Political Organization- Abbey Dahl

Between reading the article from last week, "Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving?", and this weeks article, "Sacred Barriers to Conflict Resolution," I have realized that the American politics have become quite partisan. American's values have evolved since 1776 when the United States of America was at last formed after the Revolution. It seems that since we fought so strongly for our freedom, we feel obligated to help other countries gain long lasting freedom as well. This is where a part of the partisanship in politics begins to form. Some citizens strongly support going to help other countries for their freedom, where other protestors in contrast believe that it is not our obligation to fight for freedom in other countries.

Along with freedom, equality is part a crucial part of our culture. Since the Civil Rights Movements many ethnicities have peacefully protested for equality, just like the feminists. This is why I believe that after September 11th, 2001 woman from America thought that Muslim women were being repressed. Prior to the tradegy that struck America, the culture of Muslim's was studied, but not to specific detail. Then after the terroist attack, because of wearing burqas women were suddently repressed from society. It is a sacred value of their view of equality, and a part of their interesting culture that answers the question: Why Muslim women must wear a burqa?

An economic trade-off for protecting the sacred values of others was stated in the artice to be for the well-being of children, and the goodness in the community. Symbolic concessions that could be in help in resolving a conflict could start with a stated apology. As it stated in the article apologies aren't that "special", but it could be a start to a more stronger resolution like a agreed treaty between to countries.

Partisanship in the US government

There is much partisanship in our US government. No members of the two political parties will admit partisan ship to their party, but it is obvious due to the fact that great ideas have been proposed on how to fix our economy. President Obama proposed a few good ideas and bills to fix our economy yet as soon as they hit the Republican controlled Congress his ideas are shot down, and because of this nothing has been done to fix our economy. The Tea party has caught a lot of fire from both the democrats and republicans simply because they are a young and rapidly growing political party. I think the two big parties are afraid due to the idea that they may not make it into office again in the next election. Some other decisions aren't based on just political parties but also religion. The idea of "separation of church and state" is not present in our government today. The refusal to allow mosques to be built in New York and other places evidence of a violation to separation of church and state. I say this because certain officials in the local government are denying Muslims a place to worship simply because it is an Islamic Mosque. In doing they they are being unconstitutional in violating the second amendment of the constitution. There is a lot of partisanship in US politics.

Political Organization, Taylor Britt

After reading the article "Sacred Barriers to Conflict Resolution" I got a further understanding our sacred values and why we have to fight for them. In the article it describes sacred values as the welfare of our family and country or our commitment to religion, honor, and justice. This is why we are sending troops over seas to fight for our freedom and peace. They all have families to protect. In the article it also says that the sacred values that we protect and trade-off would be values such as children's well being, the good of the community, and even a sense of fairness. This is true because the people we are fighting against have their own sacred values. Their most important values are normally family. Americans realized in 1945 in the war against Japan, that if they preserved, or even signaled respect that their emperor might lessen the likelihood that the Japanese would fight to the death to save him. By doing this they conserved many of our troops. The trade-offs for protecting our sacred values started when we went to the Middle East in February of 2007 to discuss the issues of material trade-off. The peace that we have with foreign countries are because of the oil trades we buy from them. This is something that we need so therefore it keeps use sound with them. A symbolic concession that might help resolve the conflict would have something to do with Anthropology and understanding each others cultures. Until we are able to understand this, we will most likely continue to be at war with our foreign enemies.

Political Organization, Sam Stangl

Reading "Sacred Barriers to Conflict Resolution" helped me understand that Americans are going to the extreme to spread our sacred values into a global epidemic, but most especially in the middle east. We value honor, justice, power, and authority to be more sacred over economy. Because of this, America has created barriers against countries that have beliefs not like ours. This does not make resolving political conflicts very easy; it can be seen as a lion vs. an elephant challenging eachother over the right of an area of land.
American politics have become extremely prejudiced, and this is because of the sacred values of the government and government corporations. This has caused conflicts ranging in intensity, from simple debates all the way to serious war. Terrorists from the middle-east have committed suicide in order to take down a large number of Americans or an influential government building because of these conflicts. Leaders in the middle-east have tried to wipe out segments of our government numerous times. This is because of their sacred values of family and religion (which believes in violence against other religions). Americans, in turn, have turned to violence and war to settle disagreements with the middle-east because of their sacred values to bring opponents and offenders to justice.
The middle-east is a major source of valuable resources, mainly oil, which we are willing to see as a reason to keep peace, somewhat, with the "opponent." Likewise, Americans are in posession of an extremely powerful government and many weapons and arms resources. Both sides need eachother because of these economic trade-offs, and with a reason to keep at least a little bit of peace, sacred values for both sides are able to be protected.
Using Anthropology in military fields is a wonderful concession that is helping to resolve the conflicts that barriers made by sacred values continuously create. This helps each side understand each other just that much more, so we can find more solutions for political conflict rather that retaliation and war. We can see underlying conflicts that, with their own solutions found, can solve for bigger and more negative conflicts.

