Cultural Anthropology WikiProjects

AN 177 Homepage--EduKan
Instructor Introduction
Digital Stories 2016
Digital Stories 2015
Cultures of the New World before 1492
Cultures of the Old World after 1945
Cultures & Education/Schooling/Learning
Tsistsistas Digital Media Archive
2014 Digital Projects
Virtual Cultures of the Cyberworld
World Cultures Links

Cultural Anthropology offered with EduKan is a totally online class.

Dr. Lin and intercultural community

Dr. Lin Davis-Stephens, Instructor
Email ude.ccybloc|snehpets-sivad.adnil#ude.ccybloc|snehpets-sivad.adnil

About Dr. Lin Davis-Stephens

Preparatory education: Wichita State University, (Master of Arts/Anthropology), Wichita State University, (Bachelor of Anthropology/Spanish, Magna Cum Laude with Honors), Wichita State University, (Degree Candidate/Elementary & Secondary Education); Legal education:Washburn University (Juris Doctor). Certificate: Visiting Scholar Certificate, Kansas State Board of Education.

Community Activities: National Park Service, Kansas State Historical Society, Prairie Museum of Art and History, Thomas County Historical Society, Jennings Heritage Associates, Oral Interviews, Kansas Folklore Society, Service Learning Archival Materials, Kansas Anthropological Association, High Plains Chapter, Special Collections Library.

Fieldwork: Spanish Interviews, Norton Correctional Facility, Restoration/Preservation Projects, Central High Plains, Action Anthropology/Archeology, Western Plains Region.

Selected Works in Media and Print: include Linda Davis-Stephens' Collection, Prairie Museum of Art and History; Summary, Nomination and Comprehensive Survey Reports, National Park Service, Cheyenne Action Archeology Tenth Millennium Series, Local History and Culture Documentaries, Theses, Sustainable Agriculture Policy, Central Plains Region, Mock Farm Mediation.

Positions held: President Hispanic American Law Student Association, Principal, West Plains Academy, Attorney with emphasis in Criminal/Environmental Law, Conflict Resolution, and International Law.

Classes taught: Forensic Anthropology, Criminal Justice Forum, Juvenile Justice, Homeland Security, Loss Prevention and Private Security, Judicial Functions, Corrections, Criminal Procedure, Introduction to Criminal Justice, Criminology, Great Plains Experience, World Regional Geography, American Frontier Literature, Spanish, Government, World Religions, Anthropology, Women’s Studies, Native American Cultures, Friends University—Conflict Resolution, Business Ethics, Organizational Behavior, Organizational Management & Leadership.

Student movie productions published on YouTube or Vimeo shared here.
Include your name with your movie.

Addison Beutler

Alex Goudeau

Next student post here.

Sena Bailey
Final Project Digital Story: What is Anthropology?

Sena Bailey

Ceshalyn Figgins

Heidi Robinson

Your posted work here is a personal reflection on one of the select topics Cultures of the New World before 1492, Cultures of the Old World after 1945, or Virtual Cultures of the Cyberworld. Include at least two references as web links. These will add to your reporting and demonstrate whether you understand the content of cultural anthropology. This electronic descriptive narrative should be about 1000 words with photos and other graphics. There can be no plagiarism, this must be your own composition—quality work. You have the option to do this instead of a research paper for the course final project. Your posted work will be public, indefinitely, on the internet.

Next student post research report here. Your name, Date, Report title, content, hyperlink sources.

Gary Stevens

AN 177 Cultural Anthropology Class
6 January 2009
Linda Davis-Stephens, Instructor

