4c

Culture is a learned way of life shared by a group of people, includes languages, food, celebrations, artistic expression, the arts, sports, government, and the media. We all have a certain culture we come from whether we think about it or not. I believe culture is extremely important in helping to mold a person, and also aids in bringing out the uniqueness of a person. Culture fits in well with this class, because just like stated before with each individual person, a country or continent or even region, has it’s own culture also.

I looked at Kelsey’s assignment 4a first. She like I chose to do her work on the California mission. I think we both chose the California missions because of the unique connections to Latin America, and all of the great things these mission have done for our region. She like I chose to focus on the San Francisco mission, mainly with it being so close to home, as well as one of the last missions. San Francisco is also the last mission to be created after the Mexican independence, and without a church’s approval.

For assignment 3a I focused on Jasmine’s work. Jasmine chose to do her research on the Yanomamo Tribe because in the past she has watched a documentary on the tribe in a Cultural Anthropology class. She found their ways of life very interesting, especially since they are a fairly new discovered tribe. Jasmine wanted to expand her knowledge further and be able to share it with her classmates. A remarkable fact about the Yanomamo tribe is that they have managed to retain their native pattern of warfare and political integrity without interference from the outside world. They live in a remote and isolated corner of the Amazon between Brazil and Venezuela and are the last indigenous group to have contact with the modern world. A large and important part of a male Yanomami's life is a ritual of smoking a hallucinogenic drug called yopo. Grinding several natural roots and vines that are gathered in the rain forest makes Yopo. Smoking the drug is very painful, causing blinding pains in the head and nausea. In order to not feel all of this pain, voluntarily, another person forcibly blows the yopo into the nasal cavities by using a long pipe like object. The yopo is taken in order to achieve a trance state. Once in the trance, the men are able to communicate with the spirit world and relate what they are seeing through chanting and dancing.

We could possibly relate Freire to this topic, because all of the research we have done, is in this great man’s element. He has visited these regions and become one with these people. All of the words we were asked to define are words that make up a person as well as the region of Latin America.