- Overview
- Student Projects Fall 2014
- Student Projects 2014
- ethnographic analysis & cultural traditions
- ethnography, fieldwork, and participant observation
- cultural variation and similarity
- cultural change and continuity
- cultural systems
- holism: concepts of culture
- globalization
- Student Digital Stories <2012
- Student Projects Fall 2013
- Ethnographic Film
- Links
Anthropologists have studied humankind all over the world for hundreds of years. Even before the scientific studies of humankind began people were curious about other peoples around them. Travel is quite an educator. Anthropologists' fieldwork has been instrumental in helping us see ourselves from worldwide perspectives.—Instructor Dr. L. Davis-Stephens
Next student post here.
Tahnee Saxton
Quade Baugh
Next student post here.
Cordae Mckelvy & Semaj Blanton
Zachary and Gabe Bird
Calvin Ochs
Savannah Gamble & Tanner Spencer
Digital Story
http://youtu.be/ga-5a15LnUA
Blake Mari
Digital story
Jason Manning
Digital story 2014
Steven Nelson
Digital Story 2014
Jermaine Smith & Shay-ann Holness
Digital Story 2014 Fall
Brooklyn Sidebottom
CA Digital Story
Jason T Berry
Digital Story Fall 2014
Julian Sanchez-Pinto
Digital Story Fall 2014
Dontrell Lyons, Raheem Brown and Keenan Williams
Adrian Guevara and michael kinuthia
Paige Roopchan
Josh Jones, Nick Silva, Kody Denny
Paige Todd
Zach,Luke, and Luc
Luc Hebert
——
Heath Churchwell & Emily Johnston
Ally Knoeferl
Ashley Riley and Gennard Paul
Daniel Quintana, Daniel Mackay, Drake Biggins, Grant Buchanan
Denet Sang
Shanae Reynolds
Interview Project
Danielle Rodriguez, Christina Ehr, and Denet Sang
Serena Stacy
Karlie Guenther
Cheyanne Soderlund
Brianna Salas
Our Digital Story
Next student post here.
Cordae Mckelvy
History of Kansas City
I was born and raised in Kansas. But the city that I am from is nothing like Colby. I was born in Kansas City Missouri but I was raised in Kansas City Kansas. Kansas City is the third largest state in Kansas. Kansas City was first formed in 1868. Kansas City is also known as “KCK” and connects to the Kaw River (Kansas and Missouri river) which is the largest river in the country. Kansas was a free state and Missouri was a slave state. In 1920 it reached 100,000 residents for the first time. Kansas City had its first city election on October 22, 1872.
We are located in the Midwestern part of the United States. Because we are located in the middle we experience hot and cold swings all year long. Our warmest month of the year is July. However, because we are right on the edge of “Tornado Alley” we experience powerful storms throughout the spring season. We are also subject to floods, there were too Great Floods one in 1993 and the other in 1951. There was one ice storm in 2002. Were jus not located in the best spot for weather.
As of the census of 2000, there were 146,866 people, 55,500 households, and 36,241 families residing in the city. Ten years later in 2010 population had went down to 145,786 people. From March 2011 to March 2012 employment increased 4%. That makes Kansas City 19th in the nation and 1st in the KC metro areas in job growth as of about a year ago.
Kansas City is a great place to live, work and have fun. Many great business and buildings reside in Kansas City. Though we do not have our own basketball team we do have a soccer team none as the wizards, a football team none as the Chiefs, a baseball team none as the Royals and we have the Kansas Speedway that house NASCAR Sprint series and several other racing series. There is also a Schlitterbahn a great family park. One of two states to have this huge waterpark.
Kansas City is not a difficult place to escape from. We have two major highways (i-35 and i-70) that connects to Des Moines, Iowa, Wichita, all over Kansas, Missouri, Topeka, and Denver. You can not only travel by your own car but we have local metro buses that can get you around Kansas and Missouri for about one dollar and fifty cent. There is also Grey Hound buses that can take you just about anywhere inside the U.S, there’s taxis, several bike trails and we and the KCI airport. So any time you want to get a way you have a couple different options on how to do so.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_City,_Kansas
http://www.historickansascity.org/?pages=kansas-city
Raheem Brown, Dontrell Lyons and Keenan Williams
Anthropology is the study of the human as at once an individual, a product of society, and a maker of history and culture. It’s the nature of the human condition to live within structures of symbol, belief, and power of our own fashioning: religion, art, gender, war, ecosystems, race relations, embodiment, kinship, science, colonialism, language, nations and states, play, subsistence strategies, mass media, illness, pain, and pleasure. In a word, culture. And anthropologists study all this and more. Anthropology comes from the Greek, literally “the study of the human.” As such, we overlap with history, sociology, psychology, political science, literature, documentary studies, and other fields. What distinguishes anthropology is less what anthropologists study, than how they do it, and in particular the investigative techniques of participant-observation. Researchers live with and share the daily experiences of the people they are studying, often for years at a time. They also conduct formal and informal interviews; carry out surveys; gather oral histories, myths, and genealogies; and take notes, film, and record. Things that seem irrational, scary, and downright weird on first arrival become second nature, and things that seemed natural and unquestionable at home can start to seem rather odd. Anthropologists believe that this position of being betwixt and between, or liminal, is a powerful place for understanding. One of the earliest articulations of the anthropological meaning of the term "culture" came from Sir Edward Tylor who writes on the first page of his 1897 book: "Culture, or civilization, taken in its broad, ethnographic sense, is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society." The term "civilization" later gave way to definitions by V. Gordon Childe, with culture forming an umbrella term and civilization becoming a particular kind of culture. The anthropological concept of "culture" reflects in part a reaction against earlier Western discourses based on an opposition between "culture" and "nature", according to which some human beings lived in a "state of nature".Anthropologists have argued that culture is "human nature", and that all people have a capacity to classify experiences, encode classifications symbolically (example: in language), and teach such abstractions to others. Since humans acquire culture through the learning processes of enculturation and socialization, people living in different places or different circumstances develop different cultures. Anthropologists have also pointed out that through culture people can adapt to their environment in non-genetic ways, so people living in different environments will often have different cultures. Much of anthropological theory has originated in an appreciation of and interest in the tension between the local (particular cultures) and the global (a universal human nature, or the web of connections between people in distinct places/circumstances)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Burnett_Tylor
http://www.uh.edu/class/anthropology/courses/
Shanae Reynolds
All Culture have special food taboos. Like Asian countries like China, Japan, Thailand have more of a diverse cultural diet. People have done surveys to see how a country’s food correlate with personal eating habits of those who traveled there. They found that people who travel to Asian countries tend to have less food taboos than people who have travel to like Europe. People that travel to Asian often could not cite on food that they refuse to eat. Whereas people who have been to Europe could name at least one food that they personally consider to be inedible. I think that the reason for this disparity is because of the economic differences between the east and the west. Also in the personal reasons people have for traveling to either Europe or Asia. Some places like Southeast Asia lack specific food types they refuse to eat. They do how every eat beef, pork, poultry, they also eat dogs, cats, dingoes, and insects. The explanation for this can be traced to their historical background. Another factor that we need to think of when examining the correlation between travel and food choice is reasons for travel. Europe is Known to be more of a “cultured” and perhaps a safer place to travel then Asia. As Americans we can go to Europe without leaving the comforts of western society. But if you want more of an exotic trip you might choose to go to Asia. Those people we call crazy and more adventurous by nature and like to try new thing.
Harris, M. (1986). Good to Eat: Riddles of Food and Cultrure. Simon and Schuster.
The Anthropology book
How Culture Affects Obesity
By: Emily Johnston
Obesity is common within the United States. According to the article, “Culture and the Evolution of Obesity,” by Peter J. Brown, it affects 12 percent of adult men and women. It is a serious condition because it is linked to many other health problems. Being overweight and obesity are linked to cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and hypertension. Individually, obesity and excess weight may cause great psychological pain. What are it’s the causes? Genetics and environmental factors are key players. Culture predisposes individuals to obesity.
In attempts to avoid food shortages, humans have created a more productive economy. Industrial societies have created an energy-intensive system that have produced a surplus of food (Brown 212). This surplus provides for distribution of fattening foods. “These agricultural surpluses are seldom used to eliminate hunger; rather they are used to transform and process foods in particular ways—often to add calories, fat, or salt” (Brown 212). In addition, because of the cultural evolution of “work,” people are less likely to burn off all the calories they take in unless they do daily workouts (Brown 212). For example, computer technicians are less likely to burn off their calorie intake because their job requires them to sit for most the the day.
Social structure also influences the rate of obesity within societies. In diverse societies many people marry within their own ethnicity and social class. “In the United States, members of ethnic minorities choose marriage partners from the same group at extremely high rates” (Brown 212). This may cause predispositions to obesity in subpopulations. Statistics show obesity in women differs based on ethnicity; 37% of African-American women are obese, as well as 22% Mexican-American women and 24% Caucasian women (Ferguson).
