Done and Done

Part one:

A) Sociological race is how society sees people based on their skin color. It is a system of group privilege. Biological race is a group or population of humans categorized on the basis of various sets of heritable characteristics such as color of skin, eyes, and hair.

B) I am still confused about the whole point of the IAT test. During the test, I kept getting a headache from staring at the screen trying to sort everything. I didn't get any results because my responses were either neutral or to fast to be accurate. I don't know if my results were accurate because I didn't have any results.

C) I believed that African Americans were mostly better at sports than whites, but I didn't necessarily believe that it was a biological reason. I just saw that more African Americans were winning races and based my opinions off that.

Part Two:

I started out the year thinking that sociology would be a really interesting class. Sadly, I was not satisfied. I think the reason why was that many of the topics didn't make sense to me. I feel it's evident which ones I didn't understand if you look at the test grades. As long as I'm being honest here, I must say that blogging has not been my favorite thing in the world. It has added much unnecessary stress and angst.

Marx isn't bad?

This week we have been talking about global stratification. Global Stratification deals with social class. There are three systems. They are slavery, the caste system, and the class system.

The caste system is a closed system used in India. In this system, your "caste" determines your role in society. It is not possible to move up in this system. What you were in a past life determines your "caste." There are four categories. They are:

1. Brahmins

2. Kshatriyas

3. Vaishyas

4. Shudras

If you didn't fit into any of those categories you were considered an "untouchable." The untouchables dealt with disposal of the dead and were excluded altogether and treated horribly. The Brahmins were scholars, teachers, and fire priests. The Kshatriyas were kings, warriors, law enforcers, and administrators. The Vaishyas were agriculturists, cattle raisers, traders, and bankers. The Shudras were artisans, craftsmen, and service providers.

The Class System is an open system. This means that it is possible to move around and change roles. Where you are in the class system is based on where you were born and your individual achievements. The most powerful class in a society often uses markers such as costume, grooming, manners and language codes that mark insiders and outsiders; unique political rights such as honorary titles; and, concepts of social honour or face that are claimed to only be applicable to the in group. But each class has distinctive features, often becoming defining elements of personal identity and uniting factors in group behaviour.

One of the main supporters/creators of the social class system is Karl Marx. This week's article is all about him. According to this article, Marx isn't really all that bad. His ideas and principles were just blown out of proportion by China and Russia. The Marxism theory is one that states that well-heeled capitalist nations might use their resources to create justice for their people. There is no document that has received more compliments on a historical achievement than The Communist Manifesto, not even The Wall Street Journal. Marx questioned why the ideas "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" could never be used without violence, poverty, and exploitation.

Equality for some meant inequality for others. Freedom for some brought oppression and unhappiness for many.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/04/21/qanda.iran.blogger/index.html?hpt=Sbin
^^^^^^This is an interesting article about what is going on in Iran right now. Iran is going through turmoil right now. Their economy is in shambles. Without a clear leader, it is hard to maintain control. People are unhappy with how life is in Iran; not everyone though.

Sex.

This week we focused on the role of gender in commercials. Many toys are advertised to a specific gender. Boys toys are geared more towards violence and battles, while girls toys tend to be more occupational, like mini-kitchens or nurses.

The female stereotypical role is to marry and have children. She is also to put her family's welfare before her own; be loving, compassionate, caring, nurturing, and sympathetic; and find time to be sexy and feel beautiful. The male stereotypical role is to be the financial provider. He is also to be assertive, competitive, independent, courageous, and career-focused; hold his emotions in check; and always initiate sex. These sorts of stereotypes can prove harmful; they can stifle individual expression and creativity, as well as hinder personal and professional growth.

This week's article is the second half of last week's article. Since I was not able to feasibly relate this week's class topics to the article, I have been permitted to just talk about the article.

This half of the article is all about how people relate and react to others. This is still based off "the looking glass self." Charles Horton Cooley believed that "the looking glass self" has three major components. The first is that actors learn about themselves in all situations by exercising their imagination. They imagine themselves as others see them. After doing that, they imagine how people would evaluate their performance. Thirdly, the actor reacts.

Next the article talks about justifications versus excuses. Excuses are when people accept the charge of wrongdoings. Justifications are when people do not accept that charge. There are many different types of excuses. There is: appeal to accident, appeal to defeasibility, appeal to biological drives, and scapegoating. Justifications are also called techniques of neutralization. Types of justifications are: the denial of injury, the denial of a victim, condemning the condemners, and the appeal to loyalties. Many conversations have three aspects; a reproach, an account, and an evaluation. In a reproach, one person takes offence at the actions of the other. The accuser communicates this to the other and that person then provides an account for why they acted the way they did. Then finally, the accuser either accepts the account or denies it.

