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Slide 1:

By examining firsthand the way people live, ethnography can help us discover the cultural reasons behind obesity in different communities. A tax on sugar, which might work in one country, might not work in a more libertarian country like Australia (the example given in the talk). Policy makers can develop different anti-obesity policies based on the data gathered by ethnographic studies. It'll have the added benefit of helping researchers discover how different cultures view obesity, which'll help in combating the problem while still allowing individuals to make their own nutritional choices.

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Aligning Environmental and Socio-Cultural Priorities (slide 6)

While decarbonizing cities is essential and urgent, shifts in urbanization to achieve a low carbon city have both social and ecological costs. Through ethnographies it may be possible to provide evidence that lower income residence have low carbon footprints, that could result in changing the approach of how we improve cities to be low carbon without displacing people.

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Thanks to our belief in the objectivity of visual observation, we have deluded ourselves into thinking our cultural lens (ie, the vision-focused American lens) is the surest guide to truth.

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Within American culture there is a primacy of vision and dependence on sight over other sense as a tool to arrive to truths.

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It seems to me the general implication is that we should be cautious of the way our cultural lens causes us to perceive the world. It's an anti-ethnocentrism argument at its core.

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We must be aware that when we analyze other groups worldview it is done considering their own cognitive categories, in order to arrive to a less distortional truth.

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To be honest, while I agree with the general message of his work, I have to admit that I didn't find his specific focus on the eye all that compelling. Vision is the dominant sense for humans because it's our strongest one. Our ability to see far and wide (partly aided by bipedalism) helped us thrive in Africa and beyond. His apparent critique of our focus on sight didn't particularly impress me. I was most shaken by his claim that the Japanese consider speaking a sense. That shook my sense of what's normal more than Dundes' argument did.

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As a non-American reading this piece, I found myself relating and nodding along to many of Dundee's points (because of globalization) but felt very removed from some. While we have similar phrases and expressions that are centered around sight, as a non-native English speaker I had never been fully conscious of the obsession of sight and it's manifestation on language. That is something I didn't consider normal until I was made aware of it.

I questioned what is normal when Dundes mentions the sacredness of the number 4, since based on my cultural biased I agree on the sacredness of the number 3.

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I personally was a little blown away by Dundes' assertions of Americans being too focus on sight. Mainly because I found it a bit silly... I mean sure, we have lots of phrases that focus on seeing something in the US. But I can't really imagine it being different in other English Speaking countries, had he given some examples of that and then if he had also made his argument more clear and substantial from the get go I think I might have been able to get behind him. But he did none of that.

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I think it would be interesting to explore young women's views on societal expectations on what their futures should entail.

In Lima within the high socio-economic circle, women were traditionally expected to get a degree, get married, have kids and become a housewife (least that was the expectation for my parents generation). With increasing globalization, influx of new ideas and increase in opportunities I think it would be interesting to explore if young women of my generation feel like they are expected/pressured to follow that same pattern or if  view of what is considered acceptable for women in the city of Lima is shifting.

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I think it would be very interesting to see an ethnography on how Chicago Bears fans continue to support their team even though it constantly lives in the shadow of the Green Bay Packers. I think it would be pretty easy to go bar hopping in Chicago on a sunday night when they have a game vs the Packers.

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A phenomenon that interests me is the increasing use of English in non-Anglo societies around the world, especially by musicians and those who create online content. The act of creating content or art in a language that isn't your native one seems to me complicated, and potentially limited. I would be interested to talk with people who work in English but otherwise live using a different language, and learn whether they feel their creative output is influenced by the language they use.

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You could argue her behaviors were cultural by pointing out that her whole group picked up on her practices, and that the descendants of the original group continued to do as their ancestors had. However, I'd argue that, because (as far as we know) the development of washing and swimming in the troupe presumably didn't affect the way the monkeys view the world, Imo's behaviors weren't cultural; they were just the result of an animal learning a useful skill. I'm not saying animals aren't capable of deeper thought than that, but as an outside observer, that's how it seems to me.

