Anthropology

Anthropology - Imagining Cultures


Write a Xenology Report


Family Structure: What's a family? Who are kin? What is marriage and its arrangement?
- Tend to rely more on cliques of sorts, groups in which people take care of each other and their young – there isn't necessarily the "nuclear" family that our society is used to.
- May be blood related, and may not
- Marriage as the concept we know isn't a part of this culture. There are mated, monogamous pairs however

Sexual Regulations: Who can consent? What is incest?
- Usually find pair from separate group?
- I'll come back to this

Body decoration and clothing: Describe?
- Clothing made from skins and pelts of animals on the clifftops are provided but not exactly necessary – the climate is always warm, but useful for those that travel to the colder areas
- Decorations scavenged from ocean materials are worn to signify roles in society (ex: hunter, medic, artisan)

Material culture: manners, holidays and celebrations, objects of worship, objects of status, objects of utility or function
- Manners are not as intense as maybe some in our societies, but they do exist. They exist more in a sense that you treat others with respect no matter who they are
- Mix between a Pastoral and Horticulture society
- Possible celebrations: coming of age, the finding of a particular and special resource, the migration of a certain species, (think of more)
- There isn't any concept of a "God" that exists, the "religion" is structured around appreciating the natural elements around them, water being the most important
- There are certain structures made to represent these elements to physically represent their gratitude


Get a local informant:

Describe informant. What are the duties, status, everyday life of your informant? What is the informant's reaction to your questions? Is the informant well-positioned to know the answers to the questions you ask? Are there members of the informant's family, kin groups, clans or societies that are also willing to provide insight and information?
What do we need to know about the world views, assumptions, values, attitudes, etc. of your informants to evaluate their information and insights?

- Probably someone who is more useful staying back, not a hunter/gatherer/traveler.
- Someone slightly younger but not too young, so they don't have a major responsibility to take care of young pups
- Informant can answer questions fine, but not in great detail. Might be confused as to why you're asking so many questions
- The informant's small group is most likely also very willing to share information with you, others might dismiss you for their duties
- Raised in this culture, the informant prioritizes the natural world as well as community. They would assume the best of a stranger as the culture raises the pups to be trusting.

What are appropriate behaviors for each life stage? Infancy, childhood, sexual maturity, adulthood, old age?

- Infancy is a time to develop relationships with the inner group, infants are provided with many resources to help them develop healthily
- Childhood is when the child starts to form simple relationships with others outside of their inner group and learn community values. Basic skills are begun to be taught and in later childhood, usually put into a focus of what they excel at (whether it be hunting, gathering, traveling, or other)
- Maturity is for the most part developed at a certain age and they start actually participating in the focus they were trained for
- As an adult they are fully expected to engage in the community and bring their talents to benefit the community. The adults need to completely engage because the community depends a lot on them
- At old age, Altumiums are there for the young pups, whether it be education or babysitting while the adults work during the day

Cultural Mapping: Describe cultural map of your community. Draw if you like. Where are the important cultural sites? Where do groups gather and for what purpose? Are there sacred or taboo areas? What is supposed to be there? What are some of the most important local holidays, rites, celebrations, ceremonies? Describe a rite/celebration/ceremony that you attend

- The conch shells in the ocean probably serve as more sacred areas that hold significance to the Altumiums. A place of rest, a temple of sorts
- They live in the cave pockets in the cliffs, but they are decorated in an architectural manner. (however housing is also available on the tops of the cliffs)
- Minerals found in the caves
- The coming of age celebration is the one you attend – have one every year for the groups as a whole. It's a community celebration where defined roles for the maturing Altumiums are decided. It's a celebration for them, as well as a rite of passage into the road to adulthood. Preparations are made the night before so the ceremony can begin at sunrise. At sunrise, the coming of age Altumiums are gathered in a group and decorated with ocean materials – as soon as the sun comes into full view, the group is separated into three different sections that best suits them. There are three sections: the Traveling branch, the Building branch, and the Healing branch. Once fully separated, objects representing the hunt (hunting), the gather (gathering), the culture(song, dance, art, culture), the artisan (building, architecture), the spirituality (religion, farming, nature), and the medicine (healing, medicine), are all spread out in front of the youths. Now in each section, the Altumiums have a choice to pursue one of the two routes available to them – they go one at a time and are welcomed by their fellow adults into their roles. Once all youths have chosen, the celebration continues and they have a morning feast before sending them out to participate in their roles alone for the first time

hunt
gather
culture
artisan
spirituality
medic

Your interest rewarded: Informant was impressed with interest you showed in certain objects used during the celebration witnessed. They offer to discuss certain aspects you might not have understood. Describe objects, the place they reside, and the overseer. The overseer says something to you that you don't understand. What did the person say?

