Zion in All Corners of the Earth

The other day in Twi class, we accumulated gospel vocabulary words, and then put together our testimonies in Twi. It is comforting realizing that we will be attending church in Asamang. I guess for my own selfish reasons, I am just excited that among the culture shock and misunderstandings will be an aspect I can relate to. Not saying that LDS culture is anywhere near the same in Ghana as it is in America; however, foundational elements are the same, such as our belief in a Savior who atoned for mankind and a boy who restored the gospel. There was just something cool about hearing the Savior's titles in Twi, and realizing that church members there have some of the same deep running veins of belief as I do. I cannot wait to learn from the branch in Asamang, and to feel the fellowship of sisterhood and brotherhood the gospel provides, with people who live in an entirely different cultural world than me.

Here is my testimony in Twi:

Me nim sE as0re no yE nokware

Me gyedi sE Jesus Christ ye me odimafo

M'Egya a 0w0 soro te ase

Me de aseda ma onyame sE m'abusua betumi nya bEkyebo bra

Me gyedi sE Thomas S. Monson yE 0k0mhyeni a 0 te ase.

Medaase sE Jesus Christ ab0 af0reE

Me nim As0re no nkyerEkyerE yE nokware esan (as a result of) Homhom kr0nkr0n no.

Ew0 Jesus Christ din mu

Amen

Jihad vs McWorld

I had to do a book review of the book "Jihad vs McWorld" for one of my sociology classes. In it the author argues that the duel spread of globalism and technological uniformity (McWorld) and tribal separations and hostility based on religion, ethnicity, race, etc (Jihad) combats democracy and is a threat to the sovereign national state. Barber begins by defining globalism by giving a myriad of examples of capitalism and technology that have become uniform nearly worldwide. This includes the trade of natural resources, the global advertising of companies such as Coca Cola, and the international television broadcasting of American based media such as MTV music videos. He then goes on to discuss what he calls Jihad, the boundaries and separations caused by international tribalism. He draws examples from places like Islam, China, Russia, and the Pacific Rim. Throughout, Barber emphasizes that McWorld and Jihad are inevitably linked and dependent, globalism spawning from colonialism, and tribalism the backlash of the same. Both McWorld and Jihad threaten democracy, the former making nations dependent and weakening their sovereign power, and the latter splintering nations into sects, which then become more dependent on McWorld.

The book made me recall a conflict I have thought about before: the beauty of diversity vs the hatred and resentment it seems to cultivate. Often, I have felt extremely depressed about the seemingly natural proneness humans have towards ostracizing those different from the majority, and assuming that the way they live/look is by default the "correct" way of living/looking. This has led to inconceivable amounts of sadness and suffering throughout the world in all areas - physical, mental, emotional, spiritual. However, some of the moments in my life when I have felt the most exhilarated have been the times when I was experiencing new culture, different from my own. The beauty behind the variations in human existence is mind-boggling, and provides for an inexhaustible way of looking at things and behaving. So, what would be better? Living in one giant, homogenous world to prevent against the pains of negative group mentalities that foster ethnocentrism, tribalism, racism, etc? Or continuing to encourage diversity and cultural differences because of the massive benefits they bring to humanity?

In my opinion, although the world is far from ideal, diversity is worth it. I am so excited to visit Ghana because I feel I can learn so much from a new experience of place, time, behavior, materialism, etc. New doors will be opened in my mind that would have remained locked while remaining only under the American ontology. Cultural exposure opens up new spiritual, psychological, and even physical routes. I think it is one of the most significant and effective ways of gaining an education.

