Final comments

Comment to Stephanie

I too thought that the marriage chapters were the most interesting especially on how the calcualted what was a successful marriage.

Comment to Sam

I also thought that the analysis of our books we read were cool. I like analyzing the different cultures and coming with possible solutions for why they act and how the function.

Final Post

I really enjoyed this class a lot. It was probably one of my favorite classes this semester because I didn't waste time during the semester thinking, "why am I learning this?" or "how is this going to help me in life?" This class taught me about the world and the people in it and how they function. It will help in understanding the how's and the why's cultures live and interact with others. My favorite part of the class was the section on marriage, family, and kinship. It was one of the hardest for me to wrap my head around because so many cultures are different than my culture in huge ways. I hope to use what I learned when I travel around the world. To not judge different cultures against mine or others but to accept them for what they are and what they give to the world.

Comment to Khala on Colonialism

I think tourism is a great example. It didnt even come to mind when I was writing my response. Tourists do take advanctage of the place they are going like it was created just for tourists to visit.

Comment to Sam on Colonialism

Sam and Khala, i had no idea as well on how the two were compared. I had to look at others responses and use internet sites. Thank goodness for the internet.

Sierra Armstrong

Colonialism

Colonialsim is when a prominent country such as England, Spain, or United States, one thats been around for a while, takes control of a smaller, less established country. France colonized coutries in Africa, Spain colonized areas in South and North America, and Britain colonized North America. They came to these places to make them better and function a better way, their way. The major coutries that colonized brought over diseases that killed many natives. They tried to assimilate cultures and take away the natives way of life. Colonization brough benefits and consequences just like the global market has brought benefits to some and consequences to some. Benefits are that pretty much every country can trade goods and make some money. The country may make money but the workers may not reap the rewards. The countries that are trying to trade or buy resources may use up all of those resources and country may be left with few or none at all.

paper

Is anyone else's grade lower because their paper was not graded yet?!

Cultural Paper, Dawn D

Dawn Depouli

Cultural Anthropology

“The Color Purple”

I chose “The Color Purple” for numerous reasons, never once did I think it would catch my attention and dedication like it did. The Color Purple is about a black woman named Celie who endures a lot of cruelty from men throughout her whole life. This book shows how she changed into a miraculous woman who stands up for what she believes in. This novel teaches you that you have to stand up for yourself and not let anyone steer you any other way.

The summary of the novel is that the story, The Color Purple begins with a fourteen-year-old girl named Celie who was raped repeatedly by her stepfather. The only one she was told to speak to was God, so she did this by writing him daily letters. The book starts out in the first letter with Celie describing how and why she is pregnant with her second child. This child was the result of her getting raped by her stepfather, Alphonso. At the time, Celie believes that Alphonso is her real father because that is what her mother has always told her. Her mother ends up dying shortly after, and her stepfather brings home a new wife. Although he has a new wife, he continues to abuse and rape Celie. Celie never saw her children for they were taken away from her by Alphonso and given to the wife of a missionary who couldn't have children. After the acts of rape Celie hated and feared men, but she didn't fear women. Celie's younger sister, Nettie, was incredibly smart and more educated than her, but they loved each other deeply. Soon after Celie had her children, she was then married off to a man who loved Nettie.

While reading this novel, I learned that Celie was raped by her father. I also learned that Celie’s mother is ill and is unable to take care of the family. Celie is forced to cook and clean for her family. Celie conceived two children because of her father’s continuous raping. She never sees her children and believes that her father killed them. A man from town wanted to take Celie’s sister Nettie as a wife, but her father convinces the man to take Celie instead. Celie is now forced to marry an older man who already has children. Celie’s husband constantly beats and rapes her without any remorse. He even made Celie nurse Shug Avery, his mistress, when she was ill. It is now that Celie learns from Shug Avery about love. Shug Avery encourages Celie not to take the abuse from her husband anymore and that she deserves better. Celie would finally leave her husband when she found out that he kept her sister’s letters from her. Nettie was the sole reason why Celie had managed to survive. Celie could not tolerate any more abuse and left with Shug Avery and Mary Agnes. Mary Agnes was Celie’s stepson’s mistress. Celie eventually meets up with Nettie and her two children whom she believed to be dead. She than goes back to her husband who has drastically changed since Shug Avery and Celie left.

