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cultural anthropology Study
cultural anthropology Study
cultural anthropology Study
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The Devlopment of Reflexive Anthropology
Reflexive anthropology has pressured scholoars to recognize their own biases and look increasingly inwards when studying “other” cultures. Reflexive anthropology is a break away from the traditional study of a clearly defined “us” and “them,” that seeks to shift towards indentification rather than difference. It attempts to uncover the politics behind ethnography. Reflexivity shows how “we” are effected by “others”, and how “others” are effected by “us.” It holds anthropologists accountable for what they write, and how they represent culture. Anthropologists like Dorinne Kondo and Renato Rosaldo have greatly influenced the devlopment of reflexive anthropology through their enthnographies.
When Kondo, a Japanese-American woman, went to Japan to for research, she was unprepared for how her own identity would complicate her study. Because she looked Japanese, and in some ways “felt Japanese,” but did not have the cultural knowledge and language skills of a true “native,” she was pressured by others to conform. They wanted her to be a “Japanese women,” and she (initially) readily complied. In doing so, the lines between “informant” and “ethnographer” became blurred, as she examined her own transition, and her own “dissolution and reconstitution of self.” It become increasingly impossible for Kondo to write an ethnography from a distanced, us/ them, point of view, as she was (outwardly) becoming more like “them.” Kondo states:
I emphasize here the collusion between all parties involved, for it is important to recognize the ways in which informants are also actors and agents and that the negotiation of reality that takes place in the doing of ehtnography involves complex and ...
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...after the death of his wife that Rosaldo felt the anger and grief that he believed was related to the Ilongots’ feelings. Through his own sad experience, Rosaldo thought that could understand the Ilongot’s deeper reason for headhunting.
Rosaldo’s belief that people might truly be able to understand each other on all levels is quite problomatic. He even states that “the notion of position also refers to how life experiences both enable and inhibit particular kinds of insight” (19). Whereas he applies this comment to his own ablity to understand headhuntung because of his feelings about his wife’s death, he dismissed other cultural factors that differentiate the Ilongot people from himself. Although he is able to feel some sort of connection to his informants through his own pain, he is in no position to be able to state that he understands the culture’s ritual.
Matsumoto studies three generations, Issei, Nisei, and Sansei living in a closely linked ethnic community. She focuses her studies in the Japanese immigration experiences during the time when many Americans were scared with the influx of immigrants from Asia. The book shows a vivid picture of how Cortex Japanese endured violence, discriminations during Anti-Asian legislation and prejudice in 1920s, the Great Depression of 1930s, and the internment of 1940s. It also shows an examination of the adjustment period after the end of World War II and their return to the home place.
Once Executive Order 9066 was signed, with no proof that sabotage or espionage had been committed by Japanese Americans, it allowed for the relocation and summary removal of “enemy aliens” from their homes to incarceration under guard in designated areas / camps. With just one pen and piece of paper, FDR suddenly made it possible for citizens of Japanese descent to be ...
Forced to relocate into internment camps, Japanese-Americans were feared and considered the enemy. With anti-Japanese prejudice existing for years (prior to WWII), the military actions of Japan, erupted the hostility
During 1941 many Americans were on edge as they became increasingly more involved in WWII. On December 7, 1941 the Japanese decided to take matters to their own hands. They attacked the naval base Pearl Harbor and killed 68 Americans in order to prevent the U.S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with their military. After this surprise attack, the Americans officially entered the war, which caused many people to become paranoid (Baughman). Many people feared the Japanese because they thought they were spies for Japan, and because of this the Executive Order 9066 was signed and issued by FDR which sent many Japanese Americans to live in internment camps (Roosevelt). This caused the Japanese to become a scapegoat of America’s fear and anger. The Issei and Nisei who once moved to this country to find new opportunities and
Ten weeks after the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) singed an Executive Order of 9066 that authorized the removal of any people from military areas “as deemed necessary or desirable”(FDR). The west coast was home of majority of Japanese Americans was considered as military areas. More than 100,000 Japanese Americans was sent and were relocated to the internment camps that were built by the United States. Of the Japanese that were interned, 62 percent were Nisei (American born, second generation) or Sansei (third-generation Japanese) the rest of them were Issai Japanese immigrants. Americans of Japanese ancestry were far the most widely affected. The Japanese internment camps were wrong because the Japanese were accused as spies, it was racism, and it was a violation to the United States constitution laws.
There are several military and constitutional justifications the United States government had in placing the Japanese in internments after the attack on Pearl Harbor. These justifications can all be related to National Security, with fear of future attacks, sabotage and espionage, and doubt of Japanese American’s loyalty. The main purpose of the government is protection under the constitution. To ensure national security, the privacy of one maybe evaded to secure millions. Very few advocates of civil liberties stepped forward against the internments regardless of the constitutional rights being invaded of the American citizens and resident aliens.
Although the term “revolution from above” is often used to explain the GHQ’s method of postwar reform in Japan (Dower, 1999: p.69), I argue that a similar motivation was in effect in the U.S.’s efforts to isolate all Japanese descendants in America and subject them to coerced American soci...
