Dana Davis Institutional Time
Essay Question 1. According to Davis, what is “institutional time”? After defining institutional time, offer an analysis of the concept by contrasting the field experience of Aida Hernandez Castillo with that of Dana Ain-Davis.
Anthropologist during their field work come across many experiences and uncover many issues facing their social subjects. This causes struggles in an anthropologist since they feel obligated to help their subjects or to keep their work just for academic purpose. Dana Ain Davis talks about being a politically engaged anthropologist where the anthropologist uses the information from their research for social change. Davis writes that “it may be argues that when research agendas address issues of inequality, there is a responsibility to use information in the service of social change” (p.229). Thus she worked very proactively in Upstate New York among the battered women living in the shelter, receiving aid form the government and undergoing institutional time. According to Davis, institutional time is time lost by …show more content…
However, the policy later mandated women to work in order to continue to receive benefits. Thus, women in the program have undergone tremendous amount of limitations and stress. Davis states that “I felt that the social services practices with regard to people who need assistance constituted a peculiar regulation of poor people…the regulations are “meticulous rituals of power” that serve to discipline people into acting in certain ways” (p.230) When it is poor women are forced to wait for the services provided by the government, they lose of time and they are still expected to meet their families, job duties despite the time lost. These poor battered women are expected to keep the institutional time requirement so that they will not be denied assistance and their benefits won’t be
Anthropologist during their field work come across many experiences and uncover many issues facing their social subjects. This causes struggles in an anthropologist since they feel obligated to help their subjects or to keep their work just for academic purpose. Dana Ain Davis talks about being a politically engaged anthropologist where the anthropologist uses the information from their research for social change. Davis writes that “it may be argues that when research agendas address issues of inequality, there is a responsibility to use information in the service of social change” (p.229). Thus she worked very proactively in Upstate New York among the battered women living in the shelter, receiving aid form the government and undergoing institutional time. According to Davis, institutional time is time lost by …show more content…
However, the policy later mandated women to work in order to continue to receive benefits. Thus, women in the program have undergone tremendous amount of limitations and stress. Davis states that “I felt that the social services practices with regard to people who need assistance constituted a peculiar regulation of poor people…the regulations are “meticulous rituals of power” that serve to discipline people into acting in certain ways” (p.230) When it is poor women are forced to wait for the services provided by the government, they lose of time and they are still expected to meet their families, job duties despite the time lost. These poor battered women are expected to keep the institutional time requirement so that they will not be denied assistance and their benefits won’t be