Topic: Class
Source: High school days.
Relation: In Robbins Chapter 7 pg. 157 the topic that is being addressed is status in high school. This reminded me of when I was in high school.
Description: In high school we are all labeled by what you wear, hobbies, academics, and other things. In high school I played in the band and was very academically inclined. This put me into the class of band geek. I only hung out with people who were also in the band. Of course there was one exeption, one of my friends was smart and he just hung out with me and the other band people. This of course still continues. My girlfriend was also part of the band in high school. This is no different in college. People are always split into different groups and each of these groups are at different rankings. Band geek is near the bottom and athlete is near the top. This is even the case in the real world, we have poor people and rich people and each have their own ranking in the society.
Analysis: Ranking is a way to keep people in their place. Poor, middle and upper class are just words to make people understand where they stand. They say that a poor person can climb the ladder of success but very few acually do. Its the same in high school. If your a band geek you can't move up the social ladder to become a jock or popuar kid. We are taught at a young age that where we are on the ladder is where we are supposed to be. South Park season 2 episode 10 Kyle's dad tells him that there are gods and clods and that society needs both in order to function. This way when your an adult you feel content at where you are in life. Until someone challanges it this will never stop.
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Sunday, April 29, 2012
The Right of Passage
Source: My success in getting my drivers licence.
Relation: A right of passage according to Robbins ch 6 pg. 139 is; a ritual that mark a person's passage from one identity to another.
Descrption: Getting your drivers licence is a huge deal in this society. It marks the end of boy or girlhood and the beginning of adulthood. When you finnaly get this most sought after piece of plastic you no longer have to be driven around by your parents. I was so happy when I got my drivers licence. It was the most enjoyable thing ever. You brag to your friends that still don;t have theirs and join the group of friends that do. You feel different and special. A little bit more free than you where before. It is hard waiting for your licence. You have to go through all of the practice and tests. These tests make sure that a person is indeed ready to be conferred upon this privilage that is driving. Many pass with flying colors while others are deemed not yet ready.I was one of those that passed quite easily. The next part of the right is to acually drive with the tester with you, that is after you have practiced. I once again passed with flying colors. Once I got my licence I became free from my parants. I became a man.
Analysis: Many cultures go through a ritual that turns a boy into a man or a girl into a woman. One such ritual is in Robbins pg 140. This ritual is one in which a boy becomes a man through circumcision. The boy stands in front of his male relatives and is circumcised in front of them without any pian killers. He can't make a sound, or move or he will be considerd a coward and not worthy of being called a man. The Native Americans of many different tribe go through a ritual for girls in woch the girls paint there faces with special dirt and dance. In this ritual they are transformed from a girl into a woman. Even though they are different all rituals are connected in the fact that they are ment to symbolicaly transform a boy or girl into a man or a woman.
Relation: A right of passage according to Robbins ch 6 pg. 139 is; a ritual that mark a person's passage from one identity to another.
Descrption: Getting your drivers licence is a huge deal in this society. It marks the end of boy or girlhood and the beginning of adulthood. When you finnaly get this most sought after piece of plastic you no longer have to be driven around by your parents. I was so happy when I got my drivers licence. It was the most enjoyable thing ever. You brag to your friends that still don;t have theirs and join the group of friends that do. You feel different and special. A little bit more free than you where before. It is hard waiting for your licence. You have to go through all of the practice and tests. These tests make sure that a person is indeed ready to be conferred upon this privilage that is driving. Many pass with flying colors while others are deemed not yet ready.I was one of those that passed quite easily. The next part of the right is to acually drive with the tester with you, that is after you have practiced. I once again passed with flying colors. Once I got my licence I became free from my parants. I became a man.
Analysis: Many cultures go through a ritual that turns a boy into a man or a girl into a woman. One such ritual is in Robbins pg 140. This ritual is one in which a boy becomes a man through circumcision. The boy stands in front of his male relatives and is circumcised in front of them without any pian killers. He can't make a sound, or move or he will be considerd a coward and not worthy of being called a man. The Native Americans of many different tribe go through a ritual for girls in woch the girls paint there faces with special dirt and dance. In this ritual they are transformed from a girl into a woman. Even though they are different all rituals are connected in the fact that they are ment to symbolicaly transform a boy or girl into a man or a woman.
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Sex
Source: Sex is all around us. On TV, billboards, everywhere. A common saying here in the US is that sex sells. When you're watching commercials its usually hot women on the TV selling a car or a cheeseburger, or a guy for shaving products and cologne. In this sex saturated society its no wonder so many people have sex so early on in a relationship.
