Ethnocentrism in the Movie "Avatar"

The 1987 film documentary Ethnic Notions directed by Marlon Riggs, identifies the evolution of African American cultural depictions through ethnic stereotypes and caricatures in American culture. I feel Ethnic Notions exposes the roots of false generalization from the beginning and presents a series of classifications for racial depictions that still are noticeable in today's society. These racial depictions identified with in this film begin in the mid 1800's and continue thought to the 1960's. I now after viewing Ethnic notions agree that there are generalizations and depictions that are exaggerated in American popular culture and entertainment.

Cultural anthropologists usually study by doing participant-observation, which requires the researcher to participate in the studied culture activities as well as observe the daily lives of others. Ideally a cultural anthropologist will have an emic, or an insider’s, perspective to view the society. However, it can be difficult to not view a society with an etic, or outsider’s, perspective. In the film Avatar, Sully is a great example of participant-observation. He learns about the language, customs, and religion of the Na’vi by having Neytiri teach and show him. Sully even becomes a man in the eyes of the Na’vi by going through their right of passage. Similarly, with The Emerald for Forest, Bill is learning the ways of his lost son’s culture. Bill is fluent in the language and learns about customs from what his son, Tommy, explains to him. Bill does participate in the ritual to discover his spirit animal. Avatar can be considered a close representation of anthropology since Sully observes the ways of the Na’vi, participates in their daily life, as well as documenting his

Biocultural anthropology looks at the relationships between human biology and culture. In the movie Avatar, the Na’vi are humanoids species native to Pandora, standing 6 feet tall with blue skin and a long tail; But one of the characters, Parker Selfridge from the human world, a selfish and greedy man, refers the Na’vi as “blue monkeys” and “savages”. The Na’vi natives are very spiritual believers and they believe all living beings in Pandora lives in unity. Every living creature that is born on Pandora has “neural connection fibers.” Not only Humanoids and animals have these “neural connection fibers” but also trees which allows all breathing creatures to “plug in” to each other’s neural system network. This lets them feel each other’s thoughts and emotions. In the movie, Jake Sully, a human man, is connected to the Na’vi world by a computer-generated machine that links his mind with his avatar body which could interact with the natives of Pandora. He finds himself feeling more connected with himself in his avatar body than his actual body in the real world; For the reason that in the real world, he is paralyzed and can’t walk so he feels handicapped. In his avatar body, he could be normal again and do the things he couldn’t do in real life like run on his two feet. Also, humans didn’t know how to connect with each other’s feelings and he was able to connect and feel the spirits and emotions with the Na’vi of the Pandora world.

The diversity of culture is an incredible notion. It is unfathomable how the anatomy of the human race is so similar, yet so different in the behaviors and ideas that take place. The two primary cultures I am focusing on throughout this essay are the differentiation between popular culture, and indigenous culture. I will also make the point of folk culture, and how it has slowly transformed itself from its self sufficiency, to relying more on the ways of popular culture.

One could feel sorry for the tribe being written about and disapprove of our own culture when viewing it using the sociological perspective. Miner writes in one of the introduction paragraphs that “the magical beliefs and practices of the Nacirema present such unusual aspects that it seems desirable to describe them as an example of the extremes to which human behavior can go,” (Minor, 1956) Teeth brushing, dental visits, and hair drying are things that seem like normal behaviors. Even the obsession of women’s breast sizes are accepted as normal and certainly haven’t changed since the 1950’s. Minor’s description of these behaviors make them sound foreign and we feel sympathy towards the behavior’s in this “tribe”.

The frequent depiction of the “Noble Savage” trope has many functions, with its main function being to portray Native Americans as sinless uneducated humans and to make their abusers and torturers seem evil and superior, which in most cases the torturers are indeed evil. Bartolomé de Las Casas and Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca use the “Native Savage” trope for different reasons, which makes their portrayal different, and not because they are writing about different tribes and groups of Native Americans. The “Noble Savage” is a very common adaptation of Native Americans, but the definition isn’t as pretty as the name of the trope may seem to be.

