50th Anniversary Celebration
This is an excerpt from the paper...
In looking at the anthropological literature, there is a great emphasis on describing marriage rituals, but not much emphasis on anniversary celebrations. Still, there is considerable discussion about pair bonding and monogamy and much disagreement about their roles in evolution and current human life. Natalie Angier (1995) noted, for instance, that pair bonding and monogamy is partially explained by the fact that babies need long term care (and reinforced by the fact that human beings have mid sized testicles). Yet, among hunter gatherers, monogamy is not universal and there is no social rule for it as in modern Western countries (Leakey and Lewin, 1978). That rule might have developed along with the culture emphasizing the accumulation of possessions that emerged from the agricultural and industrial revolutions (Leakey and Lewin, 1977). In any event, in the United States, anniversaries are important events, particularly at the 10 year, 25 year, and 50 year levels. In this paper, is described a 50th anniversary celebration of a couple from a European American background, primarily German. Since no comparisons have been done, it is not clear whether a German background would make this ritual different from one by a French American family, for example. There were 65 people at the gathering, including both family and friends of the couple. Most of the people at the gathering were family members
. . .
tivity that is expected on this kind of occasion.
Kinds of Interactions
The interactions among participants were numerous. Most of the interactions occurred between individuals seated at their tables. Many of the participants sat at their tables for much of the evening, although others mingled extensively. Some of the younger people stood near the bar, while some of the older people were quite stationary.
Most of the interactions were simply verbal. People talked to each other. When participants first arrived, there was more touch, as many people hugged each other in greeting. During the evening, however, there was very little touch between the participants. There was some dancing, with corresponding touch, but this was limited.
Most of the interactions were also informal. They were conversational, people talking to each other. The formal interactions were limited primarily to people speaking from the head table, including the husband and the man serving as the introducer or master of ceremonies. These were not responded to. They were also limited. There was actually only one person who was not at the head table who made a formal speech, although others were encouraged to speak.
Reinforcing Group Ideals and Goals
It
. . .
Some common words found in the essay are:
Leakey Lewin, Status Roles, Kinds Interactions, Ideals Goals, Natalie Angier, Celebration Introduction, head table, RE Lewin, References Angier, couple head, couple head table, 50th anniversary, Leakey RE, NY Doubleday, pair bonding monogamy, leakey re, lewin 1977, re lewin, wedding cake, pair bonding, 50th anniversary celebration, leakey re lewin, bonding monogamy, roles status,
Approximate Word count = 1446
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
More Essays on 50th Anniversary Celebration
|
Customer Service
to Over
32,000 Professionally Written Papers!!!
