Sunday, September 29, 2013

Spotlight on Students: Cultural Relativism/Ethnocentrism Assignment

Today's post is dedicated to the exemplary work of two of my Anth 101 students.  All of my Anth 101 students were tasked with identifying the ethnocentric and culturally relativistic reactions to an event that happened in the late 1990s in NYC, as well as their reactions to the event itself.  Two of the students, Christina Jahnes and Esmeralda Salas, executed this assignment quite well and are therefore having their work featured herein.  Their unique interpretations of the assignment demonstrate the utility of cultural relativism and their strengths as students.  Good job, ladies.

Christina Jahnes, Anth 101 Student, Truckee Meadows Community College (published with permission)




           Gezon and Kottak (2011, p. 32) define ethnocentrism as “the tendency to view one’s own culture as superior and to apply one’s own cultural values in judging the behavior and beliefs of people raised in other cultures.”  There are many differences between cultures and in an ethnocentric view, one cannot see the value of any culture but their own because it is believed to be far better than any other.  They typically view other cultures’ behaviors as bizarre or without warrant.  This narrow view does not promote tolerance or acceptance of the beliefs and practices of others.
            Alternatively, cultural relativism is a very different viewpoint than ethnocentrism.  It is an understanding that cultures may be different, but each deserves respect; no behavior should be judged by the standards of another culture (Gezon & Kottak, 2011, p. 33).  The prospective of cultural relativism takes into account the factors that would lead to a culture’s behavior.  They recognize the value in each culture, which leads to tolerance and respect.
            In an ethnocentric view of these parents’ actions, a baby was left outside in the cold, which is dangerous, while Annette Sorensen and Exavier Wardkaw enjoyed a meal inside in the warm café.  Leaving a baby outside by itself seems negligent.  In New York, it is not common practice to leave your toddler outside on the street while you dine inside.  Something terrible could happen in such a dangerous city.  This mother must be crazy to think that endangering her baby by leaving it unattended in the cold was okay, which is why her baby was taken away from her for days and put into foster care.
            In contrast, from a culturally relativistic point of view, the traditions of the Danish culture have their own merits.  From their perspective, the cool fresh air is ideal for children because they are not exposed to the smoky environment of a restaurant.  Keeping the children outside also keeps them healthier because they are not exposed to the cold and flu germs so rampant in the wintertime. The mother properly dressed the baby for the outdoors and had many layers of blankets on, while she could also see the baby from the window, never leaving the child unattended.  Sometimes shops and cafés are so small that they do not easily fit a stroller, so this would be a better option for parents.
            My own opinion falls somewhere in-between these two views. I would not leave my baby outside on the streets of New York City.  It is dangerous and you never know what might happen.  She could have been kidnapped or hit by a car, however it is not so shocking to me that she was left outside in the cold.  I am a preschool teacher and take my students outside all winter long, even when it snows.  We bundle them up and make snow angels and build snowmen.  As long as the baby was dressed properly, the air would not do her any harm.  If I traveled to Denmark, I would consider the idea.  It sounds to me like it is a more relaxed environment where this would be safe and make a lot of sense.  The café’s are small and therefore there may not be enough room.  I would much prefer the fresh air to smoke, which I would never want to expose my baby to.  If I were in my own house on a fall day and my baby fell asleep outside all bundled up, I would certainly let him or her sleep outside in the brisk air. I think that there is a big difference between these two views.  Arresting the mother for endangering her baby seems extreme once you hear that she is a tourist and this is common practice in Denmark.  Just because they are not your views, does not mean they are wrong.  I was glad to hear that their baby was returned to them after four days because they obviously love their child very much and were just following the practices of their culture, which is understandable.

Gezon, L., & Kottak, C. (2011). Culture. New York: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages.

