For part 1, please respond to one of the following questions. For part 2, comment on two of your peers' posts.
C block due dates:
Part 1: Monday, September 24th
Part 2: Wednesday, September 26th
G block due date:
Part 1: Tuesday, September 25th
Part 2: Thursday, September 27th
C block due dates:
Part 1: Monday, September 24th
Part 2: Wednesday, September 26th
G block due date:
Part 1: Tuesday, September 25th
Part 2: Thursday, September 27th
—How does reading primary sources help our understanding
of a person or event?
¡What bias is
involved?
¡Can we avoid bias?
—Compare the tradition and institution of marriage in
your own culture with that of the Batswana culture depicted in the story. Are
there traditions that you like? Don’t like? Why?
—The short story has a lot to do with changes in
tradition because of Western influence. In what other ways might this culture
have been affected by Western influence? How do you think Head feels about
those changes?
Reading primary sources helps our understanding of a person or event so that we can focalize the historical period of which she is talking about. Then we can understand which social class, which was her thought and how she thought about the things happening in that moment. We can understand from which point of view we are looking this period at. Using the example of Head we know that she is a black person living in the Apartheid so she has a point of view that is negative towards the period of time. Bias is involved so that she wants that the Apartheid concludes and that there are equal rights for both black and white people. So she has a negative point of perspective towards the Apartheid. Bias is difficult to avoid because there is always a perspective from which you are writing from, you should write without any point of view or perspective, like a historian.
ReplyDeleteAs Federico says, it is important to read primary sources, because they help us to understand a person and her background. It also tell us in which time period the story was written, and gives us an intimation on the author's point of view.
DeleteFederico is right saying that bias is involved in Bessie Head's background, but this helps us understand her perspective. I think that if Bessie Head's background was written by a historian, therefore with no point of view, it would not help us understand the context of the story and why Bessie Head wrote it.
Federico has a great point and shows how primary sources may be used to reasearch and learn about a certain period of time. He uses a great example which is the example of Bessie Head in Apartheid, this is example is perfect since we just finished reading about Bessie Head and reading her short story "Snapshots of a Wedding". He also says how being bias is really hard to avoid because its like a reflex u just give your opinion its something u can't avoid something that comes naturally. He also includes an example of someone who normally wouldn't use his point of view "like a historian".
DeleteI agree with Federico and Giulia, they both say because Bessie head was affected in a bad way during the Apartheid, she would obviously be against it and say bad things about it. Even though she is a primary source, she can be considered biased because of her role in it and how she was affected by it. Because of this it would be extremely hard to find someone who wold be not biased, like for example what Giulia said, a historian who would have been alive at the time but not have a opinion on it. Overall bias is a massive variable in looking through history and because of it, maybe our account of history is not entirely correct, and it is not surprising with everyone's opinion being weaved through it. Even if most of those people are historians, because even they have opinions.
DeleteQuestion 1:
ReplyDeleteReading primary sources helps us understand about a person or event by being able to know about background information about what you are writing about. This is helpful because it can help us understand what was happening at the time of a event or what the person was experiencing at the time, depending what your are reading about. Bias can occur if a person want to make something sound better or worse, for example in events such as a military battle, bias might be included in the report. Even though primary sources some primary sources may be biased they are the most descriptive and are recorded by people who were at the event or knowing the person at the time, because of this primary sources are the least biased sources you can find, unlike secondary sources. You can avoid bias by being careful at what you are looking at and seeing who wrote the source, by doing this it makes it easier to find out if a source could be biased.
I agree with what Christian had said entirely. To a reader primary sources does help people understand more about the author and what they were experiencing. This can also give readers a new perspective on what they have read. When researching primary sources are more useful than secondary sources since they have less bias this also makes the reader have a clearer understanding, since secondary sources are biased and contradictory.
DeletePrimary sources are a crucial part of understanding an event and a person. Primary sources are generally found in history and this sources help us know more about the period and have a direct point of view of how it was. through primary sources we can also learn about peoples feeling twoards the event or perso we are reaserching. Sadly these primary sources normally are biased because people give their point of view either on purpose or not but they do. We could try our best to be neutral but we probably can't for example someone asks do u prefer coca-cola or pepsi u would automaticly give a biased answer because its your opinion and this applies to anything.
ReplyDeleteI think Alessandro is right because he said that primary sources are basically biased, giving the example of Coca-Cola and Pepsi. This is what most people do when writing something, for example the newspapers; in Italy most of them have a political party that they favor. In addition I wanted to say that on the other side he is wrong because in “A snapshot of a wedding” Bessie Head is not giving her personal point of view because she was going against what she thought because she meant through the story that education did not count a lot while she thought it was very important.
