Alex Pirro Writing II

Alex Pirro
February 4, 2008
Assignment 2
Response to Mules and Men

I thought Zora Neale Hurston’s Mules and Men was a long but easy read. I believe that Hurston’s intention in writing this book was to preserve her and other African Americans’ cultures. Immediately, on page eight, Hurston writes, “Ah come to collect some old stories and tales.” Though this is a given, the reader has to notice that between stories, bits of African American and/or Caribbean culture are revealed. Hurston talks about Florida-Flip and Gingerbread cookies several times, revealing their popularity. Hurston visits Hoodoo doctors and discusses their actions as well. Hurston also publishes stories in her book about master and slave, the dominance of men over women and visa versa, and biblical stories.
One of the groups that Hurston seems to be addressing is that which contains all ethnic heritages that are not African or Caribbean. From these people’s point of view, I included, this is a very informative book that delves into the roots of their culture. There was an extensive amount of information and as German-American Franz Boas writes, her “work [is] an unusual contribution to our knowledge of the true inner life of the Negro”(xiii). This piece of writing not only displays cultural values but also some of the thoughts incorporated.
A second group intended for this book is that which contains the ethnic heritages of African or Caribbean background. This book provides detailed accounts of Black pride that should make this audience proud to be a part of that heritage. I believe anyone would be happy to be associated with such a clever, funny, and unified group. However, I think that their stories behind slavery are too comical. I feel that most associated with this ethnicity would feel that Hurston did not portray the struggles that they experienced. By displaying the slaves (normally John) as deceiving the master, Hurston parodies slavery in a sense and minimizes the severity of an unacceptable period.

Alex Pirro
February 4, 2008
Assignment 2
My Family’s Tall Tale

One story that my mother and father have told me several times in past years refers to an incident over a decade ago when my mother was the Assistant District Attorney of Westchester County, New York.
At the time, most Assistant District Attorneys were men. Apparently still a factor in some police organizations, masculinity rules prevailed. One such rule stated that no female Assistant D.A.’s to go on murder investigations. The male Assistant D.A.’s, however, had to be available twenty-four hours a day for seven consecutive days during the year. This process, known as “riding,” forced each male to be prepared for a call-in (to visit a murder scene) at any hour of the day or night. Though most would view this as an aggravating time of the year, my mother asked for the opportunity to have her own week out of the year to visit murder scenes; however, she was denied through reference to the no-women rule. Refusing to yield, my mother persistently nagged until she was finally given the opportunity to go “riding” for a week.
Her week arrived and my mother eagerly awaited a call. One night, at three a.m., the phone rang and my father answered. An officer on the line heard my father’s voice and, probably assuming that Assistant D.A. Pirro was a male, told him to come down to headquarters. My father responded,
“Well, I’m tired, but maybe my wife will go in.”
Grabbing the phone angrily but enthusiastically, my mother told the officer she would be there shortly. She hung up the phone and jumped out of bed. She threw on a robe and crazily sprinted about the bedroom seeming as though she had forgotten the simplicity of dressing. As it was her first time going to a real murder scene, she was both excited and distraught. Finally, after running in circles for about five minutes, she stopped and asked my father,
“What does one wear to a murder?”

Alex Pirro
January 28, 2008
Assignment 1
Thick Description and its uses in our class

I interpret Geertz’s phrase “thick description” as the background of any kind of action. Anthropologists do ethnography by “establishing rapport, selecting informants, transcribing texts, taking genealogies, mapping fields, keeping a diary”(6). Despite all this, ethnography is defined by the intellectual effort within the process. One can only do so much with records, but understanding why people do things or how these actions are taken is the “thick description.” What one man from America may see as a joke, another man from Asia may see as a ritual, or visa versa. One must understand how actions are taken. For example, “ridicule or challenge, irony or anger, snobbery or pride … this may seem like an obvious truth, but there are a number of ways to obscure it”(11). I also understand this phrase as the native meaning behind what the foreign eye is limited to. Therefore, anthropological writings are simply interpretations. An outsider is limited to his beliefs about a culture; they are his or her “thought experiments”(15).
I believe that this idea of “thick description” is important mainly because it relates to one, if not the, main goal of the class, which is to learn about ethnography. Course content aside, “thick description” relates to many people in our class because we are all from different backgrounds and many of us from different nations. Therefore some students’ perceptions of actions may differ from others’. By attempting to connect through cultural understanding, we build a bridge in which the term globalization can also represent the cultural thoughts of the world.