Final Project

1 FINAL PROJECT PART B

Final Project Part B

ATH 101

Student Name

SNHU

2 FINAL PROJECT PART B

I. Cultural Diversity

A.1. Cultural diversity is important to understand at any time, but espe cially in a time of a

crisis. For example, when we speak of gender, meaning the cultural expectations of that gender,

not biological differences, this differs considerably among cultures (Ember, Ember, & Peregrine,

2015). W hen people think of fa rming, the y may think of this as male activity, that it is a male

activity in all cultures, but this is not true. Anthropological research has shown that farming or

tending crops may be a male or a female activity, depending on the location. Among the Igbo of

Nigeria, men plant and harvest yams and cassava, but women plant and harvest maize, melons,

okra, a nd beans. Both men and women plant rice (Bonvillain, 2010). The point is that gender

expectations and roles differ among cultures.

A.2. An example of how human sociocultural identity relates to human behavior would

be how different cultures express emotion. Cultures have display rules, m eaning they have

certain cultural expectations of how one should behave wh en feeling a particular emotion.

Specific examples would include how the Japanese might mask anger with a smile or the Dani of

New Guinea show their anger by wrinkling their noses (Heider, 2007).

A.3. Another example would include human sociocultural identity related to animals.

Primates (including human children) engage in play. While cultures have different ways to play,

the purpose of playing as children offers the same functions, a nd primates share these functions

as well. Play teaches the young how to interact with their peers and also expected social

behaviors.

B.1. Anthropologists can help us navigate crises by acting as cultural brokers or working

between the culture of crisis and the outside world, a s anthropologists understand multiple

perspectives. Amy Porter and Paul Farmer contend that anthropologists are needed “to map out

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how complex political, economic, and social inequalities” find their way into populations as

disease (Porter & Farmer, 2013, p. 366). It is important to also have cultural sensitivity to the

beliefs of the people you are working with; if you don’t, you won’t make any difference in their

understandings of the disease or your understanding of how the disease is manifested in that

population.

II. Anthropological Methods

A.1. I chose to do ethnography in a village with known cases of multidrug-resistant

tuberculosis (MDR TB). Ethnography was the best option for me, a s I am a cultural

anthropologist. Ethnography allows you to observe people’s actions and participate in t heir daily

lives to be able to make connections in what we are studying (Ember, Ember, & Peregrine,

2015). I was able to interview family survivors of tuberculosis and individuals with tuberculosis

to see if I could understand the cultural patterns of how tuberculosis spreads within a community

and what this disease means to their culture.

B.1. When you go into a village studying a topic like disease, people are obviously a little

curious and a little distrusting of your true intentions. People are wary of you at first, but t hen the

newness wears off and they just get used to you. One positive thing is that you really get to know

the people you work with. They become family. A negative aspect of conducting fieldwork,

especially when you are studying disease, is t hat you see people suffer and die. That is somewhat

difficult on a personal level.

B.2. An objective lens is really important when you study any group of people as an

anthropologist. While anthropologists seek to explain the world in terms of “the other,” they also

seek to explain how behaviors fit into a larger set of cultural patterns. I don’t know if being

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objective calms the fears of the people you are working with, but so metimes people are unaware

of their actions. Being objective helps you uncover those beliefs.

III. Cultural Connections

A.1. When it comes to any infectious disease, it is hard to predict whether a certain

country will or will not become infected with a disease at some point in time. In general terms,

though, in the United States, there are only a few cases of MDR TB e ach year. In 2013, the

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2015) reported 95 cases of MDR TB in the United

States, but this was slightly higher than the previous year. In the past, tuberculosis was common

and considered a leading cause of death in the United States until the mid-twentieth century. In

the United States, it is easier to get access to drugs that treat tuberculosis, s o this would also help

ease the spread of tuberculosis.

A.2. In terms of biology, I believe it would be difficult for my family to contract

tuberculosis in the United States, but it is not impossible. Tuberculosis spreads by coughing, a nd

usually an individual needs to have prolonged exposure to tuberculosis to develop the disease.

There is some suggestion among scholars that tuberculosis may be inherited, but t he evidence for

this is weak (Roberts & Buikstra, 2003).

A.3. Environmentally, tu berculosis can occur anywhere in any climate. However, certain

social a nd political conditions allow tuberculosis to spread easier. Tuberculosis usually develops

in individuals or populations who are malnourished and live in crowded or unsanitary living

conditions (Roberts & Buikstra, 2003). People who also have another disease, such as HIV, are

more likely to develop tuberculosis. Although anyone is technically susceptible to tuberculosis,

certain conditions exist in the United States that make individuals susceptible, a nd we need to be

aware of those conditions to try to prevent them.

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IV. Predictions

A.1. History is an important teacher, especially in connection to infectious diseases.

History can help us determine patterns of the people a certain disease is most likely to affect and

how it would affect them. History can also tell us how a disease was dealt with in the past and

whether it was an effective way to do so and why. I will give you a simple example from the

United States. In the nineteenth century, wh en the U.S. government forced native peoples onto

reservations, infectious diseases ran rampant in the communities. Living in small, crowded

houses—combined with malnutrition, the high stress of the political and social conditions, and

little to no medical facilities and medicine—led to infectious diseases becoming a leading cause

of death (Trafzer, 1997 ). We know that people living in similar conditions today can end in a

similar way.

B.1. In the field, I see firsthand how tuberculosis spreads from one person to another and

what cultural factors help spread this disease. I think I will be able to provide an effective

preventive action plan to prevent this disease from occurring in the United States on a large

scale. An objective lens helps guide you on to what to say, but cultur al sensitivity is also

important because this is what helps guide you on what to say in a way that is meaningful to the

cultures that you are trying to educate.

C.1. I do still enjoy being an anthropologist, but it can be quite chaotic a nd emotional at

times. As an anthropologist, you not only get to learn about how other people experience life but

you also get to also experience it as they do to a certain point. This can be satisfying and

humbling at the same time. Personally and professionally, thi s has taught me that my way may

not always be the only way to accomplish something, and I think that my tolerance for other

people has also increased.

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References

Bonvillain, N. (2010). Cultural anthropology (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2015). Fact sheet: Trends in tuberculosis 2013.

Retrieved 22 June 2015 from http://www.cdc.gov/tb/publications/factsheets/

statistics/TBTrends.htm

Ember, C. R., Ember, M., & Peregrine, P. N. (2015). Human evolution and culture: Highlights of

anthropology (8th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Pearson.

Heider, K. G. (2007). Seeing anthropology: Cultural anthropology though film (4th ed.). Boston,

MA: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.

Porter, A. S., & Farmer, P. E. (2013). Drug resistance and biosocial analysis in practice. In R.

Nolan (Ed.), Handbook of practicing anthropology (pp. 354–371). Somerset, NJ: John

Wiley & Sons.

Roberts, C. A., & Buikstra, J. E. (2003). The bioarchaeology of tuberculosis: A global view on a

reemerging disease. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida.

Trafzer, C. (1997). Death stalks the Yakima: Epidemiological transitions and mortality on the

Yakama Indian Reservation, 1888–1964. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University

Press.