DeleteFederico u do have a point, what if Bessie Head is just being sarcastic about this story she is using it in a sarcastic way to criticize the others(like Ms. Gelso has said today in class)
DeleteIn the short story “a snapshot of a wedding”, the tradition of Botswana is very different from the culture of marriage in the Italian culture. The tradition of marriage in Botswana is very important, they dress very elegant like in our culture but the difference is that they have to prepare the diphiri that is a traditional wedding breakfast made by meat and samp, also the ox for the wedding feast. There are also the rituals performed by the two families, the groom and bride. In the short story the bride’s maternal aunts sat on the floor in groups and were treated like queens for all the day, then two girls would dance in front of the bride and the groom’s aunt said that the bride should bring water to their house, also that she should let the groom free and that he is the owner of the house and that she should follow his rules. Instead the bride’s aunts said that the groom needed to supply them with corn each year. Instead the culture of marriage in the Italian culture is very different because they have to dress very elegant, the wedding is often in churches that are decorated with flowers and the bride is always wearing a white dress and a veil. The bride enters with his father that accompanies her to the altar and the groom is already there from the start. Even though the wedding is very elegant, there are not that many rituals as in Botswana like the promises of water and corn. I like all traditions because every culture is different, important and interesting in different aspects and all of them are special.
ReplyDeletePrimary sources help our understanding of a person or event to an indecisive extent, first we can identify the source easily and fully trust it, especially if the source is written by someone during that time period, someone who attended the event/witnessed when a person acted (e.g. bank robbery), or if someone was somehow related to the person or a person who took part in an event.
ReplyDeleteHaving a closer look at the traditions and culture in Botswana, my traditions and cultures are way different in many various ways, but the one that stood out the most to me was marriage. Marriage or Lenyano, used to be so important that it could determine one's status in the community and society, where in my culture, married or single, you were looked as you were before, unless you are a politician, of course. Honestly I don't like nor agree with the culture they have in Botswana, because everyone is supposed to be equal, and be looked as who you are and stand for, and getting married shouldn't change that!
The culture might have also been affected by the Western influence by crucial terrible things such as slavery or human trafficking, but looking on the bright side of it, other things such as technology, places to live and work, and better transport conditions might have also been introduced to them. Most likely, Head is pleased with those changes, referring back to her life when she moved from South Africa to start a new and better life, and those changes are going to fully benefit her, however she must be careful of the dangerous people out there in the world today.
I agree with what Mihnea had said about primary sources, especially about how primary sources are trustworthy. Sources taken at the same time as when the author published books also provides different views and thoughts of that time. although i cannot speak for Mihnea's cultural viewpoints on marriage I agree that every one should be equal, and the person you marry shouldn't affect peoples thoughts about you. I also agree that modernization that takes part in botswana can be a good thing, although it does have its problems
DeleteI Also Agree on Mihnea's interpretation of the use of Primary Sources and what Identifies it as a primary source.
DeleteI Find Mihnea's comparison between Marital Cultures from Both Botswana and his home country descriptive, yet simple.
I completely agree with Mihnea's final paragraph in which Bessie Head must be careful of dangerous people out there since it is nice to look at the bright side in things, but you still need to be careful of the possible dangers and obstacles.
The background to Snapshots of a Wedding is an introduction to Bessie Head and her life. Reading this helped me understand how many problems she had in her life, starting with the fact that she was born from a white mother and a black father during the Apartheid. These details made me understand her point of view and they way in which she thinks. When I read the story, I was confused, because after all the details I read I thought she would write a story on the rights that black people should have or on the fact that the Apartheid was unfair, but she did not. She wrote a story on a wedding, which shows that people prefer money to love, and that they would choose a wealthy woman over a sweet and kind one. In Bessie Head’s background, bias is involved, because she expresses her judgment against Apartheid and the laws against black people, which were created at that time. Bias is difficult to avoid, because people always express their way if thinking in a specific argument.
ReplyDeleteI agree on what Giulia is saying because she thinks just what I think, that Bessie Head in her short story is saying the complete opposite to what she thinks or does not write what most people think that she would have written about. Here is where the great writer comes to light, not the one that thinks about her problems all the time but that tries to vary enough what she is thinking by telling the costumes and traditions of Botswana in which she has moved. She also wrote about the Apartheid in South Africa but she still varied her repertory.
DeleteI agree on Giulia's statement since the story doesn't particularly reflect the life of Bessie but slightly covers some subjects like discrimination and also power like Giulia mentioned . I agree also on the fact that initially reading the story I didn’t understand the meaning nor the purpose mainly of writing such a story but eventually it was mostly based on the fact that judgment in these days is based not on what we believe in or in what our heart wants to be happy but to what will help us and make us fill our greed.
