Young Jae Yoon

ANTH1020
5/1/14
Dr.Daymond
Reflective writing
I had lived in South Korea for almost my life before I arrived in America. South
Korea is a homogeneous nation, so South Korean shares the same life style, language and
culture. Therefore, I could not have enough an opportunity to share other countrys culture.
However, now I can share or learn other countrys culture the reason is there are many people
came from around world, race, language and culture in America.
I have best friends who came from Saudi Arabia, to be honesty, I had sort of prejudice
against Middle East country, but they were very kind and totally different with
prejudice I had before I met them. The most important moment with them was
when they cooked the Kapsa (traditional food of Saudi Arabia) for me. They
have culture that they use hand when they eat food, first time they
recommend to me using a spoon, but I did not want to use a spoon. I also
ate Kapsa using my hand like my Arabic friend. It was the first time I ate
food using my hand. It was difficult to eat, but I really enjoyed that time,
and I felt like member of group, and I became to have mind that I want to
know or search other countrys culture or their life, and that is why I
took an anthropology class.
During the semester, I have learned many part of anthropology for
instance, religion, kinship, gender and culture. In middle of the contents
in class I was very interested in culture especially Franz Boas. He is an
American anthropologist and a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been
called the father of American anthropology. He claimed that all human
beings were biological equals and that differences among human society were
the result of culture alone. He went on to debunk many 19
th
century thinkers,
demonstrating that the cultural traits they believed showed a universal
pattern of human development actually arose from quite different sources
and histories. In order to prove his claim, he visited the place for field
research involving extended residence, learning the local language, and
developing relationship with natives. As I wrote, experiencing with other
countrys culture is fastest way to learn or understand their people as Franz
Boas did, and I know he fought for colored races to diminish race prejudice
and racial discrimination.
I really agree with his assertion and method to collect information,
Moreover, I think that It is splendid that he fought for racial discrimination,
and I am very happy to know him in this class.