Advertisements

The world of advertisement and commercialization are ruling over the consumers. With development and booming industries, the advertisements have become really popular. According to the article, Anthropological Perspectives on Contemporary Human Problems by John H. Bodley, “The entire world is now driven by a dominant cultural process that can be called commercialization”. The perception of what is good and what is bad is highly influenced by different kinds of advertisements.
The advertisements are published everywhere. If you open a magazine its there, if you read newspaper its there, if you visit a website its there and if you watch television its there. The advertisement companies are doing a great job to sell their products as they know the right technique to influence people. For instance, advertisements for food are represented in such a way that makes people want to eat it. The pictures of food shown in the covers look very delicious and appetizing but in real they do not look the same. The advertisements of hard drinks represent people having good time and socializing while the advertisements of soda drinks shows the consumption of their products to be relaxing and refreshing and the advertisements of energy drinks and coffee represents increase in performance. They are shown be natural and good for health giving the titles like fat free or sugar free. The food companies also make their products look good, cool and fun by making other food products look bad and unhealthy.
In Nepal, I do not know how exactly the advertisements started but I guess they learned it from the advertisements of other countries. We didn't use to have so much advertisements in TV, radio or magazines but nowadays there are commercials everywhere. In old times, the messages were announced by blowing trumpets, banging drums and delivering the message but nowadays technology and media have consumed us so much that we do not practice such traditions anymore. When I was young the advertisements in the televisions easily attracted me. The advertisements of Kellogg's cornflakes had secret prize in their packs so I would ask my parents to buy these cereals so that I could get the free gifts. If my favorite actor was promoting certain products I would want to use them too. The advertisements of cup noodles which had catchy songs made eating such noodles so cool that it made me buy them. Because of the such crafty advertisements I started preferring canned and packed foods over home cooked foods. Only later I realized how these packaged foods are not really good as it looks or are represented. I was easily deceived by the appealing advertisements but now I know how commercialization works with consumers.
We should be aware of the real things that we are buying and not what they represent. It is easy to believe them and choose the particular item that catches our eye but we shouldn't choose and trust what is shown to us. It is up to us to decide what we want and we shouldn't be tricked by these advertisements.

witchcraft

In the book, The Gebusi, the villagers believe in witchcraft and sorcery as it says that majority of Gebusi killings which is 61 percent is because of individual executions of sorcery suspects. According to Knauft, “Gebusi adults of both sexes and almost all age categories could be killed as sorcerers” (61). This sort of belief about sorcery and witchcraft is also prevalent in my country.
Nepal is a developing country and people have different many superstitions. One of them is witchcraft and sorcery. My elder sister was very skinny when she was small and my mother took her to Tantric which means a healer. She gave my sister a kaudi which is like a pendant. It was supposed to make her healthy and it could be coincidence or something else but my sister started to gain weight. Also my aunt's son used to get sick very often. She used to take her to the doctor but still he used to be unwell from time to time. Then she took him to the same Tantric and I tagged along with them. The room was small and there were many burning incense sticks. The Tantric uttered some prayer which was very fast and touched my little brother with a broom. She also sprinkled water on him. This lasted for couple of minutes. After she was done my aunt offered her some fruits and money as a gift. I was fascinated by these things when I was kid but I don't believe in it anymore.
With development many people in cities do not believe in these stuff either but there are still some who do especially in remote places. There have been many cases where people have been killed for bad sorcery. In December 2009, two women in eastern Nepal were stabbed and killed by a man because he thought they were practicing witchcraft. The man was sick and he went to Tantrik who said that he was possessed by am evil spirit. They sacrificed animals and found that two women who was his relatives were witches. As time passed by the man's health became worse so he went where those two women lived and killed them with Khukuri, a Nepali iron blade weapon. But in real he was suffering from typhoid. He was arrested later and put to trial.
There was another case which happened this February, 2010 in Pyutar village.low caste called Dalit who are untouchables. She was blamed for making a teacher ill. She was taken out of her house and locked in a cow shed. She was forced to eat faeces and drink urine. They tortured her a lot and cut her skin. She couldn't bear it anymore and lied that she was a witch to save her own life.
Superstition and caste-based discrimination still exists in different parts of Nepal. Women are attacked physically and humiliated after being blamed for practicing witchcraft. I think such beliefs are irrational and inhumane and our Nepalese society should cast such thoughts aside.