ANTHROPOLOGY 101 011 FALL 2002 ARTICLES IN APPLYING CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY ARTICLES FOR SEPTEMBER 16TH Body Ritual Among the Nacirema America by Horace Miller This classic article is a spoof on American culture key native terms are spelled backwards throughout Miller describes the beliefs and behaviors related to the maintenance of the body The Nacirema believe that the body is ugly and its natural tendency is to degradation and disease The appearance and health of the body is a dominant concern in the ethos of these people This ugliness and natural tendency of the body must be combated through ritual Ritual and ceremonial apparatus described include the shrine room bathroom the charm box medicine cabinet listeners psychiatrists and the latipsoh hospital Answer the following questions 1 Ritual among the Nacirema is focused on the human body What is unique about the Nacirema s view of the of the human body a b c d that that that that it it it it is beautiful and should be exhibited as a work of art is ugly and has a tendency toward debility and disease is sacred but temporal vessel of life and should be accordingly worshipped should be cared for in order to facilitate an easy crossing into the afterlife 2 According to Miller what part of the body holds particular ritual fascination for the Nacirema a the stomach b the feet c the under arms d the mouth True False 1 The role of the listener is to listen to and pardon the wrong doings of the patient 2 According to Miller all Nacirema pratice the holy mouth rite 3 Nacirema beliefs about the body are very different from our own Letters From Peri Manus II Margaret Mead s letter of May 1966 gives an overview of both the recent history of Peri an Island in Western Melanesia and a description of how anthropologists go about fieldwork The Manus people she refers to in the letter underwent trememdous cultural changes in the course of the first half of the twentieth century Through periodic fieldwork Mead was able to record these changes and some of the ways the Manus people coped with the cultural upheaval More importantly Mead s letter describes how anthropologist conducted fieldwork in her day and how the fieldwork experiences affected the observer Answer the following questions True False 1 The Manus People Mead refers to currently in her letter are preparing for a feast for her because she was able to chronicle their historic change from the primitive past to the modern present 2 In Letters From Peri Man II Mead indicates that she is especially proud of the Manus people because they moved so quickly to political empowerment in the modern sense Tricking and Tripping Fieldwork On Prostitution In The Era Of Aids Claire Sterk author Claire Sterk is an anthropologist who works in a school of public health and is primarily interested in issues of women s health particularly as they relate to sexual behavior In this section she describes the basic fieldwork methods she used to study prostitutes and their communities Like most cultural anthropologists Sterk s primary goal is to describe the life of prostitution from the women s own point of view To do this she had to be patient brave sympathetic trustworthy curious and non judgmental Answer the following questions 1 According to Sterk s fieldwork with prostitutes in New York City and Atlanta which of the following are common concerns and problems of these women a b c d e drug habits that have to be supported hassles from the police violence from customers HIV AIDS all of the above 2 One of the most important differences between prostitutes that had to be reflected in the sample and study design was between a b c d prostitutes who worked for a pimp versus ones who were independent entrepreneurs prostitutes who used drugs and ones who did not use drugs younger versus older prostitutes all of the above are central comparisons True False 1 According to Sterk s description of anthropological fieldwork it was impossible to get permission for interviews from women unless they were paid their regular hourly rate 2 Sterk tells us that gaining entree into this group and earning their respect and trust was a slow and difficult process 3 Strek says that it was easiest to conduct research and get information on rainy or slow nights and the hardest to interview women in crack houses Crack In Spanish Harlem Philippe Bourgois author This is an ethnographic description of the culture and social organization of a crack cocaine drug house in East Harlem New York City It is a gripping account of feldwork in an unusual setting The author clearly describes himself his fears and thoughts throughout the article Regular displays of violence are necessary for economic viability As the author explains ruthlessness is their security in the cooperation with partners Most of the participants in this drug scene have held service sector jobs but they quit because of the low pay and the fact that drug dealing was considered a more dignified workplace Nevertheless Bourgois provides a list of acts of violence that he witnessed in the first thirteen months of fieldwork in Spanish Harlem s underground economy He uses the concept of conjugated oppression whereby ethnic discrimination interacts with class exploitation to produce a perception of inescapable oppression He argues that this conjugated oppression is a root cause of why crack heads continue to fry their brains and burn up their bodies Answer the following questions 1 What role does violence play in the underground drug street life a b c d It exists only because coke and crack addicts show little control in conflicit situations It is essential for dealer s maintaining credibility and therefore for attaining success It must be avoided if one is to survive in this business All of the above are true 2 Bourgois believes that inner city youths are attracted to the underground drug economy because a they have been badly socialized and do not share mainstream values b they know no other way of life c they are ambitious and believe in the rags to riches American dream and dealing is the only way they see that they can achieve it d they are lazy and have no ambition 3 What reason does Bourgois give for the continued addiction of people to the crack way of life a the interaction of ethnic discrimination and class exploitation to create a feeling of inescapable oppression b preer pressure c a romantic view of street life that is pervasive throughout the community d once hooked you