this chapter is basically about structure. it starts out talking about the structure of language and moves into the interactive structure of Europeans sailors and Hawaiian chieftains and their underlings.
what I thought was something to with mythical writings, really turned into something that I wasnt looking forward to reading. it starts out talking about how language can be a structure. particularly in speech but we will get to that in a minute. It talks about how symbols are used with other symbols making a structure called dialect. How we we use dialect to tell history so we must come to understand history as structure since history is just words put together in symbols. I found this part of the reading hard to understand, but I got the underlying meaning of structure.
The second part of the chapter and on to the end talks about the structure and what happens in those structures as a result of the customs. It basically tells how Europeans sailors came to the Hawaiian islands and caused problems because they did not know the structure of the Hawaiian hierarchy. things like touching the highest standing chief and allowing women onto the ships when they are under the tabu.
So my basic understanding of this chapter is how we can take one structure and another structure and how both of those structures will change do to that interaction.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
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The focus on this chapter is definitely on structures and their interactions with others, ie Cook and Hawaiians. The beginning was a little rough, but it talked about structure of speech, language, and dialect; and how it all related to the biological chemistry of that individual and the "System" or community to which he/she belonged. The Europeans setting up shop in Hawaii was the ultimate clash of cultures. Every structure was different, women had more freedom with the Europeans than they did with their own. As mentioned by foss, conflicting beliefs and cultural attitudes between the two groups created numerous difficulties in assimilating.
I too picked up on the focus of parts being put together to create structure in language and dialect as outlined in the beginning of this chapter.
The clash between the Hawaiians and the English illustrated some good points. Each group had their seperate structure that was forced to clash together. These structures had taken quite some time to build up, piece by piece. In the book states that Hawaiian culture did not "reproduce itself in the early years of European contact and the kingdom." The culture was changed quite drastically by "reproducing that contact in its own image", and therein changing the structure of the culture itself.
The chapter wasn't difficult to read, yet it was still a bit confusing to me. That is what I was able to get out of it.
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