Relation: In Robins chapter 5 a lot of space is dedicated to the topic of sex. Many cultures see sex in many different ways. For instance in Mexico it is not discussed at all. Families don't talk about sex to their children. In America on the other hand sex is everywhere. Its weird though I can understand exactly where the families in Mexico are coming from. My parants never talked to me about sex and I did not have sex till much later in my relationship with my girlfriend. I do not usually disscus my relationship with anybody either.
Description: I have never thought very much about how much advertising companies rely on sex to sell their products, but as I was watching TV the other day I started thinking about it. They use women in car commercials and in every thing else as well. Now that I think about it it's in music as well. Singers are always singing about how they want to have sex with a girl or multiple girls. This is not exusive to one type of music. It is in all genre of music. Rap to country. It is even a theme in some oprea such as Mozart's Don Giovanni. I kind of lived a sheltered life. I mean I listened to music a lot but I never really had the sex talk like others did. Like I said my family didn't discuss thing like this it was a taboo. So when I finally got a girlfriend it was very awkward the first time. I had no clue what I was doing. It was very embarassing. Because of the way we veiw sex in this country it makes it easier for companies to sell theirproduct with sex.
Analysis: If you buy this car you will have more women than you can handle! Thats what the car company is telling men across the country. It works too. This is not a bad thing because it keeps the economy going. Its a way to move product. Carls Jr does it too. If you've been wathcing TV lately you've most likely seen the woman eating the jalapinio sandwich and looking sexy while she's doing it. This is just a way to sell the sandwich to customers. The music industry is like this way as well. They know that people what to hear about sex, so they give it to them. I think its a good thing to be open about things like this. I know that when and if I have kids I'm going to discuss sex with them and not be like my family was. I think young people should know about things like this early. Its not as if their never going to figure it out but it will make it easier on them if they already know something about sex to start with.
Relation: In Robins chapter 5 a lot of space is dedicated to the topic of sex. Many cultures see sex in many different ways. For instance in Mexico it is not discussed at all. Families don't talk about sex to their children. In America on the other hand sex is everywhere. Its weird though I can understand exactly where the families in Mexico are coming from. My parants never talked to me about sex and I did not have sex till much later in my relationship with my girlfriend. I do not usually disscus my relationship with anybody either.
Description: I have never thought very much about how much advertising companies rely on sex to sell their products, but as I was watching TV the other day I started thinking about it. They use women in car commercials and in every thing else as well. Now that I think about it it's in music as well. Singers are always singing about how they want to have sex with a girl or multiple girls. This is not exusive to one type of music. It is in all genre of music. Rap to country. It is even a theme in some oprea such as Mozart's Don Giovanni. I kind of lived a sheltered life. I mean I listened to music a lot but I never really had the sex talk like others did. Like I said my family didn't discuss thing like this it was a taboo. So when I finally got a girlfriend it was very awkward the first time. I had no clue what I was doing. It was very embarassing. Because of the way we veiw sex in this country it makes it easier for companies to sell theirproduct with sex.
Analysis: If you buy this car you will have more women than you can handle! Thats what the car company is telling men across the country. It works too. This is not a bad thing because it keeps the economy going. Its a way to move product. Carls Jr does it too. If you've been wathcing TV lately you've most likely seen the woman eating the jalapinio sandwich and looking sexy while she's doing it. This is just a way to sell the sandwich to customers. The music industry is like this way as well. They know that people what to hear about sex, so they give it to them. I think its a good thing to be open about things like this. I know that when and if I have kids I'm going to discuss sex with them and not be like my family was. I think young people should know about things like this early. Its not as if their never going to figure it out but it will make it easier on them if they already know something about sex to start with.
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Religion
Topic: Religion
Source: My life. I was at one time a religious person and many members of my family still are. I no longer believe in any gods because I think it is a bit strange to trust in an all powerful being that knows everything and does nothing.
Relation: Chapter four in the Robins text discusses religion. The text discusses the possible beginnings of religion. The explanation given is that religion could have begun as a way to explain how and why certain things happened. This is a great analysis in my opinion and provides a great explanation of why religion started.
Description: When I was younger I went to church on a regular basis with my grandparents. However as time went on I began to doubt whether a god even existed. I was told from the start that God was all powerful, loving and knowing, but why do such bad things happen to people who were good. I was told God was testing them. Why does an all knowing being have to test a person, God should already know the outcome if he's truly all knowing. This was my beginning journey away from the church and it only hastened as I took more science classes and continued to learn about biology.
Commentary: I personal believe that religion is a silly aspect but I also understand that some people need the comfort of believing that there is purpose in life. It does bother my however when religious people try to make others fear for their "immortal soul" by saying that their going to hell if they don't believe like they do. Another thing that bothers me is the fact that many religious people attack those that are different. This is evident with homosexuals. Many say gays are going to hell even if they believe because their religious text tells them so. However do they read their text? Jesus said to love your neighbor, not threaten him with eternal damnation. It is strange to me how some continue to believe in an all powerful being in a world where most of the questions that puzzled mankind have been answered by science. I hope that I don't offend anyone because I know that religion can be a touchy subject.
