Arieso226

What exactly is anthropology?

Anthropology is the study of various cultures all around the world. To begin, we study all human socities and cultures, in order to determine our future and development. There are four subdivisions of anthropology, like visual, cultural, biological, and archeological. As an anthropologist, I explore human connections, rituals, gender inequalities, globalization, war, genocide, climate change, colonialism, what the meaning of culture is and how important it is that we all learn from the past so that we can change and improve our future.

NO. 2

When I attended high school, I felt like my education was limited. I was only learning about European history, and it was only when I got to college did things change, and I learned about things I should have known since the eighth grade or younger. I feel like every student, but especially POC students should have a vast amount of knowledge about cultures all over the world, and not just European. It was a lot of information I took in during my four years in college, but I don’t regret learning about why humans are the way they are, and why our society is the way it is. When people talk about anthropologists, they usually bring up popular movies like Indiana Jones, AND I’ll admit that’s where I learned about it before school. But movies that involve main characters who are historians, or archeologists who study humans through their material remains, must also be stereotyped as ‘treasure hunters’, ‘adventurers’, or ‘cool detectives’ who uncover what they’re finding without any help or colleagues to support them, who are almost always straight, of European background, male, and are almost always inaccurate.

NO. 3

The truly comical thing about is this? Since it is stereotyped that it’s a once in a lifetime job it is seen as ‘frivolous’, and not an actual lifechanging career that focuses on all contemporary human culture, like language, economic systems, social systems, art, and ideology. Social science focuses on the study of humanity, and they should be the forefront for everyone to study and learn from. And though I realize that we’re living in the technological age, those who study archaeology use technology, and explicitly use scientific method. When I was young, I was fascinated with history, with culture, and I wanted to change the world. I still believe in that sentiment, but I also understand that nothing will change if we don’t closely study the systems and cultures that benefit to an unjust, and unchanging society.

Oh my gosh. ARE YOU SERIOUS?! REALLY?! 😂😂😂😤😤😤

Proelium

“Jason.” Nico appears suddenly beside him. “Come spar with me.”

“Um, okay? But don’t you always practice with Will-”

“”We’re not currently talking,” Nico says shortly.

“Oh, I-” Jason flounders for a minute. Nico and Will bicker all the time but they have never had a fight fight (as far as he knows but he keeps very close tabs).

“Are you coming or not?” Nico growls impatiently, tapping his foot impatiently against the floor of the pavilion.

“Uh, yes?” Jason responds.

Nico turns around and stalks off and he hurries to follow him. He resolves not to think about Will and Nico’s fight. It’s probably their first big one, they’ll be alright in a day. ♦ 

They are not alright in a day.

The next day Jason happens to be talking to Percy nearby when Will storms past Nico, shoulder checking him on the way, without even a backward glance. Nico scowls at his back.

Jason and Percy exchange nervous glances. ♦ 

Two days later, Percy happens to be in the infirmary when Nico limps in with a gash on this right calf.

Will drags him to a bed, shoves everyone out of his way while getting supplies, and sets to work on Nico, his mouth shaped into a thin line.

Nico’s eyes are soft but he doesn’t say anything either.

Percy has never seen anyone being able to stitch someone up so aggressively but perfectly. ♦ 

Piper walks up to Nico four days later and says firmly, “You need to do something about Will.”

Nico scowls at her. “No.”

“He almost shot one of the Demeter kids today! He excels at archery. This is getting out of hand, Nico. You’re angry and moody all the time. Even the Hecate kids are afraid of breathing too loud when they walk past you. The Apollo cabin lost two points in the last cabin inspection because Will has been sulking and didn’t bother to clean, and everybody’s afraid of being the target of his surliness.”

“No.”

   Piper tries Will next.

“He’s so sad, Will. He keeps walking around like a dejected puppy.”

Will glowers at her. “Go away.”

Piper throws her hands up in the air exasperatedly. “What even happened between you two?”

“You can ask him.” He juts his chin towards their right, and she turns to see Nico walking in their direction.

