Mardi Gras

This week we saw the show about Mardi Gras and was so interesting to me. Mardi Gras has been celebrated in New Orleans since the late eighteenth century. Mardi Gras came to America in 1699 when the French explorer Iberville sailed into the Gulf of Mexico. He traveled up the mouth of the Mississippi River where he set up a camp on the west bank of the river. This site was located sixty miles south of where New Orleans is today. On this day Mardi gras was being celebrated in France. In honor of this important day. While under French rule, masked balls and festivals were common in New Orleans. A few years later Spanish rule took over New Orleans, banning the balls and festivals. In 1827 street masking was legalized, and this began the tradition of Mardi Gras as we know it today.

Mardi Gras is celebrated on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, also known as Fat Tuesday.
Mardi Gras have been a cultural tradition in south Louisiana for many years. People come from all parts of the world to celebrate in this festivity each year. This carnival is the biggest and best party of all in the bayou state. Mardi Gras is an experience one will never forget. That is why it is known as the greatest free show on earth. Take a trip on over to Cajun country during this cultural holiday and laissez les bon temps rouler, which means let the good times roll!

Food In Different Cultures

Food is very much a part of culture around. The beliefs, practices, and trends in a culture affect its eating practices. The food families eat around the world is greatly affected by the culture that they are surrounded in. In all cultures food is imbued withmeaning, it is a currency in society. Food can nourish, entertain and givepleasure. It can also be a source of political conflict for example governmenthealth warnings or arguments around vegetarianism. Not enough food causesextreme problems and at the other end of the scale too much food can be fatal. Someof these issues will be considered when examining the issues around change insociety's approach to food. Cooking skills were customarilypassed on through families usually from mothers to daughters. In the past themen were the 'breadwinners' while the women stayed at home and looked after thehome, a patriarchal concept modelled on the aspiring middle classes of thetime. Although times have changed and most women now work, the notion that foodand cooking are the woman's domain still prevails.
Culture changes each generation and is never exactly the same as it predecessors. It preserves traditions but also builds in mechanism for change. These changes occur over time because of ecological and economic changes leading to altered availability, discovery and innovation of food. Cultural traditions are internalized so that they become an inseparable part of ones self-identity. It has value system which influences the way specific foods are viewed at. Foods are generally labeled as good and bad. The bad foods are the highly desirables ones like, “junk-food”.
Culture is learned, food habits are acquired early in life and once established are likely to be long lasting and resistant to any change. Hence it is important to develop a sound nutritional practice in childhood, as a basis for life long healthy eating. Dietary changes are not externally induced. Shifting in cultural patterns and values within a society affect the dietary practices. In industrialized and fast developing countries the family structure and working arrangements are being affected Marjory. The traditional extended family system is rapidly disappearing and with it the concept of set meal times to be eaten in the company of family members is also gone. This culture of eating separately and alone is affecting diet of an individual. This has increased the demand for readily available, processed, packaged food.

On Monday we had Midterm Exam but on Wednesday we talked about how stories are told. We have four genres of Oral Narrative:
1. Myths
A popular belief or story that has become associated with a person, institution, or occurrence, especially one considered to illustrate a cultural idea and explain how things are the way they are

2. Folktales
Folktales are stories passed on from one person to another by word of mouth. These tales were not written down, but existed only in the memory of mankind. It is only now, as the tradition of oral story telling is giving way to books and television that such tales are being collected and written down. Many folktales involve mythical creatures and magical transformations. Like a Cinderella

3. Legends
Legends are supposed to be about real events that had a large impact on society. They have the ability to inspire, enlighten, scare, advise, inform, and even warn people. Like 1000 Way To Die Show

4. Personal Narratives
A personal narrative is a story about something that has happened to YOU. It is usually about something good that has happened to the person. However, it can be about anything that has happened to you.

I really like the Noah Ark’s interview and I think was very good example for how the stories are told. The flood story shows God’s mercy and understanding of humans. It demonstrates his salvation and his love of the human race. He could have wiped out everyone, however, chose to save Noah and his family in the hopes they would be fruitful and righteous.