The culture which an individual lives impacts their risk of obesity. The United States’s culture creates a much higher risk than less-developed countries. The combinations of higher calorie intake and less activity, factors that cause obesity, are more likely to happen in some cultures rather than others. Also, social structure causes variation of obesity in ethnicity and social class. All in all, culture predisposes individuals to obesity.
Sources:
Brown, Peter J. “Culture and the Evolution of Obesity.” Human Nature 2 (1991):31-57. Print.
Ferguson, M.. N.p.. Web. 2 Mar 2014. <http://journalism.nyu.edu/publishing/archives/race_class/othergirlsstuff.html>.
michael kinuthia
a story about the kikuyu tribe
in this video ngugi was arguing about english being an African language
http://www.ngugiwathiongo.com/
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/159335.I_Will_Marry_When_I_Want
http://www.ngugiwathiongo.com
Tanner Spencer and Savannah Gamble
Wiki Essay
Linda Davis-Stephens
++History of Saskatchewan
At its most basic form, the history of Saskatchewan can be described as a group of different cultures assimilating to harsh weather conditions, and an extremely agriculturally based way of life. Saskatchewan is a melting pot of cultures put together into one province. It is known as a Prairie province in the breadbasket of Canada, due to the consistently high yields that can be produced from the fertile land. The Aboriginal people that initially inhabited the province however lived off of the land in a different way, utilizing the wildlife as their means of food, and livelihood through fur trade which extended North to the large trading hub known as Hudson’s Bay. This was mainly due to their initial location, which is in the Northern part of the province, meaning the short summers made growing crops nearly impossible. Today much of Northern Saskatchewan is comprised of reserve territory for our high amount of indigenous people. These reserves are considered to be self-sufficient groups, mainly dominated by descendants of Cree and Assiniboine tribes. The Hudson’s Bay trading company can be largely attributed to the European Settlements in Saskatchewan. The European Settlements happened in a staggeringly quick amount of time as the language and cultural barriers, as well as harsh Winter month proved to be overwhelming, forcing them to venture into Southern Saskatchewan. Here they set up Homesteads in densely populated groups, utilizing the domesticated animals to till up the Native ground, which now serves as the backbone of Saskatchewan’s economy. The reality of the immense loneliness, incredibly hard work and frigid Winters meant many of the European pioneers were not able to realize their desire for a better life. But those who were able to make it through the initial hardships, still have strong ancestral lines in the Province, and those ancestors are educated and grateful for the sacrifices that have been made for them.
http://esask.uregina.ca/home.html
http://www.gov.sk.ca/Default.aspx?DN=a133c043-1183-428a-ac61-9c575fd56e29
Next student post here.
Terry Starks Interview with Dr. Linda Davis-Stephens
April 30,2014
Terry Starks
Ms. Carter
Interview Project
April 30, 2014
Dr. Linda Davis-Stephens
I interviewed Dr. Linda Davis Stephens, an anthropologist, who comes from an Indian family. She also teaches Cultural Anthropology at Colby Community College and has been for over 20 years. Some of the stuff we’ve talked about was her past life, aging, and retirement.
One question I asked her was “What stands out for you as you look back over your life”. She replied with one of the most important people in her life who is Karl H. Schlesier. He is currently 90 years old. He taught at Wichita State University in which he encouraged her to stay in school when she tried to give up so many times. Mr. Schlesier is part of the Cheyenne family (Indians) and she still talks to him today. Connecting to people and the spirit world was one of her most rewarding parts of her life. Believing the unseen and knowing that there is something going on in the invisible world gives her great spirituality. Married in her late 20’s and have 4 kids. At her low point in life, before having children, she didn’t think she would have any and considered that humans were cancers to the Earth. Having children, she appreciated life more. Her children were home schooled and are responsible people of society. As of today, Dr. Stephens is paralyzed from catching the flu 3 years ago. Her immune system attacked her spinal cord causing her to not control her muscles but progressed over the years and have control over hands and legs (etc) again. Proud of being born at the time that she did and believes that life is endanger right now. Furthermore she explained that the government and society is not really caring about humanity. “There’s people on the street and children starving but no one is doing anything about it” Dr. Stephens stated. She went on to say that the government has patented human genetics. Making someone pay hundreds and thousands of dollars for something like breast cancer. Stephens stated that everything is about money for society.
An advice she gave me on aging was to respect your elders. Elders have so much knowledge and should be appreciated more. Deep into the subject, she added that American Indians are not respected as veterans for their services. She knew someone who just came back from Iraq and didn’t even want to talk about their experience about the war. “They (American Indian Veterans) come back all wounded” she applied and tells me that people are just giving up on each other not just as veterans but as human beings in general. Wrapping up the interview, I ask “What is living like for you right now”. On the weekday, she rents out a room to teach at Colby C. C. and weekends she returns to her farm which is 100 miles away filled with buffaloes. On her farm, which she receives no income, she plans to take care of when she retires and get honeybees. Dr. Linda Davis-Stephens is an awesome person!!!
Next student post here.
Tim Cubit
An American classroom consist of different kinds of kids in one big class room sometimes the class room is small. There are different races in class also, different ethnic’s cultures where people start to get to know each other. It might be a lot of kids in the class room or it might be a small number of kids in one class room, with one teacher who knows the subject and starts to teach the subject to all the students in the class, Also the students start to get an understanding of the subject which the class is.
I been in the US all my life. I’m from Kansas City MO, and at our school we had a lot of people in our class, it just depending on what day it was. In Kansas City MO some days a lot of kids came to school and some didn’t because of the area I was living in, some days people will show up and some days people will not because they didn’t feel like going or they didn’t have too. Kansas City is located in the middle of the United States which mean our weather change so some kids that come from different states experience cold weather and warm and some are used to it and some are not use to it. Our warmest months of this year 2014 was June and July we had two months full of heat. Since we are close to the Tornado Alley, we got a lot of bad storms throughout the spring season. Most of the time we get tornados bell rings because it’s next to us but we never experience tornadoes in our city like other places we see on TV. We also get bad floods that come to the Kansas city Area so the schools end up cancelling school for all the kids because the bus can’t drive in that and people can’t drive their cars to school.
In Kansas City, in the 2000s there were 146,865 people, 55,500 households, and 36,241 families living in the city. That’s not bad because we have kids transferring from different states and different cities that move to the Kansas City area which brings up the population rate which means more people would want to move there to go to school. It also depends what area you live in and school district you want your child at. In 2010 the population went down to 145,786 people. From between March and April the employment rate increased 4 percent. During that year they had shut down schools, so kids wasn’t going to school or the kids didn’t want to come to school. So the parents had to leave the city to move to another city so their kid could go to school. And the parent also had to find another job close the school they would put their child at.
I feel like Kansas city is a fantastic place to live for the most part, it’s a pretty big place to have fun, live, and also work. Many great business and huge building are in the Kansas City downtown area. We do have a football team none as the Kansas City chiefs, we have a soccer team none as the KC wizards and have a Baseball team none as the Kansas City royals which are now going to the playoffs. And we also have The Kansas Speedway that host NASCAR series and a lot of other racing series. Even though we don’t have a basketball team Kansas City is still a fun place to live and you can do a lot of good things there.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_City,_Missouri
https://www.visitkc.com/
Jamaican Culture
Shay-anne Holness & Jermaine Smith
One love one heart is a very popular saying in Jamaica. Who are we? The people make Jamaica and Jamaica make the people. The mesh of culture influences that have made us who we are. We’re a naturally warm and friendly bunch of people, welcoming everyone with huge smiles and open arms. As Jamaicans and the culture we prefer to laugh than cry, dance than stand still and express oneself rather than hold back. Our past, marked by slavery and struggle for independence and freedom, has made us proud and strong. And we celebrate through our music sports and art. Our official language is English but we speak it in our unique Jamaican accent. Our street language is patois, this suits our personalities and sense of fun perfectly. Patois is easy to pick up and enjoyable to learn. Jamaican culture represents a combination of cultures that have inhabited the Greater Antilles Island. Jamaica family includes a close-knit web of aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents. Jamaica have a healthy distrust of those in authority and prefer to put their faith in those they know well, such as their extended family and close friends who are treated as if they were family.Jamaica has the highest number of churches per capital in the world and more than one hundred different Christian denominations. Most Jamaicans are Christians, the largest denominations are the Anglicans, Baptists Methodists, Pentecostals, Brethren, Roman Catholics and Rastafarianism. Rastafari ganja is their superior source of life. The most prominent, internationally known aspects of Jamaica’s African Caribbean culture is the Rastafari movement, particularly those elements that are express through reggae music. Bob Marley has become the most high-profile exponent of the Rastafari culture and belief. Rastafari is a monotheistic belief system based on teachings in the old testament and new testament what distinguishes Rastafari from Christianity is that Rasta’s believe in divinity of the Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia. Rastafarianism believe they are one of the lost tribes of Israel who were sold into slavery and taken to Babylon (Jamaica) and believe they must return to Zion. There are three types of Rastafarianism in Jamaica: the Bobo shanti order wearing long robes and tightly wrapped turbans, Nyahbinghi sect focus mainly on Emperor Haile Selassie and they proclaim that he is the incarnation of the supreme deity and the twelve tribes, members are allowed to worship in a church of their house. They consider themselves direct descendants of the twelve sons of David.
