Diffrent Cultures

                                             The chinese used to bind their womens feet togeather during the tenth century

           info about Russian customs
During this past week, we talked about cultures and how they differ around the world. While there may be many diffrent cultures, many of them have many similarities as well as some intresting differences. In class we recently watched a movie which contained The lost Boys of Sudan and their journey to the U.S. It talks about the similarities and diffrences that these men faced. They knew that going to school and taking the ACT during your junior year was something that was done in the U.S. They also already knew how to speak some english and made friends quickly. They adapted well to their surroundings. They did seem to have a problem with driving, and the proper documentation needed for certain things. Their culture is probably much simpler and not so money/time focused all the time. This led me to look at a few articles on my own about diffrent cultures as well as comparing it to mine.
          In Russia, if you peel a banana for a women, it shows that you are intrested in her. I also learned that in Sparta people would start training children for war at the age of seven. I also learned that Russian families often have three generations per household. The women also do all of the chores in the house. This is diferent from our life over here, but if we look at it from a diffrent perspective many things seem strange to others that are normal for us. Things like halloween, plastic surgery, and paying insane amounts for tickets to a certain event may seem strange or even stupid to others. We judje what we think is ok and what is weird by how and where we are raised. If we have lived in a certain place for a certain amount of time, we get used to their customs and cultures. I have also noticed a few diferences between my culture and the American culture.I believe that I have some of both. While the Pakistani culture is much more similar to our culture here than you would expect, we do have some diferences. For example Pakistani people always arrive late to parties. If the party starts at seven, people will probably come between eight and nine. There is also a sense of responsibility for your friends. If a friend says that they are unable to do something, you do not just tell them "that sucks". You are expected to help them out if possible even if you have to go out of your way. There are clearly many cultural diferences between diferent parts of the world, but overall all of our cultures have the same foundation.

Doing Fieldwork Among the Yanomam

                                                          This is a picture of the Yanomamo tribe
Info on Yanomamo tribe

This article talks about the Yanomamo people, and their culture. A anthropologist talks about his life with these people and how they interact. We have been looking at diffrent cultures this week, and this article shows a very intresting perspective from one persons point of view. It's amazing how things change from diferent perspectives. We look at something as strange and sick only to realize that it is very similar to our own culture. When we were talking about the Nacerina and Rac tribes, I thought that many of their practices were absurd and strange. When we looked back at it in a cultural relitivistic point of view, I realized that their traditions are very similar to ours. When I found our that the Rac kills thousands of people a year and costs a lot of money to maintain, I thought the Asu people were absurd, but those traits are almost identical to our car, and yet almost every American has a car. When the women of the Nacermia put their heads in a oven for an hour, I believed they were crazy, but then we talked about how it is similar to tanning beds.
         Unlike our perspective in class, the anthropologist in this article looked at the tribe from a Ethnocentric perspective. In class we talked about how this perspective looks at other cultures from our point of view and judges them based on our norms. The anthropoligist states "I saw a dozen naked, filthy, hideous men staring at us." this quote shows that he believes these people are filthy and hideous according to him, but they might be clean and handsome to this tribe. These people have many of the same values as Americans. They value Activity, Work, Freedom, and efficency like the American people. I related their scattered villages to our Citys. They used tobacco juice as soap. They expected to be paid back later for food. Like when some people don't have money for something we might loan them some expecting to be paid back later, banks expect intrest for lending money and the Yanomamo expect intrest for their food. Their people are similar to bullies. They keep intimidating you and take your things until you confront them. The anthropologist states "They could bully me into giving goods away."
   Their are also several diffrences between our cultures. The tribe thinks it is acceptable to have mucus coming out of their noses, while we think that is "gross." It is acceptable for them to take hallucinogenic drugs while that is a crime in the U.S. They expect food when they go to someone else's tent, while in America we do not expect food from everyone we meet. Women are objects to the Yanomamo people where in the U.S. they are equals to men. They are allowed to be beaten and a man may have many wives. Here, none of these traits are acceptable. This tribe does not talk about the dead, where in America we hire people to talk to us about our loved ones who have passed. One of the tribal men says "If you ever say that name again, I will kill you." When reffering to a loved one. This shows that talking about the deceased is not acceptable. In this tribe, the men are the dominant sex just like in the U.S. I wonder if any culture has the female as the dominant sex?
          This article is also similar to an optical illusion. When you look at something one way, it seems different than another way. There are many angles at which to look at something, and each one shows a alternate result. A picture may look like a cave one second, and then a person the next. The Yanomamo may look like crazy people, but looking at things from a larger point of view shows us that they are very similar to other cultures. Recently, several scientists have talked about reclassifying Pluto as a planet after it was determined that it was not a few years ago. When I thought about it at first, I thought of course it is not a planet. It is much smaller than the other planets, and does not have rocklike particles like the others. When I looked at it again, I realized it was very similar to earth and other planets because it rotates on an axis, orbits the sun, has a thin atmosphere, and is solid. The similarities far outnumber the diffrences.

Eating Your Friends is the Hardest

    

This picture shows the survivors of the flight F-227. You can see the conditions they were facing, and this helps us understand why they would eat others. During extreme conditions, we change our view on things and their meaning.

