L3 E.A.

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Anthropology

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Dec 6, 2023

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L3 ESSAY ASSIGNMENT 1. Choose three types of foods that Chagnon mentions while living among the Yąnomamö, then discuss whether you would like to eat them. A. Chagnon mentioned many different fruits, veggies, and meats while living amongst the Yąnomamö. These people’s diet consisted of many wild berries that they found they could stomach and found in the forests amongst them. One fruit that the Yąnomamö people ate was called a palm fruit. This fruit is not very big, and is round. In order for it to be eaten though, the Yąnomamö people climb up the trees to harvest them when it is time. Though they are pretty small like a crab apple, they still hang on a vine with many others like grapes would. Though it may be obvious from the name, I also think it is important that they grow on palm trees. I personally love any type of fruit so I could see myself trying this fruit if it was made available to me. When it comes to fresh game and meat, the Yąnomamö ate some things that are very foreign to us in the United States. For example, they hunted monkeys, wild pigs, all types of birds, and they also ate insects. When it comes to these animals, I do not think I could ever see myself eating any of this, but I will say that if that was all that was left in the world, I gladly would. One other food that they ate that I would try considering I have had them before is plantains. Though I do not like them, I feel as if they are nutritious and have potential to get you full. 2. According to Chagnon’s ethnography and Ray Hames, what type of subsistence system do the Yąnomamö utilize? Discuss how they meet the criteria for this subsistence type as defined by Kottak. A. According to Kottak, hortic ulture is"a nonindustrial system of plant cultivation in which plots lie fallow for varying lengths of time" (Kottak). Within horticulture, a technique by the name of “slash and burn” is used. Within this method, farmers tear and knock down things such as brush, trees, and bushes and burn them afterwards. By doing this, the ground is covered with ash that helps the plants to fertilize. Along with this, unwanted plants are gotten rid of and pests are either gotten rid of or run out of their home along with the unwanted plants. Once this process has been done, farmers will plot this land for around two years. It was thought that since not much was known about the Yąnomamö tribe, they could not be people who knew how to use subsistence systems, it was thought that they were primarily hunters and that was their main source of food. This assumption was wrong though because the Yąnomamö using the slash and burn method proves that this tribe does use a form of subsistence system. The Yąnomamö claimed that in order for their land to be a smooth process when it comes to clearing and burning it, it should not be covered with thorny bushes. This too proves that the Yąnomamö use a slash and burn method within their society. 3. Contrast the economic systems of industrial and non-industrial societies. A. Between industrial societies and non industrial societies, there are many economic differences. Industrial societies are driven by the fact of investing money and power into technology and machinery in order to achieve a bigger goal which is mass production of products using power sources such as coal, oil, and gas

L3 ESSAY ASSIGNMENT polluting the earth. Along with using machinery though, industrial societies use humans to mass produce through offices and warehouses. With these humans involved, there is a social and wage gap targeting them. Industrial societies are all about the products, you do not eat dinner with your both usually, and you most likely do not work with your best friends. Your personal life outside of work does not bleed into your work life which is the opposite of non industrial societies. When it comes to non industrial societies, they view work much differently. For example, you would do things such as feast with your boss and employees, and some of you may even live with each other. Though you do work together, you are now family and you will do family like things with each other. Another difference between industrial and non industrial societies is that within non industrial societies, everybody is working together towards one goal, it is not individualistic. 4. What is science and how is it different from other ways of knowing? A. Science is dependent on factors such as observations, evaluations, and hypotheses. Along with this, science’s main focus is on natural phenomena and how that phenomena can be explained. This is what we know as the natural, meaning there is no magic behind it, because it can be fully explained using science and scientific terms making it different from other ways of knowing. One thing that is said about science is that it is biased, which is fair considering the ones that are doing the “say so” are human and it is only fair to assume that humans are indeed biased because they are. One thing that is not science is being set in stone. Since scientists have to put things through experiments and go from there, things are constantly changing meaning that the science behind it is also constantly changing. Science is based simply on empirical research meaning that it fully lies within and on experimentation and methods along with observations to come to a conclusion. Pinios and feelings are not involved whatsoever when it comes to science and its outcomes. With all of this being said, these are the different ways that science is different from other ways of knowing. 5. After reading about the various ethnographic techniques discussed by Kottak in Chapter 3, explain how Chagnon utilized different techniques to understand how the Yąnomamö obtained food. A. From what I read within chapter three, I noticed that Chadron used many different techniques in order to understand how the Yąnomamö tribe obtained their food sources. Along with many other things, Chadron wrote in a book about different ways that the Yąnomamö were obtaining food. From Chadrons’ perspective though, this was all done through observation. Though this portion of the book spoke about what Chadron observed within his time of the Yąnomamö’s society, he also spoke within the notes about times he tagged along to hunt with this tribe and got to try his hand at something he would not particularly do. Chadron also spoke about some of the food he tried while staying with this tribe and this too shows how he participated within the society. Both of these instances can be better known as participant observation. By participating, Chadron grew a closer bond with the tribe. Not only did Chadron observe and participate, he also did many interviews with members of the Yąnomamö tribe. He did not do these alone though, he had along with him a cultural consultant. By doing this, Chadron was

