Honouring The Blood Of The People Analysis
Critical Analysis of Honouring the Blood of the People: Berry Fasting in the Twenty-First Century
Class: 107 Section 3
Due date: October 1st 2013
Student name: Yu Su
Student number: 11136481
Seminar Instructor: Emma Sim
A Critical Analysis of Honouring the Blood of the People: Berry Fasting in the Twenty-First Century
Introduction:
In Honouring the Blood of People, Kim Anderson presents she has duties to pass on "berry fest", which is an original puberty festival for aboriginal girls. She points out that by joining this festival, Native young women could learn to "saying no", to be self-discipline, to have a sense of responsibility and sacrificing, to be offered opportunities to think about their authorities of sexuality …show more content…
and to build a new relationship between puberty and adult women. Anderson 's points are far-reaching and meaningful, and are well illustrated by using reflections and quotes, although her points are weaken by some examples she uses in a too idealized way. In this critical analysis, I will discuss the strengths of Honouring the Blood of the People both in content and writing techniques and point out some weaknesses for the article.
Evaluation:
Honouring the Blood of People, in its content, it presents a thought of feminism and cultural transmission, both of which are significant to later generations of Aboriginal girls.
Anderson states "I have duty to pass along those stories that will empower our young girls"1. In the whole article, Anderson tries to teach girls to be brave, strong, self-esteem and with a spirit of revolt. She explains that girls should learn to "say no" when they are facing violence because they have that "healthy choices".2 It is actually more than choices but also rights for females because it tells women to fight for their life and not to give up when they are in difficult positions. Anderson also tries to teach young girls that men and women are equal. When she illustrates her idea that berry fast offer an opportunity for girls about sex, sexuality and relationship, she uses quote from Maracle that women and men have fifty-fifty responsibility and positions when they are in a relationship.3 Women are not in lower positions and they should not yield to men or endure silently. Beyond feminism, Anderson tries to inherit Native culture and does not want to lose it. In the begging of the article, she starts with a traditional story from a story teller, which aims at arousing reader’s interests about Native stories. Later on, she points out her purpose is to pass on those stories to empower aboriginal girls. Passing on traditional stories is a way to passing on culture to …show more content…
descendants.
From writing techniques used in this article, Anderson uses a lot of reflections from interviewees and quotes from aboriginal professors to illustrate her basic arguments, which make her argument reliable and believable.
When she claims that "self-discipline is another lesson that the young women refers to in their reflections on the berry fast", she reports from a sixteen-year-old girl named Simon who tells her that the girl wouldn 't accept berries from others in her puberty festival because she would stop and think to make sure if it is right for her to do it. From Simon 's words, it is strongly proved that girls could learn how to be self-discipline in "berry fast".4 In addition, a singer/hand drummer-Gertie Mai Muise 's reflection is also used in Kim 's argument. Muise writes her with those girls who grow up in a world of violence and abuses are going to change their history for original women to make their life bright and beautiful in the future.5 Again, those words from Gertie are well explained a deep feeling of love and expectation, which strength author 's thesis that "berry fast" should be passed down for native girls. Anderson quotes some words from Sylvia Maracle and Gertie Beaucage, both of whom are professors who "work for the Ontario Federation of Indian Friendship Centres". She reports from Beaucage that people in their society should learn to be disciplined and self-determined, which shows the same view with Anderson. According to Beaucage, “We need
disciplined people in our society. We need people in our society who know what is important to them, that you can survive and be self-determined and able to see the future”.6 In addition, Maracle states that she wants girls to talk about their relationship and sex in a directly way so that they could understand more about their situation and know more about some methods to solve their problems.7 Both Maracle and Beaucage 's words are represented precisely and strongly proved Anderson 's arguments.
There are some problems however, with Anderson 's argument. Some examples she used for her points are over-idealized. She notes that girls should "saying no" when they are under certain kinds of pressure. From her examples, a girl chooses to refuse to a man who is luring her and another girl refuses a family member who is trying to sexually abuse her.8 There is no doubt that "saying no" is a necessary skill that a teenager girl should learn; however, Anderson overlooks girls ' abilities to fight back and ignore existing of potential safety hazard among girls. In some dangerous situations, keeping saying no could arise more attack actions, whereas for girls, who are fragile and small, cannot usually against back in those situations. In addition, she mentions some problems associated with sex, drugs and alcohol; however, in the later part of her article she argues most about relationship, sex abuse with little evidence of the other two situations.
Conclusion:
This critical view has evaluated the article Honouring the Blood of the People by Kim Anderson. The point of views that Anderson presents are significant both in feminism and cultural transmission, and by using reflections and quotes from her interviewees to illustrate her points are technical and reliable; however, her writing is weakened by her presence of bias, the over-idealized recognition towards young girls.
Bibliography
Anderson, Kim. “Honouring the Blood of the People: Berry Fasting in the Twenty-First Century.” In Indigenous way of Knowing Reader, edited by Dr. Winona Wheeler et al. 203-224. Boston: A Pearson Education Company, 2013.
