Thursday, February 24, 2011

The Adaptive Value of Religious Ritual

In Jerusalem men and women do their rituals on the foot of a structure in the hot sun. women wear long sleeve shirts, head coverings, and heavy long skirts. men have thick black beards and wear long black coats and fur hats. they dress as if its cold weather and suffer just to worship. in the U.S. we typically go to church or dont have such extreme circumstances. but that shows the big differences in religious rituals all around the world. i think that rituals and religions in the U.S. are still just as effective but not as brutal from my knowledge. the initiation for some cultures is way more than i would have ever expected. messing with children's genitals and causing pain to someone is not worth it in my mind but for some that is your only option, brutal or not.
there was a misunderstanding among primitives that dreams are real. when people have dreams about dead ancestors lead primitives to believe that spirits can survive death. being religious costs you money which i think is ridiculous.religions that require you to give things up or have certain beliefs have higher rates but less intense religions have steadily been losing members the more commitment the better the cooperation from the members.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

The Kpelle Moot

Africa is characterized by many writers as a high development of law and legal procedures. the Kpelle are Mande-speaking, patrilineal group of 175,000 rice cultivators in Central Liberia and regions of Guinea. there is no single king or paramount chief but series of chiefs of same authority which political organizations are centralized through. paramount chief is highest tribal authority in Liberia. in the research done they have transcripts made of cases. in a Kpelle courtroom the hearings are coercive and arbitrary in tone. court is effective in settling assault, possession of illegal charms or theft cases. here we have possession of drugs too not just illegal charms which im not sure what that is exactly. most brought up cases is disputed rights of women, the moot is more effective in handling these cases. moot most often held on Sunday, day of rest for christians and non-christians at the home of the complaint or person that calls the moot.kinsman is mediator. participation of spectators is demanded and blessings are chanted by an elder.
everyone attending the moot wears their best clothes, unless its not Sunday then they just wear everyday clothes. anyone can speak out or against the complaintant but anyone who speaks when the mediator is talking they are fined by having to bring some rum for the group to drink.person held at fault will have to apologize to the other. losing party also fined by bring rum or beer to the mediator and anyone else who heard the case.courtroom is dependent on the judge but a moot is on the parties involved. in moot solution is more consensual. mediator can give no jail time or a heavy fine. Kpelle courts grant divorce. Kpelle moot is domestic and family relations courts. both formal and informal dispute settlements serve significance in Kpelle society

Thursday, February 10, 2011

The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race

for most of history we supported ourselves by hunting and gathering. but now there are very few tribes that are hunters and gatherers. we began many years ago domesticating plants and animals. agriculture is a way to get more food for less work and is why we adopted in in society.agriculture enabled us to build the Parthenon. average time per week devoted to obtaining food is 12-19 hours for one group of bushmen, 14 hours or less for Hadza nomads. the mix of wild plants and animals in diets of surviving hunter-gatherers
provides more protein and better balance of nutrients. farmers concentrate more on high-carb crops like rice and potatoes. archaeologists can tell when the switch happened from evidence from the prehistoric garbage dumps.there is many ways that skeletons are identified and examined, even to determine any diseases they had.  by finding skeletons and viewing them they can determine what the culture was and an average of what they would look like. we still use the same techniques today to determine what kind of past a skeleton had.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

"Strange Country This"

among the Crows, men who dressed like women  and specialized in women's work were accepted and sometimes honored. no society that allwed people  of the same sex to marry has or could survive. the original peoples of North America saw no threat from homosexuality, they believed individuals with these traits were unique and good for their communities.same sex marriages flourished until the Europeans arrived. attraction between opposites is what they considered normal. there were four hundred tribal groups in North America when Europeans showed up. there was a diverse array  of enviromental adaptations. native societies use the environment unlike us today we use technology more than anything. women made important, sometimes most important contributions to their families. alternate gender roles were most widely shared features. the refrence of third and fourth gender was in 1704 memoir its use spread to every part of North America. Berdaches was a term used for men that dressed like women and did womens work. or a women doing mans work. third gender identity acknowledged when a male and female child found interest in opposite sex roles/ hobbies. there were only  few accounts of berdaches sexuality which some claimed they were asexual. they were sexually active with their own sex and in this culture it was expectations of their role. there was a women that was reported to have sex with over 100 men.
in our culture now we have homosexuals and straights and bi people. its not as accepted in our culture because we have alot of judgment. but it all began with experimenting with doing things and dressing like the opposite sex. so the culture many years ago and in different parts of the world still is part of our society today

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Law, Custom, and Crimes against Women

in Delhi, the husband and his family burn women, the bride's with kerosene til they died. this is called bride-burning or dowry death. married women 16-30 years old in Delhi 482 deathes by burning in 1985, 478 in 1986, 300 for the first 6 months of 1987. police record and hospital records dont match for 3rd degree burns far more violence happened than the crime reports indicated. there are unmarried women that commit suicide  just to relieve their families of a burden to provide a dowry.3 sisters hung themselves bacause their father didnt have enough to negotiate  marriage for his oldest daughter. the grooms requested too much. i dont quite understand why families would want to go through this it is so messed up and disgusting. 3,000 abortions were carried out after determining the sex and only one involved a male fetus. the government decided to ban sex determination tests except in government hospitals.
in the marriage of Hindus it is required that the property from the family of the bride is transfered to the family of the groom. dowry is a religious obligation of the father of a women. authority of the women is transfered to the husband. marriage in India even costs money between families. it a difficult thing that i would never want to be a part of. education of a women can be problematic because suitable husbands  must also be college educated. parents of young men demand more dowry for their sons. physical attractiveness isnt paid much attention to unlike now in the U.S. alot of marriages and relationships are based on someones looks and if you are attracted to them.
advertisements in newspapers were used to establish marriage proposals. self arranged marriages are called love marriages where men and women develop a relationship with out their familes and ask family reps to carry out negotiations on their behalf. marriage is a process where two families mutually evaluate each other.  three possible types of expenditures: cash gifts, gifts of household goods, and expenditures on the wedding celebration itself. the cash and gifts go to the groom's household. but some household gifts can go to the newlyweds if they have their own place. dates of marriage are set by horoscopes. doweries were alot and relied on the bride's family. dowry defined by Friedl means to adjust a women to her affinal home.inheritance goes to where the woman is our reproduces and where the children will benefit, given valuable property like farm land.
Dowry Prohibition Act makes it illegal to give or take dowry. in violation to this it is five years and a fine of 15,000 rupeesor the amount of the dowry which is even more. all presents must be listed on a document before the consummation of the marriage.
there were advertisements in the newspaper that showed a photograph of a doll in Indian bridal wear and was shown in flames. that was to show the effects of dowry. in the north women are excluded from property holding and instead recieve a dowry of movables. in south they could recieve rights to land. north women are high cost items  of social overhead. south contribute labor and are more highly valued. death rates are higher when marriage costs are high. members of lower ranking castes report less dowry harassment.
employment of women effects the dowry.
if the value of a women was high bride price would be paid, and if the value was low dowry transactions would occur.
in my opinion dowry is just wrong and there should be no value on a women. its a human being not just some trash. women were way too under valued and had no respect towards them