L3 ESSAY ASSIGNMENT able to understand the tribe and their ways better along with being able to communicate with them. It is safe to say that Chadron learned some of the ways this tribe obtains its food source through the consultants also. 6. Why would an anthropologist be concerned about real vs. ideal behavior? A. The difference between real behavior and ideal behavior is simple when looked at this way that I am about to explain. In an ideal culture, members of the society refer to things such as norms, values, and beliefs in a tense of wanting to accomplish that one day, they do not currently practice any of these social norms in their everyday lives. On the other hand though, real behavior and real culture refers to all of the same things, norms, values, and beliefs but they actually practice these norms on a day to day basis and follow them. In other words, an ideal culture can be better known as a stereotype within a society while a real culture is something that makes somebody who they are along with their uniqueness. One reason that anthropologists may be concerned about real vs. ideal behavior is so that they can avoid an ideal statistic when it comes time to evaluate. The anthropologist's job is to study the culture as it is given to them, not as they wish it were according to their personal standards or etc. This is why an anthropologist needs to study both the real and ideal sides because a society may look as if they are hunters from the outside looking in but real behavior evaluations may tell you otherwise in more detail. 7. Why does Kottak describe ethnography as “ant hropology’s distinctive strategy”? A. Kottak describes ethnography as anthropology's distinctive strategy for many reasons. The best way for anthropologists to enter foreign land and learn of other peoples’ cultures and societies is to get uncomfortable and go into the learning head first. What I mean by this is interacting/observing face to face and being in situations that they may not be in where they are originally from. This is what makes ethnography holistic, because you cannot evaluate based on a few aspects, you need the whole, and full experience. Ethnography is so distinctive because each anthropologist must find their own niche, and way to go about things and societies. For example, the Yąnomamö tricked Chagnon repeatedly with their answers to the interview questions. In order for Chagnon to stay on track and get real evaluations, he had to switch his methods and deal with trial and error until something valuable and sensible was obtained. Ethnography is very broad when it comes to strategies, which leads anthropologists to seek more information and details from all types of people and places. Unlike other subjects , there is no one right way to do ethnography, and this is another reason why it is such a distinctive strategy for anthropologists. 8. Discuss why idealized typologies might be necessary for anthropologists to make correlations. A. Idealized typologies might be necessary for various reasons, I believe the most important reason though is so that correlations can be easily detected and verified by anthropologists. There was a professor who teaches at Rutgers university in New Jersey. Yehudi Cohen was the individual who came up with the idea of idealized typologies and how society can be categorized through five adaptive

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L3 ESSAY ASSIGNMENT strategies. These five strategies were pastoralism, horticulture, foraging, industrialism, and agriculture. Since most societies relate to one another through one or more of these five adaptive strategies, it is safe for anthropologists to assume similarities and such between the societies. With idealized typologies, anthropologists are able to find a balance when making an attempt to understand social society or group further. If you have two groups or tribes that are foreign to you and you foreign to them, it would be easier to further evaluate them if those two societies did one thing similar to each other or vice versa. In order for anthropologists to form therapies about a society or group, they must first be able to distinguish and interpret the actions of that specific group. When interpreted, anthropologists are able to refer to the ideas of a particular situation, not the ideal situation itself. 9. What might be one drawback of trying to use interview schedules with Paliyans? A. To begin with, an interview schedule is an interview that still takes place face to face, but there is a person present who writes down all of the answers of the questions. The whole point of these questions is to in a way guide the interview to make it smoother. These questions tend to be more rigid than usual interview questions and this may intimidate certain individuals. One trend with the Paliyans is that they tend to not remember the names of things. The reason for this is that when they were being taught, they may have heard the name of things a few times, but not enough to learn it which would explain why many of the Paliyan people have different names for the same object. One drawback of trying to use interviews scheduled with the Paliyan people lines up with what I said above. Because these people are not too sure about the asner of things, there may be multiple answers to the same questions done in the interview and you would never know which one was correct. The Paliyan people are confident independent people so the answer that they give is the one that they are going to stick with. For all of these reasons, I think it would be difficult to use these types of interviews on the Paliyans.

L3 E.A.

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