Conclusion

In conclusion, as we could see (if you kept reading all the posts) we could learned that anthropology is an awesome topic which covers a lot of different topics. Because it studied the life, evolution, and everything related with humans it is a great experience to learn so much about all of it. During this time writing in the blog we talk about different tribes and their different cultures, about what they do to survive and what are their rituals and beliefs. Also we talk about priests and doctors. About how they could influence good or wrong in our loves. Homosexuality from the anthropologist point of view, how homosexuality can be a remedy for overpopulation and can help in a future.

These few months have been great. Not only I have the chance to create my own blog about a great topic like Anthropology, but I had the chance to express myself trough a topic that I love and of course help people know and learn about different things related to anthropology.

The Solution to a Better World

Some people believe that to start the school day with prayer will create an aura of order among the students.  Having prayer will instill moral values in children. School reinforces the values children learn at home and in the community. Prayer will also enable kids to understand their classmates better, which would cut down on bullying. Others thinks, prayer would provide an awakening to the problems with drugs, immorality, and violence. I believe that with prayer in school a lot of problems would not be such a big issue in society today. Even though prayer is not allowed in the classroom, there are religious activities that the government does allow. 

When the school prayer was banned, the government eliminated more than just praying in the classroom, they got rid of same religious activities as well. Some people don’t want prayers in the classroom or in your area of work because they feel that it is harmful. When prayer is said in the classroom or in your area of work, those who do not want to pray would be able to leave. By excusing themselves they risk later being harassed by students or co-workers. 

I'm in favor for prayer in schools and in your area of work, but will make a conscious effect to understand why someone might be opposed to the idea. I believe that what is taught about religion to a child should remain with the parents and family. There are many people that believe prayer does not belong in the schools or in your work area, because it violates the separation of church and state.The US Department of Justice prohibits discrimination based on religion, so why we encourage religious discrimination in school or at work?

Freedom of religion and separation of church and state make prayer in school or in any other places a difficult subject. We must make sure that everyone has the right to free religion and still not crossing the line of church and state which is very important. There is a conflict between government and religion that has sparked in debate. The result indices that The Supreme Court has not as some people assume prohibited prayer in school or in public area. It is not unconstitutional for people or students to pray in public area. What is unconstitutional is to sponsor or encourage prayer in public school or public authorities.This is an extremely important issue, which should be openly discussed not for the sake of argument, but to honestly discuss the positive effect. I come from a school where praying was part of our curriculum, and I really believe that prayer can help us in our behavior and most important it can bring respect for the individual.

Our children are too young to make moral decisions and must be taught the proper and respectful way to behave, not only to parents, but to teachers, authorities and in social setting. If we begin to see the discipline, we can say that it has all but disappeared in our society. This is why prayer is so important. Prayer teaches thankfulness to a creator and inferring that people are morally accountable to God and to all other people as well for personal behavior. I hope that in some way we all get together as a society and begin to see that we need to ask for help so that our society, could decline the degrading behaviors that has developed since we as a society have witness violent criminal, seriously depressed and mentally scarred people who used guns to slaughter friends, family and innocent people, in cold blood. Together we can reach a solution: "Ask and it shall be given, you seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you."  (Matthew 7.7)

Women's Right of Equality

Through the time we have seen women’s capacity to do the same things that men do, that is why this discrimination should stop, women have already proven what they can do and that they are more of what men think of them. Why women should not work? Some people are stuck in the past, when men had to hunt animals and bring them home for the family to eat, while women take care of their children as they wait for their husbands. That situation, where men think women are not capable of doing certain things, such as work is really archaic. Not only women can be capable of doing the same things as men, like working, they can also deal with taking care of family and be very successful doing it. Women should not be treated as less than men because they are so capable of doing what they propose to do just as men do.                                                                                                            Some cultures, such as in India, women have been categorized as less than men. Not only they are to stay in their house and not show themselves too much to the other men, they are considered

“property” of the husband. Starting they cannot show all their bodies, they are completely hiding their bodies, including their hair because it is meant to be shown just to the husband.  Furthermore if, and I say if because it is really a minimum rate, a woman looses her virginity before marriage there is a highly opportunity that no man will accept her, because a woman should be pure to her husband, on the other hand men can get married three times. Seen these points, we can observed the injustice society commits when it comes to women. Society has been objectifying women and treating them as “things” labeled “Property of…” making them feel as less than men. Where they have to live by their rules, were they are submissive to their dominating husbands who can punish them if they “misbehave”.  Sure India is much more complicated than other countries because of the fear women feel, but equality of gender should start rising in these places so they all become equally successful and contribute the same in life.

