Anthropology Study Guide Readings and Videos Fall 2013 All of Righteous Dope fiend Week of Identities Personhood I Race Class Caste i Abu Lughod Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving S M Chp 23 The liberation of women should not justify going to war against Afghanistan Challenges the western justification of war based on saving women from alleged persecution Describes the separation of public role of men and private one of women in the Muslim world Burqa is central to contemporary concerns about muslim women The ultimate sign of the opporession of women under the Taliban is that they were forced to wear the veil but women do not seem to be throwing these off even though they have been liberated Many saw it as a liberating invention because it enabled women to move out of segregated living spaces while still observing the moral requirements of separating and protecting women from unrelated men These are forms of dress that have become so conventional most women gave little thought to their meaning One of the ways they show their standing is by covering their faces in certain contexts They decide for whom they feel it is appropriate to reveal the veil We need to confront the acceptance of the possibility of difference We must be aware of differences respectful ofother paths toward social change that might give women better lives A more productive approach would be to ask how we can make the world a more just place RAWA does not see it in Afghan s women salvation but only increased hardship and loss that comes with bombing Thinking in terms of physical appearance and folk taxonomies helps to clarify the confused topics of race Argues that race is a cultural construction not biological fact Describes how racial classifications in Brazil are based on what people look like not on parents race American racial groups represent the way Americans classify people rather than a genetically determined race A person will be classified black based on who there parents are rather than what they actually look like ii Fish Mixed Blood S M Chp 24 iii FILM Waste Land Part 2 Brazil There is no such thing as race It is a myth and our racial classification scheme is pure fantasy Like skin color there are other physical differences that also appear to have evolved through natural selection It is equally reasonable to view light skinned people or dark skinned people as lankys or rounded Our categories for racial classification of people arbitrarily include certain dimensions and exclude others Differences in behavior between races cannot be explained by biological differences between them The American folk taxonomy of race is beginning to change to accommodate this new reality as what is someone with four grandparents who are white black Asian and Hispanic Jardim Gramacho world s largest landfill on the outskirts of Rio de Janiero Vik Muniz makes all the people happy and brings them a new sense of spirit Started to see themselves as more of people with this new job Work brought them the realization to change These people were picking garbage when they got offered the job to be apart of his project They now support themselves with this material and see things in a simpler way Create photographic images of themselves out of garbage that reveals both the dignity and despair of the cat adores as they begin to re imagine their lives Week of Identities Personhood II Gender Sexualities Tannen Conversation Style S M Chp 8 i Gender differences in conversation style are responsible not only for miscommunication but also for misguided evaluations and moral judgments about the performance and character of coworkers Defines the different speaking styles of men and women When not asking directions is dangerous to your health father flying an airplane didn t want to radio control tower because he didn t want them to think he was lost same with a mal amateur pilot Argues that men avoid one down positions with each other by using humor Women seek to soften criticism To ask or not to ask intern had to decide whether or not to ask a resident about proper dosage of meds could look stupid or kill the patient Male supervisor gave female intern a bad rating although she was one of the smartest interns because he thought she asked more questions than other interns and looked ignorant Men less likely to ask questions in public setting like in classes Looks at different speaking styles of men and women ii Wolf Uterine Families S M Chp 20 Extended families often are based on a rule of patrilineal descent where it extends in an unbroken line of ancestors and descendents For women the patrilineal family is temporary Born into one family and married into another women find that their happiness and interests depend on bearing children to create their own uterine family A man defines his family as a large group that includes the dead not yet born and living members of his household A women s family is defined b her mother because no matter how fond the father is of his daughter she is only a temporary member and useless to the family When a woman is married she may never return and the doors are slammed shut behind her If she is treated bad by her husband s family her father s family may intervene As long as her mother is alive the daughter will continue contact with the household and visit as much as her new situation allows Her new husband and father in law do not see her as a member of they family but essential to it so she is literally without a family Her family will not be formed until she forms it of her own children and grandchildren With a female focus on the Chinese family we see it as a contemporary group that comes into existence out of a women s need A truly successful Taiwanese woman is a rugged individualist who has learned to depend largely on herself while appearing to lead on her bather husband and son Fausto Sterling The Five Sexes Canvas His her physique and his her mental predispositions may be more iii complex than first realized if the state and the legal system have an interest in maintaining a two party sexual system they are in defiance of nature uses the term intersex as a catch all for three major subgroups with some mixture of male and female characteristics the so called true hermaphrodites whom I call herms who possess one testis and one ovary Almost at once such infants are entered into a program of hormonal and surgical management so that they can slip quietly into society as normal heterosexual males or