believe earlier human populations may have been pushed by nature into agriculture because, game became scarce and they could not depend on fickle wild crops to feed a growing population. I believe natural selection pressured them unknowingly to find an easier and more efficient way to provide food for their people. Those who adapted to this new necessity survived and those who could not handle it died. If you think about it the more humans taking up space and growing the less room there is for animals not domesticated and even sometimes then there is little to no land for them. They also could not have known the potential risks of this diet until later on.

Part 2: Economics and Trade:

There is a direct relationship between the availability of surplus and the ability to trade. This statement roughly means you can’t trade what you don’t have. First you must have things of interest before you can hope to trade for something you are lacking, from someone else.

Two social benefits of trade are building relationships as well as gaining access to things we are unable to obtain by any other means. By building relationships I am referring to how we have become close to other countries such as China, through trade of goods and services, because we have a long history of trading together it has helped us build a somewhat steady and trust worthy relationship, which I believe otherwise would have been hard if not impossible to achieve. An example of gaining things we could not obtain by other means, there is an exotic fruit known as a Mangosteen, not to be confused with mangos, which only grows in Tropical areas and cannot be grown here our only access to it is to have it imported from such places, so without trade we would not have access to such an interesting fruit. This fruit has been proven to help dietary function amongst other functions and is made into a popular yet expensive supplement drink called Xango, I had a relative who was a salesmen for the company.

The Mangosteen fruit and Xango Juice.

Going along with benefits a negative result could be a bad relationship being built because one or both sides was not careful with the object they were bringing to trade or even perhaps lying about what would actually be traded in the exchange. Another negative result might be one culture or group being rejected from trade because they only have access to growing common crops like corn for example, this crop is very well known and easy to acquire therefore trading it would likely be unsuccessful, making a group unable to participate well in the social practice of trade.

Agriculture benefited trade development because certain crops, such as the exotic fruit I mentioned before, can only be found in certain areas and if you do not live there or have access to that area your only chance at having some of that crop is to trade. Crops could also be traded for non-food items such as animal skin for clothing. As agriculture developed so did trade, because there was something to be gained by both parties. The more agriculture grew and increased the more crops could be grown and traded with other groups.

Cultural Communication

Part 1:

·         I found this to be difficult, my partner was talking about something I was very interested in and I kept wanting to ask questions, but found without being verbal I could not articulate my complex questions. Being silent in itself was not hard, but not being able to show the question to my partner, I had to remain curious throughout the entire conversation.

·         At first my partner was at a loss for words, and laughed at my expressions, but as the conversation progressed my partner became more comfortable and opened up, conversing me and accepting my silence and listening intently. They did not alter their way of speaking, at least not in a way I noticed. My partner struggled a bit to fill in empty spots because of my lack of response, perhaps that is a noticeable change my partner made because of my silence.

·         The speaking culture has the advantage, because they can show much more information and communicate more complexly than the culture who can only use body language and facial expressions. The speaking culture may assume the culture using symbolic language is either stuck up and refusing to speak to them or they may assume the non-speaking culture is ignorant. Some individuals in our culture who have difficulty communicating using spoken language are deaf and mute individuals, this effects them by causing them to become better at communicating and showing their feelings in non-verbal ways, like sign language and body language. It also teaches people who communicate with individuals who have these problems how to understand more than just verbal words.

Part 2:

·         I had to do the conversation in two increments because I started giggling, but I did manage it. It was very hard not to use any emotion or moving, I didn’t realize just how much I move and use emotion to express feelings, until it was taken from me and I was no longer allowed to do so.

·         My partner was interested by my lack of emotion at first, but by the end of the conversation admitted to being slightly creeped out and feeling like he was talking to a robot.

·         Movements while speaking are somewhat important to the way we speak, for me I found it harder not to show any emotion verbally or physically, then it being hard to not use my hands or body while I spoke.

·         Yes there are people in the world who have trouble reading body language. The adaptive benefits of being able to read body language are knowing how someone feels before they even speak to you, say a person is angry, they walk a certain way and sometimes fold their arms or make an angry face. An environment where it would be bad to read body language would be similar to the environment shown in the movie and book titled “1984,” by George Orwell. The book is about a government where people are constantly being watched and have many, very strict rules they must follow or they are tortured. Big brother is their leader and he is ultimate, the reason this would be a good environment for people to be able to read body language is because, it could put citizens in danger. The government would know if they were nervous or if they were angry and would use this as a reason to believe they were not obeying the law and torture them.

