| Essay #1: Cultural relativism is one of the key components of the anthropological perspective. Choose of the episodes below, and discuss how cultural relativism could be applied to it. What could you say to both sides to help them understand the differences between them? How would you correct their misunderstandings of each other--and their potential misunderstanding of cultural relativism? Describe a situation in your own life when a little relativism did help or could have helped in dealing with cultural differences. (20 points, 500-700 words) |
| Episode One: The Texas town of Katy, a suburb of Houston, is home to 13,000 people, approximately 70% white and 14% Latino. A cultural controversy erupted there in late 2006 when a Muslim congregation came to town. The Islamic Association of Greater Houston, which represents some 170,000 Muslims in the Houston metropolitan area (Madkour 2006), operates a number of mosques in the city and acquired a tract of land in Katy to build a religious facility there. Paying $1.1 million for the eleven-acre site, the Islamic Society intended to construct a mosque, a community center, a senior-citizen housing complex, a health and fitness center, and a Muslim school�much as many Christian churches have done on similar tracts of land across Texas and the United States. And like those sects and congregations, Kamel Fotouh, president of the Katy Islamic Association, said on behalf of the five hundred Muslims in Katy: �We just bought it. And we are going to use it. We have the right like any one of them.� Many of Katy�s non-Muslim citizens nonetheless objected to this project. Some maintained that they were not anti-Muslim, merely worried about property values and increased traffic (although whether would have objected to a Christian mega-church on the same site is unknown). Others were more conspicuously concerned about an Islamic presence in their hometown: some expressed fear over Islamic terrorism in the neighborhood, and one person went so far as to create a website tracking Muslim terrorist attacks around the world. The central figure in this confrontation, however, has been Craig Baker, a farmer on the boundary of the Islamic property. According to reports, The dispute began when the [Islamic] group asked Baker to remove his cattle from their newly bought land. Baker agreed but mistakenly though the Muslims also wanted him of the land his family has lived on for more than 100 years. The rumor spread. Baker responded with a threat and an insult based on his limited knowledge and understanding of Islamic culture: to hold pig-races along the property line he shared with the Muslims, and to hold those races on the Muslim holy day. Islam abhors pigs and abstains from eating pork (as does orthodox Judaism). The decision was meant to be intentionally offensive and perhaps to drive the Muslims from the town completely. Particularly interesting is the fact that Baker apparently realized that the Muslim Association was not trying to claim his land, merely exercise their right to build on their own land. Even so, Thought he now concedes the Muslims are probably not after his land, Baker said he is obligated to go through with the pig races because �I would be like a total idiot if I didn�t. I�d be the laughingstock now because I�ve already gone too far.� Indeed, at least one pig race was held. According to the Houston Chronicle (Eriksen 2006): About 100 people showed up in the pouring rain with umbrellas and raincoats to watch the plump little creatures chase after Oreo cookies as they bolted from the starting gate and raced down the track through the mud. But it was quiet next door where a Muslim group has purchased an 11-acre corner lot to build a mosque, which will include a community center and a school. The Katy Islamic Association held prayer services earlier in the day while Baker was prepping for his first pig race. A spokesman for the association, Yousef Allam, told me Friday that they are not angry with Baker for holding the races but they will not attend them either. Baker was well-prepared for the event with four Texas Department of Public Safety workers on hand to direct the traffic and to assist with parking. The affair took on the tone of a family reunion or neighborhood block party as a disc jockey rubbed on a little funk with songs such as �It�s a Family Affair.� Baker didn't charge an admission fee but he sold sausages, candy and T-shirts with �Take a Stand� written on them to help cover the cost to stage the event. One bystander, who said he lived down the road, but declined to be identified, said he is apprehensive about the pig racing. He said what Baker is doing is not neighborly or welcoming to the Muslim group. However, most of those I spoke with, including some Baker family members, said they whole-heartedly supported Baker. References Eriksen, Helen. 2006. �Katy Pig Races Go On Despite Rain.� Http://blogs.chron.com/insidekaty/archives/2006/12/katy_pig_chase_3.html, accessed May 13, 2009. Madkour, Rasha. 2006. �Piggish Reply to Mosque Plans.� Denver Post, December 8. Episode #2 http://www.clickorlando.com/news/2229757/detail.html Muslim Woman Fights To Keep On Veil For License Photo POSTED: Tuesday, May 27, 2003, UPDATED: 7:28 am EDT May 29, 2003 ORLANDO, Fla. -- Florida's refusal to issue a driver's license to a Muslim woman unless she is photographed without her veil violates her religious rights, an ACLU attorney argued in court Tuesday. The requirement by the state Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles is a burden on Saltaana Freeman, a 35-year-old convert to Islam whose religious beliefs require her to keep her head and face covered out of modesty, said Howard Marks, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida. "This is about religious liberty. It's about whether this country is going to have religious diversity,'' said Marks at the beginning of Freeman's nonjury trial. "Allowing the state to chip away at religious liberties is not a path we want to go down.'' "There's no dispute in this case, your honor, that my client came to Florida in February 2001, was issued a Florida driver's license persuant to the rules and regulations in place at that time," Marks said. "The testimony is going to be that the law has not changed." Marks also pointed out that Florida has issued more than 800,000 temporary driving permits in the last five years without photographs. And that some of the driver's license photos are 18 years old and barely resemble the card holder. But Assistant Attorney General Jason Vail argued that having an easily identifiable photo on a driver's license was a matter of public safety since the photos are used during traffic stops, in financial transactions and to prevent identity fraud. Vail said there are limits to the religious liberties extended in the Florida Constitution if public safety is at stake. "It's the primary method of identification in Florida and the nation,'' Vail said of the driver's license. "I don't think there can be any doubt there is a public safety interest.'' Circuit Judge Janet C. Thorpe must decide whether taking the photo would violate Freeman's religious beliefs and if the state has a compelling interest in not allowing her to obtain a license with her covered face in a photo. In February 2001, Freeman obtained a Florida driver's license that had a photo of her face covered in a veil, but she received a letter from the state nine months later warning that it would revoke her license unless she returned for a photo with her face uncovered. She refused and sued for the right to get a driver's license with a photo showing her face uncovered. Her attorneys argued that state officials didn't care that she wore a veil in the photo until after the Sept. 11 attacks, an allegation denied by attorneys for the state. Florida attorneys plan to call Islamic experts to the stand this week to testify that it is not mandatory or a sin for a Muslim woman to show her face for a state issued photograph, according to Local 6 News Local 6 News also reported that the state also plans to submit into evidence a Time magazine photo of Elizabeth Smart that shows part of her face veiled. Attorneys would not comment on why they want to use the photo but there is speculation that they will use it as an example that a veiled face could hinder identification for authorities. The trial is expected to last through the week, Local 6 News reported. |