How Does Art Reflect Culture?

Part One:
This week, I was lucky to get the experience of a walk through online visit of the Lascaux Caves in France. Within the cave, there were multiple images of different animals and a few images of people. Through the images, the artists of these images were trying to reveal their culture. Often times, culture is explained to another person using words and stories told out loud. However, in this case, the artist used a different method of explaining their culture. Using the animal images, this shows that their culture depended heavily on animals; whether they were used for food or for sacrifices. The artists also "said" that they are a hunter gatherer culture that relied mainly on hunting of animals. Also, within the cave, at the very very end of it, there were the animals that were shown to be carnivores. Because the carnivores did not want to be known to be carnivores, they did not make it public. Artists explained their desire to stay on the down low by placing the images of the carnivores at the end of the cave, where it was not the first think people walked into.

I think there were so many animals in order to show which animals were gathered, useful, and which ones were sacrificed. Since there were so many animals, I think it was a way of emphasizing the importance the animals had on their culture and how it was part of their daily life. I think there were not as many people in the paintings in order to avoid misjudgment. It could be because artists did not want to portray humans in the wrong way or for people to think a specific way about the people through their paintings. Also, I think it could be the artists way of not lowering down the humans value to the animals value. This is to show that humans were not hunted and were not used as food and were not used as sacrifices as the animals were.

The paintings tells us that people spent a lot of time in the caves and around animals. Dwelling in the caves shows that their live style was simple and they were each others only company. Because they did not have money or cars or technology as we do now, their lives were simple and the families were very close together as they did not have any other distractions. However, through the cave, it shows that humans had some difficulties in painting the pictures. First, there was very little source of light which is a very limiting thing. They had to create their own tools in order to get some light since they did not have lamps. Another difficulties was the 3-Dimensional aspect of the paintings. These humans did not have all the tools that enabled them to portray the animals in 3D. Therefore, they had to do their best in painting realist pictures.

This art has many functions. One function is simply taking the role of storytelling. Instead of explaining the culture verbally and through stories by mouth, pictures do the job of telling their stories. Another function is to bring people together. This is done by this art by having a place for people to go to together and see their own life style and realize their accomplishments. Finally, it is used to show their strength and struggles as hunters and cave dwellers. Nothing shows more who people are and how they live than pictures do, and these paintings do just that.

Part Two:
The early forms of art are extremely different than the modern art we have today. Part of the early art includes dances and music specific to each culture that tells their stories and their strengths. Most early forms of art, whether it is paintings or music revealed their culture as strong and able, never really showing their weaknesses. Still, they do show their struggles but they show them followed by conquering these struggles. They also show their simple lives and their strength against their enemies.
Today's modern art is very different. Music is not intended to show weakness or strengths but it is used to show power and money. I am not attempting to use my bias but many songs nowadays include money, sex, alcohol, etc. This is not how it was in the old days. The media today shows that modern life is not as simple as it was back then, but rather emphasizes fame. Even modern paintings are very provocative and are often times used to get money.
That is not to say that all modern art is to be portrayed in such a negative way. Some paintings, like the early form of art, tell stories that the artist does not want to say out loud. Stories include struggles, stories of love and loss, and stories of success. Some forms of music in the modern art could also be used as a way to show a part of the modern cultures, just like how the music of the early times tell the stories of their cultures.

Part Three:
The form of art I chose to explore is the traditional Arabic dance called "El Dabke". This dance is practiced among all Arabic cultures. It is one of the traditional Arabic dance that was introduced in the countries of the Middle East. One of the functions of this dance is to gather up all of the members of that culture in one dance where everyone needs the help of the other person next to them. This shows that in the Arabic culture, unity within family and close relatives is extremely important. This dance unites everyone at the parties or gathering to dance together. You never see one person dancing this dance alone. There has to be at least five or more people in order to dance. This dance requires special songs, most of which are traditional songs with the specific beat that the dancing goes along with. Also, within this dance, there is the leader of the steps and everyone follows. Usually, the leader knows the dance the best. This emphasizes that people within this culture are expected to follow the correct steps and if they were to go out of these steps, it would literally mess up the whole dance, causing chaos.
The traditional parties in this culture where the Dabke took place involved everyone wearing similar clothing. It was the traditional clothing called the "Abayeh" which covered the person completely. This clothing is an important part of this dance that up to this day, whenever people dance the Dabke, there is at least one person who wears the "Abayeh" to show the origin of the dance.
This dance does not have direct effects on society. However, it does bring people together and in today's parties, other people from other cultures are always encouraged to join with the dancing. It brings unity to the party and causes less judgement between people. It is not a very difficult dance to learn and as long as you are able to follow the steps of the person next to you, it is a very enjoyable dance!
Here's a link to a video of one of the Dabke dances in Lebanon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTM2k3u_LfA&feature=related

This picture shows the dance and shows the traditional clothing, the "Abayeh".