Though t you know you actually have no idea. A few facts about Jamaica that even I had to say really, we had electricity before the united states, running water before the united states, phone cards before the united states, first Caribbean English speaking island to gain independence, first team from English speaking Caribbean island to qualify for the football (soccer) world cup, apart from the united states, Jamaica has won the most world and Olympic medals, is the third largest island in the Caribbean a Jamaica flag is the only flag in the world, that doesn’t share any of the colors of the American flag. Jamaica also was the first island in the Caribbean to produce rum on a commercial basis. Jamaica was the first tropical country to enter the IOC winter Olympics. The bob sleigh team’s efforts inspired the film ‘Cool Running’s’. We have the second largest butterfly in the world another interesting facts on Jamaicans that it was the first British colonial territory to establish a postal service, Jamaica has more multiple (two or more) live births than anywhere else in the world. I expect you to at least know that Jamaica is the birth place of Robert (“bob”) Marley.
http://www.mytripblog.org/pg/groups/266/Jamaica
http://www.visitjamaica.com/
Calvin Ochs
Local and global cultural differences
Weather it's on a local level or a global level there are similarities and differences amount cultures. On a local level you have rural areas where farming and agriculture practices vary or in more populated areas such as cities you have different eating habits like fast food. Then even between the two you have differences and similarities that vary.
So within our country you have differences in language. We mostly speak English a similarity, but the way we talk can vary from area to area. In Texas you'll hear people say y'all and in Minnesota people tend to carry their o's. Another would be whether you call it soda or pop which varies all over the U.S. It's just different accents that can distinguish where we are from. Not only can our accents vary as well as how we introduce ourselves. This is also apparent on a global level. It can be anything from a handshake, a "hello," to a bow. The fact though that everyone has a means of introduction is just a similarity amount all.
Hand gestures are another thing in culture that can vary widely. In one place a gesture can mean something nice, but elsewhere can mean something entirely different. President Bush in Australia gave them the peace sign trying to say goodbye. He indeed made a big mistake. The peace sign in Australia to them means go screw yourself kind of like flipping someone the bird here in U.S. it's a slap in the face. The same goes for the thumbs up. It often means good job or ensures things are going well, but in Islamic and Asian countries it is seen as rude or offensive. Another one is the O.K sign. This hand gesture varies all over the world and in the U.S. just shows that you have an understanding or that everything is going okay. In Turkey it means one is homosexual while in Latin America as well as France it means "your anus" and then in Australia it means zero. This just shows that a lot of cultures have the same hand gestures they just portray a different meaning sometimes. So if you are traveling to a different country you may want to educate yourself on their means of communicating both orally and physically.
http://www.slideshare.net/mobile/NirmalaPadmavat/hand-gesture-of-differents-cultures
http://discovermagazine.com/galleries/2013/june/regional-us-language-dialect
Brooklyn Sidebottom
Native American Cultures
Before Columbus discovered America, a different group of people already had been there for many years. The nomadic ancestors of the modern day Native Americans came over to the America from Asia more than 12,000 years ago. There were an estimated 10 million people living in America already. Anthropologists separated the diverse group into “culture areas” to keep track of them. The anthropologists break them up into 10 separate culture areas, not including present-day Mexico. The culture areas are the: Arctic, Subarctic, Northeast, Southeast, Plains, Southwest, Great Bison, California, Northwest Coast, and Plateau.
The Arctic was mainly made up of Aleut and Inuit Native Americans. They were located in present-day Alaska, Canada and Greenland. The Arctic area was a flat and treeless area, which was also cold. The Aleut is an Eskimo-Aleut speaking tribe along with Inuit. The Aleut people were along the Aleutian Island chain of Alaska. They were more of a fishing tribe. The Inuit were located in Northern Canada. They would follow big game wherever they could find them, so they traveled more than the Aleut. They both lived in dome-shaped houses made of sod or timber.
The Subarctic was mainly in Alaska and Canada. The area was mostly swampy tundra. The area was divided into two language groups, the Athabaskan speakers and the Algonquian speakers. The Athabaskan speakers consisted of the Tsattine, Gwich’in, and the Deg Xinag. They were mostly on the western side.The Algonquian speakers consisted of the Cree, Ojibwa, and the Naskapi. They were mostly on the eastern side. They moved around herding caribou. They lived in small tents or when cold in dugouts.
The Northeast was located from the Atlantic seaboard across the Appalachians to the Mississippi Valley, and north to south, from the Great Lakes to the Tidewater region of Virginia and North Carolina and beyond the Cumberland River in Tennessee. The Northeast was split into two different language groups, the Iroquoian speakers and the Algonquian speakers. The Iroquoian speakers consisted of the Cayuga, Oneida, Erie, Onondaga, Seneca, Tuscarora. These people were more likely to live by rivers and fish. The Algonquian speakers consisted of the Pequot, Fox, Shawnee, Wampanoag, Delaware, and the Menominee. These people were most likely to live on farms and fish as well.
The Southeast was from the Atlantic Ocean westward to Trinity River in Texas, and from the Gulf of Mexico northward to present-day states of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina. The Southeastern indigenous people were the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole. They were known as the Five Civilized Tribes. They spoke the Muskogean language.
The Plains was located from the Mississippi River Valley westward to the Rocky Mountains and down to present-day Texas. The Plains tribes spoke Siouan, Algonquian, Caddoan, Uto-Aztecan and Athabaskan languages. After the Spanish came, the Crow, Blackfeet, Cheyenne, Comanche, and Arapaho used horses to hunt bison. They used the bison skin for teepees.
The Southwest area extends from Utah and Colorado southward into Arizona, Texas and New Mexico. The Southwest people set up two distinctive ways of life. The farmers such as the Hopi, the Zuni, the Yaqui and the Yuma. They grew crops like corn, beans, and squash. They lived in pueblos. The others were the Navajo and the Apache were more nomadic. They survived by hunting and gathering. They lived in hogans.
The Great Basin was part of Utah, Nevada, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, California, Arizona and New Mexico. The people there spoke either Shoshonean or Uto-Aztecan dialects. They were always on the move so they lived in wikiups.
The California was just located in California and little bit of Baja California in Mexico. There were more than 100 different tribes and they spoke more than 200 dialects. Some languages were the Penutian, Hokan, Uto-Aztecan, and the Athapaskan.
The Northwest Coast was located in part of California, Oregon, Washington and part of Canada. The people lived off the land by fishing and hunting. Everything they needed to survive was there. The groups were the Athapaskan Haida and Tlingit, the Penutian Chinook, Tsimshian and Coos, The Wakashan Kwakiutl and Nuu-chah-nulth, and the Salishan Coast Salish.
The Plateau was located in eastern Washington, northern Idaho, western Montana, Oregon, and parts of California and Canada. The people spoke Penutian or Salishan dialects. They lived in small villages and went fishing, hunting and gathering.
http://www.american-indians.net/cultures.htm
http://www.history.com/topics/native-american-history/native-american-cultures
Cultural Differences and Similarities
Jason Manning
How much different is one nation compared to another? Are the people of that nation really that different from me? Does there food they eat have a different nutritional value then mine? These are some of the questions that people will ask when thinking of the cultural difference between themselves and the people of another nation. The answer to these questions is not a simple yes or no either. The answer is not that simple. The reasoning behind this is that it is true and false both at the same time. It is true that cultures do offer many differences. One nations people will not be the same as another nations people. We are inherently different. One man is never the same as another, especially if they are from different cultural environments. On the opposite spectrum of this statement is that while they are different from each other either at a fraction of a difference or at a major difference the culture that both of these individuals live under will have some very same similarities. For example while the food may be different the ingredients may remain the same. Both individuals may worship the same god.
Lets talk about cultural differences in the world. Using modern day Japan and modern day United States as the two cultural environments. For starters we'll start with food again.(I like food, it is a good cultural enrichment.) When most people think of American food they instantly think of the iconic fast food cheeseburger, while when thinking of Japanese cuisine they think of bowls of rice with a side of a bowl of noodle soup such as ramen. And while we are on the topic of food lets talk about the different mannerism of how to eat food. In America we use spoons, forks and other cutlery for our eating tasks. In Japan they use chopsticks. The use of chopsticks has a certain way of being used as to not have bad manners. Some of the rules include not waving the chopsticks around, and not pointing them at people. Aside from food Japan has some laws that we might consider strange or perhaps even wrong, such as in certain areas of Japan the age of consent is as low as 13 years of age while the age of majority inst until your 20 years of age.
