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Cultural Anthropology

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Cultural Anthropology

In cultural anthropology, broad questions on what it means to be a human being in modern cultures and societies, and also those of the recent past, are addressed. Cultural anthropologists identify and outline topics including; material culture, economies, social organization, language, political and legal systems, health and illness, ideologies and religion, and social changes (Miller, 2005). The goal of cultural anthropology is the documentation of the entire human cultural adaptations and attainments and discernment of the underlying co-variations in changes in the human ecological system, ideologies, and institutions. This essay focuses on discussing the concepts of cultural anthropology, including the Hindu caste system, productivity and displacement in language, and the nature and consequences of male bias in development projects.

Hindu Caste System

In some ways, the Hindu Caste System is similar to the ideal society of philosophers, commoners, and warriors, according to Plato. A Caste can be defined as a societal division primarily on family lineage and occupation (Miller, 2005). In the Hindu Caste system, four different classes are recognized among the people, and the system enforces this through observation of a rigid code of conduct particular to distinct classes and based on the dharmashastras, or books of law that are known to the Hindu culture, of a future verdict period.

Four main castes are identified by the traditional Hindu society primarily on the hereditary occupation, including; the first class that is the Brahmins, who are also known as the priestly class. This class is entitled to the study of the Vedas and performance of rituals and rites both for themselves and for the societal members, and have an obligation to observe the sacraments.  Brahmins are known as the middlemen between the Hindu gods and human beings, and they act as priests in the temples, invoking the gods to intervene on behalf of others.

The second caste class is that of the Kshatriyas that are classified as warriors that are commanded by the Hindu culture to protect individuals from offering sacrifices to their ancestors, to bestow the gifts of the Brahmins, and to study the Vedas. They are also required to abstain from sensual pleasures (Miller, 2005). The third class of the caste system are the Vaisyas, who are the peasant and the merchant people that are expected to trade, study the Vedas, cultivate the land, tend cattle, offer sacrifices, and lend money. The Vaisyas can participate in and perform particular Vedic rituals, but they cannot marry women from higher classes. The fourth class in the Hindu caste system is the Shudras; these castes are known as the labor class whose duties include serving the first three classes (Miller, 2005). The Shudras are required to observe and study Vedas, to observe Vedic rituals, to hear the sacred chants, and to eat food accompanied by any of the higher castes. The Shudras can also marry women beyond their caste titles.

Concepts of Productivity and Displacement as They Are Applied to Human Language

The human language has two robust features, including productivity and displacement. In many decades, language scholars have attempted to differentiate human language form communication among other living creatures. In linguistics, productivity is the ability to use language without limits. Productivity is commonly discussed in connection with word-formation. For instance, humans keep creating newer expressions and novel utterances through the manipulation of their linguistic resources to describe new situations and objects. This is described as open-mindedness or productivity and is connected to the fact that there is infinite potential in the number of utterances in the human language (Miller, 2005). Among other creatures, there appears to lack this type of flexibility. For instance, while monkeys have 36 vocal calls, Cicadas have only four to choose from. In animal communication, the limiting factor is fixed reference, and each of their signals is fixed, particularly concerning certain occasions and objects. Signals in animals are fixed in terms of their reference that cannot be manipulated.

On the other hand, displacement is the ability of a language to describe things that are not present. Displacement in human language means that, through the authority of language, individuals can refer to items that are temporary, present, or partially present. Displacement in language allows us to ask questions, including where we left certain items, making us possess this trait that misses in the animal kingdom (Miller, 2005). However, Bees seem to have some limited displacement in their communication, whenever they perform the waggle dance that appears to tell other bees of the most recent food source visited.

In human language, modality independence exists whereby it is possible to utilize the aspects of displacement, recursion across various modes and generativity. The distinction between human beings and animals is defined by the concept of displacement and through the understanding that displacement is thought to contribute to the study of the origin of the human language.

Nature and Consequences of Male Bias in Development Projects

Development projects are the most significant techniques in which institutions develop their goals and implement them. Most development projects are designed by outsiders with little knowledge and tend to follow a universal pattern. In development projects, male bias was identified in the 1970s as an outcome of the bypassing of women as initiative beneficiaries, including educating them on technology and growing of crops (miller, 2005). Based on these, there emerged inequality in gender whereby experts in development had a notion that farmers should be men and not women.

According to experts, women had a duty of taking care of their families, including bearing children, conducting household chores and feeding their children; aspects that adversely impacted women and their lives to become domestic (miller, 2005). Projects like political leadership and agriculture experienced the bypassing of women. In these projects, there was a failure due to male biasness. One example if the reforestation project in West Africa, where men were placed on planting and caring for the trees while women were only allowed to water the trees. Including women in various projects has brought forth various positive issues in debates, including gender-based violence. Women have evolved to forming organizations that assist other women, these organizations are sometimes a part of their traditional culture, and sometimes, a part of women’s outside inspiration. The range of these organizations lies between mother clubs, which assist women by granting them opportunities for starting their enterprises, with some being communal and others global.

Conclusion

Cultural anthropology strives to view all the aspects of human nature to generate an accurate societal presentation. Most anthropologists engage themselves in the pursuance of fieldwork to improve understanding of the people around the globe. Through becoming active participants, anthropologists are more likely to be accepted by any member of society. Among the many subdivisions of cultural anthropology is linguistics, where anthropologists can study the language and how its development can be utilized to explore distinct cultures and different modes of communication between human beings and animals.

Cultural anthropology has ensured that we can differentiate how humans speak in a certain way, and why a social group differs from another. We have gained the ability of why there are gender issues in the implementation of specific projects, how they existed, and how society has come up with measures to curb these issues. Through cultural anthropology, the societal system of management can be well illustrated and understood, as seen in the case of the Hindu caste system. We can now understand why individuals develop particular ways of speech, habits, and how these habits play a role in their development.

References

Miller, B. D. (2005). Cultural anthropology. Boston, New York, etc., Pearson, https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgxwHMjpbQvSjhGWZQJsqdhLKVJNw?projector=1&messagePartId=0.1

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