Transcript Culture, The Cultural Defense, and Domestic

Chapter 14
Anthropology Makes a Difference
Chapter Outline
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The Chagossians and Diego Garcia
Contributions of Anthropology in the
Contemporary World
Race and Racism
Human Remains
Museum Representations of Indigenous
Peoples
Environmental Pollution
Domestic Violence
Chapter Outline
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Medical Anthropology
Exploited Children
Advocating for Workers
Bringing It Back Home: Culture, the Cultural
Defense, and Domestic Violence
Contributions of Anthropology
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Goes beyond commitment to a position of
advocacy
Emphasizes understanding the meaning and
experience of people in different cultures
Teaches about the dynamic elements of social
organization and its interrelationships at local
and global levels
Contributions of Anthropology
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Contributes to analysis of human events
and solutions to human problems
Helps governments create and implement
policies that are sensitive to local cultural
traditions
Ensures that the stories of ordinary
people are told and heard and not
forgotten
Public Anthropology
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Anthropology that aims to communicate with
nonanthropological audiences and to have an
impact on critical issues of wide social
significance
Race and Racism
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Contemporary science shows that humans
are more genetically alike than different.
The idea of race is not supported by study of
anthropology.
• Race is how people assign meaning based
on how you look.
• Race is a recent human invention.
• Understanding of race is rooted in culture.
Racism continues embedded in everyday
American life.
RACE Project
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A traveling museum and website sponsored by
the America Anthropological Association that
emphasizes the cultural construction of race in
the U.S.
Uses the lens of history, science, and lived
experience to explore:
• the everyday experience of race.
• the contemporary science that is challenging
commonly held ideas about race.
• the history of the idea of race in the United
States.
African Burial Ground
National Monument
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Site in lower Manhattan in New York
where the skeletal remains and artifacts
of an African American community were
discovered and analyzed by
anthropologists
Led to greater understanding of the role of
both free and enslaved blacks in the 18th
and 19th centuries
African Burial Ground
National Monument
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Used as an 18th-century burial ground for
a local African American community
Believed to have contained as many as
20,000 burials when it was closed in 1790
Excavated by Michael Blakely, a
biological anthropologist
Forensic Anthropology
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The application of physical anthropology to
identifying skeletal or badly decomposed
human remains to assist in the detection of
crime and the prosecution of those responsible
Forensic Anthropology
Here, forensic anthropologists Michelle Hamilton and Kate Spradley
collect data on the remains of Hispanic individuals who died along the
U.S.-Mexico border.
Why might work such as this be important today?
Anthropology and Museums
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The anthropological perspective
contributes to museums by:
• providing narratives to frame
indigenous art.
• labeling objects to emphasize
ethnographic context.
• collaborating with indigenous peoples in
the exhibition of their own art.
Environmental Justice
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A movement to expose and address the
problems of environmental pollution among
poor, powerless, and minority communities
Environmental Justice
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Anthropologist Melissa Checker’s work in Hyde
Park, GA, revealed environmental racism.
• Factories and chemical plants were built near
black neighborhoods, causing environmental
and health problems.
• A white community sued one of the factories,
but the black communities weren’t informed
and therefore could not receive
compensation.
The environmental justice movement that grew
out of this issue has achieved some successes.
Domestic Violence
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Anthropologists are particularly interested in the role of
culture in domestic violence.
Cultural traditions play a role in the incidences of
domestic violence.
• Example: Because some immigrants to the U.S.
come from patriarchal cultures, rates of domestic
violence tend to be higher for those groups.
Cultural traditions also play a role in the responses to
domestic violence.
• Example: In Kazakhstan, it is normal for men to
beat their wives, so very few people report
domestic violence.
Medical Anthropology
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Subfield of anthropology that draws upon
social, cultural, biological, and linguistic
anthropology to better understand those
factors that influence health and illness
Concerned with the experience,
distribution, prevention, and treatment of
disease
Medical Anthropology
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Calls attention to the factors that contribute to
the spread of HIV/AIDS, particularly among
disadvantaged populations
• ecological factors
• political factors
• cultural factors
• biological factors
• economic factors
Exploited Children
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Mary Kenney studied child workers in
Brazil.
Richard Curtis studied young sex workers
in New York City.
Both are symptoms of poverty that leave
children and youth in poor working and
living conditions.
Advocating for Workers
Hong Kong
anthropologist Pun Hgai
conducted an
ethnography of female
factory workers in China.
Advocating for Workers
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Dr. Pun spent 6 months working in a factory
alongside the workers, called “dagongmei.”
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15 hour days
Dormitory-style housing, guarded and locked at
night
Low wages
Dr. Pun followed up her field study with a
continuing commitment to improving conditions
for dagongmei in China.
Bringing it Back Home: Culture,
The Cultural Defense, and
Domestic Violence
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Anthropologists have frequently been used as
expert witnesses as part of a “cultural defense”
argument. Cultural defense is:
• a legal argument that attempts to mitigate
conviction and sentencing in criminal cases
by invoking the influence of culture on
behavior.
Bringing it Back Home: Culture,
The Cultural Defense, and
Domestic Violence
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Cultural defense is often used by men in an
attempt to avoid or mitigate punishment related
to domestic violence.
• In cases where defendants are members of a
subcultural group associated with a
patriarchal culture
• Used by defendants who have killed their
partners due to the family’s reputation
Bringing it Back Home: Culture,
The Cultural Defense, and
Domestic Violence
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Many women’s groups have protested against
the “cultural defense.”
• There should be only one standard of human
justice.
• It sends out a dangerous message that
immigrant women will not be protected under
American law.
• It allows one to rely on an outdated and static
view of culture.
Bringing it Back Home: Culture,
The Cultural Defense, and
Domestic Violence
You decide:
• What are the ethical issues surrounding the
“cultural defense?”
• Besides cases of domestic violence, in what
other circumstances might it be used?
• Do you believe that there is a universal
sense of justice or that it is culturally relative?
Quick Quiz
1. Anthropology that aims to
communicate with nonanthropological
audiences and to have an impact on
critical issues of wide social
significance is called
a) service anthropology.
b) public anthropology.
c) development anthropology.
d) indigenous anthropology.
Answer: b
Anthropology that aims to communicate
with nonanthropological audiences and
to have an impact on critical issues of
wide social significance is called public
anthropology.
2. Forensic anthropology focuses
specifically on
a)
b)
c)
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studying the process of decomposition in
order to determine human evolution.
working with crime units in order to
apprehend and charge criminals in specific
crimes against humanity.
identifying skeletal or decomposed human
remains in order to assist in detection of
crime.
collecting human remains to discern how
many burials there are in mass graves.
detecting diseases and infections that occur
to humans.
Answer: c
Forensic anthropology focuses
specifically on identifying skeletal or
decomposed human remains in order
to assist in detection of crime.
3. A movement to expose and address the
problems of environmental pollution
among poor, powerless, and minority
communities is called
a) cultural defense.
b) medical anthropology.
c) environmental racism.
d) environmental justice.
Answer: d
A movement to expose and address the
problems of environmental pollution
among poor, powerless, and minority
communities is called environmental
justice.