Beauty Perceptions

Last week I was talking to my friend Katherine who had the privilege of visiting Tanzania, Africa for three weeks for an observational study. She shared some of her experiences with me, and expressed how excited she was for me to live in Ghana. One of the things she related was simple yet thought-provoking. She said I would be surprised how much I would stop thinking about my external image, my clothing, my body shape, etc. I do not believe she meant at all that I would not care about being physically healthy. More she meant that with the absence of Western media saturation and the affects this takes on young minds in relation to body image, I would not worry so much about how my physicality was being perceived. This led into a conversation about the detrimental affects of American media shaping the way youth, and especially women, think about their bodies. Girls think they must conform to a certain body type/skin type/hair type/dress style etc, an impossibility for many, which leads to eating disorders and low self-esteem. Boys think that a certain body type/skin type/hair type/dress style is the epitome of beauty or should dictate attraction. I told Katherine about how I had felt the affects of this here at BYU, being one of the few students of African descent, I simply cannot fit in with many of the mainstream traits esteemed as beautiful in Provo culture. Even if I was as healthy as I possibly could be, I will never be as stick thin as some others of a different ethnicity. My genes give me irreversible curves and thickness. My facial features include a wider nose, and fuller lips. My hair is extremely curvy, and my skin is dark. Maybe I am overly sensitive, but I have often felt almost ashamed of some of my differences in relation to my homogenous surroundings, especially since the media glorifies the beauty of tall, white, stick-thin women, and I can see the affects of this on the way beauty is perceived in my own community.

I wonder how this will change in Ghana. How will beauty be perceived differently due to a very different racial and ethnic majority, as well as due to the lesser prevalence of Western media influences? How do these differences affect the way females in particular view themselves, and how do they affect courtship and attraction? This is something I would be interested in observing although my project does not address these issues.

There is definitely a lot to think about when you realize that beauty and attraction are so relative, that just by moving to another location you could be viewed as either less or more attractive according to cultural influences.

Here is a somewhat harsh site that really brings up some relevant issues about the recent onslaught of white indie culture in the U.S. that has pushed the prevalence of rail thin, retro white girls - think the type of girls you would see the majority of the time in Urban Outfitters advertising -

http://www.carefreewhitegirl.com/

Symbolism

I loved our class today on art and symbolism in Ghana. After taking Symbolic Anthropology, I became fascinated by symbols as they are one of the foundational elements of human existence. We literally could not function without symbols - even our words are merely metaphors for our imperceptible mix of thoughts, emotion, and impulse that can never be flawlessly conveyed to the external world. I love symbols like the blatant ones we encounter through art - Katie showed a spiral on the side of a religious structure in Ghana, and told us it represented eternity - like this example, symbols can convey mass meanings full of history and complexity with just one image, that sometimes abstractly relates to whatever it is representing, and is sometimes completely arbitrary, but recognized through tradition.

In my symbolic anthropology class, we discussed the extensive symbolism behind the LDS sacrament ritual. I realized how religions use so much ritualism and symbolism for highly effective purposes. Religion poses intricate theory and inspires feelings and emotions that are hard to put into words and difficult to interpret even when they occur inside of us. Symbols create a route of expression to allow a group to form a cohesive union surrounding such complex beliefs and meanings. No wonder many Mormon kids are so knowledgeable about their religion at such a young age, they are taught the doctrine largely through relatable symbolism that especially helps in conveying religious messages that might usually be thought too mature for children to process.

Like Katie said, this will be a great for us in Ghana. It will be important for me to inquire about the representations and symbolism I see - having even a limited knowledge of what deeper meaning lies behind images, words, or behaviors will allow me to have a better understanding of the culture as a whole. Symbolism in language, actions, art, etc are the very fiber of a society and its cultural makeup.

Kony Captivation

This last week I was extremely interested in the phenomenon of the Kony 2012 viral video that popped up on my Facebook and Pinterest repeatedly. I do not think an NGO has ever created quite a stir with a video campaign, and the wild spread and success of the video definitely creates new implications for development and the advertisement of social causes. For me this event showed highly positive and highly negative illuminations about contemporary social projects.

The Positive:

I think the Invisible Children organization is brilliant in its advertising. It realizes the power behind trending media in today's culture, especially among the younger generation. The video played right to America's current young adult mainstream of indie pop culture along with the empowering sense that we have the power to change the world. Heart wrenching scenes of Ugandan youth were slapped right next to scenes of hundreds of Toms-clad college students running around and yelling for change, led by the ultimate hipster/Non-profit manager himself, Jason Russel, which are overlayed with emotional alternative music form the likes of The Naked and Famous and Mumford and Sons.

Basically, the guys of IC knew how to capture the attention of America's youth and celebrities, and they did it with high success. And Facebook friends of mine who had never posted about an official social cause, probably in their life, were now a little bit more educated about one of the horrendous problems facing people in another part of the world, and felt excited to be apart of stopping these problems. So that right there is a plus - in a self-gratifying, ungrateful American culture, it is a plus to get kids excited about aiding other people's problems, especially other people not in their direct vicinity.