Violence, Is it Worth it?

Violence is not something to be proud of. It is also something people do not want to be part in. Most people would not want to kill another and I can almost guarantee no body wants to be killed. However, violence is still a part of our lives. In this post, I will be discussing the different reasons for violence, the violence in the Yanomamo tribe and how it compares to the violence in the western societies, and the relationship between killings and culture in the Yanomamo.

In the Western countries, there are many laws against killings, rape, and any other type of violence. The laws forbid such actions to take place. However, having these laws do not necessarily stop such actions to be made. Due to that, there are punishments for such behavior. If a person is found to be guilty of raping someone else, in the Western countries, they would be arrested and put in jail. After being put in jail, each different crime is sentenced a different sentence depending on how many people were victims of this rapist and other extents. If a person is found to be guilty of homicide, there is also varying punishments such as jail time or even being sentenced to death. For whatever crime there is, there also follows a proper punishment. However, in the Yanomamo tribe, that wasn't exactly the case. For a killing, there followed revenge from the kinship of the one who was killed. In their tribe, violent acts were due to raping a woman, stealing a woman from her husband, infidelity and suspicion of infidelity, and not giving the promised girl in marriage. In the Yanomamo culture, vengeance is considered the main reason for killing, and it remained a legitimate motive for killing. So unlike the Western culture where the police and law handled such crimes, the Yanomamo villages handled the crimes on their own. Because of their way of handling such crimes, it seems to me that killings were simply a cycle that never ended as the family of those who were killed would always seek vengeance. The revenge killing was not a very complicated process. If a man from one village got killed for whatever reason, the village that he belonged to, or his kinship would go and kill one of the members of the one who killed the first man. However, some people took longer to retaliate against the initial killing. The ones who were the fastest were often seen as a bigger threat and therefore were less likely to be attacked. If the family or the village of the one who was killed did not attempt to get their revenge, they were seen as "cowards" and because of that, they would seek help of a stronger village.

An unokais is a "man who had killed". One of the benefits of the unokais is quite obvious, they are still alive with the satisfaction of having killed their enemy. They appear to be tougher and stronger. According to the article, it is said that an analysis of the reproductive rates comparison between an unokais and a non-unokais states that an unokais is more successful. This gives men a great reason to become an unokais. But why? It is because being an unokais means that the man has killed someone. By killing some other man, this man was able to forcefully attain the other man's female. Also, they appear to be more attractive which is why more females accept them.

Revenge killings have an effect on all aspects of the Yanomamo culture. For one, it allows for, in my opinion, an unstable political system. Their political system has no laws that prohibit the acts of killings and they do not have laws that punish killers. Because of that, I see their political system to be unstable and in a way, unhealthy. It is no justification for a killing to have occurred because a previous one had occurred. Not only do these revenge killings affect the political system, but it also effects the social organization and marriage. It is quite strange to praise those who kill. However, in that sense, the unokais are respected by more females and therefore marry more and this is why more men desire to be unakais. That has a negative effect on the society because in order for more men to be unokais, more men would need to be killed, and killing is not a thing to be praised. In my opinion, if they had the necessary laws to stop the killings or have proper punishments for killing and violence, their tribe would be a much different and safer place.

Laws are necessary because of accidents. According to the article, even if an accident occurs, the accident killing will be followed by killings for revenge. This is why there is a need for a law to punish a killing so that revenge back and forth would not have to be executed. Imagine living in a place where there were no laws to prohibit someone from killing another in retaliation. It's a very scary thought and I would not want to be a part of a society where vengeance alone is a legitimate reason to kill someone. I believe that there is never a good enough excuse to hurt someone, but since not everyone believes as I do, we need laws in order to maintain order and peace to a certain extent.

My Family Through My Mother's Point of View...

