Final Research Paper
Tanya
ANT 101: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology Final Research Paper
Different societies exist throughout the world and within these societies each society develops culture that works best for them. Within these cultures they pass all their acquired knowledge and traditions down from generation to generation. Nevertheless, each culture has their own way of life, own marriage beliefs, their own values and feelings on life and religious beliefs. Cultures tend to have their own way to run their government, and ways to keep their economy up to their standards. Most importantly in cultural anthropology it is imperative to value culture relativism. This is the view in which no culture is superior to other culture when comparing systems such as morality, law, and politics (Crapo, 2013). Each culture beliefs are equally valid depending on the environment. In this paper, I will delve into a piece of my culture from an outsider’s standpoint, an etic perspective, and furthermore, I will examine another culture from an emic perspective on their traditional practices. Not only will I examine gender roles and equality in the United States workforce from an etic perspective, but also polygyny in Sub-Saharan Africa from an emic perspective.
Throughout American history the number of women in the United States workforce has been increasing even though American society has always claimed men to be the breadwinners and heads of the house. According to Hill (2013), “In 1964, women were only 34.56 percent of the labor force, for the past 24 years, women have been more than 45 percent of the labor force on payrolls. Women’s growth in the labor force slowed in the 1990’s, but by March 2010, they were up to 46.86 percent of the labor force.” However, even with women making significant advances in the workforce they are ultimately still faced with