Family and Identity intersecting

Title: Perception of Maternal instinct by squabbling inter-cultural floormates

Source: Argument amongst a female Japanese student and some European/American friends

Relation: This particular argument made me think of Family and Identity because of it's ties to cultural perceptions of what is "family". On top of that, the particular situtation reminded me of an example given in the R.R. chapter about Identity.

Commentary: About a week ago I returned to the dorm after a class and found 3 floormates and my roommate wrapped in an argument about the girl's opinion on adoption and motherhood in general. Somehow, the topic of the quality of her potential motherhood came into question, and the western floormates used the fact that she does not want to ever become pregnant and instead adopt as proof of her incapability to be maternal. The japanese floormate was flabbergasted that this was even considered as potential ammunition in the argument and became quite distressed at the heartlessness of the western floormates. The floormates then went on to explain that the western civilization as a whole finds biologically related families as more "right" than less conventional, despite an increasing trend in tolerance, and that the fear and disgust at having the ability to produce a biologically related family member borders on psycho when viewed through the baby-happy lens of a westerner. The Japanese floormate then apologized, and explained that in Japan overpopulation is a real issue and that adopting a child is considered even more honorable than in America. On top of that, in Japan there is much cultural pressure on not being "greedy." parents with many kids or those concerned about having children that look like them have recently been accosted for being immoral. I couldn't help but see this as a matter of perspective on the value of "Family" and how differently it shaped my friend's identity.

Topic: Speech Acts

Title: The Impact of Swearing

Source: Dorm Halls!

Relation: Speech Acts are terms, words, and figures of speech that represent more abstract or far-fetched concepts tied to that particular culture. Swearing is something that radically changes even amongst minor cultural divides, and allows a great deal of identification about a person and their backgroud simply from the way they choose to be rude.

Commentary: Each swear word, in each language, has it's own set of intricate speech acts. Since moving halfway up the state from the San Francisco suburbs to study here, it's been delightfully fun to recognize where people come from based off of what they say when they stub their toe on the way down the stairs. There are made up words, like “Hella” that come from my territory and infuriate other more grammatically inclined swearers, as well as unique ways of using swear words, such as “That's the shit!” to imply something is good. Since my coming to college and learning of the concept of speech acts I've become very attuned to how regional different connotations are. The textbook mentions that speech acts are usually a barrier when learning the intricies of a second language, but I've noticed that it's become a major influence amongst my hallmates' interactions simply because of the (relatively minor) regions they hail from. Some girls down the hall abbreviate the last word of their sentences when they mean to show they are exaggerating. Many people have been offended or put off by them for a long time because they didn't know that was how those girls expressed their humor, they simply thought they were politically incorrect stutterers. A guy across the hall uses the term “rape” whenever he wants to imply a completely non-sexual demonstration of dominance, primarily to recount video game experiences. In short, the knowledge of speech acts has made me much more aware of the cultural significance and impact on interaction in every facet of college life that differences in word choice and use have.

Different strokes for different folks

Topic: Political Frames in America

Source: Fox News, Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Colbert Report, CNN, ABC, PBS, Various newspaper articles, and my AP government course last year.

Relation:

This particular topic relates to our anthropology class because the source behind people's different interpretations can be defined as a Frame, something we covered this week as a conceptual vantage point from where people perceive. This frame is directly related to the culture each individual lives in and their personal experiences. Frames are what allow two individuals to receive the same information and yet hear different things.

Commentary:

Politicians often use terms they know will incite more than the base definition of the word in order to coerce specific demographics of constituents into acting or thinking a certain way. The reason this works is because of an anthropological concept known as frames, a sort of mental structure that shapes the way each individual sees the world. Both ends of the political spectrum and all levels in between use frame-targeted terms, but because of the nature of frames, each sound byte from each view in the political spectrum approaches frames differently. For example, a right-wing conservative will use the term “tax cuts” and “raise taxes” in the same context and scenario as a left-wing liberal, and yet the two put very different meaning into the words than the other. The conservative uses “raising taxes” as an all-encompassing way of saying that whatever the proposed action is, it will only bring bad things, whereas the liberal expects people to think that he/she is proposing a momentary sacrifice. This can be observed practically every time congress meets, because each side proposes their bills with their own frame incorporated and arguments arise from the misunderstandings.

