Subjects: Anthropology

When studying how personality develops, we cannot ignore the role that sex and gender may play nor can we overlook the biological factors that may influence and differentiate male and female behaviors. Determining whether gender roles influence personality and social identity or vice versa may be difficult, but we know that gender roles vary greatly from culture to culture. It is also recognized that every culture has individuals who are transgenders?people who do not fall neatly within the proscribed male and female categories. Western cultures prefer to think exclusively in male and female gender roles, but many other cultures have created a ?third gender? or even a ?fourth gender? in which to place these individuals. As individuals, we not only need to know who we are but also how we fit in and belong to the culture we were born into. Sometimes it gets complicated.

This film focuses on three types of subsistence patterns: foraging, horticultural/ agricultural, and pastoralism. What all subsistence systems have in common is the need for water. Who controls the water is at the heart of human survival. In the postindustrial era, traditional subsistence activities have been relegated to hobbies, such as hunting, fishing, and berry picking.

Economic systems are the means by which a society produces, distributes and consumes resources, and are intimately integrated with the other elements of the culture. In this lesson the economic systems of several societies are examined as examples of how reciprocity, redistribution, and market exchange play a central role in the distribution of goods. The Ju/?hoansi of southern Africa exemplify foraging cultures in which food is not produced but rather collected as it is needed and distributed immediately according to the process known as generalized reciprocity. The Yolmo of Nepal traditionally practiced pastoralism and subsistence farming, using an exchange system of balanced reciprocity combined with redistribution. A Ghanian market run by women illustrates a traditional form of market exchange, and a Japanese fish market exemplifies the wholesale commercial market with international participants but face-to-face transactions according to Japanese cultural practices.

The video opens with a wedding in Long Bow Village, in China, and effectively shows the diverse nature of weddings from one culture to another emphasizing that weddings are rites of passage, full of ritual and symbols that convey and emphasize the values of that society. It defines marriage and suggests that this is one way that societies regulate sexual relations between men and women. It points out that all cultures include rules on who can marry whom because of the general concern regarding marriage between close family members, or incest. The incest taboo is discussed, and the narrator and expert anthropologists explain it provides a structuring mechanism for marriage rules, endogamy and exogamy. Arranged marriages are discussed, how they benefit specific societies, and the attitudes toward then as opposed to the western ideals of romantic love.

Throughout history, cultures have changed because of environmental conditions, internal pressures, or external forces. Change comes quickly, or it may occur slowly. In any event, anthropologists chronicle cultural change and offer explanations as to why it happens. Anthropologist Eugene Cooper has tracked cultural change as it is reflected in the craft of Chinese furniture-making during the 1970s and 1980s, and emphasizes that societies change with the use of new technologies. The key term, diffusion, is introduced and discussed within the context of the spread of the English language from the anthropologist to the group she or he studies. The video illuminates some of the benefits and problems that immigration poses for a culture. It focuses on the current migration of Mexicans and Central Americans to the United States. It illustrates why the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps was founded, and how their goals were formed in response to the perception that too many Mexican citizens were coming across the border into the United States illegally.

This program explores the phenomenon of globalization, its complex forms, and its impact on the cultures of the world, as well as the contributions that anthropology can make toward a better understanding of it. Wal-Mart?s operations in China are shown as an example of how giant global corporations use structural power to expand business and profit in developing countries. The collaboration of the Bolivian government with another U.S.-based global corporation, Bechtel, and the World Bank illustrates how such partnerships can act against the best interests of the people. Finally, a Bangladeshi immigrant to the United States is interviewed, giving a personal perspective on the record high levels of external and internal migration occurring worldwide

Economic systems are the means by which a society produces, distributes and consumes resources, and are intimately integrated with the other elements of the culture. In this lesson the economic systems of several societies are examined as examples of how reciprocity, redistribution, and market exchange play a central role in the distribution of goods. The Ju/?hoansi of southern Africa exemplify foraging cultures in which food is not produced but rather collected as it is needed and distributed immediately according to the process known as generalized reciprocity. The Yolmo of Nepal traditionally practiced pastoralism and subsistence farming, using an exchange system of balanced reciprocity combined with redistribution. A Ghanaian market run by women illustrates a traditional form of market exchange, and a Japanese fish market exemplifies the wholesale commercial market with international participants but face-to-face transactions according to Japanese cultural practices.

The video opens with a wedding in Long Bow Village, in China, and effectively shows the diverse nature of weddings from one culture to another emphasizing that weddings are rites of passage, full of ritual and symbols that convey and emphasize the values of that society. It defines marriage and suggests that this is one way that societies regulate sexual relations between men and women. It points out that all cultures include rules on who can marry whom because of the general concern regarding marriage between close family members, or incest. The incest taboo is discussed, and the narrator and expert anthropologists explain it provides a structuring mechanism for marriage rules, endogamy and exogamy. Arranged marriages are discussed, how they benefit specific societies, and the attitudes toward then as opposed to the western ideals of romantic love.

The video for Lesson 20 begins with Helen Mendoza and Pam Privett explaining that families can take many forms today. They are partners in a same-sex marriage, raising children of their own. Lesson 19 explained why some cultures find polygamy a preferred marriage arrangement, and the video for Lesson 9 highlights the familial and household benefits of the polygynous system. However, the video points out that not all such marriages are cooperative. Under some circumstances, competition among wives can cause serious tensions. The terms consanguinal family, conjugal family, and fictive kin are defined and varying family forms such as nuclear family, extended family, and blended family are illustrated.

The video explains that kinships, or the strong familial networks within which individuals function on a daily basis, are made up of groups of family members and that they provide the essentials for survival. The video explains descent groups and lineages and points out that not all lineages trace descent the same way. Several different kinds of descent groups are illustrated and Chinese patrilineal descent is featured. Particular attention is given to explaining this complex system; that a lineage in this system goes back only four to six generations because households become very large over time and conflicts arise, that brothers splinter off and begin lineages of their own. The concept of clan (tsu) is defined and discussed at length. Different systems of kinship are illustrated, and that each group establishes varying methods of defining relatives. The video explains the Eskimo system, the Iroquois System, and the Hawaiian system.