“Come on-” She whirls around back to Will, but he’s gone. ♦ 

Annabeth walks up to him the next day and states, “Fix it.”

Nico glares at her.

Annabeth stares back, unimpressed.

“I want it done by tomorrow.” She walks away.

Nico escapes to Camp Jupiter that evening.     Reyna spots him almost as soon as he arrives.

“No,” she says shortly. “Go back home, Nico.”

Nico glares at her.

She shrugs. “Annabeth iris-mesaaged me and told me you were running from your problems.”

“I don’t want to go back,” he mutters petulantly.

“You’re going to have to, eventually. You look awful and he, he makes you happy, you know he does.”

He sighs unhappily. If Reyna’s saying something, he must look as pathetic as he feels.

Reyna’s eyes soften. “Stay for today, go back tomorrow. Let’s go join Hazel.”

She ruffles his hair and he swats her hand away, scowling. She laughs. ♦

“Fuck you,” is the first thing Will has to say to Nico when he comes back. 

He towers over him, glowering. “Seriously? You can’t deal with this so you run away? You complete and utter ass.”

“Well, you could have said something! Don’t act like you didn’t sulk like a kid too,” Nico yells.

“Yes, I did! Because you were wrong and were being unreasonable but you didn’t have to run away, you prick. I don’t love your opinions but I do love you!” Will shouts.

Nico stills.

“You do?” he asks, voice small.

“Hera knows why, but yes, yes I do.” Will’s voice has gone down, and his shoulders slump.

Nico grins at him, before reaching forward and grabbing a handful of Will’s shirt to pull him closer.

“I do too, you know,” he says softly.

“Duh,” Will says. Nico can see the beginning of a smile at the corners of his mouth so he leans forward to kiss it.

Will responds eagerly, and Nico can’t believe he went a week without this, without running his hand through Will’s hair, without feeling his hands all over him, without feeling like every part of his body is on fire, but so relaxed that he basically feel himself melting.

They have to break apart because they’re both smiling too much.

“I guess I can live with the fact that you like Hawkeye more than the Hulk,” Nico says, smiling.

Will grins at him.

“That’s what you were fighting about? I can’t believe you!” a voice shouts from behind him and they both turn to look at Jason, Piper and Percy standing.

“Uh, yeah. What did you think?” Will says, voice confused.

Piper and Percy continue to look at them with something akin to horror on their faces.

Jason glares at them, hissing, “I am a 100% done with this shit.” He stomps off.

Progress; the end to police brutality

  NO. 1

   Since the video of George Floyd’s death went viral on the internet, there have been protests across the world, calling for the policemen in question to not only be fired, but arrested and to serve the maximum in jail, and calling for . The senseless murder and case that follows brings up once again the senseless violence of police brutality and race in America once again. For me personally, seeing another black man be killed in such an egregious manner was...numbing. I also realized that events like this have become normalized for me. I didn’t exactly react because I, as a black woman didn’t know how to react. 

  The anniversary of one of the greatest race massacres in the United States occurred yesterday May 31, the Tulsa race riots, where in 1921, a white mob attacked not only black residents, killing between 30 to 300 black people, but more than 1,400 homes and businesses were burned, and nearly 10,000 people were left homeless. 

      NO. 2

I bring this up because historically, things have not changed in America. Police brutality is still the subject of attacks motivated by race. Throughout several years where we thought cases where black men have been shot and killed by the police would be a slam dunk trial; meaning that the officers involved would be prosecuted and serve the maximum in jail, and yet  the opposite happened, like the Eric Garner, Stephen Clark and Trayvon Martin, and new cases, like #RayshardBrooks and #ElijahMcCain. And yet, those officers in question were acquitted. 

The right to protest is protected by the First Amendment in the Constitution, where all citizens have the right to free speech, freedom of the press and the right to peacefully assemble. I write this because it seems like others don’t fully understand the protests going on now; the people who think that ‘peacefully protesting’ means to passively protest. And to passively protest means to erase the voices of millions in this country who already feel like their voices are not being heard. A great man by the name of Martin Luther King jr. said in his Letter from Birmingham Jail said, ‘’Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.’’

