Anthropology
Student Name
University Affiliation
Date
Question 1
Introduction
The symbolism of the fifteenth birthday celebration or Quincenera represents the family protagonist or transformation.
Discussion
According to Stavans, (2010) the symbolism of the fifteenth birthday celebration or Quincenera representsthe family protagonist or transformation into adult woman and put her under social control. Again the ritual according to the Catholic faith is connected to the girl’s virginity where the girl can respect the ritual experience for various reasons.
Some of the families in Mexico choose not to celebrate the fifteenth birthday of their girls since the ritual enhances differences among people, at times causes conflict to the aspect of female dignity and difference in class representations and their positions.There is a variation in the cost of the feast depending on what the family choose to include in the celebration and the number of people they plan to invite to the celebration. Some of the families include live music which is equal to a million and half pesos or $500 and if the relatives are unable to raise this funds then it will be difficult for ritual to be conducted. A specific dress is worn by the girl during her birthday and it is costly thus the low class people mostly don’t perform this ritual.
The author says that the ritual is “not fixed” to mean that the ritual doesn’t show an additivedevelopment but to a coexisting, multiple and at times antithetic view of females (Katz, 2019). The girl should be in a position to complete the family duties before this ritual is performed for it marks a transformation part that is continuous and starts before the fifteenth birthday and thus the ritual is not fixed. The ritual represents a process of change and not a distinct step from one irreversible stage to another.
Conclusion
In conclusion the ritual is conducted to show a transformation of the girls to womanhood.
Question 2
Introduction
The trade of cocaine, a global product has caused slavery in Indiahave where Americans have taken children from India to work in coca plantations in the Chapare. The traditional Andean ways of production and distribution used over thousand years ago have changed.
The social destruction of the economic sector is a clear mark of destruction of the cultural and social patterns of the Indians (Weatherford, 1987). Pocona was a well-known trading village in history since it connected highlands which were rich in potatoes and the lowlands which produced coca a mildly narcotic plant. Later on due to new market demand from the US and Europe, the system has collapsed. The commodity is now sold as cocaine and not coca leaves and the trade paths are with the village Pocona. Before the westerners with cocaine disrupted the community, they were hunters and gatherers and at times they depended more on mining (Healy, 1986).
From the sells attained from the selling of the cocaine, many would think that much of the money went to Pocona but that was not the case. Prices of items went high and the tickets of large items such as aeroplanes rose. The people working in the plantation worked so hard but for little wages and little food to eat till they carried food from their homes to the plantation (Givens, 1995). The villagers not in a position to participate in the money economy, those who chewed the coca leaves before were now unable to afford the leaves. The narcotic industry sold the products at high price such that the villagers could not buy them but only get the rejects from the cocaine industry.
Conclusion
In conclusion the trading of cocaine by Us and Europe has led to the child labour in India and rise in the economy.
Question 3
Introduction
Space of food distribution is subsumed under the basis of charity but according to Mittermaier and Fasenmyer space works are not charitable. The Khadma gives to everybody who needs their help and does not divide people according to those with need and those who are able.
Gifts are very different from food although many people see gifts as more effective as compared to food. Despite that these days we are living at the age of compassion that has revived appreciationfor example relief and aid development agencies in the whole world always insist that a good gift is that makes productive and independent citizens.
According to the author, space of food distribution is a gift oriented present which microloans are quintessential neoliberal gift which are nearly related to the aim to change the shadow economics of the needy into the space of enterprises (Abell & Hoekstra, 2011). Together with the neoliberal ethics of individual believes on being responsible, microloans are required to build entrepreneurial citizens and jobs. Many companies in Egypt have adhered to the transformation from present activities to future activity forms of sharing. Instead of alms giving and distributing food, they give microloans or money to come up with projects.
There terms and conditions one has to meet to get the loan and that they want and are willing to become productive citizens despite that taking the loans can be risky. Those who fail to pay these loans, are arrested and at time imprisoned for a period of time until the lenders get their money back. The needs of the poor have now changed to the responsibilization of the needy for their impoverishment.
Conclusion
Many companies in Egypt have adhered to the transformation from present activities to future activity forms of sharing. Instead of alms giving and distributing food, they give microloans or money to come up with projects.
Question 4
Introduction
The finding of the author were that, there are three semiotic dimensions of voice and they include; the relationship between song and speech, relationship between sound and body and the last one is the relationship between literal voice and more metaphorical understandings of the voice.