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Imo's behaviors could be considered cultural if taken from a non-anthropocentric point of view. If we consider macaques social being that can develop skills and possibly pass them down from generation to generation in order to form customs, then this behavior could be considered cultural. However, one could argue that it wasn't cultural because within our anthropocentric view, Imo's action stemmed from human intervention and may be seen as a mere skill. The thing that might have been missing in order for it to be considered cultural would be at least one member of the groups awareness as to why they are doing something and were the awareness come from. (I'm still thinking if I agree with what I wrote or not... I might come back to it)

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Imo started a cultural revolution in her macaque troop. I mean she completely changed the way that her and her society viewed their food and water for generations.

On the other hand this could never be cultural in the human sense because they are not human but macaque and the definition of what exactly "is" culture is kinda loose.

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I think culture is the lens through which a group views the world, and the beliefs/practices/traditions practiced by that group are the result of its culture interacting with the world around it.

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Culture is made up of collectively gathered and shared sets of norms, behaviors, beliefs, habits, traditions, etc.

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We could define culture as being people's reactions to people's reactions..?

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"Archaeology, cultural anthropology, forensic anthropology" (Slide 4)

To me it seems that museums often try to handle Wampums in a respectful way with regards to the tribe it is from. I think that a museum should act as a caretaker for the piece if the tribe it should belong to then is the real owner and has say in its treatment and use.

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Essentially, in the world we live in today, we simply cannot avoid our own cultural bias.

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Linguistic Anthropology (Slide 3)

Discourse analysis on courtroom transcripts can be used to reveal how the language in the instructions jurors receive during a trial can help them justify sentencing defendants to death. For example, interviews with jurors show that courtroom language emphasizing decision-making based strictly on the law and hard evidence convinced jurors to leave emotion out of their decisions. Furthermore, sentence structure used in the courtroom can either make jurors feel more or less responsible for their decisions (for example, passive voice deflects responsibility off of jurors for condemning someone to death).

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Amelia                          Our cultures often inadvertently shape the way we perceive the world, such as the emphasis on sight as objectivity in American society

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Amelia                          Our cultures often inadvertently shape the way we perceive the world, such as the emphasis on sight as objectivity in American society

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Amelia                           We have to become more aware of our biases and examine our own backgrounds, if we want to be able to understand and connect with those whose backgrounds are different

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Amelia                           We have to become more aware of our biases and examine our own backgrounds, if we want to be able to understand and connect with those whose backgrounds are different

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Amelia                          Slide 5: Archaeology, cultural anthropology, forensic anthropology

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Amelia                          Slide 5: Archaeology, cultural anthropology, forensic anthropology

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It seems to me that in many cases, the wampum artifacts have been preserved, stored, presented and described in ways that centered the knowledge and worldviews of the European anthropologists who originally placed the artifacts into museums. However, much of the significance of these items has been lost or overlooked because indigenous knowledge hasn't been asked for. Recently, though, some institutions have made efforts to treat the artifacts in ways that give them the respect they are due as culturally significant objects, which seems like a good step to me. In general, I wouldn't be opposed to the treatment and display of objects in museums being in the control of the communities the objects originate from, as people who more fully understand the contexts and significance of the items.

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You could argue that the food-washing became cultural to the macaques when it spread to the rest of the community: it became a way of operating in the world that was tied to a specific community. However, the human sense of culture extends beyond practical feeding techniques, and into what I want to call aesthetics, for lack of a better word. The macaques have adapted this behavior out of practicality, which human culture often ignores or even contradicts.

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I would say that culture is a collection of practices, norms, and values that is tied to a specific group or community

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The implication is simply that we should do our best to be aware of our biases in order to best understand others.

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Slide 1:
The phenomena of 'globesity' takes on different forms throughout the numerous cultures of the world. In response to this, ethnography seems to be essential in the study and addressing of it as either a problem or a field to research in. Ethnography allows for an understanding of people in a way that numbers cannot provide - we might be able to collect data on what people are eating, when they're eating, or how much they're eating, but this doesn't tell us why they're doing what they're doing. Studying people closely could result in either a destigmatization of obesity as it could be fully understood, or it could lead to a meaningful solution, as dieting and exercise have been proven time and time again not to work.