The internment and cruel treatment of the Japanese in the U.S. stemmed from a fear of a full-pledged invasion from Japan and also from years of racial prejudice against the Japanese. Like the Chinese, the first Japanese immigrants were originally viewed as a cheap source of labor, but shortly after they became targets of anti-Asian campaigns, specifically called the “yellow peril.” This prejudice began as the Japanese slowly moved from farm laborers to farm owners and owners of small businesses. “As successful farmers, fruit growers, fishermen, and small businessmen, their ability to do well with little and to overcome great odds made them objects of envy by some members of the white community.” White Americans (specifically White Farmers) soon began to build a prejudice against the Japanese and supported the internment.. The Japanese were not the only minorities to be segregated. In the 1930s, America as a whole was a place with little tolerance towards people of different color (Native Americans were to live on reservations, African-Americans, Asians, and other minorities were barred from many jobs due to race).
Mathews, Gordon. 1996. What Makes Life Worth Living? How Japanese and Americans Make Sense of Their Worlds.Berkeley: University of California Press.
A changing world and a sense of dominance over other groups of people allows Etta Heine’s racism towards Japanese-Americans to be explicitly evident in the novel. During the 1940’s, the predominantly Caucasian country of America was gradually changing to incorporate a cultural diversity between several groups of individuals. Etta Heine’s lack of appreciation of a changing world enables her to develop a deep hatred towards foreign groups, “Carl’s heart failed him one clear October night in 1944…Carl junior was away at the war, and Etta took advantage of this circumstance to sell the farm to Ole Jurgensen” (Guterson 115). As Etta Heine prepares to take the stand in Kabuo Miyamoto’s trial, the narrator explains how Etta’s husband passed away. After Carl’s heart failed, Etta was quick to sell the land, despite her husband’s agreement with Zenhichi, to Ole Jurgensen. This signifies Etta’s deep hatred towards Japanese people since the death of her husband was merely a tactic used in her advantage to eliminate the deal her husband made with Zenhichi. A lack of mourning over the death of her husband was expressed, enabling the reader to develop assumptions about Etta’s character. Consequently, this proves how devious, cruel, and heinous Etta can be. Etta’s hateful attributes are deeply rooted with issues of certainty and structure that cause her to develop racist ideologies. Although America allows Japanese individuals to reside in their country, the law banning Japanese people from owning lands enabled Etta to justify her actions in a court of law. This portrays that Etta is a stubborn and traditional human, who has relatively made peace with Japanese individuals occupying “Etta’s country”, yet her husband’s deal with Zenhinchi caused he...
Inevitably, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, that began World War II, Japanese-Americans were frowned upon and stereotyped because of their descent. However, Japanese immigrants contributed to economic expansion of the United States. Whites resented the Japanese immigrants, but reaped economic profit from the Japanese-American residents’ discipline and hard work. Japanese-Americans of this time seem to be attacked; however, they choose to uphold their disconnection with the rest of the Americans. Many Japanese felt they had superiority over Americans, creating tension and disconnection.
World War II was a time of heightened tension. The entire world watched as fascism and dictatorships battled against democracy and freedom in the European theater. The United States looked on, wishing to remain neutral and distant from the war. On December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese, officially drawing the U.S. into the war. Thousands of young sailors died in the attack and several U.S. Navy vessels were sunk. The attack marked the beginning of the United States’ involvement in World War II as well as the beginning of the persecution of Japanese Americans in the U.S. Hysteria and outrage increased across the country and largely contributed to the authority’s decision to act against the Japanese. On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, allowing the military to place anyone of Japanese lineage in restri...
The Japanese American Relocation in the U.S. was considered a dark time in which American will forever be ashamed of. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese, a rash of fear about national security was launched. Many believed that there were Japanese spies in America, so President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Executive Order 9066 that would relocate all Japanese-Americans to designated areas in which they could be “protected” from harm of Americans who were against those of Japanese race. This order would intern around 110,000 to 120,000 Japanese-Americans. They lived in overcrowded areas and necessary supplies were often insufficient to meet the necessities of the internees. In 1942 a riot broke out that resulted in the death of two people and nine were wounded. One of the internees had said “ "If we were put there for our protection, why were the guns at the guard towers pointed inward, instead of outward?" Manifesting the realization that they were not placed in those camps to protect them but to protect non-Japanese Americans.
Culture is beautifully complex. Cultural practices naturally, therefore, are made up of intricate implicit and explicit thoughts and behaviours. Participant-observation is at the centre of anthropological research because it allows the anthropologist to experience rather than read. Bronislaw Malinowski, regarded as the father of participant-observation, created a scientific framework for how research could be conducted in the field. This framework has evolved as anthropology has changed over the ages. In this essay, I will compare and contrast the central premises of Malinowski’s 1922 book Argonauts of the Western Pacific and a contemporary anthropologist Nancy Kalow’s article Living Dolls which reflects on the participant-observation she carried
Hitler’s idea of the “Perfect Race” was very simple, blonde hair and blue eyes. Hitler thought that blond hair and blue eyes meant power and leadership. Hitler thought people with blond hair and blue eyes needed to be all of Germany, so that meant no Jewish, Gypsies, and other people could ever fit into this race. But there were many problems with that. Not everyone in Germany looked like that, nor was “fit” to be into that “Perfect Race Look”.