Depression and Western Society's Perception of it's Validity

Topic: Culture-Specific Illness and Cure

Title: Depression and Western Society's Perception of it's Validity

Source: http://uhs.berkeley.edu/lookforthesigns/depressionsuicide.shtml, and R.R. p47-50, and Jeff Jacobson, a dear friend from home who struggles with Depression and the lack of sufficient response our culture has to it.

Relation: The concept of "Progress" in relation to our opinion that technological advancement is the epitome of civilization.

Commentary: In this day and age, living in a First world (westernized) culture, Technological advancements in the field of medicine have vastly increased our capacity to recognize and treat the symptoms of ailments across the board. However, In our flurry of technological improvement, Western culture has also begun to manifest new health detriments. Because of our skyrocketing improvement in science, Western society believes that sickness is qualified by a series of four things happening. "...First, we have to come into contact with some pathogen or vector that carries a disease. Second, the pathogen must be virulent - that is, it must be able to kill us. Third, if we come into contact with a deadly pathogen it must evade our body's immune system. Finally, the pathogen must be able to circumvent whatever measures our society has developed to prevent it from doing harm". R.R. p 48 Despite this widely accepted formulaic set of requirements to be considered "sick" or "dying" in our culture, the same scientific advancement has discovered forms of un-health that are completely independent of pathogens. This blog is going to focus on Clinical Depression, a prominent but not unique form of sickness that many consider "pseudo-sickness" or simply an excuse or state of being, despite the condition being validated by the recent scientific progress of our culture. Ironically enough, Clinical Depression is primarily if not singularly a "First World Problem", something that only crops up in western, "civilized" cultures, because the proper environment for such an illness to dwell can only be found in cultures that are convoluted and technologically advanced enough for people to feel clinically depressed. Even more ironically, despite all our medicinal technology, western society is only capable of treating such sickness in the same fashion that viruses and bacterias are dealt with; artificial medication. Despite Depression being a physical, clinically recognized condition, it is better classified by the interpersonal theory of disease, because the externalities that cause depression are the sufferer's worries, troubles, and relationships with the people and objects (both physical and abstract) in their culture. Because of our culture's inflexibility with the concept of inter-personal medicine, our preventative measures against it do not cure the ailment but bury underneath a layer of more culturally accepted symptoms. My best friend back home was diagnosed with depression about a year ago. The doctors prescribed him medication in order to make him feel better, after taking into account what he was feeling, how he was reacting to certain stimuli, and reading data on his medical history. The pills turned him from a intense, deep, passionate person into a lethargic, dopey shell of his previous self. Unlike the Chewa, as described in R.R. Pgs 48-50, western medication targeted the troubles that his condition caused, not the troubles that caused the condition. While I know that my place in all this doesn't allow me to say whether either mentality is better than the other, I can confidently be opinionated that conditions such as Depression, and primarily the way we treat it in first world countries are perfect examples of the way our society has not advanced as far as we like to think.

8/24

For me, growing up on the peninsula of the Bay Area has introduced me to a lot of culture. I got to befriend people who were incredibly rich, and people who were relatively poor, all in the same general location. My school was a huge melting pot, and I became friends with many people very different from me and my family. There were people such as my friend Adam, who invited me to Shabbat dinner every friday and had me join in the traditional Jewish prayers, and friends like So for me, the culture that I relate to isn't necessarily rooted in familial tradition, but picked up by going to friends' houses for dinner. Also, despite the seperation of my family, I have still been influenced by my heritage through the foods and customs that permeate our dinner table sessions. For example, My grandmother, who I have only met once in my life, is responsible for getting my father and I into making buckwheat stew for breakfast before an important day. Buckwheat is a staple food in russia, and even though it is prepared differently there, I can still take pride in my family's history every time I sit at the table with dad and partake in our own ritual.