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American culture has unintentionally chosen sight as its main method to seek the truth

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We may not be aware of the cultural influence on the inner workings of our brain, our ability to produce coherent thought. We must be extra cognizant or self aware when dealing with culture and our perception of the world

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I thought it was quite interesting to see so many everyday phrases relying on sight or sight vocabulary. I had never really considered this idea before and it the continued reference to different phrases that I use regularly was unexpected. I don't think, necessarily, that using these various terms and phrases referring to sight makes us rely on sight more than other senses (or for me personally, I suppose), but it is good food for thought at the least.

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As an ex-drone pilot/photographer, I think that an ethnography focused on the relationship between humans and nature, and more specifically in the idea of content creation surrounding nature for social media, would be fascinating. I realized partway through my short 'career' that I was no longer going out in nature to experience nature, to appreciate it, or to enjoy it. I was merely going out to get some content for my page. This shift in motive was a large reason I stopped producing content, and it's one of the most interesting ideas I've come away with. I think that exploring content creator's motives and relationship with the content they create in the height of the digital/social media age could allow for many insights into our relationship as a species with nature.

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The idea that behaviors spread through the tribe and then passed down through generations is synonymous with culture - washing the potato was a unique behavior that became a habit. However, this behavior is pretty basic, and might not extend to what humans define culture as. For example, we don't call brushing teeth a part of culture, it's merely a mundane daily task. Washing the potatoes doesn't have the nuance or next level that most things we might say constitute human culture.

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Culture is what separates groups of individuals - what makes them unique. That can be a lot of different things, including but not limited to practices, beliefs, traditions etc.

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Without being conscious of it, everyone is perpetuating their cultural biases (in the way Americans perpetuate the fixation on vision), and it can cause people to interpret different cultural practices into a way that fits their own logic.

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Amelia                              I was struck by the realization that we talk about "seeing" points of view, which is a metaphor I've never noticed/questioned before. However, I would argue that some of Dundes's points are not necessarily solid proof of the promotion of sight above other senses. The example of having a promise in writing, for example, rather than trusting a handshake, seemed to overlook the physical nature of a signature on paper vs the temporary one of a handshake. Still, I think it's important to examine things we take for granted.

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Amelia                              I was struck by the realization that we talk about "seeing" points of view, which is a metaphor I've never noticed/questioned before. However, I would argue that some of Dundes's points are not necessarily solid proof of the promotion of sight above other senses. The example of having a promise in writing, for example, rather than trusting a handshake, seemed to overlook the physical nature of a signature on paper vs the temporary one of a handshake. Still, I think it's important to examine things we take for granted.

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I think it would be interesting to observe the effect media and tablets have on family dynamics. Often out at dinner I see a family that is all on their phones, sometimes even including a baby who has their eyes glued on an iPad. This sort of addictive behavior applies (at varying levels) to most people with technology. Someone could potentially study a few families by living with each family for a couple months. This ethnographic approach would reveal how technology is incorporated into the household members' routines. Through observation and analysis you could determine which of the actions become instinctual behavior (i.e checking your phone right when you wake up). It would be interesting to see which family members use media the most on average, as well as what each member uses it for the most. This could be noted by observing behaviors and also by getting data from the Screen Time function. Additionally, it would be interesting to see if families spend less or more time together based on their media usage and how they consume it.

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Slide 1: Cultural and medical anthropology

Ethnography has the potential to reveal the reasons for obesity in countries through holistic observation of a culture, as well as use the findings to remove the negative connotations associated with obesity in American culture. In America it is linked with fast food, laziness, etc., but we have to understand people in other countries may not be overweight for the same reasons most Americans are. This sort of thinking relates to Dundes’ argument, as Americans should not judge other cultures' weight issues in the way they see their own, as they do not know the circumstances of the peoples lives there. The solutions to improving nutrition should be based on the studies findings and work towards a health goal that is appropriate for the country.

