Entry One

Bethany Armistead

Nick Corduan

Cultural Anthropology

May 27^th, 2013

Blog Entry 1

            I chose to read The Forest People primarily through the lens of cognition and expression. Cognition deals with the way people internalize the outside world, and expression how they express the way they see themselves. In the category of cognition I see myself focusing mainly on perceptions, how the Pygmy people see and recognize things in the world, and on conceptions, how the Pygmies organize what they see for the sake of understanding.

I expect to mostly use Particularism and Relativism as my anthropological framework because of its emphasis on cultural relativism. Because the Pygmy culture is so unique, it can only be interpreted and understood within its own cultural context. I foresee that it would be easier to understand the Pygmy cultural context as a complex whole that includes all the capabilities and habits that people acquire as a member of this particular society. My main difficulty with using Particularism and Relativism is its emphasis on science and making empirical observations. Sometimes cultures are too complex to interpret through empirical observations alone. For the sake of understanding how a people group organizes and expresses meaning, it might be more effective not to try and rationalize.

I also possibly see myself somewhat using Structuralism, as created by Levi-Strauss. Structuralism seeks to define particular aspects of the culture’s world that unlock it for outsiders. Since The Forest People was written by an anthropologist for an audience of outsiders, he probably created certain cultural categories to give his audience a better understanding of the world of the Pygmies.