Part 3:

·         I believe that part one of the experiment would have been easier if written language had been allowed, because it would have been a way to better articulate an exact feeling or response to your partner’s words or actions while talking with you.

·         Written language provides a culture with a way to record important historical events. We can also develop and use it to show differences between our culture and the culture of others.

·         Written language has allowed for more information to be shared with more people than ever before. So in terms of “Globalization,” it has helped us connect with our allies in other countries, we are now able to effectively communicate and work with one another because of our connection though written language and verbal language. We are also able to share our ideas worldwide through written communication, we can learn about each other and pass on information to the new generation.

Zulu and Andean Indian Cultures

The Zulu population are located in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal, this land is very fertile and summer is the most productive season.  This area only has two seasons each year, Summer and Winter. A Zulu summer is between the months of October to April, during which it is very rainy and warm. While winter is between June and August, during which the weather is cold and dry. The temperatures here a very moderate on average. Overall there is not much of a major change between seasons, but the rain for most of the year helps crop growth, to feed the tribes people. Winters can be somewhat stressful on the tribe, but do not last long. The average rainfall for the Zulu tribe is, 115 days per year. Homeostasis is not hard for the Zulu to maintain, to my understanding.

The Zulu demonstrate the physical adaption of their darker skin color, which helps them block out harmful UV rays of sunlight. The environmental stress which causes the need for such an adaption, is the hot and humid climate, which they live in. They live in a climate which is hot most of the year, with a lot of sunlight, in order to balance their bodies and survive, they have developed darker skin that is able to block most harmful rays of sunlight. This protects them from diseases such as, skin cancer. This helps them maintain homeostasis.

Skin Color of Zulu Children

The Zulu tribe present the cultural adaptation of dressing very sparingly, to help deal with the hot climate they live in. Men normally do not wear shirts, just some fabric to cover their genitals, as well as small pieces of fabric on their arms and legs. Women generally wear clothing made mostly of beads, which offers, air flow to their skin to keep them cool. Once again this stress was caused by the intense climate they live in most of the year. With this clothing choice, they have helped control their ability to live in such a hot climate.

Zulu Woman's attire

Zulu Male Attire

I consider the Zulu race to be, African. I chose this, based on where they are located and based on the adaptations they share with most other African natives. Lastly I chose it because as I just stated they are African natives.

The Andean Indians population are located in the Andes Mountains, in central South America. This area is located within the tropics with temperatures varying based upon elevation. Lowlands tend to be hotter, while higher up into the mountain ranges, temperatures tend to be colder. Dense forests in this area receive heavy rainfall throughout the year, however there are also dry areas where only sparse grass manages to grow. Not much is known about the seasons in this location.

Andean Indian Demonstrate the physical adaptation of, a strong heart and lungs, which helps with oxygen flow in high mountain areas, where oxygen is denser than at lower elevations. This environmental stress is caused by where they live, at higher elevations in the mountains. These people must have strong hearts to live at such elevations otherwise the pressure of trying to get enough oxygen to survive would be too much for their heart and they would not survive. They need strong lungs to be able to survive on denser oxygen, without over working their hearts.

Being able to not only function at such high altitudes, but play instruments too. Demonstrates a strong heart and lungs.

The Andean Indians show the cultural adaption of, learning to farm using the constellations. This group of people understands that where they live, farming is very difficult and has to been done during specific times to be successful. These times are decided by astronomy, when a certain constellation appears, in this case Pleiades which is part of Taurus, they can predict precipitation during the rainy seasons, which will be months later, and use it to know when to start planting their crops for the year. Awaiting the appearance of this constellation is also a celebrated festival for these people. This adaption helps them survive, by giving them more crop production to feed their people each year.

Andean Indian Farming

I would describe the Andean Indian race as, Native American or perhaps Hispanic. I base this on their skin coloration and global location as well as having the word Indian in their name, I will confess I had a lot of trouble with this, I couldn’t seem to find any hints so I decided to take my best guess as to what I believed their race to be. I would love input on this from someone with perhaps the same or a different answer as to Andean Indian race.