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Q6

Nowadays, accelerated global warming urges human to adopt a greener lifestyle with lighter carbon footprints. While natural scientists, mathematicians, and ecologists provides theoretical solutions of reduce carbon dioxide emissions backed with scientific reasoning, we also need anthropologists to calibrate these plans to be more feasible and effective. Anthropologists not only observe what's happening but also try to find the reasons behind it, especially rooted in human behavior. They specifically points out that the gentrification of eco-friendly lifestyle is not efficiently lowering carbon footprint without any setbacks since housing justice are affected and suburban newcomers (mid to higher class people) have a larger carbon footprint due to affordability. Also, anthropologists have the ability to offer reasonable and effective solutions to current situations based on ethnographical research, in this case collaborative conversations between different parties and stakeholders as well as a more considerate plan that keeps minimizing the impact in mind.

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The significant reliance on seeing throughout information processing is evidently rooted in multiple aspects of American culture.

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Different culture have different inherent norms rooted in the way we think and perceive the world, leading to unavoidable subjectivity. Being aware of this bias contributes to more objectivity.

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tbh when I just start to read the article. I'm Chinese and we grant solid amount of weight to hearing and feeling, though not as much as seeing but definitely more than Americans. "Normal" means non-surprising, usually something happened on a regular basis, in this case our cultural habits. We are cross-referencing our own culture when we evaluate other culture, so "normal" seems to be our evaluation standard, the culture that we belongs to.

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As an international student, I think the group dynamic of students choosing to study abroad is pretty interesting. As part of the group, I know that international students mainly consists kids from middle or upper class family that can afford an more expansive education. However, there's also some students from average, even low, incoming family. Investigating how different family background influence the available education resource for college application as well as the hierarchical status within the group will be interesting. Virtual interviews can be done.

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It's cultural since it's a habit that spread socially as well as being inherited between generations, just like human social norms. In contrast, it may not be cultural because it's an animal life skill. I still think it's cultural since eating the potato without washing off the sand will not cause serious impact, just like different cultural habits with pealing of the skin of some fruits or not when we eat them. But we can also argue that washing of the sand is a good-for-health action. It's kind of on the edge, but it determines on how we define culture.

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Culture is the collection of social norms, language, symbols, beliefs, and so many other aspects of living for a certain group of people.

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Dunde stresses the importance of learning to recognize and push against your cultural biases, not only in terms of anthropology but in the way that we all live and interact. These biases are ingrained in us and often are unnoticed, but their presence can negatively impact the way we perceive other cultures and people.

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A point that I found fascinating was, “telephone conversations are replacing letter writing more and more.” This is intriguing because today, calling is often replaced with texting or facetime. This reminded me how often norms are changing, and it also shows we have found our way back to mainly visual communication when interacting with someone we cannot be with. It also made me question what normal is in terms of trends, or in other words, my question is if something is only temporarily practiced, does that mean it ever really was normal? A culture can accept something as normal for months or decades and then look back and wonder why anyone ever accepted it. So, if what’s normal is relative to factors (like time) within one culture itself, it is so crucial to look at other cultures regarding their context, as many factors influence cultures and it is forever changing.

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The way that people in America rely on their sensory abilities, specifically sight, to justify or process information is deeply rooted in our behavior that it's inevitable to  avoid these cultural biases when study other humans.

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Slide 1: Cultural and Medical Anthropology
By taking an ethnographic approach, researchers could determine the differing roles culture, and the individual, community and societal-level factors, play in driving this global rise in obesity.  Placing obesity in a broad cross-cultural perspective would allows us to move away from ethnocentric approaches to addressing obesity and toward culturally sensitive and culturally specific responses.  Such an understanding of these many ways we "read" fat, what Mark Graham calls "lipoliteracy," would move us beyond false notions of a single natural or universal response to global obesity and toward responses that make positive use of unique cultural governance.

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Dundes is implying that as humans, we will always have cultural biases and preferences that come from our lived experiences and to recognize our placement in a given setting, and observe these cultures with an open-mind about the difference in everyone's lived experiences.

