ANT 102 Dr. Dorothy Wills
Notes on Films
"The Hunters"
Focus people are hunter-gatherers of southwest Africa, the !Kung San or "Bushmen" of the Kalahari Desert. The story follows a band as they collect wild plants and hunt game to feed their families.
- division of labor based on age and sex
- gathering provides majority of calories
- semi-nomadic lifestyle well-adapted to arid land
- deep knowledge of environment; subsistence practices fully utilize resources, waste little and damage little
- the film gives us a glimpse of their traditional healing practices: trance and ritual, probably great use of herbs
- we see their close family life, residing in small units that are organized into bands of 50 or so people
- the leader is a man who married the daughter of the previous leader; however, he does not have extensive authority, merely the power to decide about hunting alternatives, possibly to mediate disputes, discuss next movement of the group, etc., but he is not all-powerful; hunter-gatherers are basically egalitarian and democratic
- issue of how to make films like this! what is/should be the role of the anthropologist and film-maker?
Adaptation of Female Anubis Baboons to the Social System of Hamadryas
Baboons
Two species of baboon are very different with respect to courtship behavior, hierarchy, and social signals (communication). The experiment was to test how strong their preferences for their own behaviors was. The Hamadryas are a hierarchical, alpha male plus harem, aggressive species who live in cliffs and in the open. The Anubis live in a more arboreal and grassland environment, have a more egalitarian social order in which males and females have access to each other without too much conflict. Hamadryas males expect females to follow them after a few threats and even biting. Anubis females are not accustomed to doing this. The experiment involved putting first a Hamadryas female from a strange group in a cage and seeing how she and the alpha male of the new group coped with the situation. He was infuriated and behaved threateningly when she didn't follow him right away. Then she was released and joined the harem. An Anubis female was then used in the same way. The young Hamadryas male who approached her had a great deal of difficulty getting her to do what he wanted, and failed in the end, even though she clearly understood his signals.
Kibbutz Dafna
- communal culture of kibbutz
- separation of babies from parents at early age
- attempt to eliminate gendered division of labor
- consciousness of group identity
- peer (age) group pressure important source of social control
- preparation for military duty
- combination of agricultural and manufacturing economy; specialists exist, but everyone contributes to manual labor
- children raised by professionals, only partly by parents
- strong work ethic, emphasis on group solidarity and communal values (same religion); importance of history in formation of identity
"Faces of Culture" Food Collectors and Pastoralists
Hunter-gatherers featured are the !Kung of southern Africa (Kalahari Desert), the Mbuti of the Congo rainforest, and Netsilik Eskimos of northern Canada and Greenland - these folks have very different environments and resources
important issues: adaptation to environment, relationship with animals
- egalitarian social structure, concept of community
- sexual division of labor (and some age-based tasks), nomadic
hunting-gathering has been the main human lifeway from about 2 million years ago until around 10,000 years ago
Food producers includes pastoralists and farmers
pastoralists featured in film are the Nuer (cattle herders) of Sudan in Africa and the Basseri (sheep and goatherds) of mountainous Iran
- pastoralists are famous for resisting 'modernization', very masculine, independent values
- social structure male dominant, kinship important
- Nuer believe God gave them cattle, they perform sacrifices to give thanks, initiation most important rite of passage (carve forehead marks on boys as ordeal of endurance) to warriorhood
All society and culture still bear traces of our hunter-gatherer past.
- seasonal nomadism
The Aztecs:
- height of empire 15th-16th Cs. in Mexico City region; included both subject and ally peoples in area highly stratified society based on intensive agriculture and trade
- major gods those of Sun, Rain and War; war and rain were considered equals
- devised 52-year astronomical cycle, hieroglyphic writing, weather prediction
- ritual ball game still played, based on myth of origin
- predecessors built Teotihuacan, which was 6th largest city in the world in 600 A.D., had pyramids dedicated to Sun and Moon
- religious importance of nature: water, earth, sea life - represented in murals
- mythological basis for human sacrifice and war; folk heroes Jaguar and Coyote devour bleeding heart; human sacrifice recorded by friars such as Sahagun; skull racks can still be seen today
- earlier Toltec empire collapsed around 1200 A.D.
- Temple of Tenochtitlan (dating around 1390) unearthed in 1978
Dead Birds - the Dani of New Guinea
yam farmers/swineherds
division of labor: age, sex, marital status; some specially skilled individuals (healers, war leaders)
- all men weave
- women make trip to the salt well
material culture: pretty simple; chair only furniture, weapons, minimal clothing
settlement pattern - semi-permanent villages surrounded by fields, connected with other villages, rivers, pasture, battlegrounds, etc.