   NO.3

Too many black people have been dying at the hands of police at a dis, and the cause of it is directly tied to historic links of slavery and institutional and systemic racism. We want police to take accountability for the crimes they commit against innocent people. For eight minutes, George Floyd pleaded with the officer who had his knee on his neck. All officers need to uphold the responsibility of ‘to serve and protect’. If fifteen bad policemen are on the force, and there are 1300 good officers who do nothing to check those fifteen officers, then there are 1,315 bad police officers.           

I believe that these protests are just the tipping point, as people around the globe now are fed up with the injustice. Racism comes in various different forms, and it’s our generations time to stand up and acknowledge that these brutal acts have got to end, and that goes for anyone whose job is in law enforcement, medical fields, politics, teachers, fashion, entertainment, sports, or media, etc. All lives do matter, but until black people are treated like actual citizens in this country, then that’s a false and inconsistent statement, since it is meant to derail the black lives matter movement. Inequities still exist in this country, and pretending not to see it is just as wrong as those who are actively racist. We owe it to ourselves, and for the men, women and children who were killed over the years at the hands of police brutality, to not only research our public figures, especially in politics, and hire the ones who have our best interest at heart as a nation, but to enact new laws and bring about everlasting change.

Every last protestor who feels this is wrong, that innocent people are dying must vote. Voting sixty years ago used to be for the privileged, and now we all have that right to do so. The black lives matter movement was started by black women who feel action must be met. Black people deserve the same respect as any other human being, and the fact that it took two weeks of protesting and looting for that police officer to be arrested even though his death was video recorded is despicable, and the fact that it took even longer for prosecutors to arrest all the officers who were present for the death and didn’t help Floyd at all showed that widespread and global outrage was the only way justice was going to be served. 

So what are some solutions to this crisis? How can police officers gain the trust of their communities back? Done are the days where senseless killings are being swept under the rug, accustomed to a ‘few bad apples’. There must be stronger requirements for police officers and tougher training so that this doesn’t happen again. There is always going to be lawlessness, of course. But if white protestors can assemble on the streets of Congress with rocket launchers and AR-15’s during the early stages of the COVID-19 crisis so that they can open up their businesses without being tear gassed and shot with rubber bullets, then black people must also protest for their rights. 

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The Tuskegee Experiment

NO. 1

The Tuskegee Experiment was a hoax experiment used to study how black Americans differ from white Americans in catching a disease. It was a study truly held on the biases and stereotypes of other races. No scientific experiment inflicted more damage on the collective psyche of black Americans than the Tuskegee experiment. ‘‘In 1932, following a survey of the incidence of syphilis in a number of Southern regions, the venereal disease division of the U.S Public Health Service (USPHS) began what turned out to be a forty-year project in Macon County, Alabama, to follow the effects of untreated syphilis in some 400 black men. The study continued through World War II, when a number of the men who were called up for the draft and, had they not been research subjects, would have received medical attention for their infection. It continued through the 1950s, after the efficacy of penicillin treatment was established, and after the Nuremberg trials produced a code of ethics for biomedical research. It lasted through the 1960s, untouched by the civil rights agitation, and unaffected by the code of research adopted by the USPHS itself. It ended only in 1972 when an account of the experiment in the Washington Post sparked a furor.’’

