Time Vs Event Orientation I believe the Andean people are event, as opposed to time, oriented. Their rituals and traditions such as their coca chewing etiquette seem to fit well in an event oriented context. In the book The Hold Life Has, Catherine J. Allen describes the proper steps involved. I won’t get into any specifics for the sake of brevity, but only the aspect of this social engagement that strongly hints at a disregard for time orientation. The aspect is simply the time it takes to participate in it. The Andean people exchange k’intus (coca leaves) approximately five times daily, and each time takes 20 to 30 minutes. Allen writes about the process, “After twenty to thirty minutes a good-sized wad has been built up, and if there is …show more content…
work to be done, we thank each other and get on with the job.” Lingenfelter offers identifying marks of time and event orientations. For the marks of the time oriented person, there is “Careful allocation of time to achieve the maximum within set limits.” And have “Tightly scheduled, goal directed activities.” Due to the frequency and the time required, the ritual and often obligatory act sits well within an event oriented context. Inge Bolin also contributed to my conclusion when she wrote about the Andean’s perception of time. She writes, Time periods within the year are also perceived and measured using Andean perceptions of time. Thus, when asked about their date of birth, they are not always sure, but they do know exactly during what season they were born and what activities were going on at that time. These people are more familiar with the calendar of fiestas than with a calendar divided into months. Dichotomistic Vs Holistic Bolin goes into some detail in reference to Andean herders’ perception of their world.
Since they see many different aspects of life as being connected through a sort of life force, I am led to believe they think more holistically than dichotomistically. Bolin says of the Andean people, “The long-standing belief that all matter is imbued with life force or vital energy and thus requires care, respect, and compassion is still at the roots of the herders’ ideology, determining their thoughts and actions.” Lingenfelter makes his argument for the Yapese people being holistic thinkers based on their responses to interviews concerning their evaluation of others. He wrote that if for example a Yapese person were to praise the governor for an accomplishment, someone else would point to another aspect of his life he did not do well in to say that he is no better than anyone else. What somebody does in one situation doesn’t mean as much in this kind of culture, what matters is the entirety of that person’s ethics or character regardless of the situation, public or private. This is why I believe the Andean people are holistic in their thought, because their whole world is connected. If an Andean man showed care and respect for his llamas and alpacas, but he was disrespectful to his wife, the former would be counted as nothing by his community because of the way he treats his …show more content…
wife. Crisis Vs Noncrisis Bolin writes about some of the educational process the children go through in regard to food preparation.
She says, “They learn to estimate the amount of food items required to prepare meals for a specific number of people. With some practice, they no longer count the potatoes and other food items, but know at a glance what amount is needed for the number of people expected to attend.” This leads me to believe they are noncrisis oriented. Because not actually counting the number of food items seems to lean on the side of noncrisis because of two descriptions of the noncrisis oriented person Lingenfelter writes of. First, the noncrisis oriented person will downplay the possibility of crisis (“Oh no! We don’t have enough food because you only eyeballed the amount!”). Second, the noncrisis person will focus on actual experience (I’m not worried, I’ve done this plenty of times so I don’t need to count or measure anything, it’ll be
fine.”). Task Vs Person Coca chewing in the Andes offers a helpful window into the interpersonal dynamic of their culture. Allen describes the coca chewing in the Andes as having strong interpersonal implications, “An invitation to chew coca is an invitation to social intercourse. Friends who meet on the road pause to chat and chew coca; men gathering to work in a field settle down to chew coca beforehand.” She also writes, “Coca chewers also share k’intus with each other in a tangible expression of their social and moral relationship…” Both these contributions from Allen of the Andean way of relating make it an easy jump to assert that they are people oriented. Inge Bolin also provides insight to the social environment of the Andes. In her book she recounted a time when she was walking with some of the natives and they were trying to escape a storm that had made for a challenging trek. However, the natives would hold her hands to be sure she would not slip racing down a mountain on landscape with which she was unfamiliar . Within the context of the home life of the Andean people Bolin wrote, “Since loneliness is considered the saddest of states, everyone makes sure that no one lacks attention.” Lingenfelter describes the people oriented person as one who: focuses on people and relationships, finds satisfaction in interaction, seeks friends