How Many fathers are Best for a Child?

the Bari version of conception is that a child can have more than one father. as Rachel describes "a fetus is built up over time with repeated washes of sperm" meaning that more than one man can contribute. groups across South America and other cultures across the globe all expect one mom and one dad to be the beliefs in every culture. they do believe though that the first act of sex should be between a husband and his wife, and that plants the seed. they say the fetus then needs to be nourished by repeated anointings of semen.
in their culture a woman's body is viewed as a vessel and men do all the work. they claim its hard work for men to support a pregnancy by having enough sex. they believe in lovers being okay to have and are used so their husbands dont get wore out.
unlike in our culture where both mother and father have long-term economic responsibility, and when a parent fails to provide for a child its a violation of law. in their culture when a man is named as a second biological father they are obligated to the mother and child and are expected to gift them with fish and game.
researchers recorded 916 pregnancies out of 114 women an average of 8 pregnancies for each women. about 1/3 did not survive to age 15 . seondary fathers were involved in 25% of pregnancies.
children with 1 father and one second father made it to their teens, but children with 1 father or more than 2 didnt last as long.
the Bari believe that the best way to cure a sick child is for the father to blow tobacco smoke over their child's body. in their culture and kinda in ours it is essential to have a wife for economic necessity to harvest, manioc farming and cooking while the men would hunt and gather. in our culture the women are expected to cook and go out and buy the food and keep the house up.
1/3 of 122 women were faithful to their husbands during pregnancy. humans are naturally monogamous forming nuclear behavior. i totally agree. i grew up expecting every family to have one mom and one dad and that having lovers was wrong.
in China a father leaves and has nothing to do with the child or family. children grow up at home with their mothers and siblings and they stay there for life. the father has no responsibilities toward the child, so pretty much they are just sperm donors.

When Brothers Share a Wife

i dont quite understand why anyone would want to share a wife i find it very weird but only because its not part of our culture. Tibetans brothers marry one wife and they all share her in every part of the marriage. the oldest son is always in charge but all the brothers go out and work and take care of things. when children are born they are to all act the same towards the kid and show no favoritism as the child calls each of them dad even when they know when their real father is. in our society monogamy is the only form of marriage that is permitted. but tibetans allow monogamy, fraternal polyandry, and polygyny. polygyny typically only occurs when the first wife is barren. when practicing fraternal polyandry the brothers are not required to marry jointly. if a brother became dissatisfied and wanted to seperate he simply just left and started his own household. the children would stay at the main house with the wife and other brothers.
when Dorje was asked why he didnt want his own wife he simply stated that it prevented division of his family's farm. meaning they were better off economically. when his wife was asked if it was hard to cope with 3 brother husbands she said no she and her children were better off with 3 men supporting them. the oldest son inheirited the family estate, but the younger sons had to leave home and find their own employment.
tibetans believe fraternal polyandry reduces family fission. they were always in competition with other wife's to have more boys than girls because boys represent future and success.tension and difficulties often occur when only one brother can be in charge and the others have no chance.the wife must show equal sexual affection to all brothers. tibetans marry jointly because there is a shortage of females and they have to keep the family going by having more kids and bringing in more money to eat. having farms and animals was difficult.fraternal polyandry reduces population growth relegating females to lifetime spinsterhood. in limi 31 percent of women were unmarried.

Joking cultures: Humor themes as social

in group joking you have to know one another to understand. joking creates comfort in a group and gives the chance for commonalities. is it a general rule that joking doesnt go on between strangers, it is from and on going relationship with a person or group. having the background information, prior knowledge and past experience affects the way the humor goes and is interpreted by the group members. jokes must be precieved as being useable within the group. joking must be responsive to group norms. being an outsider trying to be in on jokes is very difficult when that isnt your normal group and you are outside their norms. the joke must be appropriate with the groups status. joking is not to be serious. in some cases it lightens the mood of things or takes pressure off certain things. groups tend to create traditions to connect the members with each other. and sometimes you joke to ease embarrassment. one is truely a member of the group when they can joke easily with other members and understand and share jokes.when one doesnt have social control they movew their way closer to leaving the group. there were two situations explaining people playing jokes on others, then coming forward about it. those situations showed the tension between securing social control and sharing cohesive culture. joking brings people closer rather than apart

Tricking and Tripping

in the article i found it very interesting that this reasearcher was so interested in prostitution that she did real field work. she went straight to the source of them and found out so much. he findings made me realize that there is so much to why people become prostitutes and how bad their lives really are. i believe that AIDS has definetly spread faster through prostitutes not only from themselves but the guys they have to sleep with. those guys arent gonna say they have AIDS. but now i believe it is a law that you MUST tell every partner that you are HIV positive to make them aware and so it does not spread and people can get help. i couldnt imagine having to be a prostitute and that being my only source of money. i know the economy is bad now but i hope that doesnt increase the number of prostitutes on the streets and the drug users.

Eating Christmas in the Kalahari

In the article it shows how cultures have different ways of doing things. In Kalahari the Bushmen hunt and gather to get their supplies unlike in the United States we just go to stores and buy our things. A social anthropologist decided he wanted to experience how the bushmen eat at christmas. so as a thank you he went out to find the christmas ox because this was his last year in the field(Kalahari). he wanted to slaughter the largest, meatiest ox that money could buy. he paid $56 for this amazing ox but as he was happy to find something so good he wen and bragged about it. as a result the bushmen told him that the ox he chose was big but old so there wouldnt be very much meat just lots of bones. as christmas got closer he was trying to find another ox so they would have more meat, but he had no such luck. once christmas came he was fed up with what all the people were saying about it not being a good pick that he said kill it anyway and people will just have to deal with it. when they opened it up there was lots of fat and meat and the anthropologist was so happy and was like in your face to the bushmen and they all laughed. they knew all a long that it would have lots of meat but in their culture they dont brag about their catch  beacuse those people think they are chief and just big like they can make people into their servants and demand them what to do. which proves a good point beacuse i see people do that all the time. i dont believe its right but it happens