What communities do you belong to and how are they constructed in relation to other communities and larger society?

Week 1 Ethnographic Journal Entry, Example #2

There is tension in the anthropology world when it comes to understanding cultures on their own

terms and reaching universal conclusions about all humans. From the first lecture we learn about

universalism, the idea that there is one overarching condition and experience, meaning that there is one

single assessment of people and one universal story. I believe that this is not true because it displays

incorrect biased assessments of people’s culture and enforces the belief of unilineal social evolution.

Unilineal social evolution is belief that was widely used when anthropologists practiced armchair

anthropology and theorizes that all cultures started in the same place and follow a single trajectory that

culminates into apex European culture (Lecture 8). All cultures that are not like North American or

European are seen as “stuck in the past” and primitive. Franz Boaz strongly critiqued this theory and

argued that cultures must be studied relatively and in their own terms to better understand practices and

prevent moral judgements (Lecture 9). Anthropologists understand that this is hard because all humans

see other cultures objectively and the majority of the world is ethnocentric and believe that their own

culture is the correct way to do something (Cowell and Medeiros 33). I still struggle with understanding

other cultures through their terms and also drawing conclusions about all humans and a way I’ve dealt

with this is through traveling. Thankfully, I’ve had the privilege to experience many different cultures

with my family and I find it important to be exposed to differing peoples/cultures (not only internationally

but also within your own country), as it gave me “worldly” knowledge about how others live their life. I

recognize that I still hold many biases against other culture’s practices but because of my travels I realize

my judgements and therefore I work on improving and understanding these biases. Many years later, I

look back and change my conclusion about the culture I came in contact with as I gain new experience

and connections. This is one of the ways I deal with the tension between drawing generalizations about all

humans and striving to understand people’s cultures through their terms.