Topical Essay #1

In the field, anthropologists face a lot of problems in other cultures because they don't know what its like to live their lives. In the summary of Shakespeare the teller of the story ran into a problem with Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism because of the way the natives had grown up. They felt they knew more because their elders had taught them the proper ways to tell stories. They think that some of the things in the story are impossible because it can't happen in their culture. When Hamlet see's his dad's ghost the elders in the tribe started freaking out because it had to be caused by witchcraft. When the story is over they tell the story teller that he needs to find out details of the story that they feel are very important because it has cultural pride to them.

The anthropologist that was living in the Kalahari had to deal with a different problem because he didn't know that their customs were so crazy compared to ours. He wanted to throw a big Christmas party but he ran into a problem with Cultural Relativism when everyone made fun of his cow purchase. This upset the man greatly because he didn't know why they thought the big cow wouldn't be good enough for Christmas. In their culture they make fun of the person and their catch or purchase so he doesn't get a big head over it. When he ask his friend why he didn't tell him about it before his friend simply replied "you never ask."

This shows that we need to realize that the cultures that we might travel to or live in have special things that they do and we won't know about them unless we ask. Questions are a good thing and should always be ask and answered.

Dating and Marriage

Marriage and Dating are big things in our society. They show a special bond between two people. It is important to be sure it is someone you want to be with before you get married to them.
That is why you date different types of people while you are young. I have seen many different types of relationships in my life with all of my cousins, aunts and uncles, and friends. My cousins haven't made very good choices with the people that they dated and so they both have kids and no husband. My aunts and uncles are examples of great relationships both with just dating and marriage too. I have seen the love and compassion that they show towards each other. In our culture you aren't supposed to date until age sixteen but most kids start "going out" in about seventh grade. It doesn't mean much except they have the title of going out with someone. Once we hit sixteen most people go on a lot of dates before finding that special someone. I think that people that find special someone early are very lucky. It is a hard thing to do. Those people have my respect.

I eat as much or more than the average teenage boy. The day that I took these pictures I hadn't been eating very healthy which is totally like me. Just usually not that bad.

The above are all pictures of my lovely room. I left it how it usually is because that how I am.

This is me on a typical non school day. I just like to put on clothes in the morning and not really care about what they look like as long as they are clean.

In a normal day I don't spend much money on things other than gas for my car. When I bought gas on that day the lady couldn't figure out her cash register so it made me laugh.