Anthropology and Coloniasm - Portrayed in Films: \"The Kung\" and \"The Gods Must be Crazy\" PDF

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Professor Rousso-Schindler taught this course. ...

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Question: What are the most important reasons for European countries expanded beginning in the late 15th century. 1. Desire to Christianize the world 2. Desire to accumulate wealth a. Wanted to exploit these other colonies’ natural resources b. Forced people to do free labor Question: What were the main tools used by expansionists to succeed 1. Monoculture Plantation: large scale farming 2. Joint Stock Company: the Dutch east India company-founded in 1602, power of government, used its power to take control of the islands (read in book) EXAM 3. Spreading Disease Question: When did colonialism begin? - In the Americas during the 1500s and 1600s and the rest of the world in the 1800s

Colonialism 1. Exploit their resources and to do that they exploited their labor. 2. Settle European populations in new areas. 3. Occupy key world strategic locations for controlling trade routes and controlling the best geography for war.

Foundational Concepts of Anthropology 1. The methods (ways) anthropologists use to do their work a. Ethnology (aka ‘armchair anthropology) EXAM –gathering information from people who experienced a culture i. Missionaries ii. In the 19th century there were a group of people who made it their mission to go out and explore new undiscovered places and send information they got from those cultures and send it to the anthropologists, to make books out of that info. b. Fieldwork (Franz Boas) – first hand, intensive, systematic exploration of a culture. c. Participant Observation – engaging and partaking in the culture you are observing. A technique of gathering information about human cultures by living among people observing their social interaction on an ongoing daily basis in participating as much as possible in their lives. d. Ethnography – includes both fieldwork among people in society and the written results of fieldwork. QUESTION: What were the different strategies humans used to produce food throughout history? 1. Before 10k years ago, hunting and gathering- also called in the textbook, “foraging” (124) 2. After 10k years ago was when people started to domesticate plants and animals. a. Pastoralism (128): a food acquisition strategy that depends on the care of domesticated herd animals. They live in places where the climate is inhospitable for humans, and so their diet is primarily based off of what animals can provide for them. b. Horticulture (134): the production of plants using a simple non-mechanized technology, notorious for changing land; you can support a bigger group with this. i. “slash and burn” or “swidden” horticulture (135)

c. Agriculture (intensive cultivation) (136): a form of food production in which fields are in permanent cultivation using plows, animals and techniques of water and soil control. d. Industrialism (140): replacement of human and animal energy by machines in the process of production. e. Globalization: the integration of resources, labor and capital into a global network.

Film: The Kung Who are they? Cultural Characteristics? 1. Live in the country between Botswana in the Kalahari Desert 2. Hunter-gatherers 3. Egalitarian 4. Traditionally, anthropologists studied indigenous groups just like the kung Film Questions: Specific quotes that show that the Kung people are portrayed as the “noble savage”. - “the best in the world” referring to them being good trackers, because they’re really close to nature. - “Bushmen don’t need things” - Imagery that perpetuates the idea of the “noble savage" - Children playing communal games with each other in the nude symbolizing they are closer to nature and further away from the modern world

REVIEW OF THE KUNG QUESTION: what was the real social structure of the Kung about 60 yrs. ago? 1. Hunter gatherers 20 percent of food gathered by men and the rest by women like berries, most animals that are hunted are smaller animals because big ones are more dangerous and harder to hunt. 2. Live in “bands”: small communities of 10-30 people that live temporary abodes. 3. Different kinds of ownership; ownership is a very delicate issue in their society. Owner of water holes (real depiction movie), the owner of the arrow (the person’s whose arrow is in the animal is the owner of the animal and distributes the meat), owner of medicine (they can speak to spirits who can affect the real world). 4. Political system: egalitarian 5. Religious system: ancestors who can cause people to get sick or get better, there are people who can communicate with them 6. A group of people very important because of how paternalism- if people are naïve and they don’t know how to take care of themselves then it’s someone else’s job to do so- (“noble savage”) works and its perils. The ‘Noble Savage’ The idea of the “noble savage” o Live in cultures that are nonviolent, egalitarian (equal) non-exploitative of nature and its resources. o The role of Jean-Jacques Rousseau in making this idea popular

Question: What could possibly be wrong negative about the idea that there are people who live in cultures that are non-violent, egalitarian and non-exploitive of nature and resources? - Paternalism: the attitude of a person or a government that subordinates should be controlled n a parental way for their own good. “A Kalahari Family” John Marshall the filmmaker he brought the film over and was there in early 1950s on and off until he dies, his father Lawrence was the president of Raytheon. John’s mother Lourna, wrote up anthropological reports. Elizabeth was John’s sister, wrote the fictional book called “the old way of the first people” What to look for in the film: from a cultural perspective for the similarities and differences in the way the Kung are portrayed in the “God’s must be crazy” and the “a Kalahari family” Question: what were the similarities and differences in the way the kung were portrayed in the two films? - Hunters and gatherers, egalitarian, dress similarly, outsiders’ influence they’re cultures - coke bottle was introduced in the first movie which started to create problems, while in the second movie money was introduced which created jealousy and other negative connotations - in the first they used tranquilizers and the second they used poison Discussion: the blurred line in between fictional and non-fictional in “the god’s must be crazy” and “a Kalahari family” - egalitarian doesn’t use technology...