Sexism might be a complicated topic. People might think it is right that women should behave and be submissive to their husbands that the purpose of women in life is to take care of the children and to pleasure their husbands, to keep them happy. But why not evolve? We cannot stay stuck in the same idiotic thought. Women first of all should be given the right to choose how they want to live their lives and with who (in India). Also, men should stop objectifying and thinking of women as a submissive wife, as a personal slave. Sexism needs to stop, women through the time have proven they can be the same as men, they can do the same things and be equally successful as them, that is why society should start respecting them and believing in the equality of gender, because if men can sure women can make it too.

Gender Roles... From the Eye of the Beholder

As people we assume that the fact of be a man or a woman make us different. Society predict someone abilities, interest, capacities and activities that the person can perform by knowing the sex. We think that we almost can know everything about a person based on the gender. Also, often if we know the sex, we limit the capacities of a person.

A few days ago I read a internet page that says “Women “Take Care,” Men “Take Charge:””. Many times when you ask a person to describe a woman they visualized her like fashion, clean, fragile, and emotional person. People identify woman with activities like take care of the house and people, cleaning, go shopping, take care of her beauty and make charitable. On the other hand if you ask to describe a man they surely describe him like strong, outgoing, unfeeling and lead person.  So if you mention activities that are related with risk, have control, strength and dirt, people immediately assume that man performs these things.

            Most of the stereotypes we use to differentiate women of man are inculcate by a chauvinistic society. These societies have the fault that this thought still present at this time. All this thought became from generation to generations. It begins with the fact that parents teach their son to play sports and play with cars, and teach their daughter to play with dolls and practice ballet. At this time the children learn to differentiate girls thing of boys things. Sometimes the parent even scolds the boy if he plays with a doll, and this make him reject “girls things” or vice versa.

            At this time many things change about the women roles in the society. Time ago women can’t go study, work neither have the chance to participate in politics. Time pass and the women got tired to be illiterate, uneducated and stay in the house. Women began to reveal and prove that they can do whatever the men do. Now at this generation the woman are treated with the same privileges than man. Also, are more the women that are study than men. So who knows and with time the roles invert completely (because in some cases already is in this way) the men stay in home and the women go out for work and make money for the family sustention.

To conclude, society stereotype people by their sex. When the truth is that knowing someone’s sex may tell us a lot about him or her biologically but it tells us very little about him or her in other ways. Knowing someone is a woman does not tell us that she is a good chef neither a good professional. Knowing someone is a man tells us nothing about his sports achievements neither his emotional problems. All of us are the person we are because of our experiences and cultural formation. The different things that define us as person, professional, athlete or students are independent of our gender.

Tribes and their Rituals

Though the years there have been discovered thousands of different tribes. Not only these tribes differ  in location and language, they also differ in their ritual and beliefs. Even though a lot of tribes have disappear because of colonizers and their impositions there still a large quantity of unique and awesome tribes that people should learn about. It is very interesting to learn about different tribes so we could know what are their different rituals, clothing, paintings, and more, and of course learning the meaning for them. It is important for the world to keep these tribes growing and do not extinct them, such like in the past.

Some of the most interesting tribes I have found are the Kayan Lahwi tribe and the Mursi tribe . The Kayan tribe, also known as Bwe people, located in Northern Thailand. These group of people are identified because the women use rings in the neck (brass neck coils), which symbolize beauty. The women who use this neck rings are known as giraffe women to tourists. At five years the girls start using the rings and through the years the coil is replaced by a longer one, compressing the collar bone to the rib cage (not elongating the neck per se). Usually Kayan women do not remove the coil, only to replace it with a new one. The muscles atrophy, the collarbone bruises and get discolored, so women prefer to wear them always. Also, when interviewed, they said "after using it for ten years continuously, it feels like an integral part of the body".