*Sorry for going after Christianity it is the religion I came from and thus the one I know most about.*
Source: My life. I was at one time a religious person and many members of my family still are. I no longer believe in any gods because I think it is a bit strange to trust in an all powerful being that knows everything and does nothing.
Relation: Chapter four in the Robins text discusses religion. The text discusses the possible beginnings of religion. The explanation given is that religion could have begun as a way to explain how and why certain things happened. This is a great analysis in my opinion and provides a great explanation of why religion started.
Description: When I was younger I went to church on a regular basis with my grandparents. However as time went on I began to doubt whether a god even existed. I was told from the start that God was all powerful, loving and knowing, but why do such bad things happen to people who were good. I was told God was testing them. Why does an all knowing being have to test a person, God should already know the outcome if he's truly all knowing. This was my beginning journey away from the church and it only hastened as I took more science classes and continued to learn about biology.
Commentary: I personal believe that religion is a silly aspect but I also understand that some people need the comfort of believing that there is purpose in life. It does bother my however when religious people try to make others fear for their "immortal soul" by saying that their going to hell if they don't believe like they do. Another thing that bothers me is the fact that many religious people attack those that are different. This is evident with homosexuals. Many say gays are going to hell even if they believe because their religious text tells them so. However do they read their text? Jesus said to love your neighbor, not threaten him with eternal damnation. It is strange to me how some continue to believe in an all powerful being in a world where most of the questions that puzzled mankind have been answered by science. I hope that I don't offend anyone because I know that religion can be a touchy subject.
*Sorry for going after Christianity it is the religion I came from and thus the one I know most about.*
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Industrialization
Topic: In the modern world we take a lot for granted. We sometimes don't realize that before the industrial revolution there was not all the convinences that we now have. No medicne, food storage, or sanitary conditins like we have today. There are always side effects to industrialization. Water and food sources become dirty and nature almost dissapers.
Source: I have seen many small towns become vicims of industilization. They are helped by this at first but as it continues they suffer. Jobs are lost and people are hurt. Nature takes the hardest hit though. The water becomes dirty, and the air becomes hard to breath. Trees are cut down for buldings and whole grasslands are plowed to make way for strip malls. It is truely a sad sight. All of these things happened to the small town of Lincoln. I saw before my very eyes trees and grasslands that had stood unchanged for as long as I could remember be destroyed.
Relation: Many people around the world are loosing who the are as industialization takes hold. They lose their culture and way of life that they had known their whole lives as a more efficiant way takes hold. Their water and air becomes dirty as smoke stacks rise into the air and a culture slowly dies.
Analysis: Change can be a good thing. We are now living longer because of a better diet and medicne. We must realize that everything we do has negitive effects as well as positive ones. We must not completly destroy nature because as much as some may not like to admit it we are a part of nature. I like modern convensices as much as the next person, like cars, easy food and the such, so I know that there are a great many good things that we can get form having an industialized world. We should also look at the other cultures and see what they want not just tell them that our way is the best way.
Source: I have seen many small towns become vicims of industilization. They are helped by this at first but as it continues they suffer. Jobs are lost and people are hurt. Nature takes the hardest hit though. The water becomes dirty, and the air becomes hard to breath. Trees are cut down for buldings and whole grasslands are plowed to make way for strip malls. It is truely a sad sight. All of these things happened to the small town of Lincoln. I saw before my very eyes trees and grasslands that had stood unchanged for as long as I could remember be destroyed.
Relation: Many people around the world are loosing who the are as industialization takes hold. They lose their culture and way of life that they had known their whole lives as a more efficiant way takes hold. Their water and air becomes dirty as smoke stacks rise into the air and a culture slowly dies.
Analysis: Change can be a good thing. We are now living longer because of a better diet and medicne. We must realize that everything we do has negitive effects as well as positive ones. We must not completly destroy nature because as much as some may not like to admit it we are a part of nature. I like modern convensices as much as the next person, like cars, easy food and the such, so I know that there are a great many good things that we can get form having an industialized world. We should also look at the other cultures and see what they want not just tell them that our way is the best way.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Development
Source: For this discussion I draw upon my own life. Before coming up here to Humboldt State I lived in a town that has had drastic development over the last ten years. I am also drawing upon Robbins, chapter 2 pg.29 and 43, about the death of a way of life and economic development. This is about how development changes ways of life either for good or for worse. A lot depends on where a person comes from in life, this changes how they view progress.