                                      others opinions on article

  This article is very interesting and talks about how the meaning of things changes in different situations. The circumstance one faces has a lot to do with what things represent. For example, if someone is at home, water represents something that we take for granted while if said person was stranded in a desert, water is symbolic of a something needed to survive. In class we talked about symbolic meaning. Things have different symbolic meaning with different situations. We talked about how spit on a spoon is disgusting, and no one would dare to swallow it, while swallowing it in a kiss is perfectly acceptable because it is a sign of affection. The object stayed the same, yet our perception changed. This is similar to the article where people were used as food where before they would be friends, family, and a source of labor and knowledge. Another example in class was when we watched Freaks and Geeks. When the girl gave the boy his jacket, it was a sign that she liked him. In a different situation it would just have been an act of courtesy, not a sign of affection. In my personal life, I have used objects for reasons other than intended. I have used a hanger as a grappling device and books as a source to grow a fire. When people go camping, they use leaves as toilet paper. This is not a use of leaves in common society. In class we talked about how in the U.S. we consider dogs to be pets, while in China they are food. This shows that the intent of materials usage changes depending on culture, location, and other situations. These are all examples of having several uses for objects, even though our society only sees the use in one way.

                In our current life, there are many examples that demonstrate the meaning of things in our society. During Valentine’s Day which is coming up, Roses and Chocolate are not used as just decoration and food, but they are a sign of love. The color red in a rose also signifies affection. During the Super Bowl, several fans paid thousands of dollars for a ticket. The ticket itself is useless, yet the value society gives the Super Bowl increased its value by thousands of dollars. Several hundred people also sued the NFL for not letting them in the big game despite having tickets to it. The ticket was an object that showed admission into the sporting event, and when the meaning of the ticket didn’t apply, people got confused and angry.

                I was not very surprised by how the people in the crash reacted to the dead bodies. At that point, they needed to do anything necessary for survival. I find it interesting that the people told themselves that it was ok to eat the deceased because God wanted them to. The article states “God wants us to survive, and he has provided these bodies so we can live.” They needed to convince themselves that it was not immoral to perform these acts. In the society they had lived in, eating the deceased was not an acceptable practice. Had these people not have had a concept of how to act in their society prior to the crash, they would have had no problem convincing themselves that their actions were justified. Before societies existed, cannibalism was a common practice, and was expected. I also liked their innovative thinking by using skin as footwear to protect themselves. The only reason these people survived was due to their new societal rules. They gave jobs to everyone so they could survive. The article states “Even the weakest had a job to do.” This is similar to how common societies function with people having different tasks. We have our doctors, mechanics, and food providers. I also wonder what would have happened if all of the bodies would have been consumed. Would the living people kill each other in order to survive, or would they have just accepted their death and starved? Would the situation be like Herbert Spencer’s survival of the fittest? What we have learned from this article is that societies define how we should act. The show Fear Factor which gave people money for consuming “disgusting” animal parts shows why it was so hard to consume the food. Our mind is telling us that this is not a part of our culture, and we have been taught not to eat certain things through society.

The Promise and Sociology V.S. other Social Sciences

This picture shows some of the many things that determine our biography and history which are related to our social imaginationSocial Imagination Link

Both of these articles involve sociology and what it actually is. While the article by Henslin compares sociology to other social sciences, Mills article talks about the social imagination. Both articles try to define sociology and what it is. The Henslin article shows us how sociology differs from History, Economics, Anthropology, and Psychology. It shows examples of what each type of social science focuses on. They are all related and might focus on similar things but each is focused on a specific characteristic. This is similar to the activity we did when we classified reasons as to why a person might commit suicide. We separated the social reasons such as location, age, and ethnicity from things that take place individually like personal stress or a tragedy. While Psychology and Sociology might be similar, they are classified as separate entities. The article states “Like psychologists, sociologists are also concerned with how people adjust to the problems and challenges they face in their lives.” Unlike Psychologists however, they are not focused on “what occurs in the brain or mind.” People often mix these sciences up, but they are very different. Sociology is also about human interaction. This was demonstrated when Mrs. Castelli sat in the back of the room for several minutes. Our brain is telling us that they interaction is not right. We should be listening to her talking about today’s discussion, not carrying conversations with each other.

 Unlike Henslin’s work, The Promise is solely on Sociology and the Social imagination. This article talks about how everything that occurs in our lives is related to society as a whole. Society impacts each individual, but that is related to a person’s biography, history, and traditions. I realize that my life could have been entirely different if a few changes took place. If things would have turned out as expected, I should be living in Brazil right now. When my family lived in Florida, we thought it was temporary and my father’s company was going to transfer him to Brazil. That did not take place because my dad asked f he could just work in Florida. About eight years later we moved to Barrington. After three years here, my father found a very good job in Texas and we came within a day of moving there. Right before we moved however my dad got a job offer from another bank in Illinois and we decided to stay here. My biography has definitely influenced my history. If I would not be living here today, I probably would not have seen snow yet or planned on going to a school in the Big Ten. Everything we do affects our lives in some way. Mills talks about private issues V.S. public troubles, and there is only a problem in society if multiple people have that problem. The unemployment example holds true right now. A few years ago, only a few percent of the people living in the U.S. were unemployed, so it was not an issue. Right now the percent is in double digits, so it is perhaps the biggest issue we are facing. In order to find out why we have issues in society, we must find the people in the society, and look into their history. For example if we go to a “bad” neighborhood in the south side of Chicago, we try to solve the problem of why they live in poverty. Why are they uneducated, and why is the crime rate so high? The history of each individual helps to explain these questions. Many of these people were in poverty when they were born, so they might need to steal as a way of survival. If they have to work in order to support a family, they wouldn’t be able to go to college and get an education. This cycle continues from generation to generation unless someone intervenes to stop it.  I understand that the “Social Imagination is about the relationship between history and biography within society; I would probably have named it something else, like the Social Correlation. This concept is very important for societies to understand so they can evaluate themselves and see if changes are necessary to improve the society they reside in. Without this concept, we would probably still have slavery, have lower wages for women, and might not have even gotten our independence from Britain.