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When I first started reading about complimentary phrases that have to do with sight, and how every other sense is used in a negative connotation when used in idiomatic instances for example "something smells fishy" versus sight being the only one with positive implications when used for example "look but don't touch".

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Americans' evident bias for sight over the other senses should make us wary of imposing our own cognitive categories on others when we try to understand their cultures or worldviews.

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Americans' lack of awareness to their own bias for vision over the other senses is proof that anyone can be subject to their own biases even when trying be objective in analyzing others. Therefore we should be careful to not impose our own biases on others when trying to understand them.

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Slide 4: The anthropologists and the community are working together to commemorate and honor the lives of the thirty-six slaves recovered from the burial site through DNA testing hosting events to educate and properly reinterment these recovered bodies. They are realizing the history behind the dehumanization and educating the community and the youth about the legacy of slavery in the American South and the significance behind why properly burying their remains will honor, and how to further honor, these former slaves lives.

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I was surprised at the amount of colloquial expressions he brought up from American culture that illustrated our apparent bias towards site over the other senses.

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America's bias in the sense of sight, shown through various American cultural sayings and thought processes, demonstrate that we view other cultures, worldviews, and nature through our own cultural biases (lens).

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While I was surprised by the number of expressions Americans use that refer to sight, what most deeply made me question my sense of "what's normal" was Dundes' point that other cultures don't acknowledge the same "five senses"  Americans do (for example, the Javanese view talking as a sense). I find this a more compelling contrast  than Dundes' observation that Americans seem to emphasize the particular sense of sight more than other cultures do because he does not provide specific examples from other cultures about this.

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Dundes questions our concern with empiricism, specifically the visual medium, and how that has led us toward an ethnocentric search for a "worldview" that mistakes culture for nature.

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I was going to talk about studying the current protests and movements surrounding police brutality and studying the effectiveness of protesting/mass gatherings that consist of particularly white people and the reaction they get from the police v. Black and Brown folx and the reaction they get from the police. We have cameras and social media which is a world-changing medium that allows people to protest from their mobile devices/computers. To study it, we have to study the language (linguistic anthropology) these communities have towards the police and thus we can study cultural phenomena where we observe music and what consists of "protest music" or the Black Lives Matter Movements that are widespread across the world at this point.

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Slide 3- Linguistic anthropology

Discourse analysis on courtroom transcripts in Texas capital punishment cases found that legal statements/instructions provided to jurors from the court/judge/lawyers placed a heavy emphasis on objectivity through undermining the value of emotion and individual empathy in an attempt to maintain a fair trial. As a result, jurors felt compelled to reject their own emotional reactions to evidence provided, even if that evidence had an emotional quality to it (e.g. the father of the defendant begging the jury to spare his child's life). Analyzing the language of the jurors revealed a distancing between them and the defendant to mitigate the emotions that may arise with sentencing someone to death. Overall, the study aims to highlight how specific language can be employed within capital punishment cases to maximize impartiality and minimize the juror's conscience.

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I found myself struck by the differing notions of an active versus passive worldview.  Dundes takes this further, questioning the concept of worldview and the distortions one inevitably encounters in the process.  This of course raises the idea that not all cultures share the same cognitive categories.  While I shouldn't have been surprised by that, it made me question my beliefs in empiricism and scientific thought.  As Dundes presents to us, American science is not culture-free.  As I think more about this, I realize just how much my beliefs are dependent on visual perception.

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Cultural: Imo's behaviors were cultural because she may have observed some human being do these action and because that human learned that behavior, she applied this behavior herself, thus implying that this is an example of cultural.
Dissent: On the other hand, she may have accidentally dropped the potato in the water, tasted it without thinking, and thought that she may have had a culinary breakthrough.

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Culture is a collective agreement between a group of people on a myriad of things such as social norms, languages, and values, etc.

