Culture

Traditional paradigms within the anthropological community have been narrow and shortsighted in retrospect. This is because many of them fail to consider the econo-political aspects of culture and how it imposes racial segregation and economic marginalization on a people. In his book In Search of Respect, Philippe Bourgois (12) plans to restore the “agency of culture, the autonomy of individuals, and the centrality of gender and the domestic sphere to a political economic understanding of the experience of persistent poverty and social marginalization in the urban United States.” However, if we study the residents of East Harlem the author contends experience such segregation and marginalization, we can see that the ideologies and rituals of other cultures in non-urban areas share many similarities with them. In a way, all three groups of peoples represent cultural creativity in the way they maintain sustenance as segregated, maginalized groups different than the dominant econo-political one shaping the larger environment in which they exist.

The scope of this research is too narrow to identify all the similarities and differences between the three cultures. However, if we focus on two in particular we get a good sense of how these cultures have used “creative” methods to sustain in the midst of racism and poverty: employment/economic opportunity; education/cultural identity. In East Harlem, a

. . .
criminal activity in reaction to their dominance, but they do experience similar limitations as the residents of East Harlem. The Yanomamo live a lifestyle that is based on slash and burn farming. Carefully planted gardens provide sustenance for the family and all members of the family are employed in the production of its own goods. Each man is given a plot of land dependent upon the size of his family. Game hunting also provides them their sustenance in a lifestyle that is harmonious with nature and could last thousands of years without causing harm to the environment. However, commercial exploitation by the dominant econo-political forces outside the Yanomamo is threatening them with destruction from the destruction of their lands. Without regard for their rights, culture, lifestyle or the soundness of establishing such harmonious-with-nature cultures, “The Indians existence, and that of millions of animal and plant species, is threatened by the destruction of the trees and the arrival of the incomers. Outsiders assume that the soil is permanently rich and expect that once the trees are cleared, the land will be very productive. But after two years no crops will grow because the richness of the jungle is in the trees.
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
East Harlem, Harlem Yanomamo, Puerto Ricans, Harlem Sherpas, Harlem Sherpa, Philippe Bourgois, Eastern Nepal, Anthropology Traditional, Junbesi Academy, Sherpa Buddhist, east harlem, residents east, residents east harlem, dominant econo-political, cultural identity, sherpa culture, 16 1998 1-2, 1998 1-2, 16 1998, 1-2 yanomamo, harlem culture, east harlem culture, education native language, dec 16 1998, author contends,
Approximate Word count = 1565
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

More Essays on Culture