Is there a predator looking for your child?

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This week in class we talked about socialization. We also watched a movie made by Frontline about "growing up online." This movie pointed out many true and false points about teenagers and internet activity. While it is true that teenagers are addicted to the internet (mainly facebook and other such sites), we are not telling the whole world exactly where we live. We're not stupid like the video made it seem at first.

To prove my point that teens are addicted to facebook, I tried to keep myself off of my facebook until I finished this blog post. Sadly I caved shortly after starting. As I am writing this, I only make it a couple sentences before I check to see if anything has changed at all. My efforts are useless because there's no way something could have changed in the 30 seconds I wasn't looking. I incessantly press the home button to refresh my news feed. Nothing. Not even a new status.

The internet is where many kids feel most comfortable. The movie spoke about many kids who said they were 100% themselves online. They weren't comfortable being completely themselves in real life around their peers. They feel that they won't be judged at all when they're online. The internet is so "easy." The parents in the video were overly concerned in my opinion. Speaking from experience, I know what I should and should not share online. I know that if someone I don't know asks me personal information I should not tell them. These "rules" have been drilled into my head ever since elementary school when we first started using computers.

This week's honors article was all about self. More specifically, the looking-glass self and mirror self-recognition. The article states that, "In his Tree of Knowledge System, Henriques states that the human ego or 'self' has evolved because human beings are the only animals that have had to justify their behavior to others." One theory is the mirror self-recognition paradigm. This paradigm says that "animals are given the opportunity to see their reflection in a mirror. If the animal shows signs of recognizing the image in the mirror as its own, this ability suggests that the animal possesses a rudimentary ability to take itself as the object of its own cognition." Showing this ability does not necessarily mean that the species has reached the human level of self-awareness, and not showing that ability does not mean that the animal lacks the ability of self-awareness.

Do you speak Amurican?

The past couple days we have been watching the documentary "Do You Speak American?" The host traveled all around the country talking with different people about where "correct" English is spoken. Many people surveyed on a train believed that the most correct English is spoken in the Midwest. Our accent is believed to be the most neutral. When new culture is introduced, the native tongue begins to adapt to the changes in dialect. One example of this is Chicano English vs. Spanglish. Spanglish is a mixture of Spanish and English. The Spanish words used do have a meaning in the sentence whereas in Chicano English, the Spanish words thrown in are usually slang and don't add much meaning to the sentence. Chicano English is mainly slang.

Warning: contains language unsuitable for young children.

This weeks article was all about how language shapes how we think. Research has revealed that when we are taught our native language, we acquire habits of thought that shape our experiences. Some common mistakes people make are assuming that if a language doesn't have a word for something, those people don't understand the concept. This is not true. There is no evidence that proves this. What a language must convey and what it may convey are two different things.

In English, we don't have to specify if the person we are talking about is a man or a woman. In other languages such as French or German, it is necessary to specify the gender of the person or even object of which you are speaking. Though in English, it is necessary to specify the time events occur. In languages such as Chinese, time doesn't really matter because the verb tense does not change from present to past or future. These differences in language force us to consider what information or details are really important.

Language has many influences on society. The big one in America is whether or not Spanish will someday become our second or even first language. Are the Spaniards taking over? Tune in next time to find out. (Or just wait a couple years)

Euthanasia does not equal Youth in Asia...

This week in class, we discussed euthanasia. We were divided up in to two groups to debate the two stances. Group A was pro-euthanasia, and group B was anti-euthanasia. Our deliberation question was whether our democracy should permit doctors to assist in a patients suicide or not. Group A's most powerful statement was that the guidelines for euthanasia are extremely strict so it is rather difficult to actually get euthanized. Group B's most powerful statements were that euthanasia causes an emotional detachment from death and that euthanasia goes against the Hippocratic Oath. The Hippocratic Oath is as follows; "I will neither give a deadly drug to anyone if asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect." Doctors recite this oath before receiving their doctors license. I believe the most interesting facts from the reading we were given were that there are specific guidelines for doctors to follow when they grant euthanasia and they're very strict; in the Netherlands, 10,000 requests for euthanasia are granted, 1/3 of them are actually granted; and patients have the right to refuse medical treatment. America values having the choice when it comes to one's final days.

