Essay on "What I Learned About Anthropology"

Essay 5 pages (1662 words) Sources: 5

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Anthropology Lessons

Anthropology is actually a science of humanity. Its origins are from the fields of humanities, natural science and social science. There are various lessons that can be learned from the readings in class about anthropology. The paper will focus the demonstration of what we have learned from exposure to an anthropological perspective of the world. It will use illustrations from three references of readings used in class.

Mexican's day of the death

One thing that is learned from the exposure of an anthropological perspective of the world is sugar, colonialism and death when it comes to the origins of Mexico's Day of the dead. This gives an exposure of the celebrations of Mexico's day of the dead. The day of the dead is the most famous holiday in Mexico. Many foreigners visit Mexico towards the end of October so as to be part of and witness the colorful, carnivalesque, ritual performances as well as artistic displays of this particular holiday. There are decorations of bread, paper cutouts and plastic toys which are humorously playing the theme of death found virtually everywhere. There are also sculptured sugar candies shaped in the form of skulls, caskets, and skeletons give a suggestion of an irrelevant confrontation of morality. From November 1 and 2, Mexicans clean, put decorations and maintain vigil over the graves of relatives they have lost. Burial sites are adorned with food, flowers and candles all of which are arranged aesthetically so as to honor the dead.

When looked at on strict terms the day of the dead are used to refer to all soul's day that normally falls on 2nd of November but incase the day falls on a Sunday it is taken to the 3rd of November. But it can also refer to activities that take place before that which is November 1st which is the All saint's day.to the Vatican however there is only a single thing that counts when it comes to the observance of this holiday which is celebrating special masses on 1st November for honoring saints and November 2nd honoring souls in purgatory (Brades, 1997). A point of clarification is the fact that even though the day of the dead encompasses tow Roman Catholic feast days that are official it is only the two special masses which make up the official part of the celebration. The United States version of this holiday is Halloween but is has been so much secularized that it is only the centrality of sweets, incorporating ritualized begging and prevailing skeleton costumes as well as skull-like lanterns which give it a connection to the contemporary Mexican event.

This reference enables us to get to understand the event from a historical and symbolic point-of-view. The day of the dead is a representation of very perplexing paradoxes; putting into consideration in the modern times increasing elaborateness as well as the way the holiday has been geographically distributed even in the face of a reduction in the death rates; ubiquitously incorporating humor into a very vast death ritual; finally the mystification and unmistakable connection between sweets and death. There is also information of the ideological component of the event. Many scholars have repeatedly cited the holiday as being very peculiar to Mexico; they also express it as what has remained from ancient Aztec funerary rites as well as an expression of the unique relationship that exists about death among Mexicans. Supposedly the event represents the Mexicans contempt for death, their obsession with death, indifference towards death, slight reward for human life and finally their fondness to dying.

The ofrenda which includes foods which are essential for the celebrations encompasses of candies, bread. The food is clearly meant for the deceased since it is believed that the departed visit the homes and take pleasure in what their relatives have offered. Mexico is the only country that where sugar is used principally as compared to other ingredients like flour, nuts out which the day of dead figurines are sculptured from. The connection between sugar and colonialism is brought by the existence of sugar cane figurines during the colonial era. The day of death became quite an elaborate event as a result of the many lives that were lost during the sixteenth and seventeenth century. Sugar, death and destructive civilization which were inevitable were clearly the consequences of the Spanish colonial regime (Brades, 1997). Therefore, this reference has given a description of the day of the dead holiday, what it entails and its connection with sugar and colonization. This reference gives an anthropological view of the day of death holiday.

Grief and headhunter's rage

Anthropologists have elaborated on the reason as to why Philippines cut off human heads as being caused by an inbuilt rage and grief that compels them into killing fellow human beings. Anthropologists say that this men claim they need a place where they can carry their anger. This act of severing and tossing away the heads of their victims enables them to vent with the hope that they will throw away the anger of their bereavement through this.to anthropologist's grief, rage and head hunting all go together in a manner that is elf-evident.it is either one understands it or not.

There are various ways that one can look at the cultural force of emotions. The emotional force of death for instance derives less from a fact that is brute as compared to the permanent rapture of intimate relations. This referees to some feelings that one experience through learning .instead of talking of death from a general vie point one should consider the position of the subject within a field of social relations so as to grasp an individual's emotional experience.

Headhunting stands out as the most salient cultural practices among the ilongots. This means that grief and rage has an overwhelming force among these people which is what drives them into headhunting.in order to find out a deeper explanation of the reason behind headhunting, an exchange theory is used as it has been used by many classical ethnographies.

From this reference there is a clear indication of the practice of head hunting as carried out by the ilgonots. The anthropologists try to give an explanation for this cultural practice through studying the behavior of this people when it comes to the force behind rage and anger. This is quite useful as it highlights on some practices that people carry out and tries to give an explanation behind them. This clearly gives an anthropological perspective of the world through explaining some practices.

Relocation and daily use of modern space

This starts out by a narrative by a young girl that depicts her family's attempt to find a housing unit that was larger which they would move in from the one-bedroomed apartment the family has been relocated since 1980.her parents have been saving up in order to move into a larger apartment. Just as other children in the world the girl's image of their desired home is build from global images that are transmitted through television programs, school text books and the visits they make to different parts of the country. Their dreams of the apartments they would like to live in are informed by the movies and soap opera they watch; big apartments that have balconies, spacious kitchen, modern furniture as well as organized spatial arrangements that are both inside and outside the housing units. This is a clear indication that in the world today most of our opinions are influenced by things that we see just as the type of apartments this girl's want is influenced by what she sees.

However there is a difference between a dream and what is there in reality. The houses that this young girl and the family is a basically a room with… READ MORE

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