Class: 107 Section 3
Due date: October 1st 2013
Student name: Yu Su
Student number: 11136481
Seminar Instructor: Emma Sim
A Critical Analysis of Honouring the Blood of the People: Berry Fasting in the Twenty-First Century
Introduction:
In Honouring the Blood of People, Kim Anderson presents she has duties to pass on "berry fest", which is an original puberty festival for aboriginal girls. She points out that by joining this festival, Native young women could learn to "saying no", to be self-discipline, to have a sense of responsibility and sacrificing, to be offered opportunities to think about their authorities of sexuality …show more content…
and to build a new relationship between puberty and adult women. Anderson 's points are far-reaching and meaningful, and are well illustrated by using reflections and quotes, although her points are weaken by some examples she uses in a too idealized way. In this critical analysis, I will discuss the strengths of Honouring the Blood of the People both in content and writing techniques and point out some weaknesses for the article.
Evaluation:
Honouring the Blood of People, in its content, it presents a thought of feminism and cultural transmission, both of which are significant to later generations of Aboriginal girls.
Anderson states "I have duty to pass along those stories that will empower our young girls"1. In the whole article, Anderson tries to teach girls to be brave, strong, self-esteem and with a spirit of revolt. She explains that girls should learn to "say no" when they are facing violence because they have that "healthy choices".2 It is actually more than choices but also rights for females because it tells women to fight for their life and not to give up when they are in difficult positions. Anderson also tries to teach young girls that men and women are equal. When she illustrates her idea that berry fast offer an opportunity for girls about sex, sexuality and relationship, she uses quote from Maracle that women and men have fifty-fifty responsibility and positions when they are in a relationship.3 Women are not in lower positions and they should not yield to men or endure silently. Beyond feminism, Anderson tries to inherit Native culture and does not want to lose it. In the begging of the article, she starts with a traditional story from a story teller, which aims at arousing reader’s interests about Native stories. Later on, she points out her purpose is to pass on those stories to empower aboriginal girls. Passing on traditional stories is a way to passing on culture to …show more content…
descendants.
From writing techniques used in this article, Anderson uses a lot of reflections from interviewees and quotes from aboriginal professors to illustrate her basic arguments, which make her argument reliable and believable.
When she claims that "self-discipline is another lesson that the young women refers to in their reflections on the berry fast", she reports from a sixteen-year-old girl named Simon who tells her that the girl wouldn 't accept berries from others in her puberty festival because she would stop and think to make sure if it is right for her to do it. From Simon 's words, it is strongly proved that girls could learn how to be self-discipline in "berry fast".4 In addition, a singer/hand drummer-Gertie Mai Muise 's reflection is also used in Kim 's argument. Muise writes her with those girls who grow up in a world of violence and abuses are going to change their history for original women to make their life bright and beautiful in the future.5 Again, those words from Gertie are well explained a deep feeling of love and expectation, which strength author 's thesis that "berry fast" should be passed down for native girls. Anderson quotes some words from Sylvia Maracle and Gertie Beaucage, both of whom are professors who "work for the Ontario Federation of Indian Friendship Centres". She reports from Beaucage that people in their society should learn to be disciplined and self-determined, which shows the same view with Anderson. According to Beaucage, “We need
disciplined people in our society. We need people in our society who know what is important to them, that you can survive and be self-determined and able to see the future”.6 In addition, Maracle states that she wants girls to talk about their relationship and sex in a directly way so that they could understand more about their situation and know more about some methods to solve their problems.7 Both Maracle and Beaucage 's words are represented precisely and strongly proved Anderson 's arguments.
There are some problems however, with Anderson 's argument. Some examples she used for her points are over-idealized. She notes that girls should "saying no" when they are under certain kinds of pressure. From her examples, a girl chooses to refuse to a man who is luring her and another girl refuses a family member who is trying to sexually abuse her.8 There is no doubt that "saying no" is a necessary skill that a teenager girl should learn; however, Anderson overlooks girls ' abilities to fight back and ignore existing of potential safety hazard among girls. In some dangerous situations, keeping saying no could arise more attack actions, whereas for girls, who are fragile and small, cannot usually against back in those situations. In addition, she mentions some problems associated with sex, drugs and alcohol; however, in the later part of her article she argues most about relationship, sex abuse with little evidence of the other two situations.
Conclusion:
This critical view has evaluated the article Honouring the Blood of the People by Kim Anderson. The point of views that Anderson presents are significant both in feminism and cultural transmission, and by using reflections and quotes from her interviewees to illustrate her points are technical and reliable; however, her writing is weakened by her presence of bias, the over-idealized recognition towards young girls.
Bibliography
Anderson, Kim. “Honouring the Blood of the People: Berry Fasting in the Twenty-First Century.” In Indigenous way of Knowing Reader, edited by Dr. Winona Wheeler et al. 203-224. Boston: A Pearson Education Company, 2013.