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Esmeralda Salas, Anth 101 Student, Truckee Meadows Community College (published with permission)

  
Humankind shares a defining feature that encompasses many facets of life and has allowed innovative advances for survival: culture.  Though people share this concept of culture, ideas about what is acceptable or not vary from one society to the other. Childrearing practices are an example of how, because of different customs, children are brought up in particular manners. What is seen as beneficial for the child and completely normal to one group may be viewed as utter neglect and potentially dangerous to another.  A perfect example of this is the case of Copenhagen native, Annette Sorensen, Brooklyn resident, Exavier Wardlaw, and their 14- month-old daughter.  The manner to which a person approaches and examines this situation can be categorized into one of the two perspectives used to understand culture.
Ethnocentrism is measuring one’s own culture as well as its practices and beliefs against others and arriving at the opinion that the former has superior qualities over the later.  To a lesser extent, ethnocentrism contributes to groups having cultural or national pride. However, this attitude limits an individual’s perspective because it fails to look beyond one’s own boundaries and recognize the diversity in humanity.  
A contrasting viewpoint to ethnocentrism is cultural relativism.  Cultural relativism seeks to understand the beliefs and practices of other cultures based traditions deemed acceptable in that group. This position does not compare one culture to another, rather it understand the different cultures existing parallel to one another. Prescribing solely on this belief can be problematic since some societies’ practices push the limits and border on the unethical.
Seeing Sorensen and Wardlaw’s situation through an ethnocentric lens (based on American standards), one would say their behavior as parents was abnormal and completely careless.  Leaving a child outside in the dark, “in area with quite a bit of drug activity” is considered a reckless and unsafe act (qtd. in Rohde).  Children in America remain at close proximity to a parent or adult at all time in public.  They are taught at an early age not to “talk to strangers.”  Even though this child was not yet of age to properly communicate with others, she was exposed to many unfamiliar and potentially harmful people.  There could have been a number of tragic consequences had the police not intervened; the child could have been abducted or “caught in cross-fires between dueling drug gangs” (Haberman).
 A cultural relativist would point out that this practice fits within the conventions of Danish society.  Elisabeth Kallick Dyssegaard wrote in an Op-Ed piece an explanation of this Scandinavian practice where “fresh, cold air is good for babies” and they are protected from the elements by being bundled up in heavy goose-down comforters (qtd. in Gordon).   Thus, Sorensen was justified in simply doing what she had learned was best for her child.  Her actions were akin to those of an American parent being overly protective.
After reading this piece, I was able to understand why people, influenced by their cultural beliefs behave the way they do.  I also was made aware of how easy it is to impose one’s own standards upon other’s actions.  Sorensen left her child outside out of habit without thinking there would have been any negative consequences. She did what any typical Danish mother would.  It shows how progressive Denmark to what a high standard it holds its citizens.            
However, considering it was late at night and her child’s father resided in Brooklyn, it is difficult to comprehend why he did not inform her of local customs.  In the United States, crime is perceived to be lurking behind every corner. Whether this is true or not, many people are under the assumption that something bad will always happen.  We are immersed in a culture where mass media fixates on the horrifying deeds residents here commit.  It is not farfetched to think that some of the few people who contacted the police in regard to this child being left outside, seemingly unattended, honestly believed they were preventing something unimaginable from happening.   

Gordon, Stephen J., M.D. "The New York Times." The New York Times. The New York Times,               20 May 1997. Web. 16 Sept. 2013.  <http://www.nytimes.com/1997/05/20/opinion/keeping-baby-outside.html?ref=annettesorensen>.


Haberman, Clyde. “NYC; Let It Snow, And Put Out The Baby.” The New York Times. The New            York Times, 14 Dec. 1999. Web. 15 Sept. 2013.    <http://www.nytimes.com/1999/12/14/nyregion/nyc-let-it-snow-and-put-out-the-baby.html?ref=annettesorensen>.


Rohde, David. "Court Ruling Favors 2 Who Left Baby Outside." The New York Times. The New             York Times, 23 July 1999. Web. 16 Sept. 2013.     <http://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/23/nyregion/court-ruling-favors-2-who-left-baby-outside.html?ref=annettesorensen>.
 
