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Welcome to Planet Margaret, Space Traveler! Otherwise known as my semester portfolio for Cultural Anthropology Honors. This post acts as my navigation and abstract before entering into the rest of my work. The following links are portals to each individual assignment as well as major and minor projects and my final evaluation.

Links

Abstract

Major and Minor Projects

Weekly Assignments

Peer Reviews

Final Evaluation

Enjoy Your Stay!

#navigation

Final Evaluation

Part 1: Reflecting on Your Labor

- How would you describe the overall quality of your labor output in this course? Why? I think that my work has significantly improved compared to the beginning of the semester and that I’ve also gained more understanding how to direct myself in this course.

- What would you describe as your strongest work from this course? Why? My strongest work has to be my weekly assignment on cultural violence. While doing this assignment, I felt really confident in my ability to understand the reading for that week and showcase that in my work.

- What would you describe as your weakest work from this course? Why? My assignment on week 3 for culture, I had no sense of direction when I did that assignment and took a faulty risk. In the end, I completely revised and reworked to something that I preferred in the long run.

-What learning outcomes did your labor help you achieve? Give details and examples for each outcome you achieved. Referring back to my last two self-assessments, I aimed to achieve the objective of “defining and discussing basic concepts and terms used in cultural anthropology” and “developing and refining critical, analytical, and reflective thinking skills”. In my early work, I only wanted to focus on understanding the basics before engaging with higher level thinking later in the semester. I think I can confidently say that my work now reflects those objectives as well as the addition of “articulating the major points and themes of anthropological readings” and “developing and refining critical, analytical, and reflective thinking skills”. Much of the work completed late in the semester relied on testing my knowledge and forced me to apply what I know. This is in the case of the ethnographies and articles that we read and had to make connections on.

- Did you take any risks with your learning and labor? If yes, explain with details and examples. If no, provide details about why you did not take any risks. I have come to realize that I actually ended up taking a risk early in the semester with the assignment on culture. In this case, it totally backfired on me and made me shy away from doing anything risky, so for the majority of my assignments I stuck to writing short essays with the occasional PowerPoint if I was feeling fancy. However, I saw a chance at taking another creative risk with the major/minor assignments, putting myself out there to record, script, and edit an entire recipe video was a risk I was willing to take, not to mention the fun that I had when doing it. To be honest, sometimes I felt like it was going to completely blow up in my face, but in hindsight, I’m glad that I took those chances on myself because at least I can say that “I did that”.

-Did you have any unexpected issues with your labor this semester? Explain with details and examples. I believe that I reference this in a past self-assessment but I was having doubts about my work. Sometimes I would work on an assignment and nothing would click together or make sense to me. If I was in some kind of funk, I would almost throw my laptop across the room out of frustration. I had no idea how the work was going to get done or when.

- Is there something you produced that you are especially proud of or happy with? Explain with details and examples. Doing the media analysis came easy to me (I just really like picking apart things that I enjoy), I encountered bumps in the road when it came to what I was going to talk about. Despite feeling like my Gossip Girl one was stretch, I had a lot of fun watching something that brings me serotonin and being able to connect it to topics that I’ve learned about. I’m also really proud of that mooncake video, I don’t care what anyone says about it, I worked hard on it and it came out great. It felt good exploring another culture through very tasty food.

Part II: Reflecting on the Course

- Thinking back to your course survey from the beginning of the semester:

§ What did you hope to get out of this course? Did your hopes for the course change as the semester progressed? If so, how? If not, did you get what you hoped out of the course? Explain with details and examples. Initially, I wanted to gain more understanding of how people and society operates. And really, that didn’t change throughout the semester. I think that other classes in the Learning Community helped with that, because at first, I could not understand how this class tied in the other classes until we reached the middle of the semester, then everything kind of clicked. A lot of topics discussed across the classes started to crossover and made sense. I began to talk about topics discussed in Anthropology in other classes, like Ethics and Literature.

§ What did you hope to contribute to this course? Did these hopes change as the semester progressed? If so, how? If not, did you contribute what you hoped? Explain with details and examples. At the end of this class, I wanted to provide another perspective on the topis discussed. I think that never really changed at the end, it only came out in a different way. Usually, I am not the kind of person to heavily engage in raw discussion, I prefer to be an avid listener and express my thoughts in my writing, it keeps me from being all over the place when I want to talk about something.

- What did you learn the most about from this course? (Note: this need not only be limited to course topics! It could include something totally unrelated to the actual course content, such as your own learning style or insights about university life.) I think that learned how to approach things from an anthropological view with more awareness, but I know how to turn it off and on so I can avoid overthinking everything that I encounter now. Sometimes I like to turn it on when I’m on campus because of how interesting it is to view things or when I rewatch movies/shows from my childhood that I didn’t may much attention to before.

- Which course activities stand out to you (for example, in- or out-of-class activities that you enjoyed or hated or were surprised by)? Why? Surprisingly the class discussions, even though there were times that started slow, I learned some really interesting things from them. I also think that this comes from the class I was in, I am so thankful for not only the people in my TLC, but also the people in the general course that I had the pleasure of interacting with.

