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Interview With Pakistani Essay

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Interview With Pakistani Ethnology is the part of anthropology that focuses on the cultures of the world; its written results are published in ethnographies. While conducting my first ethnology I learned more about my friend Mohammed than I have learned about him in the seven years I have been acquainted with him. Moe works at a convenience store and gas station that I have been frequenting since before I was even old enough to have a car to fill up with gas. Moe is originally from Pakistan, he was born in the city of Karachi, but has been in this country for 20 years. His native language is Urdu. Moe is thirty-eight years old and is married with two children. Both of his children were also born in Pakistan and are now naturalized …show more content…

The Muslims also have very important religious holidays like other religions of the world, perhaps the most important religious holiday for the Muslims is Ramadan. Ramadan is a month long period of fasting that comes once every lunar calendar. The fasting is observed from sunup to sundown and during this period no eating, sex or lying is allowed. During this time a Muslim must also give to others in the name of Islam. At the end of the period of Ramadan large celebrations occur with lots of giving and exchanging of food. This seems to be similar to the Christian Easter or Christmas. Islam seems to be a very interesting religion and I intend to study it further with the help of the Quran, the holy book of Islam, of which Moe gave me a copy as a gift.

Anthropology defines social structure as the sum of the patterns of relationships in a society. Moe’s social structure is quite interesting, and is quite different from what we are used to here. Perhaps the difference that I found most interesting is that in Islam and his home country of Pakistan, marriage among first cousins is not only accepted but also actually quite common. Moe said that the Muslim majority “prefer inside the family marriage”, and that of his immediate family he is the only one to not have married inside the family. Both his father and brother had married cousins. Another commonality among the Muslim

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