Essay

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Essay

Introduction

The reading that was chosen to do this paper is “Perspective: An Open Invitation to Cultural Anthropology” that is written by Thomas Mcllwraith. The reason why I chose this topic was to understand the concept of family and marriage all around the world. It is true that the concept of having a family is found in every society. These notions have become a part of our cultural understanding. In this paper, I will reflect upon and discuss the chosen article.

Discussion

In my opinion the main point of the reading is to make individuals understand how the family and marriage structure varies around the world on the basis of society’s religious, economic, environmental and cultural differences. It is a given that studying the family and marriage structure is essential to anthropology (McIlwraith). It aids in understanding how the societies connect and how people interact with one another to make their community function. However, there is no substantial research done which proves that families are supposed to be arranged in a certain manner for them to function better.

I really enjoyed reading the article as it helped me look at things from a broader perspective. The most interesting thing about the reading was that there are certain roles that the society and culture expects of an individual and as per the reading, these roles are manmade and there is no standard origination to them. A small example from the reading, which was thought-provoking for me was; “the roles associated with the status of “mother” in a typical Euro-American middle-income family included caring for children and keeping a house; they probably did not include working for wages outside the home.” This fact proves that the role of women was assigned based on what was expected of them, not by what they were meant to do or could do (McIlwraith).

Conclusion

To me, the most significant fact that I learned from this reading was that there is no set standard to how a family is supposed to be. Even the roles that are assigned to each family members can vary and change based on how the society and the cultural setup morphs. Were their certain roles and status’s that were present in the American Society as well? Yes. Have they changed over time? Yes again. Lately, a woman and man are working their differences and trying to walk beside each other as equals, as opposed to following patriarchy which was embedded by the society in the old days. Hence, role of an individual changes as culture evolves.

(Word Count – 425)

Work Cited

McIlwraith, Thomas. "Perspectives: An Open Invitation to Cultural Anthropology."