Comparing The Endicotts And Dettwylers Ethnographies

1. Compare and contrast the Endicotts’ and Dettwyler’s ethnographies. What are the objectives? How they reflect on the goals of anthropology? What are the shortcomings of each? The Headman Was a Woman (collaboratively written by both Kirk M. Endicott and Karen L. Endicott) and Dancing Skeletons: Life and Death in West Africa (written by Katherine A. Dettwyler) both have anthropological focuses on the cultures and practices of various tribes from different countries, however, their accounts and approaches in their situations differ greatly from one another. The former studies the ways of life of a certain people, while the later targets the health issues of another. In The Headman Was a Woman, the Endicotts focus on the Batek society of Malaysia, aiming to understand the basis of their culture and how it differs from ours. The central focal point of their study was how the Batek dealt with gender and gender roles in relation to their everyday lives in the tribe. The Endicotts found that the Malaysian society was an egalitarian one when it came to handling gender, meaning all genders were treated equally. Neither gender was seen as superior nor inferior to the other, rather they were equal to each other and each played to their strong suits in the community. Katherine A. Dettwyler’s Dancing Skeletons: Life and Death in West Africa focuses specifically on the health issues of tribes in West Africa (e.g., Mali), rather than how their gender roles differ from our own