My Links

Zulu environment Link: http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Zulu.aspx

Andean environment Link: http://www.britannica.com/topic/Central-American-Indian

Zulu Physical Link: http://anthro.palomar.edu/adapt/adapt_4.htm (learned climate information from previous Zulu link)

Andean Physical Link:  http://anthro.palomar.edu/adapt/adapt_3.htm

Zulu Cultural Link: http://www.zulu-culture.co.za/zulu_clothing.php#.VxebFPkrLtQ

Andean Cultural Link: http://www.des.ucdavis.edu/faculty/orlove/New%20Publications/2002%20American%20Scientist.pdf

My 5 Descriptive words: Poorly, Unique, Private, Magical, and Sacred

         I chose the word Poorly as one of my descriptive words because it can have many different meanings, depending on how it is used. When I first hear or read the word poorly my mind immediately thinks of someone without a lot of money, but in cases such as this article it means something entirely different, it is still a lack of something, but not a lack of funds. " the culture of this people is still very poorly understood." In this article he is talking about a lack of understanding, but uses a less known word instead of the obvious choice.

      Unique is one of my favorite describing words, because I think it sounds better and more appealing than the more used word, unusual. Unique to me feels special I would much rather someone tell me i'm unique than tell me I am unusual. Unusual can sometimes feel mildly insulting or derogatory, even though the two words mean practically the same thing. "While such a concern is certainly not unusual, its ceremonial aspects and associated philosophy are unique." I like how he chose to use both words in a way that made them both sound positive and make sense even in the same sentence.

        Private, is another describing word I like because, I am a private person and privacy means a lot to me. I also like the way in which Horace Miner uses private, to mean something you do alone or just don't tell others about. "While each family has at least one such shrine, the rituals associated with it are not family ceremonies but are private and secret." I enjoy being able to do things privately, because it benefits me and Private observations in the cultural anthropology area, could be very beneficial.

        My next descriptive word is magical, I chose this word because I enjoy all things fictional and magical. As a child I enjoyed fairy tails and princess dreams, now as an adult, I still enjoy fictional reading, especially when magic or magical creatures are involved. I liked how Horace Miner used the word to describe a person. "In the hierarchy of magical practitioners, and below the medicine men in prestige, are specialists whose designation is best translated as "holy-mouth-men." It is very interesting and draws a readers attention to the reading.
     
       My final descriptive word is Sacred, to me it is a fancy way of describing something that is important to you, but sounds much more appealing than the word important. If for example I were to say that a cultural anthropologists most important tool was their mind, that sounds okay, but to say their most sacred tool is their mind, somehow makes it seem more important, at least to me.  "The extremely sacred and traditional character of the rite is evident in the fact that the natives return to the holy-mouth-men year after year, despite the fact that their teeth continue to decay." I believe by adding the word extreme he also made the word sacred more powerful and drew more attention to the sentence itself.

Part B: Nacerima

1.  As an American, I feel curious and confused with how Horace Miner describes American culture and I wonder if this is America today, or maybe even a decade ago that he is talking about.

2. I did exhibit some ethnocentrism, when it came to visiting the "Holy-Mouth-Men" and teeth continuing to decay that seemed a bit unnecessary to me as well as the shrine visiting alone, that sounded interesting, but strange.  I  believe this reveals a bias of disliking pointless pain, and a lack of understanding and respect for spiritual procedures.  I feel my chosen words are free of bias in terms of culture, but not in how they were chosen, I chose them merely because I liked them, there was really no other reason, so they are somewhat biased towards me.

3. I believe the word poorly was some what biased and a better word might have been uneducated, because this could mean we lack because we have not been taught instead of assuming we just choose not to learn things that we do not find interesting enough.

4.  It is important to avoid ethnocentric judgments when describing other cultures, because we do not know why they do what they do or what has caused this dramatic change or effect. Just like you should not judge a person by what they look like, you should not judge a society, based on outward appearances. It is important to describe other cultures with out personal bias because, not only are you trying to educate yourself, but your trying to teach other people why things are done a certain way by certain people and you may even teach the people themselves how they came to be this way. You would not want to cast a bad shadow over a culture especially if they are already frowned upon by most other cultures. I do not believe it is possible to completely avoid personal bias, because we were all raised differently and have different morals, what may seem normal to us may seem disgusting to someone else, we cannot change how we think, but we can change what we say and prevent others from experiencing another culture through a biased anthropologist.