Relation: People think that development is important, especially in the way of building and taming nature. We live in a society in which most of us live in the city everybody living in close quarters. They take out the trees that were once there and that had been in that same place for hundreds of years and build on it, not only that we than plant trees that fit into our way of life. We change the landscape to fit our needs and wants.
Description: I have lived in a place called Lincoln, located in California, my whole life. For almost 15 of these years I lived in the outskirts of Lincoln where the closest person was over a mile away it was heaven. lived amongst the trees, plants, snakes, and other animals and loved it . This is where I learned about nature and why we all must respect it. So I lived here for many years but we then moved to the main city of Lincoln and I must say it was weird. I didn't understand why people would voluntarily pack themselves into such tight places. There's more, this place used to be very small. It was an agricultural town when I was young. I saw it change so fast. People started to sell their land whenever enough money was offered and a way of life soon started to fade, it is now almost completely gone. The people that had once grew rice and raise cows now were willing to sell the land that they had grown up on if money was waved in their face. Now this town where I grew up is no longer a small town where people grow food, its just like all the other cities full of cookie cutter houses and places to go shopping. It truly makes me sad.
Analysis: Development happens. People want economic security so when the chance comes along they will take it. Money is important to people and they think that it offers a way to success. The land that they sold is then turned into houses that all look the same and are placed as close as possible so that the land developers can make as much money as possible. It truly is money that runs our society and most are willing to do whatever they can to obtain it. Money is the backbone of this world and if it were to suddenly disappear many people would not even now how to survive anymore. To many the way to live is to work to earn money, how would they live if they had to find their own food how would they know. Many have never even seen the world outside of the city and I'm am always amazed when people don't know what Poison Oak is. I know that I have had a great opportunity in life to grow up where I did and learn what I did.
Relation: People think that development is important, especially in the way of building and taming nature. We live in a society in which most of us live in the city everybody living in close quarters. They take out the trees that were once there and that had been in that same place for hundreds of years and build on it, not only that we than plant trees that fit into our way of life. We change the landscape to fit our needs and wants.
Description: I have lived in a place called Lincoln, located in California, my whole life. For almost 15 of these years I lived in the outskirts of Lincoln where the closest person was over a mile away it was heaven. lived amongst the trees, plants, snakes, and other animals and loved it . This is where I learned about nature and why we all must respect it. So I lived here for many years but we then moved to the main city of Lincoln and I must say it was weird. I didn't understand why people would voluntarily pack themselves into such tight places. There's more, this place used to be very small. It was an agricultural town when I was young. I saw it change so fast. People started to sell their land whenever enough money was offered and a way of life soon started to fade, it is now almost completely gone. The people that had once grew rice and raise cows now were willing to sell the land that they had grown up on if money was waved in their face. Now this town where I grew up is no longer a small town where people grow food, its just like all the other cities full of cookie cutter houses and places to go shopping. It truly makes me sad.
Analysis: Development happens. People want economic security so when the chance comes along they will take it. Money is important to people and they think that it offers a way to success. The land that they sold is then turned into houses that all look the same and are placed as close as possible so that the land developers can make as much money as possible. It truly is money that runs our society and most are willing to do whatever they can to obtain it. Money is the backbone of this world and if it were to suddenly disappear many people would not even now how to survive anymore. To many the way to live is to work to earn money, how would they live if they had to find their own food how would they know. Many have never even seen the world outside of the city and I'm am always amazed when people don't know what Poison Oak is. I know that I have had a great opportunity in life to grow up where I did and learn what I did.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Fast Food Culture
Our culture is one full of fast food. We are always in a hurry to go here or there and never stop to sit down to eat a full healthy meal. The fast food industry only enables us to continue this unhealthy lifestyle that we live. Fast food is convenient, quick, and inexpensive. However it's not just fast food restaurants that are bad, we also have frozen foods that take just minutes to cook. I am guilty of this as are many others. It is so easy to just eat something quick when life seems to be going at such a fast pace. Many people get sick from eating fast foods. We know they are bad for our health but its just so easy. I am no saint when it comes to eating healthy foods either. I eat frozen foods that are quick and easy to make because it seems like I'm always busy but I do realize that it is bad for me.
These food choices tell us a lot about our culture and how we live. We are always on the run, even though we don't always have to be. Even the people who are not always busy tend to choose foods that are fast and convenient. What we eat can be bad for us, but it defines who we are as a country. This of course can change we can always change the way other look at us. In this case it would be wise to change our diet a little so that we could be a healthier society.
These food choices tell us a lot about our culture and how we live. We are always on the run, even though we don't always have to be. Even the people who are not always busy tend to choose foods that are fast and convenient. What we eat can be bad for us, but it defines who we are as a country. This of course can change we can always change the way other look at us. In this case it would be wise to change our diet a little so that we could be a healthier society.
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