Celie learns from Shug Avery about love. Shug Avery encourages Celie not to take the abuse from her husband anymore and that she deserves better. Celie would finally leave her husband when she found out that he kept her sister’s letters from her. Nettie was the sole reason why Celie had managed to survive. Celie could not tolerate any more abuse and left with Shug Avery and Mary Agnes. Mary Agnes was Celie’s stepson’s mistress. Celie eventually meets up with Nettie and her two children whom she believed to be dead. She than goes back to her husband who has drastically changed since Shug Avery and Celie left.

Celie was not very attractive and had no education. The first time she met Shug Avery she said, “you’re sure ugly.” In the beginning of the novel she was very obedient and acted like a slave. Towards the end of the novel she exhibits her newfound self-esteem and feelings of independence. Shug Avery was a very beautiful singer. She was free spirited and is did not have to rely on anyone for help. Celie’s husband was a very cruel man and never once stopped to think about Celie’s feelings. He constantly beat her and forced himself upon her. Near the end of the novel his character drastically changes and realizes that he was wrong to treat Celie the way he did.

During this novel, I saw many examples of the importance of the traditional family unit in America. Celie is forced to marry Mr. because in patriarchal American society it is essential that she have a husband. Mr. ‘s father forces him to marry Annie Julia despite the fact that he really loves Shug because he must have a proper wife. After reading the letters containing this information I was expecting a story of the typical family unit. I was not expecting the type of family that is ultimately glorified in the book. My understanding that the family that I would ultimately see in the book would not be a conventional one came with the realization that attitudes towards women in the novel caused men to sleep with several different women. The result of the aforementioned promiscuity is that men have children from different mothers all over the place. It is difficult to establish the traditional two parents, two-kid family when there are several different mothers and children involved. Sometimes, as was the case with Mr. and ‘Fonso, a man’s wife will die and he will take another wife. He will often have children by both the first, second, and possibility third wife as Alfonso did. In addition to the men, there are several strong, assertive female characters in the novel that were not afraid to behave the same way in terms of having several husbands/lovers. The result of the behavior of both the men and women is a large group of individuals composed of husbands, wives, lovers, ex-husbands, ex-wives, ex-lovers, still married individuals who have gone off with someone else, and all of their various children. This situation would not normally be very intriguing to me if not for the fact that all of these people are able to come together and truly be a family.

In conclusion, throughout all the trouble Celie had to go through, a proving success came. She had started the pants business, which brought her upright and standing up for her self. She had the courage to fight back. This even brought a key success into recognition, which symbolized her growth as a human being. This showed us how her self-respect had increased. Finally, towards her recognition and success she had a key to equality with her husband. It was an equal opportunity. Mr. Albert had changed and realized what he had done was wrong and had accepted it as a mistake. Therefore, though all these major events in which Celie strived for brought her to a finally success, recognition and equality. Additionally, one of the reasons I enjoyed this novel so much is because despite the rough times that Celie had in the end Celie and her true biological children are brought back together at the end, forming that traditional family unit. This made the story complete, and gave it a great ending. Everyone was on their own, but they all got united into one family, I don't think the story would have a point if Celie's real children just lived their own lives and never met one another. The importance of traditional family unit comes to mind when you read this book. Another reason I liked this book because Celie does things that black woman weren't supposed to do during that time period.

I have always felt that I was extremely lucky to have the level of love, understanding, and trust that exists within my immediate family. My immediate family refers to my parents and brother. With that being said The Color Purple helped me realize that there might be a type of family that is missing from my life. I have always wanted to be a part of a community of friends, teachers, lovers, of men and women who love each other without being related to one another, but I never thought of that type of a community as a family. By the end of the novel the level of connection that the characters managed to achieve with each other was astonishing. The beauty of The Color Purple for me lays not so much in the struggle of women, but in the struggle of everyone to find a place to belong.

Colonialism

SInce the early 1990s, almost all areas of the world had their own form of government and were no longer colonies of another country. During the era of colonialism, wealthy countries controlled the smaller, poorer countries in different places of the world in order to have cheap supplies of raw materials and markets to sell their goods. Even though the colonies gained independence they were still dependent on their former rulers. Economic ties were usually the strongest and the smaller countries continue to depend on the wealthy ones for survival. With the introduction of industry and technology the world economy has become what is known as a global market economy. Everyone trades with one another and the wealthy nations continue to fund industry in the poorer countries. They pay for cheap labor and materials now, just like they did during colonial times. Many poor countries continue to depend on the protection of the wealthy countries and need those countries in order to survive.