who are group-oriented, and deplores loneliness; sacrifices personal achievements for group interaction. The selflessness of the Andean people to literally hold their neighbor’s hand as a show of concern for the other is a way of sacrificing personal achievements for group interaction. Coca chewing is undoubtedly a practice that focuses on people and relationships. Lastly, to consider loneliness the saddest of states displays a disdain for being/feeling alone. Status Vs Achievement In an effort to curb the crime in individual communities across highland Peru, Rondas Campesinas (Peasant Patrols in Spanish.) were established. Some criteria for the election of individuals to participate in these patrols are as follows, according to Bolin, “Men and women between eighteen and sixty years of age who have a good reputation, are appreciated by the community, and, in turn, respect and appreciate local customs, culture, and religion, are elected by the General Assembly of Villagers.” Lingenfelter’s book contrasts a status focused person from an achievement focused person. Although the criteria for being elected to be part of the Rondas Campesinas were not the most objective, they were based on achieving good character. They were not based on their status of elder, healer, president, etc. This scenario is not necessarily conclusive, therefore I am led to believe Andean people at least lean toward a focus on achievements rather than status. Conceal Vs Expose Vulnerability “Randall greeted Elder in Quechua, and Elder stared back sullenly. Unconstrained by ideals of ethnographic detachment, Randall turned to José and minced no words: “What a disgrace! You say you’re from Colquepata, and your son doesn’t speak Quechua! How is this possible?” José shrugged and looked away. The rebuke seemed to roll off his back. But it had not. Two weeks later, when Luis visited Cuzco again, I found Emilia packing a bundle of Elder’s clothes. Her son was going to Sonqo. “My husband’s been upset for days,” she said, “thinking about what Señor Randall said to him. We’ve decided that the children have to learn Quechua, and that they should know where their parents came from.” Again, Lingenfelter offers some attributes that help to identify people who conceal their vulnerability as well as those who are willing to expose their vulnerability. I believe the Andean people tend to conceal their vulnerability based on Lingenfelter’s description of such a person. The list goes: 1. Protection of self-image at all cost; avoidance of error and failure. 2. Emphasis on quality of performance. 3. Reluctance to go beyond ones recognized limits or to enter the unknown. 4. Denial of culpability; withdrawal from activities in order to hide weaknesses and shortcomings. 5. Refusal to entertain alternative views or accept criticism. 6. Vagueness regarding personal life. José’s way of handling the rebuke from Randall showed a degree of shame. Because he did not respond to Randall and he even made it seem as though the comment did not affect him, he sought to conceal his vulnerability in the moment. Social Games The concepts of grid and group as I will talk about them come from another of Lingenfelter’s books called Transforming Culture . If a people are high grid, that means they prefer specific roles for each person; everyone has a specialized position in which to work in relation to everyone. High group people do not have specialized roles or positions, and they are accountable to each other. The higher on the group chart, the stronger the glue that holds them together. With grid and group acting as gauges, Lingenfelter uses the labels authoritarian (high grid, low group), hierarchist (high grid, high group), individualist (low grid, low group), and egalitarian (low grid, high group). I will argue that the Andean people are on the lower grid side of hierarchist corner not far from the egalitarian corner. Simply put, the Quechuan word ayllu is a body of members who act as leaders of their community. The inner workings of an ayllu pretty clearly display the high grid and high group tendencies of the Quechuan people. Once again, Catherine Allen proves to be an invaluable resource. In a section on ayllu membership, Allen speaks about the burdensome responsibilities and community offices called cargos. The section I’ll work with goes, “Nor do the cargos carry much real power with them, for the ayllu guards its prerogatives jealously and distrusts its own officials. Luis was nearly impeached as president for accepting a government loan to plant eucalyptus trees without first calling a community assembly…” This very helpful piece of information I found in Allen’s book hints strongly at a hierarchist social game. First, the author refers to the members of the ayllu as officials associating them with a position and a role within their community. Not only that, but there exists the position of president over each ayllu. Both of these present a case for the Andean people being High Grid in their social game. For High Group, the president was nearly impeached because he did not allow the whole group to come to a consensus on the matter before accepting the loan. This reveals that all positions are strongly held accountable to the whole group. While the Andean people may play the Hierarchist social game in their organized ayllus, each culture has many different situations in which they might play different social games.
