Cannibal Tours Is a Deep and Penetrating Essay

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Total Length: 956 words ( 3 double-spaced pages)

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Cannibal Tours is a deep and penetrating view inside about comparative cultures. MacCannell critiqued Dennis O'Rourke's documentary film of the same name as his article as a centerpiece to focus his arguments. Several comparisons are used by the author to help contextualize his meaning. These discussion included commenting on polar opposite themes such as modern vs. primitive, black skinned vs. white skinned, rich vs. poor and several more. Ultimately MacCannell spirals in and out of cohesion while coming to the conclusion that although there are folk or ethnic differences in different bands of populations, common human interests are shared across all variations of humanity such as self-interested behavior, a quest for meaning and the power of culture.

The article begins and ends with actual critique about the film. Characters are examined, plot lines are analyzed, film techniques are discussed all while narrating a social criticism simultaneously. Although the author exerts ample effort to debase and categorize all parties encountered in this article, he focuses mainly on Western European and American materialistic culture driving the rest of the world's population slowly out of modern times into a more postmodern landscape.

MacCannell's talent for assuming what others are thinking as he watches the film are quite extraordinarily documented throughout the piece. The article becomes boorish as he non-surprisingly reveals that primitive cultures parody and mimic their western tourist visitors exposing a sense of shared duplicity between all parties involved. Only half way through the article does the author reveal his thesis: that he is "arguing that there is no real difference between moderns and those who act the part of primitives in the universal drama of modernity " (p.105).

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The article ultimately concludes after the idea of metaphor and its importance are introduced into the argument.

ARTICLE 2 and 3

Franz Boas was a pioneer in the study of anthropology. In his introduction to The Mind of Primitive Mind, the deep and challenging questions he presents about the history of the culture of man investigate the varied factors that contribute to culture.

Before Boas begins his arguments he defined the scope and definitions of some of his propositions. He mentioned that the tendencies of humanity to view whiteness as hierarchically superior did not necessarily represent all evolution of mankind. Boas called for a historic overview of these variables before they can be implemented into any equation.

In Boas quest for understanding, he delved into the racial developments on all continents in his introductory chapter. He claimed this was necessary in order to give a full picture of the development while not showing any external bias to his own race and culture that undoubtedly played a role in his scientific works and reports.

Lesser's biographic article on Franz Boaz helped give some understanding to some of Boas' arguments. Lesser is very praiseworthy of the contributions that Boas has made to….....

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