The second tribe that caught my attention is the Mursi tribe. This tribe is located in Ethiopia and have a population of 7,500 habitants. They are considered to be agro-pastoralists and belief that there is a major force who controls everything, which they call Tumwi. This force is found n the sky, but can manifest as a rainbow, bird, basically through nature. They believe that the priests are the ones that communicates them with God. Some of the rites they undergo are the insertion of lip plates in women. Girls' lower lips are pierced at 15 and a large pottery or wooden disc, or plate is inserted. These are worn by unmarried women to dance, and by occasions they attract tourists and they earn some extra money. Males of the tribe perform a ceremonial dueling, male violence, to mark their identity.

As we can see tribes can be a really interesting topic of study. Seeing how they live and how different each one of these tribes act can be an awesome thing to research. Knowing about these different tribes and how their cultures work, how their beliefs difference from ours, what they belief is "beautiful" toward what we belief is beautiful can be a great thing to study in the different cultures. But even though with a lot of differences we are still, in some point the same, humans.

References:
Kayan people
Mursi people

Health Professionals: Creating Conscience

Medicine practicers can be called egoist and interested because they work for the money, to get rich. I am not saying that all doctors are the same, there are some that are like that and are just interested in the fame and money gained. I plan to study medicine in the future but I don't I thinks I do it for the money, I mean the money is necessary to survive and have a live, so I am not saying I will not need or want the money. The money is an essential thing to survive in this world, and the humans as  selfish people is really necessary for everything. On the other side I want to become a doctor to help people get better. In my case I want to become a pediatric oncologist.

When we start to watch how people, in this case specifically doctors, choose in what they want to specialize we observe that they choose specializations, not more easy, but a little less complicated such as cardiology, gynecology, orthodontics, and others. As selfish people of course people search for what is more easy and gives more money, less for more, but what people do not understand is that there are a lot of health professionals that already practice all that and that we need more people to study other and new specializations to help in the future. In my case as I said, I want to become a pediatric oncologist. I know that being a oncologist is one of the most difficult and frustrating specializations of medicine, because in much cases you would not be able to save the patient. Even worst being a pediatric oncologist is more saddest because these are kids that are starting their life and you maybe could not save them.

I want to become a pediatric oncologist not for the fact that I will win a lot of money, it is because I would do everything that is in my hands to help the little kids that came to me almost dying and deserve to live a long life, and one without suffering or pain. From the point of view of an anthropologist I can say that people is supposed to be selfish, I mean they want what is best for themselves and their progeny and family, because their genes are what matters. But what would it be life if you just focus in yours and not everybody in the world? I believe is very important to keep helping one another so we can create a better future, without little kids suffering when they are just starting to live.

Priests: Save Role Models?

In a study made at the University of Puerto Rico at Cayey in January to May 2014, in my Anthropology class (ATRO3005) we were given the task to interview  a person from a social group and make an ethnography. By making this interview we are supposed to generalize about the population of Priests in Puerto Rico and the United States. In my case I chose a Priest or the ministers of divine cult and and specially in the major cult act, the sacrifice. They are the ones the serve as intermediaries between men and God, divinity. I mean Priests, according to the christian law are in charge to carry out God's service.  During the interview I ask him about different topics such as: How did the idea of becoming a priest came to mind? About the priestly pathway, the CVII, and finally about the church crisis. 

Some of his answers were that the idea of being a priest came because he had a lot of influence his uncle and two brothers were in the same path, so he felt the necessity of becoming a priests to keep going on. When he told us about the priestly pathway he started at 12 years in the School of Priests in Spain. Also he talk about how he made two bachelors degrees and how he went in missions to different places, one of them being Colombia where he was in charge of teaching in a school and where he help construct streets and houses for the poor people. He also talk to me about the votes he had to made to becoming a priest. The three votes he had to profess were: obedience, poverty and chastity in order to become a priests. When I asked him if sometimes he doubt that that was the best decision he has made, he answered yes, sometimes he doubt because maybe he was a selfish person and wanted to have a kid in the past, but then remembered why made it and feels better, because he is serving God and following his rules. 

In conclusion, when I finish my investigation work, or ethnography, I could observe how the life of the priests is a one where they need to follow some strict rules. And a breach can be the end of their path as Priests. I could see how oaths are the base of everything. I mean, priests make the oath of chastity where it is prohibited to have sexual relations with anyone. We could see how that has affect so much the title of some priests, there had been found so much cases of pedophilia something that leads them to the exile of these people from Church, removing them the privilege of being Priests. Even though that is happening we can not generalize, these group of persons had started to fall and had some problems because of others, something that is not fair because it is not a collective thought, it is individual and what some made does not mean is going to be made by others. 

