Culture And Humanity Exam 2: ANTH 152 LCC Wai`anae Moku Fall

Culture & Humanity EXAM 2: ANTH 152 LCC Wai`anae Moku: Fall 2020

Complete the ID and essay sections at home. The ID section requires choosing five terms from a list, identifying and explaining each in 3-6 sentences, referencing course materials, and demonstrating knowledge. The essay involves explaining to an alien observer whether the community's gender and marriage norms are universal or culturally specific, using anthropological concepts and case studies to support your argument. The essay should include an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion, referencing relevant course materials such as "Leaving Mother Lake" and other readings, and should focus on key concepts and methods in cultural anthropology.

Paper For Above instruction

In analyzing human development, particularly gender, kinship, and marriage practices, it is crucial to recognize the vast diversity across cultures. The community described by Tyzog, where individuals only become recognized as men and women after high school graduation and where marriage is predominantly between childhood sweethearts, exemplifies specific cultural norms that are not universal but culturally constructed. To fully understand these practices, anthropological insights into different cultural worlds and core human diversity are essential. This essay explores whether these norms are universal or culturally specific by examining ethnographic examples and discussing anthropological concepts like social structure, kinship systems, and gender roles.

First, it is vital to understand that human development of personhood and subjectivity is mediated by cultural contexts. In the community described by Tyzog, the customs emphasize a linear progression from childhood to adulthood rooted in formal rites of passage, such as high school graduation. This differs markedly from other cultures where rites of passage might involve initiation ceremonies, ritualistic age-sets, or community recognition. For instance, among the Moso of China, as described in "Leaving Mother Lake," gender roles and kinship systems operate within a flexible matrilineal society, challenging Western notions of fixed gender binaries and emphasizing community roles over individual achievement (Yang, 2003). Such examples demonstrate that developmental milestones are culturally variable and shaped by local meanings and practices.

Second, the community’s focus on marriage between high school sweethearts and the expectation of women serving as housewives reflect specific cultural values about gender roles and kinship that are not universal. Cross-cultural studies show that kinship and marriage norms vary widely. In predominantly matrilineal societies like the Moso, women often hold significant social power and may marry outside their family line, which contrasts sharply with the predominantly patriarchal norms of the American community depicted by Tyzog. These differences highlight that gender roles, including notions of masculinity and femininity, are culturally negotiated rather than biologically predetermined (Leith, 2006). For example, among the Trobriand Islanders, women actively participate in yam cultivation, and their social roles are integral to kinship and economic life, challenging Western assumptions about gendered division of labor (Malinowski, 1922).

Third, anthropological analysis of social structure illuminates that kinship systems profoundly influence gender and marriage practices. Franz Boas's studies emphasized cultural relativism—understanding practices within their cultural context rather than judging them by universal standards. In societies with different kinship systems such as matrilineal, patrilineal, or bilateral descent, norms regarding marriage, inheritance, and gender roles differ. The American community’s emphasis on heterosexual marriage and gender roles based on biological sex is just one configuration. Many societies, for instance, recognize kinship groups that include multiple genders or non-binary individuals, demonstrating that gender itself is a cultural construct (Foucault, 1978). Such variability underscores that norms observed in the U.S. community are culturally specific rather than universal.

Furthermore, understanding that human development is culturally shaped involves recognizing the role of social institutions, symbols, and rituals in constructing personhood. For example, in the Trobriand society, as Malinowski describes, children learn social roles through participation in yam ceremonies—a form of cultural socialization that is different from the formalized educational milestones in the U.S. This illustrates that developmental markers differ based on cultural priorities and social structures (Malinowski, 1922). The community’s focus on formal education and marriage as developmental milestones is therefore a cultural adaptation, not a universal feature of human growth.

In conclusion, the norms observed in the community described by Tyzog—delayed recognition of gender, marriage between childhood sweethearts, and gender roles rooted in traditional gender expectations—are not universal human features. Rather, they are products of specific cultural, social, and historical contexts. Anthropology teaches us that human development, including notions of personhood and gender, is highly variable and culturally constructed. Ethnographic cases like the Moso and the Trobriand Islanders reveal diverse pathways of socialization and kinship that challenge any notion of universality. Therefore, Tyzog’s observations reflect only one cultural configuration among many possible human arrangements, emphasizing the importance of understanding cultural diversity to appreciate what is normative and what is culturally specific in human development.

References

• Malinowski, B. (1922). The Argonauts of the Western Pacific. Routledge.
• Leith, P. (2006). "Gender and Power in Papua New Guinea." Annual Review of Anthropology, 35, 245-261.
• Yang, M. (2003). Leaving Mother Lake: A Girlhood at the Edge of the Yangtze. Basic Books.
• Foucault, M. (1978). The History of Sexuality, Volume I: An Introduction. Pantheon Books.
• Boas, F. (1911). The Principles of Ethnology. The Boas Lecture Series.