Part of the study in Cultural Anthropology requires interviewing people in order to gather some information and data. For this week, we were required to choose a family member to conduct an interview with and discuss the topic of kinship.
I decided to interview my mother. My mother was born in Jordan, during a time when technology was not as well developed as it is today. My mother was able to finish only two years of college as her parents did not permit her to stay in a school where males also attended it. She became a physical education teacher for almost 25 years. Being a P.E. teacher was did not allow for my mother to have high economic state. My mother married my dad at the age of 26 and together, they maintained an average middle class social living. Along with me, my mother also had three other children, all of who are older than me. My mom belongs to the Arabic culture, a very conservative culture that differs greatly from the American culture. Due to the fact that my mom was born into the Arabic culture, she also lived and taught my siblings and I the morals and values of the Arabic culture. My mother and father sought a more stable financial state of living; they decided to move into the United States to seek better work opportunities. Up until today, my mother considers herself a part of the middle class and a part of the Arabic community and culture. 


Due to the fact that my mother was born in Jordan, her primary language is Arabic. She has had difficulties learning the English Language as she moved to the United States at an older age. Because of this, the interview was conducted in Arabic. As an interviewer, I had to make sure to translate the question to Arabic very well in order to get the precise answer I needed. The interview itself was very comfortable because it was with someone who I knew very well. Because of this comfort level, I feel like this interview was very thorough and complete. Also, since my mother was unaware of the reasons behind this interview, her answers were very honest and did not include any false information. If I was interviewing someone who was not related to me, I feel as if the interview would have some awkward moments. Also, I would not be very confident that they would answer all of my questions as thorough and as honest as I would want them to. 


The main description for my mother's kinship pattern would be "patrilineal descent". This means that the power and authority is transferred through the male line in the family. My mother was born into a household where the family's decision was maintained by her father, who's father also controlled the family's decisions. Because of that, when she married my father, who's family also gave the power to his father, she was not granted very much power. Instead, my mother carried on the role of making the decisions for the household. Because of that, my brothers assume most of the control in my house. Due to the fact that my mother was born into the Arabic culture, her family belongs to the eskimo system where it is important to identify the mother, father, brother, and sister in the family, while catagorizing the other relatives as uncles and aunts. Aunts and uncles have different Arabic terms depending whether they are from the mother's side or the father's side.


Within my mother's family, there seems to be stronger bonds between the females than the males. While my mother is close with all her siblings, her brothers are not as close to each other. When asked who my mother would turn to in time of need, she said she would seek her sister's help. When I asked why, she said because her sister is the only one who is living in the United States as well. I, then, followed up with the same question but asked her to exclude the distance factor. She then answered that she would seek all of her sibling's help because, once again, she is close to all of them relatively the same. My mother's kinship has a common characteristic of kindness. Her siblings and her are very kind and sweet to everyone else. However, they have different expectations of the children depending on their age. While all children are expected to attend school and college and maintain excellent study ethics, older ones are also expected to maintain excellent work ethics and to work hard to gain whatever they desire. All children are also expected to stick to their traditions and culture and to remain respectful to the elderly. There are no ethnic differences within the family which limit the social differences within the family. When I asked my mother what impacted her family to stay together and maintain great social interactions, she responded with "all thanks to my parents who made sure we loved each other and made sure we always counted on each other". This is the reason why my mother tries to continue this pattern and tries to create a great relationship between my siblings and I.

Speaking from my point of view, I would say that I am not as familiar with all my relatives as I thought I was. I am familiar with my aunts and uncles from my mother's side, not from my father's side. Due to family fueds in the past, most of the communication between my family has been with my mother's side of the family. This is why I am most familiar with them. While I may know the names of my uncles and aunts from my father's side, I do not know them as well as I know my aunts and uncles from my mother's side. This shows that the relationship that parents have with their relatives has a great impact on the relationship their children have with those relatives. Since the move to the United States, I have only been able to socialize with my aunt who lives here. There are some phone conversations I have with my other uncles, but it is not the same. I think this is influences by the geographical distance. My aunt here is only a few minutes away from me, while my uncles and aunt in Jordan are across the world from me making it harder to socialize.

Before coming to the United States and seeing the cultural pattern here, my father had the most influence in making the decisions for the family. This is because that was the typical case in the Arabic culture. However, that changed when we made the move to the USA. While living here, my mother learned that both the husband and the wife make mutual decisions regarding the family and began to make the decisions with my father as well. This is part of the cultural adaptations that my family adopted.

Treatments in the family differs from gender to gender. For example, while males are allowed to go out more and allowed a later curfew, the females are not allowed to stay out late. This is part of the Arabic culture that tries to protect the vulnerable and "innocent" girl. However, there is no different treatment towards those who are married into the family as marriage brings in a new family member that is still respected and loved by all.