- Name at least three course readings that made an impression on you and explain how they (re)shaped your thinking. Johan Galtung’s Cultural Violence is a definitive favorite for me, I’m not trying to sound pretentious, but his concept of violence as a cycle that feeds on each other proved what I thought about how everything is connected. This article also came at time after learning about methods of “othering” in my Ethics class and around that time I began to relate a lot of aspects of media that I consumed to it. That article provided a better explanation of what I was thinking about regarding it. Dr. Kline’s ethnography was also a favorite. When it came to undocumented immigrants, I really only knew about the injustices that happened at the Southern border as well as the exploitation that many migrant workers had to deal with. And while I had a feeling that undocumented immigrants faced hardships, I never actually saw it and I never took the time to find out. Having to read Dr. Kline’s work helped me to understand how our current systems in health work to oppress another group of people, something that I probably wouldn’t have paid attention to. Finally, those Sapiens articles, I like the fact I can have a choice in things, so I had fun during weeks 9 and 10. I felt like those articles allowed me to practice my anthropological thinking skills and actively discuss my thoughts among a smaller group of people as well as bounce each other’s ideas off one another.

- Which assignments/topics did you find challenging? Why? How did you overcome these challenges? I think the week on subsistence and economics got me assignment wise, I had so much trouble trying to work with that topic, the only way that I managed to work my way through it was by taking multiple breaks and constantly returning to it. To be honest I felt like my eyeballs were going to pop out while re-reading that chapter and the notes that I made over it.

-Has this course changed your worldview/understanding of anything? Explain with details and examples. I don’t think it has; I mean I still hold a realist view of the world, so it didn’t make me an optimist. I will say though that, it made me understand somethings a whole lot better than before this class. Like I gained a better understanding of how gender and sex work as well as what intersex was (at first I only knew it as a buzzword, but now I know how to properly explain it to others). It made me more open to talk about sex and gender in relation to Western society and confident about what is believed and what is correct ( it also gave me great ammo at the Thanksgiving table).

- What questions linger for you as the semester ends? What are you still curious to learn more about? I think I still want to learn more about language, as someone who’s major requires me to be familiar with more than one language, I think it would be beneficial to understand how language in general works so that I can apply that knowledge no matter where I am in the world.

- How did you feel about ungrading at the start of the semester? How do you feel about it at the end? What did you find most fulfilling about it? What did you find most troubling? What would you change about it (aside from going back to grading)? In the beginning, I hated ungrading. I didn’t understand it and thought that it was a waste or time, but I eventually grew accustomed to it, or I would’ve withdrawal from the class. Right now, I’ve come to terms with ungrading and have accepted it. However, it is still not my first choice of evaluation, but as much as I would prefer a test a week and a paper, this class is a breath of fresh air while staying academic. I don’t feel as enclose and limited in my work compared to my other classes, and I have the choice to limit myself if I want to or take a risk once in a while. I was shaken by the fact that I only got two grades for this class and believed that they were one-timers with little to no chance to improve, but I liked the aspect of going back revising work. I liked that I was given a second chance to prove myself.

Part III: Self-Evaluation

- How many class meetings did you miss? None

o For those you missed, did you make up that time? If so, how? If not, why not? N/A

- How actively engaged in class would you say you were (this includes all in-class activities, whether it was full class discussion or breakout groups, and need not only refer to talking)?

o Attention level (select one):

§ Fully engaged with few/no distractions**

§ Mostly paid attention with few distractions

§ Paid attention with some distractions

§ Struggled to pay attention

§ Uninterested, spent time distracted

o Contribution level (select one):

§ Contributed regularly to class activities

§ Contributed occasionally to class activities**

§ Contributed rarely to class activities

§ Did not contribute to class activities

o What were some factors that affected how actively engaged you were in class? Which of these were unavoidable? Which were avoidable, and how might you avoid them in future coursework?

- Approximately how many of the readings did you complete (meaning you read them thoroughly for main ideas/concepts and took notes/wrote in margins):

o 90-100%

o 75-89%**

o 50-74%

o 25-49%

o Less than 25%

- Did you visit the professor/TA outside of class (office hours, scheduled meetings, etc.)? If so, how many times and how did the meetings affect your performance in the course? If you did not visit, why not?

o Did you visit the professor for a one-on-one meeting to discuss your portfolio? If so, what did you get out of the meeting? If not, why not? No, I decided on not scheduling any meetings with the professor or TA because the times I felt like I was stuck, I managed to come out it by myself with minor help. However, I always knew that if needed some serious help I could always shoot them an email.

- Assignments

o Did you fail to turn in any assignments during the semester? If so, which ones and why did you fail to turn them in? Did you submit unrevised versions of those assignments in the final portfolio? No, I turned all my assignments during the semester.

o How many of your assignments were NOT turned in on time? ___Zero___

§ Did you request extensions on these? If so, how many of them did you request extension for? No, I did not.

o Did you complete both of the mid-semester self-assessments? If not, why not? Yes, I did.

- Peer Reviews

o How many peer reviews did you complete (in other words, how many of your peers’ assignments did you provide feedback on)? I completed every peer review for this semester on time.

o Did the quality of the feedback you gave to your peers improve over the semester? If so, how and why? If not, why not? No, most of the work that my peer did was mostly short and sweet and I knew (like myself) that we could expand on ideas and talk a little bit more about what we learned.

o Did you incorporate peer review feedback in your revised weekly assignments? If so, explain what kinds of feedback you found the most useful (examples are encouraged). If not, explain why you did not incorporate peer feedback. Yes, I made sure to take it into account. I believed that feedback I got was reasonable to incorporate into the revised submissions. I liked when feedback came with examples of what I should do to improve my work, such as a starting point on what to expand on.

- Did you talk about class material with people who were not in this course? If so, what did you talk about and to whom? If not, why not? Yes, besides the people in my learning community, I would talk to my parents about what I was learning (whether they were willing to listen or not), most of the time it was stuff in relation to what the news would talk about. For context, the news plays like white noise in our house, so random discussion occur throughout the day when something comes up. Whenever I felt confident about a topic being discussed I began to add my two cents with adding information from class, most of the topics were about race, class, or gender.

