1. In the book Dont Sleep, There are Snakes then missionary Daniel Everett (who later, himself, converted to anthropology following his experiences in the jungle) describes the horror he felt when a young pregnant mother died in childbirth due to the child being a breech. He was most horrified because she called for her mothers help; her mother was out of the village and none of the other villagers came to her aid. The people told Elliot that she wanted her mother so no one else could help. They buried her the next day.
The people that Elliot worked with, living deep in the Amazonian jungle, saw death more frequently, more immediately than most of us ever will. In the Amazon, death is a part of life; few people (other than outsiders like Elliot) either worry about death or fear death as many westerners do. (In fact, even non-indigenous Brazilians, often of Portuguese descent, that work in the Amazon have the same outlook on death as Native peoples.) Death is simply a part of life. The people willingly help when asked but have a fierce independent streak as well and people are expected to be able to take care of themselves. As outsiders (especially since I doubt many of you have read the book and thus fully understand the context) we might judge these peoples reaction to the young woman ethnocentrically. Write two full paragraphs explaining as best you can why we should withhold judgement about this group. In so doing I want you to use at least three proper and significant anthropological terms (please put the terms in bold). Note, the term anthropology does NOT count here.
2. The selling of live wild animals for food in Chinese wet markets arose in the 1970s when a serious shortage of food threatened to cause mass starvation. Over time, as food became more plentiful, wet markets continued to sell wild animals, and these animals were increasingly eaten by well-to-do people, rather than starving people. In 2019, these markets came under intense scrutiny as they might have been the source of the Corvid-19 virus that swept over the world. Calls from the outside world immediately demanded the closure of the markets and many non-Chinese spoke ethnocentrically about the practice of eating these wild animals. Imagine that you are an anthropologist and you need to write a blog post on these markets. As an anthropologist you have certain ethical standards to uphold. Do some brief internet research and find at least two sources of information on these markets. Note that these sources do NOT need to be written by anthropologists; rather, one should contain information on the markets from legitimate news or similar source (for background information) and one should be from a source showing an ethnocentric reaction (that you need to correct). For your blog post, write two full paragraphs about how an anthropologist would approach the question of wet markets specifically refuting what was written in the ethnocentric source. Cite both sources (MLA or APA format is fine. As long as I know where you got the information from). In so doing I want you to use at least three proper and significant anthropological terms (please highlight the terms in bold). Note, the term anthropology does NOT count here.
3. Imagine a new fad diet just made the TV talk shows. Imagine then, that this fad diet really caught on and millions of Americans began following it. 1. First, how did Americans acquire their attitudes regarding weight and diets (cite at least two proper anthropological terms in your answer)? 2. Would a changing diet possibly lead to other changes in American society? Why or why not? 3. How would you use anthropologys holistic perspective to understand the effects of this diets in American lives?
4. This is less of a question and more of a self-evaluation. To this point, we have spent a considerable amount of time thinking about sources of bias in our understanding of others. Everyone, in every culture, is ethnocentric. Now it is time to evaluate yourself. What do you feel are your strongest points in overcoming your own ethnocentrisms? What do you still need to work on (that could prevent you from understanding another point of view)? I expect at least one full paragraph. At the end, evaluate your own answers to this question. Give yourself a point value, from 0-5, regarding how well and honestly you answered this question. Of course, being honest with me is one thing, but are you being honest with yourself (this can be just as difficult)? I do reserve the right to adjust the score if needed.
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