The Negative:

Some of the positives about the campaign video could also be looked at as negative. I have read several critiques of Russel's documentary being overly catered towards American youth and lacking a central focus on the actual Ugandan youth, as well as critiques of its seemingly Westernized, savior-like depiction of changing the world. However, that is subjective, and though I partially agree, there is a lot of gray area.

However, one scary thing this viral vid did make evident was the power behind a trending topic. I am almost positive most of the kids who shared that video did so as a knee-jerk reaction right after viewing it, and did not take the time to research IC, research the actual history of Joseph Kony, the LRA, and the US interference that has already occured, nor any other relevant information. No matter how innocent a cause or organization looks, this is vital. Because sharing a viral video like that, or contributing money, or whatever is not like donating to your local community service project. People who do this for Kony 2012 are now backing one viewpoint about Uganda, and one method of solving the problem in Uganda. Do those who shared the video realize that they are supporting Ugandan military intervention when they support IC, which has controversial implications? Do they realize that past attempts to stop or kill Kony have resulted in violent retaliation that has caused the death of hundreds of more people? Do they know that in the past year, IC used only about a third of their incoming funds on direct help to Africa, and that their financial accountability rating is presently a 2/4? I would guess a lot of American youth who shared this video on impulse do not.

Fundamentally, the loudest message that came across to me during the few days of viral spreading and media received by Kony 2012 is that if one has the means of producing a glossy, professional documentary/campaign video, complete with American pop culture tie-ins, they could probably get millions of hits and thousands of people to share there video, even if their organization in actuality was doing some pretty questionable things outside of the spotlight.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. I felt this issue related somewhat to my project just because it is a contemporary event in social development - the field I am aiming to head into. It is interesting to see some of the Western views or limited global perspectives of Americans highlighted in a viral video - things I learn about everyday in class.

Here are a few of the links I found interesting while researching Kony 2012

http://www.invisiblechildren.com/critiques.html

http://justiceinconflict.org/2012/03/07/taking-kony-2012-down-a-notch/

http://justiceinconflict.org/2012/03/07/kony-2012-the-invisible-children-advocacy-campaign-to-catch-kony/#more-2862

http://demandnothing.org/making-the-invisible-visible/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=making-the-invisible-visible

http://9gag.com/gag/3212157

The last one is just for laughs.

Relative Ontology

Yesterday while on the long drive to Vegas for a wedding, one of my best friends, Ben, and I had a chat about context, space, and time. He brought up how strange it was that humans are human regardless of what space or time they are born into; however, this definition is purely based on biological premises. The human born in the 1950s is not the same human as me, because our contexts are so vastly different. Our lens of reality is layered with filters of place, history, culture, technology, etc. Ben related how ontology is therefore highly relative to place and time. He brought up an example from the scriptures, when one of the prophets had a vision of all the Earth’s inhabitants, and tried to describe what he saw. His descriptions sound crazy and almost unidentifiable to us, but many speculate that he was describing technological advances that would not have been present back then, such as an airplane. Ben and I tried to think of a future human’s existence that could be so contextually different from our own that if we could look into their timeframe, we would not even have the terminology or explaining concepts in our ontology to accurately describe events or devices they might interact with regularly.

Later, I forgot entirely about this conversation, and we met up with friends downtown on the Vegas strip. I used to live in Las Vegas, and am pretty familiar with what sights can be seen on the strip – at least sights open to those younger than 21. Casinos blast their mind numbing game sounds, people drop thousands on overpriced food, clothing, alcohol, etc, old men walking around with scantily dressed younger women, or women their same age who look like they eat Botox for breakfast. There are tipsy and drunk people stumbling around on the sides of the hectic main road (including one of the non-LDS friends we had met up with), openly drinking, holding 4-foot tall alcohol cups. Casual sex or sex entertainment is glorified and on display on billboards, on pornographic call cards, or in the public Treasure Island pirate ship show, where old men stand watching with their hands on their wives’ shoulders, or little kids are hoisted onto shoulders so they can get a better look. So… how does this relate to Ben’s and my conversation?