- Did you post on the Q&A forum? If so, what did you contribute? No, I did not participate.

- Indicate from the following what you included in your final course portfolio:

o Table of Contents (or a menu if digital) (This is included)

o Portfolio Abstract/Summary (This is included)

o Number of MAJOR portfolio assignments: _____One_____

o Number of MINOR portfolio assignments: _____Three______

o Number of REVISED weekly assignments: ____Seven______

o Number of UNREVISED weekly assignments: ____Zero______

o Copies of the feedback you received that helped you with your revisions? Yes

o Copies of peer review feedback you gave to peers? Yes

o Did you clearly indicate if you worked with others on portfolio work and what labor each person contributed to the final product? I did not collaborate with anyone on my portfolio, with the exception of my mother working as my camerawoman for my mooncake video. Her contribution has been indicated in the description of that post.

o Anything else included in portfolio not listed here that you would like to list please do so here. N/A

Part IV: Final Course Grade

- I decided on giving myself an A as my final course grade because I believe that my work has showcased the understanding of an A-grade student for this class. At the beginning, I only believed that I had done the average amount of labor in this class to earn a B, but as the semester progressed, I grew more confident in my ability to complete my work diligently. As someone in the Honors section, I knew that the majority of my grade rising would come from my projects. I decided on taking on both options, I wanted to do multiple projects rather than the bare minimum, but I also wanted that work to be really good quality. I did three minor assignments with two of them being media analysis because I knew that I could spend a while drafting, editing, and revising them without feeling totally drained. I also chose the infographic because of how easy it was. Despite only doing one major assignment, I wanted it to be the best I could do, not only in content but in aesthetics as well. The two and a half weeks that I spent researching, experimenting, filming (and re-filming), recording, and editing had to be the most stressful weeks of this semester, but it was also super fun. To me, going above and beyond in those assignments was the make or break for having a B+ or an A. Even though taking the time revaluate and revise my work was also a huge chunk of my labor at the end of semester, it’s a required guideline to follow as well as provide all the feedback I provided for this course. Not to mention the fact that I submitted all the weekly work and peer feedback on time and in it’s entirety, I guess that would also qualify going above and beyond and not just submitting the minimum 13 feedback copies and the 12 copies of weekly work and their revisions. Despite not always talking in class, I always wanted to make sure that I was engaging in different ways. Whether it was note-taking or having discussions outside of class, I never wanted to feel like I was missing out on something important to remember or that I wasn’t proving myself enough through my work. Compared to myself at the beginning and the middle of the course, I feel that my level of understanding in this class has risen thus, boosted my self-confidence, and I also think that my work had definitely shown that I’m worthy of deserving this grade.

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#final evaluation

Major Anthropology Project: Snowskin Mooncakes

NOTE: The video actually ends at 9:08, not 15:11.

Special thanks to my mother for being my lovely camera woman.

Recipe: https://www.mylovelyrecipes.com/recipes/dessert/snow-skin-mooncakes/

Sources:

https://www.chinahighlights.com/festivals/mooncake.htm

https://www.unclemaxkitchen.com/recipe/snow-skin-mooncake/.

https://www.today.com/food/what-are-mooncakes-behind-mid-autumn-festival-treat-t192491

https://delishably.com/world-cuisine/mooncake-facts

https://redhousespice.com/red-bean-paste/

#major project

Abstract

Within my portfolio, you will notice that the majority of my work is written both in the style of free writing and academic writing. I decided on reserving any risk-taking and doing anything creatively for my major/minor projects, to which there are four projects completed: one major and three minor. You will see that all the possible weekly assignments and peer reviews from this semester are posted in the sub-posts in navigation via links. For the sake of aesthetic purposes, you can revert back to the homepage of this site (use the home icon), where the navigation post will always be present to guide you to where you need to go by clicking on the home icon in the upper left corner. You can also use the search bar to look up keywords as well. You can also click on the playlist located at the bottom for a more immersive experience that is on theme with this website (only works on chrome). If you can’t hear the music and you really want to, check the lock icon in your web address box and allow for the following permissions in your site settings: sound, MIDI devices, and JavaScript. I hope that this provides a new experience and way of viewing my work over this past semester.

Enjoy your stay on Planet Margaret!

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#abstract

Week 3 Assignment

Original Submission:

Culture, a complicated, convoluted idea that everyone understands subliminally but fails to describe in words. Technically, it's the combination of similar arts, ideas, practices, mannerisms, and tendencies that have been cultivated through the presence of a people. To me, culture is like a botanical garden, it's full of various similar elements that all interact and build upon each other. It has its own sets of behavior and practices needed to sustain it. For without, the garden can die along with any flora exclusive to it.

I think anthropologists like to study culture because you can poke and prod at it and still learn something new. They immerse themselves in it, commit to the fieldwork of analyzing a group's culture by living in it. They become the plants in the garden, they study how the flora grows and acts and how outside forces interact with it.

Revision Statement: This assignment was probably the hardest one to revise simply because I believe that my thoughts were all over the place on how to complete it. I decided on taking out the botanical metaphor because I could not find any reasonable way to keep it in. I made sure the list the six elements of culture and provide examples for the lecture and the articles from that week.

Revised Submission:

Culture, a complicated, convoluted idea that everyone understands subliminally but fails to describe in words. Technically, it is the combination of similar arts, ideas, practices, mannerisms, and tendencies that have been cultivated through the presence of a people. There are six aspects of culture. The first one is symbolic, it can hold an arbitrary and conventional meaning, a culture can be packed with many symbols that hold importance in one culture but are mundane in another. An example of this would be the American flag. For Americans, the flag can mean something positive, something that requires a high value of respect; while in other cultures (and in other countries) the flag is simply a flag or may represent some negative aspects of American culture, like nationalism, exploitation, and oppression of others.

