Response 5

Name

Date

Summer 2019

Professor Name

Reading Response five

“Perspectives: An Open Invitation to Cultural Anthropology,” written by Dr. Lauren Miller Griffith of Texas Tech University and Dr. Jonathan S. Marion of University of Arkansas, and edited by Nina Brown, Laura Tubelle de González, and Thomas McIlwraith, explores the significance of performance in culture with the help of distinction between performance of culture and cultural performance, constructions of gender, outcomes of performance. After reading the article, I felt that the authors tried to explain the behavior and acts of the people to develop the culture, however, there were various points in the chapter that raised the questions. In the starting, the chapter was discussed using terms like “cultural performances” and “performances of culture” ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"SrjyjO4n","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Brown et al.)","plainCitation":"(Brown et al.)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":856,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/mlRB1JqV/items/DGA7HJ5Z"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/mlRB1JqV/items/DGA7HJ5Z"],"itemData":{"id":856,"type":"book","title":"Perspectives: an open invitation to cultural anthropology","source":"Open WorldCat","abstract":"We are delighted to bring to you this novel textbook, a collection of chapters on the essential topics in cultural anthropology. Different from other introductory textbooks, this book is an edited volume with each chapter written by a different author. Each author has written from their experiences working as an anthropologist and that personal touch makes for an accessible introduction to cultural anthropology. Our approach to cultural anthropology is holistic. We see the interconnectedness of cultural practices and, in all of the chapters, we emphasize the comparison of cultures and the ways of life of different peoples. We start with Laura Nader's observation that cultural differences need not be seen as a problem. In our complicated world of increasing migration, nationalism, and climate challenges, cultural diversity might actually be the source of conflict resolution and new approaches to ensuring a healthier world. Indeed, as Katie Nelson reminds us, anthropology exposes the familiarity in the ideas and practices of others that seem bizarre. Robert Borofsky advocates for anthropology's ability to empower people and facilitate good. Borofsky calls on anthropologists to engage with a wider public to bring our incredible stories and important insights to helping resolve the most critical issues we face in the world today. This book brings Nader, Nelson, Borofsky, and many others together to demonstrate that our anthropological understandings can help all of us to improve the lives of people the world over. We need you, as students, to see the possibilities. As instructors, we want to help you share anthropological knowledge and understanding easily. We want all readers to be inspired by the intensely personal writings of the anthropologists who contribute to this volume.","ISBN":"978-1-931303-55-2","note":"OCLC: 1050870316","title-short":"Perspectives","language":"en","author":[{"family":"Brown","given":"Nina"},{"family":"González","given":"Laura Tubelle","dropping-particle":"de"},{"family":"McIlwraith","given":"Thomas"},{"literal":"BC Open Textbook Project"},{"literal":"BCcampus"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2017"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Brown et al.). While the chapter is accurately defined the concept of performance, however, I feel that the case study which is used to explain the term does not reflect the whole population. The next authors discussed was "everyday performance" by explaining the tension between agency and hegemony. I felt that the example is given in the section "presentation of self" is not accurate. It is the fact that people behave differently when they feel that someone is watching them but I do not think that every individual has a different attitude when he is alone. I was impressed by the line "Clothing, physical characteristics, comportment, and facial expressions all contribute to one's personal front" because I believe that these factors definitely help to identify the personality and status of the individuals ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"SrjyjO4n","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Brown et al.)","plainCitation":"(Brown et al.)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":856,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/mlRB1JqV/items/DGA7HJ5Z"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/mlRB1JqV/items/DGA7HJ5Z"],"itemData":{"id":856,"type":"book","title":"Perspectives: an open invitation to cultural anthropology","source":"Open WorldCat","abstract":"We are delighted to bring to you this novel textbook, a collection of chapters on the essential topics in cultural anthropology. Different from other introductory textbooks, this book is an edited volume with each chapter written by a different author. 