BigManWeek+7

I was really intrigued by the video we watched during last class and especially by the culture that was described as almost anarchy (the culture with the strong focus on cattle). My idea of anarchy is always more chaotic and they seemed to much more capable of 'governing' themselves without 'real' order. I am curious at how often there are cultures that can actually do this? Is it more common for cultures like these in Africa (or anywhere else) to not have a clearly defined system of leadership like most European based countries?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Clastres

Both in the textbook and in the video we watched on Tuesday about the Azande people, we learn about the process through which someone consults the poison oracle when a relative is ill. The video and the textbook both say that after the question is asked and the first chicken is fed poison, the question is double-checked with a second chicken. Does this need to double-check imply that there may be doubt regarding the oracle? Also, what would happen if the first answer was contradicted?

http://www2.fiu.edu/~ereserve/010010094-1.pdf

In chapter 8 of the textbook, it talks about how members of many religious traditions apply societal metaphors to their perception of the universe. As an example, it talks about how the twenty-third Psalm in the Christian bible which compares God to a shepherd and his people to sheep. It goes on to say that this is "not likely to be accepted as an apt description of cosmic reality by people living in a society that lacks class distinctions and has no experience of sheepherding."

Christianity, however, like many religions, has spread to many places and <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">societies to which this metaphor no longer applies, and yet it is still a <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">well known Psalm, that is understood, recognized and applied to Christians' <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">lives. Isn't the Christian religion in our own society a counterexample to <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">this statement?

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">From the article, "Moral Ambitions of Grace: The Paradox of Compassion and <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">Accountability in Evangelical Faith-Based Activism," Elisha writes that <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">showing compassion within a social setting, can alternatively reject <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">accountability, and vice-versa. The text demonstrates how it is possible to <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">show compassion, while also holding the person accountable, as evidenced by <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">the story about the woman out of work, who had a car bought for her and was <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">required to pay back money loaned to her. Would the church be wrong in trying <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">to use encouragement and incentives for those assisted, as opposed to simply <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">denying people help, if they are in desperate need of it? I understand the <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">difficulty with keeping people accountable, and that assistance can only go <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">so far, but is punishing others, by not helping them, based on previous <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">accounts really the right way to "right the wrong" that has been committed? <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;"> If no one is held accountable by the church refusing to give assistance, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">then where does the compassion lie?

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">After reading the Muslim Woman article, I was thinking about how the American <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">view of Muslim women was depicted to be how we see their culture as one with <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">strict social norms forcing them to conform. However, don't we in a way have <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">equally strict social norms? People worry about wearing the latest trends and <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">doing what's popular,and those that don't conform are almost considered <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">outsiders. In a way we also conform to social rules, just with a <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">different focus.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">Here in America, we have all sorts of different kinds of women: some who wear <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">more clothes than others, some who are more confident than others; some have <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">blonde hair, brown hair, or red hair; some women in the United States have <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">high-end jobs and some work behind counters selling burgers. And I find it <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">hard to believe this is only because of what our culture is and the <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">capitalism that shapes and is shaped by it. Everyone everywhere is different <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">than the person next to them, in front of them, and behind them. Even within <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">the same culture there are different thoughts and different views. Every <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">human is different on a biological level, and also on a psychological level, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">and therefore even with the same laws and customs cannot be entirely the <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">same. Yet sometimes it feels as though Americans see people from the culture <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">as two of the same person.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">If everyone IS different, why do most Americans think this is not so in other <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">cultures? Do we on some level consider other cultures not to be inherently <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">human? If so, at what point in the many levels of the human mind does <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">"savagery" versus "civilization" degrade into "animal" versus "human"?

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">In <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; text-align: right;">Lila Abu-Lughod's article about the Muslim Women she mentions a warning about feeling pity for them because of the fact that they must wear burqas and we must "save" and "free" them. In their society, they have a worldview that burqas serve a purpose and meaning, not as a symbol of oppression as many Americans view it as. In the North Korean documentary about the US's "propaganda", we feel misunderstood and misrepresented when we hear their perspective of our worldviews. Is there a way or solution for inter-societal relationships that open the door to understanding each other's worldviews? Or would each of our socially constructed worldviews blind us from doing so? How would having a full understanding of the worldviews change the world we live in, in terms of our current global issues? <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">As I was reading the “The Muslim woman”, by Lila Abu-Lughod, it was talking about how the suppression of woman through requirement that they be entirely veiled due to religious beliefs. I was wondering whether that suppression of woman due to religious beliefs are present anywhere else but the worldview of those countries and religion are different and how it was mention in Chapter 7 that the use of myths is used to create a sense of stability in a country. For example, if you really read the all of the Bible and take everything word for word, the suppression of women is constantly mentioned. “I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet.” Timothy 2:12. “The women are to keep silent in churches; for they are not permitted to speak, but are to subject themselves, just as the Law also says.” 1 Corinthians 14:34. So I was wondering why the suppression of the Muslim woman has become a worldview, however, the worldview on the Bible is not skewed towards the idea that the Christian woman is suppressed?

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">As I was reading the article “The Muslim Women” I was interested in the quote “And beyond this, is liberation or freedom even a goal for which all women or people strive.” It made me wonder what “freedom” actually is. Is it a word that is defined by specifics and is therefore an inconsistent definition across the globe? Perhaps what women in the East believe to be freedom is the exact opposite of what Westerners believe to be freedom. It seems egotistical of the Westerners to //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">assume //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;"> that this idea of freedom, that is present in the West, is what the Afghan women strive for. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">=== <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">Is it possible to look at the burqa debate discussed in, "The Muslim Woman" as a cultural innovation? During a time when societies are becoming increasingly aware of the role that physical appearance plays in societal perception, the burqa could be seen as a way to counteract this disconnect. With the burqa, women will not be judged on their physical adherence to current standards of beauty, but instead on the integrity of their hearts and minds. Is it the greater bodily surface area that the burqa covers that makes it such an imposing symbol of persecution or is it simply a facade for the larger Western issue of uneasiness surrounding anything foreign? Why do we see an air of cultural and sexual freedom of expression in the image of a woman choosing to bind herself in a constricting corset, but see meekness and suppression in women who do not rely on solely their physical appearance for personal and societal success? As women, are we searching for people to save, and causes to align with in order to distract us from addressing the faults that we see in our immediate surroundings every day? <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">===

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">This weeks reading of the Muslim Women got me to thinking about how women are <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">viewed throughout the world. The article talked about how western women <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">see Muslim women as being oppressed because they wear clothes that completely <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">cover them. But it also pointed out they could look at us a see women who <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">have become simple sex objects. On both sides however women see other women <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">as being forced to live in a male dominated culture. I am not a feminist per <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">say but looking at this I think world wide there might be a problem if women <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">are constantly seen by others and maybe themselves as being suppressed by <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">men. So my question do women allow themselves to be suppressed by men and <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">become sex objects or be secluded from society or are the women in different <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">countries simple products of culture and dress how they dress cause that's <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">what makes them happy and "fashionable"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHqzlxGGJFo

http://www.dove.us/Tips-Topics-And-Tools/Videos/building-self-esteem.aspx

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/05/27/once_upon_a_time_in_afghanistan#0 http://www.france24.com/en/20110411-france-ban-full-islamic-veil-sarkozy-ump-muslim-law-police-secularism-burqa http://www.culanth.org/?q=node/53