Another thing America values is food. Food is a major part of our culture. The way you eat can determine who you are, or even who you want to be. Starchy carbs like potatoes, macaroni, and rice are great comfort foods because they metabolize slowly and have a calming effect. Sweet foods do the opposite. They metabolize quickly and leave a hyper feeling. Our food habits reflect our anxieties, aspirations, and ways of relating to others. Like fingerprints, these habits are unique. Researchers suggest that food preference starts at birth. A study was done where a group of new mothers were given either a garlic or a vanilla flavored capsule. They ingested this capsule and soon their breast milk showed signs of these flavors. The babies responded by drinking more of the flavored milk than non flavored milk. Another study was done with mothers to prove that we associate certain foods with positive or negative feelings, and that these can be conditioned. A group of mothers were given red bibs to wear when breast feeding. After time, their babies recognized the red bibs and associated them with feeding time. Overall, food has major control over our lives.

NORMal?

This week we talked about social norms. Social norms are "rules" used by society. Norms deem what is acceptable and what is not acceptable. As humans mature, each learns when and where it is appropriate to say certain things, to use certain words, to discuss certain topics or wear certain clothes, and when not to. If these rules are not followed, exclusion from the group could occur.

Today, after school I reminded my underclassmen friends that they only have 53 days left of having friends because that's when the seniors are through. I instantly regreted this when they both snapped at me saying "shut up." It wasn't nice of me to say that they'll have no friends when we leave. I broke one of the social norms; think about what you say before you say it. That's something I've always struggled with.

A major social norm that if broken creates many awkward situations is facing front in an elevator. Also, when in an elevator do not talk to anyone unless spoken to first. How to avoid awkward elevator rides!

How much is that Rac on the roadside?

Napoleon Chagnon lived with and studied the Yąnomamö Indians who live in southern Venezuela and part of Brazil for nineteen months. The Yąnomamö people were described by Chagnon as “the fierce people.” Chagnon was astounded by the importance of aggression in the Yąnomamö culture. As soon as Chagnon started his work in the field, he experienced major “culture shock.” He arrived in a small, aluminum rowboat with a large motor. This part of the journey was two and a half days.

 

Chagnon was surprised when they finally arrived in the village. A dozen naked, dirty men greeted them while looking down the shafts of their drawn arrows. There were wads of green tobacco between their lower teeth and lips. Dripping from their noses were strands of dark-green slime. This is a side effect of a hallucinogenic drug the men blow up their noses; the green powder saturates the mucus in their noses. Chagnon was also greeted by an overpowering stench of decaying vegetation. After some time, Chagnon became accustomed to the Yąnomamö ways. He eventually discovered that maintaining personal hygiene was too much of a hassle.

 

Everything was different than America. It took Chagnon much longer to fix meals. By the time he would be done making breakfast, it was almost lunch time. To prepare oatmeal, Chagnon had to take two trips to the river and then haul the water back to his hut. He then had to juggle getting the stove started up and mixing powdered milk to put in coffee. Most of the time, the alcohol would burn off before he could get the kerosene flowing, causing him to have to start all over. Once he got everything set up and running, he had to boil the oatmeal and then once it was finished, pick out all of the bugs that had gotten in. Another change was laundry. Chagnon limited his clothing changes to once a week to try and solve the laundry issue. The Yąnomamö people obviously don’t value personal hygiene as much as Americans do.

 

Another value of the Yąnomamö people is sharing ones food. When you share your food with another, you are displaying friendship to them. They did not understand that Chagnon did not bring enough food to share with all of them. They also didn’t understand the concept of privacy; a major American value. The Yąnomamö would enter his hut and steal from him. They would pester him with demands such as “If you don’t take me with you on your next trip to Widokaiya-terik I’ll chop a hole in your canoe!” To counteract this, Chagnon realized he had to start acting like the Yąnomamö: sly, aggressive, and intimidating.

 

In class we read an article about the “Nacirema” culture and the Asu culture. The Nacirema culture is obsessed with their teeth. They have a whole ritual surrounding their mouths. They take a stick with hog hairs on the end and put it in their mouth with magical powders on the bristles. They then move the bundle around in a series of gestures. The Nacirema men scrape their faces with a sharp tool everyday; and the women cook their heads in small ovens for an hour four times during each lunar month. The Asu culture has a sacred Rac. To have more than one Rac means that you are in good social standing. The Rac requires a lot of up keep. Their path must be relatively straight. Houses are demolished to ensure this.