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Borofsky calls on anthropologists to engage with a wider public to bring our incredible stories and important insights to helping resolve the most critical issues we face in the world today. This book brings Nader, Nelson, Borofsky, and many others together to demonstrate that our anthropological understandings can help all of us to improve the lives of people the world over. We need you, as students, to see the possibilities. As instructors, we want to help you share anthropological knowledge and understanding easily. We want all readers to be inspired by the intensely personal writings of the anthropologists who contribute to this volume.","ISBN":"978-1-931303-55-2","note":"OCLC: 1050870316","title-short":"Perspectives","language":"en","author":[{"family":"Brown","given":"Nina"},{"family":"González","given":"Laura Tubelle","dropping-particle":"de"},{"family":"McIlwraith","given":"Thomas"},{"literal":"BC Open Textbook Project"},{"literal":"BCcampus"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2017"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Brown et al.). My issue with the chapter is the use of various case studies. It can be useful to elaborate the concepts discussed in the chapter. However, the problem is that the whole explanation of each concept was based on a particular case study. This is a pattern throughout the chapter which restricted the thinking power of the reader. In the section “performance communities,” no case study was used and a general discussion with the example of dance helped to understand the term “community of practice”. The example of salsa that is now performed as local practice and worldwide identifies that dance styles become the cultural practice while variations can be accepted only when the large population get involved in it ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"SrjyjO4n","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Brown et al.)","plainCitation":"(Brown et al.)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":856,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/mlRB1JqV/items/DGA7HJ5Z"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/mlRB1JqV/items/DGA7HJ5Z"],"itemData":{"id":856,"type":"book","title":"Perspectives: an open invitation to cultural anthropology","source":"Open WorldCat","abstract":"We are delighted to bring to you this novel textbook, a collection of chapters on the essential topics in cultural anthropology. Different from other introductory textbooks, this book is an edited volume with each chapter written by a different author. Each author has written from their experiences working as an anthropologist and that personal touch makes for an accessible introduction to cultural anthropology. Our approach to cultural anthropology is holistic. We see the interconnectedness of cultural practices and, in all of the chapters, we emphasize the comparison of cultures and the ways of life of different peoples. We start with Laura Nader's observation that cultural differences need not be seen as a problem. In our complicated world of increasing migration, nationalism, and climate challenges, cultural diversity might actually be the source of conflict resolution and new approaches to ensuring a healthier world. Indeed, as Katie Nelson reminds us, anthropology exposes the familiarity in the ideas and practices of others that seem bizarre. Robert Borofsky advocates for anthropology's ability to empower people and facilitate good. Borofsky calls on anthropologists to engage with a wider public to bring our incredible stories and important insights to helping resolve the most critical issues we face in the world today. This book brings Nader, Nelson, Borofsky, and many others together to demonstrate that our anthropological understandings can help all of us to improve the lives of people the world over. We need you, as students, to see the possibilities. As instructors, we want to help you share anthropological knowledge and understanding easily. We want all readers to be inspired by the intensely personal writings of the anthropologists who contribute to this volume.","ISBN":"978-1-931303-55-2","note":"OCLC: 1050870316","title-short":"Perspectives","language":"en","author":[{"family":"Brown","given":"Nina"},{"family":"González","given":"Laura Tubelle","dropping-particle":"de"},{"family":"McIlwraith","given":"Thomas"},{"literal":"BC Open Textbook Project"},{"literal":"BCcampus"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2017"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Brown et al.). It helped me to understand the fact that culture and performance has a direct link. However, performance can be a part of culture only when the maximum number of people show acceptance. In my opinion, authors not fully but somehow managed to engage the readers to explain the composition of culture through various examples and cases related to dance, and other art performances. In the end, I want to highlight the point that art like dance is not the part of some religions like Islam then how their culture adopts such performance.

Word count: 463

Work Cited:

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Brown, Nina, et al. Perspectives: An Open Invitation to Cultural Anthropology. 2017.