Shawn Augustine 12-16-12
ANTHRO 101 – 2nd Take Home FINAL EXAM

PART 2:

Before taking this course, I thought Anthropology and anthropologists were concerned with only the study of culture and its effect on society. I later learned, Anthropology is not only limited to culture but also encompasses identity, culture, gender, race, sexuality, politics, and economics. Anthropologists do not exist to only examine cultures and say what is right and wrong in society. Their mission is to break the normalcy of theories and beliefs and prove its credibility. I found the topics of culture with respects to poverty, the power of naming, representation, and economic inequality of great interest to me because I enjoyed seeing examples of how the cultural norms we experience every day is false and misleading.
We learned that culture, in an anthropological view, is a people’s way of life. These shared beliefs; food, language, work, labor, tradition, religion, art, and etiquette become bounded together into a common culture that is constantly changing. Culture veils society and when this takes place, class lines, race, gender, and segmentation occur creating a dominant culture because not everyone participates in a culture. Through transculturation, dominant culture can change existing cultures resulting in resistance causing a mix into a new culture. I previously thought poverty was not a culture but through our lesson and readings on Inner city poverty, I learned that “street culture” is indeed a culture that was created by resistance to economic exploitation, cultural denigration, and gender power relations (Philippe Bourgois). Living in Harlem, I see examples of inner city poverty everyday mixed with people who are being gentrified into the area. At first I thought these people were poor due to lack of opportunity.