Secondly, culture is adaptive, it’s directly affected by its environment, for groups of people that live in Northern parts of the world, they may develop a practice of wearing clothing more suitable for colder temperatures, but they don’t wear winter clothing all year. During the times where it is warmer, the people will adapt and don clothing suitable for warmer months.

Thirdly, culture is patterned, it has routine images and practices that may depict a certain idea. Like traditionally western ideas about gender and the distinction between girlhood and boyhood. Girlhood is depicted by images of toys that involve dolls, dress-up, domesticity, and lots of “feminine” colors like pink, purple, yellow, and pastels, as well as behavior that is “lady-like”, being doting, kind, graceful and delicate. Meanwhile, boyhood is depicted by images of toys that involve trucks, cars, action, and sports with colors like green, blue, orange, and black, and behavior that is meant to show “dominance” like confidence, pride, cockiness, and even anger. This aspect of culture molds people at an early age into what they are supposed to be in the case of gender.

Culture is also dynamic; it can change over time and develop into something new. With time, the notion of gender roles and the culture surrounding it have changed. It is starting to be accepted that people can do what ever they want or what ever they need regardless of the gender attached to it.

Lastly, culture is shared and learned. A culture is created by a group of people, not one person. Every practice, symbol, and idea has been taught somehow and someway; it has been passed down from generation to generation. For example, the way Americans think about other groups of people, like Muslim women, is heavily rooted in ethnocentrism. Americans may believe that Muslim women need to be liberated because they are heavily oppressed with one of those aspects being their clothing. While in reality, Muslim women may choose to where the veil or headscarf, they are not forced to. For them, it may be religious choice or just personal reasonings, either way, it is not anyone’s place to speak on that matter except for that Muslim woman. For Americans, we have been taught that wearing what we want is a way of self-expression, a type of freedom that we have and are entitled to simply because we are American. The problem comes when we try to apply our American ideas to every problem in every country in the world. We the covering of Muslim women as an issue of super modesty therefore, a restraint of self-expression and freedom.

I think anthropologists like to study culture because you can poke and prod at it and still learn something new. They immerse themselves in it, commit to the fieldwork of analyzing a group's culture by living in it. They may participate in rituals and daily practices that the people they’re studying do, if they are allowed. For example, when Geertz talks about the cock fights, he does not actually participate in the fight, but he watches it and gets into with everyone that is also watching it.

#Weekly Assignment

Week 12 Assignment

Original Submission:

In Pathogenic Policing, Dr. Kline explores the effects that extensive policing has on the health of immigrants in Atlanta, Georgia, the connections between police surveillance and the challenges to maintaining healthy well-being are prominent to a time where advocacy and calls to solve the countries’ major problems. Through the personal accounts and experiences of people that face the frontal assault of immigrant policing.

One thing that stood out to me and in fact helped me understand was how the police would set up so many checkpoints in areas that had a high number of Latinos in the area and the type of racial profiling it was. They would set up in these areas believing that would find undocumented immigrants due to the amount of Latinos residing in that area as if an undocumented immigrant can’t be someone that’s white. While it wasn’t surprising that the authorities had a preconceived idea of what an undocumented immigrant looks like, it was how organized and strategic their ways of policing certain communities that stood out to me.

Another thing was how people adapted to what they didn’t have or what they couldn’t afford, instead of going to a doctor many people would go to an equivalent to get what they needed. “If we’re sick we just go to the farmacia at Centro Hispanico. They get shipments in from Mexico so you go and tell the person there what you have and they give you something” (Kline 74). Since they could not rely on the American health system to do them justice and ensure their own security, many immigrants took it into their own hands. Not to mention, the type of jobs many immigrants work do not allow or incorporate sick time/ doctor visits, one would have to either suffer through their ailment or use whatever they can to help with recovery. It’s a matter of live and manage without what you really need.

Revision Statement: Based on the feedback of this assignment, I took into account referring course materials mentioned in the semester and connecting it to Dr. Kline’s work.

Revised Submission:

Overall, the injustices committed against undocumented immigrants and their health is a result of Johan Galtung’s structural violence, while the government would deliberately try to cut off any chances for undocumented immigrants to find healthcare and to even exist in the U.S., there are corporations that want undocumented immigrants to come so they can have cheap labor. Things like the police’s involvement with tracking immigrants all feed into the system that outwardly oppresses undocumented immigrants.

#Weekly Assignment

Week 10 Assignment

Original Submission:

The first article that I read was Finding Calm—and Connection—in Coffee Rituals by Gideon Lasco, which talked about a trip the author took to northern Ethiopia and was introduced to the coffee culture they have there. He learned about the ceremony that the people of Addis Ababa conducted for coffee, called buna. Lasco also learned that each region in Ethiopia has its own distinct type of coffee, down to the flavor notes of the beans. When he returned back to the Philippines, he brought a lot of coffee back intending to share with his family and friends, but that is when the first lockdown for the pandemic started. In the end, because the coffee shops were being closed down and everyone was told to stay at home, Lasco ended up learning how to make his own coffee and creating a personal ritual to cope with the events of the pandemic.

This reminds me of a type of ritual discussed in the textbook, the rite of intensification is practiced in the aftermath of a devastating situation to bring people together, it is a ritual of healing. This also reminds me of how rituals have had to adapt in the wake of COVID-19, now with people meeting on Zoom or Mircosoft Teams, people learning how to cook their favorite foods instead of going to their favorite restaurant, and starting to brew their own coffee instead of going to their favorite coffee shop.