I thought about this American cultural experience, in one of the United States’ biggest cities, and thought about how it might compare to Accra, Ghana, or any other big city in Ghana. What are the similarities, or the differences? Just from some of the video clips we have watched in class I can pretty well guess there are some major differences. I am guessing there are concepts in big cities in Ghana that are too foreign to Americans to even cross our minds, or terminology that is just not included in our ontology because of our different context, and vise versa. How does context become so very different between humans across the world, or thousands of miles away, or hundreds of miles away, that even our epistemology cannot be defined the same. Are the differences based on history? Or are they a-historical? Is it based on geography and resource availability? When did cultures diverge? And what makes them end up so drastically different, where meaning cannot even be reconciled, especially when we are all born with the same biological brains and bodies?

These questions probably cannot be asked. However, they lead me to one conclusion – that whether there is or is not a universal ontology, humans’ variable epistemologies will never allow for it to be discoverable without the intervening of some higher power. Therefore cultural relativism is vital to human studies, including the research I will be doing in Ghana, because no matter where one hails from, they cannot legitimately claim to another that they know “pure reality.”

Moyga, Ntoro, and Family Values

This week I have been really impacted by what I have been taught about family values and dynamics in Ghana. In our Twi class we took a break from grammar (thank the heavens above) and had a culture lesson. As a sociocultural anthropologist this has been my absolute favorite class so far. Milly taught us about the family structure in Ghana and it was extremely interesting. First, we learned that families are structured on matrilineal lines. Mothers give their children moyga (blood) and fathers provide them with ntoro (soul). Since their blood line is through their mother, their most significant family relations traditionally come through their mother's line. Surprisingly, instead of children depending on their fathers for money and stability, they will often be taken care of and provided for financially by their mother's brother - their wɔfa. Family ties are extremely important, and it is a known responsibility for family members to aid one another. Milly said that usually if one family member makes it financially, that means the rest of the family will also make it, because the wealth will be shared. She even related that although she has been in the States for a long time, she still recognizes her duties to continually give back to her family. One of the Ashanti proverbs she shared stated that "family is an army." If family members stick together, their strength will overcome obstacles. Milly also reinforced what I learned in an interview with my Ghanaian friend Daniella a couple weeks ago - neighbors will act as your family when you are in need. If you are in trouble or in great need, you can always turn to someone, even if they are not your blood relative, and they will try to help you out. Milly said that the term "it takes a village to raise a child" is basically taken literally in Ghana.

While listening to one of the inquiry conference presenters, Corrin, I saw traces of this mentality as well. She went to Ghana for her field study, and studied cultural ethnocentricity among tribal groups there. Although she seemed to argue for pushing a more unified front and mixing of tribes to lessen group pride, it was still cool to hear about how fiercely proud and loyal Ghanaian's will be about their family lines and tribal identity.

I could see some major cultural differences between America and Ghana just from learning about their ideas of what constitutes family and appropriate ways to be loyal to fellow Ghanaians. Again, I realized that Ghanaian's seem to take a more socialist approach to community - they will financially help out friends and relatives as a part of their moral duty. Additionally, they expect their community to help raise children, whether they be relatives, friends, or neighbors. In America, we are generally more motivated to help only ourselves and who we consider our close kin - also, there is a pervading mentality that one works for their own success, and that a lack of success may represent someone too lazy or meritless to deserve external help.

I enjoyed hearing Milly's take on these differences. She related that because of her native Ghanaian values and culture, she will continue to honor her obligations to her family back in Ghana. She also does not accept some norms in American culture, such as allowing children to be very informal with their parents or express an attitude towards them often without repercussion. She views this as highly inappropriate, and is working to instill in her own children a stronger respect for their elders more in line with Ghanaian culture. However, she also appreciates here in America that she has a closer relationship with her children due to her isolation in raising them, whereas in Ghana the entire community would be more involved with their upbringing, and leave her less time to watch over them personally.

Overall, it was interesting to learn about Ghanaian family values from a mixture of Milly's native experiences and Corrin's field study experience. Although they differ greatly from American values, I feel more endeared towards the Ghanaian people, and cannot wait for firsthand observation of how people interact, especially along family oriented lines.

