ProfWeek9

To reflect on last week's language topic, what are the repercussions associated with heavy cell phone use? In many ways, sending a text message is more discrete and less intrusive than talking on the phone. However, it is exactly that discretion that may be forming a social problem. Is it possible that text messages desensitize people from the very subjects they are discussing? It is difficult to express a full thought in 160 characters, let alone convey true meaning and emotion. Will text-based communication reshape human interaction? Or are texts not that different from postal letters?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/26/health/26teen.html

On page 231, it states that the Sioux (Native American) adopted a more overtly hostile stance toward the government and White people as a response of Native Americans to the invasion of their land by the White. Ultimately, the government took action against the Sioux, killing Chief Sitting Bull and Chief Big Foot and about 300 Sioux at the Wounded Knee. I wonder what the Sioux had done until the government needed to kill them. How could the government justify its act of killing the people who tried to fight for their own rights?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Dance http://www.ghostdance.us/history/history.html

During last Thursday's class we covered linguistic anthropology it struck me that we only covered Proto-Indo-European languages and the tree did not move further back into human history. Is there a common language that links proto- Asian languages with proto-European languages and as well to proto-African languages? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Indo-European_language http://www.grsampson.net/Q_PIE.html http://mathildasanthropologyblog.wordpress.com/2009/07/22/just-a-few-reading-links-for-afro-asiatic/

In the Meneley article, she says she returned and was hard pressed to find a location that she found familiar. After reading this, I was reminded of something my uncle told me while watching the movie “Taxi Driver”. He stated that that was old New York. While most places are forced to bring about new change because of war, wouldn’t it be fair to say that even if war had not occurred, the culture that she knew would still have changed? === Anne Meneley, in "Fashions and Fundamentalisms in Fin-de-Siecle Yemen: Chador Barbie and Islamic Socks", states on page 223 that she adopted the chador after seeing that the opinon of unchadored women was that they were considered prostitutes. This fits in with what we have learned about how people in a culture being studied are more open towards people they feel comfortable around. Did she do this solely to become closer to the women of the Zabidi society? It was stated that there were religious reasons for wearing the chador. Is it ever considered shameful or insulting to conform to a society's rules, if one does not believe in them just to gain more information about the culture? What would happen if the anthropologist's morals do not agree with a certain change that would allow for easier access to information? Are they likely to make the change anyway or would they abandon that path of research to maintain some of their own morals? === On reading the article by Meneley, I was intrigue by the recognition the author gives to Barbie as an important and somehow sacred symbol of American Culture. I then started to wonder what is more offensive in relative terms, to disguise the Prophet Mohamed in a Santa Claus costume as done by the guys in South Park or dressing Barbie in a traditional dress such as veiled in a chador. In addition how is burning a country's flag different from any of the previous. http://boingboing.net/2010/04/13/south-park-turns-200.html



FURTHER READING ON YEMEN: Recent protests in Yemen: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/18/yemen-troops-shoot-protesters-dead Some background on recent U.S. involvement in Yemen: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/us-cruise-missile-parts-found-in-yemeni-village-where-52-died-1993253.html And some background on the cover-up of U.S. involvement in Yemen as revealed by Wikileaks:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/yemen/8166610/WikiLeaks-Yemen-covered-up-US-drone-strikes.html

http://gawker.com/5664744/the-single-truest-political-rant-ever-to-appear-on-morning-television