For those coming to Scotland in the autumn, I can tell you that flights and accommodation are booked and confirmed.
Here is where you are staying: http://www.glasgowhostel.co.uk/
Say, 'thank you David'.
dmc
Friday, 15 May 2009
Reading for Tuesday 19 May
Hello Anthros,
My apologies for a late post. I hope I have not inconvenienced you (too much).
I hope, too, that you enjoyed Hugh's lecture earlier this week. He discussed lots of interesting ethnography. Much of the early work in any ethnographic study involves working out what is going on and (subsequently) why. This was clear, I think, from Hugh's discussion.
So back to the Ju/'hoansi...
On Tuesday, then, we will be discussing chapters 9 and 10. How well you have understood chapter 9 will be shown in the letters you have written and (hopefully) submitted. I will have the pleasure of spending the weekend with them. Please read chapter 10. Make your own notes, and identify the key terms which are introduced in this chapter. In addition go back and re-read pp. 23-26 of the handout 'The Key Concepts', from Eriksen's What is Anthropology?. Eriksen's discussion (of 'society') provides a wider context for understanding chapter 10.
We are approaching the end of the monograph. I hope you have enjoyed it. Try, if you have time, to read to the end. Reading texts several times is often helpful and sometimes necessary.
See you Tuesday.
David
My apologies for a late post. I hope I have not inconvenienced you (too much).
I hope, too, that you enjoyed Hugh's lecture earlier this week. He discussed lots of interesting ethnography. Much of the early work in any ethnographic study involves working out what is going on and (subsequently) why. This was clear, I think, from Hugh's discussion.
So back to the Ju/'hoansi...
On Tuesday, then, we will be discussing chapters 9 and 10. How well you have understood chapter 9 will be shown in the letters you have written and (hopefully) submitted. I will have the pleasure of spending the weekend with them. Please read chapter 10. Make your own notes, and identify the key terms which are introduced in this chapter. In addition go back and re-read pp. 23-26 of the handout 'The Key Concepts', from Eriksen's What is Anthropology?. Eriksen's discussion (of 'society') provides a wider context for understanding chapter 10.
We are approaching the end of the monograph. I hope you have enjoyed it. Try, if you have time, to read to the end. Reading texts several times is often helpful and sometimes necessary.
See you Tuesday.
David
Monday, 4 May 2009
Homework Task
Some interesting posts (from those posting), including one from 'high-level beings'. Does this mean we have 'aliens' on the blog?! The mind boggles...
For next week, there is, as promised, a spot of homework. Please submit (to me) this task during anthro on 12 May. The task should be typed, double-spaced, size 12, Arial or Times New Roman.
The task can be found in my mail box - take one copy only. You'll see that the task involves replying to a letter written by a fictional IB student, Kalle Blomqvist. In your response, you are to take the role of //Koka and write to Kalle. Although the original letter (written by Kalle) is, in a sense, 'tongue in cheek', you should approach the task seriously and address in detail the questions Kalle asks.
If you have difficulties with this task, you should contact me prior to the final day of submission. Thanks. Good luck!
Anthro Dave.
For next week, there is, as promised, a spot of homework. Please submit (to me) this task during anthro on 12 May. The task should be typed, double-spaced, size 12, Arial or Times New Roman.
The task can be found in my mail box - take one copy only. You'll see that the task involves replying to a letter written by a fictional IB student, Kalle Blomqvist. In your response, you are to take the role of //Koka and write to Kalle. Although the original letter (written by Kalle) is, in a sense, 'tongue in cheek', you should approach the task seriously and address in detail the questions Kalle asks.
If you have difficulties with this task, you should contact me prior to the final day of submission. Thanks. Good luck!
Anthro Dave.
Thursday, 30 April 2009
Gender and Feminist Anthropology - The High Level Beings
What is gender? David asked. After long hours of thinking about this deep question the coin fell, and the answer came to us like an ice cream on a hot summer day.
Gender is the sociological counterpart to biology's sexes (male and female). It is how society's norms and expectations tell males and females how to act/behave, meaning it is not the biological differences, but rather the social differences between them. Take that!
The next question our very bright teacher asked us was "What is feminist anthropology?" and we had to think about that question too. It did, however, not come to us like an ice cream on a hot summer day, but rather as a shark in a swimming pool, which is to say: aaaaaaah, wt[bleep]?!
Feminist anthropology is, as the name suggests, focusing mainly on the role of females in societies and how this has changed over time. It is also concerned with how societies view women. However, as with most anthropological branches the answer is more complex than this, and feminist anthropology was carried out even before it became its own specialized field in the 70's.
The very last question was "Why is gender of (particular) concern to feminist anthropology?". We are now sick of trying to remember how the answer came to us, that we will just get to the point. Yeah. Let's go. So... Er.. Maybe the answer will just write itself down? Nope? Okay *sigh*
We came to the conclusion that if there was no gender to be concerned about then feminist anthropology would not have that much to do (yeah, we are serious. Promise). Before the 70's most ethnographies were written by men (or females who studied under men), and they were focusing on the males in the society studied. The reason feminist anthropology was formed was because the oppression of females was made public (however, it was not the first time it was brought to attention, the first time being in the 20's and resulted in women's right to vote).
Good bye. So long. Sayonara. Hejdå. Auf wiedersehen. Salam. Adiós. Au revoir. Ciao bambino. Shalom.
Gender is the sociological counterpart to biology's sexes (male and female). It is how society's norms and expectations tell males and females how to act/behave, meaning it is not the biological differences, but rather the social differences between them. Take that!
The next question our very bright teacher asked us was "What is feminist anthropology?" and we had to think about that question too. It did, however, not come to us like an ice cream on a hot summer day, but rather as a shark in a swimming pool, which is to say: aaaaaaah, wt[bleep]?!
