Ishmail R.

Coleman 9/18/13 Intro to Cultural Anthropology HW 4

The main themes being discussed within the selected chapters were focusing on how an

economic system functions and its relation to subsistence and anthropology. Another theme

discussed within the chapters was how power is viewed within different groups of society. The

chapter went on to explain how power is crucially important in every society and what is

recognized as power within those societies. Also the chapter elaborates on the challenges within

every society when it comes to maintaining peace and order. This is considered to be a difficult

task because many different ethnic and religious groups co-exist within the same society;

therefore their views on certain situations may vary dramatically. I feel that learning information

about political organization and how power is distributed is important to anthropology because

we can use this knowledge to see how to approach different groups of people and how not to

impose our methods of organization on them. Forcing ideologies and trying to convert people to

your own lifestyle is a problem that the western world has faced for generations, and if we learn

more about other groups, we can eliminate this problem that plagues our country.

Another important theme that was discussed was about how societies regulate external

affairs and conflicts. Certain societies use violence and warfare, while others practice non-

violence. Another method used is genocide, which is the physical extermination of one group of

people by another. This knowledge is informative because it allows people to gain

understanding of what goes on in other countries instead of being oblivious to the situations. For

example, there are dozens of wars going on today in which people have no knowledge or

understanding of and are being led to false information by propaganda based media outlets.

Within the Chagnon case study, the main themes discussed were the political alliances,

trading, feasting, and warfare of the Yanamamo. I found it interesting that feast are used as a

strategy or method to keep alliances or to form new alliances. It’s almost like a big business
Ishmail R. Coleman 9/18/13 Intro to Cultural Anthropology HW 4

meeting. Also, I found the expectations and duties of being in an alliance to be very helpful.

The ally must provide subsistence and shelter if an ally is driven off by a rival group. I thought

that this shows the strength and loyalty of a Yanamamo alliance and shows a strong family-like

bond. Furthermore, I found Yanamamo levels of warfare to be very interesting. It’s almost as if

they move like a mob, with different levels of violence for each occasion. I found the raids to be

very violent, but strategic. Furthermore, almost half of all male Yanamamo participated in the

killing of another, which I found to be very sad and pointless that they engage in so much

violence amongst each other.