Cultural Anthropology Book Report Essay -- essays research papers

Classical Readings on Cultural AnthropologyWhat do we have to check through the study of varied cultures? I was hoping for some wonderful revelation in the collection of writings. I may have found angiotensin-converting enzyme. This harbour was a difficult analyze for me. I am not authorized whether its my age or my inexperience with classical readings. I withal found it difficult to formulate a report on a collection of readings, the last report I did was on Laura Ing anys small(a) House on the Prairie. This reading was a little more challenging. The master(prenominal) point that reckoned to jump out at me is that perceptions change, our theory of reality changes with any viewpoint. Every culture can seem primitive, self destructive, nonsensical, immoral or just wrong, depending on who is doing the observation and what perspective they are observing from.In the first reading, Narcirema, points very clearly to the fact that our own culture could seem very odd, stupid, an d ritualistic to an outsider. But arent we all outsiders to everyone else? Dont we see ourselves as normal and everyone else as abnormal? I esteem it is human nature more than ethnocentrism. My cursory rituals would seem very irrational to another woman of my age in different circumstances. Thats where the grammatical construction comes from that you dont really know a person gutter you walk a mile in their shoes.The second reading of cigarette Customs gets right to my point that culture is an abstraction therefore from distributively one(prenominal) person doing the viewing views it differently. Culture is pointed out as being a way of intellection, feeling, and believing and since I have never met anyone who thought exactly the way I did or so everything, one would have to conclude that we each have our own culture and our own views of other cultures.I wasnt really sure that the next reading really fit in with the others in the book. Rapport-talk versus Report-talk seem ed insignificant to the other passages. It is a well-known fact, in all walks of life that men and women of any race, creed, or culture are different and that we have different and sometimes contrasting ways of communicating with each other. I was surprised to find this seemingly simple theory in this book. Yet again back to my question am I getting the intended message from the author?The Christmas Ox story made so much more sense to me and had great importance when I read the passage on Potlach.... ...tely cause the demise of the entire culture. Sharps and Bodleys detailed description of simple helpful actions that have generational, historical implications are dramatic and still, and maybe even more so, relevant to redbrick cultural diffusion. We dont often think critically about our efforts to help others. We just dive in and fix things, this seems to come with the thinking that we know better than they do. This is a common problem in todays governments around the world. Thi s is the result of ethnocentrism. This book has certainly taught me one thing. American culture is very ethnocentric. Ours is one that is a nightmare to fly the good and the bad because there are so many ingeminate standards. I think this speaks to the very core of contention among Americans these days. Very a few(prenominal) of our leaders do what is right, and each of us has our own definition of right. peradventure if more people could really walk outside of their own daily rituals, beliefs, habits and commandments, and truly look at human kind without a transcendency gauge, then the world would be a better place with slight war, less suffering, less judgment and more peace, happiness, success, and creativity.