Female Genital Mutilation

In parts of Africa and the Middle East women are “saved” for their husbands through a procedure called female genital mutilation (FGM) also referred to as female circumcision. Unlike male circumcisions, this procedure is performed for cultural beliefs rather than religious beliefs. Like many other cultures, it is performed because the women are secondary to men. The status of women in a culture is what makes it acceptable for them to be treated in this manner.
According to the World Health Organization these procedures are usually performed on young girls sometime between infancy and age 15, and sometimes on adult women. In Africa about 3 million girls are at risk of having FGM done to them annually. It is estimated that about 92 million girls in Africa have had FGM performed on them. And worldwide this number balloons anywhere from 100 to 140 million. (“WHO” 1)
As opposed to a person’s actual sex, which is determined biologically, gender is culturally constructed in a society. This is what is the basis behind social norms such as FGM, polygyny, polyandry, and sexual division of labor. In these cultures the women have certain rules, guidelines and specific roles in the society, and they are not to deviate from those. One of those rules is that they can only have sex with the man that they will eventually marry.
The word circumcision might bring a vision of this procedure being performed in a sterile environment like a hospital or clinic by a trained medical professional and under a general anesthetic but the cruel reality is that this is often done by a female elder who is deemed a “cutting professional.” The instruments range from non-sterile blunt knives, scalpels or razor blades and performed without anaesthetic. The operating table might be a kitchen table or the kitchen floor. There is not escape from this because the females are usally held down.
FGM does irreparable harm. It can result in death through severe bleeding leading to hemorrhagic shock, neurogenic shock as a result of pain and trauma, and severe, overwhelming infection and septicemia. It is routinely traumatic. Many girls enter a state of shock induced by the severe pain, psychological trauma and exhaustion from screaming. Other harmful effects include: failure to heal; abscess formation; cysts; excessive growth of scar tissue; urinary tract infection; painful sexual intercourse; increased susceptibility to HIV/AIDS, hepatitis and other blood-borne diseases; reproductive tract infection; pelvic inflammatory diseases; infertility; painful menstruation; chronic urinary tract obstruction/ bladder stones; urinary incontinence; obstructed labor; increased risk of bleeding and infection during childbirth. (“UNICEF” 2)
FGM is practiced in certain cultures to ensure that a man knows his wife has only been with him. It is also meant to destroy any sexual sensation for the woman. FGM ranges from circumcision, where the clitoris is removed, to total infibulation, the removal of all external organs and sewing the vagina closed. In some cases sheep intestine is sewn to cover the vagina and only a small opening is left for urination and menstruation. It is widened when the woman is married to have intercourse and when she gives birth.
Although FGM is most common in Muslim countries, FGM prevalence in no way follows the prevalence of Islam. Rather, FGM prevalence seems to follow regional cultures independent on religion. It would seem that this practice isn’t performed in tribes such as the Wodaabe of Niger or the Nyinba of Nepal. The Wodaabe women are allowed to leave their current husband if they feel they have found a better mate, and the new husband is willing to accept her. It is also acceptable for a Wodaabe woman to sleep with two men at the same time. In the Nyinba tribe it is common to practice polyandry. In this case, a woman is married to not only her husband, but also any brothers he may have, and she must sleep with all of them. In the cultures that perform FGM this would not be acceptable because the female would have already been with another man and therefore would be rejected by any other men.
Here in the United States it is hard for us to understand practices such as FGM because the ethnocentric society we live in always compares other societies’ cultures to our own. We would never allow something as horrific as FGM to go on in our society, yet we practice something very similar to it on baby boys all the time. I couldn’t help but wonder what an anthropologist that was practicing participant observation studies on a tribe that performed FGM would do. Would they feel compelled to intervene in some way, or would they be able to keep their beliefs to themselves and stand back and observe?
Certain women in these cultures are beginning to stand up for themselves. One advantage to the ethnocentric society of the United States is that we are willing to allow people of sociocentric societies to find a way out. The women that wish to escape what they feel is a brutal ritual are welcomed into the United States.
In every society women play very distinct roles, as do the men. In the tribes of Africa and the Middle East that perform female genital mutilations the role of the woman is the virgin. FGM is not for us to understand, but we don’t have to accept it. As long as certain countries continue to perform this procedure the United States, ethnocentric or not, will continue to allow women to come here for asylum from their tribes.

“Female genital mutilation”, Fact sheet N°241 May 2008,
<http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs241/en/>
“Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting” UNICEF/HQ 98-0232/ Grossman
<http://www.unicef.org/protection/index_genitalmutilation.html>

People and Place—Altai Mountain Region, Central Asia
Traditional Ways
Indigenous Knowledge

The KOLB model can be simplified to:

1. Experiencing – These are activities from which a student may learn (readings, fieldwork, lab work, problem sets, observations, simulations/games).
2. Reflecting – the student thinks about the experience (what was seen, felt, thought about) and integrates the new experience with past experiences. (Keeping a journal or log through your work term will help with this process.)
3. Generalizing – the student develops questions and theories and attaches meaning to the experience.
4. Applying – the student tests out new ideas, attitudes and behaviours and the cycle continues.

http://engandcompscicoop.dal.ca/co-op_students.php?sub=cs/reflective_learning

Redefining how success is measured in Aboriginal learning

Métis Holistic Lifelong Learning Model

The Métis Holistic Lifelong Learning Model represents the link between Métis lifelong learning and community well-being, and can be used as a framework for measuring success in lifelong learning.