The second article I read was Do Black Lives Matter in Outer Space? by Kimberley D. McKinson, where efforts to colonize Mars in the wake of George Floyd say something very sinister about our country’s attitude towards our past. McKinson mentions that Americans were “ushered to look to the stars to imagine the utopic future of humankind in space, while in the streets, they were confronting the country’s dystopic underbelly of anti-Black racism”. For America, it seems that we try to move forward and ignore our past rather than taking the time to fix our past and pay our dues to the people we have wronged (both in this country and beyond) and then continue to move on forward. McKinson goes on to mention that the space race of the 60s came with undertones of a world power proving their “greatness and superiority” with the industry made up mostly of white men. In this context, it is not surprising that colonization of other planets is on the table and entails the possibility of the same exploitation and dehumanization of people of color “in the name of exploration, adventure, and expansion by White people”.

The last article I read was What Dog Breeds Say About Race by Gideon Lasco, which discusses the practice of dog hierarchies in the Philippines where there is a distinct divide between mixed breed dogs and purebred dogs. Dogs that are mixed breed or aspins are treated lowly and are usually street dogs or guard dogs for people’s homes, they are not fed well or considerably thought of pertaining to their health and are shown to die earlier as a result. However, purebred dogs are kept inside the house with their owners and are routinely taken care of, fed, and groomed, prolonging their lifespan. The idea of “purebred” dogs came with colonizers during the Victorian era boasting about ancient breeds and the superiority that some dogs have over others. Not to mention the socioeconomic factor that is involved with purebreds, those that have a higher social rank are capable of paying thousands of dollars to feed their purebred pets and can afford fancy veterinarians to take care of them and any genetic issues they suffer from. To them, owning a purebred pet is a symbol of wealth and superiority that perpetuates an attitude that is kind to the fortunate but hurtful to the unfortunate.

Revision Statement: For this assignment’s revisions, I made sure to make connections to previous class material for my other two articles. While it was a little difficult, I found that my last two articles were heavily related to our week on race and ethnicity.

Revised Submission:

The last article I read was What Dog Breeds Say About Race also by Gideon Lasco, which discusses the practice of dog hierarchies in the Philippines where there is a distinct divide between mixed breed dogs and purebred dogs. Dogs that are mixed breed or aspins are treated lowly and are usually street dogs or guard dogs for people’s homes, they are not fed well or considerably thought of pertaining to their health and are shown to die earlier as a result. However, purebred dogs are kept inside the house with their owners and are routinely taken care of, fed, and groomed, prolonging their lifespan. The idea of “purebred” dogs came with colonizers during the Victorian era boasting about ancient breeds and the superiority that some dogs have over others. Not to mention the socioeconomic factor that is involved with purebreds, those that have a higher social rank are capable of paying thousands of dollars to feed their purebred pets and can afford fancy veterinarians to take care of them and any genetic issues they suffer from. To them, owning a purebred pet is a symbol of wealth and superiority that perpetuates an attitude that is kind to the fortunate but hurtful to the unfortunate. This also reminds me of how we try to categorize people by their race via how “pure” or “mixed” they are. Those that are pure breed are untouched unlike mixed breeds but are placed on a pedestal because of our idea that something is “more superior” if untouched, like ideas of the white race. This type of treatment is seen as wrong only because we are forcing our ideas and notions of race and class onto dogs, meanwhile we barely pay attention to the same thing occurring to actual people.

#Weekly Assignment

Week 9 Assignment

Original Submission:

In Rachel Heiman’s Driving After Class, an ethnographic study on the anxieties that the middle-class face in the suburbs of the 90s, two things that were interesting to me were the idea of “rugged entitlement” and “common sense”.

Gramsci’s definition of “common sense” is defined as “the uncritical, unconscious way of perceiving that is deeply ingrained and is part of how we act and feel without thinking” (35). The term also describes common sense as a way of acting on instinct and can be a byproduct of “habitus” or “the dispositions that we acquire as we grow up within certain material and social conditions” (36). The way one may act in a particular circumstance or approach a certain idea can be explained by habitus and common sense. In the case of the middle class, the sense of security exudes a behavior considered normative (habitus) and eventually changes the way a person may think about it or any subjects about it (common sense).

Revision Statement: Based on the feedback I received by the TA on this week’s assignment, I made sure to include examples from the ethnography.

Revised Submission:

Gramsci’s definition of “common sense” is defined as “the uncritical, unconscious way of perceiving that is deeply ingrained and is part of how we act and feel without thinking” (35). The term also describes common sense as a way of acting on instinct and can be a byproduct of “habitus” or “the dispositions that we acquire as we grow up within certain material and social conditions” (36). The way one may act in a particular circumstance or approach a certain idea can be explained by habitus and common sense. An example of this would be what Nancy mentions as peoples need to stay with the “in crowd” whether it’s buy up large houses to present a front of financial wealth, despite those houses being empty (84).In the case of the middle class, the sense of security exudes a behavior considered normative (habitus) and eventually changes the way a person may think about it or any subjects about it (common sense).

The phrase “rugged entitlement”, derived from the phrase rugged individualism, is the middle class’ vice grip on obtaining the new American Dream of stability that is post-war. In other words, “who struggled to make that dream a reality for themselves and their children as it was becoming increasing fragile…” (38). That fragility causes the middle class to become more vigilant of their standing in society and avoid any chances of that standing changing for the worst. The middle class must look for opportunities that only benefit themselves and promote class ascension into the upper class of America. I think a good example of this is the incident with someone (of upper-class status) wanting to build a tall fence on their property because they are “entitled” to flaunt their wealth and ability to simply do so. However, there are those in the middle-class that are against people putting up those gates because they feel as if they will miss out, they fail to hold the same expendable ability to build a ridiculously tall fence around their property and become like the rich people in the area.

