Blog Post 2, Option 2, Jenny Finnigan

I would definitely say that my major in Anthropology (the study of all aspects of human cultures) has influenced the way I view the Harry Potter series, especially reading it now.  When I first read these books, I wasn’t in college and had not yet found an interest in Anthropology, but I have always been interested in both fictional and real cultures. Many fantasy books and series that I have read, including Harry Potter, have very rich and imaginative descriptions of fictional worlds and cultures that I have always found fascinating. Even though the Harry Potter books are set in modern-day London, when you read them you are really entering another world and seeing a completely different way of life.

In the wizarding world, there are many differences from the muggle world, such as politics, economics, technology, languages, and pastimes like sports and music.  There is a Ministry of Magic which runs the government of the magical community in Great Britain, and in Goblet of Fire, we are shown that there are additional governments in the magical world when Cornelius Fudge introduces Harry to Mr. Oblansk (the Bulgarian Minister of Magic).  The economics are different in the wizarding world as well, because the magical community uses a completely different monetary system of Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts. As Hagrid explains in Sorcerer’s Stone, when he and Harry go to Gringotts to get money from Harry’s vault, “The gold ones are Galleons. Seventeen silver Sickles to a Galleon and twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickle, it’s easy enough” (page 75). 

Instead of technology or perhaps for their technology, the magical community uses magic. In Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry describes walking through town with Hagrid, “Not only was Hagrid twice as tall as everyone else, he kept pointing at perfectly ordinary things like parking meters and saying loudly, ‘See that, Harry? Things these Muggles dream up, eh?’” (page 65).  For the most part, people of the magical community don’t use electricity, planes, cars, televisions, escalators, and other muggle inventions (although there are definitely exceptions like Mr. Wealsey’s flying Ford Anglia and Sirius’ flying motorcycle). Magic is such an integral part of their lives that they marvel about how muggles are able to get by without it.

One of my favorite areas of anthropology is linguistic anthropology (the study of languages) and even though Rowling hasn’t created complete languages (like Elvish from Lord of the Kings or Klingon from Star Trek), there are many places in the Potter series where the use of other languages is mentioned. In Goblet of Fire, Percy talks about how many languages his boss Barty Crouch is able to speak, “Mr. Crouch? He speaks over two hundred! Mermish and Gobbledegook and Troll…” (p.89). I found it really interesting that Rowling includes many different magical species in the Potter series and that some of them have their own languages. Finally, the entertainment is different in the magical world with sports like quidditch and music by singers like Celestina Warbeck, who Molly Weasley listens to on the Wizarding Wireless Network.

One last connection between studying Anthropology and reading Harry Potter is that they both require (almost demand) the student or reader to be open-minded to other people and ways of life. Margaret Mead wrote, “Anthropology demands the open-mindedness with which one must look and listen, record in astonishment and wonder that which one would not have been able to guess.”  I agree that Anthropology requires an open-minded approach and I think the Harry Potter series does as well. The people I meet who like Harry Potter (or other fantasy series) seem very open-minded, tolerant, inquisitive and imaginative. I believe that reading the Potter books is easier if the reader has these qualities, but this series also encourages readers to develop these qualities even further by showing a different culture and many different people, species, and viewpoints.