NO. 2

One question that boggles the mind is how could an experiment of such degree that violated both moral and medical ethics continue on for so long? Unfortunately, no questions were asked about the rights and welfare of the men who became study/research subjects, and those same men didn’t even understand that they were unwillingly participating in a research project. Each man was given many treatments, placebo’s mostly, including a ‘spinal tap’, where the needle went directly into the spine without anesthesia, just to see what would happen. ‘‘At least three generations of doctors serving in the venereal disease division of the USPHS, numerous officials at the Tuskegee Institute and its affiliated hospital, hundreds of doctors in the Macon County and Alabama medical societies, and numerous foundation officials at the Rosenwald Fund and Milbank Memorial Fund. It also includes the many readers of such medical journals like the Public Health Reports, the Archives of Internal Medicine, and the Journal of Chronic Diseases. These readers could not have escaped the conclusion that untreated blacks had been severely damaged. In July 1954, an article in the Public Health Reports, to choose one example from many, concluded that ‘the life expectancy of a Negro Male between the ages of 25 to 50 years, infected with syphilis and receiving no appreciable treatment for his infection, is reduced by about 17%.’’

NO. 3

As the 400 men were being ‘treated’, government officials were ecstatic to see that syphilis was the same in blacks as it was in whites, by looking at the many and various autopsies of the men who did not survive, due to organ failure and damage. Racism was at the forefront of this tragedy, as scientists saw black men as expendable and looked forward to seeing the disease progress. Men who were affected tried to seek out treatment elsewhere, in other counties but were called back by the very doctors and nurses they trusted, since they were apart of the study. Once the news story broke out, many in the black community lost faith in the government and no longer believed health officials who spoke on matters of public concern. For example, when the AIDS crisis began in the ’80s and ’90s, ‘‘the Tuskegee experiment predisposed many blacks to distrust health authorities, a fact many whites had difficulty understanding. The NYTimes on May 6, 1992, many black Americans believes that AIDS and the health measures used against it are part of the conspiracy to wipe out the black race. To support their assertion, their editor cited a survey of black church members in 1990 that revealed ‘an astonishing 35% believed AIDS was a form of genocide.’

THINK BEFORE YOU BUY POISON!!

I know none of you want to see this but something has to be done! Awareness and education are key!!!

A friend of mine found this great horned owl that had eaten a poisoned rodent and died a slow terrible death.

When you’re setting out poison to kill rats, mice, ect. you’re very well setting poison out to also kill hawks, owls, etc.– basically animals that are “on your side”, helping you to eliminate those rodents.

Poisoned rodents don’t just immediately flop over and die. They’ll slowly stagger around as the poison begins to take effect, making them an easy meal for another animal to grab.

Some people might remember that I’ve posted about this before (the Great Horned owl baby found laying on the ground in April– also found too late to be saved.) This is unfortunately a common tragedy. Many people admire birds of prey, saying how beautiful they are, how they “absolutely love owls”, yet a disturbing amount are unaware that their uneducated/inconsiderate actions are leading to those birds dying an agonizing death as they slowly bleed internally.Someone I know who does wildlife rehabilitation/rescue recently got in a Red-tailed hawk that had consumed poison. They were ultimately unable to treat him, and she wasn’t even in the same room when she heard him gasping and wheezing, dying. For at least 10 years she has treated hundreds, probably thousands of animals and said it was one of the most disturbing things she’s witnessed dealing with wildlife.

Please consider what your actions may lead to. There are safer alternatives. Again, when you put out poison, you’re setting up a death for those that are naturally taking care of those rodents you want gone.

Gender and Religion

    NO.1

In order to understand the system of race, class and gender in America, we have to look at England’s role in their systems of class. ‘During this time period, the emergence of a consumer-oriented corporate order undermined the coherence of the Victorian gender system; rising gender consciousness among black women turned the ideology of ‘women’s sphere’ into a disrupted terrain of racial and struggle class; while women’s devotional practices became a site of gender contestation within American Catholic culture. Each of these developments has given impetus to new studies. Historians of conservative evangelicalism have complicated the heretofore easy equation of ‘Protestantism’ with ‘women’s sphere’ by delineating the different understandings of women’s role within early twentieth-century Protestantism; Progress across racial lines has been initiated by several important literary and historical studies that reveal how the separate spheres ideology served the interests of the white middle class by camouflaging racial and economic differences.’’