 

Friday, September 27, 2013

Anthropology in the News

Science Friday has posted new topics focusing on Anthropology!  Check out this amazing website to learn more about Human Evolution and Environmental Anthropology.

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Resources for Physical Anthropology Students Studying Evolution, Heredity, & Population Genetics

This post was inspired by my Anth 102 students and should be quite helpful to them particularly but will hopefully be an invaluable resource to all physical anthropology students.

Any student who has taken a Physical Anthropology course, particularly an introductory course, has faced the infamous topics on evolution, heredity, and population genetics. As an educator, I have watched annually as my students have struggled to grasp and understand these topics, while others catch on quickly and without any issue. If you are the latter and not the former, this post is not for you. If you are the former, then keep reading because this post will provide you with a lot of resources that will hopefully assist you in understanding this material.

One needs only to look at the great diversity within the human species to know that there are a lot of biological characteristics that make us up as a species. These differences, along with differences noted in other species, drove scholars Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace to come up with the idea of natural selection based on their observations of biological variation. They understood that biological variation existed within different populations of species, but they did not understand how it originated or was created. Darwin thought the species were the result of blended characteristics from their parents, and that a mechanism identified as natural selection enabled certain members of a species to survive and reproduce.

Unfortunately, some of Darwin's ideas were incorrect, but that is because he did not have the information available to scholars today that enables us to more fully understand the mechanism of inheritance that Darwin was trying to comprehend and understand. It was not until Gregor Mendel conducted his now famous pea plant experiments that the foundations of the field of genetics, the study of the mechanism of inheritance (Feder & Park, 2012), were set.  From here, all sorts of mechanism of evolution and heredity could be and were understood.  And instead of explaining these, I will allow this informative video (NSFW) to do that for me.

Now this leads physical anthropology students to have to complete two exercises in order to fully understand this material: Punnett squares and Hardy Weinberg Equilibrium.  Punnett squares are diagrams for predicting the genotypes (genetic composition of alleles) of potential offspring based on known genotypes of the parents.  I find that students often struggle with Punnett squares, in understanding and constructing them, so I found this handy video that really helped many of my students.

The Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium is a formula that demonstrates genotype percentages under hypothetical conditions of no evolutionary change within a population (Feder & Park, 2012).  Several conditions must be met for a population to be potentially at genetic equilibrium:
  1. The population must be considered a large breeding population
  2. There must be random mating present
  3. There must be no mutations present that would change the allelic frequency in the population
  4. No gene flow or genetic drift
  5.  No natural selection
In order to determine if genetic equilibrium has been met, students are expected to complete the following equation:
P2 + 2PQ + Q2 = 1

Students often see that this requires math and they panic, and the first thing that I tell all of them is to relax!  Breathe.  You can get through this.  And you are not alone in your panic.  In order to assist panicked students, I provide them with several resources, including this video and several practice problem websites:


Hopefully these resources are as helpful to you as they have been to my students.  If you are a student or an educator who has found a trick that is helpful, I encourage you to share in the comments section in order to assist others like you who are struggling with this material.  Thank you in advance and best of luck!


 

Monday, September 16, 2013

Show Me the Money! Traditional & Alternative Funding Sources for Anthropological Research

The following article is one that I published in the Fall 2010 Canadian Association of Physical Anthropology Newsletter and was originally titled, "Every Little Bit Helps: Seeking Out Additional Sources of Research Funding".  This article is being reprinted herein in order to assist other anthropologists searching for funding (as the fall is usually grant writing/funding season) and to inform my Anth 101 students about the complexities of research funding since we are discussing that matter at this time.


Acquiring grant money is an integral part of being a graduate student and a professional in the fields of Anthropology.  Grant money is used to fund research projects for Masters and Doctoral Theses, but it can also be used to cover the costs of tuition, fees, housing, and other costs related to school and/or preliminary research.  You may already be aware of the big grants, like SSHRC or NSERC, which all Canadians are eligible to apply for, but what are your other options, particularly if you do not receive these grants or are ineligible to apply?  The following is a list of suggestions and examples of other grants that you may be interested and, more importantly, be eligible to apply for. 

