Exploring Cultural Anthropology, Essay Example

As a cultural anthropologist, there are thousands of cultures throughout history and throughout the world that have had a profound impact on many facets of our modern lifestyle.  However, I would seek to focus my research efforts on one culture in particular.  This culture would be the Spartan culture spread throughout Ancient Greece.  As of late, the story of the Battle of Thermopylae and the bravery of the Spartans has been portrayed in a graphic novel and even represented in a cinematic movie entitled “300.”  The glory of the Spartans is world-renowned, and the recent movie, although not a direct historical documentary, expressed many of the cultural aspects of the Spartans that led to their people being spectacular warriors and bred for battle from birth to adulthood.  The fascinating culture of the Spartans would be an excellent choice for a cultural research project because it will help validate or disprove the glory and honor associated with their people.  It would also be interesting to discover why their culture eventually faded and never became a large powerful Empire despite the military excellence they were well known for.

I would attempt to gain knowledge on the political, economic, and philosophical aspects of the Spartan culture.  We have a decent understanding of many of the events that took place to shape their battles, but the Spartans were not just warriors.  They had strict social rules for childbearing, military training, and politics.  As a democratic government, this Greek country would be fascinating to analyze the similarities and differences between their political structure and our own in the United States.  Many of the behaviors and philosophies in Ancient Greece were well before our time, so they are full of gender biases, brutal military actions, and many other social behaviors that could provide a bit of a culture shock.  Therefore, it is necessary to perform preliminary research to gain a slight understanding of their behaviors to avoid any major shock during in-depth cultural research.