Evolution of Humans

In the beginning the anthropologists and evolutionists believe humans evolution from the primates, meaning that we walked in our four extremities, our teeth were different than now and another more differences. It is true all of that? Did we really evolution from the primates? Well some believe that, that theory is impossible and that is just said because people don't have an explanation of things, like for example how do we exist? From my point of view I am an biologist and I of course, believe in the evolution of the human. Not just it is a rational explanation of a how we have survived through the years, it also explains adaptation to the changes the world had suffer since the beginning. Scientific show through evidence that the physical and behavioral traits shares by all people originated from primates ancestors and evolved over a period of six million years.

It is said that one of the ability of humans, better known as Homo sapiens, of walking in two legs evolved over 4 million years ago, meaning that it was necessary to survive. It could be because the hotness of the ground was affecting the primates causing them further problems such as dehydration because of the closure to the floor. This could affect at great scale and cause deaths among them. Because humans are not that fast they'll be more time walking in the hotness of the ground, for a tiger he is more fast so walking in four paws does not affect him that much. Also walking in two legs gave the humans the ability of carrying food and their babies. Maybe it is not seen as an intelligent fact, but from the point of view of anthropologists it is a characteristic that makes the human more intelligent and more capable of success that other animals.

Because humans are primates, physically and genetically they show great similarities with other species of primates, the apes. The teeth also had evolution through time. Early humans, as I am going to call them, has different types of teeth for example the molars. The molars or the last teeth that appear in our mouths were to eat raw meat and the canines were to tear the meat apart. Today's day we do not need to use those teeth in the same manner because we are more sophisticated and do not need hunt like in the past. In conclusion, evolution is very necessary to survive and succeed in life. Adaptation has a purpose in life and with it it'll be possible to keep going on for a lot of years.


References:
Humans origins

Adaptation to Avoid Extinction

If we talk from an individualist point of view, life is about changes and how we deal with them. We have a problem; we find a way to solve it using our maximum capacity. If we can’t end it, the problem will end with us. The world and society work in the same way, they are constantly changing, who can deal with the change stay and pass their capacity of survival to the next generation, which will be dealing with their own changes.

Biologically, Earth suffers from changes, for example in the weather, temperature and composition of air. Every organism including those in the same species are different. Genetically some can deal with the change, and some others can’t. The ones who survive pass the “good genes”, that are going to improve their chances to live, to their offspring. Eventually other things are going to change and the cycle start again, the ones with the better genes are going to survive the other part become extinct. Obviously this doesn’t occur from one day to another, this evolution process can take a long time.

Evolution is not only about biology, mutations and genetics; it is also a social problem. Nowadays, we have seen un increase in deaths of peoples because of suicides, principally by depression. Society is being resistant to some changes in the way we think, beliefs and cultures, causing rejection and discrimination. Because of these reasons we understand that humans' survival does not reside just in genetics, humans also should evolution in a social manner. 

Finally, evolution, not only biologically but also social is important for the survival of humanity. If we accept the nature changes we can also accept the social changes and have a better life in which all of us want to live. Better quality of life, is what our bodies are looking for, nature do its job we need to do ours, accept the change and evolve. 

Homosexuality: Right or Wrong?

Homosexuality has existed since a long time ago. Not just we see it in our culture, it is very common in different cultures. Although, the social acceptance of it in our culture is very controversial, but it is accepted as normal in some tribes. Homosexuality is becoming more common through the time, so it is been denominated as something normal by a lot of people. Not only we see it in the television, we also see it in magazines and even in the streets. Some tribes that believe in homosexuality are the Hijras and the Etoros.

Third Gender. Two transvestite men who
turn into women.

The Hijras are a tribe from India that accept it. They accept the transvestite status, where the men dressed as women but sometimes are not homosexual. In this culture some of these people remove their genital organs by surgery because that means their transition to becoming women. The Hijras do not consider themselves to have a gender like men or women, they called their selves "incomplete men or women". But the changing of sex, or being a transvestite,  is called "The third gender". Anthropologically talking we can see that as persons they are searching for comfort, and to becoming what they feel they are. Of course every human wants to be comfortable with him or herself, because doing so they can reach the maximum of their lives being who they really are.

