Name: Date: Section: Survival and Community Dynamics in 'Dawn of the Dead (2004) through Macmillan and Chavis Perspective In the midst of a zombie apocalypse, the notion of community takes on paramount significance, offering a lifeline amidst the chaos and uncertainty. "Dawn of the Dead (2004)" thrusts audiences into a harrowing tale of survival, set within the confines of a shopping mall besieged by the undead. This film serves as a compelling canvas through which to explore the intricacies of human relationships and societal collapse. This essay analyzes the complex depiction of communal dynamics during crisis using the theoretical framework of community theory by David W. McMillan and David M. Chavis. This theory outlines four essential …show more content…
Despite his isolation, Alan's communication with the group via signs and gestures becomes an integral part of the community dynamic. His makeshift means of interaction symbolizes a form of inclusion within the group, although in a limited capacity. The survivors acknowledge Alan's presence and respond to his messages, demonstrating a willingness to extend their communal bonds beyond physical proximity. This highlights the fluid nature of community boundaries in times of crisis, where connections can transcend spatial limitations and encompass individuals on the borderline of traditional social structures. The portrayal of power and hierarchy within the survivor group in "Dawn of the Dead" sheds light on the complexities of community structure amidst chaos. The conflict over the authority of the mall's security guards serves as a focal point for exploring these dynamics. As tensions escalate between the guards and other survivors, questions of leadership and control come to the forefront. Characters like Kenneth, with his background as a former police officer, assert their influence and assume leadership roles within the
Hidden Figures is a film, it is the untold story of African-American women that is working in NASA, where they are being discriminate in the film. There is a segregation of bathrooms, staffs, facilities and libraries. Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson worked as “human computers”. When Katherine was assigned to help calculate launch and landing trajectories of NASA’s Space task group on east campus, it is the start of the most hard time of her and her groups. The short film does a good try in showing how racism and discrimination, and integrity and teamwork affect and help us in achieving goals.
Although the zombie metaphor focuses primarily on fear involving unconscious contributors and their mission of adding to their population, the fear of governmental control and how society responds to the epidemic is also an issue that needs to be considered. In this scenario, the viral outbreak is not only a threat to individual health but also to the stability of society as a whole.
In Colson Whitehead 's genre novel, Zone One, society is trying to get back to its feet, to rebuild itself after a plague that lead to a zombie apocalypse took place. The post-apocalyptic society in Zone One is a reflection on how a post-capitalist version of the future might look like. The zombie apocalypse in the novel is the representation of what Marx considered, the impending revolution of the proletariat, rising against the bourgeoisie, bringing down with them the capitalist 's exploitative and oppressive socioeconomic system that has been installed for the larger part of the last 500 years. Whitehead’s portrayal of the zombie/uninfected social interaction and its power dynamics is a social critique of western capitalist society that
George Romero's reinvention of the zombie in night of the Living Dead (1968) is clearly a critique of elements of the American society, and the film as a whole is easily twisted into a warped view on the 'American Dream'. Themes throughout Romero’s film, dealing with controversial topics during the time that the film was made, are still, to this day debated by critics and film historians. Themes of racism and war are defined within the movie, hidden underneath the idea of carnal, cannibalistic zombies and over the top heroes who, eventually, succumb to the reanimated; despite their every effort. These themes are colored over and painted to hide beneath subtle references to the typical American Dream during this time, and Romero does quite the good job at it too. This dream, whilst continuously changing in the everyday lives of modern Americans, can be loosely defined as a national ethos of the United States, or a set of ideals dealing with freedom and the opportunity for success - an upward social status that can be achieved through hard work and effort.
The movie ‘Project Nim’ tells the story of the life of a chimpanzee named Nim, after being taken from his mother’s hands in the 1970’s, by Herb, a researcher at the university of Columbia. The movie thoroughly depicts Herbs controversial attempt the teach Nim sign language to break the language barrier between humans and other species, naming the experiment Project Nim. The movie details aspects of Nim treacherous life as he is faced with many challenges throughout the experiment such as adapting into a human lifestyle, moving from owner to owner, being taken away from familiarities ect. The aspects of the film that connect to social sciences were Nim firstly being moved from a chimpanzee environment to a human one, followed
Anthropology is the study of the development of humankind within their different cultures. When one looks inside a culture, they can see the true aspects and meanings behind a societies behavior and traits. By following the principle that is cultural relativism, one can also determine that no culture truly surpasses another culture, and that each society has key differences that are important to its culture and location. This is a method that can also be seen in many intriguing films from this semester, one in particular being The Emerald Forest. Throughout this essay, this film will be analyzed around one character who greatly represents what it means to truly immerse oneself into a different culture to gain a new perspective, and many key terms in anthropology will be explored through 4 different films from the semester.