#Weekly Assignment

Revision Statement: On this week’s assignment, I received good feedback from the TA and took into account that I failed to answer the last part of the prompt regarding what makes a ritual different from a repetition activity. I am aware that I almost discuss this when I dictate the difference between something that is sacred versus something that is mundane. I would mentioned something along the lines of the significance and symbolism that the factors of a ritual may hold importance in a certain setting compared to any other (mundane) day.

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Revision Statement: For this week’s assignment, I took into account that I didn’t answer the second portion of the prompt adequately enough, I failed to mention how language is different from other forms of communication. Something that stood out based on Hockett’s listed design features is the arbitrary and discreet features that a can be another form of communication besides language. I would have made sure to include how this form of messaging is also used in the Animal Crossing universe, such as always waving or acknowledging other villagers as your avatar enters or exits a public space or even the use of “reactions” to convey emotions without speaking. I would have also expanded more on why linguistic anthropologists are interested in studying the connection between language and culture. Like mentioning how a group’s culture can cause a language to develop variations and dialects depending on the location of a group as well as mention the use of code-switching, or the ability to utilize the different variations of a language. I would probably even mention how this reflects in Animal Crossing, with many villagers having different voice pitches.

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Week 2 Assignment

Original Submission:

Dear Pac-Man,

I hope this letter finds you well and not intruding on your favorite pastime. While I'm aware that you may not care as much as the next video character, and you'd rather get chased by ghosts for another 20 years before even comprehending what we humans have got going on. But have you ever questioned how your creators came to be? (You might want to or else you wouldn't be here.) Why they placed you in a maze to gobble dots and get terrorized by a gaggle of ghosts for our enjoyment? First of all, I'll make this as easy to understand as possible (I get it, sometimes I feel like a floating circle too.) but that thing that analyzes how and what your creators came to be is called anthropology, or the study of humans. It's like thinking constantly, why do people do what they do? Like how we wonder why you only get so many chances to attack those stupid ghosts, we really don't know. Some may chalk it up to your creator's liking to make things complicated for the average player or maybe you get a kick out of getting chased by ghosts that sound like a kids bop group. (I won't judge you.) There are many branches of anthropology. Like linguistic anthropology, the study of how humans structure language. For example, think about why you don't have to speak a distinct language and can live out your purpose by only saying "paku-paku". Or biological anthropology and how your body structure contributes to how you eat pixels, occasional fruit, and dodge ghosts, I won't even begin to comprehend how you can live off that kind of sustenance. I could also mention archeology or what others would classify as the remnants of vintage arcade game sets of your game all the way to Atari game consoles from the 1980s. And most importantly, cultural anthropology, how and why you became so popular worldwide, and maybe why people have large statues dedicated to you in arcades for some reason (I'm really serious, look it up.) In other words, what is considered normal for you and how it compares to others (both humans and other video game characters). The uniqueness of this subject comes from being able to question anything and every aspect of something, flip on its head, remix it, reverb it, and everything in between. Allowing for you to remove yourself from the atmosphere and find answers to the questions you may ask during an existential crisis (or not). When you're not gobbling pebbles and playing tag with ghosts, I hope you take the time to wonder why you do the way you do.

Sincerely,

Margaret Andrews

P.S I just realized that you're a literal puck and you probably can't read this nor comprehend what I'm talking about. But if you actually can, I better get a response from this Mr. Pac-Man.

Revised Version:

Dear Pac-Man,

There are many branches of anthropology. Like linguistic anthropology, the study of how humans structure language. For example, think about why you don't have to speak a distinct language and can live out your purpose by only saying "paku-paku". Something a linguistic anthropologist may study the influence that language has within a group of people or the extent that communication has in a society. Or biological anthropology and how your body structure contributes to how you eat pixels, occasional fruit, and dodge ghosts, I won't even begin to comprehend how you can live off that kind of sustenance. A biological anthropologist may even study how factors like race or class have an effect on the human body’s health or study notions of disease and illness. I could also mention archeology or what others would classify as the remnants of vintage arcade game sets of your game all the way to Atari game consoles from the 1980s. An archeologists may conduct a study to compare how video game consoles from the 80s compare to present day ones and may even come up with way to make more innovative. And most importantly, cultural anthropology, how and why you became so popular worldwide, and maybe why people have large statues dedicated to you in arcades for some reason (I'm really serious, look it up.) In other words, what is considered normal for you and how it compares to others (both humans and other video game characters).

Unlike the other social sciences, anthropology involves a different set of skills and procedures to conduct anthropological research. For starters, fieldwork is a method conducted by obtaining data the subject they’re studying. This all falls under doing something called an ethnography which is the act of studying the everyday lives/practices of a subject as well as what the compilation of research and data is titled. The uniqueness of this subject comes from being able to question anything and every aspect of something, flip on its head, remix it, reverb it, and everything in between. Allowing for you to remove yourself from the atmosphere and find answers to the questions you may ask during an existential crisis (or not). When you're not gobbling pebbles and playing tag with ghosts, I hope you take the time to wonder why you do the way you do.

Sincerely,

Margaret Andrews

P.S I just realized that you're a literal puck and you probably can't read this nor comprehend what I'm talking about. But if you actually can, I better get a response from this Mr. Pac-Man.