Feminist anthropology is, as the name suggests, focusing mainly on the role of females in societies and how this has changed over time. It is also concerned with how societies view women. However, as with most anthropological branches the answer is more complex than this, and feminist anthropology was carried out even before it became its own specialized field in the 70's.
The very last question was "Why is gender of (particular) concern to feminist anthropology?". We are now sick of trying to remember how the answer came to us, that we will just get to the point. Yeah. Let's go. So... Er.. Maybe the answer will just write itself down? Nope? Okay *sigh*
We came to the conclusion that if there was no gender to be concerned about then feminist anthropology would not have that much to do (yeah, we are serious. Promise). Before the 70's most ethnographies were written by men (or females who studied under men), and they were focusing on the males in the society studied. The reason feminist anthropology was formed was because the oppression of females was made public (however, it was not the first time it was brought to attention, the first time being in the 20's and resulted in women's right to vote).
Good bye. So long. Sayonara. Hejdå. Auf wiedersehen. Salam. Adiós. Au revoir. Ciao bambino. Shalom.
Tuesday, 28 April 2009
Age and Gender - Moa
If our society was ageless, there would be no age-determined laws. There would be no dinking or sex limits related to age, no limit to when you’re a legal adult (age wise). No work age, no retirement age. There wouldn’t be expressions such as “act your age” since there would be (theoretically) no age to act. Of course, then expressions would probably be modified in some way. Teen pregnancies would probably not be regarded as a result of irresponsibility if there was no age (because at least to my knowledge, that’s what they are viewed as, even though that is not always the case, while some of the adult pregnancies actually are accidents)
If our society was genderless, there would be no particular women/man jobs. No salary differences, a lot more unisex things like clothes, no feminists, (cosmetic industry might make less money) some behavior and chores expected from both sexes.
If our society was genderless, there would be no particular women/man jobs. No salary differences, a lot more unisex things like clothes, no feminists, (cosmetic industry might make less money) some behavior and chores expected from both sexes.
Monday, 27 April 2009
Age and Gender - Kajsa
A life (and society) without the importance of age and gender is, for me, not imaginable. In everyday life age and gender work as criterias for assumptions and expectations. Without these two criterias, people would be far too equal. There would be no distinctions accepting differences in the learning from life experiences. Demands and expectations would not be adjusted to the specific age and gender of the person in question. With that, work, general capabilities and "personality levels" (maturity -> responsibilty and experiences) would not fit the person's true abilities.
Still, there are also positive aspects of less judgement through age and gender. Work opportunities would increase for both sexes, there would be less sterotypes based on these criterias, and no gender roles would play part of our life situations.
As a seventeen-year-old, without age and gender as criteria for social differentiation, I would, whenever desired, be able to legally drive any vehicle, drink whatever beverage I wanted to, and put all my money on poker games. These as only three examples out of several possibilities. If our society would go through a drastic change from, both official and social, rules for both age and gender, its structure and order would most probably collapse. Chaos would definitely arise.
Please don't eliminate the both positive and negative features of age and gender as criticisms!
Still, there are also positive aspects of less judgement through age and gender. Work opportunities would increase for both sexes, there would be less sterotypes based on these criterias, and no gender roles would play part of our life situations.
As a seventeen-year-old, without age and gender as criteria for social differentiation, I would, whenever desired, be able to legally drive any vehicle, drink whatever beverage I wanted to, and put all my money on poker games. These as only three examples out of several possibilities. If our society would go through a drastic change from, both official and social, rules for both age and gender, its structure and order would most probably collapse. Chaos would definitely arise.
Please don't eliminate the both positive and negative features of age and gender as criticisms!
Age and Gender - Jonathan
If there were no distinctions of differentiation in terms of age and gender in Swedish society I believe that it would mostly give improvements when regarding gender, mainly due to the fact that the gender equality debate would be solved. No one could claim that men have higher salaries than women. All this is good but the distinction still has to be there, especially when regarding the biological part. Also, I think it is meant for us to complement each other, not do the exact same work in order to make things as egalitarian as possible. I doubt that many women change the tires on the car when winter knocks on the door with a decimeter of snow. In the same manner, I believe most men would rather change those tires than to watch the children and clean the windows.
Age on the other hand can be rather troublesome. Our solution right now to when people grow older and more tired is to put them on some retirement home and nothing tells us this is the optimal solution. However, to force all elders to work until the day they die would be inhumane. The same goes for young children. When it comes to the responsibility that comes with ageing it gets even more difficult. As it is today, with age comes experience and knowledge. Maturity also rides along with trustworthiness in the back seat. If the same responsibility was put on a energetic five year old as on his father of thirty-five the whole system of upbringing would fall since the authority of the father is abolished.
Social differentiation has most probably come to existence for a reason and even If the system has flaws that should be mended to completely abolish this in terms of age and gender would be foolish. The leaking holes should be fixed; the roof should not be torn down.
Age on the other hand can be rather troublesome. Our solution right now to when people grow older and more tired is to put them on some retirement home and nothing tells us this is the optimal solution. However, to force all elders to work until the day they die would be inhumane. The same goes for young children. When it comes to the responsibility that comes with ageing it gets even more difficult. As it is today, with age comes experience and knowledge. Maturity also rides along with trustworthiness in the back seat. If the same responsibility was put on a energetic five year old as on his father of thirty-five the whole system of upbringing would fall since the authority of the father is abolished.
Social differentiation has most probably come to existence for a reason and even If the system has flaws that should be mended to completely abolish this in terms of age and gender would be foolish. The leaking holes should be fixed; the roof should not be torn down.
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