How might an anthropologist analyse a mainstream film Essay

How might an anthropologist analyse a mainstream film - Essay ExampleThe depiction of the characters in the movie is not only racist in more ways than one, it is also highly sexist. It takes historically inaccurate facts and places the burden of a sexist society upon the tribes of America. The vision that the director and the makers of the movie endorse is extremely problematic and make for disturbing viewing when looked through with a postcolonial and feminist approach. The dissection of the movie in this piece of music shall then proceed with the gaze of an anthropologist. Another factor that shall be looked into is the fact that Gibsons movie was a mainstream one and hence factors in popular notions regarding other cultures. This then brings in the elements of reception and the cultural attitudes that atomic number 18 prevalent in the American and also global population. What sections of the population are targeted is also something that needs to be discussed here. This paper sh all seek to look at these elements of the debate and also a psychoanalytic approach into the mind of why certain races are depicted as they are in popular culture. However, there is another(prenominal) side to this debate. The changes that are introduced into the mentation of the Mayans represent the idea of difference between the urban center and the forest deep down Mayan culture. The movie is then an indictment of Mayan elite culture that according to Gibson had degenerated into a set of mindless rituals. The city becomes the center of all forms of evil that Gibson associates with Mayan culture. This is then contrasted with the culture that is prevalent within the geographical confines of the colony. This village is then the site of family and bonding between different members of the same society. It is a self-sufficient unit that is understood to be a space where traditional aspects of Mayan life are followed without there being a depravation of these ways. There is howeve r, also the presence of technology in the form of traps and other devices that smoothen the life of the wad in the villages. There is thus, an endorsement of the idea of the noble masher as Jean Jacques Rousseau thought of it. It discussed the idea of man in a pure state which made him not merely a savage but also a noble one that was purer than the man who had been corrupted by civilization (Basic sentiment Primitivism and the Noble Savage). Throughout the movie, aspects of Mayan culture are denigrated and the only character whose perspective is taken for a large part of the movie is that of the protagonist, panther deal. The movie traces the life that this character leads where a process of resolution takes place between different tribes within America. The fickleness of power is made clear in this cast of transfer of power takes place very frequently. One of the people who were met by Jaguar Paw is posterior seen as a captive within a matter of a few days. All of this lea ds to the serial publication of human sacrifices that take place at the Mayan temple in an effort to appease the Mayan god Kukulkan. The depravity of the culture of the elite and those that live in the city are talked of in this movie. The connection between Jaguar Paw and the nature of his homeland is repeatedly stressed. This can also be seen in the way in which the forest decimates the people of the city who seek to kill Jaguar Paw. The connection between Jaguar Paw and his homeland