aperey (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} aperey) wrote,@ 2005-04-27 14:53:00 |
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Anthropological Anecdotes
First Anecdote.
Margaret Mead told us how she came to the research problem on which she based her Growing Up in New Guinea. She reasoned as follows: If primitive adults think in an animistic way, like our children, how do primitive children think?
In her research on Manus island of New Guinea, she discovered that "primitive" children think in a very practical way and do not begin to think in terms of spirits etc. until they grow up.
Note: Animistic thinking gives feelings or personality to objects. For example, a child can say "Bad sidewalk!" if she falls and hurts herself on it--seeing the sidewalk as mean for causing her pain. The term animism comes from the Latin for soul, "anima." And tribal cultures often do have animistic concepts: Pueblos see the clouds as cloud people, who can be pleased or displeased by what man does--and give rain or drought.
First Anecdote.
Margaret Mead told us how she came to the research problem on which she based her Growing Up in New Guinea. She reasoned as follows: If primitive adults think in an animistic way, like our children, how do primitive children think?
In her research on Manus island of New Guinea, she discovered that "primitive" children think in a very practical way and do not begin to think in terms of spirits etc. until they grow up.
Note: Animistic thinking gives feelings or personality to objects. For example, a child can say "Bad sidewalk!" if she falls and hurts herself on it--seeing the sidewalk as mean for causing her pain. The term animism comes from the Latin for soul, "anima." And tribal cultures often do have animistic concepts: Pueblos see the clouds as cloud people, who can be pleased or displeased by what man does--and give rain or drought.
