Anthropology Today Essay -- Anthropology

Anthropology Today In society today, the discipline of anthropology has made a tremendous shift from the practices it employed years ago. Anthropologists of today have a very different focus from their predecessors, who would focus on relating problems of distant peoples to the Western world. In more modern times, their goal has become much more local, in focusing on human problems and issues within the societies they live. This paper will identify the roles anthropologists today play, such as where they perform the bulk of their work, and what it is they do in both problem solving, as well as policy making. It will also identify the issues they are faced with, that is, the nature of the problems they address. Ethics have always been an important part of anthropology, and this paper will also deal with the ethical goals of today's anthropologists and some of the ethical problems they are faced with. The information of this paper was obtained entirely from the internet. It was designed as an internet project structured to both teach and familiarize research through the World Wide Web. Any data in this paper was derived through information posted publicly on internet sites available to any member of the public with an internet connection. As a result of the narrow area of research, the information provided both to the author and the reader is limited. While it is true that the internet is a source of boundless information, the sheer amount of it all makes reading all of it impossible. Also, the total lack of journal reports, or texts, means that while the information provided may not be minimal, it is nonetheless limited. When people think of an anthropologist, the image of the jungle traveling character comes to mind. A white man sitting in a hut on some primitive island, taking notes on the local tribes s/he is living with. Decades ago, this was actually the case. However, as time progresses, so does the role of the anthropologist in today's society. Very rarely now does anthropology actually involve extensive fieldwork in an exotic location. Today, an M.A. or a Ph.D. in the field of anthropology means that a job locally may be available to you. There is always the academic side of things, such as becoming a professor of the discipline, but this paper will focus more on the non-academic roles of the anthropo... ...y have come full- circle; no longer do they study the foreign, but now study the local. Their positions in society are almost too many to mention, but the severe increase in the business world must be mentioned. It can be said that the discipline of anthropology covers a wide variety of tasks as well as overlapping with other fields of the social sciences, but that statement becomes more true with each passing year. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. AAA 2000 "Code of Ethics of the American Anthropological Association", http://www.aaanet.org/committees/ethics/ethcode.htm 2. Anonymous 2000 "Society for Applied Anthropology", http://www.sfaa.net/sfaajobs.html, Oct. 18, 2000 3. Anonymous 2000 "A guide for field projects on adaptive strategies", http://iisd1.iisd.ca/casl/CASLGuide/ParticipantObserver.htm, Jan. 17, 2000 4. Cassell, Joan and Sue-Ellen Jacobs "American Anthropological Associasion Handbook on Ethical Issues in Anthropology", http://www.aaanet.org/committees/ethics/toc.htm 5. High Top Media 2000 "Anthropology Links", http://hightopmedia.com/HTMANTHlinks.htm, Apr. 2000 6. SfAA 2000 "Society for Applied Anthropology", http://www.sfaa.net/, Sept. 29, 2000