DeleteI perfectly agree with Giulia because she saying that even though she was born from a white mother and a black father, she wrote a story about a marriage, that is a very happy event, so even though she suffered and a lot horrible thing happened to her including being born in the period of Apartheid, she was able to write a story completely opposite to what she thinks and used as a main theme happiness and joy.
DeleteI think that what Giulia said is right because it's true that reading primary sources helps to understand facts of the author's life. Actually it's true that Bessie wrote her short story "Shapshot of Wedding" about a topic that we didn't image; Botswana's marriage. She could have wrote about how Apartheid was unfair and how her childhood was bad and sad, but she decided to write about the reality of our world, about traditions and Botswana. It's incredible how her bad adventures in life made her stronger and more powerful.
DeleteReading primary sources helps our understanding of a person or event. Primary sources are important because they are usually very trustful and written by someone who lived in that period. They give us background information, like when the author lived and when he wrote it. Thanks to that we can get a vision and we can understand what was happening. It can helps us understand the text. We probably can’t avoid bias, especially when the source was written in first person. That person has it’s own view on that event. Each person might felt different feelings and had different opinions on the event. So it is better when we have more primary sources at one’s disposal. Primary sources are not objective, but they are most important from sources.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Klàra says, because primary sources guarantee that the informations we read are real and that we can trust them, because they are written by people who lived at that time or have witnessed what happened. The primary sources of "Snaphots of a Wedding", in this case Bessie Head's life, help us to understand the context and the time when the story was written, which as Klàra says, make us understand the text and why the author might have wrote that.
DeleteIt is true that bias is difficult to avoid, but it helps us understand the point of view of a person.
I perfectly agree with Klàra, because primary sources are very important, they help you understand the setting and what is happening in the context. They are also very important because they are for sure well written and authentic because they are written by a person who lived in that period. Bias is used and it is very difficult to avoid, especially if it is written in first person but it helps you to understand the person's ideas, emotions and what he or she thinks.
DeleteKlara's Interpretation of the importance of Primary Sources is well reasonable, I agree that the more related the document is to the event, the more its trustful. I completely agree with the fact that bias is unavoidable if the document is written in first person, since there isn't a neutral point of view.
DeleteElena L. says...
ReplyDeleteA primary source is a journal, diary entry or other types of writing which were written by someone which did not have the intent to show it to us. A primary source, can help us understand better the person or the event described. Most of the time, the source has an opinion on him/her/it, so it may sometimes be in an exagerate way positive or negative. This could interfer with the analysis of the source, but most of the readers take the fact that the source is bias in consideration. In addition, the primary sources are taken in consideration during analysis of a specific person, event or period of time because we understand the mentality of the people of the time, and eventually we get the answers to the questions we are looking for. Primary sources helps the understanding of the person or the event because because we usually have the needed description of the person or event to understand it better. Also, it usually has a point of view of the situation. For example, in the book “Little Bee” or “The Other Hand”, we have both Sarah’s and Little Bee’s point-of-view, so understand better the story. Its difficult not to have a point-of-view in Primary Sources. Most of the time, secondary sources are not bias.
Reading primary sources helps our understanding of a person or event. It helps us beacuse in this way we know of what historical period is talking the author. Reading primary sources helps us to understand better the author's thoughts and vision on the world. It helps us because we can understand what was happening during the time of the event or we can understand what the author experienced during his/her life and how determined events effected her/his life and way of writing. Unfourtunately you can always find biased primary sources. It is difficult to avoid bias beacuse there is always a prespective from which you are writing. You can avoid it by writing like an historian, without any point of view or perspective.
ReplyDeleteCaterina has given various supportive details to her response. She explains the different utilities of how primary sources can be helpful. She also shows the too sides of being bias she evidences how its hard to avoid it, but she also shows how to avoid it "you can avoid it by writing like an historian, without any point of view or perspective" This quote first of all has a grammatical mistake if i'm not mistaken: "an historian" its *a, but as a contextual support she does help her idea of deleting bias from your writing by using the example of the historian. Eventhough historians are human and make mistakes and sometimes give a partially bias perspective of the happening.
DeleteQ1
ReplyDeletePrimary Sources are the closest type of document related to the character/event (ex. Diary, Journal, Evidence...). Primary Sources are a key way to understanding the character/text because only then we can understand its further information, so we can know more about its cause/past (any background information). The key thing in which Bias is involved in this is the main idea/message. Bessie Head's life (Background to a snapshot of a wedding) could easily be Biased/Criticized due to the fact that it demonstrates only the negativity in Bessie's Life, It doesn't matter if negativity was the only thing she ever experienced or not, the problem is just that it has a form of perspective which allows Biases to collide with that perspective. Basically, Bessie Head's small biography could've avoided criticism by being more neutral, give it more positive details.