The similarities we will be able to find in the culture of Japan and America may surprise you though. Looking at the small things of culture you will find similarities. Both countries have McDonalds and Pizza Hut as fast food for example. One of Japans more popular sport past times is baseball. Funny how baseball is known as Americas favorite past time. Jobs are similar as well. Don't like a desk job? Chances are some guy in Japan hates it too. There are many similarities and differences between Japan and America. Our culture is different yet similar at the same time. So people are surprised and a little culture shocked when they visit foreign lands.
http://www.wwu.edu/auap/english/gettinginvolved/CultureComparison.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_Japan
Jason t Berry
Cultural Anthropology
Prof Stephens
One Room School
It is still dark and quiet when I wake up to start my day. Harvest and most of the field work is done for the year. This means the hard work has just begun. With the farm taken care of it is now time to start going to school. My brothers and I head out to do our chores before the three mile walk to our one room schoolhouse. With the cows milked and the chickens fed it is time to clean up and start off to school. Three miles today as the dawn in breaking is not nearly as bad as it will be next month. With winter fast approaching it will make the walk seem that much longer in the snow and ice. On the deep snow days Pa may even hook up the wagon or we will just stay home. When we get to school the school mum has the stove stoked and a stew simmering for lunch. There are eighteen of us here today, tomorrow there may be more with the Millers finishing harvest. Even with Tommy the youngest at seven and my brother Jack being fourteen we all learn the same. Today we study our reading, writing, and arithmetic. With the teacher spending most the day at the black board, chalk in hand it is no surprise when Billy ends up catching a switch beating. When it is all done we start our long trek home for there are more chores to do before supper and I need to practice my reading if I want to be able to listen to the radio with the family tonight.
http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/bc150/schoolhouse/acrosstheyears.html
http://www.pioneersholesschool.org/pages/narrative.html
Paige Roopchan
Cultural Anthropology
Mrs. Stephens
March 2014
It’s a bit ridiculous the effect society and media have on the definition of beauty. Not only does it affect today’s youth in America, but affects millions all over the world.
Some cultures have a different view of what beauty really is. Growing up in the Caribbean, a lot of what we considered beautiful, was the natural look. Sometimes girls thought the more skin you show, the sexier you looked, which isn’t that different from what we see today. But cultures around the world, that are limited to media, have a different idea of what beauty is. Meanwhile in Africa, some tribes embrace the lip plate. Women wear the plate daily to be accepted and appear desirable to men. When women are ready to marry, they begin the process of piercing a small hole in their lower lip, and placing a wood stick in the hole, which expands every day until the hole is big enough to put a plate in. Some other things the Africans do, is create their own jewelry from natural resources in around their environment. Some women braid their hair in unique ways and even place clay into their hair. Now to us, that may seem a bit extreme and preposterous, but it’s based off their culture and ancestry. Many Africans, after coming to the USA, keep their customs, rituals and culture, while some others drop their beliefs to fit in to society’s belief of beauty.
Aside from African rituals and cultural differences, countries such as India also have a different idea of beauty. Today, the latest fashion in America is to wear Saris when most know little about the purpose of a sari. Being from an Indian family, I know a little about saris and their purpose. As a child, little girls wear Western-influenced frocks until they’re old enough to wear saris. Saris symbolize different things including sex appeal. After marriage, its custom for a mother to make her daughter a new sari showing another step in her life and maturity level. Another thing we misunderstand, are bindis. Bindis are not just for fashion purposes, but more to symbolize when a woman has decided to marry: it symbolizes marriage. It’s fascinating how much we do and do not know about the Indian culture. Not only are most Indian cultures beautiful, but also they all have a meaning and representation for why they do and wear what they do.
The American is a beautiful thing, but people misinterpret what beauty should really be. One of my mottoes in life is modest is hottest. We don’t always have to compare ourselves to those who are in the eye of the public. Social media shouldn’t overly influence our lives and decisions. I believe we should embrace our own cultures and ideas of what beauty truly is to us.
http://culturalbeauty.wordpress.com/2011/10/19/the-lip-plate/
http://www.ask.com/question/why-do-indian-women-wear-dots-on-their-foreheads
http://factsfashion.wordpress.com/2011/06/28/the-sari-meanings-behind-the-cloth/
Ashley Riley and Gennard Paul
Culture SimilaritiesThe Bahamas and Grenada are similar in many ways. For both being Caribbean countries, the region of the Caribbean is southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and the North American mainland, east of Central America, and north of South America. Most islands of the Caribbean like the Bahamas and Grenada are said to be discovered by a famous pirate by the name of Christopher Columbus, but it was already called home by various native Indian tribes such as the Arawak, Carib and others like the lucyan Indians. These were the first settlers of the Caribbean, and a great part of where we get our culture from.
I, Ashley am a true Bahamian from The small islands of the Bahamas. The Bahamas is an independent country and like Grenada it is a place that most people seek vacation and for others would only dream of visiting. The Bahamas is loved by many tourist, because of our all-around nice weather, sun, sand, sea, and great hospitality. There are many islands of the Bahamas; however I am from the capital which is Nassau. This island is the most populated and where you would find most tourist. Bahamians are known for their great food, speed on the track, and way of partying and extraordinary culture. Back in the Bahamas we have this part of our culture called junkanoo which was invented by the slaves way back in the 1800s. This is where groups of large numbers would march through the streets playing music by drums, horns, whistles, cowbells etc. They are accompanied by beautiful costumes. The Bahamas is a little piece of the world that is blessed with many talents, and seen by the world.
I am Gennard and I am from the most beautiful island in the Caribbean called Grenada. Its size is 344 square kilometers (133 sq. mi), with an estimated population of 110,000. Its capital is St. George's. Grenada is also known as the island of spice because of the production of nutmeg and mace crops of which Grenada is one of the world's largest exporters. In 1950, Eric Gairy founded the Grenada United Labor Party, initially as a trades union, which led the 1951 general strike for better working conditions. And he was successful in accomplishing what he set out to accomplish. On October 10, 1951, Grenada held its first general elections on the basis of universal adult suffrage. From 1958 to 1962 Grenada was part of the Federation of the West Indies. Independence was granted in 1974 under the leadership of Eric Gairy, who became the first Prime Minister of Grenada. Civil conflict gradually broke out between Eric Gairy's government and some opposition parties including the New Jewel Movement (NJM). Gairy's party won elections in 1976, but the opposition did not accept the result, accusing it of fraud. In 1979, the New Jewel Movement under Maurice Bishop launched a paramilitary attack on the government resulting in its overthrow. Lots of people was killed others wounded. Since then Grenada is known in the Caribbean for its low homicide rate and its wonderful and friendly people. It is also known for its lush vegetation and worm sunny weather and beautiful beaches. Also we have the best parties and make the tastiest foods.
Both countries have their ways of food such as the fry foods, and spices and also celebration such as the junkanoo and carnival, which is the celebration of Grenada dancing through the streets along with music and costumes.
http://www.everyculture.com/Ge-It/Grenada.html
http://www.bahamas-history.net/bahamas-culture.html
Cultural Changes
Karlie Guenther
Serena Stacy
Cheyanne Soderlund
Brianna Salas
Many people may feel that they have a lot in common with a person based off of looks or personality, but even within a thirty mile radius things can change drastically. In our group we decided to evaluate our lives comparing similarities and differences. Karlie and Brianna are from big cities, while Serena and Cheyanne are from small towns. We have a lot in common, but something as simple as location can make a drastic difference. Starting from the different races, to the different languages that are spoken, the cultural norms are very differential.
Karlie Guenther is from Las Vegas, Nevada. In Las Vegas there is a population of about 600,000. Therefore, I have seen many different cultures, as well as races. I am accustomed to different languages being spoken during my classes throughout my years of schooling, or the large number of students in the classes. Here at Colby Community College, my highest class number is about 25 students, whereas classes at University of Nevada Las Vegas (where I attended before here) have up to 100. There are many different places for me to shop, many different parks, large gyms to workout in, and much more. Moving to Colby was such a culture shock for me, but it was an exciting opportunity to see different cultures.
Brianna Salas is from Denver, Colorado. In Denver there is a population of about 650,000. Throughout my many years of living in the city I have been introduced to many different cultures, as well as races. I have been around multiple languages and cultural events that are put on in the city and throughout our communities and suburbs. Moving to Colby Community College was a culture shock to me because I know most of the college; whereas; the school I went to in Denver I had class sizes ranging from 80-100 students. Coming to Colby made me realize that there are not many parks, shops, diners, or other activities I had the opportunity to participate in in Denver. Moving to Colby was a culture shock to me but I have definitely enjoyed attending this school and experiencing a small town culture.
