1. Article #1 Body Rituals Among the Nacirema: Horace
Miner
-the point is that rituals hold together a society...not all societies. Rituals are part of
what makes a society; therefore, in order to understand someone of a different
sociological background, one must think outside the box that is America's way of
viewing things.
-He describes the extreme rituals that people hold in America which he introduces his
topic, ritual activity, "the focus" of which is the human body, the appearance and
health of which looms as a dominant concern in the ethos of the people
rticle #2 Queer Customs: Clyde Kluckhohn
-Refers to culture as a "design for living."
-Examined culture by showing how it is different from biological influences on our
behavior, how culture influences biological processes, how it is learned rather than
being genetically transmitted, and how it functions to help people adapt to their
environment.
-Reminds us that the study of other cultures allow us to better understand our own
culture
-Culture arises out of human nature
-Culture is a way of thinking, feeling, believing
-The biological functioning of individuals is modified if they have been trained in
certain ways and not in others
Ferraro Article 3: Rapport-talk and Report-talk: Deborah Tannen
-Women verbally communicate in order to build rapport with others, which involves
emotional self-disclosure and emphasizes showing empathy and understanding.
-Report-talk involves verbally communicating in order to establish and maintain
status and power. Personal disclosures are often avoided so they do not appear
vulnerable to the other.
-More men feel comfortable doing "public speaking"
-More women feel comfortable doing "private speaking"
-The problem with communication between couples is a difference in conversational
style. Women and men have different styles of talking and therefore different
expectations when it comes to communicating between each other. The reason there is
differences is the way they have grown up, culture.
Ferraro Article 4: The Sounds of Silence: Edward T. Hall
The main point of this article is that there are numerous other ways of communicating
and expressing oneself without ever speaking or verbally communicating.
-This nonverbal communication can be used both intentionally or unintentionally,
consciously or subconsciously, to tell other people how you feel about yourself or
them.
-These nonverbal cues vary from culture to culture so it becomes challenging to fully
comprehend nonverbal communication.
-Show members of your own culture what kind of person you are, how you feel about
others, how you'll fit into and work in a group, personality traits (assured or anxious),

2. the degree of comfort with own cultural standards, and deep feelings towards yourself
-While it is impossible to ever completely know the importance of each nonverbal
signal it is important to realize the power of the signals and their affects.
Article #5 Eating Christmas in the Kalahari: Richard Lee
-shows not only how tough it is for an ethnographer to get away from his own beliefs,
but it also gives us an example of how personal interpretations can interfere between
people.
-Classic example of cross-cultural misunderstanding
-Lee tried to understand other peoples' behaviors in terms of the assumptions of their
own culture
-Lee was a target for enforcing humility
-brought them a fat ox as a gift
-Believe that unusual gifts always involve some ulterior motive so they denigrate
these gifts
-The reaction conforms to a model of reverse dominance hierarchy
-use ridicule in order to instill humility
Article # 6 The Domestication of Wood in Haiti: Gerald F. Murray
-He submitted his report fully expecting it to be "as dutifully perused and as
honorably filed and forgotten as similar reports I had done elsewhere" (218). To his
surprise, he was called on to implement his recommendations in a rare instance of a
project "whose very existence was rooted in anthropological research and whose very
character was determined by ongoing anthropological direction" (222). By taking
enough time to truly understand the peasants' motivation to destroy the trees they
were coerced to plant by day and to thoroughly examine the institutional roots of
earlier project failures, Murray was able to succeed in getting trees growing again in
Haiti.
-Using his anthropological knowledge of Haitian peasants, Gerald Murray designs
and administers an astoundingly successful reforestation project. Wood as a cash crop
makes good economic sense to Haitian farmers; as a consequence, both production
and agricultural earnings increase.
Article #8 Death Without Weeping: Nancy Scheper-
Hughes
The relationship between chronic child loss and poverty and a mother's ability to
express maternal love is the central theme of the book. Scheper-Hughes proposes that
when conditions of high fertility and high infant mortality prevail, the death of a child
is the norm for poor families; mothers do not grieve when a fragile child dies, and
maternal acceptance (routinization) of child death may actually jeopardize the life of
certain children. Mothers invest only in those infants likely to survive and distance
themselves psychologically from vulnerable infants and withdraw love and care. This
thesis rejects current research on mother-infant interaction and the belief (which
Scheper-Hughes call a modern "bourgeois" notion) that mother love is a universal
phenomenon).
-given its depiction of women forced by horrific circumstances to ration their love and

