Essay代写：Naive realism－r51due

下面为大家整理一篇优秀的essay代写范文- Naive realism，供大家参考学习，这篇论文讨论了朴素现实主义。朴素现实主义，指的是我们经常不认为自己不知道，而认为自己知道，也就是我们认为的世界就是现实世界。在不同的文化中，行为的解释是不同的。在一种文化中，一种看似完全无害的行为在其他文化中却被认为是危险的。从朴素现实主义的性质来看，文化的隐性方面是它的最大贡献者。朴素实在论往往不能理解简单行为的语境差异。

In the article “Nice Girls Don’t Talks to Rastas”, George Gmelch, a cultural anthropologist and professor of Anthropology, tells a story about naïve realism that happened to his student, Johanna. Johanna was doing an anthropologist project in a small village in Barbados. While she had been getting along with the villagers very well, their attitude towards her changed dramatically by the end of her stay, almost ruining her entire project. This was caused by her associating with the local Rastafarians, a group of people who were despised by the local community. Not fully comprehending the situation, Johanna has given a perfect demonstration of naïve realism. In this paper, the nature, components, challenges and dimensions of naïve realism will be explored, through the story of Johanna.

The nature of naïve realism is the generalization of all objects, events and living creatures under the same set of beliefs, that is the most familiar for an anthropologist (Spradley 8). Although it is difficult to abandon existing beliefs and make sense of new ones, it is necessary for all anthropologists to do so, so that they can fully comprehend the meaning behind certain social or cultural practices. Although cultural knowledge is only acquired through age, it is deeply imprinted in the mind of people and is almost indistinguishable from people’s intrinsic nature. As a daughter of an English teacher and theater professor from upstate New York, Johanna obviously grew up in a society where equality among individuals is highly valued (Gmelch 32). Her background has thus limited her from seeing things differently. As the topic of social class is so deeply rooted and not openly discussed mostly, it is more likely to trigger naïve realism. At the beginning of her stay, Johanna was enjoying it so much that she was even considering about moving to Barbados and teaching in the local school (Gmelch 32). However, even people with completely cultural beliefs can coexist harmoniously and become friends, when their beliefs are not violated. With Johanna seeing a Rastafarian named Joseph, she had crossed the line. the host family that she got friendly with previously wanted her to move out of the house and leave the village (Gmelch 33). This contrast shows that naïve realism can happen in the most unexpected places when an anthropologist make false assumptions. Adoption of an attitude of complete ignorance would be helpful, as it motivates the anthropologist to discover new worlds.

The challenge of naïve realism lies in the fact that cultural knowledge is very often applied in implicit ways. Despite its importance, verbal communications, such as language, is only a small part of the expression of cultural norms. The rest is communicated through indirect ways (Spradley 8). For example, people’s responses to an environment or their use of a cultural artifact has almost become an automatic mechanism after years of learning and practice. While little explicit expression is involved in such a process, cultural knowledge has worked unconsciously and instantaneously. This mechanism makes naïve realism hard to prevent as it may function without even being noticed. There had already been traces for the isolation of Rastafarian from the local community, from their place of residence and the attitude of villagers towards them, which were certainly overlooked. As a newcomer to the local community, Johanna failed to make observations about the social class distinctions, which directly contributed to her naïve realism. This is partly due to the social class differences and the communal nature of the Barbadian society is only revealed after much longer exposure to the culture. Since most of the villagers are of a similar social class, such distinctions are not obvious, which became misleading. Another reason presented by the author relates to the fact of Johanna being an American (Gmelch 35). It is the social norm of Americans to believe in personal autonomy. They believe that their actions should only be bound by their own beliefs and are none of other people’s business. In a society with distinctive classes, however, people’s actions have to follow certain rules and blurring of class boundaries is strictly forbidden. Therefore, both the implicit nature and the cultural trait of social classes add to the challenge of naïve realism in this case.

Tacit cultural knowledge is equally important as explicit cultural knowledge (Spradley 11). In different cultures, actions are interpreted differently. One action that seems to be completely harmless in one culture can be regarded as dangerous in other culture. In the US culture, it is alright, at least in general, to socialize with whoever one likes, regardless of their social status. For Johanna’s village in Barbados, however, mingling with a Rasta in public is more than a simple action. Selection of such associations is like making a public statement that Johanna categorized herself as the equal of Rastafarian. The simplest actions become no longer simple, but hold symbolic meanings in this case. Consequences of naïve realism are serious for Johanna, due to the bad reputation of the local Rastafarians. News of her association with Joseph travelled fast among the villagers. She was socially isolated immediately (Gmelch 35). She was feeling like carrying a contagious disease as people didn’t want to get close to her. Her downgrading in social class had also resulted in the loss of protection from a verbal harasser. The attitudes of Johanna’s local friend and host family are interesting. As people who know her better than others in the village, Johanna’s friend, a girl from the local school treated her as a victim, giving her suggestions to talk to him no more. The host family was much harsher on her, which is largely due to their fear of being “incriminated”.

There are three fundamental dimensions of human experience, which are cultural behavior, cultural knowledge and cultural artifacts (Spradley 8). Although cultural knowledge, or what people know, is commonly assumed to be the most influential dimension that determine cultural behavior, or what people do, it is not always the case. Sometime what people do will make an impact on cultural knowledge in return. From Johanna’s perspective, naïve realism misleads her to underestimate the power of cultural knowledge. Without understanding the historic background and the importance of social class for the villagers, Johanna only applied cultural knowledge of an American, insisting that individuals shouldn’t be blame for their group image, in this case stereotyping. However, the villagers don’t see things this way. It is mentioned in the article multiple times that despite the considerable amount of rumors, the villagers know very little about the Rastafarians or their beliefs (Gmelch 33). Instead, it is the actions of the majority in the community that shaped their cultural knowledge. It thus matters very little whether Joseph is a nice person who loves nature or not, as his social class and the attitude and actions of the majority matter more for the villagers.

From the nature and challenges of naïve realism, the implicit aspects of cultural knowledge are the biggest contributors of it. Naïve realism often fails to understand the contextual differences of simple actions. Although stereotyping and discrimination are wrong in the American culture, an anthropologist should be able to see the relativity of the “truth”. With careful observations, adoption of an “ignorant” mindset, and more cautious conformity to the local norms, such an incident can be avoided.

References:

Spradley, James P. Ethnography and Culture. Conformity and Conflict: Readings in Cultural Anthropology. Pearson, 2011. pp. 2-13

Gmelch, G. Nice Girls Don’t Talk to Rastas.Conformity and Conflict: Readings in Cultural Anthropology. Pearson, 2011.pp. 31-37

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