Question 1(a) · 10 marks · 347 words written
Cultural shock (10 Marks) Q.5(a) Kinship and gender role.
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Cultural shock
Cultural shock is the feeling of disbelief or 'shock' that occurs when a person of one culture experiences the traits of another culture. E.g. During height of colonialism, British experienced cultural shock witnessing many tribal cultures.
Cultural shock can give positive or negative reactions in an individual. For the British colonialists, cultural shock gave an ethnocentric feeling. This led to the advent of foundational school of anthropological thought - classical evolutionism.
The negative reaction towards cultural shock may cause severe mental stress to the individual. This is due to the incompatibility of person's culture and the new culture he experiences. Eg. Tribes when experiencing modern cultures undergo extreme mental stress like Yanamomos of Brazil.
Cultural shock may also lead to assimilation of culture due to voluntary or forced diffusion of culture. It may also lead to degradation of enculturation process.
Due to contemporary globalisation, cultural shock is experienced by many individuals especially intra-national and international migrants. The ill effects of cultural shock can be mitigated by appreciating diversity and following cultural relativism.
Kinship and gender role
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Kinship is the web of social relations that occur due to blood line (consanguinal) or through marriage (affinal).
Kinship and kinship terminologies are greatly influenced by gender roles. In patriarchal and patrilineal societies like Omaha, in the kinship terminologies, we can see merging of generations on mother side thus showing less importance. The inverse is true in case of Crow which is matrilineal.
Kinship also acts as a device to determine marriagebility. In Iroquois system, cross-cousin marital alliances are allowed which shows up in kinship terminologies.
Some kinship behaviour like joking relationship can also be seen to establish gender roles.
Eg. In South India joking relationship exists between uncle-neice suggesting potential marital alliance.
Eg. In some societies, joking relationship exists between grand father and grand daugther suggesting gender roles.
Some kinship behaviour like technonymy shows the subjugated role of one gender towards the other.
Customs like avoidance show the power dynamics between different genders. Thus, kinship and kinship behaviour suggests the gender roles in the society.