Analysis of Angels Town: Chero Ways, Gang Life, and the Rhetoric of Everyday Book by Cintron - Essay Example

Culture once taken in its wide ethnographic sense is that complex whole that includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, laws, customs, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society. 

While the archaeologist focuses on the study of material objects to learn about human behavior, the ethnologist concentrates on the study of human behavior as it can be seen, experienced, and discussed with those whose culture is to be understood. Cintron makes documentation of his reflections on his life and its relation to the culture he lives in. Fundamental to Cintron’s approach is descriptive ethnography. Ethnography is the systematic description of culture based on firsthand observation.

Whenever possible, the ethnologist becomes an ethnographer by going to live among the people under study. He started the book by sharing a story regarding the collection baskets inside the church. (Page 1). A drunken man entered the house of God and made his way towards halfway to the altar while kneeling and uttering his prayers due to his remorseful state. The churchgoers were surprised by the scenario including the author himself. The commotion and somewhat disturbance of the ongoing religious gathering, the men who wielded the baskets picked up the drunken man and led him outside the church away from the churchgoers who politely and dutifully give donations thru the collection baskets.

Aware of his experiences and knowledge, Cintron considers his book as the emptying of the basket (page 3). He stated that he had done his part of wielding the collection basket to people for him to gain insights and thoughts regarding their lives as well as the culture that they dwell in. This collection of reality was organized and documented by Cintron to be able to come up with a well-thought-of book that will share the experiences of the people that he interacted with during the wielding of the basket.

Cintron wanted to emphasize how ethos is bound up with logos. In other words, the rational argument does not necessarily persuade when reason is made pure. A pure kind of rationality does not exist outside the soup of human affairs. The author stated his Puerto Rican heritage. He was raised in Texas and his parents are both Puerto Ricans. His father was a farm manager and a horticulturist. The farm that was managed by his father had Mexican workers who fondly called his dad el patron. He did not deny the fact that though he grew up in America, he had traces of his Puerto Rican descent for he spoke Spanish with a Puerto Rican accent however he claimed that he is more well-versed in English than in Spanish.

He lived with his family in a large house on a hill alongside two thousand acres of citrus trees. Aside from this, they had almost thirty workers together with their own families living within a distance near their house. Their household helper was a wife of a farmer and it was a normal circumstance that one of the workers usually seeks their help regarding a personal problem though it was much to their embarrassment. Cintron felt uneasy with the life that his family gave him for he was not used to being served and he felt ashamed due to his workless state for much of the work and tasks were done by the farmers.

Within the premises of their house, his family felt power over those farmers working in the field but the truth was they never owned the large house as well as the farm. These properties were owned by the Americans.