The Métis understand learning in the context of the “Sacred Act of Living a Good Life,” a perspective that incorporates learning experienced in the physical world and acquired by “doing,” and a distinct form of knowledge―sacred laws governing relationships within the community and the world at large―that comes from the Creator. To symbolize these forms of knowledge and their dynamic processes, the Métis Holistic Lifelong Learning Model uses a stylistic graphic of a living tree.

http://www.ccl-cca.ca/ccl/Reports/RedefiningSuccessInAboriginalLearning/RedefiningSuccessModelsMetis.html

Message from the Tsistsistas-Cheyenne Arrow Keeper, Edward Red Hat, I, To All students.

At this time I am going to tell you in a good way
these things that are good,
the life and the learning of things.
nahutsexowe.
nidatomistomewadenowa.
seheshedasepeva.
nidaawostanehewise.
hutsehenedasheneenowosto.
All these that want to learn all that got their ears open,
the way in front of your life, and you yourselves,
you are going to learn your language good;
and you are going to make use out of these things;
and it is going to be good;
and it is going to help you. nitataeheewostanehevsto.
nanninihoweme.
isishiasehutseheneenohose.
naasepeva
seostanowostenehostowewotz.
evasepeva
mohestewastevesheostenova.
seheshepevadinhishiev.
Wherever you are going to use this
it is going to be easy for you all
in your education. hoostonewastinehenon
heostenowastaee.
eehotoanawedanohondisa.
Maheo will know what you are all doing,
will help you in what you are going to do. maheonhishpeve
datdonistasahot.
eonhishutseodomasen.
seenohostomoneheshepeva.
naatseannidaasepeva
senhestomaheosevshedida
wostaneohewenowo.
These things won't be difficult;
and you won't run into problems;
you won't be stopped,
you will be able to solve them. saaeheehotoanatanohomstae.
nisatoheosehemstaatsen
sehapeva.
nitatahewostanenehevise.
nidaasenhesheneenoxseavenime.
nidaanoneehowem.
nidoteishitdsepevamohesenda
sensevesendasepeva
pevanaowenstanon
henehewise.
stooneetdonhaasitdaesh
ewostanehevsto
sehethutsexove.
The education, the life in front of you,
and all the people of the universe will know;
and it will carry you a long ways in the future. nidaanenehowedanowo.
nanhishietit
nisitdaseexeononeshitdase.
henehnowahenoda
seheshepeva.
ninoxasitsaa.
From generation to generation you learn
these things;
you catch what they try to tell you;
you know it; you go a long ways. saaesishahesehotoana
asihimsaae'eehetshistshishutesasitshi
seshepeva
nidaasepevaundahowaetse.
sehedanowetsishenehenenowe.
nonohenistapevheneno
humsteepevetsastonowostan
sinehenowe.
Maheo will know what you are all doing,
will help you all in what you are going to do;
you will have an easy time of it. naamon.
maheosestexeen
nishiamhaaenatdooxeenisit
dashevise
wostanehevsto
seheshepevasaahot
sehishevistamstaneheve.
Do not forget in your learning to be thinking
about Maheo,
the creator, the maker of these things. maheoseeni'nonishaahenstoweseen
nishenit.
mi'emindaasepevahoaemaheo.
Whenever you find anything difficult,
prayer will get you through. etdonishevisewoestanehevsto
nitdoshevise
shineshaashea.
ameatsistshewostanehevise
donasendaseheshepeva.

Student Digital Storytelling
Your posted work here is a personal, virtual reflection on cultural anthropology in the world of today and/or the past/future. Your posted work will be public, indefinitely, on the internet.

There are quides to digital storytelling online at places like

http://colbycriminaljustice.wikidot.com/creating-a-digital-story

If you need help using Windows Movie Maker this is a good tutorial:

http://frybreadqueen.googlepages.com/killtheindian%2Csavetheman

a brief evolution of diseases
Jacqueline Magpantay