World Best Dads: The Akas Tribe

I recently read this article in The Guardian. The article it's about  a study made of an African tribe, called the Akas, by Barry Hewlett, an American anthropologist, and how men of this tribe have different behaviours, compared to western society men. It refers specifically to how Aka men look after their children, even letting them suck their niples. 
The Akas is a tribe, of about 20.000 people (total population), of central Africa. Barry Hewlett, the anthropologist, lived among them for a time, to observe and study their way of life more closely. 
He saw that Aka men were more trusting and sharing fathers that western men. He noticed these in some behaviours that Aka men showed when they had to look after their children and in the way roles changed for women and men (they are more flexible).
Aka fathers are near their children 47% of the time. This is one of the reasons why Fathers Direct, an organism that looks forward to increase presence of fathers in raising their children, chose Aka as the best fathers in the world. This is the principal reason why they publish an article about this tribe, alongside they tell us more about their way of life. 
So, in this tribe you can actually see a more egalitarian parenting, where both women and men share roles. But not just in parenting, they also share roles in other aspects of their life, their roles are interchangeable. For example, when women hunt, men take care of their children, and when men are cooking, women are deciding where to put the next camp, and vice versa. Although, women are the principal caregivers, roles can interchange because of their flexibility, something that just doesn't happen in our society. When Aka fathers change their roles, they don't lose status. This is possible because there's no stigma in different jobs. Women can hunt even when they're pregnant, being even better hunters than some men. But Hewlett makes it very clear that this is no feminist paradise: although tasks and decision-making are shared, in the community he studied, all top jobs, like the leader (kombeti), the elephant hunter(tumba) and the top healer (nganga), where reserved for men.
Nevertheless, Hewlett thinks the Akas parenting way is a role model for western societies, specially because of the physical closeness that exists between parents and their children. 
This article enhances the differences in parenting between western societies and Akas culture. In western societies we think that if a father doesn't have enough time to be with his children, it doesn't matter, as long as the few time they spend together is "quality time". Hewlett thinks this is not the right way of taking care and raising a child. After living alongside the Akas tribe, he learned that sometimes it's better just to spend a lot of time with children, rather than a few minutes called "quality time". The article mentions another lesson the Akas have for our society: that it's the importance of children, because they are gifts and people are very lucky to have them. They are not a burden, like parents sometimes feel. 
Finally, in western societies some fathers think it's natural that their kids suck their niples, but others find it disgusting and think that it's child abuse. But in Akas tribe, fathers would count as child abuse leaving kids in a cot, instead of keeping them close. This shows cultural differences between this societies and the Akas tribe. 



http://www.theguardian.com/society/2005/jun/15/childrensservices.familyandrelationships

My Favorite Band

This is always difficult. Through my life, I have had several favorite bands or singers, which I keep listening to. But, I've never been the kind of girl that goes crazy about bands or people that I don't actually know (like personally), maybe because I don't believe they actually care about other people (that they don't know), like their fans. Although, I have had some bands which you could probably call like my favorites. But at this moment I don't feel some fanaticism for any band or singer. 

Thirty seconds to Mars was, in a moment of my life, about two years ago, my favorite band. It's a north american band, specifically from USA, of alternative rock. I had the opportunity to see them perform live, when they came to Chile, invited by Lollapalooza, in 2011. But after I watched them perform live, I somehow started to loose interest on them, not because they weren't good or something, it just happened. 

After that I didn't really have a favorite band, I just listened what I thought was good music, mostly rock and alternative rock. But then I listened to indie music, with Franz Ferdinand, I thought it was pretty cool, so I begun to listen more and more bands that followed this genre.

Well, with the pass of time, I found out that indie was more like a way of living, not just a music genre. Indie comes from the word independent, and of course it refers to everything that is made by independent, free people, away from big companies. It refers to clothes, to music, videos, decoration, etc., basically everything that can be done without the big companies that capitalism promote. So, it's a way of living, being indie means that. It means being independent and free. I don't believe I'm that kind of person, but of course I feel very attracted to this option, I would like to be more like that (and I don't have any excuse to justify why I'm not doing it). Well, this kind of music is really cool, but there's a lot of sub genres that go from indie rock to indie pop, going through a lot of other sub-genres. I prefer indie rock and indie folk. 

