Modern Day Preserving

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/04/arts/design/04vesuvius.html?_r=1&ref=archaeologyandanthropology

As a nursing major in the anthropology class i found this article very intersting how the two subjects were so closely related. The Pompeii "Life and Death in the Shadows of Vesuvius" exhibit portrays humans in a sort of "cast" much like that of the early Egyptians practiced. They are portrayed in the sense that they were found after the volcano had errupted and basically froze the bodies in time. There is also another intersting combination of this preserving of the human body in the European museum named "bodies" where they also preserve body structures to study and examine them. This can be found at http://www.bodiestheexhibition.com/about-the-exhibition.html . I think these are two very intersting articles/exhibits that portray both a medical and an anthropology view!

River Dancing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaDzCySXhqQ

Above is a link to view traditional river dancing.

This type of dance began when servants were bored. To entertain themselves from their long day of busy work they created this dance where very minimal dancing occurs above the waist for they were not allowed to work. Since most of their work occurred in kitchens and such, their feet were not seen so they decided to create a dance with feet only. Today some shoulder movements and such exist in the dance but they are still kept to a minimum. River dancing lead to many new types of dancing, including Irish step dancing.

Today the dancing style is not hidden but taught and preformed on stage for it is amusing and beautiful to see the dancers precise movements.

The Little Princess

This is a movie is about a little girl who's father goes to war and has to leave her in a girls home while he's away. The lady who runs the home is not a nice person and is very mean to the servant girl who works there.

The movie shows what life was like in the 1800s as well as the insight to the imagination of children. The little girl tells these elaborate stories to the girls in the home to help them all escape the reality of their sad lives.

The movie shows very clearly how children see everything as black and white. There is only right and wrong in a child's eyes and they distract, entertain, and escape using the most powerful tool they have: their imagination.

Movie: Blood Diamond

This movie depicts the blood diamond trade in Africa. The rebel army rampages through villages taking a select portion of children and men to either be apart of the army or work for them as slaves and kill the rest. It is men who dig in shallow waters, sifting through mud in search of diamonds. If a worker doesn't turn in the diamond and they are found out, they are immediately killed.

Once a diamond is found it is taken and sold to a smuggler. It is then inspected to see the value of its worth. Once it is deemed valuable the smuggler tries to smuggle it into a neighboring state so that it may be approved in that state so that they may be legalized and then sold to places such as America and Northern Europe.

This is a very dangerous and deadly ordeal for all involved. Even though there is much risk it is one of the main resources for money in Africa. However the money is ending up in the wrong hands which seems to only further increase the problems in Africa.

The movie is very good and captures attention very well as well as showing an insiders view of what is going on in Africa in particular terms of blood diamonds.

Outsourced

On the T.V. show Outsourced there is lots of little bits that while providing an entertaining show, show insight into the

Indian culture. On one particular episode the manager (and American man who has been outsourced to India to run a

call center) has to show the employees a video on sexual harassment in the office. During the video there is a

segment that shows appropriate and inappropriate behavior in the office. While watching this segment the

employees, especially the girls, start to cover theirs eyes and turn away. The manager has no idea why they are

acting so shameful of watching the video because in the American culture none of what the video was inappropriate

enough to feel as if you should cover your eyes and look away. Even some of the appropriate segments of the video

offended the employees such as when the male coworker touches the female coworker on the shoulder.

In the Indian culture, showing a male pat a women's butt, kissing, and such is equivalent to pornography according to

the show. Actions even as slight as touching of the shoulder are considered too personal for coworkers to do. It is a

funny show that opens eyes to what the Indian culture is like and is surprising to see how much it differs from

American culture.

Hotel Rwanda

Over this weekend I had the opportunity of watching the movie, Hotel Rwanda. In this movie it is clear that race is not biological but social and political, because race is used to separate "us" from "them", or in the case of the movie the Hutu from the Tutsi. To me it is crazy how people can develop a true hate for an entire race even to the point of pushing it to a genocide like what happens to the Tutsi during this movie. Even though the Hutu and the Tutsi look almost exactly alike, the Tutsi still are being killed in very violent ways with meshedis and knifes.

I really thought that this movie was interesting because of the fact that Paul, the manager of the Sabena Hotel is a Hutu, but his wife is a Tutsi so that means all there children are both, and during this time in Africa with the genocide going on if you have any Tutsi in your blood the Hutu would kill you because of it. So that really puts Paul's family in a large amount of danger. Since Paul loves his family and his neighbors whether they are Hutu or Tutsi he allows those how are in danger of being killed live in his hotel. Throughout this entire movie Paul show that the Hutu and the Tutsi are just alike except for their name of their race.

Pauls efforts eventually paid off for him, his family, and his "guests" when he blackmails the Rwandan Army General with treats of the General being tried as a war criminal. So the General transports all the hotel "guests" and Paul's family in a UN convoy over to the Tustsi rebel lines where they are now safe.

Rites of Passage

Rites of passage are a cross-cultural occurrence. They have existed throughout history and may be a big factor in the development of a stable adult personality. In our Western cultures a familiar rite might be a sweet 16 birthday party, but in tribal cultures, coming of age ceremonies are much more complex and can be extremely scary.
As for the Sambia Tribe initiation begins at the young age of seven. This is when boys are removed from their maternal figure and all females, and are then placed into a special house with other males for the next 10 years. After being placed into this house the first stage of initiation is the boys skin will be pierced as a way of discarding any external contamination from women. The boys are then required to engage in heavy nose-bleeding, and are forced to eat sugarcane to make themselves throw-up as a way of internally cleansing their body's. Once the boys have been cleaned of any contamination they are required to eat semen because it is seen as vital to ignite masculine growth and strength.