Globalization/Colonization, by Khala Flanagan

From the textbook:

The historical process of colonization transformed the world, creating a process of globalization. But the world is not a global village. It’s one of privilege and exclusion, rapid change, and shocking inequality.
The end of colonial rule brought challenges – of poverty, the presence of multination corporations, urbanization, population growth, immigration and emigration, ecological disaster, war, and instability – to newly independent nations. Under colonialism, economic plans focused on making colonies productive for their owners.
Colonialism differs in important ways from the earlier expansion of European power. Whereas much of the initial phase of European expansion was carried out by private companies and often took the form of raid and pillage, colonialism involved the active possession of foreign territory by European governments. Once colonies were seized, they had to be administered and they had to be made profitable. Finding ways to extract taxes and create the conditions in which corporations could make money often meant the systematic undermining of indigenous ways of life.
The European expansion and the era of colonization were historic processes that changed the world from a collection of relatively independent economics and societies to a complex world system.

Basically, what this means is that even though colonization opened up new worlds and promoted healthy expansion, it did so at the cost of other cultures’ ruin and demise. For example, the culture of the Native Americans slowly died out when the whites arrived in the New World, and Africans were enslaved to make Great Britain one of the most powerful empires in the world.
Now, in our current age of unimaginably fast globalization, people are connected everywhere across the world in “active possession” just like colonization did back the early centuries… it’s just in a different form. Tourism is a perfect example: you have people from wealthy countries travel to undeveloped places in the non-western world to taste the “exotic” cultures and traditions of different people… but, sadly, these are just illusions in our modernizing, global world. Traditional cultures are more or less just constructed for tourists and profit. Tourism marks the 3rd largest form of trade in the world, and many nations are financially stable because of it. Still, colonization remains present in its 21st century version: students study abroad, people buy villas and secondary homes overseas, modern means of transportation are built in the most rural areas, and many communities still try to cling onto their traditional ways amidst the “easy access” and lighting speed of modern technological change.

Final Discussion, Khala Flanagan

As someone who loves to write, I’ve always felt that my college studies and subjects help me tremendously with my stories, just like real life experiences do. When you go to college or attend a class, you don’t just learn the subject matter. You learn the art of being challenged, being prompted to speak your mind, and being humble with your work. You learn the art of responsibility, accountability, and respect. You learn what it means to sometimes be discriminated and isolated because of your beliefs. And it opens your eyes to see things you never saw before about people, the world, and even yourself. All in all, education gives a window of opportunity for us students to grow up, change, and become better people (and, for me, a better writer!), only if we let it. He who returns from a journey is not the same as he who left.

So, I try and take as much as I can from all my different classes, especially when it came to anthropology. As a soldier, my Dad has traveled all over the world and seen thousands of different places with bizarre cultures. The stories he tells me and my siblings when he returns are so fascinating, it’s hard to believe that we’re all on this same earth. I was captivated to study anthropology so that I could perhaps get a little bit closer to the worlds my Dad has seen… but most importantly, I wanted to come respect other cultures because I believe we all are made in the image of God.

To me, it’s a shame this class was online. I feel that I would have taken so many more valuable “life lessons” about anthropology if we all could have been together in a classroom, discussing things verbally instead of always through the internet. When you’re talking about human cultures, it helps to have a “real” human being to talk to instead of a computer screen!

But even though that wasn’t the case for this class, I still feel the effects of what I’ve learned. I HAVE come to respect other cultures much more profoundly than before because of where they are geographically on our earth, their kind of livelihood and customs, and how they see life. Even though I don’t agree with many others’ ways and cultures, my faith has helped to remind me of the sacredness of life, and that God’s grace falls upon everyone… especially those who don’t know or reject Him.