Cheyanne Soderlund and Serena Stacy are both from the tiny town of Oberlin, Kansas. Oberlin has a population of approximately 1,700 people. Most people living in such a small town would go crazy, but for us, it’s the norm. I remember when the town made the decision to get a Subway restaurant and it was such a big deal. We have only two well-known restaurants Pizza Hut, and Subway. Everything else in my town is family owned and operated. The closest Wal-Mart is 28 miles away. What’s so different from the big city is that we don’t encounter the different cultures, races, and ethnicities every day. We are from a very conservative, all Caucasian community. We pride ourselves in the fact that you can walk down the street and know almost everyone you pass. The decision to come to Colby Community College for us was not that different. Yes, we now have a Wal-Mart, and we do get to see many different cultures, but it’s still the home town feel. In addition, going to college at Colby may have been a culture shock to us, but we couldn’t imagine our lives anywhere else, but in a small hick town.
Although we are all from different places we found it interesting that we could all come together and find a friendship. We have accepted our differences and used them to get to know one another. Even though we all come from different places all over the world we have learned to appreciate each other cultures and learn from one another’s experiences.
References
1. https://www.google.com/search?q=Las+Vegas+Nevada+population&oq=Las+Vegas+Nevada+population&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.5398j0j4&sourceid=chrome&espv=210&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8
2. https://www.google.com/search?q=Las+Vegas+Nevada+population&oq=Las+Vegas+Nevada+population&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.5398j0j4&sourceid=chrome&espv=210&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8#q=denver+colorado+population
3. https://www.google.com/search?q=Las+Vegas+Nevada+population&oq=Las+Vegas+Nevada+population&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.5398j0j4&sourceid=chrome&espv=210&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8#q=oberlin+kansas+population
Next student post here.
brooke gettler
Brooke Gettler
Love has many different definitions. It ranges from a set of biological and chemical processes to a religious concept. "As a character strength, love is a mutual feeling between two people characterized by attachment, comfort, and generally positive feelings. It can be broken down into 3 categories: parent-to-child, child-to-parent, and romantic love." Having love as a strength is not about the capacity to love but more about being involved in a loving relationship.
Most of the time, love is studied in terms of attachment to others. Because love is thought of as mysterious, it is most often studied in terms of attachment theory. That way, it can be studied across ages. "In infants, attachment is studied through the Strange Situation Test. Attachment to an individual, usually the mother, is determined by how distressed the infant becomes when the mother is taken out of the experimental setting." There are several types of adult attachment including the Adult Attachment Interviews (Kaplan & Main), Adult Attachment Prototypes (Hazan & Shaver) and more. Mostly, adult attachment models focus on the mental representation of the visible signs of attachment seen in infants.
There is much evidence in support of the benefit of love based on the negative affects seen in those that are lacking in that department. "Orphaned children have been targeted in studies about negative attributes resulting from lack of attachment." There was an article on CBS News on October 17, 2014, that talked about two heart patients. These patients had both had heart transplants and were both experiencing difficulties in healing as well as depression. 68-year old Esther Fitzrand, a two-time divorcee, and 68-year old Danny Schokowski, a confirmed bachelor, were both spending a lot of time in the hospital waiting to see their doctor. They began talking and began spending time together. Mrs. Fitzrand described herself as wanting to do more things like ride a bike and walking. Dr. Lee Way Chin described what he and his staff called confounding evidence in their sudden recoveries. They decided to move in together. Apparently not only did these two need new hearts, but also they needed sweethearts.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/couple-mends-each-others-heart/
Blake Mari
Digital Learning Changing College
As high school students make the transition to the college lifestyle new leaning techniques are integrated. One of these teaching styles or techniques is to use technology to make advanced accelerated classes. These classes make it possible to eliminate some paperwork and confine the class content to one webpage.
Some of the pros of making classes technical are accessibility, experience with technology, and reduced stress on teachers. Putting classes on the internet for students to access materials and assignments can allow students to take classes without the cost of books. This also allows students to work on homework/classwork in alternate location with only taking a computer and having internet access. Having experience with technology will be a major attribute in most career fields. Having to work with the technology in classes gives students a general background in technology and networking. Finally having students all most projects and homework to one location makes it easier on teachers to keep track of grades and student materials.
Where technology based classes have faults are in the social and personal aspects as well as the technology failure itself. When students do not work together in class and make networking connections the personal aspect of college has been compromised. In future jobs communication and face to face interaction is a large part of the workspace. Last technology is not always perfect or cheap. Computers and internet often crash leaving a student stranded without the ability to participate in the class.
Paige Todd
Women's Roles
In the western world, the roles of women have drastically changed over the course of the past 200 years, and even the last few decades. Traditionally, women were not expected to read and write and were discouraged from attending school. Their job was to take care of their home and family.In more recent years, women gained the right to vote, and were educated at least through high school. Their sphere of influence was still primarily the home, though a college education was more attainable than it had been in the past. Women who attended college were educated in nursing, secretarial work, or cosmitology. These fields were considered proper roles for women.
In the present day, even more doors have been opened to women, who now are employed in nearly every occupation and almost always (except for in the cases of some religious groups) have a high school diploma and usually some college.
Sources:
http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/30/study-says-traditional-gender-roles-may-be-thing-of-the-past/
http://www.northnet.org/stlawrenceaauw/college.htm
Men view on women in Kenya
By Denet Sang
Kenya is a country located in the East African region. It has a geographical area of 583,000 square kms. And is bordered to Indian Ocean to the East. Currently, the population is estimated at 43 million. Kenya gained independence in 1963 from the British colonial government. As of December 1991, Kenya adopted the multiparty system; variety of parties. Each party indicated interest in involving women in their policies or considering women’s issues. Although, the women protection and rights is stated in the constitution, it is not well regulated and effective. Women are still subjected to oppression by men. Majority of the women who suffer this are from the rural areas.
Women constitute over 50 percent of Kenya population, but the majority of them are among the illiterate and poor in the country. A number are still affected by customary laws and practices which have for so long perpetuated their oppression. Women are considered inferior in the society. The tradition and culture that surrounds them will ever make them see this kind of treatment as normal. But, the learned women in Kenya are not being mistreated by men. They are the tools of revolution against oppression by the men. These enlightened women in the society used different media and forums to educate other women who are oppressed. They have also formed women groups in the society. Further, they fight their rights through the bills stated in the Kenya constitution. As a citizen of Kenya, I have seen women being oppressed by men, majority being from the villages. These women from the village lack education and are poor. Contrast, to urban women who are more liberated, thus are less subjected to oppression.
Kenyan men are not as women friendly as European or North American men as stated b y Kenya-Advisor.com. Further, they state that in Kenya men are regarded as ‘first’ gender. This statement is true because I lived in an extended family where my father was a king. He was much respected man in my family. He was considered the head of the family, breadwinner, and decision maker. My mother was happy with the situation. Though, she was happy about all situations I felt that she was oppressed. The reason is that she had no freedom of speech, decision to make, and the objection being an inferior. I blamed the tradition that withheld her in the path of inequality.
Apart from men view of women as inferior, they also consider them as the household worker. All the responsibilities of the house chores are left to women. Kenyan men leave women to care for the children, provide them food, perform laundry, and clean the house. You will never find a Kenyan man do these kinds of duties, unless men educated men in the society. According to the jambonewsspot.com they stated that still each morning majority of rural Kenyan men leave their homes and return in the evening as though they were out working. At the end of the day the women end up being a provider of the family. This habit of men becoming irresponsible to the family is more prevalent in the rural areas. But, nowadays in the urban areas the routine is fading away because the women are educated and enlightened. Hopefully in the near future the women in the rural will be too liberated against men oppression. Also Kenya women in the governmental seats are pushing the women rights against oppression by the men.
Sources
www.kenya-advosor.com/attitude-of-kenyan-men towards-women
www.jambonewspot.com/in-rural-Kenya-men-need-news-roles in-a-changing-society
http://www.kenya-advisor.com/attitude-of-kenyan-men-towards-women.html
http://www.jambonewspot.com/?s=rural+men+role
The Acadian and Cajun Cultures
Luc Hebert
The people in Louisiana known as Cajuns are part of an ethnic group that is descendant from the Acadians, who were French-speaking people expelled from their homes in Eastern Canada from 1755 until 1762 during what was known as The Acadian Deportation. After Acadians refused to pledge allegiance to the British monarchy, and with rising tensions between the British and French, the British seized and destroyed Acadian homes, farms, goods, and livestock to make sure that they would not return. Many Acadians were sent to colonies along the eastern seaboard and as far as Louisiana, where the pronunciation of “Acadian” eventually became “Cajun” over the years. Today there are roughly 700,000 people from Acadian descent in Louisiana.
Through the years since the arrival of the Acadians to Louisiana, Cajuns developed their own French dialect that is derived from their ancestors. They also maintained many of the traditions and developed a vibrant culture which comes from their Acadian roots. This is very apparent in the music styles, cajun festivals, and the famous cuisine seen today. The Cajun love of the violin and accordion music is also very similar to Acadians to this day. Cajun food can be traced to the simple way of life of the Acadians, where one-pot meals using simple local ingredients were a tradition. All this reflects the Cajuns’ pride in their history and how they continue to hold their tragic past and peaceful survival in their hearts.
