The textbook discusses the process of assimilation. After viewing the film, Indian School: Stories of Survival, answer the following questions:
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- What is the definition of assimilation?
- What happened to the Native American children in the film?
- Why did the American government decide to assimilate them into Western culture?
- How did this affect them long term?
- Is assimilating others into another culture ever justified?
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Your initial post should be at least 250 words in length. Support your claims with examples from the required material(s) and/or other scholarly resources, and properly cite any references.
- Cultural Relativism
Cultural relativism asserts that every culture has its own set of customs and beliefs, and that culture must be understood by the standards and values of the people within that culture. Anthropologists think that things that might seem cruel or irrational in our own culture must be seen through the lens of cultural relativity, and that all cultures have practices or beliefs that can be seen by others as repugnant or incomprehensible.
After reading the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights, explain whether you think that cultural relativism can coexist with the idea of universal human rights. Is it possible for anthropologists to promote human rights without imposing, for example, their own Western values and ideas of human rights?
Your initial post should be at least 250 words in length. Support your claims with examples from the required material(s) and/or other scholarly resources, and properly cite any references. By Day 7, respond to at least two of your peers who have expressed an opinion that differs from yours. Does their discussion of this change your opinion on this subject? Why or why not?