  • Discipline Specific Grants:  Anthropology is a wide discipline with various subdisciplines, and general Anthropology and subdiscipline grants do exist.  The Wenner-Gren Foundation, a private foundation dedicated to furthering the study of anthropology worldwide, is one option for grant money as they have funding opportunities available to students, post-doctoral fellows, and professionals.  Unfortunately, only Doctoral Candidates are eligible to apply for Wenner-Gren grants.  All students, however, should pay particular attention to the Wenner-Gren grant writing process because the proposal requirements are very thorough and can serve as a model for composing other grant proposals.  There are other grants available at the subdiscipline level, though, which are more available to students regardless of educational level.  Students specializing in Isotopic, Genetic, or similar studies may be eligible for a Sigma Xi grant, while students specializing in Paleoanthropology or Primatology may want to explore the grant options offered by the Leaky Foundation.
  • Interdisciplinary Research Means Interdisciplinary Grants:  If your research fits into several different disciplines or fields, you may be able to apply to several different agencies or discipline specific grants for research money.  Applying for these types of grants can be challenging as you have to make a strong case for why your project fits the criteria of the grant, but this can also be an advantage as the selection committee may find your approach new, interesting, and beneficial to their home discipline(s).  Students in Engineering, Biology, Kinesiology, and Functional Anatomy have already taken advantage of this approach by acquiring Anthropology grants, suggesting that Anthropology students and professionals can be successful in pursuing grants outside of the discipline, too.   
  • Professional & Civic Organization:  If you belong to a professional organization (e.g. Society for American Archaeology, American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Canadian Association of Physical Anthropology), you should take a moment and see what all the benefits are of your membership.  Many of these organizations have grants available exclusively to their student membership or specific student members, or there are resources to finding up-to-date information on current and new grants.  Civic organizations (e.g. Canadian Federation of University Women, Unions, Fraternal Organizations, etc.) sometimes have money available to help offset the costs of tuition and fees, but this money can be used to fund research if the criteria are broad.  This is still an option even if you are not a member yourself but are related to a member. 
  • Country of Origin: You may also want to check out grants available to you based on your citizenship.  There are several grants available exclusively to domestic students but also many available to Commonwealth Citizens or International students.  If you hold duel citizenship, see what both countries offer in the way of research money and the eligibility requirements for these monies in cases where you are studying abroad.  Some of these grants are available but only for a set amount of time after you have left the country, while others are available at all times but in reduced amounts.  You may also want to check out Civic Organizations related to your citizenship to see if they would be interested in funding your education or research.  You may be surprised at what they say. 
  • Country of Research Site:  Another place to look is in the country where your research is taking place.  Many countries will invite foreign scholars to conduct research in order to facilitate international research and collaborations or there are already grant opportunities available to international researchers of which are not being taken advantage.  Also, there are Learned Societies which offer grants for specific a geographical region or regions that are open to all areas of research and disciplines.    
  • University & Institution Grants:  Universities and Institutions (e.g. museums) want their students to be successful, and in order to facilitate this success, they will offer internal grants to students and visiting scholars (students included).  These grants are usually concentrated to the use of the Facility’s archives, laboratories, collections, libraries, etc., but in cases of University grants, the grants will cover outside research.  These grants are often small, but they are easy to receive and require little preparation.  There are also sometimes no limits to the number of times an individual can receive the award or how much can be received.         

It is important to remember that while many of the above grants may not offer much in the way of award money, they are still important and worthwhile to apply for.  Grant money and awards help build a stronger Curriculum Vita, which in turn helps acquiring more grants later, and if that is not convincing enough, there is always the old adage: “Every little bit helps.”  Acquiring grant money requires intelligence and ingenuity and those same skills will serve you well in finding other and new grant opportunities.

Special thanks to Carlie Pennycook, Paul Szpak, Andrew Wade for information on grants and granting agencies I had not thought or been aware of previously.