Cultural Anthropology
...he Nation State (Ch 3) - Explain Benedict Anderson’s definition of a Nation (from lecture): “…it is an imagined political community – and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign” – Community is a sense of belonging together, which depends on the active process of imagining. - Name 3 or 4 “symbolic” representations of America and the dominant “stories” that they enforce: 1) American Bald Eagle, chosen as the emblem of the USA, an expression of freedom(flight of eagle) and dominance (eagle top of food chain). 2) Statue of Liberty, dominant story is the new colossus “give me your tired your poor…”, real ellis island not so welcoming 3) Flag, the story and tangible representation of our “imagined community”, serves to unite different people as being members of the same country. - Explain Ernest Renan’s reference to a nation as “a soul” or “a spiritual principle”: …a large scale solidarity constituted by the feeling that one has made sacrifices in the past and those one is prepared to make in the future. 1.rich legacy of memories. 2. present consent to live together - Define the three things necessary to construct and maintain a nation and give examples of each: a. The creation of hated and feared “others” (how does a nation do this?): creates a sense of exclusivity, and by creating boundaries, more clearly define one’s membership in the nation state. (English proud of not being Irish or French, viceversa). A nation does this thru such means as war, religion, and racial classifications. b. The creation of an infrastructure to integrate members into a common bureaucracy: Impose common language, facilitate travel, build media to disseminate info to the state, create infrastructure for the collection of taxes/revenues, judicial system, military, and educational system. c. The use or threat of armed forces (inside and outside the nation): Killing is the ultimate tool of nation-states, creates “punishable categories of people” which creates and maintains an Other. (Issue of Indonesian campaign of violence for the integration of East Timor into the Indonesian nation-state). 3) Cultural Construction of Social Hierarchy (Ch 7) - Compare and contrast the “integrative” and “exploitative” theories of social stratification. Name the implications of each type of theory for attempts to eliminate social stratification: Integrative theory assumes social hierarchy is necessary for the smooth functioning of modern society, because as societies grow, more production is necessary, leading to division of labor and complex leadership systems, inevitably leading to some social stratification. Exploitative theory assumes that hierarchy exists because one group of individuals seeks to take advantage of another group for economic purposes. Exploitation occurs thru military conquest, manipulation, and control. - Outline Karl Marx’s “theory of the origin of social class”: Social classes are an outgrowth of capitalism, not a necessary feature of society. Classes arise when a group gains control of the MOP, at which time the group can increase its wealth by taking advantage of the “surplus value of labor”. Forces workers to sell production power to ruling class. Workers are held down thru political or social repression (elites make the rules of the society). The only way the lower class can rectify the situation is thru violent revolution. - Discuss how ideology of class functions to legitimize or reinforce social hierarchy: Ruling class controls institutions of info dissemination (churches, schools, and newspapers) and can then promote the view that their dominance of society is in the best interests of all. - Class system vs. Caste System: Class: Mobility, dependent on wealth, Caste: Born into parents social/occupational caste, unable to move up, marriage between castes not allowed. - Discuss Samuel Morton’s theory of race ranking and be able to discuss his errors: He measured skull sizes of diff. races, assuming that skull size determined brain size, and brain size determined intelligence. He tried to legitimize the poor social situations of ethnic minorities thru these tests. The errors are that the tests are illegitimate in the first place, next he used no consideration for male vs. female skulls skewing the results). - Identify Gramsci’s theory of hegemony: predominance of one social class over others, including projecting view of hierarchy being natural 4) Applications of Cultural Anthropology (Ch 9) - Read chapter and lecture notes to understand museum representation of non-western civilizations in American Museums (esp. 19th cent. Natural Hist. Museums): They were used as displays of power, trip through galleries follows from simple to complex societies (enforcing...