Tribal Customs of the Primitive Peoples in America

Yesterday, I had the great privilege of watching my first full Grammy Awards show. This statement of course is heavy on the sarcasm right around the "privilege" part. Besides the fact that I personally despise country music, and it seemed this was Part 2 of the CMAs, the spectacle in general was somewhat disappointing, but thought-provoking. It seems like awards shows like these, clearly reserved for participation by the celebrity elite only, and blatantly set up so that the common masses can easily show their worshipful devotion, have begun to define major aspects of American culture. Celebrity is the center - it dominates our viewership and now even our conversation, more intensely through mediums like Twitter, which has been trending things like #grammys and #nicki minaj all night.

After watching America's prime sampling of upperclass culture, it was just so evident how blurred the lines of modernity and primitivity really are. I do not think I can believe in "primitive" culture. For one, obviously as I learn each day in development, we have to end the thought process that different from the Western way = underdeveloped, without question. However, I also gained this disbelief as I watched the most powerful and visible players in my own national society look absolutely "primitive" at the Grammys. Rihanna, Katy Perry, and Nicki Minaj's performances stand out in my mind - they ranged from overtly flashy to the point of sensory overload, sexual gyrations and thrusts almost continually, and downright dark and scary. Obviously, this is all subjective interpretation on my part - I am sure elsewhere in the country there are people who are hailing those performances as high class art.

However, that is the point. Culture is subjective, and so is the term "primitive". As I learn more about the values of Ghanaian people, which differ entirely from those in my home country, whether this be marriage rituals, the way people define family connections, or the distinction between gender roles, I see that these values are not inferior or less advanced, just different. Even if one was to argue that primitivity is real, I would think they may have a hard time deciding which was more primitive - the Ghanaians, or celebrity/money/sex obsessed Americans.

Place

In our last section class we talked about the use of space in our personal homes or apartment, and how this usage might compare with Ghana. This reminded me of the unit on place in my Contemporary Theory class with Professor Buonforte. This is an excerpt from my final essay in that class that has to do with place:

"From the day we are born, place is an intrinsic part of our identities. It provides us with our first layers of cultural context. For example, individuals from different countries will have markedly different worldviews, as will individuals from separate states, and even those from various cities within the same state. Places can range from the smallest aspects of our environment (e.g. the dinner table), to the expansive landscapes that we do not actually inhabit (e.g. a mountain range). We may even relate with places we have never been. An African American may feel an identifying relation to Africa, or a Caucasian American with Irish ancestors to Ireland, although they have never set foot out of the United States. Thus, our individual realities are full of place.

Besides our cultural ties to place, Edward Casey acknowledges that even the abstract boundaries of place are essential to our reality when he states, “the limit of an existing thing is intrinsic to its being, a condition for its very existence” (Getting Back into Place 15). Without the boundaries of place, even the emplacement we feel within our bodies, we would be everywhere. If we were everywhere we would also be nowhere, because there would be no 'where.'"

The concepts we learned about place and how it is affected by culture were highly fascinating. Our place limits the way we even use our bodies. Walls and hallways are boundaries that determine the movements we make and the pathways we follow. This can be very different from culture to culture. For example, when we watched that video clip of Ghanaians eating, they were in a very cramped space. From my perspective as a middle class American, I would never imagine an eating space that small. Also, place can be defined very differently cross-culturally. In many places in the United States, the dinner table is a very social place, where people can converse and catch up. However, we learned that in Ghana it can be considered rude to approach someone while they are eating; therefore, maybe the dinner table is not defined as a socially interactive place.

It is interesting to see how much certain aspects can define a culture. Before my anthropology classes, I was not aware at all how much time, place, language, animate and inanimate objects all have major roles in shaping us as human beings, and determining our lifestyles. It will be intriguing to pay closer attention to these aspects as I compare my native culture with Ghanaian culture.

Learning Twi

I realized that I have not even blogged about my Twi language class. So far it has been very interesting, although challenging. The only foreign language instruction I have been exposed to was three years of French in high school. However, French had many cognitive words to English, because of the common Latin base. It is very cool to be learning a language that is entirely different from English; it even has a couple different written letters. Once one starts to grasp the concept of communicative language, it is easy to see how even this one element could create a culture incomprehensibly different from another.

Language - words, phrases, even sentence structure - are metaphors for our actual thoughts and feelings. Our internal minds can never truly be known to another in full, and the main tool we as humans have to convey messages from our mind is language - spoken, written, acted out, etc. Thus, it is more clear why a person from another culture would act or think or say things so differently than me, when I realize the toolbox of metaphors they are raised with to convey their internal meaning is of a completely different brand than my toolbox.