Efficiency of the Video Camera

We usually use the video camera in order to save the important moment. Before using the video camera, the written record had been used as a documentary tool. You couldn’t completely observe the important social event and only predicted through the sentences. Video recording are more accurate and convincing than a written record. The Video camera provides some advantages in the contemporary life. First of all, the video recording is a more important means of documentary tool in the contemporary life. For example, we saved the important events such as the big match and the historical ceremony. We had the time capsule in the Jangchung-dong, Seoul at the turn of this millennium. Our â€Å"The video camera provides such an accurate and convincing record of contemporary life that it has become a more important form of documentation than written records. † According to the speaker, the video recording is a more important means of document hag contemporary life than a written record because video recordings are more accurate and convincing. Although I agree that a video provides a more objective and accurate record of an event's spatial aspects, there is far more to document ha life than what we see and hear. Thus the speaker overstates the comparative significance of video as a documentary tool. For the purpose of documenting temporal, spatial events and experiences, I agree that a video record is usually more accurate and more convincing than a written record. It is impossible for anyone, no matter how keen an observer and skilled a journalist, to recount ha complete and objective detail such events as the winning touchdown at the Super Bowl, a Ballanchine ballet, the Tournament of Roses Parade, or the scene at the intersection of Florence and Normandy streets during the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Yet these are important events in contemporary life the sort of events we might put ha a time capsule for the purpose of capturing our life and times at the turn of this millennium. The growing documentary role of video is not limited to seminal events like those described above. Video surveillance cameras are objective witnesses with perfect memories. Thus they can play a vital evidentiary role in legal proceedings–such as those involving robbery, drug trafficking, police misconduct, motor vehicle violations, and even malpractice in a hospital operating room. Indeed, whenever moving images are central to an event the video camera is superior to the written word. A written description of a hurricane, tornado, or volcanic eruption cannot convey its immediate power and awesome nature like a video record. A diary entry cannot â€Å"replay† that wedding reception, dance recital, or surprise birthday party as accurately or objectively as a video record. And a real estate brochure cannot inform about the lighting, spaciousness, or general ambiance of a featured property nearly as effectively as a video. Nonetheless, for certain other purposes written records are advantageous to and more appropriate than video records. For example, certain legal matters are best left to written documentation: video is of no practical use ha documenting the terms of a complex contractual agreement, an incorporation, or the establishment of a trust. And video is of little use when it comes to documenting a person's subjective state of mind, impressions, or reflections of an event or experience. Indeed, to the extent that personal interpretation adds dimension and richness to the record, written documentation is actually more important than video. Finally, a video record is of no use in documenting statistical or other quantitative information. Returning to the riot example mentioned earlier, imagine relying on a video to document the financial loss to store owners, the number of police and firefighters involved, and so forth. Complete and accurate video documentation of such information would require video cameras at every street corner and in every aisle of every store. In sum, the speaker's claim overstates the importance of video records, at least to some extent. When it comes to capturing, storing, and recalling temporal, spatial events, video records are inherently more objective, accurate, and complete. However, what we view through a camera lens provides only one dimension of our life and times; written documentation will always be needed to quantify, demystify, and provide meaning to the world around us.

The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn By Mark Twain - 1263 Words

Mark Twain was born as Samuel Langhorne Clemens on November 30, 1835 in the town of Florida, Missouri. The Clemens family was well off and rather affluent in their home town of Hannibal, thanks in part to his father being a local judge. Mark held many jobs as a youth after dropping out of school, mainly as a printer’s apprentice, an editorial assistant and then later as a licensed river pilot on the Mississippi. Over the course of his life he penned numerous sketches and short stories, as well as 28 books. His most popular books were â€Å"The Adventures of Tom Sawyer† and the follow-up â€Å"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn†. Mark Twain was the best literary icon of his time and arguably the greatest American icon of all time. Extracts from†¦show more content†¦Adam laments on numerous occasions his misfortune of having been found by this creature and also the fact that it won’t just go back into the forest with all the other strange creatures. I enjoyed the first Sunday post where Adam started with the phrase â€Å"Pulled through† as if Sundays were some contest or race that needed to be completed. He then comments on the fact that for him every day was like a Sunday before the soon to be named Eve came along. I find this post to be used in the satire form of comic writing. I don’t believe the point was to shame Eve, but more of a sexist play of how woman as a whole control a Husband or significant others weekend through a â€Å"Honey do list† or the occasional constant nagging about mowing the lawn, fixing various items around the house and what-not. Adam’s following Sunday post is even shorter, more to the point and in my opinion funnier that his first. All that reads in it is â€Å"Pulled through†! He did not even have the time, energy or care enough to further elaborate and that speaks volumes in and of it self. Mr. Twain sprinkles in a little word play in the day where Adam is complaining about Eve putting up signs everywhere and turning the Garden into a summer resort. His last sentence reads â€Å"But it is best not to ask her, she has such a rage for explaining†, his use of the