Today, the connection between Acadians and Cajuns is stronger than ever. There is great pride and recognition that Acadian-Cajun people overcame the Acadian Deportation in the mid-1700’s, and have been able to peacefully integrate and maintain their ways of living and traditions through future generations. This pride has become even more apparent in the last 20 years where celebrations of the Acadian culture have increased. Many festivals and events are held each year in Canada and Louisiana to celebrate the culture, where people can learn about their ancestors, and their family trees. One particularly important event is The Acadian World Congress, which is a festival celebrating the Acadian and Cajun culture and its history.
Other symbols of the Acadian and Cajun linkage of their people are the respective flags and how they reflect the similar origins and religious beliefs. The Flag of Acadia is blue, white, and red which represents the Acadian Motherland of France, and includes a gold star in the upper left section which represents the Stella Maris, or Virgin Mary, who is the patron saint of the Acadians. The Louisiana Acadian flag was designed to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the arrival of the Acadians to Louisiana, and contains the same three colors. There are three silver fleurs de lis in the blue section which represent the French origin of the Acadians, a gold castle in the red section honoring Spain which controlled Louisiana when the Acadians arrived, and the gold star which represents the patron saint of the Acadians.
Sources:
http://www.crt.state.la.us/hp/laheritage/TheAcadians/index.htm
http://www.louisianatravel.com/roots-cajun-culture
http://www.cbc.ca/acadian/feature_acadian_flag.html
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acadian_World_Congress
How Cell phones change the World.
Adrian Guevara
THE CHANGING FACE OF LANGUAGE
The Short Message Service text messaging system built into cell phone networks originally only allowed for 160 characters per message. To increase the amount of information they could cram into each message and save time on tapping them out, people started inserting abbreviations, skipping punctuation and using phonetic spelling. Although these restrictions have since been lifted, the habit remains, and some of the changes in the language brought on by texting have extended beyond it. For example, the first recorded use of the abbreviation "OMG" for "Oh my God" is in a 1917 letter sent to Winston Churchill by Lord Fisher; still, it can't be denied that SMS accelerated the changes.
A COMPUTER IN YOUR POCKET
Since the first cell phone, there has been a consistent market push for the introduction of more sophisticated features. The modern smartphone is an evolution of cell phones that combines their usual functionality with that of music players and even computers. Smartphones offer an array of features including games, music playback, email, Internet browsing and document editing. In essence, these smartphones are the Swiss army knives of the cell phone world — a single tool that fits in your pocket and can do pretty much anything you need it to, making life easier and offering convenient solutions for problems you may encounter, such as being lost in an unfamiliar city.
For all the good that cell phones have done, they can also present a significant hazard when used irresponsibly or thoughtlessly. According to a study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, the risk of being involved in a car accident rises dramatically when cell phones are involved; the lives of drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists are endangered daily by irresponsible people who are too distracted by their phone to pay attention to the road.
Even when they don't present a risk to life and limb, cell phones cause a noticeable shift in the way our society functions. Text messages are swiftly replacing face-to-face interactions and even phone calls, affecting our social development and our ability to relate to others. According to MIT psychologist Sherry Turkle, this flight from conversation "can compromise our capacity for self-reflection," a skill that is the bedrock of personal development.
Sources
http://anthro.palomar.edu/change/change_2.htm
http://www.centertech.org/how-mobile-phones-have-changed-our-lives.php
Next student post here.
Steven Nelson
Cultural Anthropology
Spartan Society
Sparta was an ancient greek city-state which was located on present day Laconia. They were a warrior society which devoted itself to military dominance. They were able to do this by relying heavily on government owned serfs to do the day to day work.
The serfs were called Helots. The term Helot originally meant captive. The helot class was made up of other greeks who had been captured by the Spartans. The Helots far outnumbered the Spartans and the Spartans knew this. They were always worried about a Helot uprising. Because of this, the Spartans would harass, abuse and treat the Spartans with great contempt so as to keep them from realizing that they could revolt and take over Sparta.
From the day they were born, Spartan men were raised to be warriors. At the age of seven all children were sent to the government funded school called the Agoge. Here they were trained to be great warriors and were largely taught the values of courage and discipline. They were taught to value state over everything including family. The women were also sent to the Agoge where they were taught to be good wives and mothers. In the Agoge, corporal punishment was used predominately, not only as a punishment but as a physical test as well. The teenage boys who showed an aptitude for leadership would be allowed to participate in the Crypteia. This is a secret organization dedicated to the terrorization of the general Helot population. They were also known to murder those who were troublemakers. At the age of 20 Spartan men become full-time warriors, and remained as such until the age of 60. The spartan men need not worry about their finances. Each one is given a plot of land that is worked by the Helots. They are able to live off of the income from the land.
The Spartans fought in a unique manner. They fought in a phalanx formation where no one soldier was at a higher level than another. This formation was characterized as a close deep alignment that moved as a group. The Spartan soldier carried a bronze shield, spear and sword. They wore a bronze helmet, breastplate and ankle guards.
One of the more odd aspects of the Spartan people is that they are led by two kings. This allows for a rather unusual decentralization of power. Even when the two kings agree, they wouldn't have complete power. The power is balanced between the two kings, five ephors, a council of elders, and an assembly of all the citizens. An essential part of the Spartan judicial system is the fact that the kings can be, and often were, tried by the judicial process.
Sparta began a gradual decline in the fourth century B.C. when they let the Macedonians invade without any resistance. They are technically a free state through most of the Macedonian era and into the Roman Empire. Today there is very little left signifying their existence. They prided themselves with being able to protect themselves with men and not masonry.
The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
Joshua Jones
The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands is a United States jurisdiction consisting of fourteen tropical islands in the geographical region known as Micronesia—north of the equator, east of the Philippines and west of the international date line. Saipan lies at approximately 14.6 degrees N latitude and 147 degrees E longitude. The average temperature is 80 degrees Fahrenheit and varies no more than 10 degrees year round; giving the Northern Mariana islands the most consistent climate on earth. The islands are home to an interesting Diversity of native birds and reptiles (with the exception of snakes, of which there are none) and features world-class Diving and many other water sports among the many fringing coral reefs.
Saipan, the largest and most populous of the Northern Mariana Islands and the capitol of the Commonwealth, is approximately 1,500 miles south of Tokyo, 1,400 miles east of Manila and 3,200 miles west of Honolulu. Other principal islands in the Commonwealth include Tinian and Rota, both situated south of Saipan. (Guam, the fifteenth and southernmost island in the Marianas archipelago, is a separate U.S. Territory.)
The Marianas were originally settled more than 3,500 years ago by islanders migrating in long voyages from the south and west. Over time, these original settlers developed the Chamorro culture. In subsequent migrations, islanders from the Caroline archipelago (to the south) established communities on Saipan, in which they preserved their unique culture.
Westerners first visited the Marianas in 1521. The northern Mariana Islands were subsequently colonized by Spain (leaving a lasting cultural influence), Germany and Japan.
Saipan and Tinian were seized from Japanese defenders by U.S. armed forces in fierce fighting during World War II.
After World War II, the islands became part of the United Nations Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. In the 1960s residents began to consider the option of becoming either an independent nation or a U.S.-affiliated jurisdiction. The latter sentiment prevailed, and, in 1978, following resident voter approval and U.S. Congressional ratification of the Covenant to Establish a Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in Political Union with the United States of America, the Northern Mariana Islands became a U.S. Commonwealth. Residents, who subsequently became U.S. citizens, adopted a local government similar to a U.S. state government, the framework of which is set forth in the Commonwealth Constitution .
Most federal statutory law applies in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Apart from unique customary law based on oral tradition handed down through the centuries, local law is largely based on U.S. common law.
Propelled by a tourism-based economy, the population has grown fourfold in seventeen years and now approaches 65,000.
Standard time in the Marianas is ten hours in advance of Greenwich mean time. Thus, at twelve noon on Saipan it is 10:00 a.m. in Hong Kong, 2:00 a.m. in London, 9:00 p.m. the previous day in in New York City and 6:00 p.m. the previous day in San Francisco.
http://www.mymarianas.com/
http://www.cnmi.net/
Separatism
By Heath Churchwell
From offices to grade schools to the streets, our society suffers from a crippling malice known as separatism. There are very obvious and aggressive forms of separatism like gangs, and there are more subtle and seemingly harmless forms such as cliques and clubs. No matter what kind of separatism it is, it is almost always harmful to the people involved or surrounding it. Separatism is usually caused by some sort of initial dispute that could be anything from racism to a simple disagreement. It can also be caused by the compilation of certain people with common interest. While there are some forms of positive separatism that benefit our society, most forms are negative and harmful.