Little things I have started to learn about the Twi language have already begun to give me insight into Ghanaian culture as a whole. For example, the noun one uses to refer to another person can change based on whether that person is an equal in class and age, younger, older, or much older. This makes me infer that the culture includes respect towards the elderly, or towards authority figures.

I am excited for the rest of my semester in Twi. I believe learning the spoken language of many Asante Ghanaians will give me a deeper understanding of the culture as a whole, since language is a vital underlying current of all cultures and societies. Also, hopefully being able to say even a little in Twi, will help me develop a rapport because of my invested interest in a significant part of their society.

The Fences of the Western Mindset

While searching for literary sources for my research project, I started to notice some interesting things that correlated with the lesson we learned in the last combined class through the story of Rosemary and Hernandez. For one, I looked over the abstract for a book by Gwendolyn Mikell (an author who has been popping up frequently with feminist African studies articles in a variety of journals) that was about feminism in Africa. The abstract acknowledged that American feminist studies are often concerned with a woman’s sexual freedom and child-bearing choices. However, Gwendolyn focuses on African feminism movement, which is often more concerned with land ownership and economic control. This surprised me initially, as I would have never thought of this on my own, because my experience with feminism has been purely based on American ideologies and value systems.
When I went to my section class, and learned more about Ghanaian history, I realized how becoming more historically and politically savvy about the area would aid my perception of social issues within the culture. For example, the differences in feminism obviously stem more from cultural variations in concepts of gender differentiation, and possibly historical events that shaped economy (such as the European colonialism that brought the concept of “property” and land ownership to many areas in Africa). This is especially relevant to me, having been brought up in a very capitalistic nation with overarching ideas of meritocracy and fundamentally conservative values compared to many areas of the world. My facilitator, Jackie mentioned how Ghanaian culture often revolved around a community mentality, such as with the rituals of reciprocity, and already I could see how this could differ greatly from the capitalistic context I have grown up in.
These lessons are applicable to my project because they will help me be more prepared to approach involved issues with the expectation of them being conceptualized or approached differently than they might have been in America. For example, I may find that although I am concerned with rural children receiving adequate schooling, this might mean a Westernized standard schooling system in my mind, and could mean something completely different for Ghanaians. Maybe their perceptions of learning include agricultural education as equally significant compared to academics, therefore cocoa farming may seen as more of a help than a hindrance to children. I cannot be sure yet, but by studying Ghanaian history to better understand cultural implications, and readying myself for completely different schools of thought and value systems I will be able to make more research progress faster while in the field.

Myths of Modernity

In my development classes, we have been learning about the history behind what has caused such unequal wealth distribution and living quality across the world. It is really incredible how a minority of the world's population can alter history and shift events. I wonder where Ghana, and other countries labeled as "underdeveloped," would be had African inhabitants not been coerced into colonialism. With the slave trade, ignorance and disregard for native inhabitant's traditions and identity, and the international labor distribution the Western world imposed on other nations, countries like Ghana inevitably lost much of the cultural fiber that held their societies together. And even when Ghana and other African countries started to gain independence from their British colonizers in the mid-1900s, they were at a disadvantage to quickly start up a successful nation and government because of this loss of social continuity. Even with their independence, the affects of colonialism are still very much present. Ghanaians are still dependent on farming cocoa, and selling it to the West, where companies like Cadbury become wealthier and Ghanaians remain poor.

One of the biggest lessons I have taken so far from learning about the history behind colonialism and development is that Western mentality has often been sucked down the narrow-minded drain of modernity. We gauge success and advancement based on how much technology a society has. Intelligence and competence are represented by computers and gadgets. However, with the post-modernism movement, it is finally starting to be somewhat understood that technological advancement and the Western version of being "modern" may not be what is best for the rest of the world. I want to remember this as I prepare for Ghana. I need to change my thinking, because technology and the constant flow of information that comes with it, literally shapes my consciousness. This could be very limiting to the ways I allow myself to attempt to understand Ghanaian culture, and the things the people value. Therefore, I will try to open my mind to see the other elements that make a people competent, skilled, and happy - ways that may be extremely different from the lifestyle in America.