... A few photos of Tenochtitlan and warriors headdresses, clubs and obsidian blades would increase the pleasure 10 fold. Also in places the author tends to divert to other Ameriindian cultures and use their ritual practices as examples. These comparisons can bring the ritual practices of a 500 year extant culture into modern day belief.
According to Kawagley, the worldview of the Yupiaq society is very basic in how they relate to ella, or the universe. The Yupiaq believe that the land is giver of life (p.7). Kawagley himself viewed nature as a part of themselves. They lived in harmony with the world around them and learned how to relate to other humans and the natural and spiritual worlds (p.8).
Rituals are held as a very important part of any society, including ours. They go back to ancient times or can be as simple as maintaining one’s hygiene. Non-western societies have rituals that may seem very foreign to us, but they have been engrained in their communities and are essential to their social structure. This interpretation will focus on the Great Pilgrimage, a ritual performed by Quechuan communities. We will be looking specifically at a community in the area of Sonqo.
The Age of Resistance is named for the period in which the native Andean people methodically
The article equips the reader with the tools needed to better understand other cultures, in terms of their own beliefs and rituals. Miner’s original approach does create a certain level of confusion that forces the reader to critically evaluate his purpose. “Body Ritual among the Nacirema” by Horace Miner ultimately brings people together, by illuminating the eccentricities present in all
Bourdieu's theory of practice is again a large influence in A Dual-Processual Theory for the Evolution of Mesoamerican Civilization (Blanton, et. al.). They focus on process rather than stages or categories to explain variations between social formations and their changes through time. They advocate a political behavioral theory of social change, seeing two main types of political power strategies accounting for variation among societies of similar complexity and scale; exclusionary (or network) and corporate. The outcome of exclusionary political behavior is the development of patrimonial rhetoric, emphasizing the control of particular individuals based on kinship (found in the archaeological record by portrayals or reference to particular rulers), and a prestige-goods system, resulting in an "international style" in goods and information crossing sociocultural boundaries. The corporate strategy signifies collective representations and ritual based on a societies cosmology.
How often does one think about when his/her next meal will be? If you are the average American, the answer will most likely be “in a couple of hours”; however, there is a good chance that you might also be one of the fifty million Americans that would most likely answer “I don’t know… whenever I can afford it, I guess.” Roughly every one in six Americans would have some sort of response like the one presented because that is how many are considered food insecure. This is obviously one of the most important social problems afflicting America in modern times, but what can be done about it? A Place at the Table displays three scenarios: Barbie, a struggling mother of two; Rosie, a fifth grader living meal
Lets start in the Formative period, the beginning. Between 1800 BCE and 200 BCE the Olmec empire was one of the leading powers of Mesoamerica. The Olmecs believed that humans transformed or evolved from Jaguars (Carrasco, 32). They believed there was a strong connection between all animals and people. Many of their temples and rituals were designed to praise or show acknowledgement of different animals. That is how they viewed the make up of their society, or how it came to be. The Olmecs also had a very big concern for burying their dead near their sacred areas. According to Carrasco, “this combination of human and temple at the heart of a settlement indicates the early pattern of what we have called world centering” (Carrasco, 34). This shows they believed there was a strong connection between sacred spaces, ceremonial structures, the earth, the dead, and the underworld. Their calendar system called the long count, was a huge part of organizing rituals and social life in Mesoamerica. They also had a sacred ball game that was very influential to their culture. It was more of a ritual than a game, being that, in some cases, the losing team would be sacrificed to the gods (Carrasco, 36). They believed that using these things would maintain order in their
In the early centuries A.D., the Mayan peoples began building their civilization in the center of Mesoamerica. This location allowed the Maya to conduct trade and exchange their local products. They also participated in the slash and burn method, however, evidence shows that they may have developed other methods such as planting on raised beds above swamps and on hillside terraces. Not only did location have an influence on agricultural life, it also had an influence on all other aspects of life. The Maya drew influence from a neighboring society, the Olmec. The Maya blended their customs with the Olmec to create a culturally diverse society. These Olmec customs had quite an influence on other aspects of the Maya society. The Maya had a polytheistic religion with gods of corn, death, rain, and war. These religious beliefs led to the development of calendars, astronomy, and mathematics. The Maya developed two types of calendars: religious and solar. The religious calendar was based on the belief that “time was a burden carried on the back of a God.” The solar calendar was based on the observations of the sun, planets, and moon. Unlike our calendar today, it was consisted of twenty-five da...
