pottsynz

Hi all,

Long time lurker...first time poster.

I'm doing a anthrolopogy paper at the moment...and its asking that I take "any contemporary cultural process relevant to the natural environment and explore how its been played out in my culture (New Zealand)".

But I'm a bit lost...the term cultural process is a bit washy...I mean...what isn't a culture process?

I thinking Tourism...would that count? NZ is a big destination for adventure tourism.

Thoughts?

tecoyah

While tourism can be defined as cultural process (though only in how it effects the natives), I would recommend you look towards Politics in NZ for insight. Maybe look into how the Maori effect tourism...or something along those lines.

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abaya

Anthro grad student here: I'd say that you could use tourism, but maybe investigate if there is any sustainable/responsible/eco-tourism developing in NZ and yes, how it involves Maori. For example, are the Maori put on display as a kind of exotic people? Can people go to their villages and observe them? Something like that.

But you don't have to involve the Maori. Tou can observe cultural processes all around you; look for patterns in NZ that you wouldn't see anywhere else. Sure, it has a British colonial history, but how has it grown away from that? Does the environment have something to do with NZ's uniqueness in the world, in terms of how its population has developed? It sounds like your prof has at least some belief in environmental determinism (an anthro theory), which is that the environment determines culture. Of course, environment influences culture, but it is not the sole determinant (in my opinion). Still, you might look for some strong environmental influences on either mainstream NZ culture, or the marginalized Maori culture, and discuss the patterns you see.

Good luck.

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Ustwo

There is a tendency of anthropologists to examine 'primate' cultures scientifically and ignore their own.

I say, ignore the Maori unless you happen to be one. Its not your culture. Focus on how YOUR people are effected by the natural environment. Its an obnoxiously vague question of course, but building a large city to escape the natural environment would count in my book, or how work patterns change to accommodate the eco-tourists, etc, or hell have fun and go with fashion changes with the seasons.

If I were your professor and I saw you talking about the Maori, I'd read it, critique it, and give you an F for not answering the question.

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pottsynz

Well, its kinda hard to know if someone is Maori or not and its a correspondence paper so he really has no idea.

It's an environmental anthro paper...the latest paper I did for it for was on Ingold's theories.

I'm finding it hard to pin down a solid definition of what exactly a cultural process is?

A particular development in culture that causes change?

He's asking for a contemporary example...so i'm worried something like urbanisation wouldn't cut it.

Thanks for the great help thus far guys.

jay-g