Final Blog

    Yesterday was a day for dance.  It was the day where all the dance classes of the fall semester got to show what they learned.  It was a time for showing off and trying your best, after the all the hard work put in throughout the semester.  It was time to dance.
     I was in the Middle Eastern Belly dance and this would be my second year participating in the Day of Dance at Humboldt State.  My experience in belly dance was a great one.  Side by side with one of my best friends we learned about a new culture and experienced a piece of it first hand.  We learned Turkish, Andalusian, Gypsy, and the classics belly dace.  We also practiced famous cultural dance like the kaliji and the cane dance.  We learned where these dances come from and why they are practiced.  It's different to hear about something or to read about it and then to do it.  We learned about a new culture then we tried it.  We did something that in the begging was so foreign but after a while we started to pick it up, it was a hole new style of movement. We got into the grove of things and became something bigger then ourselves.  We were no longer just students, we were belly dancers.
      Middle Eastern Belly dance brought together students a Humboldt State.  Brought together for a love of dance and new experiences. We fought for a common cause, to learn all we could and have a great time doing it.  In the end we banded together to try and look our best on stage, it was our time to shine.        
      With only a few weeks of practice under our belts the day of dance came upon us.  We rehearsed the dance and took a tour of the stage, then it was time to get ready. You could feel the nerves building.  It was nothing but cauos in the changing room, as garments flew around, clothing be thrown off, and make-up being piled on.  It was amazing to see all the outfits people came up with.  In the end each person had their own flare and style.  Personalities were clearly present in the clothing.  For the night, it would be our new identities.  It was great to look around and see people helping each other.  Helping put on make-up, brush hair, or choosing an outfit.  By the end we were all friends.
        Together we practiced our dance out in the hallways and started to warm up for the performance.  Each of us was willing to help one another.  We all wanted the same thing, we were here for a common purpose.  I practiced the moves as the last hour was ticking down.  I was trying to fight back nerves.  I looked around and I recognized the nerves yet excited expression of each dancer.  Then it was show time.
       It was our time to take the stage.  As the drums started we danced our way to the stage.  The stage is a hole new experience for those who have only witnessed it from the seats.  It's a hole new culture of people who are willing take the stage.  The pressure was upon us, knowing that everyone was watching.  We did our best and we made many mistakes.  Yet, it was a great thrill.  It felt wonderful to be on stage.  Each dancer looked excited and wide eyed as they exited.  For each part of the dance I nailed I felt great.  It was a blast.
   After our dance I took many photos.  I wanted to remember this night.  When in life will we ever have a chance to do this again, to wear these customs again?  When will we ever be able to call ourselves belly dancers?  We all looked amazing and each of us beamed with pride at what they had accomplished tonight.  It was a moment to remember and I wanted it to last.  Finally the make-up and the customs came off.  Each of us left our belly dancing identities behind and became Humboldt students once more.    We all hugged each other and wished good bye.  Belly dancing had brought us together and made us friends.  Most of us might never talk again but everyone held this moment in their hearts.  We had each shared something together.  When we pass each other at school it may just be a simply nod of hello but in that one glance we will recognize each other as fellow dancers.
     Dancing brings people together and it brings peace.  For a moment no one thinks of the problems they are facing or the finals they must take.  All that can be thought of is the dance and how much fun it is.  Even my boyfriend was rocking out in the audience like a crazy person.  It is a time for fun, a time for expressing ourselves, and a time for healing.                                    

Family and Identity

Identity, is a label.  It is the way the world perceives something or how that something may perceive itself.  Each identity is different, it is based on appearance, attitude, actions, and value.  A persons identity is an image they give themselves or one that another may create.  Identity if closely related to family and friends.  There are several examples of when identity and family come together, or intersect.  One example is marriage.  The building of a family by love not blood. 

