Bolivian Reciprocity

Today I’m going to speak about an interesting experience that I had in Bolivia, in fact, this experience was more than interesting, this experience represented to me the meeting with other culture face to face, with I could consider as the most important characteristic of Bolivian culture, maybe the social cement.
It began one winter day, when I had finally finished my exams and my first term. I'm gathered with two of my best friends, chelo and belen and we decided to travel to Bolivia with the first objective of know the country and the last objective to participate in the Archeological and Anthropological gathering of Latin American students.
It was how we began our trip; then we were there we had arrive to Ollague, the first town that we knew. That is a beautiful place, moreover a lost place in the middle of anything. It was like the meeting with a invisible city, like the Italo Calvino novel called “Las Ciudades Invisibles”, mainly because it was completely deserted without houses, there was only the big oldest train that I had never seen before in the middle of the city. The sparkles of the sun had blinding our eyes, because of its own particular closeness to sun.

The next day we were in Uyuni, the plan was wake up early to take the salt truck and go to “Uyuni Salar”, because the tour was so expensive and we don’t had enough money to pay that. However we lived a too cold night so we stayed sleeping and we lost the salt truck. During the day we went over the city and met Maria. She said that she lived in Atocha, a little town near Uyuni, also she was in Uyuni with her husband because of a family meeting. She told us about her life and we told her about our life in Chile; so different actually. In the night we turned to see and we invited her and her husband for a coffee. She said ok; then we had sung beautiful Andean songs from her town. Later we said bye and stayed with a great feeling, as in love with her culture. But, few minutes later she appeared again and gave us three beautiful hats.

We could understand that Bolivia culture is based on reciprocity, all relationships works in that way and that was the proof how we knew it.

FIRST TERM: GOOD AND BAD POINTS

This last first term of 2009 can be showed as my more difficult period of this career. I have one signature called Anthropologic IV, where I can study the materialism in anthropology and how this can be used as an important tool of cultural analysis. Furthermore, I found the importance of culture as social cement and the most incredible human ability, the environmental adaptation. Since I got in these studies I have never read something so interesting and that put me in to the real importance of the infrastructure. In fact, everything I have been studied consist in participative observation, symbolic interpretations, archeological analysis, prehistory, all so interesting thing but no one so useful and that make me so sense as this signature themes.
In other aspects, I practice football whit the female choice of my campus. That was very amusing and I learned so much. Furthermore, I am in the scout staff of my group additionally, therefore I had so much work because I had to prepared the winter camp; Yes, this last first term of 2009 was so stressing to me.
But, one light in the end of the way was waiting for me in that moment; I would travel to Bolivia in the winter holidays and that gave me many hopes and strength to finish that semester.

Finally everything went very good, and nobody died, included me.

A country I would like tourist: MEXICO!

Today I’m going to speak about Mexico. It is the last country of Latin-American and is a amazing place. It has the culture alive and several archeological remains of ancient Aztecan culture. What I know about Mexico? Well this is a country that has many different kind of historic and culture things. For example, it has mariachis, the Mexican revolution in the hand of pancho villa and emiliano zapata, corrupt politic, the dead party, Mayas and Aztecs, and a deep religious culture. Here the men are so chauvinist, so for that the feminist movement is so developed. As well to, this country have the one of best anthropology academy of the world and this is so important to me because it means that I could find several research project to work.
Here I would like to visit the anthropology museum, one of the biggest anthropologic museums of Latin America, the garibaldi square. But mainly I really would like to visit Mexico in the festival season, where the traditions show part of the cultural expressions.
I really enjoy study there, especially in the UNAM (Universidad Autónoma de México). But first I have to finish my studies here. I would like to study in other countries to, maybe in Australia or British. But it is completely necessary to me get a scholarship.
See you in the next class!

my ideal job

Today I’m going to speak about my ideal job. I would like to work in a mix of things, doing practice things, and theory things. May be teaching, and studying at the same time. Maybe travel to far places around this country and do some projects at the same time. Perhaps looking for traces of rock art and participating in research projects.
The truth is that my ideal necessarily be working with people, developing any kind of project, and of course, to allow me to travel and learn about deep behavior of cultures and discover new and interesting things.
For this kind of job I need to know so much about methodology, quantitative and qualitative techniques, so much about culture and economy too, and some much about working with people.
I think that I will be good for this job because I think that I am a creative person that be necessary for a job like this, furthermore I have ability to work in group.

Furthermore, as this is my ideal job would be excellent and because he would be doing what I like.
To find a job like that, would have to pass many years, but I’m patience and I the things don’t come to me I’m looking for that.

My favorite subjects

This is my third year in the University, so I have had many interesting subjects that I can consider as my favorites. I would like to speak about some of them. At first I did “history I”, with the teachers Ximena Cortes and Bernardo Gonzales. They were the best teachers that I never had, because they used an excellent kind of teaching methodology. But more than that, they taught me how to think the history beyond the traditional history books, looking into the different temporalities like demography and economy, politics, religion, or ideology. These kinds of temporalities were called by Fernand Braudel as “long, medium and short duration”. He attempted to create a new way to understand the history, like a triple structure. He used the “river metaphor”, where the deepest river current, which has the slowest speed, is the “long duration”, the middle current is the “middle duration” and the more superficial current that have the fastest speed was “short duration”. Definitely this was one of my favorite subjects.

But, this year, I think that my favorite subject is Anthropology III, with the teacher Andres Aedo. Simply because this is the only one that I have learned something so interesting and new. Moreover, the way of teach of this professor, using contextual examples, allow me do links between the reality and materialistic anthropological theories. One of the theories that I have learnt this semester is “cultural materialism”. But I had to do a presentation about this a couple of weeks ago, so I don’t stop in the description of that.
Now I have could understand that my favorites subjects have been related with the methodological way of teaching of the teachers.

Task 8:do I think that school kills creativity?

I think there is noithing more unpleasant that listen to a kind of joke in other language, and don’t understand anything.
But, related to this task, do I think that school kills creativity? Well I think in the most of the cases this statement is right, furthermore in the most of Chilean Schools. I know kinds of education that improve the creativity in the child, like Montessori and Waldorf, but this school are so expensive and far of the moist of people, that are an exception and a privilege. The reality is that Chile isn’t a creativity specialist, and is not important this kind of thinks if the real education doesn’t matter too. There are many schools that don’t even have good teachers. Even more there are scholars that in the last grade of their school don’t know how to do a split. It’s very important that creativity have a better place in big list of educations needs, but at first it’s more important that government take on the responsibility in improve of the education system.
I think that creativity is fundamental to the development of child’s talents, because I believe in a humanistic way of see the people, where everybody have different kinds of potentials that can be develops through the early stimulation with a good education.

Task 6: In five years

In five years…
I think that five years is not too much but it times enough to have realized some of my projects.
I would like to be working in some interesting research with my present classmates and friends; I don’t know what kind of research but may by about something related with anthropology issues. I think that I will stay putting in practice all the methodological tools that I will have learned in this career in the development of one social project.
I would like to make known the anthropological knowledge so I would like to be development some projects may be a kind of expositions in schools or something like that. Also, development a kind of documental about the culture or about the scientific anthropology knowledge. Probably I will stay living with my friends in some apartment near from the city center with an amazing view in the last floor (dream is free). I think that I will plan some kind of trip to travel to a far place of the world, like China, India or Africa, with some of my old and new friends or future lover may be I hope jaja.