Revision Statement:

On this week’s assignment, I received helpful feedback from both my peer and TA. I took into account an organization issue that my peer brought up and separated my text for more comprehensive reading. I also accepted suggests from the TA, to expand more on the fields of anthropology as well as answering the last part of the prompt.

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Week 5 Assignment

Original Submission:

Subsistence is the set of practices by which a group of people maintain and support their minimal needs, generally to acquire food. Humans for years have created modes of subsistence: foraging, pastoralism, horticulture, and agriculture. The many modes place emphasis on various ways to obtain food, like foraging, the first and oldest of the four, only hunting and gathering wild food for small populations to agriculture, the newest form, focusing on the mass domestication of plants and animals by means to produce food for larger populations.

Economics is the study of how people organize their resources and its relation to subsistence follows the diverse methods humans have taken to maintain resources through modes of production. There are four types: domestic, tributary, capitalist, and socialist; these modes of production act with the means of production, the use of raw materials to create goods. The domestic mode of production follows the organization of production with a focus on the family and kin relations and highlights collective ownership of profits. People in the domestic structure either forage for food and/or participate in horticulture to raise their own crops and in the end, reap the benefits of their harvest. The tributary mode of production is production of products that pays tribute to a higher power, most commonly a lord, or noble that owns the land. If the occasion comes where a producer has a surplus of a product, they are allowed to keep such. For example, sharecropping, where the producers worked the land and gave their produce to their higher power yet would only have enough surplus to barely live off. This type of mode predates capitalist modes. Capitalist is the most popular and the most recent, is characterized by the private ownership and mostly produced by labor-intensive jobs over the producing for oneself and inner circle. A worker wouldn’t have any control over what goods they help mass produce and fail to gain any surplus from product production. Socialist is also a popular mode and is commonly compared to capitalism in the case of who “owns” the means of production, in this case, it’s the public or social ownership.

Historically, humans have organized themselves into smaller groups of kin or common traits with egalitarian characteristics and equal leadership, like bands and tribes to the modern state with a focus on centralized non-egalitarian power that capitalizes on force to maintain power (ie. the police, military, law). The main distinguishes of these political forms comes from where the power is and how the people organize them. People in a tribe can universalize a decision and responsibility and have direct input of norms, but a state relies on a select group of people to make and maintain decisions, sometimes the people choose them and sometimes they don’t. The state is unstable in this case because there is no egalitarian power or direct say from the people, thus leading to the eventual overthrow of the leaders if they fail to do the people’s bidding.

Revised Submission:

The tributary mode of production is production of products that pays tribute to a higher power, most commonly a lord, or noble that owns the land. If the occasion comes where a producer has a surplus of a product, they are allowed to keep such. For example, sharecropping, where the producers worked the land and gave their produce to their higher power yet would only have enough surplus to barely live off. This type of mode predates capitalist modes.

Capitalist is the most popular and the most recent, is characterized by the private ownership and mostly produced by labor-intensive jobs over the producing for oneself and inner circle. A worker wouldn’t have any control over what goods they help mass produce and fail to gain any surplus from product production. Socialist is also a popular mode and is commonly compared to capitalism in the case of who “owns” the means of production, in this case, it’s the public or social ownership.

Revision Statement: On this week’s assignment, I received good feedback from both my peer and TA, I took note of an organization issue with my middle paragraph and separated it for easier reading.

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Week 6 Assignment

Sex is the biological categorization of bodies and the inclusion of phenotypic and morphological traits. While gender is the meanings a society assigns to actions or social relations as either feminine, masculine, or androgynous persons. For the record, both sex and gender do not exist in a binary and are fluid. In the Western world, we heavily believe in the binary and enforce it the building blocks of our society. But in societies before European contact, gender existed fluidly but was reported as a form of homosexuality within the ethnocentric context of Europe. Another example is within the US as sex and gender are often believed to be the same and are interchangeable with each other, this ethnocentric thinking limits our perspective in the case of viewing sex and gender and ultimately leaves out a range of people, like the exclusion of people that are intersex or individuals who are born with/develop genitalia that is atypical from what is distinguished as male or female.

Anthropologists have established the existence of the spectrum to gender and sex and being fluid, but they also recognize that other cultures may still use the underlying binary system in distinct ways. For example, societies may have religious rituals sanctioned only for “men” and ones only sanctioned for “women”, there are sections of a home that are for the “men” and for the “women”. In the case of sexuality, anthropologists believe that each societies have their own approach to the understanding of sexuality, especially in its relation to reproduction and the concept of marriage.

Kinship is a term used to describe the relationship between members of a family. Depending on the part of the world, societies may define familiar structures in their culture like matrilineal descent, or the kinship based on the relationships of mothers and their children, and patrilineal descent, the kinship based on the relationships of fathers and their children. According to anthropologists, the family structure allows for the facilitation of sexuality along with defining the roles of the parents and the children, even if it’s not by blood. For example, within the ball community in the 80s and early 90s, (and the Drag community) houses were created as communities and families for homeless LGBTQ+ youth, with parental figures known as “Mothers” to take of and look after the “children”. These found families were created as a byproduct of homeless queer youth being denied of the familial love from their birth families.

Revision Statement: On this week’s assignment, I received good feedback from both my peer and TA with a note that no revisions were needed.

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Week 8 Assignment

Race is a social construct and an attempt to categorize humans based on biological differences into subspecies. Ethnicity is when someone or a group of people have an attachment/identify with an ethnic group. An ethnic group is a group of people that have a bond over language, culture, and shared ancestry. There is such a thing as symbolic ethnicity that is merely expressive in one’s pride for an ethnic group.