So to avoid Bias you should be neutral, Give an equal amount of detail to each side, making the argument seem even, without siding with one side.
Q1
ReplyDeletePrimary Sources are the closest type of document related to the character/event (ex. Diary, Journal, Evidence...). Primary Sources are a key way to understanding the character/text because only then we can understand its further information, so we can know more about its cause/past (any background information). The key thing in which Bias is involved in this is the main idea/message. Bessie Head's life (Background to a snapshot of a wedding) could easily be Biased/Criticized due to the fact that it demonstrates only the negativity in Bessie's Life, It doesn't matter if negativity was the only thing she ever experienced or not, the problem is just that it has a form of perspective which allows Biases to collide with that perspective. Basically, Bessie Head's small biography could've avoided criticism by being more neutral, give it more positive details.
So to avoid Bias you should be neutral, Give an equal amount of detail to each side, making the argument seem even, without siding with one side.
oops! Accidentally published this twice...
DeleteIn Bessie Heads’ Snapshots of a Wedding western influence plays a major role on the Botswanian culture. Western influence impedes on the cultural Botswanian wedding “no one had been awake all night preparing diphiri or the traditional wedding breakfast of pounded meat and samp”. I believe that Bessie Head had no issue with western influences “oh, we all have our own ways… if the times are changing, we keep up with them” this quote reflects Heads’ personal thought on this issue. Another western influence in this short story is education. Neo (the bride) was the only one of her family who has completed her ‘O’ levels, this causes her to act arrogant and make everyone dislike her. Education also allows Neo to have a well-paid office job, a typical western position for women. Based of Bessie Heads description of the general antipathy towards Neo and her western ways I would say Bessie does not agree with western education. Although the personal information on Bessie Head, a well-paid writer/teacher with a western education, I believe Bessie was putting a caustic twist on this story modeling Neo after herself.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Gabriel that Bessie head seems to modeling Neo after her self, that have both completed their education and have both have had their families distanced from each other for one reason or another. From how Bessie describes Neo's arrogance, it seems like she has experienced it her self either from a friend or doing it to another person. Maybe in a source that we haven't read or that hasn't been documented, either way Bessie and Neo seem to have similar troubles in life, such as family or maybe having a unsure future. Overall it seems like Bessie tried to model Neo after herself.
DeleteReading primary resources can help us immensely in understanding better the authors point of view and their background and in what type of environment surrounded them, and I find it a way to relate to the story better. After having read Bessie Head’s (the author) life and understanding what she had gone through and how much she had suffered from abandonment, to discrimination ,to being abused I related her life to the story’s better . For example in the poem “Things I don’t like” you can understand the story and what her message is and how she will fight for her rights and after reading her bibliography I understood that what she wrote and what she talks about is related to her life. Even if in the short story “Snapshots of A Wedding” I find that western influence plays a major role in the Botswanian culture and its traditions and her background didn’t relate immensely to the short story. The western influence changed the traditional Botswanian wedding and Bessie Head underlines points it out by saying that no one had stayed up all night cooking and preparing traditional wedding dishes ( “no one had been awake all night preparing diphiri or the traditional wedding breakfast of pounded meat and samp”). I think reflected in the main character Neo and her non-usual ways of being (she is a very cultivated and educated ).
ReplyDeletePrimary sources helps our understanding of a person or event so that we already know a lot of important details on what we are reading. First we can have a backgroud of the author, in case that one of her\his story will be related to her\his life. Usually primary sources are trustful so we can be sure that they’re not invenctions of other people not related with the protagonist of the source. In the background of the short story “Shapeshot of Wedding” we have a lot of informations about the autour, Bessie Head, that helps us also to understand why she choosed to write a story about the typical marriage in Botswana, where she lived after she left south Africa. The short story is settled in Botswana because, as we read from the primary source, she was born from a white mother and a black father and because there was Apartheid, which is a form of discrimination for black people, she decided to leave the country and to start a new life in Botswana.
ReplyDeleteBias is something hard to avoid because its part of our nature to give an opinion, to not be bias we should act like a historian or intellectual by not giving any perspective and telling the story from a obejctive poit of view.
The tradition and institution of marriage is very different in the western world and in Italy compared to Botswana. Having had a Christian influence, the traditional reason to marry in the western world, is because two people love each other. In the story, marriage seems to be an instrument to achieve wealth or two obtain the dowry or to send the daughter away from its house. I personally like traditions and consider myself a conservative. We have to respect the heritage and the legacy that the previous generations have left us. Sometimes people have to adapt the tradition to the modern world, without breaking the mold too much. The negative part comes when the tradition does not adapt to the modern ways of thinking, and becomes an anachronistic mode of thought and behavior.
ReplyDelete