Feb
18
In the first two articles we discussed the “definition” of culture. In his article Keesing suggests the idea of the different cultures to be like coral reefs, in the sense that there is change in the different cultures and that there is not a specific pattern for that change. Willliam on the other hand suggests in his article that culture is all about journeys. We discussed in class that in some form we all as human beings experience the processes of the different journeys.
After that in class we discussed “my message” of Eva Perón. In class we talked about the different connotations that the word “people” might have and still has. Personally I think that even though she was a populist and she say things that people wanted to hear at the same time she did things for the Argentineans. I might not know enough but I think that Eva and Juan in fact did things to improve the situation in Argentina and in my opinion that is what it counts. Then, there is Borge´s article in which he gives the other not so good picture of Eva and Juan´s socialism and how it was not perfect. People were forced only to like Eva and Juan and not to support other parties. Borges refers to this socialism as a monster so at a point Eva and Juan took their socialism to an extreme.
Then, there was the long article by Rowe and Schelling. We talked about how culture is not static and it changes over time. This exchange is two ways, that is to say that Latin America not only changes but also the other cultures in which it comes in contact with. For example nowadays with modernization there are always negotiations and struggles between the different classes and ethnic groups of the different countries of the world.
The last two articles we discussed were of Asturias and Agueda. From Asturias writing I understood that oral culture is somewhat more flexible because new elements are added. This has its advantages and disadvantages because in order to preserve it, it needs to be written and in the process things get lost or added and that changes it. At the same time if it is not recorded then it can get lost so in that way I could say that is kind of hard to decide what to do with oral culture. The last reading was Agueda´s we talked about the liberation theory and how it is used in many places of Latin America as an idea that creates hope among the marginalized people. To tell those stories help oppressed people to continue their struggle against the oppressors.
