After watching the video clip, answer the following questions:

 

The Cow Jumped Over the Moon

[5:38]   

https://wwnorton.com/common/mplay/6.11/?p=/college/anthro/culturalanthro/vid/&f=the-cow-jumped-over&ft=mp4&cc=1%20

Drought in the Sahel region of the Sahara Desert has placed many farmers and herdsmen in a precarious position, competing for fewer and fewer areas of arable land. This film explores how satellite technology, which is used to monitor geopolitical issues, can also help cattle-keeping people of North Africa find pastureland for their livestock when their traditional techniques fall short.

After watching the video clip, answer the following questions:

1. What are some typical uses of satellite imaging technology? From mapping applications to weather sites, how often do you interact with satellite imaging? How do you think our access to that data has changed the way we see the world?
2. In the film, there is an implication that the data used by developing countries may one day come at a price. How likely is it that the cattle ranchers you see in the film will be able to afford the data they have come to depend on? Do you see any issues of power involved here?
3. How are the cultural practices of one society affecting another in this dynamic? Is it an exchange of information, or does the influence flow in only one direction? What are some of the future implications of that dynamic?

Word Count Requirement: 

• First Post (400 words)  
• Replies (250 words)

1. Write a summary description of each of the three cultures you found. Be sure to include
why each culture deserves to be classified as a band, a tribe, or a chiefdom.

A culture that is defined as a band is the Sicangu of Lakota tribes. This group of people are
regarded as a band because of their small population of people, where flexibility and kinship
were the biggest importance to the people. The Sicangu have their own lifestyle where they roam
and move from place to place, with their own language and customs that are different than the
Lakota tribes. This is classified as a band because they have no agricultural systems besides
hunting and gathering, they are constantly roaming, and their is a small population for each said
group. Then a tribe that I found that the Karen tribe located between Burma and Thailand to be
very fascinating group. I find the practice of the women and the rings around their necks to be an
interesting customs, and that it is so intriguing for people that they feel the need to visit their
space for tourism. The group is very similar to the bands in the United States, but they have a
much larger population of people and have a little bit more advanced system of agriculture.
These people are not their own chiefdom because there are still small breakdowns in their
governmental procedures, as well as they are not as advanced in agriculture. Lastly, an example
of chiefdom would be the Ashanti in Africa. This chiefdom came to be because they had become
more than just a developing group, but were not a state declared. They had a substance based
agriculture which they could live on, they had a social class ranking where there were slaves at
the bottom and at the top was one person, their chief. This is defined as a chiefdom because the
hierarchy and agricultural development was more advanced than a tribe or a band, but they were
not developed enough to have a military or a completely stable agricultural practice.

2. NGOs operate largely on grants and donations from private funders. Write a funding
proposal for your NGO as if you were presenting it to a group of people to convince them
that it is a worthwhile organization to fund.

My NGO is Circle of Sisterhood, which is a charity that is funded by the Panhellenic community.
I am writing today because the Circle of Sisterhood has a lot of great potential that will your help
can exceed out goals. The Circle of Sisterhood is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping
poorer regions build programs and schools for girls around the world. The statistics for how
education can positively increase the health of women in these communities is staggering, as
well as the overall infrastructure increases more positively as well. The expense of $40,000 to
implement in a society seems expensive in the short term, however, the proven monetary facts
show that within 5 years the women who attend these schools save the government more than
thousands of dollars, and actually increase the labor force participation and job markets. Why
should anyone be denied education, especially if those being denied are bringing up the future
generations? The funds will help more people today, because it is giving everyone a better future
tomorrow, and that is where your money will go to, better our tomorrow.

In lieu of a class period for Thursday afternoon, I had to ask 5 of my friends what
ethnicity meant to them. Ethnicity is a sensitive and significant topic to many, for those of a
certain ethnicity take great pride in their identity. Since I was not at UConn at this time, I asked 5
people at the leadership conference I attended, all of whom were from differing states and
backgrounds across the USA. Unfortunately, however, almost all individuals were of Caucasian
descent, and so there was not much diversity in my crowd of people other than the state and
values with which they grew up. One individual, a young Caucasian woman named Jessie from
West Virginia, identified ethnicity in the same way that many would identify race, in that it has
to do with those the person is related to by blood and the way in which they look. I then asked a
young man named John from Missouri State how he defined ethnicity, and he gave me a very
similar answer to Jessie’s, in that ethnicity is not much different than race, except he did hint that
ethnicity also has to do with a person’s culture. Next I asked one of my friends at the conference
named Ella. She defined ethnicity as cultural and past back grounds that tied a group of people
together, and therefore developed a sense of belonging in a group. Next, I asked Bryan from
UVM what his response was, and he said that it is a mix of traditional, historical and blood
relations that tied a group of people together. Last, but not least, I asked a young woman named
Sarah from UNH what she thought ethnicity was, and she stated that it is the shared traditions
and culture that bring a group of people together; that it is a way of categorizing people.

Although all these people grew up in very different states and backgrounds, I did notice
that their answers on ethnicity, and what it meant to them, were all very similar. This could be
due to the fact that these people had similar interests and somewhat similar back grounds of
growing up with agriculture. It could also be the fact that these people were all Caucasian, and so
they do not see the idea of ethnicity applying to their lives. I was surprised by this, and expected
the answers to be somewhat different for those who grew up in southern states or western states
from those who grew up in eastern states. Growing up I, like Jessie, thought that ethnicity was
just another word for race, and failed to realize up until taking this class that ethnicity is much
more. Ethnicity, as defined by the textbook, is “a sense of historical, cultural, and sometimes
ancestral connection to a group of people who are imagined to be distinct from those outside the
group”. I think that this misunderstanding comes from the lack of discussion on subjects such as
ethnicity and race. Growing up, I was never asked to talk about ethnicity, and how it impacts
others’ lives. It is important that one is educated on what ethnicity is, so we can develop a respect
for the subject, and for those who identify with a particular ethnicity that may be different from
our own.