    Marriage is the creation of a new brach of family and this act changes creates new identities.  It changes people and how individuals are viewed.  There is the traditional identity change by the women, who takes on her husbands name.  Even though many couples are now choosing to keep both last names, it is still a highly practiced tradition .  A wife or husband is now tied to their spouse.  A person may reference the spouse as 'the wife of 'or 'the husband of '. Also, with this they are now seen as married, they receive the label of taken or no longer available.    

     Then with the loss individual identity, there is the creation of a couples identity.  With marriage comes the melding of both husbands and wife's identity, they become one of the same.  For example they may now be called the Huffmans or the Saunders.  With marriage you must be willing to create a new identity, join a new family and create a new life.  Many people try hard to keep their own personal identity but despite this people will see them as a couple.  With government documents, banking, insurance, doctor visits, paper work, business, and the everyday routine the two identities will conjoin to create the that of a family. 

      People are not bound by their labels and their labels are not bound to them.  An identity will never stay the same.  Wether an identity changes due to marriage or the birth of a child, it will change as a person grows throughout life. With the growth of love comes the growth of an identity.               

Political Anatomy

"Discipline is a political anatomy of detail" (Foucault).  Michel Foucault was a french philosopher, he developed a phrase that anthropologist still use today, "Political anatomy".  To him political anatomy was the controlling of human bodies.  It was how society shaped it's members, how it got people to act a certain way.  The political anatomy are the tools in which a culture may use to influence people to operate in the desired fashion.  Anthropologists can take this new definition and try to find the devil in the details.  Knowing that a society has tools and that people in general shape there lives with political anatomy, anthropologist can seek it out.  They can break down the everyday things that we see and see it for what it really is, what it means about us as a hole and as individuals.  The Idea of political anatomy brings about a hole new perspective on the world.  Like the example Robbins gave about schools in the textbook "Cultural Anthropology".  Schools are a huge web of tools developed for the control of students.  Bells, isolated desks, drawing attention to the front of the room, clocks, these are made to control students through space and time.  They are tools to get kids to pay attention, to not get comfortable and fall a sleep in class.  The Class room was developed to discourage socializing.   The bells and clocks are made to control the movement of students throughout the campus.  When looking at the world as anthropologist and using political anatomy, the world comes into a different focus.  Now everyday things have a new definition.  Roads, sidewalks, trails are all made to control the movement of people,  to get them to operate in a certain direction.  Forks, plates, dinning table, are all made to control how we eat.  Restaurants and bars have different styles of seating to control how long we stay and how we socialize.  Upon finding this new perspective a few questions arise. Why does it exist, how does it work, why do we follow it, and what does it tell us about us?  Thanks to Michel Foucault we still have much to figure out.  

What is Culture

        Throughout the week I've been introduced to the concept of culture.  Culture that is both passive and active.  Culture could cover so much or be broken down to describe something that is very personal.  At the first mention of culture one might think of cheeseburgers, forth of july, and Indians.  Yet culture is so much more.  Richard Robbins wrote that, "Culture is the meaning people give to things, events, activities, and people".  Culture is how people judge their experiences, how they perceive the world around them.  The attitude of a society also gives way to culture.  The way individuals value their experiences bring about different behaviors.  This is how the beliefs of different societies bring about different courses of action.  Culture also has two sides, one that is explicit and one that is tact.  So, there is the culture that people acknowledge, for instance holidays.  Then there is the culture that we don't really think about, things that are so part of the everyday life.  It can be hard to recognize.  A person may find culture or it could be thrown upon them through a series of tools, political anatomy.  Political anatomy is a name Foucault gave to the tools that a society may use to control its members.  Other cultures may be hard to except, for it's a hole other way to view the world.  Many may be surprised, disgusted, or fascinated with another human's way of life.  Much can be learned both about that culture and about one's own.
           I know that I have a culture.  One that can include all of America or just California.  I also may call my culture that of a country girl or the horse culture.  I'm part of the outdoors loving culture, the gym crazed culture.  Right now I'm apart of the college culture, the teen culture.  I know that my views effect my behavior and therefore I have a culture.  It may change but many things will not.  I will always be one of the horse people.