Through this experiment, I was able to learn the reasons for why my mother acts a certain way towards me, and why out family socializes more with her side of the family. I also learned of some deaths in the family that I was unaware of since I was born after all the deaths occurred. This was a very helpful experiment because I was able to see my family from my mother's point of view which is a very reliable source.

Subsistence and Economy

Part One:
There are two types of subsistence, Hunter gatherer and Agriculture societies.

Hunter gatherers, just as the name says, are people who hunt for and gather plants and wild animals for food.  One benefit of living like this is not having a need for money to purchase food. Since it is hunting, the food you can hunt and gather is the food you consume. This also allows for families to stay together; although they are working which some might see as a negative thing, they are together still and they get to spend time together. Another benefit could be that they have a good amount of food and it also comes in variety depending on what the person gathers.However, hunter gatherers have a disadvantage of relying on the environment. Since they do not plant the crops and they mainly rely on dogs, they might not have all the food they want which leads to nutrition deficiency. Their only source of food is what the environment allows. Another disadvantage is their  bodies might become weaker from the intensive labor that they carry out. It is almost impossible to not have an occupation in this type of subsistence. 


Agriculture societies are the societies that cultivate plants and food in order to attain their source of food and fuel and fibers. They also raise animals and fungi for their protein and meat source. One benefit from having this type of culture is the ability to grow the food that you want and limit the amount of unnecessary food. Another benefit from this type of culture is that farmers can sell their products in return for profit. This brings the tie between subsistence and economy. Another major benefit is the consumption of healthier food that is well taken care of and that farmers spend time on. However, the disadvantage of this would be the fact that food is purchased from the farmers. This means that the consumer who is unable to farm needs money in order to be able to be well fed. Another disadvantage is the long hours spent working in the fields and the hours spent on raising the livestock. Also, the limitation of having a vast area for crops could lead to limiting the variety of food produced which might have a negative impact on the health.


Choosing between these two subsistence patterns, I would say that agriculture patterns would lead to better health. Being able to drink milk and eat meat that is well taken care of is a major plus for the human health. Yes, there is less room for variety, but at least there are crops and food that have very good minerals and the fact that they are raised by farmers means that they are better than just hunted food. One may argue that it takes a while for the agriculture system to be well developed, and I would agree. However, it has developed in a way that leads to the decrease of use of antibiotics on the crops, which means that the food that is being consumed is much healthier. 


I believe that humans made this transition into agriculture because having the hunter gatherers system meant that everyone in the family was doing the same type of job. This was a good thing until it became apparent that the culture was limited on development. With agriculture, different people would have different jobs which leads to more room for development. Also, who wouldn't want healthier food? moving into agriculture allowed the people to have healthier food which is a legitimate reason to make the transition.

Part Two:
Trade is the act of exchanging goods for some type of profit or other goods. "There is a direct relationship between the availability of surplus and the ability to trade". This is true because in order to trade and exchange the surplus, it needs to be there. Also, the more there is of something, the more there will be for trading purposes and the less likelihood for the shortage of the surplus after trade. For example, if I was a farmer of tomatoes and cucumbers and I wanted to trade with someone in exchange for oranges and bananas, both of us need to have the crops available or else we would not have anything to exchange.


One benefit of trade is being able to attain products that are unavailable. This leads to specialization which is a major component of civilization. With trade, there is no need for one person or one country to be able to produce all the needed goods; instead, they can specialize in producing one type of good and then exchange it for either profit or the other goods that are unavailable to them. Another benefit of trade is the increase of efficiency. The specialization in the production of one product means that it is more efficient to produce it; it is faster and cheaper to have a focus on less products. With trade, the specialization leads to an increase in efficiency which is another major component in civilization.

However, trade is not only beneficial. One disadvantage of trade is the growth of dependence on one producer for the product. While this is a result of specialization, if this producer stops the production of the specialty product, then all the countries and people that need this product will have a shortage. For example, if the farmer who is growing apples for all the other farmer suddenly stops growing apples for whatever reasons, all the other farmers who traded with him or her will have shortage of apples and have to start producing apples themselves. Another negative aspect of trade is the spread of diseases. If one product is contaminated with the disease, then everyone who trades for that product will catch that disease which is almost like trading diseases. 


The development of agriculture has a direct effect on the development of trade. Agriculture started out very basic but eventually began to develop to the point where many farmers were able to produce more products than needed. However, with trade, the excess products did not go to waste. Instead, they were exchanged for other items. This is how specialization could have started and therefore it had a major effect on the development of trade.