Applied Anthropology is distinct from the academic or theoretical side of the discipline. Through the use of anthropological data, theory, and methods to identify, assess, and solve contemporary problems involving HUMAN BEHAVIOR and social and cultural forces, conditions and contexts. The ethnographic method is an invaluable tools for learning and studying the local firsthand. So who should identify the needs of the local people? Is it the ethnographer, the scientist, who returns home after fieldwork? Or the cultural consultants, the insiders, the locals themselves?
Here's an example of a local from the South Bronx determining development needs for her community. Applied anthropology empowers local people to fulfill their own needs.
Talks Majora Carter: Greening the ghetto
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
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7 comments:
I'm from the South Bronx and I'm very familiar with everything she was talking about. My father works in the meat section of the Hunt's Point meat market, but that's not what Hunt's Point is most known for in the Bronx. Everyone knows Hunt's Point as a place for pimps and hoes, just like she said. Her brother was killed two blocks from her house. My cousin was killed not two Mother's Days ago walking to the bus. I can't even begin to count the number of memorials I've seen for people who were killed in the South Bronx. When someone's killed we put their picture in a cardboard box with candles and flowers and put it exactly where they were killed. I don't even want to think about how many candles I've lit. A lot of people think that the only things that come out of the South Bronx are pimps, hoes, and thugs. But here I am; in college, trying to make something of my life. I heard comedian Chris Rock say, in the hood you get more respect coming out of prison then you do coming out of school. The sad part is its true. In my neighborhood I know more high school drop outs then graduates, more thugs then students, more people with records then diplomas, more people with guns then degrees. If adding some parks can do for the South Bronx what it did for Bogota I gladly welcome it.
I was rather amazing to see someone from the south Bronx speaking at TED talk, not that i know much about it but from what i hav heard it is a very dangerous place or was. One of my friends told me she was leaving Manhattan to got to LOng Island and got off on the wrong exit or something like that and ended up in the south Bronx she said she was so afraid because she was white. I don't know to the extend of how bad it is but as she said in her talk they are trying to make it a safer and better place for the people living there. In my opinion it is very hard for people who grew up in the ghetto to make a change or to better their lives because all they see is violence and think that there is no way out. Education i think makes a big difference and believeing that one can achieve. She has shown us that it can be done with sweat and perseverance. Most times success comes with hard work and many people don't have the resources and the drive to make a change but she is and that is very good. I hope that anyone who is living in the ghetto and believe that change is impossible i hope this has made them think diffrent and will help them to change their life around and aim to be successful.
Kayla
This video was deep. I would always see news reports of shootings and other bad things happening in the South Bronx, but I didn't understand how it affected people directly. When I was watching the video, her description reminded me of the movie American Gangster. The description of pimps, hoes, crack houses seemed so shocking. Where I live, people wouldn't even come close to those description. So, it would be impossible for me to relate to. What she did for her community is a great step to improve her community. I give her props for making a life for herself. Usually some people can't take such pressures like living across the street from a crack house and just breakdown and it messes their lives up. Friends of mine from high school had family that died in the south Bronx, they used to speak about it. I just hope everyone could be like her and use their abilities to help out the community.
This is quite surprising in a way how I perceive a ghetto. I have lived in some kind of ghetto back in Canada and there was nothing like what she had proposed and it was supposed to be CANADA. When I saw the video I was amazed to see someone who lives in a ghetto to be so involved in her neighborhood that she plans out to whole plan for the city with some external help. When I lived in the ghettos part in Canada, few people actually cares about the neighborhood. I participated in social events but like few people actually stay and help to clean up the place or anything. I was amazed to see some neighborhood in NYC to be so lively. I have somewhat feared those world famous ghettos. One of the main reasons is the Hollywood movies which always present the Bronx and Brooklyn ghettos as one of the worst thing ever on earth, where gang war reign and people dies every day. To be frank, I have never stood a foot in those ghettos, I lived in Queens’s ghetto, like CP, or bad side of Whitestone, but I have never stood a foot because of this fear. However after I saw the video I think about myself again and maybe I will go one day without so much fear of those ghettos
I have the same situation with adonya86. My friends told me that South Bronx is a very danger place because there are a lot of shooting and killer news come from there. I do not really know about Bronx since I had never been there. But from the Ted Talk, South Bronx is a place that is really needed to be changed. She is speaking a very great green job in ghetto in South Bronx. This project is really cool. In fact, not only in South Bronx, I think there are many places have to be changed in New York. Such as Chinatown, I remembered the first time when I came to China town—it’s unbelievable dirty. Now, Chinatown is much clean than several years ago. I believe this project will work in South Bronx and will help to rescue the poverty family there, especially the affordable housing part. This plan is needed in many places in New York City. Green is the major issue in city area. We have the responsibility to protect the environment and our air condition. I like the sentence that she had said: “We are all responsible for the future of our community.” Sometimes, we could do many little things in normal life to protect our environment. The project in the video is a big project that would change South Bronx’s people’s life. Ted talk is really a good stage for people to delivery their message and I feel her speech is really well and strong convince use to do something.
This video reminded me of Brooklyn. Everything she says is true and also applies to Brooklyn. If there are parks at least in Williamsburg there are also factories polluting the air. I'm not very familiar with the South Bronx but I know that the problem has to get fixed somewhere. The video was very deep. When she started to speak about her dad, it touched me, how he bought the house but his investment just depreciated because of the area she lived in, its hard living in the ghetto but what's harder is having dreams and no one paying attention because of the reputation of the place your from. I'm glad to see someone speaking in TED talks about issues concerning a majority of the population. I see that she has great potential and I believe she will accomplish exactly what she has planned for the South Bronx.
I agree with Daniela, it does relate to Brooklyn but I don't think everyone in Brooklyn sees HER point of view. Where I live in Brooklyn, I am offered parks and green leaved trees. I think it has to do with the people in the community who are as out-spoken as she is. When she showed a picture of her brother, it surprised me. She was telling a great and encouraging story and all the sudden, she switched the mood and told a shocking story of her proud brother returning from a journey only to be gunned down a few blocks from home. That is upsetting that people would even have the audacity to act this way. People should speak up for themselves and persuade others to join and help. Everyone should be offered a safe place to live.
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