On the other side, the Etoro culture, from New Guinea, is so much complicated. As part of their lives and rituals, they accept completely male homosexuality.All men are engaged in homo and heterosexual acts. Dennis O'Neill says that heterosexual act between Etoro couple, is just to procreate, that is why sexual intercourse is prohibited for up to 260 days and is forbidden in or near their houses and gardens. But homosexual relations are permitted any time.  They believe that to reach their manhood and becoming strong men, the boys, since they are 7 until they are 17, have to drink semen  of an elder, or mentor, from the tribe. 

As we can see homosexuality, even though some people find it uncommon and "wrong" it is normal to many people in the world. Societies has become very permissive in regards to homosexuality making an improvement in the acceptation in different countries. Maybe, you see homosexuality as something not normal, but through the years it has been turning into a more normal topic to talk about. Even though there is a lot of place, almost all of the world, that consider it wrong and that homosexual people should be punished because they are failing God. In a far away future I believe it will all change homosexual people will be leave alone. Maybe people do not see it that way, but having homosexual people can be a way of population control, without it the world would be more overpopulated, leading to extinction because of low quantities of water or food for everyone. People need to stop thinking of homosexuality as something wrong because maybe it can be a way to keep control in the planet Earth.

References:
Sex and Marriage: Homosexuality
The Evolution of Human Homosexual Behavior
What do different cultures tell us about homosexuality?

Evolution and Biodiversity as Base of Life

Evolution as we know is the change through time of humans, animals, trees, Earth, etc... There is also a more specific type of evolution known as Biological Evolution. It explains the changes in gene frequency in a population from generations. Also this type of evolution study the descent of species from common ancestors. We will be joining them to understand the process of change (or evolution) through millions of years of history.

Each living organism in the world has an important role in the planet. Each one of the species who populate the planet Earth is in charge of a minimum part of the controls of it. I mean think of it as if Mother Nature, the one who is in charge of everything, gives a single task to every living species so they help to keep the place running as it should be and we can all survive. For this to be possible we need to work together, so if one changes something, the others will adapt to the alterations, changing their characteristics through time. I am not saying the change occur from one day to another, evolution takes a lot of years to be consider as Evolution. Even though, evolution of species never ends, because of the balance we want to obtain. 

Did we evolved because of past actions of our ancestors? When I said ancestors, I am not referring to our grandparents or their grandparents, or the grandparents of those grandparents, I am referring to our ancestors of million of years ago. I will say yes. Evolution is the result of some actions our ancestors has done. Lets say at the beginning the giraffe had a small neck because their food was found in bottom of the trees (leaves). But when trees become taller, because of some changes that make them grow, the leaves where at the top so they had to adapt so they could eat, and with a lot of time so they could change, they finally evolved so they can eat from the top of the trees. You see it is a chain, so because of some action you receive a reaction and so on. The species work together so they can all help each other and maintain the needed balance to succeed, that is called Biodiversity. 

Biodiversity is another important thing to evolve and so that we progress. Why biodiversity is so important? The most important reason is because it helps maintain balance of nature and preserved all living organisms from become extinct. When we see it from a socio-economical point of view it gives shelter, it gives clean drinking water, air, source of medicine and of food, which keeps us alive. 

Nitrogen Cycle can give es an example of what 

Biodiversity means. It shows how the product of 

A is needed to help B, and the product of B 

is needed for C and D, and so on.

As we can see Evolution and Biodiversity are connected and are proportional to each other. If something changes, if there is an alteration in something, all the things that evolve around it will alter and try to adapt to whatever the situation is needed to survive. That is why both of them become the bese of life, because without one of them a lot of species would be extinct today.

Introduction

Hey! My name is Carla Santos and I am 22 years old. Currently I am at my last year of Biology in the University of Puerto Rico at Cayey. In the future I plan to study Medicine and become a great Pediatric Oncologist. As a Biology student I have taken different kind of science of which I have learned a lot. One of those sciences that inspired me to do this blog has been Anthropology.

Through this blog I will be presenting and discussing different topics about Anthropology. This social science covers a lot of things that can be awesome to learn, such as the first primates, our ancestors, evolution, different cultures and their rituals, and much more. Social Sciences, like Anthropology, can be  sometimes a little bit boring, but if you know how to talk, teach and explain about them, they can become a very interesting topic which can inspire a lot of people to investigate about them. Stay on tune and join this journey with us so you can learn amazing things about Anthropology.