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Slide 3 - Linguistic Anthropology

The discourse analysis on courtroom transcripts demonstrated the courtroom's efforts to influence the juror to remove any and all emotion and subjectivity in capital punishment cases. It demonstrates this from the beginning of these cases, where the instructions given to the jurors are not explicitly stated to sentence a defendant to either death or life without parole; thus partially absolving them of any personal responsibility they may feel in the decision making process. When jurors are asked about the decision making process, responses focused largely on their duty, "[a]s one of objective fact finding, in which subjective considerations should play no part," citing the oath they swear to stay objective, the instructions given to stay objective, and onward. Overall, the court system and its instructions use language to influence the jurors to believe that they are partially absolved of the decisions making process through usage of passive voice and constantly reminded to stay completely objective.

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Culture is a set of shared behaviors, perspectives, space, and/or languages between a group of people.

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Something I would be interested in exploring is how second generation Vietnamese Americans negotiate language barriers between themselves and their parents. Since a large population of Vietnamese Americans were refugees, they experienced a loss of culture that they were not necessarily prepared for. Additionally, many Vietnamese American communities attempted to distance themselves from the connotation of the word 'refugee' upon arrival, pushing for assimilation and americanization rather than preservation of Vietnamese tradition (this is an over generalization of course). As a result, there is a dwindling amount of young people/second generation Viet. Americans who can understand and speak the language fluently, despite it being their parents first language. I am interested in how these families fill in the gaps, and what facets of Vietnamese are being preserved. For example, my parents speak exclusively english at home, so many times if we order Vietnamese food, I have to describe the food in english based on its contents/look/taste before my parents (who can speak vietnamese) can decipher what I am describing and order it. Additionally, in Vietnamese pronouns are relative to each other (e.g. sentences describe my relationship to the person I'm talking to, there is no definite I, you, him, it depends on their age/relation to the speaker). Assuming most young Vietnamese Americans are only speaking it/hearing it from their parents or elders, is there a certain limited vocabulary which will remain relevant as opposed to one that will eventually lose significance?

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One might argue that Imo’s impact was cultural because it is a practice specific to a certain community, has been developed over time, and is passed down through generations. The  macaques are also following others in their community, another trait shared with human cultures. However, one might argue it is not cultural in a human sense because it is lacking consciousness. Imo did not do this based on a belief she came up with and the others did not try to make it a tradition, it’s just quite literally monkey see monkey do.

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There is a consensus within American culture that sight is the most dominant and reliable sense, when in fact truths are shaped through the use of many or all of the senses in conjunction with one another.

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I think that Dundes observes an American fascination with constant objectivity, and using one's own eyes to prove the presence or absence of objects or events. This can be connected to the value of eyewitnesses within investigations, taking photographs to document a trip, or the proliferation of language that is centered around visual references. With such a strong reliance on visuals, the American perspective lacks a holistic understanding of other cultures by denying their other senses legitimacy.

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As I read all the phrases Dundes presented as examples of Americans' fixation on sight, I thought about how in conversations surrounding media representations of minorities, "being seen" onscreen is sometimes conflated with "being understood". Now that I have sat with Dundes' piece a bit longer, I wonder if there is any truth to that statement, and what other senses must be activated (within a visual performance) in order to be truly understood.

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We must be aware that we view other cultural practices in the context of our own cultural norms, such as an emphasis on sight over other senses.

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Dundes argument demonstrates some implications in our desire to view, analyze, and discuss other cultures and worldviews in an objective light. Anthropologists must be aware of their own biases and be careful of any assertions that they construct, knowing that they must combat their biases as "we do not see the lens through which we look".

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The imo's behavior could be described as cultural in the sense that it was adopted by the group of macaques and shared between that specific group. However there is a lack of understanding if Imo had solid intentions/what those were in terms of the sweet potato and wheat grain actions. Some of the notes on the situation prescribe human characteristics/preferences to the macaques for example claiming that they preferred sweet potatoes to have a saltier taste caused by the water.

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Dundes' argument reveals how oblivious humans can be to their own cultural biases. The example of Americans' fixation with sight implies that Americans, viewing this cultural trait as "normal," may react to other cultural practices in an ethnocentric way.

