American Ethnography Essay

In the early 16th century, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan named the largest ocean in the world ‘O Mar Pacífico’ meaning peaceful sea. What Magellan didn’t know is that his arrival would mark a fateful new era for the inhabitants of the pacific and forever disrupt whatever peace they had before. In “The Other One-Third of the Globe,” anthropologist Ben Finney explains the history the habitation of the Pacific islands. He looks at the complete human history of the islands, not just the colonial period, which was unusual but very refreshing.

After reading the novel Nest in the Wind: Adventures in Anthropology on a Tropical Island, written by Martha C. Ward, I learned about a culture on an island that is much different but similar in many ways to ours. The Climate of the Island was tropical with heavy rainfall. The Island was known as a “tropical paradise”. Ward a female Anthropologist went to this Island to study its inhabitants . Some area she focus on was Family, Religion, sex, tradition, economics, politics ,medicine, death, resources and daily activities . Ward approach to getting this information as accurate as possible was to live among the Pohnpeians as . She got involved in their culture and community. She even , though unwanted gained rank in their society. Her and

The Encounters in Early Societies in the Americas and Oceania were very fascinating encounters. These encounters of early societies in the Americas and Oceania were quite similar to the ones in Africa and Eurasia. Geography also played an important role in these early societies. A few topics I will address are: in what ways were the societies of the Americas and Oceania similar to those in Africa and Eurasia in spite of such isolation. The factors in which contributed to the difficulties in sustaining log distant trade of the societies in America and Oceania with neighboring societies. The last topic I will address is what the existence of such interactions despite such

At this tense meeting with considerable distrust and suspicion evident in the faces, speeches and body language of the Samoan chiefs, the High Chief expressed considerable skepticism about American plans for the island, such as providing more education in English, teaching the young marketable skills, and developing the country. Being educated at the University of Hawaii, the High Chief would have had very good reason to be suspicious of the intentions of the United States, even when its representatives expressed their goodwill toward the Native peoples and desire to bring 'progress; and 'modernization. He would have learned about the wars against the Native Americans from the 17th to the 19th Centuries, for example, the annexation of Hawaii in 1898, and the Philippines War of 1899-1902, if indeed he had not known all about these before.

Ethnographic research is the scientific description of specific human cultures, foreign to the ethnographer. Each ethnographer has his or her own way of conducting research and all of these different ideas can be transmitted and understood in a number of different ways. Because there is no one set idea of how an ethnographer should go about his or her research, conflicts arise. In Reflections on Fieldwork in Morocco, Paul Rabinow uses a story like process to discuss his experiences during his research in Morocco. This makes it easier for the reader to understand his ideas then just having a technical book about the many different aspects of Moroccan life that he may have discovered. In Writing Culture: the Poetics and Politics of

I set out to find a place to begin my observations, not knowing what to fully expect, what I may find. So I decided to look around at what is close to my home that isn’t a place I frequent or have even visited at all. Then it came to me, the Starbucks that is only about a mile away is a perfect place for me to observe subjects that I would consider different from myself, seeing as how I consider such obscene prices for coffee ridiculous. Starbucks is a very popular chain of coffee vendors that describe their product as more about quality than what Americans are used to in typical coffee joints.

Once voyages to North America became profitable, European nations looked to capitalize in any way possible. The nations really had to sell the idea of starting a new life from scratch thousands of miles away to their constituents. This was not easy as the voyage in it of itself could be deadly, not to mention the only thing guaranteed in return was an allocation of land and a chance at earning large sums of money. The difficult nature of recruitment often led to deliberately bias accounts of North American lands (Cronon 1983). The bias accounts often amounted to over hyping the abundance of resources in the mysterious “New World.” Not only did this lead to ultimately more colonizers making the voyage, but it also influenced their mindset and interactions with the natural world upon their arrival. The influence of bias accounts led to environmentally disconnected practices.

