Introduction
Culture entails defined norms and values of a particular community and serves as the foundation of many issues that constitute the structure of society. Different studies have been conducted by scholars with aim of identifying more variables that are related to culture. Ethnographers learn other people’s cultures by accurate identification of knowledge, behavior and artifacts.
The paper will discuss three aspects that are necessary in learning different cultures. Role of men and women in Afghanistan under Taliban rule will be well outlined in relation to Omidian’s ethnology.
Omidian is an anthropologist who was hired to work in Afghanistan as a social worker and trainer. On the other hand, Spradley argues that anthropologists should not be community trainers but instead should learn from the people.
Case Study
The title ‘When Bamboo Bloom’ is symbolic as Taliban rule in Afghanistan oppressed the society as reported by Omidian who worked there from 1997 to 2007. Despite the oppression, citizens hoped that one day they would be liberated. 19th century was characterized by efforts to ensure gender equity, but were halted in 1994 when Taliban annexed Kabul. Women were not supposed to work away from home or wear white clothes.
The Islamic law on Hijab ensured that women covered all parts of their bodies. Later there were increased cases of kidnaps, forced marriages that involved women. Women were supposed to be accompanied when leaving their houses and were not to interact freely with men.
Health access was limited and poverty stroke households that lost their breadwinner who was supposed to be a man (Omidian 117). Notably, the role of women in Afghanistan is derived from the interpretation of Sharia in the Quran that forbids women from working away from home. According to Taliban, Sharia bans women from free interaction with men and are to be accompanied by male relatives any time they are not at home.
Men were expected to work and provide for their women and children. The role of men rendered them prone to maltreatment in many ways. Many men were detained, tortured and killed in prisons under Taliban rule in Afghanistan (Omidian 120).
Men were ordered to wear beards of certain length and severely punished if they did not. Punishments like stoning and amputation were employed when torturing prisoners so as to get them to confess. The idea of Omidian was to empower citizens with knowledge that would help them overcome the cruelty of Taliban rule in Afghanistan.
Culture knowledge
For ethnographers to be able to understand culture and norms of a given community, they must first identify what the people know. According to Spradley people can only share common culture if they share similar knowledge. For example, there is a scenario of people in a train who were engaged in a common behavior of reading. Reading was a behavior that was common to all people in the train.
For behavior to be shared all people had to be aware of what was involved in reading. People knew how to act when reading jokes, tickets and schoolbooks. For example, there was a man who underlined important points when reading a lecture book.
A man reading a newspaper knew how to flap pages so as to get more information. A lady reading a paperback knew how to move her eyes so as to read. The only reason why a man reading a newspaper would understand the message by the author is if he knew the language used (Spradley and Mccurdy 9).
In the case study, both men and women knew what was expected of them by the Taliban rule. Whether they felt oppressed or not, they obeyed the instructions given because they were aware of punishments for non compliance.
For example, women did not go to work outside home because they knew they would be punished if they did. Consequently, the women could not go to work because they knew it was wrong according to Taliban rule. Taliban rule was aware of the Islamic law in regard to modest dressing and ordered all women to cover their body parts (Omidian 121).
Culture behavior
Spradley further postulates that for ethnographers to be able to learn different cultures, they must identify what people do. Cultures do not dictate but rather influence behavior. Activities are not dependent on culture but are influenced by its interpretation. Absolute learning of culture behavior can only occur if interpretation is similar. Spradley gives an example of a scenario involving police, crowd and a woman who had a heart attack.
Since the police were aware of first aid that should be given to the condition, they started performing heart massage to the woman so as to save her life. However, a crowd nearby mistook the actions by policemen and thought they were killing the woman so they attacked them.
The woman died before she was taken to the hospital. Notably, both the crowd and police had a common mission which failed due to misinterpretation of the activities (Spradley and Mccurdy 11).
In the case study, Omidian argues that Taliban rule in Afghanistan is oppressive as both genders are maltreated. Ethnographers should be neutral but in the case of Omidian she sides with the society and is against Taliban rule. The situation is similar to that of the crowd that interpreted the activities of the police to be cruel to the woman.
Cultural behavior in Afghanistan is manifested by what people do and how they react to activities by Taliban rule. For example, severe punishments like amputation of men who were seen as criminals were conducted publicly. Women and children cried and pleaded with Taliban officials because they were not happy with such actions.
There are postulations that Omidian tries to liberate people of Afghanistan by ensuring that they are empowered and influenced by the western culture. According to other scholars all the efforts by humanitarian action and foreign policy have hidden agenda of replacing Afghanistan culture with western culture (Lassiter, 296).
Culture artifacts
Ethnography entails identifying what people use so as to be able to know and behave in a certain way. Spradley argues that for the ethnographers to be able to learn culture they must know what is involved in cognitive and behavioral development of the people involved (Kottak and Conrad 33).
For example, a person reading a newspaper must be aware of grammar and style used so as to be able to understand the message. Further, police used oxygen mask and called on ambulance in attempt to save life of the woman who had heart attack.
In the case study, Taliban used Quran statements and Sharia to set and define behavior of the two genders. Stones and other tools used in punishing people who defied the set laws are culture artifacts. Painted windows that were used in the women apartments are also culture artifacts. Artifacts, knowledge and behavior are cultural aspects that are essential in the learning process of norms of a certain community.
Further, culture can be defined by symbolism theory under three components in relation to explicit and tacit knowledge. Explicit knowledge is commonly known by people with common culture while tacit refers to unknown aspects. The first component postulates that cultural behavior is influenced by the meaning attached to the activities involved.
For example, the pain expressed by the prisoners who were being stoned or amputated in Afghanistan made women and children cry. The second component postulates that behavior is dependent on the social interaction.
Omidian’s idea of empowering citizens of Afghanistan by encouraging them to overcome intimidation by Taliban rule was based on the interaction with men and women. Thirdly, cultural symbols provide ethnographers with hints that are supposed to be modified in different ways before actions (Erickson and Liam 21).
Conclusion
Culture is an integrated topic that involves intensive scrutiny of various issues for learning process to be effective. Ethnographers aim at learning from the community and not educating them. Empowering the Afghanistan citizens will be a way of changing their cultural perspective and not learning from them. Culture behavior is essential in learning process as ethnographers get to know what people do in different situations.
Ethnographers go an extra mile by trying to understand the reason behind any behavior. Culture artifacts are also important as ethnographers learn what is used in acquiring knowledge and behavior. Culture knowledge is broader than both artifacts and behavior as it defines all aspects known to the people. Consequently, culture knowledge influences the behavior and things that will be involved in maintenance of cultural identity.
Works Cited
Erickson, Paul, and Murphy Liam. A History of Anthropological Theory, Toronto: Broadview Press, 2008. Print.
Kottak, Peter and Philip Conrad. Window on Humanity: A Concise Introduction to General Anthropology, New York: McGraw Hill press, 2005. Print.
Lassiter, Luke. “Toward a Collaborative and Reciprocal Ethnography.” Journal of Anthropological Research 5.2 (2001): 137-149. Print.
Omidian, Patricia. When Bamboo Bloom, An anthropologist in Taliban’s Afghanistan, Sydney: Academy of Sciences publishers, 2011. Print.
Spradley, James, and David Mccurdy. Conformity and Conflict: Readings In Cultural Anthropology, New York: Pearson Education press, 2009. Print.