of people. They learn the language, history, kinship patterns, and every aspect of the target culture. They live and work among their target populations and gather numerous informants who will teach them about the target culture. Yet, they would never proclaim that they are the expert on that people. They, instead, humbly admit that their study is merely a detailed cultural account at a specific time and place. No more, no less.
Anthropologists may be a humble group readily admitting to biases and rejecting absolutist conclusions. On the other hand, the study of social and cultural anthropology can change your life, because it can deeply change your worldview. It can make you a keener observer by giving you the tools to observe people and human interactions from a more objective and analytical stance. It does this by training you to observe not only explicit culture, but the more elusive, and much more interesting, implicit culture. Social and cultural anthropologists are always looking for implicit culture perhaps even more so than explicit culture. Therefore, hopefully you will find yourself looking for more implicit cultural indicators such as gender relationships, power hierarchies, societal structures, inequalities, kinship relations, et cetera. Explicit culture is more “in your face’, so to speak. It is what the culture presents for us to see. For example, explicit culture would be marriage ceremonies and all the ritual and ceremony that go with them. Most American informants, for instance, could easily describe a traditional middle-class mainstream marriage ceremony where the bride wears a white dress and the groom a dark-colored tuxedo. But anthropologists look more for the implicit. They may ask why there is such a stark differentiation in the dress of the bride and groom especially on the wedding day. Even though women wear pants in everyday American attire, why on this particular day would a bride never wear pants, at least in the traditional heterosexual marriage practice? Why does the bride carry flowers and not the groom? What is the historical context behind the American wedding ritual? How did it evolve? Why is the male and female bodily presentation so starkly differentiated? What are the symbolic meanings of this performance? What about all the props, for example the flowers, the gifts, the church itself, the religious aspect, the performance roles? As you can see, I could go on and on. And that is what an anthropologist does. They look deeply into any human performance, whether it is a formal ritualistic performance like a wedding, or an informal one like a neighborhood gathering. All human interactions are interesting to curious anthropologists, especially the implicit, the questions or topics generally not discussed openly or not a part of the usual discourse. Implicit cultural displays are always ripe for anthropological investigations.
One more final point about the importance of social and cultural anthropology. As briefly mentioned above, this subject has the potential to change your life, because it has the potential to change your worldview. Like most Americans, before I began studying SCA, I had a rather rigid and limited worldview. I am not proclaiming that today I have an infallible grasp on the world and its inhabitants. Far from it. But I have learned that the world is a complex sphere with over seven billion inhabitants and too many cultures and subcultures to quantify. And these numerous groups are constantly in a state of flux. Grasping even the comprehensive knowledge of even one group of people is a monumental task. But SCA can make you more aware of the scope of human understanding and make you a keener and more critical observer of the human condition. And with this awareness, comes a much needed dose of humility, and with that humility you may become more tolerant and less judgmental of others, while becoming more cognizant of your own limitations.
I love social and cultural anthropology, so I admit that I am terribly biased in my assessment of this subject. I do not see how anybody could not absolutely love this subject, because when we study anthropology, we are studying ourselves. And we all have a little narcissism within us, so who could not fall in love with anthropology? However, I also have to admit that some of the ethnographies I have read have put me to sleep within five minutes. One of the reasons for the tedium is that ethnographies have to go into great detail about a group of people in order to present that group in a comprehensive manner. Still, if you hang in there and do not give up, you will learn a great deal not only about the groups you are studying, but about yourselves. It is also my intention that using my suggestions, whether you are a teacher or student, will help you avoid the monotony of some ethnographies. Therefore, I have chosen three of the most interesting ethnographies that exist today. And one of the reasons they are so appealing is that two of them are very controversial as well as having their fair share of sex and violence, something that Americans tend to be drawn towards. So, get ready for a fascinating ride into the captivating world of social and cultural anthropology. The next three sections will discuss the three main ethnographies that will prepare you for your IB examination. Keep in mind that you do not have to use these particular ethnographies. You can choose any three that you find interesting. I merely suggest the following ones because most of my former students and I have found them fascinating along with being effective in preparing for the IBSCA examinations.
CHAPTER 2
ETHNOGRAPHIES
In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio by Philippe Bourgois
In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio is the first ethnography I teach for the course. Sometimes I teach the full ethnography; other times I only use Bourgois articles that I have found online or in different anthropology readers. I chose Bourgois for several reasons. First, he engages students by taking them to a place most of them have never been, and that is into the dangerous and illicit world of illegal drugs. In the culture we inhabit, students are curious about the drug underworld, so the material immediately grabs their attention. Also, Bourgois is the pre-eminent authority on the drug underground economy. In addition, there are plenty of supplementary web materials including Bourgois interviews, YouTube videos, Quizlet quizzes, and podcasts. Students and teachers alike tend to love this ethnography. I must add a word of caution here: If you are very conservative, or squeamish, or are teaching students who come from a very conservative background, you may be wise to get permission from your school’s administrators before reading In Search of Respect. However, there are several IBSCA courses that use Bourgois with great results on the IB examinations.
To accompany Bourgois, students view Stacey Peralta’s documentary film called Crips and Bloods: Made in America. This film thoroughly supports Bourgois’ thesis, although Peralta delves more into African-American resistance to American societal norms. The film can be found on Netflix or other online outlets. Both Bourgois and Peralta pay close attention to the historical globalization factors that forefront loss of US manufacturing jobs and is a precursor to the unrest in poor neighborhoods. Each looks at structural underpinnings of inequality such as poverty, racial discrimination, and urban apartheid that coalesce to create an often volatile situation in America’s cities. For Peralta, you can get a historical context synopsis on line by googling his work. After Bourgois and Peralta, I do a “180” and begin teaching about the Old Order Amish of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, explained in the next section.
The Riddle of Amish Culture by Donald Kraybill
The Amish may be said to be the complete opposite of gang society. Here the student is taken from a violent, cruel, and often dysfunctional world riddled with drug usage, conflict, abuse, and even murder into a seemingly ideal and almost utopian world where the Old Order Amish somehow seem to escape the many dysfunctions of modern American society. Students enjoy comparing these two societies and exploring how two American subcultures with very different values can both live within one American society. In my opinion, Donald Kraybill’s The Riddle of Amish Culture is one of the most interesting, comprehensive, and effective ethnographies to prepare for the IBSCA exam. Kraybill meticulously studies the Old Order Amish of Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
I teach Riddle for many reasons. First, Kraybill is a superb writer, laying out his argument in an easily understood format. Second, the ethnography covers many themes listed in the International Baccalaureate Social and Cultural Anthropology guide such as agency, community, society, social reproduction, modernity versus tradition, social change, et cetera. Third, if we could label anyone an expert on a people, it would be Donald Kraybill, who is not an anthropologist, but a sociologist, which is fine
