Suchergebnisse

While the carnival in Latin America functions as a form of popular entertainment, it can also be viewed as having other roles. Robert Lavenda examines the Caracas carnival as an event which is atonce symptomatic of the social reality that surrounds it and able to bring about change within Venezuelan society. As popular culture, the carnival has been an important mediator in directing this society toward the modern capitalist worJd‐system. Lavenda traces how, under the leadership o f Antonio Guzman Blanco, Venezuela took a major step in the second half of the nineteenth certury towards becoming a modern country. Under Guzman's and other modernizers' influence the old carnival, which had been characterized as a wild and rowdy small‐group activity, was transformed to bring it into line with contemporary European models, that is, a highly organized and closely monitored mass celebration. The author discusses how the new power relationships that had developed in the city were reflected by the composition of the carnival's governing board. By setting up a series of oppositions between the South American and European versions of the carnival, Caracas' ruling elite hoped to orient the masses away from the former values and towards the latter.

Anthropology -- Culture -- Meaning-making and language -- Worldview and religion -- The dimensions of social organization -- Sex, gender, and sexuality -- Relatedness : kinship, marriage, family, and friendship -- Political anthropology -- Economic anthropology -- Globalization -- The anthropology of science, technology, and medicine -- Theory in cultural anthropology.

What is anthropology? -- Why is evolution important to anthropologists? -- What can the study of primates tell us about human beings? -- What can the fossil record tell us about human origins? -- What can evolutionary theory tell us about human variation? -- How do we know about the human past? -- Why did humans settle down, build cities, and establish states? -- Why is the concept of culture important? -- Why is understanding human language important? -- How do we make meaning? -- Why do anthropologists study economic relations? -- How do anthropologists study political relations? -- What can anthropology teach us about sex, gender, and sexuality? -- Where do our relatives come from and why do they matter? -- What can anthropology tell us about social inequality? -- How is anthropology applied in the field of medicine?