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Moe works at a convenience store and gas station that I have been frequenting since before I was even old enough to have a car to fill up with gas. Moe is originally from Pakistan, he was born in the city of Karachi, but has been in this country for 20 years. His native language is Urdu. Moe is thirty-eight years old and is married with two children. Both of his children were also born in Pakistan and are now naturalized American citizens like their father. Through my interview of Moe I learned quite a bit about Moe, his culture and his religion. In our interview, Moe illustrated three important concepts of anthropology, 1) religion, 2) social structure and 3) enculturation. Anthropology defines religion as a set of rituals rationalized by myth that mobilizes supernatural powers to achieve or prevent transformation of state in the nature of people. Moe’s religion is that of Islam, and through our interview I learned that he is very proud and happy to be a member of that religion. He greatly enjoyed telling me about the beliefs, values and traditions of his religion that plays a very important role in his life. A Muslim’s religion encompasses perhaps more aspects of his life than the followers of almost any other religion. The concept of religion when it comes to anthropology deals with many factors. Those factors include but are not limited to myths, symbolism, polytheism or monotheism, pantheons, ancestral spirits, animism, animatism, priests, and shamans. Moe’s religion includes very few of these factors, most of the religion resolves around one god Allah, and his prophet Mohammed. Since Islam has only one god it would be classified as monotheistic, and it does not have pantheons like the Greek culture. It also does not allow symbols like the cross that symbolizes Christianity, or the star of David which symbolizes Judaism. The house of worship for Muslims is called a mosque. Moe said it was very easy to find and go to a mosque so he could practice his religion. I also learned from Moe that Islam is not that different than my religion of Christianity. Muslims do in fact also believe in Jesus, Moses, Abraham and others of the Christian bible, they however play the roles as only disciples of god, not the son of god, as in the case of Jesus. The Muslims also have very important religious holidays like other religions of the world, perhaps the most important religious holiday for the Muslims is Ramadan. Ramadan is a month long period of fasting that comes once every lunar calendar. The fasting is observed from sunup to sundown and during this period no eating, sex or lying is allowed. During this time a Muslim must also give to others in the name of Islam. At the end of the period of Ramadan large celebrations occur with lots of giving and exchanging of food. This seems to be similar to the Christian Easter or Christmas. Islam seems to be a very interesting religion and I intend to study it further with the help of the Quran, the holy book of Islam, of which Moe gave me a copy as a gift. Anthropology defines social structure as the sum of the patterns of relationships in a society. Moe’s social structure is quite interesting, and is quite different from what we are used to here. Perhaps the difference that I found most interesting is that in Islam and his home country of Pakistan, marriage among first cousins is not only accepted but also actually quite common. Moe said that the Muslim majority “prefer inside the family marriage”, and that of his immediate family he is the only one to not have married inside the family. Both his father and brother had married cousins. Another commonality among the Muslim culture is that of arranged marriages. In this interview I was informed that approximately eighty-percent of marriages were arranged. However what Moe defined to me as “arranged marriages” were a lot different than what I had assumed these marriages were. I always thought that an arranged marriage meant that both the groom and bride to be had no say in who their future spouse would be. My assumption was wrong; Moe informed me that if the man or woman says “no”, then the marriage will not happen. It turns that in Moe’s culture the concept of arranged marriage is more of way for parents to approve of a union than to actually decide who their child is going to marry. Moe told me that he met his wife at another couple’s wedding and that after deciding he wanted to marry her, he told his parents and asked them to approach the parents of the bride to be. Both sets of parents approved the marriage and the rest is history. Another very interesting aspect of Moe’s culture is one that has been addressed quite a bit in this class. Islam allows polygamy, in more specific polygyny. Moe informed me that Islam allows a man to have up to four wives, but there are guide lines to that. First of all a man may search for another wife if his wife cannot give children, the man is unhappy or desires more sexually. Then the man must have the consideration to tell and ask his current wife or wives, but the wife must allow it. Once the man is married to more than one woman he must maintain identical standards for each wife. For example, each wife must have a completely separate home and all of the houses must be similar and equal. Another important factor of the Muslim social structure is that they believe in what Moe described as a “joint family system” this is what anthropology defines as an extended family. Moe said that until recently he lived in a house with his wife and children, his parents, his brother and his wife and three children, and another brother. He also informed me that it was customary for the oldest son of every family to care for his parents until their death. If the oldest son does not have the ways and means to do this, then the parents can choose which child to support them. Anthropology defines culture shock as “a severe psychological reaction that results from adjusting to the realities of a society radically different from one’s own”. Though this definition makes culture shock sound like something negative, it can also be positive or mixed, like it was for Moe. He experienced a plethora of feelings he first came to this country, some were good and some were bad. Coming from a Hispanic and Catholic background I tend to agree with Moe’s more traditional values and beliefs. Some of the negative things that strongly “shocked” him when he came to this country included the family values of this society. Moe did not like or agree with the way that the state of family values were in this country, he did not like the idea of the independent “nuclear family” , and he was shocked at the concept of retirement homes because as I indicated earlier, his culture demanded that oldest son take care of his parents until their death. Moe also shared with me how he was shocked that this country lacked respect for the elderly. I felt inclined to disagree with this because my family’s culture always taught me to respect people for their accomplishments, not their age. This does not mean that I will purposely disrespect elders, but there are many people who are three or four time older than I, and have not accomplished half of the things I have in my short twenty years. Another thing that Moe does not like about this country is how we are such materialistic society; he feels that it is better to find happiness among friends and family than among material possessions. In theory and in heart I do agree with my friend Moe on this, even though I do receive great pleasure from the newest technological gadgets, or new luxury cars. As far as the positive “culture shocks” that Moe encountered when he first came to this country include our basic rights and freedoms that we sometime take from granted in this country. Moe spoke very passionately about the American dream; that is in fact why Moe came to this country to begin with. He wanted a better future for himself and his family, and he felt that could more easily be obtained in our society than in his. Through my interview of Moe, I learned more than I ever could have of imagined, about him, and his religion of Islam, which is such an integral part of his life. Some ethnocentric views of Moe’s culture as judged by the values and standards of my own culture make some of his practices seem wrong such as allowing polygamy, or silly like the arranged marriages or unnecessary such as Ramadan. However, criticizing him for them would be going against the values and beliefs of my culture. Interviewing Moe and learning about why his culture has certain beliefs and values has definitely helped me in becoming more understanding and tolerant. Bibliography: Word Count: 1587
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