The Long Road To Manhood

We saw a movie on Monday which it was very interesting to me and the movie was about, The primary focus of the initiation ritual is to transform “boys” who are considered feminine persons of women houses into fierce, strong, male warriors. This process of initiation from boy to man is also known as masculinization. In actuality men are “reborn” from men and are taught many important things such as that woman are dangerous and emasculating. Strangely enough the women are placed in a situation where their husbands, who are much older than them, isolate them. The youths are now the targeted ones who the women want to use to fulfill their sexual desires. The men however, are not concerned about falling for these women. They have been taught well about how women can be dangerous to men, especially the younger adolescent men who can even die from heterosexual intercourse.

         The isolationism they encounter not only prevent the youth from having any sexual activities with women, but also from seducing, or being seduced by married women - which would later create chaos by enemies. This certainly teaches the boys that they can indeed live without their mothers and certainly without any females around them. What the boys need is semen in order to mature. In some cultures such as this one in Papa New Guinea a homosexuality ritual takes place. Ironically the homosexual practice is not a feminizing ritual, but rather the beginning of a fierce and brutal warrior. The Sambia initiatory cycle starts when the boy is between the ages of 6 and 10, and proceeds to 6 stages until he becomes the father of one child, some 10 to 15 years later. The following six initiations take place over time where the boys are isolated from women. They are killed as boys and reborn as men.

The tribes of the Sambia and the Samburu are not the only tribes that engage in rituals concerning manhood. In order for a boy to become a man, he must engage in vigorous activities and rituals to prove his manhood. Manhood is not something that is just developed naturally; it is a process in which a young boy must earn the right to be called a “man”. It is through these understandings of other cultures, that the Western way of life seems to be much easier when it comes to manhood in the making. Whoever said that becoming a man was an easy task, must not have ever studied about the different societies around the world who can prove them wrong. Thank goodness I am a woman!

Research Method

In the last class 2 weeks we just met one time and we studied about Research methods for our Folk Genre. We learned that there is four different methods out there to do our research and also about advantage and disadvangage of them:

1.    Questionnaires

This involves giving the jobholder a simple questioner to identify job duties, responsibilities, quip’s, used work relationship & working environment.

2.    Interview

This is a method used to collect a variety of information from a job holder by asking him/her to describe the duties & tasks performed.

3.    Observation

This involves collecting data about the job or performance of employees by directly observing them at work.

4.    Participation

I like this method the most because is better that all of them

I would like to talk about the advantage and disadvantage of Observation:

 Advantages.

-Data gathered can be highly reliable.

-The analyst is able to see what is being done.

-Observation is less expensive compared to other technique.

-Allows the systems analyst to do work measurement.


Disadvantages.

-People feel uncomfortable being watched, they may perform differently when being observed.

-The work being observed may not involved the level of difficulty or volume normally experienced during that time period.

-Some activities may take place at odd times; it might be inconvenience for the system analyst.

-The task being observed is subjected to types of interruptions.

-Some task may not be in the manner in which they are observed.

-Sometimes people act temporarily and perform their job correctly when they are being observed, they might actually violates the standard of manner.

Anthropology Week One & Two

Each living life is attached in culture whether humans or animals. Culture is natural development during birth process {what we call is behavior, that changes from individual to individual broadened when lives in family that family is part of a society (group or community), behavior of the group is culture} and its evolution is based on intelligence reaction to experiences and needs. For example initial stages of humans, behavior were similar to other animals lived in groups. Animals too live in groups (society or community) and their group behavior and practices is their culture. Human intelligence reacted stronger to experiences and needs that widened cultural status. Culture is process to live in-group. Each society has norms to follow by individuals in order to retain society strong and intact. Culture is a process for identity of living creatures and cultural evolution raises the identity of society, benefit goes to its individuals.

Here is an interesting Video that I found in YOU TUBE about Culture:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNMkQYvNzLc&feature=related

Some differences between pop and folk culture include fashion and clothes. For example, in pop culture, new fashions change constantly and are influenced by the media and celebrities whereas in folk culture, clothing styles are passed down by generation to generation. Another difference is the way they are diffused; Pop culture is spread by hierarchal diffusion whilst in folk culture, they hinder new and mainstream trends from coming in. Finally, another difference is that in folk culture, the people are unique and are distinguished while in pop culture are into the same sorts of things and are interconnected whether it is on a national or global scale. Folk culture is diffused by relocation diffusion whereas pop culture is diffused by hierarchal diffusion.

Some examples of folk and popular sport activities are:

Folk – Lacrosse, archery, and horseback riding.

Popular – Football, basketball, and bowling.

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