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Although I never questioned my sense of "what's normal", it was slightly shocking in realizing how many cultural sayings and beliefs that Americans use rely on the sense of "sight". I didn't question "what's normal" as there weren't any examples of common sayings or beliefs from a variety of different cultures that demonstrate that Americans are unique in this regard of relying on the sense of sight. Nonetheless, his main assertion that we must be careful of our cultural biases is something I can resonate with deeply.

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I think it would be interesting to study the effects of online classes on the mental health of college students. Specifically, I would investigate students who are first-generation, low-income as I believe they are more likely to be affected from staying at home than middle to upper class students (speaking from personal experience).

I believe this would be useful as it would help colleges better understand the challenges that the more vulnerable students undergo when taking administrative decisions in regards to financial aid, grading, etc. This could be done through virtual interviews, asking college students about their experiences in taking online classes the previous spring, and their experiences this fall semester in comparison to a semester at the college.

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I'd be interested to explore how people's view of the concept of a meal has changed due to the dynamic of globalization. As fast food and the idea of "on the go" meals continues to spread globally, it seems that cultural ideas about food are changing. However, many cultures still seem to deeply value home cooking and view mealtime as a social activity as well. An ethnography could be used to reveal the differences in how interview subjects value home cooked meals and if their opinions have changed from childhood to the present, for example.

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I would be interested in recording the different average life-spans of different places to discover the causes for longevity. We now have access to large populations of people through the internet and can conduct polls on large scales. We can record the similarities and differences in lifestyles of the people in different places and connect the dots.

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You could argue that Imo's behavior of cleaning the sweet potatoes is cultural in that it passed around to her fellow macaques and passed down several generations. It also influenced how they interacted with the water on the sandy beaches; before this behavior, they would stay away from the water, but after the learned behavior from the fellow monkeys, they lost any aversion to the water.

You could argue that Imo's behavior isn't cultural in that it is survival function that is learned and passed down generations. For example, raccoons tend to wash all of their food in water before they eat it, and that behavior isn't seen as cultural, but rather a survival instinct to prevent contamination.

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(SLIDE 2)
The movement of humans is very much an example of holism approach to anthropology because migrating entails learning new languages, social norms, and understanding the push-pull factors. The act of separating Central American families at the border interrupts the symbolism behind a nuclear family. Through the use of material artifacts that are associated with “criminals” such as individual cells, aluminum foil blankets, and other things, politicians paint an image of these Central American families as “unworthy” of entering the country. In addition, even manipulating the language of what constitutes a valid reason to seek asylum showcases how the experiences of these migrants are shaped.

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Slide 1: Cultural and medical anthropology

Ethnography can be used to observe the trends in countries with higher obesity rates and lower obesity rates. How the prices for healthy food versus unhealthy food affect the eating habits of people in different soci-economic classes, for example, can be analyzed. Once we understand the causes for obesity in different cultures, it will not only affect the way we view them but also how we help them. For example, instead of spreading anti-obesity ads in poor areas, we can place regulations on companies such as Coca-Cola and McDonalds to stop them from monopolizing the food market in those areas. In addition, traveling to different places that consider fat to be a sign of wealth and beauty such as Mauritania can help steer us away from looking down on cultures that have higher obesity rates.

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I would define culture as a set of shared standards, beliefs, and actions among a specific group of people that is passed down through several generations.

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Culture refers to a set of shared characteristics by a group of people that helps draw these people together and distinguish them from other groups.

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The way in which we consume the world around us is very much relative to our experiences as Americans.

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Imo's washing of the sweet potatoes, wheat grain throwing, etc. could be seen as cultural in the sense that these became shared characteristics of the group of macaques. On the other hand, the macaques differ from humans in that they don't seem to have a clear sense of purpose behind this action. It could be argued that even if the practice is widely followed, because there is no real meaning behind it and it does not serve to draw the macaques together as a group, it does not constitute culture.

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I think Dundes' argument supports the idea that Americans idolize themselves as superior. When there is a lack of awareness of ones biases, in this case Americans, it is difficult to truly interact with others. This is not to say that other cultures and societies do not have biases of their own, but it is especially important to highlight this observation as the world revolves around American supremacy.

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You could argue that Imo's behaviors were cultural because they were adopted by the majority of her species with her.