One special moment happened to me this week that proved just how anthropology has helped me see things differently. My little sisters returned from the library with bags full of picture books, and one book they had picked out was “People” by Peter Spier. The book colorfully shows the different people across the world, how they live, where they live, and what they believe. Because it’s a children’s book, it’s perfectly innocent and explains things in the simplest terms possible. Yet, the ending of the book really struck me, because I think it’s exactly what I can summarize about my anthropology experience with this class:

Six billion human beings… young and old, sick and well, happy and unhappy, kind and unkind, strong and weak. People everywhere. And all different. It is very strange: Some people even hate others because they are unlike themselves. Because they are different. They forget that they too would seem different if they could only see themselves through other people’s eyes. But imagine how dreadfully dull this world of ours would be if everybody looked, thought, ate, dressed, and acted the same! Now isn’t it wonderful that each and every one of us is unlike any other?

Final Disussion

During the course of this class, i took into consideration that there are many different cultures in the world and they all have a unique way of expressing what they believe in. I learned many views on things like marriage, race, religious practices, and much more. What i found most interesting in this course was all the different forms of cultural celebrations. The many different ways that cultures around the world did their religious practices. What i found least interesting about this course were some of the readings. I learned in this course that I cannot judge someone by the way they look unless i really look into what their culture is about.

Final Discussion - Stephanie Reynolds

   This class was interesting in some aspects, I liked the chapters that dealt with different marriage styles and how other cultures defined relationships. What we would consider a good or successful marriage could be taken completely different in someone else's culture. What was least interesting to me though was some of the market/economy material we had to cover near the end of the book. I've read so much on global warming and population increase that it gets old after awhile.

Anyways, I guess anthropolgy would somewhat useful to me since I work in a hospital. There are so many different types of people there, and not just based on race or religion, and it's a good idea to know a little bit about how to react to a different culture. There are so many different ideas, traditions, and values for every individual that I might encounter at the hospital, so this class would useful in the fact that it gave me more reason to be tolerant of who others are.

Final Post, Sam Stangl

This class was very important to me. I am going to school to be a Biomedical Engineer, and my advisor told me that this class, although it would help me complete my associate's degree, would not be of much use to me. I disagree. I have learned a lot about culture, about humans in the past and their progression into the future. I also learned how people in different places are, and why those personality traits and culture changes are important when tryig to understand a person. I was most interested about the chapters both in Religion and in Kinship, but I was not interested in learning about anthropologists views on the economy. I understand that anyone who wants to be a historian or a political scientest, or of course an anthropologist, might need to know the economics side of anthropology, but it was my own least favorite chapter. I needed this course more than my advisor thought I would, and better yet, more than I thought I would. I can now relate to more cultures, and I can be more open-minded toward the way people in other cultures live, think, and try to understand me. I think this class also helped me to learn how online classes are, and what kind of things will be expected of me, as this was my first ever fully online course. I'm glad that I took it, for sure, because other than learning a lot I really enjoyed reading The House of the Spirits and analyzing it, and I also learned to communicate my thoughts thoroughly about humans and culture. This course made me a better student and a better person.

Colonialism and Global Market Economy, Sam Stangl

I think I should start off by saying that until I read everyone else's responses to this question, I had no idea what the comparisons between these two things could possibly be. Colonialism is possessing foreign territory and sharing politics, culture, and language not with their surrounding governments. What I have learned global market economy has in common with colonialism is foreign aid and development programs, which unfortunately ignore women, that incerease male productivity. These programs often fail, though, because of their ignorance toward women's economic roles. Also, war is found both in colonialization and in global market economy. Territory, government, and finances are of utmost importance.

Final Discussion

Honestly I'm not to sure what I will be able to take onto my future classes. I'm going to UNCW next semester to study Marine Biology. If I was to do a lot of field work in other nations I would see heavy need to do some culture research. Also being in the military I have opportunities to experience more cultures so I need to understand new cultures before I go to a new nation. I always find it interesting to learn about and experience different cultures.

Colonialism and Global Market

Colonization and Global Marketing are in my opinion to sides of the same coin. Colonialism was used in the 1600's as a means to gather materials and minerals and sell them to other nations to turn profit. Today's word uses the Global Market system. Today colonies are not around but they are not needed for the goods to be available. Today it is just a matter of going to another nation's port and buying or trading for the goods. However big companies in the world have learned on how to exploit other nation's resources, primarily people. Many Chinese and Indian people are paid near to crap by American businesses in exchange for cheap labor on products sold either expensively or cheaply in US stores. US companies exploit the poverty of the lower class in most nations.

