Essay about Cultural Anthropology Book Report - 1815 Words

Classical Readings on Cultural Anthropology What do we have to learn through the study of different cultures? I was hoping for some wonderful revelation in the collection of writings. I may have found one. This book was a difficult read for me. I am not sure whether it’s my age or my inexperience with classical readings. I also found it difficult to formulate a report on a collection of readings, the last report I did was on Laura Ingall’s Little House on the Prairie. This reading was a little more challenging. The main point that seemed to jump out at me is that perceptions change, our theory of reality changes with every viewpoint. Every culture can seem primitive, self destructive, nonsensical, immoral or just wrong, depending on†¦show more content†¦He had spent a year with these people and they humiliated him and hurt him and he needed to find out why. Then along comes someone else, Marvin Harris, and he uses the exact same incident as an â€Å"amusing story† to point out the need of the peop les to curb the ego. I don’t think Mr. Lee thought is was amusing at the time, however that is how Mr. Harris perceived it. I don’t think that either of these stories belonged in the Economics and Ecology section. It appears to me that Mr. Harris has taken his theory way beyond the economical points of world cultures. He seems much more interested in exploring the theory of why we work at jobs and are not just self-sustaining. He gives much credence to the fact that if we would return to the hunter-gatherer state that we could work less and be better off. Next we move into the Marriage and Family Section, with a writing from Melvyn C. Goldstein. This was a much easier read for me – less technical or scientific terms that I am as yet unfamiliar with. This was an interesting story of why one woman would take on many husbands in the Tibetan culture. I thoroughly understood this passage and appreciated the insight given by the author. It appeared non-judgmental and non-condescending like some of the other passages I had read to this point. Death without Weeping by Nancy Scheper-Hughes takes you on a journey through theShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of The Book Savage Minds By Adam Fish And Nick Seaver855 Words   |  4 Pages I have chosen blog posts by Adam Fish and Nick Seaver. Adam Fish is a cultural anthropologist, a teacher and researcher at the Sociology Department of Lancaster University, UK. The blog posts I have chosen written by him are: â€Å"The genie is out of the bottle – it’s foolish to think encryption can now be banned† and â€Å"Interview: An anthropologist on Tiger Woods†. On the other hand, Nick Seaver is a PhD candidate in anthropology at UC Irvine. 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