- There are specific objects from the people's history that designate to the roles placed on the maturing Altumiums during the celebration:
The Hunt: an ancient weapon
The Gather: an aged seashell
The Culture: an old painted stone
The Artisan: an outdated measuring apparatus
The Spirit: a rare, glowing crystal
The Medic: an Altumium skull
 They are tools the people from the past made that today's people have preserved for this ceremony
- When stored, they are probably in a special cave pocket where an overseer is tasked to make sure nothing happens. The overseer is probably older and this duty is passed down to someone with accomplishments. This specific cave pocket is more decorated than others

Initiation: Some time passes and you are invited to a social event. The event is not made up of the usual kin, clan, or family members with whom you frequently socialize. Stories are told and one of the stories features one of the objects you saw recently displayed. Write down the story

- Every couple of years, the Altumiums from the colder regions come for trading purposes. These are the people you see
- The story features the object that symbolizes "the hunt", as the weapon is similar in fashion to the ones used by the other Altumium clan
- Long ago the Altumiums all resided in one general area. The weapon created was one of the first to advance their society to be able to catch fish easier. However the Altumiums split into two when disagreements about what to do with the community arose. One group wanted to travel farther for exploration and the other group wanted to stay and build on what they already had. The group that left took all but one of the newly created weapons to defend themselves from whatever they encountered. This story has been passed down from generations and this original weapon symbolizes the true beginning of both cultures


Song and Dance: There was a song that was about another one of the objects, write the song as you remember it. There was also a dance, describe what you remember. At the end of the social occasion there is a special food and you are given something. What was the food and what were you given?

- A song on an object related to the Spirituality branch – a statue representing the element of water. Taking care of the earth and plants is the job of the Spirituality role
- The dance mimics the flow of the ocean, very soothing and slow, to fast, chaotic movements
- the food given is a special, rare fish only served for ceremonial purposes. You are given a crystal from one of their mineral underwater caves. It glows and it is very sparkly

Revisiting the Ceremonial: the next day your informant asks if you want to revisit the place the objects are kept. You say yes. When you go back to this place everything seems different. You know more about the objects and when the overseer repeats what they said the last time, you seem to understand it now. What new meaning do you see in the objects? What new understanding do you have of what the overseer said?
Record this in twine2 using the if/then coding of information on the appropriate pages. (like true meaning info is hidden at first visit, but comes out / realized when person visits the specific page again)

- UHUH


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NOTES

(Subfields)
- Physical anthropology
- Archaeology
- Cultural anthropology
- Linguistics
- Xenology

• Questions to think about:
• What are the origins of people's differences?
• Are there patterns to these differences?
• How can we answer these questions without running afoul of our assumptions and our biases?
• Culture resides within Ecology
• Foraging
• high residential mobility
• limited food storage
• lack of emphasis on Material culture. oral tradition
• lack of emphasis on social ranking (egalitarian)
• lack of emphasis on possession. frequent communal ownership
• symbolic units of value (money) are absent
• family relations promoted. labor divided equally
• Pastoral Societies
• defined by practice of herding animals to provide subsistence
• moderate food storage. living animals are stored food
• moderate emphasis on symbolic material culture. symbolic decoration. animal transportation
• moderate emphasis on possession
• Horticulture
• low intensive farming. domestication of plants and animals
• reliance on food storage
• strong emphasis on symbolic material culture. artifacts tend to be richly embellished. groups don't move that much
• strong emphasis on social ranking. some have more resources than others
• strong emphasis on possession. value placed on goods and property
• often "slash and burn" management of land resources
• Agriculture (what we live in)
• total reliance on food storage. extensive processing of foods to keep them preserved
• very strong emphasis on symbolic material culture
• strong emphasis on social ranking.
• strong emphasis on possession. place great value on goods and personal property b/c so much time is invested on property
• Cultural Dynamics:
• Ecological determinism: cultures directly reflect their physical environment
• Encounters with other cultures: people move around and exchange ideas so culture becomes altered
• Internal change: cultures can change internally over time. they innovate often in reaction to changes in technology
• Cultural Commonalities:
• communication: speaking, gestures, body language, languages, dialects
• ethical/justice system
• rights and responsibilities assigned by age, gender and other cultural divisions
• mythos/ideology: concepts of supernatural things

• Bands: small groups of foragers who travel long distances. egalitarian
• Tribes: somewhat larger bands, travel less. tend to be pastoralists or specialized hunters. have chiefs with influence
• Chiefdoms: often rely on some horticulture for existence. hereditary elites (loyalty)
• States/Civilizations: Strict division of population into classes. largely sedentary, relying on intensive agriculture, large populations 

• Urbanization: concentration of population in one area
• Long distance trade: trade networks are extensive. non-food production specialists are common
• Social stratification: often royal families and other aristocracies
• Durable record keeping / writing:
• Standing armies and extended warfare
• Money and slavery
• Territorial sovereignty
• Vassal tribute
• Non-food production specialization: cobblers, jewelers, potters, priests, sea crews, masons etc.
• Monumental architecture: roads etc.
• Astronomy and/or mathematics