You could argue that Imo's behaviors were not cultural because there was an evolutionary reason behind them, whereas, with humans, cultural tendencies can seem mostly random and subjective.

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One of my favorite phrases is "never judge a book by its cover." After reading Dundes' text, I now see an even deeper meaning to that specific phrase. I guess I cannot really judge a book by its cover because I thought I knew exactly what that phrase meant. It is kind of a meta-analysis of using the phrase to understand the phrase itself.
In addition, I was also wondering if there are any implications to questioning the difference between 'seeing' something and 'watching' something?

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I feel culture is a set of practices and thoughts common amongst a group of individuals.

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It might be interesting to consider how globalization has shaped a curiosity in tracing genealogical roots among fourth and fifth generation immigrants to America.  Considering this question might shed light on ways in which to combat anti-immigrant rhetoric and bring about a broader recognition of indigenous peoples.  To conduct this ethnography, one might study how the increased interactions of a globalized world have influenced differing motivations to study genealogy.

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I think it would be interesting to explore the idea of bordertowns such as Brownsville, TX or El Paso, TX. Borders are a social and political construct that may impede or allow for globalization. These towns' only characterization is being a bordertown.
Analyzing what exactly makes up a bordertown can help us understand what other aspects of a city's identity uphold the idea of national borders.
Ethnographies can be conducted on both sides of the "border." In addition, ethnographies can be done in both the Canada-US and Mexico-US borders.

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If we accept that culture constitutes shared behaviors, norms, traditions, beliefs, etc., one could argue that Imo's behaviors were cultural as the constituted a collective behavior passed down (and up) from one generation to the next within this macaque community.

However, you could also argue that Imo's behaviors could not be classified as cultural given that these new behaviors occurred after the intervention of human subjects. Yes, these macaques have been living in contact with Japanese communities; however, one could argue these behaviors were driven by an external influence and nothing more.

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Imo's behaviors were cultural because they became "socially acceptable" among the rest of the macaques. It was an accepted norm across generations.

On the other hand, it can be argued that Imo's behaviors were not really cultural because there was no point of reference. In other words, there is no cultural relativism, thus, no culture at all.

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I would argue that culture constitutes a set of collective practices, beliefs and traditions held among a community.

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Culture is the action, or lack thereof, of consuming the world around us within the scope of what is deemed socially acceptable.

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Culture is defined by the shared traits of individuals that have been collectively developed and perpetuated throughout the community’s shared experiences.

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At first, before I saw the video on how obesity can be a cultural problem, I imagined a good way to convince people that obesity is unhealthy is by providing the facts; obesity is associated with heart disease, diabetes, asthma, reduced physical mobility, and other medical complications. What else would a person need to be convinced that obesity is not a good thing? Well, it turns out they need a lot more if being overweight is favored culturally. I'm from the Middle East, a place where beauty standards favor fat people. People view a person's weight as a status symbol. How much you weigh indicates how much you eat, and how much you eat is an indicator of how much wealth you possess. In addition, a person's physical strength is seen as directly related to weight. The misconception here is that fat is a muscle. When I traveled to Egypt to see my family (who came over from Yemen after 10 years) after 10 years in the USA, my grandparents remarked that living in the US has had no effect on me. They were puzzled as to why I had not gained weight after living in the US, like other people do. I didn't know how to explain to them that I was not interested in gaining weight with no luck. For people that view obesity as a socioeconomic sign and a physical indication of how healthy a person is, it would undoubtedly take more than science to convince them that obesity has its own health risks. I think ethnography can expose a lot about a society's diet. Ethnography is a first-hand view of a certain group of people's ways of living. Understanding how a society views obesity is fundamental to gaining a view into what that society prioritizes in an individual.

If the beauty standards favoring obesity in Nauru or the Middle East must be changed, the beauty standards of the US must be changed as well. In the US the beauty standard leads countless people to anorexia and an obsession with losing weight. This is a problem that must be dealt with a cultural angle, not just in terms of health and science.

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In America, words associated with "sight" are used to convey understanding, and sight is the primary way of knowing.