Anthropology

Kalimah Abioto
10/29/07


Disorientation and Orientation

In this chapter, Disorientation and Orientation, the author gives us an introduction to the many facets of anthropology and how it was conceived or thought to have been in the past. The many things that are grappled and debated within the text are the associations of cultural and social anthropology, what is culture, power within culture, and how to begin anthropological research. When first beginning The People Could Fly Project, I never thought of this searching out of dreams within a certain cultural sphere as an anthropological study, yet as I have read within the text, the encounters, feelings, and questions that I have asked are similar to those regarding culture, orientation, society, and power. We, my four sisters and I, are historians, artists and anthropologists. We are documenting culture, society, dreams, and perceptions.
Disorientation and orientation, of the anthropologist, “student”, or “investigator” is what is required in order to enter the field or realm of study, observation, and analysis. A dichotomy exists for me, as I am both a student and one who has just begun fieldwork.
It feels as though I am going through a long disorientation process of learning that I can no longer depend on the safety of school and, to some extent, the things that I have been taught in terms of what to expect or want in society. The author uses the example of students just entering college having been disoriented in order to be immersed and oriented to their new environment without familial support. Though I am no longer a freshman in college, as the author states, “you could easily imagine the entire four years of college as a prolonged initiation ritual; for during that time, you are separated from the rest of society”, the process of being inserted to a degree into society while searching for resources and answers without as much padding that an institution offers, can be the same as the “culture shock” that the author makes mention of.
Culture is a very interesting thing and concept. It is held as a focal point within anthropology. As anthropologists have questioned the validity or meaning of “culture”, many times I questioned the validity of the project. In, this American society, as multicultural as it is” the power voices have not predominantly been that of black Americans. The majority of the interviewees have been black, though not all. Therefore, I would say that the project is coming from the viewpoint of individuals who are female and black Americans. Though I feel that my perception should not be skewed or marginal, I am rethinking certain doctrines and teachings for even today there are teachings and principles that have been thought of as, “better or natural” than the other according to a one sided scale that can no longer be one-sided. In the text, western culture was held to be the epitome of civilization. Talking and conversing individuals of different racial and class backgrounds in this short time has taught me that this so.
Because film is my medium and I am dealing with the perspectives of life for people throughout the African Diaspora I will take for instance Tyler Perry’s film, Why Did I Get Married. Upon first seeing the film, I couldn’t help but be angered by the lack of cinematic detail, as I felt it was a representation of African American Society. As I later researched, many critics felt the same way, so of course it had been received negatively though it was a box office success. However, as I began to think on and on about the standards by which this movie was judged, by the critics and myself, it didn’t seem right for I was using the same standards set by that of Third World Cinema or Neo-Realist Cinema to judge the quality of that film. Analogously, the author explains that “in the nineteenth century, social theorists ranked peoples of the world on an evolutionary, progressive, unilateral, scale of culture that ended, not coincidentally, with themselves at the top.” Likewise, this was not a film based on couples portrayed in typical American dramas nor was it about the juxtaposition of images to be favorable to the eye. This was a theatrically released gospel turned film, which in itself holds different implications from that of another modern day tail of marriage/ break up or a personal or political film of upheaval. Does this mean that the film should have been judged according to the same scale as the latter? Old measurements of culture or what it means to be cultured must be broken down for “it was simply assumed that that all peoples tread the same path to civilization”.
While recognizing that we develop having cultural differences, we must know, as anthropologists, that we are also part of a whole which can’t be ignored and develop simultaneously with personal awareness. Claude Levi Strauss says that anthropology, “consists not merely in knowing that one knows nothing but resolutely exposing what one knows, even to ones own ignorance.” Awareness and openness is the beginning of anthropological work.


10/22/07

Our Bodies, Ourselves

Many, many, many passed time ago we were conceived in these bodies. I was conceived as a female, he was conceived as a male, and the bird was conceived with wings. As I grazed the streets last night asking the quiet question of dreams, some hearsay, deep yearning, or sheepish delight, I came upon bodies of different shape and sizes. One girl, said “ As a child…I used to want to be an astronaut”. I said “ You don’t want that no more?” She said “ naw… it’s too much math and science: I just want to chill.” I looked at her. I looked at her friend. I looked through the camera. I then said, “oh”.
I think about an astronaut and the body of an astronaut, ok? I think to myself, you must be of lightweight to be an astronaut. Not only must you be light physically, for I am sure you must be of sound health when you go beyond the ozone layer, but you must be light mentally in order to move beyond the gravitational pull of complacency, and nay sayers. Now, as I looked at her, she was a beautiful young woman, but I knew that wasn’t light enough to take off into the abyss right then and there. If she were to go on a journey to outer space, would she be ready? Would her body be ready? Do I think her body ready? Should someone else think her body ready? Should her body determine her readiness move? Is it fair that I judge her based on my perception of her body? Should I call her a she? She’s a person too. Would that be rude? So… I’m asking too many questions. Maybe that is all I could come up with. To be honest, we do exist in places, space, bodies, and shells. There has been little time spent cultivating the persons or “souls” inside and more time assigning, playing roles, or associating ideas to these bodies. Today, yes we still forget to distinguish the soul first from the body and from which can stunt the dream or aspirations of individuals.

I wonder had this girl been born of another body, would she have to truly be an astronaut? The writer of the text mentions that “there is no such thing as ‘the body’, male and female bodies have different meanings”. This young girl, after having dismissed the idea of the astronaut, now wants to be a mother and aspiring minister of the word in the Church of God in Christ. The body of a church mother, much different from that of an astronaut, holds within itself assumptions of the body. Her body is “associated with nature”. Therefore, she must have a full body to bear the body of a child with inspiration left to give the ministry, which she does have. To many this description is much different from the body type of an astronaut, which could be masculine suited up in a blue jumper with a head-set to match. Had she planned to really be an astronaut maybe she wouldn’t have appeared as full or the image of the ideal astronaut would have changed.

Now, I can just imagine this black girl effervescently looking up to her mother or father. “ I want to be an astronaut”, she says. Her parents look at her gingerly and smile, “you can be anything you want to be” they say. That is what all parents say, or most, for that matter. So, she is satisfied with that and continues to look at books about the milky way and NASA. So, she gets a bit older and goes to school and doesn’t necessarily excel in math or science. “I want to be an astronaut”, she says. Do they take her seriously?” She doesn’t excel in math or science so she no longer takes herself seriously. Now, there are other things that I am not factoring into the scenario, for instance the persistence of the parents, the child, or quality of the education; however, if she had been born into the body of a black boy, for instance, would she have had more or even less of a chance? It would be easier for people to silently see an astronaut in other form gender or race wise; therefore, collectively reducing her dreams to a childhood fantasy and further reshaping her body into that of a preferred mother’s. So, the astronaut is left in the space-time of childhood dreams and thought of only on occasion.