The Reaction of Ethnography

This week has been a total look into the lives of another woman, and a completely different lifestyle. When reading from the book, “Nisa”, it was amazing how open she was to sharing her culture with a complete stranger and how detailed she was when describing her home life. I could actually picture, word for word, what was happening whether it was her describing herself gathering nuts or the telling of how she gave birth. One thing that truly blew my mind was the fact that she gave birth by herself every time. If I ever tried to do that today, my mother would be furious and probably would force herself to be there. It reminded me of something that was discussed in my Women and Gender class last semester. We were talking about women giving birth and how that in the American society, a woman gives birth when it’s convenient for the doctor, or the doctor makes it convenient by inducing labor. The fact that the chairs or tables I suppose you can call them that women sit on is placed so that whoever the Doctor is, they have control of the woman giving birth. I understand that they are there in order to deal with any complications that might arise, but in many places, women give birth in many different ways; one way is by standing up and using gravity to do the work! Our culture has placed so much reliance (and money) to the idea that a woman must give birth in a hospital surrounding by medical strangers there to assist her, but to some extent, we don’t need all that in order for a woman to have a successful birth.


One thing that I’ve continuously thought though throughout this whole process is realizing how equal, or at least as equal as one could describe, the sexes are and how little of a gap there is between the roles of a female and male. Sure, the male is hunter, but the woman is there also to gather berries and take care of the children. They work together to raise a family and try to have a successful family life. Shostak’s work has also shown how close the women are in each tribe. Although they may bicker about food or accuse people of affairs, they are generally open to each other and share everything with each other. In order to survive you need to have a close connection with someone else or another group of people who will always be there to listen and try to understand what you’re going through.

Shostak’s work is a big leap into understanding different cultures and shows what can be accomplished with the effort to getting to know another human being in a different setting. In considering the question “what can ethnography tell us about others and about ourselves?”, well, I think a huge consideration is realizing how different we all are yet how important it is to understand our differences. When watching the video, it was clear to see the differences from what their tribe was like before ‘the white people came’ and how they were affected afterwards. They were nomadic and foraged for food and were able to travel at any point in time, but then they were suddenly placed in one spot with a limiting amount of space to travel and to hunt; their whole world had changed. In watching that video, I learned how fascinating it can be to watch another group of people live. Today we try to do that with reality shows such as “the Real World”, but they are hardly a view into what a completely different tribe of people are like. I don't understand completely what everyone in different parts of the world go through, but after this week, I have some idea that if I took time to understand and learn from them than that would teach me so much more about myself and my culture.

What is Culture?

Throughout this week and with the readings, we’ve been talking about the basis of culture; what it is, where can we see it and how do other cultures evolve. We’ve also been talking about the people who dedicate years, and in some cases, their lives in order to find out how other cultures are different from one another. This whole week has opened my eyes to different ideas of ‘culture’ than anything has really before. Sure, I knew that in others cultures they do different greetings or have different rules for what is ‘appropriate behavior’, but there are so many cultures out there that have completely different ideas of what’s important that it’s amazing to compare them together. The idea of a behavior being appropriate or inappropriate really gave me a glimpse into how our culture became what it is today. As I was talking to one my friends one day about this class, she told me a little fact that the American culture started shaking hands years ago when people had to check whether or not that person was carrying a weapon of some kind. Today we consider it a nice, casual, and an especially polite way to greet someone, but we’ve never asked the question ‘why’ do we do it? “Why” goes along with so many other things in our culture. Why do we eat with utensils? Why do we sit in chairs? Why do we have products to beautify ourselves and why are the people beautifying themselves usually a female? It just boggles my mind that our culture has become what it is, and other cultures seem small or less important than ours. When did we decide that our culture is ‘the’ culture to focus on or to relate to when other cultures are brought in?

Culture is such a broad term and subject that it’s hard to focus on one aspect of culture or a specific culture. The people that dedicate years of research just to focus on one aspect of a different culture are truly remarkable people. When reading the article by Cognan, I was amazed once I had figured out how long he was there. He had been there a year and hadn’t even made any good friends or connections with the tribe, yet he continued on for a couple more years in order to get the research he was there to receive. Understanding a culture and being totally engulfed in it would be an amazing learning experience and an overall thrill. I’m not sure whether or not I would handle it with the greatest of ease… I’ve grown up in a certain household, been taught different things and has learned to always say my ‘please’ and ‘thank you’s’. When going through my everyday activities, it’s amazing to realize how much of it has been shaped by culture. I shower because I’ve been told hygiene is good (well, hygiene is good, but maybe not showering everyday isn’t too bad), I go to school because having an education is valued, and I eat different types of food because I’ve also been told that they’re either good for me or that they just will taste good. So many things are involved in culture that I am looking forward to seeing what else shapes culture and how it affects the people involved. This week was only just the beginning to a long series of ‘eye openers’ that will shape my opinion and my thoughts towards other cultures.