Okay, show of hands, who thought that these were actual cultures? It’s ok if you did. Now watch me as I shoot your thoughts down. These cultures, my friends, are an analogy for America. That’s right, you heard me; America. A-M-E-R-I-C-A-N backwards is N-A-C-I-R-E-M-A. A-S-U is U-S-A backwards. The “crazy antics” of these cultures are code for what we do. We spend thousands of dollars on braces and retainers and various other remedies to out oral issues. We hunt the perfect toothbrush down at the local Jewel Osco. Girls spend hours a week blow-drying and straightening their hair. Rac? Try CAR.

Americans spend thousands and thousands of dollars on their cars. Their cars are their “babies.”

 

Recently, I have realized just how much I value my car. It’s my transportation everywhere. I depend on it every single day to get me to school and back. I am super protective of it, partly because if the airbag gets deployed the car will be considered totaled due to the 273,000+ miles on it. Recently I had my car parked on the side of the road at my friend’s house. A snow plow had to pass by my car and the cars of my friends. Without really thinking I exclaimed, “Please don’t hit my car!” My friends then said, “Our cars are out there too you know.” I was only thinking of my car; my baby; my ride home at the end of the night.

Cannibalism: yay or nay?

The Andes Accident.

On October 12, 1972, forty Uruguayan rugby players and five crew members faced what could be their complete demise. They were caught in between bad winds that could easily toss around their little Fairchild F-227. The flight was from Montevideo, Uruguay to Santiago, Chile. Due to the weather, the pilots decided to land in Mendoza, Argentina to spend the night in hopes that the weather would get better. The next day they took off from Mendoza and set their course for Santiago. As the plane was flying over the Andes Mountains, they hit an air pocket and plunged 3,000 feet down. To make things worse, they hit the side of the mountain causing the right wing to be ripped off, taking the tail with it. Five people were pulled out of the gaping hole by the wind. The rest of the passengers waited for the impending doom as the fuselage of the plane tobogganed down the valley at two hundred miles per hour. Of the original forty-five people on the plane, only twenty-seven survived. That number quickly dwindled as they remained stranded.

Their lives were at stake. Their only hope of survival was to eat those that had passed away. This created much controversy among the group. They could not stand the thought of cutting into their friends and then proceeding to eat them. At first only a few people felt slightly comfortable with the idea saying, “we have a duty to survive. If we don’t eat the bodies, it is a sin. We must do this not just for our own sakes but also for our families”. The idea was very slow to grow on the rest of the survivors. The first to try human meat had difficulties swallowing the flesh so they downed it with a handful of snow.

After they heard that the search for them had been called off, they began to lose hope. They picked three of the strongest survivors to start out to find help. The idea of eating their comrades began to set in as the survivors started realizing their fate. Still there were ones that would not eat a human carcass. They were afraid. It was shortly discovered that human meat tastes better cooked; though it has more protein raw. (Ew!)

As time passed and they got more accustomed to their new diet, rules were set. They would not, by any means, eat the women. No body was required to eat, and those who did eat could not eat more that what was rationed to them. The search party ate more than everyone else so that they would be strong. Ten days after the search party set out, they discovered a shepherd’s hut. Four days before Christmas, the rest of the survivors were rescued.

These people were in constant conflict when it came to eating their teammates. Their body said “I’m hungry! Feed me now.” while their brains said “Heck no! I am not eating my buddy”. This is similar to any situation when you’re heart says one thing and your brain says another; this is just the extreme version. Sociologists use the “conflict theory” analogy to describe this situation.

When it comes to cannibalism, human eating other humans isn’t the only type. There is also such a thing as “economic cannibalism” which is happening in the United States right now. Of the over 300 million Americans, 63 million are not responsible for paying income taxes. These people are cannibalizing the system and taking from those who are paying income taxes. Massive government spending is projected to increase interest rates. To make up for the higher interest rates, the government is increasing our income taxes.

Sociology? Qu'est-ce que c'est?

What is sociology? According to dictionary.com, sociology is the science or study of the origin, development organization, and functioning of human society; the science of fundamental laws of social relations, institutions, etc.

But what exactly does that mean? The human fascination with the world started many, many eons ago. We have been searching for meaning since the beginning of time. Traditional answers are not enough for us anymore. We need the cold, hard facts. Our advancing technology has helped further our quest for the juicy details. We use our machines to constantly probe the earth searching for fossils or other keys to the past. What we might find helps us understand how previous societies lived.