 NO. 2

Since the early 1980’s, advances in the study of gender in American history have come primarily through an unmasking of the assumptions of earlier studies; Others have laid bare the earlier scholarship’s assumption’s to universal gender definitions that do not take into account differences in women’s roles based on race, class, or region. Additionally, several historians have begun to explore the influence of gender relations on the lives of men. As a result, we are beginning to get a picture of gender in the American history that goes beyond the ‘women’s sphere’ experience of white, middle-class, northeastern women.

  For the past twenty years of this apparent lifetime, Protestant mainline has given way to a religious studies interest in the social and cultural history of outsiders. Concurrently, an older Protestant consensus narrative has come to be seen as one of several stories that, together seek to account for the American religious past. Further inquiries have questioned the usefulness of both liberal and evangelical labels in accounting for the deep racial, economic and theological divisions of late nineteenth century among the more than 150 Protestant denominations, not to speak of the rapidly growing population of Catholics with their own substantial differences of nationality, theology and social class. As historians have started to study seriously the deep diversities in American culture, gender has emerged as an important analytic category for re-imagining America’s religious past.

NO. 3

    As recently as 1985, Elizabeth Fox-Genovese complained that historians of religion and gender have too often simply added ‘religion to an almost finished picture rather than exploring ways in which religion might refine and even radically revise the picture.’ Within the past decade, however recent developments both within and without the field of American religious history have begun to coalesce and suggest the contours of promising new departures, and most of this new work focuses on the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Seneca Village

NO. 1

The history of Seneca Village is fraught with history, opportunity, and endurance against racism and white supremacy. In 1825, a ‘‘25-year-old African American shoe shiner named Andrew Williams bought land in the middle of Manhattan, two years before slavery was abolished in New York. More free Black Americans followed, fleeing the disease and discrimination of downtown, and together they created the bustling settlement. The village was home to the most significant number of African American property owners in NY before the Civil War. Because those black men possessed property, they were allowed to vote. Irish and German immigrants could also live there, and white and black churchgoers often side-by-side.

NO. 2

As you can see, Seneca Village was a thriving community, living far from the dense population of downtown, despite NY's abolition law in 1827, discrimination severely limited the lives of the African-American populace. Seneca Village provided access to more space from the unhealthy and crowded conditions of the city. ''By 1855, there were 52 houses in Seneca Village. On maps of the area, most of the houses were identified as one-, two-, or three-story houses made out of wood. Archeological excavations uncovered stone foundations and roofing materials, indicating that they were well-built. Some of the houses were identified as shanties, meaning that they were less well-constructed. Land ownership among Black residents was much higher than that in the city as a whole: more than half owned property in 1850, five times the property ownership rate of all New York City residents at the time. Many of Seneca Village's Black residents were landowners and relatively economically secure compared to their downtown counterparts in the Little Africa neighborhood by Greenwich Village.''

NO. 3

Unfortunately, Seneca's village’s demise had to do with the construction plans of what the settlement is today, Central Park. William Cullen Bryant, ‘‘the editor for the New York Evening Post at the time, and Andrew Jackson Downing, an English landscape architect, started the park project together. The Special Committee on Parks was formed. They surveyed possible sites before selecting Seneca Village, even getting NYS officials to legislate the Central Park Act in July 1853, authorizing a board of five commissioners to start purchasing land and creating a fund to raise money and donations for the plan. Before the acquisition of Central Park, Seneca Village was referred to with derogatory and racial slurs. Advocates for Cental Park used the media to describe Seneca Village and other communities like them as ‘‘poor squatters living in shanties’’.

NO. 4

The residents fought against the city’s planning as they were legally entitled to do so as landowners. But the Central Park Act set aside the 775 acres of land in Manhattan from 59th to 106th streets between 5th and 8th avenues to create the country’s first major landscape public park. ‘‘There were roughly 1,600 inhabitants displaced throughout the area. Although landowners were compensated, many argued that their land was undervalued. Ultimately, all residents had to leave by the end of 1857.’’ The settlement was discovered in 2011 when archaeologists from Columbia University uncovered artifacts such as an iron tea kettle, a roasting pan, a stoneware beer bottle, fragments of Chinese export porcelain, and a small shoe with a leather sole and fabric upper. This article is dedicated to the people of Seneca Village and other ‘Little Africa’s’ settlements all over this country that historians and archaeologists are finding in recent times who have continuously fought against the struggles of race, class, and economic opportunities that this country’s governmental systems continuously try to sweep aside.

