Cultural Anthropology - Creativity Beyond Limits

Instructor: Prof. Lourdes Gutiérrez Nájera Office: 303 Silsby Hall Office Hours: M 3-5 and by appointment COURSE DESCRIPTION The goal of cultural anthropology is to understand human diversity in all its various manifestations around the world. Cultural anthropologists are interested in how societies and cultures work – how people in different places adapt to their environment, the various symbolic systems they use to communicate with each other, the political and religious systems that regulate their lives, the ways families are structured, and the ways they make a living. During this class we will learn about people's practices around the world, both to broaden our understanding of how culture structures and patterns the lives of different groups, and to gain a better understanding of ourselves. In an increasingly global world, we need to know who our neighbors are – and what our neighbors see when they look at us. We will begin by looking closely at the concept of culture as the central theme in anthropology, and how culture patterns human behavior. We will explore various aspects of life – including our perceptions of time and space, race, gender, marriage, sexuality, and family – to uncover how what we assume to be natural ways of living are made meaningful and are given value through culture. We will also look at the historical development of social and economic systems, the role of language in culture, and various systems of political power. We will conclude by looking at globalization, the lingering effects of colonialism on power relations across the globe, and we will critically examine projects of international development.

A prolongation of Ancestors and Skulls; with links to documents on tribal skull worship, art, rituals eg. Madrason

The author, based upon a rich folklore and ethnographic empirical material makes a semiological analysis of the basic codes of understanding cultural topography of the human body, trying to read the symbolic messages and meanings of certain segments.

The vision that people had about the human body has evolved over time. Rather, it has continuously changed, because "evolution" meant not every time, at every moment of a changing of the paradigm, an increasingly clarification, a more sharp image that cultures have developed in relation to the human body. Most radically different conception of the role, significance and symbolism of the human body were recorded-in the European space-between Roman and Greek antiquity and the debuts of Christian era. Worshiped in Antiquity and mortified by Christians the human body was the battlefield where were fought the fiercest ideological battles of the first millennium AD. And the fight-in a deaf form-continues... Radical difference between the way the human body it was and is still regarded were recorded and longer found today across and beyond the dividing line that separates the western world from Orient. If we stand-symbolically speaking-midway between the two worlds we see that, by contrast with the sombre, visceral vision of the body that it was building in the Western world, due in part to an iconography that emphasized (especially in the Gothic sphere) suffering, martyrdom, ascesis, emaciation and death, the Far Eastern world inherited and was cultivating by tradition the concept of a luminous body built in perfect harmony with the universe. The disciplining of the body in Far Eastern cultures known in the Hindu space as tapas – ardour, even though it has some similarities with Western ascesis, is oriented, by contrast with the former, towards the superior tuning of the body's energy strings, towards the idea of obtaining resonance with the universe's ethereal planes, and by no means towards the maceration of the 'flesh' as sole solution for obtaining spiritual volatility. The Yoga and Zen disciplines approach the body from a perspective diametrically opposed to the European one; while Western ascesis is 'flagellating' at the bodily level and glorifying in the sphere of man's spiritual 1 1 Sergiu Anghel graduated with a degree in choreography in Cluj and Bucharest, having previously obtained a degree in letters at the University of Bucharest, with a major in Romanian and a minor in French. His PhD thesis was entitled 'Archetype Dance in 2002'. He is a member in full standing of CIDD-Unesco and of ITI-Bucharest. He has printed two specialty books and has authored over 20 TV film shows, having written the scripts and dramatic texts of those works. He has been made an Officer of the Order for Education (sergiuanghel@hotmail.com)

BioMed Research International

Skeleton models are important in facilitating a student’s easy retention and recollection of information in the future. These may assist students carry out hands-on practice in order to acquire and practice new skills that are relevant to first aid. The increasing number of medical institutions and medical students attracts the challenge of inadequate facilitation of the teaching and learning processes. This warrants a study and/or an exploration of an alternative solution such as wooden models in order to solve the problem of scarce and ethically restricted human teaching aids. Wooden pieces (50 cm length×20 cm diameter) from a Jacaranda mimosifolia tree were prepared for the carving process, and wooden replicas of human skulls were made. Two experimental groups of randomly selected medical students (60: active and 60: control) were separately taught using wooden and natural skull models, respectively. The two groups were assessed and evaluated using the natural skull models to com...

2018

Anthropology - Open Journal, 2017

One would wonder how bone forms the core of Anthropology. This short editorial will focus on the importance of bone _ one of the skeletal elements used in anthropological investigations.

The social construction of identity and memory can be expressed through public ritual. The organization of mortuary practices, the repetitive use of imagery and figurines, and the long-term reuse of human skulls in the Near Eastern Neolithic illustrate how household ritual linked the living to the dead. Secondary mortuary practices and the plastering and painting of human skulls as ritual heirlooms served as a form of memorialization and erasure of identity within communities. The deliberate focus on the face in both construction and decoration was part of a shared system of ritual practices. Skull caching and modification transcended the past, present, and future, reiterating the expectation of future mortuary events while simultaneously recognizing continuity with the past through the crafting of memory. Collectively these patterns represent a complex web of interaction involving ritual knowledge, imagery, mortuary practices, and the creation of intergenerational memory and structures of authority.