At this moment, I'm listening more of indie folk (which is kind of relaxing and very hippie). So, I think that right now my favorite band would be one of this genre, it could be two bands: Fleet Foxes and Of monsters and men. 

Fleet Foxes is an american band, of 5 members. They make folk music, some songs are very moved and others, slow. But they commonly sing about human condition, like soul and things on that line. My favorite song, from this band, could be "Mykonos", because of the rhythm of the song. I would like to know what the song means, but there are so many interpretations that I don't really know what to think.

Of monsters and men is a band, formed of 6 members (just one woman), that come from Iceland, but sing in English. They write indie folk and pop music. They're a really good band, that also came to Chile with Lollapalooza (I think this year), but I couldn't go to see them. They're also very sacrificed, because they are far away from their home and they miss it, they even have a song about them living so far away from their country and their families, called "From Finner".Their songs are about monsters and fantastic creatures, about landscapes and their country. My favorite song is "Dirty Paws", which is kind of a story about an animal, with dirty paws and a furry coat, that lived in a forest and when a battle began between the bees and the birds, this animal helped the birds against the bees; well it's about an enchanted forest and the creatures that live in it. So like I said, they sing about monsters and strange creatures, a lot like fairy tales, but more creepy.

A day to remember

The most remarkable day in my life was just amazing, surprising and a bit risky, just like all wonderful days to remember for the rest of our lives. It was a day where dreams came true, and everything you could think is impossible, could actually be real. So, myths can be true, and that's what I always thought, but I never had the chance to confirm it. But that day was the chance I was expecting for, I finally could confirm all my thoughts and expectations. 

That day I was in a dark, deep forest, in the north of England. Me and my family were on a picnic, just having fun and messing around. Then, when we finished eating, some of us decided to go on a little walk, through a little path that crossed the forest. It was quite scary at first, because of the darkness inside this big forest, but we knew that it was much safer than the forest itself, so we kept on walking. There was nothing much to see, it was green and darkness all around, that´s at least what we thought....

Suddenly, I stopped and looked around, I had the feeling that someone or something was staring at us, from behind the trees. I didn't see anything, but I couldn't keep the feeling apart. When I was sure that there was nothing hiding in the dark, I looked to the path.... and my family had disappeared!!! They suddenly weren't there, I just couldn't see them anywhere. 

So, I kept walking, expecting to find them right in front of me, laughing and marching on. But they were nowhere to be found. In that moment, the strange feeling I had had a minute before returned. I was sure I was being observed from the deepness of the forest. I looked right at the woods, and besides a tree there were a pair of eyes staring right at me. I didn't think it much, and got out of the path and walked into the forest, towards those sparkling eyes. I know that it was risky, but I don't regret it. 

Those pair of eyes belonged to a little elf, I was so stunned to see such thing, but thought it was wonderful, I always knew they were real. Although, it was kind of creepy, being in a dark forest, away from my family and with a strange little person (if we can call it that), that only reached my waist ( I was just 10 years old). The elf looked me in the eyes, but didn't make a sound, then it turned around and started walking into the forest. Though he didn't say anything, I knew he wanted me to follow him, I could tell because of the way he looked at me. So, I went into the forest, into it's deepness, right behind a strange, but wonderful, creature.

He lead me to a little meadow in the wood, I knew that we were in the heart of the forest. It was a beautiful place, all full of flowers and a very green grass, but there was absolutely no animals or people in it. The elf looked at me again, and like the first time, although no words came out of his little mouth, I somehow understood I had to wait for something to happen, that's what the elf wanted to say with his eyes. So I kept on waiting... and suddenly, it came out from the wood, a beautiful and magnificent creature. I know you probably won't believe me, but I know what I saw and I'm only telling the truth. It was a big, pearly white and beautiful UNICORN. I just couldn't believe my eyes, but it was there, right in front of me. As fast as it had appeared, it went back into the forest. But magic was floating in the air. The elf had disappeared too, I was all alone in a big forest, away from the path. I turned round and walked through the forest, but without knowing the way back. Although, I got back into the path and walked back to the field where my family and I had our picnic, and they were all in there, just talking. 

That was a wonderful day, where all my dreams came true, because I had seen the most beautiful creature in earth. I never went back to that forest, and now I feel like it's time to return. That's the reason why I'm, for the first time, telling this story.