Shakespeare In The Bush Analysis

“Shakespeare in the Bush,” an article written by American anthropologist Laura Bohannan, discusses her trip to Africa to perform ethnographic fieldwork among the Tiv tribe. Prior to her trip, Bohannan has an argument with a friend regarding the universal interpretation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and “protested that human nature is pretty much the same the whole world over; at least the general plot and motivation of the greater tragedies would always be clear—everywhere” ( ). Her friend clearly disagreed and gave her a copy of Hamlet to take with her to Africa in hopes that she would “lift my (her) mind above its primitive surroundings” (). One night during her fieldwork, the elders of the Tiv tribe asked Bohannan to tell them a story from her culture. She decides to tell the story of

Napoleon Chagnon’s article “Living among the Yanomamo” has much in common with Bohannan’s article. Chagnon clearly displays egocentrism by his thoughts and attitudes on the first day of his fieldwork like Bohannan. For instance, he writes that “I (he) looked up and gasped when I (he) saw a dozen burly, naked, sweaty, hideous men staring at us down the shafts of their drawn arrows!” Essentially this statement indicates that he believes the Yanomamo Indians are hideous and dirty because they fail to meet his standards of appearance and cleanliness. However, Chagnon’s article is different in a few ways from Bohannan’s article. For instance, while Bohannan exhibited ethnocentrism through her belief that her culture’s interpretation of Hamlet is the most correct, Chagnon is primarily exhibits ethnocentrism regarding the outward actions and appearances of the Yanomamo. His article has no indications of his believing that his interpretations are better than theirs. But regardless, both show a tendency to judge another culture based on their own beliefs about what is normal by their own cultural