To help curb our curiosity, we, as a society, have created two sets of sciences. The first is natural sciences, such as biology, geology, chemistry, and physics. These sciences are used to try to explain and predict the events of the environment. The other is social sciences, such as anthropology, psychology, political science, sociology, and economics. These sciences are used to objectively understand the social world.

How the different scientists approach the topic at hand is what differentiates them from another. While sociology is similar to the other social sciences, it has its differences. Sociologists, like historians, try to set the influential social contexts; but primarily concentrate on present events. Sociologists do not focus on one specific social institution like political scientists and economists do. Compared to anthropologists, sociologists focus on contemporary societies as opposed to older societies. Finally, psychologists focus on internal variables while sociologists focus on external variables when figuring out what influences society.

I will now use the possible thought processes to try to explain suicide. A historian would possibly look at what happened in the person’s life before they made that decision. Were they depressed? What could have happened that made life undesirable? A political scientist could question the possible influence of government. Were they feeling suppressed? An economist would look at the financial aspect. Were they feeling useless because they lost their job and couldn’t provide for their family anymore? An anthropologist would look to the society. Did society put too much pressure on this individual? A psychologist would try to understand what was running through their mind. The victims thought pattern could be a mix of the above mentioned. Finally, a sociologist would look to society like an anthropologist did. Were they pressured by their family, friends, or school to succeed? Does their lifestyle have anything to do with this?

There are two different types of sociology. The first type is structural and the second is interactional. Structural sociology places the focus on the group, such as a religion. These types of sociologists are interested in figuring out how membership in a group influences our attitude and behavior; as in voting or stances on other social issues. Interactional sociologists place greater emphasis on individuals. They observe behavior when the subject is with other people. They also interview people. The observations they take lead them to drawing conclusions about people’s attitudes and influential parts of their lives.

Just like in every science and/or math class, sociologists use qualitative and quantitative data. Some sociologists use statistics and numbers to represent people’s behavior. They put emphasis on quantitative data. Others focus on how people construct their world. They look at the ideas and attitudes that are developed. These sociologists put emphasis on qualitative data.

 C. Wright Mills talks about “the sociological imagination”; but what is that? According to Mills, the sociological imagination will aid its possessor in understanding the bigger historical picture. The social imagination teaches society the idea that the individual can grasp the concept of his own experience and gauge his fate only by finding himself during his time. Using the sociological imaginations, we are able to grasp history and biography and relate the two through society.

Who exactly am I?

Who am I? What defines me? What kind of a person am I?

My name is Courtney. I am eagerly awaiting graduation like my classmates. I am the type of student to go against the social norm of having an easy second semester of senior year; I have seven classes, four of which are honors level. I am not a newbie to honors classes. Every year I have had at least two honors classes. I believe that starting high school with honors classes has helped maintain my work ethic. The classes are harder so the student needs to be more motivated and willing to work hard.

Music is a big part of my life. I am a part of the orchestra, and have been for nine years now. I started playing violin in fourth grade, but then switched to viola in fifth grade. I absolutely love the sound of the viola; it is so deep and rich compared to the violin. I believe that music has helped me immensely with my studies and my life in general. Music is very soothing to me. Orchestra is what calms me down during the day. I have found that if I do not have orchestra one day I am extremely jittery the rest of the day. Orchestra is definitely my favorite class; not because it is an easy class, but because I have dedicated so much of my life to making music. I plan to continue playing my viola in college next year.

I am a kooky, crazy, and fun spirited kind of girl. My friends are basically the exact same way. I am loud and confident. I strut down the hallway. My friends and I are insanely close. We joke around that we all share a brain; which is apparent most of the time judging by how we finish each other's thoughts. Without my friends, I do not know who I would be or what I would be doing with my life.

Many people do not consider my sport to be an actual sport. Many people think it is "easy". Well, it is not. I play badminton. High school badminton is nothing like backyard badminton. These girls mean business. It's almost scary. This is my fourth year on the team; second year on varsity. I absolutely love playing badminton. It's a very mental game. If your head isn't in the game then you might as well not be on the court. The best part of the season is the bus rides to and from away games. This is where we all get the chance to bond and hang out. Many inside jokes are formed during these rides. The badminton season is a very short and intense one. It begins in late February and ends early May; that's only two full months.    What exactly is badminton?

Well, that's me; that's a small snapshot of my life.