3. favor towards infants and toddlers who seemed to have the best chance of survival,
and (even more controversial) her description of mothers "collaborating" and
"hastening" the deaths of infants thought to be lacking a will (desejo), a knack (jeito),
or a taste (gusto) for life. Death without Weeping has become something of a classic
within the field of medical anthropology
-Non traditional ethnographic work
Article #9 Society and Sex Roles: Ernestine Friedl
-Comparing a variety of hunting and gathering groups, she concludes that relations
between men and women are shaped by a culturally defined division of labor based on
sex, not by inherited predisposition. Given access to resources that circulate publicly,
women can attain equal or dominant status in any society, including our own.
-For many of the societies that Friedlanalyzes the inequality between men and women
exist in the capacity to own power and objectifications of it.
--Friedl argues that the reason lies in the division of public and private realms. In
social orders where males were seen as public figures, or individuals who had an
identity outside of the home, there was a greater sense of social prestige and a higher
propensity to view the private as not as important as the public. In social orders where
both genders were able to partake in the public, there is greater sexual equality present
-The overarching theme in both examples is that the glorification of the public realm
and who is able to exercise power within it is what helps to define sexual equality in
these social orders.
Article #11 TheKpelle Moot: James Gibbs
-has attempted to add to our understanding of informal dispute-settlement procedures
in one African society by using an eclectic but organized collection of concepts from
jurisprudence, ethno-law, and psychology
-Moots being private are less susceptible to the surveillance of the anthropologists
than courtroom hearings, thus there are fewer transcripts of moots than court hearings.
-The informal moot, a method of resolving disputes among the Kpelle of Liberia, is
significantly different from our court system. It emphasizes the mending of social
relations between the disputing parties; the process of the hearing is therapeutic. The
moot is a useful alternative model for settling disputes in our own society.
-identified factors that contributed to the long-term reconciliation of the problem. First,
the proceedings, although "spirited," remained orderly and open—any person present
was allowed to speak at any time. This allowed for all parties to feel they had been
"heard" on the issues at hand. They also felt they had an impact on the final resolution
of the dispute. A second factor was that the faults of both parties were pointed out.
Though Wama Nya was found to be in the wrong, he was not singled out and labelled
as deviant.
-Disputes include matters such as a son seducing his father's wives, a grown son
disobeying his father, or a husband or wife failing in his or her duties to a spouse.
Disputes between unrelated persons involve matters like quarrelling, abuse, assault,
false accusations, petty theft, adultery, and failure to settle debts.
Ferraro article 12: Anthropology and Counterinsurgency

4. -the absence of the application of cultural anthropology in the US military
establishment.
-Lack of cultural understanding caused by....
US military/national security establishment completely ignored the field of cultural
anthropology.
-Anthropologists have avoided working with the national security establishment due
to fear of jeopardizing their ethical responsibility of protecting lives of individuals
they study
-Successful counterinsurgency depends on...
Attaining a holistic total understanding of cultures
Cultural understanding must be very deep
-To defeat the insurgency in Iraq, the US must recognize and exploit the underlying
tribal structure of the country, the power held by traditional authority figures, the use
of Islam as a political ideology, the competing interests of Shia, the Sunni and the
Kurds, the psychological effects of totalitarianism, and the divide between urban and
rural.
Article # 13 The Notion of Witchcraft Explains Unfortunate Events: E.E. Evans-
Pritchard
-Zande philosophy can supply the missing link"(23). Where we say chance or
coincidence, the Zande say witchcraft. Their theory is not opposed to scientific,
empirical causation - it simply goes beyond that. They link all events to causes in the
social world, not just the natural world. In this way, witchcraft is not only a system of
explanation but a method for restoring social harmony.
-Any misfortune may be due to witchcraft, unless it is clearly the person's fault
through immoral behavior (i.e. they stole, lied, committed adultery, etc.). If someone
falls unexpectedly ill, it may be witchcraft. If someone experiences an unfortunate
"accident," it may be witchcraft. If someone dies, it may be witchcraft. Essentially,
witchcraft explains unfortunate events and disrupted social relations.
-E.E. Evans-Pritchard gives the example of an old granary collapsing. This simply
happens from time to time. It is a common occurrence because termites eat the beams
and, besides, all wood eventually decays
-they said it was witchcraft
Article # 14 Baseball Magic: George Gmelch
-Americans pride themselves on their scientific approach to life and problem solving.
But as George Gmelch demonstrates in this article, American baseball players, much
like people in many parts of the world, also turn to supernatural forces to ensure
success in their athletic endeavors. Gmelch shows that magical ritual, taboos, and
fetishes surround aspects of baseball that are least predictable, thus most likely to
challenge human control.
-To professional baseball players, baseball is more than just a game. It is an
occupation. Since their livelihoods depend on how well they perform, many use
magic to try to control or eliminate the chance and uncertainty built into baseball. In
baseball there are three essential activities; pitching, hitting, and fielding. Each varies
in the amount of chance and uncertainty associated with it. The pitcher is the player
least able to control the outcome of his own efforts.