Leaving Home

ARCHIVE ENTRY DATE: Blog # 8 December 9, 2011

TOPIC: The differences in attitudes towards living in one location forever vs. leaving

TITLE: Leaving Home

SOURCE: Overall ideas from RR and CC textbook and from personal experience


COMMENTARY:


I have noticed throughout the majority of our readings for this class, that in most cultures, it is assumed that young people will marry and either live with, or close to their immediate family. There is no big decision-making process about "what to do when you grow up" in societies other than in modern, developed countries. For example, in rural China a girl is often not loved in her own family, and not welcome in her married one until she produces a child (preferably a boy). To me this sounds like an awful life, and depressing future, but it is tradition, which is very highly recognized in China. In the Ju/Wasi culture, women and men each have their very important roles to collect food for their families. They always grow up knowing what they will do when they are older, and it is just a matter of time, not a decision to make. These, like many other cultures we studied, are examples of how young people have their future planned out for them from the day they are born. This is not necessarily a bad thing, because they might not be able to fathom anything else anyway. 


In our society, leaving home, going to college, and figuring out your life is a large, dramatic period of time in almost every young person's life. We are expected to have goals, but not necessarily expected to know exactly what we want, and this is a time that is supposed to be limitless in possibility. I think this opportunity is very interesting, because for me it is pretty stressful trying to plan my future, and make sure that later in life I will be able to support a family, buy a house, etc. Many people love having options of what to do, where to live, who to spend time with, and many other things. This huge freedom gives young people the chance to figure things out for themselves and in turn be able to suffer the consequences if things don't go as planned. 


Many older people I have talked to say "college was the best time of my life" or something along the lines, because in our society, people appreciate independence and responsibility, and college is usually the first time a person moves away from home. This is something we think of as "normal" and it is interesting to think of how we would feel if our futures were already planned out for us. Most of us would refuse to ever be put through an arranged marriage, to have our job chosen for us, or anything where we don't have a say in our own future. 


Learning about such a big contrast in cultures has really opened my eyes to the positives (and negatives) of how our societies differ, and has made me grateful for my right to figure out my own life, even when it gets complicated. 

The World is Not Just "Black and White"

ARCHIVE ENTRY DATE: Blog # 7 December 2, 2011

TOPIC: in/equality

TITLE: The World is Not Just "Black and White"

SOURCE: RR Textbook, personal experience/ opinion


COMMENTARY:


The term "race" means different things to different people. A lot of people use it in the same way they would use the word "ethnicity" but in my mind (because I believe in science) the word race is more similar to the word "species." When considering "race" and "species" as being the same, humans are all of the same race, since we are all of the species Homo Sapiens. The reason we look different in color and in facial and body structure, also has to do with science. Humans who originated in Africa, (which is almost all desert, and is very hot and dry) have dark skin to protect them from the sun, whereas people who originated in milder climates have lighter skin, so that when the more rare sunshine hits their skin, they are able to absorb the amount of Vitamin D that they need. 


Where we live, and where our ancestors originated determines the color of skin we have, as well as which ethnic group we are a part of. Being "white" is not an ethnic group, although it often is considered one on surveys, such as Financial aid, and standardized tests. This bit of information has always sort of frustrated me. We all know that the United States has inhabited people other than Native Americans for fewer than 300 years, meaning that every person who lives here other than Native Americans, are from OTHER places. If anyone has the right to be angry, it is the people who were here first. The majority of us are not natives to this country, so it is confusing why some people feel as if they belong more than others. British people "found" the New World, and the rest of the world followed, so why is a person from Africa any less welcome then a person from Greece or Norway?


My great grandfather came to the United States on a boat from Sweden when he was 9 years old. I hope to someday travel there, to learn more about relatives who live there and the customs they practice. Currently, I feel that the United States is my home, because I was born here (just like most of the people my age.) I would guess that anyone who has lived their entire life in one country would feel the same, and consider that place where they belonged.


Even though we all have different customs and cultures, does not mean that we are very much different from each other. Practically every food originated in a different country, even the ones that we consider to be "American." The United States is a melting pot of religions, cultures, and people, and it is known for that. This is something that we would be proud of, because there is not one person who "belongs" more than another. The term "melting pot" means that we are all melted into one, and we should be able to see each other as equals, being equally different and unique in our own ways.

Which Comes First, Independence and Individuality or Family Values?

