Margaret Mead, a woman I admire

Margaret Mead was an American anthropologist born on December 16, 1901 in Philadelphia and died in 1978. In her ethnographic research of the 1920s and 1930s, she challenged the sexist biologist view that prevailed in the social sciences according to which the sexual division of the work in the modern family was due to an innate difference between the behavior of men and women. In his comparative study Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies Mead (1935) she introduced the revolutionary idea that the human species is enormously malleable, sexual roles and behaviors vary according to socio-cultural contexts. It was thus a precursor in the use of the concept "gender" widely used later in feminist studies.

Accident in bicycle

Hello everyone! Today I will tell you one of the accidents that I remember the most when I was little ... When I was 7 years old my mother decided to take me seated on the bicycle frame, for which I had to always remember to keep my legs elevated so that they wouldn't get caught in the bicycle's ray ... However, in a moment of carelessness I lowered my legs and one of my feet got caught ... it was so painful! My foot turned for a moment until I screamed so loudly that my mom noticed and slowed down ... My foot was injured and bruised so I wore a bandage for a while, and also I had to go to school wearing my slippers! My classmates laughed a lot at this situation and they wouldn't stop staring at me ... with time I started to heal and it was no longer necessary to go to school with slippers, but it was so comfortable that I didn't want to take them off.

My favorite subject of this semester

Hi all! Today I will talk about my favorite subjects of this semester. The subject that I really like is "Mapuche"; first because the teacher is so kind and cool, he really interested in our learning. He is mapuche and his point of view is very interesting because he talk in first person about his culture and history.  The story about the mapuche always has been related and constructed by others like europeans and chileans persons. So, all the time, we talk about the mapuche from only one perspective. Is necessary listen and understand others perspectives about the mapuche and the"chilean history", above everything mapuche voices. Anyway, I love this class, so I try to be there all the time.

My second favorite subject is "Gender Anthropoly", because this subject makes you question many things about the way you see your life. The teachers of this class are very intelligent and interesting. The gender has been construct by society, defining gender roles and placing the women in a lower position. In addition there are others forms of oppression that crosses the gender, like class, race, age, etc.

Memory

I love pictures because I think that always can represent an important moment of your life, also help to not forget of beautiful moments with different people. However, I don't take pictures very often, but I like too much to observe the pictures that other people take.

Well, I like this photo because it reminds me beautiful moments with my friends of university.  This photo was taken by my boyfriend in Puerto Fuy, south of Chile. We were doing a fieldwork where we met many nice persons. In this way, we saw how many problems afflicted these people, and how no one paid attention to this being a small town. This event marked a before and after in our lives, and we increase the desire to be able to help the people with our profession.

This photo means a lot to me, because those women are the best friends that I could have. They are always there when I need them.

Drugs

Well, I think is difficult talk about the drugs, because many things that are said about them are subjetives are social constructions of the people, and generally, people who don't have the certainty about what they talk or moralist people.
Many times, this people have some interests and hiddens intentions to say things about the drugs, because we can see how the government permit the disproportionate use of cigarette and alcohol, even though they are very dangerous for the health and have many others negatives consequences, for example: for the family ... So, what is the limit?
I think there are drugs that really cause negatives consequences in our body like addiction or physical and psychological dependence (cocaine, heroine, etc), but there are other drugs like cannabis that inclusive cause positives consequences for the human like emotional and physical well-being, relaxation and calm. Legal or ilegal, it's  very important to a parent and institutional education around these drugs like cannabis, so that way they can have a good use and future children won't have bad experiences.

About technology

I think the technology is not only the laptops, smartphones, computers, etc.  The technology is everything modificated at the service of the human being: from a spoon for tea. However, the technology of this century and the end of the 20th century has had the characteristic that in a single object are fulfilled many functions: work, study, play, have fun, make friends, etc. This type of technology at the same time, is a good and bad thing, because is very useful but at the same time is very counterproductive for people who don't know control their use, or who can lose the ability to have relationships outside of a screen... Anyway, if I had to choose one as my favorite I would choose my cellphone, mainly because it serves to communicate more easily through whatssap or a call,  you can also surf on the internet. I think it's very useful when you need to communicate urgently with someone or you'll encounter with an other person...

I got a phone for first time ten years ago, when I was a child... Today, I would like to use the phone less and less , only for emergency calls, I don't like to feel dependent on this. Without the phone, I think it would be very difficult to communicate with other people because it's part of my normal life. The letters are no longer in use...maybe I would be even more unpunctual than I already am, or the other way around?...

Why anthropology?

Well, when I was a kid I wanted study many things and also I wanted to travel all over the world. First, I wanted study theatre or some career associated like dance or physical education, because I really liked sport and performance. But with the time, when I was an adolescent I started prefer careers related with indian history and past like archaeology or pedagogy in history. Finally when I had to choose the career for my future I decided to study social antropology, because I thought that this career combined my desire to travel and my taste for differents societies.

Actually, I so happy learning about anthropology theory, etnography,  differents cultures and others types of life in the modern context.

In the future, I would like work in differents places of my country, and later in other countries of América. I would like to be a contribution to these societies and not only an academic more.

Selk'nam: People of the southern zone of Chile, exterminated by foreign colonialists