The History of Chance

I enjoyed the introductory history lesson on Wednesday. It seemed to help make Ghana become more "real" in my mind, for lack of a better word. Becoming familiar with a place's history and background definitely makes it a less abstract concept for me mentally. Growing up in the United States has caused me to often make ethnocentric assumptions that America is basically the star of the world, and what all other world inhabitants look to for what they desire in life. Obviously, this worldview has consistently changed as I have become more educated and less ignorant. However, I have still been left with a surreal sense of the reality of other countries. Of course I know they are there, but I have a hard time realizing that they are just as existent in their history, interactions, government, and even day-to-day human life as my own country.
Learning about contemporary politics, and the historical events that have shaped Ghana into what it is today makes it easier for me to realize that I could have just as easily been born a Ghanaian instead of an American. I would have had no less significance as a resident of Earth, and my life would be filled with historical events and everyday culture that are just as important as what I experience now. Maybe this is a strange revelation to read about because it seems so apparent. But I have become impressed again, just as I was in my other travels abroad, by the way exposure to lifestyles and histories other than my own has caused a humbling mental connection for me. This connection reminds me that nationality, ethnicity, etc. truly have no bearing on an individual's importance as a human being. Despite our regional and cultural differences, we are all trying to find happiness, satisfaction, truth, or whatnot in the same sphere of life.

Swimming in Context: The Cultural Iceberg

I really appreciated the iceberg analogy we talked about in class. It was a great way to conceptualize the theory I have been consistently learning in my anthropology and sociology classes. I realized the lesson of the iceberg applies not only to relating with differing cultures on an international level, but also to relating with everyday aquaintances. Navigating the waters of contrasting internal realities between all human beings can be extremely intimidating, but realizing that personal context is a mini-culture in itself, and then connecting this to the iceburg analogy can put things into better perspective. There are a number of things I see when I first meet any person - their physical appearance, whether they are outgoing or shy, the body language and vocal cues they employ - but realizing that this is just the tip of their iceburg can help me be better prepared to relate to them as a fellow human being. I believe this realization can translate into the field as I encounter a culture and people foreign to me. Practicing with individuals who have been shaped by a variety of environmental factors, and who share my general culture, will allow me to seek the submerged part of the iceburg in Ghana, the deeper elements that shape the culture and society I will be experiencing. This will allow for better fieldnotes and an overall greater project and learning experience.

Beginnings in Anthropological Awareness: What I Hope to Gain from this Prep Course

For a long time now I have been obsessed with travel. However, my intentions and perspectives surrounding travel and cultural exposure have drastically changed over the past year and a half. Before delving into the literature behind anthropological theory, especially humbling ideologies like those of Geertz, my view of travel was highly romanticized. I was very much swept away in the exoticism of foreign places, and the novelty of bringing home quaint souvenirs to show off. Even when I had the chance to actually visit parts of Peru, and live in Japan for over a month, I did not allow myself to appreciate and learn from the variety of culture my privilege had allowed me to become exposed to. I breezed through my travels, enjoying them immensely, but taking away a rather shallow experience.

My major in Sociocultural Anthropology has allowed me to begin the process towards better understanding what may be improved options for exploring different cultures. This mental and theoretical development has caused me to ask questions about society I had never thought to ask, and venture thoughts about issues I had not even been aware of before. When I began to think about embarking on a field study to Ghana, Africa, I was wary, and felt much more intimidated because of my new awareness. I have realized it is extremely important for me to develop and understand my own intentions and attitudes as I prepare for this field study, because entering an unfamiliar culture as an outsider does not give me any entitlement, and the way I will learn the most is by realizing how much I have to learn. The more I travel the more I will become aware of how little I know, instead of deciding that because of it I know more.

With this being said, my hope for this preparation course and field study is that I will make much more progress down the pathway I feel I have at least slowly begun. I want to learn the skills necessary to interact in different cultures without coming across as arrogant, and veering as far away as possible from the ignorance born from narrow mindedness. My desire is that the preparation course will be a vehicle for my personal development as a researcher and traveler, into someone who can learn as much as possible from my environment and the people I interact with, and who can suppress my socialized tendencies to make situations about me, turning my thoughts and actions outward instead. I want my experiences in and out of the field to help expand anthropological discourse, and to humble and shape me as I work towards becoming a successful studier of humanity.