importance of ghosts and spirits - many ritual protections and propitiations
image of selves as birds, associated with the mystery of death
- atayakin - elements of the personality, according to Dani, important in healing procedures
war based on endless cycle of retribution and feuding
ritual mutilation of girls, symbolizes loss
"pig treasure" important religious/social ritual
- pigs also sacrificed at funerals, other occasions
- concept of family honor reflects public/private and city/family oppositions
- 7 saints guard 7 walls of Marrakech
- the djelaba (veil and cloak) is required, except in a woman's own village and home
- rituals viewed: ear piercing for little girls, coming home party for woman attending university, celebration of spirit medium, wedding - sacrifice, trance and possession sometimes involved
- inheritance: woman half as much as man; women close to their brothers and nephews
- instructions of hallal (good things to do) and haram (bad things) come from God, the prophet, and his daughter Fatima
- marketing based on relationship, not abstract supply and demand principles
- discrimination against professional women performers (although baraka, or grace) comes from spirit dancing; performers are necessary for rituals, and have witch power, but also have bad reputation
- relationship between co-wives and husband; example of three co-wives whose lives are changing in modern setting
- strict seclusion changing
- importance of gossip, ritual occasions, and bath house for women
- wedding is three-day highly structured event; marriage key to survival for both men and women; effort to marry within group, separation of men and women until groom goes in to bride for consummation
- importance of chastity for women
Notes on N'ai Story of a !Kung Woman
Film spans period from 1958 to near-modern day. She was young when the whites first came into their area.
Graphic illustrations of:
- traditional sexual division of labor (women gather, men hunt); food preparation, semi-nomadic lifeway, house-building (also female occupation)
- effects of forced sedentarism; tension between conservation and starvation; replacement of traditional diverse diet with mealie-meal
- marriage arrangements among the Kung San; her betrothal, disobedience, flagrant adulterous relationships, final acceptance of husband; husband doing bride (son-in-law) service; condemnation of sexual excesses, but lack of punishment for them
- traditional trance healing (mainly men)
- encounters with Western-type school, church, wage labor, military recruitment for war in Angola; surprise at certain culture-specific images from the Bible
- filming of Gods Must be Crazy
FACES OF CULTURE: RELIGION AND MAGIC
Functions of religion includes answers to the mystery of existence and instructions for behavior (morality). All people have an 'intuition' of ultimate reality. Religion has been around at least since Neanderthal times. Anthropologists' role is not to judge the validity of anybody's beliefs, but to understand how religion works in society.
Religion also provides common purpose in culture, community worldviews, and mechanisms for social control.
Native Americans for the most part believe in following 'mother Nature's way'. They are an example of animists, who believe that nature is animated by spirits. A traditional ritual specialist carves a medicine mask from a living tree to restore harmony; it is an act of prayer.
There are many theories of the origin of religious belief, mainly psychological in nature. Spiritual beliefs answer questions and allay anxiety.
Highland Maya of Mexico use symbols from Catholicism to represent their own traditions of prayer to sun, moon, gods, etc. The influence of new traditions imposed by colonialism led to a new set of symbols and rituals, but hte worldview remains approximately the same. They use divination to find the causes of human and natural events. Curanderos are healers, and shamans also take the supernatural into their own hands through magical practices. Methods of worship include prayer, fasting, drugs.
Indonesian Balinese Hinduism is an ancient community belief system. The goal is to break away from the cycle of reincarnation. They believe in the three worlds of gods, people, and demons, and use masks to depict the gods and demons. The Balinese ritual calendar governs the agricultural system as well as ritual and religious holidays. Time is seen as a system of cycles. Rituals of purification and sacrifice to demons restore social bonds. The new year's ceremony involves the whole community. Religion and daily life are inseparable.
In industrial society, religion becomes compartmentalized; even participation can be at a distance (TV, internet...). Such 'cults' as the Hare Krishna people who practice bakhti yoga represent new movements that attempt to reintroduce traditional perspectives and practices. The Mormons and other new sects are examples of revitalization movements. Some societies have sought to eliminate organized religion and replace it with State or secular values and norms. Science and religion are not incompatible; in fact, some observers feel they are arriving at the same view of the universe. Einstein said, "the universe looks like a great thought."
Keepers of the Flame
Yanomami Indians of Venezuela and Brazil
migration history at least 10-12,000 years (maybe 30,000)
devastating effects of colonialism on political organization (end of classical civilizations of Inca, Aztec, etc.), economics and resources, cultural destruction
1920 first contact in modern era with outsiders (little interaction with Spanish and Portuguese colonists, thus one of last remaining intact native peoples)
Napoleon Chagnon - famous for his anthropological studies of them
gender division of labor, though several shared tasks (cooking)
complex spirit world, accessible through psychotropic drugs, mainly used by shaman and men
grow garden crops, tobacco, which they use from early age (nicotine may help keep parasites down); general physical and mental health good, strong immune systems, extensive knowledge of forest; example of how many tools a modern craftsman knows - much less than a Yanomami knows about the plants in the rainforest
hunt with arrows tipped with curare (used in pharmaceuticals)
practice bride capture, raiding, inter-village hostilities
no musical instruments, but singing and dancing
1987 - gold fever brought disease to Brazilian Yanomami, reduced population from 20,000 to 14,000, caused many to flee to Venezuela; tuberculosis big threat