In his framework Nicholas uses methodological and analytical concepts to the urban ethnography of the human voice (Harkness, 2014). To get answers for his question about human voice, the author carried out research from the protestant Christians in Seoul, South Korea. His finding were that, there are three semiotic dimensions of voice and they include; the relationship between song and speech, relationship between sound and body and the last one is the relationship between literal voice and more metaphorical understandings of the voice. To get to the ethnographic study of the voice in Seoul, Nicholas emphasized on ideological reflections on the voice for learning and specificity of vocal practice of the urban aspiration in South Korea. During his research, he combined observation and interviews with other methods designed to determine how an ethno national advancement or chronotope through Christian civilization framed the use of voice among his informants.
The qualities of voices reflect the social transformation in that the loud, harsh voiceand at times abrasive voices make the Christians relate to the troubled past also relate to contemporaneous sites of the urban activity while voices that are smoother or softer show fewer features that would stir feelings of the past torment or suffering. Therefore a social transformation is reflected by the difference between the qualities of the two voices. Thus clean voices result to healthy bodies interwoven through phonosonic forms of song and speech which are related to and differentiated from other sounds in the urban areas. By relating phonosonic forms to the town spaces, voices are then valuated around the same cultural narrative of the advancement that frames the city more generally (Hymes, 2003).
Conclusion
In conclusion qualities of voices reflect the social transformation for as the high pitch shows trouble the soft voice shows fewer features of suffering.
Question 5
Introduction
With the case of Covid- 19 virus people would not attend to these temples to pray to their god on the Sabbath day for many a congregation lead to faster spread of the virus.
In the Chinese social religion there is a territory which is one of their most critical aspects. Till 1949 the big cities were organized systems of neighbourhood each with its own territorial god and temple. With the case of Covid- 19 virus people would not attend to these templesto pray to their god on the Sabbath day for many a congregation lead to faster spread of the virus. However in this territorial temple would be where the coronavirus deaths would be reported and local affairs such as hand washing and sanitizing in Hong Kong would be addressed and managed.
The transformation of the villagers to the urban districts included tensions and pleading over the territoriality and the territorial temples specifically. As per the coronavirus spread, everybody be it the urban or the rural individuals are being affected and no negotiations or tensions are being involved. In fact those in the urban areas are running to the rural areas for there are few people in the rural areas as compared to the urban areas meaning than coronavirus is acting in the vice versa of how it used to be in those territories in the past. Daoists territories werehired in celebrations and scripture chanting (Goossaert, 2015). With the outbreak of the corona pandemic, the Daoists cannot be hired for celebrations for they do not take place to minimize the spread of coronavirus. People are also not going to churches to prevent those already suffering from the pandemic from spreading it to the healthy individuals through body fluids and conducts. Social distancing and avoiding places with many people is needed during the pandemic outbreak and thus the churches and celebrations have been closed for a while to reduce its spread.
Conclusion
Covid-19 virus has stopped traveling and meeting places with many people in Hong Kong.
Goossaert, V. (2015). TERRITORIAL CULTS AND THE URBANIZATION OF THE CHINESE WORLD. Handbook of Religion and the Asian City: Aspiration and Urbanization in the Twenty-First Century, 52.
Weatherford, J. M. (1987). Cocaine and the economic deterioration of Bolivia. Conformity and conflict: Readings in cultural anthropology.
Stavans, I. (Ed.). (2010). Quinceañera. ABC-CLIO.
Abell, R., Thieme, M., Ricketts, T. H., Olwero, N., Ng, R., Petry, P., … & Hoekstra, J. (2011). Concordance of freshwater and terrestrial biodiversity. Conservation Letters, 4(2), 127-136.
Harkness, N. (2014). Songs of Seoul: An ethnography of voice and voicing in Christian South Korea. Univ of California Press.
Hymes, D. (2003). Ethnography, linguistics, narrative inequality: Toward an understanding of voice. Taylor & Francis.
Katz, M. H. (2019). Commemoration of the Prophet’s Birthday as a Domestic Ritual in Fifteenth-and Sixteenth-Century Damascus. Domestic Devotions in the Early Modern World, 167.
Healy, K. (1986). The boom within the crisis: Some recent effects of foreign cocaine markets on Bolivian rural society and economy. Coca and cocaine. Cultural survival report, 23, 101-143.
Givens, W. L. (1995). Economic Cocaine: America’s Exchange Rate Addiction. Foreign Affairs, 17-21.