Political Organization - Stephanie Reynolds

After reading the article "Sacred Barriers to Conflict Resolution," I feel that sacred values of the American people can create barriers that make conflict resolution difficult. The sacred values such as religion, family, and honor/duty are some of the most important values in American culture, but these values can also cause problems between people who value other things. For example, one of the most important American values includes freedom, including freedom of religion, speech, and protest. In other cultures, such as the Middle East, these American values are not as sacred to them. Because of this dissent between their sacred values and ours, some conflict can result. Today, this conflict has even lead to a war on terrorism because each side values something different. Religion (Christianity vs. Islam) that has created huge problems for both the U.S. and the Middle East.

Even in America, a large part of the people may believe that US politicians have become too partisan. Sometimes politicians become too partisan without meaning too, and other times politicians do it to achieve their own aims. However, many politicians will claim they have the same sacred values as the American people: religion (oftentimes Christianity), family, and duty to represent the American people. When politicians become too partisan toward one sacred value, especially religion, this too could create conflict or make conflict resolution difficult in the future.

Of course each side is going to want to protect their sacred values, oftentimes no matter what the cost. America is a prime example of that since we have went through the American Revolution to win freedom from the English, and want to promote that sacred value in other oppressed countries as well. Once again, the Middle East comes into play since they want to protect their sacred values. A huge trade off in this case is that even though a country's sacred values are protected, its economy and society are going to suffer in some way because of the strains from war. American soldiers are sent to war, often at the cost of their lives, but they really are strong examples of how sacred the American values of freedom and duty are. Even the suicide bombers/terrorists go to war because they want to protect their values as well. As a result, many of the places in the Middle East are suffering economically and socially because of the war.

Gender Roles

Through out the history of the world during different times and locations, women have been constantly oppressed and abused based solely on their gender. One reason in the eyes of some Christians women are viewed as lesser beings of temptations due to Eve tempting Adam with the Fruit of Knowledge, therefore casting Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden. There are a few reasons I've heard that the Muslim Prominent nations have "imprisoned" women in burqas and in their homes. One reason I've heard, "it was to protect the women from the men." If a man is unable to get to a woman or see a woman they are less tempted to rape or take advantage of the women. One other reason is that that view of a woman's body tempts a man into lust and distracts him from his duties to Allah. Women in most Arabic nations are also denied their right to education. I have not heard the "justification" but the reason for this is to keep the women under their control. An educated women is an independent and fairly free woman. Slowly the way women are viewed and their roles is changing for the better in some countries. Up until around the 1950's, the role of the woman was to be the house caretaker. This included cooking, cleaning, and raising the children. In today's society, women are more free to do as they wish. They can go get an education, have a career that doesn't bound them to the house, and even be the main provider of the family unlike how the men were "suppose" to be for many centuries.

Political Organization

For this week (October 24-28) read Chapter 9 in your text and the following articles:
Sacred Barriers to Conflict Resolution
Army Enlists Anthropologists in War Zones

Discussion Assignment
The article, "Sacred Barriers to Conflict Resolution" discusses how sacred values can create barriers to resolving political conflicts. Many Americans feel that US politics has become too partisan. Can you think of conflicts associated with this partisanship that are based on sacred values? Describe the political conflict and the sacred values associated with it (on each side). What are the trade-offs with economic values for protecting those sacred values? Can you think of symbolic concessions that could be of help in resolving the conflict?  Respond to at least two classmates.

The quiz for chapter 9 is posted in Moodle.