...ife, giving spiritual meaning to the Hispanic culture. I feel that is one of the Hispanic’s group strong point is the balance of spiritually and how it important to the family way of life.
It is my contention that should the Mexican and even Latin American population ever decide to adopt the intrinsic and beneficial aspects of the Olmec culture that they once possessed, they would become a force to be reckoned with on the world’s stage. The fundamental strength of the Olmec was their ability to influence whole nations through trade, art, and religious beliefs. Not all of their ancient traditions should be allowed but modification of them in the world today would increase the stability, economic value, and overall utility of the people of Mexico and Latin America.
The Mayan culture can be traced back to 1500 BC, entering the Classic period about 300 AD and flourishing between 600 and 900 AD. The basis of the culture was farming. They cultivated food crops such as maize (corn), beans, squash, and chili peppers. They also cultivated cash crops such as cotton and cacao (Palfrey 1). Maize was the principal food of the Mayas and maize production was the central economic activity. The Mayas, forced to cultivate in a tropical rain forest, used slash and burn agriculture. The growth is so rapid in the rain forest that the nutrients provided by dead plants and animal feces get used very quickly. This causes the soil to be unfertile within a few years. The Mayans would then have to use new land. Because of this, the Mayans required huge amounts of land to feed their people. The population, throughout the Classic period, remained small. Slash and burn agriculture is also labor intensive. It required the people to spend an average of 190 days in agricultural work (Hooker 4). Despite the difficulty of this labor, the remainder of the year was used to build ...
The most important step in this mission to promote a dialogue between the different national Latin American anthropological traditions that constitute the field has been the creation of the Journal of Latin American Anthropology (JLAA). The Journal started in 1995 under the editorship of Wendy Weiss seeks to publish articles on anthropological research in Mexico, Central America, South America, the Caribbean and the Latin Diaspora. So far, issues have been devoted to the state of current Latin American anthropology, the concept of Mestizaje, and the Zapatista movement for indigenous autonomy in Mexico. Articles have been published in both Spanish and English.
Ruth Benedict’s anthropological book, Patterns of Culture explores the dualism of culture and personality. Benedict studies different cultures such as the Zuni tribe and the Dobu Indians. Each culture she finds is so different and distinctive in relation to the norm of our society. Each difference is what makes it unique. Benedict compares the likenesses of culture and individuality, “A culture, like an individual, is a more or less consistent pattern of thought or action” (46), but note, they are not the same by use of the word, “like.” Benedict is saying that figuratively, cultures are like personalities. Culture and individuality are intertwined and dependent upon each other for survival.
For a long time, the popular belief about anthropology was that it was the study of “far away” or “exotic” cultures. After my 10 weeks in Professor Michael Perez’s Anthropology 101 class, I now know this to be anything but the truth. My immediate thought’s for a cultural event to observe were reflective of these misconceptions – I considered an Indian wedding, a winter festival, a family friend’s Quinceanera. Nothing stood out to me.