Separatism in our government has its pros and cons. Each political party presents arguments for every major issue, this ensures that the best possible decision is established. While this might seem beneficial to our country, it also divides the United States citizens almost directly in half. Our country is divided on almost every major issue, which can sometimes cause hostility between groups of people. This is part of the reason why most people living in the same area tend to have most of the same views on politics.
One of the most aggressive types of separatism happens on the streets. Gangs can form anywhere but are usually in the bigger cities. They can be initiated by race, or demographics, or even a common interest such as bike gangs. A gang is defined as a group of criminals. The crimes these gangs commit are usually drug related but can also be hate crimes or robberies. Gangs are a huge problem in today’s society. They are troublesome for anybody living in the area, and anybody involved whether directly or indirectly, are harmed either physically or emotionally. Gangs create an unsafe environment for the citizens in the area and are hostile towards unlike races and lifestyles. Gangs may jump someone who looks rich or they might assault someone just for dressing in a way that is contrary to the norm. Out of all the forms of separatism, gangs are definitely the most violent and destructive to society.
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/clique
http://www.nationalgangcenter.gov/Content/Documents/Impact-of-Gangs-on-Communities.pdf
Next student post here.
Cultural relativity
Julian Sanchez-Pinto
Each person is unique. First it was discovered that each person has their own fingerprints, then it was discovered that no two are alike eyes and now it has been discovered that there are no two exactly identical ears. Something similar happens with human groups. There are many groups of people, each with their own way of life, beliefs, language, and social order, ie, with their own culture. These cultural differences create what is known as "cultural relativism."What in one culture may be a good thing can be bad in another. For example, in Western cultures a woman walk down the street with breasts exposed, is not well seen, however, in other cultures such as the Uros (an indigenous community in Peru) is normal.
Cultural differences cause different attitudes in people. One way to deal with these differences, perhaps the most basic is ethnocentrism, believe that the norms and values of one's culture are natural, good and correct, and cultural patterns of strangers are bad and wrong.
Being relativistic concede that there are no good or bad habits. But sometimes this can be difficult to grant. It's what happens with infibulation. For example, in some African countries is common that girls have performed in genital mutilation, cutting off the clitoris. The mothers themselves are the ones you cripple their own children, and they do that if the girls are not infibulated men will see them as prostitutes and will not want to marry her.
So I wonder where is the limit of relativism?
More information
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_relativism
Reality of cultural relativism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUB0xqslEQ8 (
Advertising
Christina Ehr and Danielle Rodriguez
In today’s culture, we are bombarded by advertisements while doing almost anything. We can see these throughout our TV shows, while listening to the radio or Pandora, or reading magazines and even seeing ads on billboards on the highway. Advertisers use a few different tactics to get an audience to buy their product or visit their business. One very simple strategy they use is just putting their ads out there for people to see, another more influential one is to use people’s emotions to catch their attention, and the most common tactic is using sexism to catch people’s attention. There are some good ways to ignore it, though. The main way of not letting ads influence people is by being mindful of what is being shown on commercials and seeing how they are attempting to persuade people. Another good thing is to look for the slant that they have on it towards one sex or another or any slant in the way they are going at all.
The strategy out culture uses when putting ads out there is just to get people aware of a company or their product. That helps people to see them as an option for whatever they are trying say. It has been proven that if something is put out there and explained at all even without a good reason for it, people respond better.
Advertisers manipulate people a lot easier today by piercing their emotions and getting some sort of reaction out of them. Any kind of influence they have either negative or positive, these companies can get into the back of people’s minds for future reference and they will think about it when the need for a product or certain need arises. Emotions can really lead a person in the decisions that they make especially good ones. Emotions help people to remember things better so they can think back to different ads to come to a decision on where to shop, or eat, or what to buy.
A huge part of how people are influenced in our culture today is sexism and has been for a many years. They use sexism by the different ways men and women can be portrayed on the commercials or ads. This pushes different products on the different sexes so they buy it. The different stereotypes also can manipulate the other by portraying both sexes as stupid and using that as a sway toward their company.
The best way for anyone to not be influenced by ads is just to be mindful when a commercial comes on or while reading the newspaper or magazines. Making sure that a person thinks about what is going on with the ad and how they are trying to affect someone can help the ad not to have an effect on people. Realizing the slant or bias of an advertisement is a very good way not to be affected by what the company is trying to do. Making sure to not just sit without thinking when commercials come on and being prepared for the emotional effects they may have is the best defense in not being persuaded by the emotions and letting that ad affect you later.
Advertisers have many different ways of influence. These tactics include putting their name out there and getting awareness out, drawing on people’s emotions, and sexism. The best way to go against that is to be prepared and figure out the bias or slant of that company. Make sure, that when watching ads, to think them through so that they cannot get into the back of people’s minds to sway them when making decisions later. In a culture that is constantly bombarded with advertisements everywhere, it is good to know and remember what they are trying to do and how not to be impacted by them.
Works Cited
Dachis, Adam. “How Advertising Manipulates Your Choices and Spending Habits (and What to Do About It”). 2 Mar 2014. <http://lifehacker.com/5824328/how-advertising-manipulates-your-choices-and-spending-habits-and-what-to-do-about-it>. Web.
Rizzo, Tom. “Advertising’s Influence and Stereotyping of Society”.2 Mar 2014. <http://thecoffeehousechronicles.com/advertisings-influence-and-stereotyping-of-society.html>. Web.
Next student post here.
Zachary Bird
Sociocultural Globalization
The term globalization can be defined as the process of international integration arising from the interchange of world views, products, ideas and other aspects of culture. The International MOnetary fund in 2000 identified four common aspects of globalization. They are energized as trade and transactions, capital and investment movements, migration and movement of people, and the dissemination of knowledge.
Music has been such a big part of peoples lives. I can't think of a culture that doesn't have some form of music. Whether they play an handmade object or in a band on stage music has an important role in the economic and cultural development of globalization.
One platform that has helped cross music over borders is by the satellite and internet. Back in the 1960’s, the very first satellite radio broadcast was a beatles song, “All you need is love.” They were the most well known musicians around the world. The Beatles were truly one of the first entertainment acts that globalized. They had made records in other languages like german before they became famous. What made the Beatles so liked and made them a global success was their respect for other cultures. Their music was universal language of desire of love, search for happiness or peace and the unity of the human experience.
The satellite and radio can be streamed easier than ever. It brings many people from different social backgrounds together. From 2000 to 2009 the number of people using the internet globally rose form 394 million to 1858 billion. In 2010 twenty two percent of the worlds population had access to computers. there was one billion google searches every day 300 million internet users utilize blogs and two billion videos be watched daily on youtube. There was a research in 2013 done and according to the firm IDC the size of total worldwide e-commerce will equal to US dollars, sixteen billion dollars.
So we should give thanks to both the satellite and the internet. They both have introduced us to music we may have never heard of before. It paved the way for many musicians and independent people to bring their music to everyone that wants to hear it.
References
https://www.iwu.edu/news/2014/02-beatles-early-globalization.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globalization
Anthropology of Basketball
Terry Starks
The grand creator and undisputed god of basketball was a Canadian, James Naismith. Naismith took ideas from other sports as well as games that he had played as a child to create basketball, and combined them in way that had never been seen before. In 1891, the first game of basketball was played based on a set of 13 rules. Whilst this game was not the same as the basketball that we know today, it was quite similar. Basketball is more of an international sport than some Americans give it credit for. It is in fact the world's number two sport, after soccer. Basketball arrived in Europe from North America shortly after its inception, and soon after American teams started traveling to Russia, France and Italy to play the local teams of these countries. The game then migrated east and south to Asia, Africa, and South America. Nowadays, in the top five national teams in the world, you can find Spain, Greece and Argentina, and in the top twenty you can find countries as disparate as Iran, Angola, Puerto Rico, China and New Zealand. Every region in the world has an active basketball playing culture, and in the majority of these countries the game is getting ever more popular.That said, basketball is still an American game more than any other. The national team, despite losing out in the last decade to teams such as Greece and Lithuania, have now established themselves as the top team in the world again.
http://www.insidehoops.com/olympics.shtml
2URL
Daniel Quintana, Grant Buchanan, Drake Biggins, Daniel Mackay
Globalization is the tendency of businesses, technologies, or philosophies to spread throughout the world, or the process of making this happen. The global economy is sometimes referred to as a globality, characterized as a totally interconnected marketplace, unhampered by time zones or national boundaries.
One big example of globalization is McDonalds. The headquarters of McDonalds is located in the United States and is spread to about 120 other counties around the world. McDonalds has become the worlds largest fast food restaurant organization and is a perfect example of globalization, literally changing eating habits around the world. It takes up about 42% of the fast food market in the U.S. and runs around 28,000 restaurants in 120 different countries. McDonalds employs nearly 1.5 million people. With so many restaurants, the demand for resources increases. As one character of a modern world is the demand for good and efficient services, McDonald's has contributed in giving greater access to a global marketplace of goods by its strong economic influence. Furthermore, McDonald's invests and supports initiatives to adapt its products and services to different locales to ensure its global brand, which increases global economy.