Final Discussion - Becca Libby

I actually took this class a few years ago, and ended up dropping it. I really wanted to stay in the class, because it seemed so interesting, but due to personal crap I dropped that whole semester. I am so glad I decided to take the class again. Going through each subject makes you consider things that you would not think about as in depth in any other situation. I loved all of the articles that Mrs. Reeves chose for us. It is so much more interesting to have some outside reading rather than just the text book. My favorite readings were at the very beginning, the Eskimos were my favorite. My least favorite topic was probably Economics. Although it is a very important aspect of our society, I cannot help but find it incredibly dull.

I will leave this class slightly more enlightened about other peoples views. Having read and responded to other peoples posts about the topics was really eye opening in a lot of cases. It's nice to think about things from another perspective.

Globalization And Change - Becca Libby

The first thing that comes to mind when thinking about Globalization is technology and communications. It creates a bigger market for shipping and trading of goods all over the world. However, there are a lot of issues with this system as well. Many people would prefer to buy goods that were made in the USA because, in many cases, they are better quality. For example, I personally boycott Wal-Mart because they sell cheap products that have been made overseas by children in sweat shop being paid pennies for their labor. Big businesses like Wal-Mart and Best Buy seem like good American companies, but 99% of the products they sell come from overseas.
I support trade with other countries, but I do not support unfair treatment of workers. Globalization and demand for more products at a faster pace create these kinds of conditions.

Some argue the Modernization Theory, that high income countries go into low income countries and help them out by hiring them to do things like build and operate oil rigs, and this is creating a more modern and technologically advanced society. Unfortunately this is not the case, high income nations go in to exploit cheap labor from the natives and leave their factories and airports, but those people do not know how to operate these establishments, so they crumble and become unusable. Technology has no doubt been a huge help in creating a global market for goods and services. Many people benefit from this, but only the people who are educated about computers and cell phones and such. It has become almost impossible for lower income countries to become educated about technology (other than the select few rich families in the countries). So although technology and globalization has it's benefits, it also has many downfalls.

Final Discussion-Abbey Dahl

On the first day of classes this semester I accidently got the book for this class instead of world religions. I glanced at a couple pages and decided this class could be very interesting. Even thought the class was filled online, by going all around campus and having professors sign off on sheets I was able to get into the class. I am so fortunate to have been able to apart of this online class. Anthropology was by far one of my favorite courses I have ever taken.
The most important aspect that I will take away from this class is to have much more respect for other cultures. I am not saying I did not respect other's beliefs prior to taking this course, but my respect level has certainly been amplified to a much greater amount.
I do not believe I found anything not interesting. This was a subject I had only heard about, and once I started reading the chapters they got more and more intriging!
In my life I thing that Anthropology will allow me to be apart of more worldly discussions, and it will help me to show other people that other cultures are just as important and fascinating as their culture. I feel like it is all about respect, and from respecting others things can be a lot more peaceful.

Final Discussion, Dawn Depouli

What will you take from this class? In thinking about your response, you may want to address the following questions:
What did you find most interesting? Least interesting?
What did you learn that you feel will help you in other courses, your career, or your life in general?

What makes anthropology interesting is the capacity to understand culture and make you more “understand” other culture. That makes one respect other culture and avoid the greatest sin in anthropology - being ethnocentric - the belief that ones culture is the more superior than others. It make a person accepting, so to speak.

Aside from this, when one knows the basic understanding and appreciation of culture study you will appreciate other people more. Even just sitting down at a café and observing how people do their things is an example of methods in anthropology.Most interesting to me was learning about how things are still in place today, we just don't think of them in the terms that we were taught in this class. There wasn't really much that I didn't enjoy. I had a very tough semester in general with medical so I can only hope that I took in the information the way I needed to.

Although I won't need this class for my career or degree I always had a strong desire to learn about cultures other than my own and I wanted to gain an understanding of the world that might help me teach others. It really interests me to know just how things truly started out. A degree in anthropology can open countless doors to many careers. Majors can continue their studies and pursue advanced degrees, conduct research, write ethnographies, and become professors. Majors can also apply anthropology to numerous fields. Observation and analytical skills prove to be useful in almost any situation. The ethnographic method intrigues students. If anthropology interests you, negative views and assumptions should not discourage you. A liberal arts education of any kind does not necessarily have to relate in any way to your future career; it is simply a way of teaching you to think critically and gain knowledge of an area of study in depth.

I enjoyed the semester and thank you for your time