Describe the ACCULTURATION level of at least 2 main/lead film characters. Elaborate as to which factors led you to make these determinations for each character (14.28 Possible Points). 100 word minimum between the two

Both the Native Americans and the Na’vi made an effort in adjusting to the whites and the humans, but in different ways. Many Native Americans tried very hard to adapt to the aspects of white culture. They succeeded so much in doing so that the whites began calling the Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw, Seminole, and Cherokee the Five Civilized Tribes. The Cherokee accomplished becoming, as the whites called it: “civilized, more so than any other Southern tribe. They acquired a new way of dressing, and even an 86 character writing system constructed by an incredibly intelligent Cherokee named

The Na'vi are the only humanoid residents of Pandora, which is otherwise populated by abundant flora and fauna. In the imperialism parable, the Na'vi are the native peoples of Africa, the Americas, Australia and Asia; while the humans in Avatar are representative of the Europeans during the Age of Imperialism. During the Age of Imperialism, Europeans spread across the globe, setting up colonies and exploiting the resources of the lands that they found. When they began to set up colonial rule in those lands, there was tremendous suffering among the native peoples. Many native peoples during the Age of Imperialism lost their way of life to the imperialist powers.

Avatar uses a variety of film genres and styles. One of the styles is the Cowboys versus Indians theme. It is clear that Avatar is a product of post-colonialism: it shows the Na'vi as the relatively harmless yet environmentally respectful and spiritually in tuned indigenous population, while the humans are a corporate military whose only goal is mine the resources of Pandora. The film presents an anti-military narrative. The soldiers are portrayed as cruel, violent, and brainless brutes, with only mercenary intentions. They are the stereotype of the ultimate warrior. They perpetuate the “might is right” myth. All of them are males, except for a female helicopter pilot, who ultimately defects to the

The movie 'Ethnic Notions' describes different ways in which African-Americans were presented during the 19th and 20th centuries. It traces and presents the evolution of the rooted stereotypes which have created prejudice towards African-Americans. This documentary movie is narrated to take the spectator back to the antebellum roots of African-American stereotypical names such as boy, girl, auntie, uncle, Sprinkling Sambo, Mammy Yams, the Salt and Pepper Shakers, etc. It does so by presenting us with multiple dehumanized characters and cartons portraying African-Americans as carefree Sambos, faithful Mammies, savage Brutes, and wide-eyed Pickaninnies. These representations of African-Americans roll

The author’s purpose in writing this article was not to show the “Nacirema” as an example of how extreme human behavior can become, but how an outside perspective can affect your perception of an alien culture. If one were to look at the “Nacirema’s” cultural behaviors regarding physical appearance and health without any insight or knowledge of the specific beliefs or values of that culture, they might seem bizarre and even incomprehensible. By showing behaviors and “rituals” performed by this unknown tribe, Miner allowed others to see that the way studies were representing distinctive cultures was narrowminded and defective. Without the proper comprehension of the basis of any society, huge cultural misunderstandings could occur. Of

     Asian Americans only make up a small percent of the American population. Even more significant is that this percentage live mostly on the west and east coasts of mainland United States and Hawaii; leaving the rest of the American population to most likely get their exposures to Asians through television and movies. However the exposure they have receive throughout the history of cinematography has been hardly flattering. Throughout the course of history Asians in film have been portrayed as evil or the "yellow peril" as described by others. If Asians are not being classified as evil in this picture then they are most likely the comic relief, with their lack of coordination or grasp of the English

In James Cameron’s critically acclaimed Avatar, there are many issues/disputes that are represented, but there is only one that especially stands out; cultural assimilation. Cameron’s purpose for this is to better represent and portray the possibility of assimilation to today’s modern audience. He adopts a visually stimulating tone to better impact and leave his viewers with a lasting impression of his portrayal, that will better convey the feelings of transgression in the supremacist audience he is trying to reach. This is known by the type of subject he is tackling and by showing a similar situation, unrelated to the ‘textbook cover’ of Native assimilation, but leaves the same impact.

According to the United Nations, the world population was estimated to have reached 7.6 billion as of October, 2017 and it will continue to increase to 11.2 billion by the year 2100. The rapid increase in population requires more food, more lands and other demands. Because of the higher demands, some companies have been exploiting natural resources to serve people’s needs and create profits as well. With the current population pressure and overexploitation of natural resources, a question has been raised: “What if natural resources run out?”. In 2009, Avatar, a science fiction film directed by James Cameron, which tells us a story about an exploration of a group of people on Pandora to look for new natural resources; because of their greed, the indigenous people and nature on Pandora suffered many casualties, damages.