Chapter 9- Mixed Blood

Ana Ontaneda
ANT 1001/ TV24A Gaunt
April 30, 2009

Mixed Blood

After reading the first few pages of "Mixed Blood" by Jeffrey M. Fish, I was definitely hooked. It's somewhat amazing at how humans think. Fish mentioned in the book that"race is a social rather than a physical classification (Fish, 89)." I know of people that are mixed races although they were born in America. For example, I have one friend who has a Chinese-Brazilian mother and an Italian father. When people ask him where he's from he insists he's Brazilian, even though his mother is not exactly Brazilian (she was born and raised in Brazil from 100% Chinese parents). This agrees with what Jeffrey Fish said about hypo-descent. The Brazilians have various tipos that serve as a description of a person according to their physical features. Likewise and according to my experiences and knowledge, Spanish people also classify people according to their physical features. I myself, would consider myself a morena although I am somewhat pale. In spanish, if someone were to say "morena," one would immediately think ok the black girl. All this race talk and classification makes me somewhat frustrated. No one's perfect. We don't all look alike. Latinos come in many different shapes, sizes and colors with a huge array of features. I don't know what to consider myself. Why can't I just simply be hispanic?

In conclusion, all these stereotypes are just a huge pet peeve for me. What's even more funny is that when people have to guess what "race" I am, they say everything but Hispanic. This chapter was very interesting overall and I really admire Prof Gaunt for her work with race and mostly for emphasizing on these social constructs of race throughout the semester.

Chapter 13- Baseball Magic

Ana Ontaneda
April 24, 2009
TV24A / ANT 1001 Gaunt

Baseball Magic

Whether it is for good luck or for superstition, many sports teams perform rituals and routines. It is true that it is more known and seen in baseball. I am not a baseball fan at all, but I have been invited to a fair share of several Mets games. I never really understood why the players constantly touched the plates with their bat and why they would unstrap and re-strap their gloves. At first I thought it was simply an OCD that a player gets when in a game. Only now do I have that "Ah-ha!" moment.

Although I haven't watched nor played baseball enough to make assumptions, I have played volleyball for a great time in my life. I can agree that there are some sorts of rituals/traditions that we used to do before a game, during a game, and after a game. I can remember back in 5th grade when I first started playing volleyball, my teammates and I would all dance to a Brazilian chant (or song? I don't even know what that was) in the girl's bathroom before every game. I also remember doing something that may seem silly now but back then it meant a lot to several of us. My teammates and I would put on a bandaid under our knee guards. I have no idea how that tradition even started but I remember how we would lock ourselves into the bathroom and put bandaids on our knee. I guess all this sounds very silly now but it was so important to us back then and these rituals are so important to players nowadays.

This chapter taught me that baseball is just a reflection of life. There are many rituals that we perform on a daily basis. No matter how strange they may be, they work for us.

Bibliography
Gmelch, George. "Baseball Magic." Conformity and Conflict: Readings in Cultural Anthropology, 12 ed. Spradley and McCurdy, 2008,126-135.

Chapter 5- Mother's Love: Death Without Weeping

Ana Ontaneda

April 23, 2009
ANT 1001/TV24A Gaunt

In our society, it is said that a mother’s love is priceless and meaningful and that her virtuous of kindness can hardly ever be repaid. However would we still be saying the same thing about a woman who wishes and anticipates her baby’s death? It is hard to believe that any woman would wish the worst for their children.

Nancy Scheper-Hughes depicts to us some information on Brazilian women in Alto de Cruzeiro, a hillside shantytown in Northeast Brazil. These places were nothing near luxurious. Women would go to their dollar-a-day job and often leave their babies safe and secure at home—unattended of course. According to the text, mothers were indifferent to a death of a baby. It's almost as if some babies were born "doomed to die" and some were not. It was an amazing privilege and blessing for a baby to live past the first couple of months. Of course, my etic perspective was that these mothers do not care for their babies. Thinking it carefully I realized that a mother's love can differ due to economic restrictions. We can’t assume that they are cold and emotionless. What if these women were taught to react this way? What if they were forced to give up their nurturing nature? As stated in the text, “everything is mobilized as to prevent maternal overattachment and, therefore, grief at death.” (Scheper 52)

It’s sad that countries like this small town in Brazil are living in these extreme poverties. I understand that there may not be enough resources and money to feed these babies and give them the luxuries parents give their babies here but it’s startling to hear that the mothers in Alto de Cruzeiro usually do not visit the graves. If more babies were dying, there would be less maternal attachment and this in turn would cause mothers to be more careless and indifferent.

Bibliography
Scheper-Hughes, Nancy. “Mother's Love: Death without Weeping”. Conformity and Conflict: Readings in Cultural Anthropology, 12 ed. Spradley and McCurdy, 2008, 45-54.