RELATIVISM:

Dobe Ju/hoansi
Nancy Scheper-Hughes in Alto do Cruizero: Cultural relativism
72 mothers in sample, on average they lose more than half of their children, of 9.5 pregnancies they
have 4.5 living children. They are enculturated for death without weeping and the normalization of
child death. By western perspective these are unnatural mothers, but not given their socioeconomic
and sociohistoric perspective. The ethics of triage help develop an understanding of their position,
the survival of a weak child could damage the prospects of other more vital children.
Victoria Burbank in Numwulbar, Arnhem Land
Of a sample of 37 fights, 20 were started by men and 17 were started by women.
In Numwulbar, male aggression is relatively ineffectual in changing the behaviours and attitudes of
women, because the women do not see that as its primary goal. Unlike in contemporary western
society, Numwulbarian women instead see it as an expression of anger, there is a cultural emphasis
on aggression being a normal counterpart of anger. Furthermore, there is no difference in
willingness of women to fight, the only difference is that men are seen to be more dangerous, which
links into the willingness of others to help.
Linda Burton in Gospel Hill: Sociological imagination
UE>Marginalization>exodus>pregnancy>shorter generations>marginalization
At a glance, the common western attitude toward the poverty in Gospel Hill would be that it is
caused large in part to the teen pregnancy issues there. However, to understand the true
relationship between poverty and teen pregnancy requires engaging ones sociological imagination.
By doing this one can see that it was changing employment prospects that led to marginalization of
the men in Gospel Hill, which forced many of them to either leave or rely on others for help. This
saw both a rise in teen pregnancy in order to gain childcare support monies, and a reliance on the
new childs grandmother to raise it, as the youth were working. As children are highly valued in the
Gospel Hill community, the then-teen-mothers would encourage their daughters to have children at
an early age so that they too could experience raising a child. This requires short generations so that
the grandmothers are still young enough to raise a child. Consequently, a women in Gospel Hill is
usually done with childbearing by the age of 30, opposed to many other western women who wait til
theyre 30. Furthermore, such short generations actually leads to further marginalization of men,
who do not have adequate time to develop sufficiently for economic stability.
Via engaging our sociological imagination, the attitude can shift from disdain to an understanding of
the unique situation in Gospel Hill, and how it makes logical sense to raise a family at such an early
age.
Sociological imagination is the ability to see things socially and how they interact and influence each
other. It is the ability to shift from one perspective to another.

RELIGION AND REASON:

Dobe Ju/hoansi: hunting magic and divination are frequently used to help a hunter who is down on
his luck
Evans-Pritchard: Azande witchcraft

SOCIETY AND STRUCTURE:

Dobe Ju/hoansi:
Ju/hoan society is based around the notions of mechanical solidarity, that the cohesion and
solidarity of the group stems from the homogeneity of the individuals within it. The Ju/hoan
commonly live in camps of 10 30, but the composition changes from month to month and day to
day. The central organizing principle that the Ju/hoansi rely on for stability and coherence is kinship.
Drawing on functionalism, kinship is the organ/institution that provides the structure of everyday life
and enables the society to reproduce itself socially from generation to generation. For example, Lee
suggests that almost every member of a camp has at least one primary tie (mother, father, sibling,
spouse) to the nuclear core of the group. If an argument breaks out then the sharing breaks down,
and this is one reason why the composition of camps changes so regularly, one or both of the
feuding parties will often move camp.
Levelling practices, namely insulting the meat, are also central to maintaining sharing practices and
the egalitarianism way of life.

Egalitarian/nonegalitarian hunters and gatherers

SYMBOLS, SOCIALITY AND MEDIA:
Distinctions between the real and virtual worlds