ARCHIVE ENTRY DATE: Blog # 6 November 4, 2011

TOPIC: "Family and Identity"

TITLE: Which Comes First, Independence and Individuality or Family Values?

SOURCE: RR Textbook, news, podcasts, awareness

RELATION TO TEXT: RR chapter 5-6 on Family and Identity



COMMENTARY:




The terms "family" and "identity" for the most part, go hand in hand in my mind. Each person has their own identity, and a family is just a combination of all the identities of each member to form a group. Children often inherit traits from their parents, and learn them from their siblings, so a close family often has a lot in common. 


Something that came up when I thought of these two words was the conflict that often arises when a kid (or adult) comes out to their parents as being gay, lesbian or bisexual. Our book did not talk about this, and I think it should have. All the family structures we looked at in our textbook followed the same lines of father and mother have children, then their children get married to the opposite sex and have their own children. I know that these ideas are just the "stereotypes" but the fact that stereotypes always have people marrying the opposite sex, puts in our minds that that is the way families "should" be. 


Most people want to fit into their families and want to be accepted by their parents, siblings, grandparents, etc., but in the case of people attracted to the same sex, this often poses a problem. If someone wants so badly to be accepted by their family, they might lie about their own identity just to fit in. We hear so many stories of people staying "in the closet" just to gain acceptance in their own families, which really puts a damper on their own self image and their ability to be the individual they want to be. 


In my opinion, if a family loves you, they should also accept you for your individual traits that make you unique, and their opinion on the matter should not affect how much they love and support you. 

Can I Go to the Bathroom?

ARCHIVE ENTRY DATE: #5 October 21, 2011

TOPIC: Speech Acts

TITLE: Can I Go to the Bathroom?

SOURCE: Lecture, life experience

COMMENTARY:

Speech acts are words and phrases we use in every day conversation that, most of the time, are only understood by people who are completely fluent in the language being used, and are very familiar with the culture. For example, someone who had learned English in a non-English speaking place, is much less likely to understand phrases used by native English speakers, because they cannot put these phrases into context without a good background of the culture. There are many phrases that we, as native English speakers grow up hearing, and often we do not realize how strange they might sound to an outsider. 

An example of a speech act that always frustrated me as a kid is the way most Americans interchangeably use the words "can" and "may." The word "can" is a verb to describe having the ability, means, or power to do something. The word "may" is a verb most commonly used to ask permission for something. 

I have many memories of being in elementary school and going up to the teacher to ask "can I go to the bathroom?" On multiple occasions, I was replied to by the teacher (usually in a teasing manner) with a phrase along the lines of "I don't know if you can go to the bathroom, I'm not a doctor." This response always frustrated me, because I knew that the teacher knew what a meant, but they were encouraging me to ask the question as "may I?" instead of "can I?" By saying they weren't a doctor, they were pretending that I didn't know if I could physically go pee, even though obviously I was simply asking permission to leave the classroom to use the toilet. 

In the dictionary, the definition of the word "can" does include permission, but apparently elementary school teachers would prefer us to use "may." If someone from another country asked their elementary school teacher (in an English speaking school) "can I go to the bathroom" and got the response I often got, they might not completely understand what the teacher was trying to get at. 

Framing the Life of "Success"

ARCHIVE ENTRY DATE: Blog # 4 October 6, 2011


TOPIC: "Cultural Frames"

TITLE: Framing the Life of "Success"

SOURCE: RR Textbook, life experience

RELATION TO TEXT: RR "Case: I Am Your Father" pg 98 on frames


COMMENTARY: 


By Definition of the textbook, cultural frames are "mental structures that shape the way we see the world." In other words, a cultural frame is a way of thinking that is learned from family and society that seems 'natural' or 'normal' to someone in that culture, but may be strange to someone from another. 


One example of a cultural frame that I find myself thinking about often is the idea that there is basically one ideal way for a person to grow up, behave, achieve, and become successful in life. All of these things are slightly different from person to person, but it is generally accepted by our society that a young person is expected to be polite, try their best, do well in school, go to college, get a job, get married, have kids, and live happily ever after. Of course not everyone fulfills these 'requirements' and often, those are the people who are looked down upon. For instance, it is nearly impossible to get a decent job without having any higher education, meaning even if a person is much more charismatic and knowledgeable about a subject, but has no formal training on their resume,  it is likely that someone who has a degree will get the job in question. 


