...CULTURAL RITUAL IN IVORY COAST, AFRICA: Ancestral and Spirits Worship Ike Ohanson HR-582 Week 4 Growing up in a different country made me aware of a lot of strange traditions and rituals around me. Back then, I imagined the things I saw and heard were normal until I started being open-minded to outside cultures and learning about them. Ivory Coast is a country of about 16,400,000 people in which 12% are Christian, 25% are Muslim and 63% still believe in old tradition. The old tradition is to believe in “ancestral worship”. People grow up believing that the dead become a spirit that remains in contact with us and we are taught to seek for their blessing and protection. Many ways are adopted to remain in contact with the dead spirits: one way is to sacrifice an animal like a chicken, goat or cow to them in order to get their protection. Or by donate part of money or what is important to us. We also believe in “Magic”. It is used to keep the evil spirit and anything that is supposed to hurt us away. Whenever we struggle or need guidance, people seek help from “Medicine men or Juju priests”. I actually remember going to some Juju priests with my mom when I was a kid. She went there every once in a while when something important was going to happen in our family. For example when my dad needed a big promotion at work, when my brother or sisters were getting to take a big exam at school or when we were planning a big family trip. She did so in order to get blessing from the spirits...
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...HRM582 – Managing Global Diversity The Nacirema Tribe The Nacirema tribe is a very interesting tribe that lives between Canada and Mexico in the continent of North America. These tribes have very interesting rituals involving their bodies and how to care for it. They see the human body as very ugly in its natural form and if left alone will eventually disease and can lead to the person dying. In an effort to mitigate this occurrence, they have developed very interesting rituals. I will primarily focus on the ritual ceremonies of the mouth. The Nacirema have what seems to be an unnatural fascination with the mouth. The mouth, they believe possess supernatural powers that have the ability to bring them friends or drive away friends and lovers. They believe if they do not go to the holy-mouth man to perform these sadistic rituals, their teeth will all fall off, their jaws will shrink, their gums will bleed and they will be rejected by friends and lovers. They believe in the mouth-rites so much that they eagerly follow all the rules prescribed to them by the holy-mouth man. Even though they follow all the rules, it is still not a guarantee that their teeth will not fall off or their gums will not bleed. Some of the daily rituals concerning the mouth involves inserting a small bundle of hog hairs into the mouth along with certain magical powders and then moving the bundle in a formalized series of gestures. In addition to the daily rituals, the people also seek out...
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...Reflective Paper: Diversity, What Does It Mean To You? Name HRM582 - Managing Global Diversity Professor J. Huddleston July 13, 2014 Reflective Paper: Diversity, What Does It Mean To You? Growing up in Louisiana, Georgia, and California, I was afforded the opportunity to play and work with different groups. It was me and the black kids, or me and the white kids, or me and the (insert race) kids. Rarely was it a mixture. There were always cliques. No one seemed to notice, or no one cared, because that’s how it had always been. I noticed. I didn’t know what to do about it or even if I could anything. What I did know, even a young age was race, color, sex, religion, height, weight, eye color, or anything that made someone different than me, intrigued me. I was the social butterfly. This is just who I was and still am today. I knew what diverse, and by extension, diversity meant, but I never applied it in a social context. When I joined the military, I quickly noticed in basic training, through all the yelling, and hurrying to get to the next location to sit and wait until we were told to hurry someplace else, we were all different yet we were working as a team to achieve a common goal....graduate basic training and begin our military careers. We hailed from different parts of the country, even different parts of the world. North, south, east, west, mid-west, “country”, southern, Asia, and Middle East. In spite of our inherent differences, we came together...
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...HRM582 The Body Ritual Among the Nacirema The Body Ritual Among the Nacirema As an individual coming to investigate American civilization through the observation of cultural activities, I find the ritual of medicine men and women (doctors, psychiatrists and pharmacists) very interesting. “Medicine man" or "medicine woman" are English terms used to describe traditional healers and spiritual leaders among Native American and other indigenous or aboriginal peoples (Unknown 2012 ¶2). Native Americans held the “medicine people” in very high regard. It was believed that the knowledge they possessed was privileged and linage was restricted to remain in particular families. The power bestowed upon and held by the “medicine people” made them mystical. They were viewed as having supernatural powers allowing them the ability to cure disease and control the spirits. This led to the term of “witch doctors”. Witch doctors were used to describe African traditional healers, as in Nacirema. The “witch doctors” were known for their connection to the spiritual world. Through their intimate relationship with the spirits they were often called on to heal disease or the psyche. They were believed to have the ability to bridge the natural world and spiritual world and provide inner harmony. These practices opened the door for herbalists, acupuncturist, and other alternative approaches to healing...
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...Shelley Reflective Paper: Diversity, What Does It Mean to You? HRM582 11/1/2012 The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines diversity as “an instance of being composed of differing elements or qualities” (Merriam-Webster). Based on past and present life experiences, I have to agree with this definition. Diversity, or different qualities, is within each person, group of people, and organization. I was raised most of my life in Indianapolis, Indiana. This is a major city with many different types of people. I went to school with whites, blacks, Hispanics, and other races. Having diversity, or people who were different, around me was an everyday thing. In the eleventh grade our family moved to a tiny, one stoplight town called Frankton, Indiana. It was a very different environment for me due to the lack of diversity in the town. The town consisted of mainly white people. I think there was only one black person in the entire school. I remember talking to a few of the students about where I came from and the diversity I had grown up with. They were amazed I came from such a big city as Indianapolis. Everyone asked me questions about what it was like to live in an area that was so diversified. It was hard to believe that even in this era the people of this town seemed to be so secluded and seem to have no idea about other races or cultures. There was not much diversity in this small town, therefore they seemed to be only educated about what they knew. I believe education is the...
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