Artifacts and Archives: The Rediscovery… | Central Park Conservancy (centralparknyc.org)

Santa Muerte

NO. 1

A skeletal figure dressed in robes or dressed in the virgin’s shroud, Santa Muerte is both the Grim Reap-ress and the Angel of Mercy. She is the personification of death, and her full title, Nuestra Señora de la Santa Muerte as she is well known as, brings an ambiguous and malleable identity that is associated with healing, protection, and safe delivery to the afterlife by her devotees, as her following, especially in 21st century is being celebrated all over South America, but especially Mexico City to the United States and Canada.

NO. 2

Even though Christian missionaries and leaders condemned the religion, Santa Muerte ‘‘offers hope to a society threatened with hopelessness. In the colorful barrios of Mexican culture, the figure of Death is ubiquitous. With the lure and dangers of narco-culture, the violence among competing youth gangs, the haunting realities of an economy in collapse, and the gravel fight to survive in a Tepito marketplace; Mexicans face the reality of death on a daily basis. Santa Muerte, the image of death, protects them from uncertainties in their everyday lives. When Death is the only guarantee, it seems like Death is the only one to be trusted.’’ The worship of Santa Muerte began in the mid-20th century and was clandestine until the 1990s, were most prayers and other rites have been performed traditionally at home. Now in the 21st century, worship has become a more public thing. Santa Muerte has a male counterpart in the U.S, called the skeletal folk saints San La Muerte of Paraguay and Rey Pascual of Guatemala.

NO. 3

So, what caused the worship of Santa Muerte to become a massive, worldwide following? Drug violence, for one, and loss of faith in Christianity. ‘‘Former Mexican president Felipe Calderon’s declaration of war on the cartels in 2006 was received with praise by North American politicians, as in their view, it seemed that the Mexican government was finally taking a strong stand against the cartels and that there would be a swift resolution to the social problems associated with drug trafficking. This open war declared on the cartels resulted in an escalation of drug violence and forced several dramatic changes in the safety of Mexico and its already chaotic social scene. Military personnel, paramilitary groups, and the cartels have been fighting for control of the country and have created a state of panic in the border towns and beyond. The panic and violence in the north have begun to gradually make it’s way south and reach areas that were once ‘safe’. According to the BBC from 2006 to 2012, more than 50,000 individuals have died from drug-related violence. Amidst the drug-related instability, the once strong and influential Mexican Catholic Church has been losing credibility, support, and members. The loss of faith in the Catholic Church could be caused by many factors: general pessimism, individuals searching for other forms of faith, and the result of the church’s support for governing political parties.’’

NO. 4

Who is Santa Muerte? Anthropologists and historians J. Katia Perdigon Castaneda and R. Andrew Chestnut agree that the veneration of Santa Muerte is a combination of Catholic imagery and rituals from Meso-American pre-Hispanic gods and rituals. There is a common list of names for the goddess, such as Mi Nina, (My little girl), La Nina Bonita (the Pretty Girl), La Madrina (the Godmother), and Mi Amor (My Love)—adoring names that tighten the relationship between devotee and saint. There are darker allegations like Senora de la Sombras (Lady of the Shadows) or La Negra (the Black Lady). There is also La Hermana Blanca (The White Sister) and Hermana de la Luz (Sister of the Light). She is celebrated on the Day of the Dead, November 1st and 2nd. better known as Dia De los Muertos.

Jason: *throws open door*

Jason: you two ARE having sex

Will and Nico: *innocently laying around and reading*

Nico: we are? Will why didn't you tell me, I would have put my book down