Another example of globalization would have to be iPhones. The iPhone is a line of smartphones designed and marketed by Apple Inc. It runs Apple's iOS mobile operating system. The first generation iPhone was released on June 29, 2007; the most recent iPhones, the seventh-generation iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S, were introduced on September 10, 2013. In 2012, the iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S were the best-selling handsets with sales of 27.4 million (13% of smartphones worldwide) and 17.4 million units, respectively, with the Samsung Galaxy S III in third with 15.4 million. This kind of technology is just taking over everything and being used because the hand held holds so much in it. Its not just a phone, it is also a computer, camera, calculator and much more. This software is being used all over the world by everyone.
A third example of globalization would be Coca Cola. This iconic soda brand has been all over the world, and even today its name continues to grow I popularity. According to saylor.org Coca cola has become the largest beverage company in the world, and operates in over two-hundred countries with over eighty-four thousand suppliers. Saylor.org then goes on to state that over seventy percent of Coca Cola's business income is thanks to non-US sources. Thanks to these out of US sources, Coca Cola has become a multi-million dollar business. When the arise of their new competition, Pepsi came along, something new had to be done. For this Coke created the new brands such as: Sprite, Smart Water, PowerAde, and many more were created. With the increases of technology, their advertising slogans such as "Things go better with Coke" begin to make them recognizable, and aid into making them a global brand.
The last major example of globalization would be transportation and more importantly, automobiles. One out of every four cars manufactured comes from China leaving the next closest at 11%, according to the website, worldometer.com. The trend of vehicles being produced dropped dramatically in 2008 when the global economy was in shambles. It later was reestablished and gained 22% production rates. Since most cars are made in China or other countries, it shows that it is dependent on who makes the car and what car is made. The United States has Ford, GM and Mopar vehicles, while other countries have their own cars, such as Japan who makes Nissan and Toyota. When the global economy struggles, so does the car market and how many vehicles are made which has direct correlation to the globalized process of manufacturing.
http://www.worldometers.info/cars/
http://globalizationandmacs.blogspot.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone
http://www.saylor.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/BUS208-2.5.6-Globalization-and-The-Coca-Cola-Company-FINAL.pdf
Kody Denny, Nick Silva, Luke Whitfield
Globalization refers to processes of international integration arising from the interchange of world views, products, ideas, and other aspects of culture. One type of globalization is in sports. Modern international sports events can be big business and can influence the political, economical, and other cultural aspects of countries around the world. Especially in sports, sports can affect countries, their identities, and the world.
Kody: One sport that has influenced many countries around the world is soccer. Soccer originated in China during the Haun Dynasty where teams kicked around a head off a human body for fun. Sense then soccer has come to be one of the top sports all across the world. Now each country with the sport soccer competes every couple of years for the FIFA World Cup. The FIFA World Cup is a good example as it is the world's most widely viewed sporting event. An estimated 700 million people watch the World Cup. Soccer has influence on lots of businesses around the world like Adidas. Adidas in one of soccer’s biggest manufactures of sporting goods like cleats, gloves, and other gear. Adidas sells their products all over the world like in the United States and in Europe. As you can see soccer has a big influence around the world.
Luke:
Second, another sport that is globally known as Americas past time is baseball. Baseball was originated back in 1839 in cooperstown, N.Y., Baseball became a cultural staple of the United States, and regardless of who invented it, baseball became America’s game. baseball has become an international phenomenon, gaining popularity in all of the world’s major continents. Every two years there is an event called the world baseball classic, where teams from all around the globe get together to play in a tournemnet and test there skills. The team that comes out on top will be known as the best team in the world.
Nick: Third, tennis is another sport that is a globally followed throughout the year. Tennis was originated in England and France around the 16th century and it began to become huge. The first well known tournament that is documented and remembered is the Davis Cup in 1900. Since then, tennis has spread across the world and has players from all over the world competing in the tournaments. The Four majors that are considered the hardest to win are the Australian Open, which is held in Australia, the French Open which is held in France, The US Open which is held in New York city, and Wimbledon which is held an England. The worlds best players are gathered around to play for this tournament from all over the world. The best players recently have been from America, Sweden, and now Spain. Tennis is a huge sport that is completely been globalized over the years.
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bltenns.htm
http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0875086.html
http://www.historyofsoccer.info/
Ally Knoeferl
Each state in America has different weather patterns. This includes the coastal states, such as Oregon and Louisiana. The weather patterns there are very different from one another. In Oregon, the weather tends to be rainy and the wind is usually dry. In Louisiana, the weather there is normally very warm (even in the winter).
As mentioned before, Oregon is a state that tends to get a lot of rain. For example, in Portland, Oregon, the weather tends to be pretty predictable (again considering how it is mostly rain). It receives between 180-200 inches of rain per year with the average rainfall being 60-80 inches per year. It’s very rare having temperatures drop to below zero degrees. This has only occurred six times “over the last 125 years.”
Globally, the sea surface temperatures in the Pacific affect the Pacific Northwest the most. The sea surface temperatures are referred to as: El Nino, La Nina, and La Nada. If the sea temperature is El Nino, the Pacific NW will have a milder and drier winter. La Nina sea temperatures would mean that the winter would be colder and wetter than usual in the Pacific NW. And finally, if it is La Nada, the weather will not “predominate.”
In Louisiana, precipitation is more likely to happen in northern parts of Louisiana than in the southern parts. Because Louisiana is between the eastern and western “wind belts,” the western winds come during the wintertime and the eastern winds come during the summer time. The average temperature is 66 degrees Fahrenheit with January’s temperature being around 49 degrees Fahrenheit and July’s temperature at about 82 degrees Fahrenheit.
Though Oregon and Louisiana are both coastal states, they don’t have the same weather patterns. If you’re looking to go somewhere a little cooler during the summer, then you should go to Oregon. But if you’re looking to go to a milder climate during the winter, then Louisiana is the state that you would want to go to.
http://www.latech.edu/tech/liberal-arts/geography/courses/310/text/climate.htm
http://www.movingtoportland.net/portland-information/portland-weather/
James Ortiz - - The Runner
by: Freddy Arellano
A runner that went through it all. From not walking to running till this day
Local Woman of Distinction - - Nellie Kuska — Colby, KS
International students.
Post your digital story project here. Include the names of all in your group.
Paige Todd
Miles Doherty
Noah Hoffman
Dana Wilson
Kasey Hoyt
Kaysyn Chintala, Kati Zuniga, Maisy Munson
Sean Skiles
keela case
Megan Schoendaler- Kenya Africa
Sandra Bustillos and Shelbi McKenna- Mexico vs. USA
Cortney Thurman
Post documentary films of ethnic groups and peoples here.
Ethnic group of Altai Mountains, Central Asia
Cave Art
http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/niaux/index.php
In June 2006, to celebrate the cave's centenary year, the Bradshaw Foundation helped fund an unprecedented exploratory project in the The Niaux Cave Complex. Pascal Alard, Director of the Niaux Cave, in association with the French Ministry of Culture, and guided by the world renowned and resident archaeologist Dr Jean Clottes, supervised the draining of several lakes in the Niaux Cave complex, to temporarliy expose the Galerie Cartailhac - named after one of Niaux's earliest archaeologists - and the Reseau Clastres. This project would allow scientists for only the fourth time since prehistory to analyse the inaccessible parts of the cave and its contents, and a selection of the general public, to access those deep galleries for the first time ever.
Taki
http://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/asiatrail/fact-phorse.cfm
http://myths-made-real.blogspot.com/2011/02/creature-feature-przewalskis-horse.html
Dhole
Web links for further studies.
http://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/arts/anthropology/kintitle.html
http://www.aesonline.org/ American Ethnological Association (AES) is the oldest professional anthropological organization in the United States. Founded in 1842 to encourage research in the emerging field of ethnology, its stated goal was to foster "inquiries generally connected with the human race."
http://www.yale.edu/hraf/ The Human Relations Area Files, Inc. (HRAF) is an internationally recognized organization in the field of cultural anthropology. HRAF's mission is to encourage and facilitate the cross-cultural study of human culture, society, and behavior in the past and present. Founded in 1949 at Yale University, HRAF is a financially autonomous research agency of Yale.
http://www.iuaes2013.org/About%20the%20IUAES.html
About the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences
The IUAES. is a world organization of social and biological anthropological scientists and institutions working in the fields of anthropology and ethnology, but also of interest to archaeologists and linguistics specialists, among others. Its aim is to enhance exchange and communication among scholars of all regions of the world, in a collective effort to expand human knowledge. In this way it hopes to contribute to a better understanding of human society, and to a sustainable future based on harmony between nature and culture.
Through its World Congresses, held every five years, IUAES provides a world forum for the discussion and dissemination of research in these fields.