This cultural frame does not just have to do with college and jobs though. The whole general idea is that the majority of our society wants the same thing in life; to do well, get married, have kids, buy a house, etc. These are things I want in life as well, but is that just because I am brainwashed into thinking that? People have always told me that trying hard and achieving goals will get me wherever I want to go in life, but would that advice be the same even if my dream life were to live a completely different lifestyle as we consider "normal" today?

Industrial Agriculture: Bigger is Not Always Better

ARCHIVE ENTRY DATE: Blog # 3 September 22, 2011


TOPIC: "Ethnography"

TITLE: Industrial Agriculture: Bigger is Not Always Better

SOURCE: RR Textbook, previous knowledge, life experience

RELATION TO TEXT: RR "Case: Welcome to the Hog Hotel" on large-scale factory farms pg 68-69

COMMENTARY: 


Recently in the United States, industrial-sized animal farming has become very common. I guess it can hardly be called "farming," and is more accurate to be called "animal production." The idea of industrial agriculture came about when people wanted to earn more money (of course). They realized that the market of meat would be much more profitable if they were somehow able to raise a larger number of animals in the same amount of space, and be able to feed them for less money. 


To do this, the animals are divided into individual stalls so close together that it is necessary to pump them full of antibiotics in order to keep them alive, otherwise in their close proximity, one would catch a disease, and transfer it to hundreds of others. Farmers feed their animals commodity corn, which there is too much of to begin with, so it is very cheap. 


Pigs can eat just about anything, so living off of corn isn't completely horrible, but cows are meant to eat grass, and it takes a large quantity of corn to equal the amount of grass they originally would have needed to survive (which is a much smaller amount). Living in such small areas makes the meat of these mammals fatty and marbled, which now is the ideal "good meat." Corn fed beef has a much different nutritional makeup than grass fed beef, largely because of the difference in ratio of omega 6 to omega 3 fatty acids. Humans need about 50/50 of each to maintain healthy fat levels, and switching a cows diet from grass to corn plummets the levels of omega 3 fatty acids (which come from grass), making the ratio very uneven. 


In the story about pig farms in Michigan talks a lot about environmental effects of factory farms, as well as health effects of the people living near them, both very bad things, and still says nothing about the quality of the final product. 


If I were an anthropologist, I would like to study the impact of factory farms on a broad spectrum of variables, but most specifically on human health. I would look at how the farms directly affected the health of the people living near them, how the waste from the factory contributed to poor water quality over a wider range, and also at the change in nutritional content of their products. 


Maybe all of these things could make an impact on people if they were more widely known about, and the factory farms would lose so much business they would have to shut down. The average person does not know the details of the factory farms, and might think twice about eating their meat if they knew any better. 

The "Right" Way to Parent

TOPIC: Relativism

TITLE: The "Right" Way to Parent

SOURCE: personal experience, text

RELATION: RR: pg. 8-9 on relativism and relativistic fallacy

BLOG #2: “Relativism”

COMMENTARY: 

In my life, I spend at least half my time with small children. Whether I am at work teaching swim lessons, or babysitting for one of the many families I know, every day is a learning experience for me. By meeting a lot of kids, usually between the ages of 3-5, I have been able to develop an understanding of the drastic differences there are between families, and the way they interact with each other. This has taught me to be open minded, and to consider every parenting technique before disapproving or embracing it. This way of thinking is called relativism because there is no way for me to say which parents are "doing it right" or the other way around. I try to keep in my mind that everyone is a good parent, and that there are simply a lot of methods of going about parenting. 


Most of the time, this thought process works well, but sometimes I can't ignore something I would consider not quite adequate parenting. I find that in this situation I can't simply consider every singly discipline technique to be morally okay. If I watched a parent hurt their child, and figured it was just their "culture" I would be practicing the idea of relativistic fallacy, which is the idea that nothing should be looked down upon, even if I consider it to be morally wrong. An abusive parent is a good example, because it is widespread knowledge that violence can never be the morally correct way to deal with something. This is why teachers, coaches, and most adults hired to work with large groups of children must be mandated reporters, meaning they are required to report any suspicions of child abuse or neglect. 


Luckily, I have not had to experience negative parenting often, and for the most part, it is a fun experience to learn how different families teach their children develop, and to be a role model and teacher, contributing to the lives of every child I know.