Night of the Living Dead represents more complex issues such as race, politics, and war and Ben was fighting the undead not just for himself, but also for the good of the collective. The 60s sparked a counter-culture that grew and spread throughout the Western world and according to the book by historian Terry Anderson titled “The Movements and the Sixties;” “ [t]he aggregate movement gained momentum as the Civil Rights Movement continued to grow, and would later become revolutionary with the expansion of the U.S. government's extensive military intervention in Vietnam” (Anderson, 254). The film emerged from the some of the most turbulent years in American history and Night of the Living Dead becomes the embodiment of the cultural revolution of the 1960s. Shaun of the Dead, on the other hand, embodies a more individualistic and narcissistic society. You can even say that characters portrayed in the film are socially unaware. Shaun and his friends do not seem to care about issues such as social injustices, politics or war. They take an active role of ignorance and entitlement and are apathetic towards causes outside the individual. Just as the Vietnam War was happening in 1968, the war in Iraq was happening in 2004, but the government no longer enforces the draft system (which is a positive change), and enlisting to fight for your country has become a voluntary decision of the individual. Our generation’s narcissistic and selfish behavior can perhaps be attributed to the idea that social issues are no longer dire than that of our personal responsibilities such as having a job, raising children, the day-to-day activity that consumes all our energy. Who wants to think about police brutality when a
Anthropological researchers have considerable moral and ethical standards by which their work must be conducted in order to preserve the accuracy and the posterity of the information gathered during the study and also to the persons or cultures of which they study. These two important parts of anthropology – the research and those being researched – can be conflicting. The Code of Ethics of the American Anthropological Association presents itself as a body of guidelines for discussing these ethical and moral conflicts. This allows for researchers in the field of anthropology to have a foundation for understanding what decisions must be made regarding these ethical and moral conflicts and to whom the disclosures of those decisions should be made.
also films that could have been seen for a small price, but if one has the time
Embarking on a journey of anthropological fieldwork will undoubtedly include a plethora of setbacks. At its foundation, fieldwork requires developing rapport with the native people in order to gain access of genuine knowledge pertaining to the specific culture being studied. Subsequently, social communication between the researcher and the native people is a key component to the entire process; yet simultaneously it is a root of the many problems a researcher can encounter while in the field. It is no secret that the cultural background of the researcher can often highly contrast the culture he or she enters during fieldwork. This initial cultural adaptation one must undergo while doing anthropological fieldwork is what many in the realm describe as culture shock.
The Walking Dead is an allegory for the real world. It presents audiences, the controversies of the conventional postmodern society amidst a post-apocalyptic drama. The series portrayal of dissolving humanity in unfeigned bleakness both reflects and inflames our societal perceptions and fears. Through an inhuman fallacy, (the zombie) The Walking Dead humanises the hopeless actualization of our corrupted world in all its postmodern traits. Therefore, the ambition for The Walking Dead is to exhibit a world pursuing a favourable equilibrium of peace and liberty but never achieving it as it is entirely a Sisyphean. In this essay, I will argue how cinema and humankind has fed into corruption within postmodernism.
What is applied anthropology and how can it be applied to almost every facet of society? The answer is obvious when we look at what the field of anthropology encompasses. Anthropology, as defined by the American Anthropological Association is, “the study of humans, past and present.” In the United States, anthropologists are educated in one of the four areas, sociocultural anthropology, biological/physical anthropology, archaeology, and linguistics. Active within these four subfields is Applied Anthropology, which is the application of the method and theory of an anthropological subfield to the analysis and solution of real world situations and practical problems. Anthropology’s field is the wide is the wide array of human social experience.
Zombie films are occasionally said to represent terrorism, because of the concept that a small occurrence can lead to countless deaths and injuries (Drezner). The creatures can also represent “the living death experiences by the brutalized and exploited worker” (BOOK). A more complex, and more commonly discussed concept that zombies are said to represent is society, in relation to the role of citizens in relation to the government. In this metaphor, zombies signify the complacent, unquestioning public. One can understand this metaphor by
One cannot generalize or predict all human behaviors, thought processes, morals, and customs. Because human nature is dominated by different types of cultures and societies in various parts of the world, this can often lead to misunderstanding which ultimately leads to the illusion of cultural superiority, and in most cases this can lead to genocide - the systematic murder or annihilation of a group of people or culture. Anthropology is the study of humans, our immediate ancestors and their cultural environments this study stems from the science of holism - the study of the human condition. Culture is crucial in determining the state of the human condition, as the cultures are traditions and customs that are learned throughout an individual
Cultural anthropology has taught me a lot in such a short time. This class has been very eye opening to me and has made me think more about the different cultures around me and just how important it is to learn about them. One of the things I have learned is how religion is related to culture. Culture is behaviors of a community such as the food they make, the music they listen to, and the rituals they take part in. This can be very similar to religion because a culture is based off of their religious beliefs. Some cultures do not eat pig because it is against their religious beliefs. Some cultures listen to particular songs because it is based off of their religious beliefs. Another thing cultures relate closely to is languages. Without language