Many anthropologists believe that race is a social construct that has a large impact on our society, its labels are not based on biology, but instead are based in the social attitude and beliefs of the society. Anthropologists consider the question, “Is Race Biological?” In reality, while humans have different eye shapes, body shapes, hair texture, and skin tone, these differences can not be used to distinguish a “race”. However, they still are used to initiate difference or othering.

In the case of ethnicity, it is also believed to be a social construct, due to its ability to shift and float rather than stay stagnant. This is called ethnogenesis, the gradual creation of new ethnicities like African-American, Irish-American, and Italian-American. Overall, the anthropologists' approach to “thinking outside the box” is important to understand how race and ethnicity function and what they are truly used for.

Our sociocultural beliefs about race and ethnicity affect us every day. In the case of health, it is noted that black people have a higher rate of hypertension by the age of 20 compared to white people, the cause mostly coming from stress. In this instance, the pressures and distress of race and racism towards people of color, specifically black, have real health effects. The high rates of asthma in black children come from the environmental injustice that occurs, high contents of polluted air, and the presence of factories and power plants continue to perpetuate this. When someone goes to the doctor and marks what their race or ethnicity is, they are putting themselves into a box that the doctor refers to in terms of what the patient has, how to diagnose it, and how to fix it. All without even looking at the person’s genetic makeup, assuming one’s lifestyle based on their identity. The practice of this is very harmful and in fact places groups of people in danger with their lives since they are never truly cared for in the medical system.

Revision Statement: On this week’s assignment, I received good feedback from both my peer and TA with a note that no revisions were needed.

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Revision Statement: On this week’s assignment, I received good feedback from both my peer and TA with a note that no revisions were needed.

Week 13 Assignment

One thing that I found interesting in Pathogenic Policing was discussed in chapter 4, that being the term “Undocuqueer”, the intersectional identity of being an undocumented immigrant as well as identifying as part of the LGBTQ+ community. Under this someone that is undocuqueer faces not only discrimination, queerphobia, and all the disparities that trickle down from it, but also the many issues that come at the expense of undocumented immigrants discussed in this work like, the hindering of interpersonal relationships, legislative injustice, and health injustice at the hands of the government. One man’s experience, Hiram, was having to deal with the dichotomy of his identity. Despite his church being welcoming to undocumented immigrants, they were homophobic and didn’t want LGBTQ+ members in their congregation, this would also come in the form of having to come out twice: one for being queer and another for being an undocumented immigrant. Each separate facet of Hiram’s identity had a safe space but there was a lack of a safe space for the intersection of his identity.

Another thing that I learned was discussed in chapter 6 as “Patient Dumping”, a practice done at a facility called Grady that entails “sending a patient from one hospital to another without stabilizing an emergent condition” (142). While the practice is very illegal, many immigrants find that going from clinic to clinic in need of treatment is the only to get the help they need. In the case of Miguel, he had to continue his head surgery at Grady because he couldn’t afford the costs at Gwinnett despite the fact that still had a part of his skull from previous surgery. Grady offered Miguel the ability to complete the surgery without the large cost coming with it, it’s very likely that many other patients have taken that deal like Miguel.

Not to mention the reputation Grady has, “if you’re poor, uninsured, undocumented, whatever, then, oh, ‘go to Grady.’” (143). It’s so common for other hospitals to name-drop Grady in order to pressure those that can’t afford standard facilities into going to Grady, for those hospitals, it’s a way to push unwanted business away. For Grady, the increased amount of patients and the lack of funding puts Grady in an unideal situation, if Grady were to disappear, many immigrants in need of medical help would lose any chances of having affordable healthcare. The problem is that US healthcare policies and immigrant policing have pushed a group of people to only one resource that will genuinely help them and are aware that if that resource was taken away it would be one more thing to disadvantage immigrant groups and wear them down in the US.

Revision Statement: On this week’s assignment, I received good feedback from both my peer and TA with a note that no revisions were needed.

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Week 14 Assignment

Applied Anthropology is the practice of using anthropological methods and theories to analyze and solve practical problems and while it has its roots in 19th-century colonization, its contemporary counterpart rejects colonization in its entirety (445). The use of applied anthropology in the workforce is versatile with a presence in Health & Medicine, Business, International Development, Environmental Issues, and Education as well as career roles entailing researchers, policy analysts, consultants, trainers, community advocates, trainers, and UX designers.

An example of applied anthropology is going out into the field and doing fieldwork, one example shown in the chapter is the project Logan Cochrane mentions with international development organizations, using his anthropological skills to help solve food taboos. Another example is the practice of anthropologists routinely using self-reflection in their work to examine their involvement with their projects and processes.

Public anthropology is the use of anthropology to inform and illuminate broader social issues beyond the discipline. There are six aspects described as forms of engagement: sharing & support in the interpersonal commitment to social justice and change, social critique and using theory and methods to uncover power relations and expose misuse, teaching & public education through classroom instruction and public programming, collaboration in the case of giving credit to partner(s) and participant equal contribution, advocacy through supporting human rights claims, and finally activism through a shared commitment to confront injustice and maintain dual loyalty to discipline and political struggle.

Applied and public anthropology is closely related with the only difference being the context in their development, public anthropology was created in the 90s as a new take on applied anthropology without the restraints of academia. It allows for social change and advocacy to occur through anthropological methods, while applied anthropology is used to solve problems by the same methods without the intent of public exposure, but in the end, both can work hand in hand to solve a problem and advocate for change.

Revision Statement: On this week’s assignment, I received good feedback from both my peer and TA with a note that no revisions were needed.

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