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.