Due to misinformation, some believe that the monk seal’s primary diet is commercial fish, and competes with local fishers by eating its weight in fish in a single day— this is patently untrue, as no large mammal would be able to consume that much food in a single day. Some believe that the seals were brought in by the federal government and are not actually endemic to Hawaii. While it’s true that the main population of monk seals have existed in the Northwest Hawaiian islands (NWHI), there is archaeological evidence from before the 19th century that the seals coexisted with humans in the MHI (Watson et al). Since they are also a relatively rare species, their cultural prevalence has not been as strong as some species (i.e., sea turtles). The use of historical Hawaiian newspapers, as well as research into Hawaiian etymology, as well as archaeological and anthropological investigations can help add to our knowledge base (Watson et al). NOAA’s Pacific Island Fisheries Science Center, and the Marine Conservation Institute are doing much to dispel these myths by providing informational websites to the

conquering of the Incas, and his help at discovering the great, big, blue of what we know as the Pacific

Many numbers and maps relate to American History- the events can cause the area to have some interesting background information. An example is the states that are bordering Mexico (Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California) because they have a greater chance of demographics showing a major amount of hispanic/latino people because they can easily cross the border. Is in the Northeast (New York, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Rhode Island) tend to have bigger populations because that where Columbus first located. As a result less people live in the Midwest, South, and the Northeast. Many U.S. states specialize in agriculture, as result in places like Idaho and Oklahoma where farming is big, less people find a need to attend school.

All the girls lived within the three villages of Faleāsao, Lumā, and Siufaga of the island of Ta‘ū. Mead’s research depended primarily on participant-observation research and the interviews she conducted along with collections of life histories that she obtained. Within her research, Mead intended to focus on the psychological milieu of the young women in Samoa, and compare it to the world confronting young American women (Côté 1994). According to Mead’s findings, the process of coming of age was gradual, for after weaning both males and females were usually put under the care of a girl between the ages of 6 or 7, who mentored the child with the help of others in the community (Mead

While others claim that photography captures the inner soul of a person, or deliberately defines it as painting or writing with light, but in my case, it is just simply a newfound love hobby. I undeniably adore and look up to expert photographers I encounter down the road may it face-to-face or the other way around. In my heart, I silently desire that someday, with hard work, determination, and perseverance, I will become professional and famous as they are. Since my husband bought a Digital Single-Lens Reflex (DSLR) as an anniversary gift, my penchant for photography commenced and ignited. Let me detail the essential truths behind my passion over photography.

Anthropology is field where research plays the biggest part in dissecting and understanding a topic. Surveys and questionnaires, are not as effective in this field as it would have been in engineering is because, anthropology deals with people. According to me people would not be slight bit interested divulging the details of their life with a stranger, whom they just met on a piece of flimsy paper. Even if they are willing to do that, they may only give a vague sketch of their life or the worst case scenario, where the participants are illiterate. Thus Field work regardless how excruciatingly long and hard it is, it is very important because it gives the holistic view on a topic as an outsider as well as an insider.

The story of Whale Rider takes place in a Maori village in New Zealand. The main character is a 12 year old girl name Paikea “Pai” Apirana and her ambition to become the next Chief of her village. Along with following on Pai’s story, the movie showed a great number of local Maori religion and culture. Some of the things I will explore is the Maori religion, gender roles, and a personal reflection on what was learned through the movie.

The Kaluli are a small clan of indigenous people who live in the rain forests in the Southern Highlands of the Great Papuan Plateau found in Papua New Guinea. The Kaluli people’s residency includes up to twenty longhouses each with about fifteen families in them, numbering roughly to about sixty to ninety people in each longhouse. The Kaluli culture does not involve any ranked social structure or individuals with hierarchical authority over others, however relies on strong egalitarian and equal values. The purpose of this of this paper is to highlight the Kaluli people’s identity, their unique upbringing and their struggles faced by missionization. This text will first identify how Kaluli children, both male and female are socialized and encultured in different ways through the mother enforcing certain traits, attitudes, behaviors, traditions and work ethics. Secondly this text will consider how missionization, i.e. the communication of other cultures and the indoctrination of Christianity by missionaries has disrupted the Kaluli’s sense of place. It will focus on the introduction of European-based time, the introduction and demise of some types of languages and the ownership of land and identity. Thirdly this paper will discuss how the enculturation of Kaluli children differs from more civilized enculturation of children and possible reasons for this