Journal Responses/Blog Post #2
Due: Monday, October 1st
Please answer at least one of the following questions:
Question #1: Chapter Two discusses the concepts of ethnocentrism and cultural relativism. Please provide one example in which you encountered a culture different from your own and describe which one of the two concepts you practiced when you experienced that cultural difference.
Question #2: Chapter Two explains that cultures have subcultures as well as countercultures. Please describe the distinction between the two and list an example of each. Further, do you feel that the distinction between subcultures and countercultures is cut and dry? Why or why not?
posted by Danelle @ 11:58 AM
12 Comments:
In the summer of 2005, I was fortunate enough to get the chance to travel throughout Germany.When traveling abroad, It is my strong belief that cultural relativism is vastly superior to that of ethnocentrism. One cannot enter a foreign culture and then use his or her own beliefs as a guide. This would not only be a highly ineffective way of traveling, but it would also take away from the enjoyment of the trip.
The difference between US and German cultures was apparent immediately. The one thing that a foreigner must realize about the German people is that they speak their minds. For instance, when I politely asked (in German) the stewardess on the flight to Germany if she could take away the the trash from my in-flight meal, her reply was rather stern. Now, if I was an ethnocentrist, I may have been offended. However, since I knew that, unlike Americans, Germans are taught to show their true feelings and not put on a fake smile, this incident did not bother me. Anothe rexample of this happened in Berlin. My friends went ahead of me to enter a store. When they attempted to enter, an elderly gentleman emerged from his shop and began to shout at them. I finally caught up to my friends and explained to them that the man was saying that the entrance to the store was around the corner. Suddenly , the old man smiled, put his out out to me and began speaking perfect English. All he wanted was someone who understood his language. An ethnocentrist may have ended up causing a scene on the streets. My patience and understanding of the language; however, quickly diffused the situation. He even offered us lunch in his shop.
The distinction between subcultures and countercultures are that subcultures consist of people whose experiences have led them to distinctive ways of looking at life or some aspect of it. There are many examples of this type. One is "showing" dogs because intricate rules must be followed and it's a highly specialized subculture. Countercultures are groups whose values, beliefs, and related behaviors place its members in opposition to the broader culture. An example are the Hell's Angels. They value the dirtiness and comtempt toward women and work. I feel that distinction between the two is cut and dry because physicians think differently than the Survivalists and both concepts make total sense. Sociologists even form a subculture. The both cultures do not have to be negative in any way. There both understandable.
Growing up in Southern California I experienced many diefferent cultures and in many ways feel I am a product of all of those cultures. My family was not in touch with their roots, as many people are here in Berks County, nor were they steeped in traditions. I deffinitely grew up practicing cultural relativism. I learned to embrace the mexican culture in particular and understand their deep sense of familial tradition. In fact, I longed for my own family to be that way and always wondered why we weren’t. I love the food they eat, the right of passage into adulthood a young girl experiences when she turns 15, and the way they take care of their elderly. I also practice cultural relativism at work. I am a patient care assistant at Reading Hospital. I encounter many different cultures, including PA Dutch, and those who do not speak English,. Imagine being in a hospital and unable to communicate with your health care provider. I treat them the same way I would treat any patient I encounter; with respect and concern for their well being. I try to understand their situation and how they like things to be done. Their way is always different than the mine and I respect that. I respect their privacy as this is an issue with men being cared for by women, especially those of Middle Eastern decent. Cultural relativism is part of my daily life, I live it, I practice it and I believe that is what helps me to be less judgmental and more accepting of others. It has helped me get to know and learn from some wonderful individuals.
In the spring of 2006, my senior year in high school, I was lucky enough to travel to Italy with my high school music department. I knew that traveling abroad was going to be very exciting and a great learning experience. I also knew that their were going to be a lot of different cultural differences that were going to separate us from the Italians. Luckily in Italy most of the people know a little bit of English, enough to point you in the direction you're going/or needing to go. But sometimes even asking the simple question of "How much does this cost?" or "Where's the bathroom?" made us remember that there was a huge cultural difference. These people weren't brought up the way we were. Some of the people would just stare at you like you had four heads when you tried to communicate, others would try to understand and try to help, but in the end were hopeless. At first it was very frustrating, trying to ask a simple yes or no question but having the person you're asking have no idea what you're saying. But we never got angry at them because we all realized that this is their culture...this is the was they were brought up. We were visitors in their culture. If we would have become angry, or started yelling and screaming what good would it have done? They wouldn't have understood us anyway. There was no point in looking at it through an ethnocentrist point of view. If we would have, we probably would have ended up looking like fools.
After the first couple days in Italy, we picked up a couple very useful Italian words like "yes," "no," "bathroom," "water," and so on, which made things go a lot more smoother. We had use the cultural relativism. We had to show respect for there culture, and when the Italians saw that we were trying to communicate through their language they were a lot more receptive.
A subculture has values and behaviors that are related to a group that distinguishes its members from a larger culture. A group whose values, beliefs, and behaviors are placed in opposition to a broader culture is a counterculture. An example of a subculture would be those who participate in rodeos, showing their membership by wearing different clothing which unites the members. An example of a counterculture would be Mormons who challenged culture’s core value of monogamy with the practice of polygyny. I feel that the distinction between sub and countercultures are cut and dry. Each group in a subculture has a different identity, uniqueness, and characteristic that allows it to be placed in a subculture group. This makes sense because every group does something differently from another. Counterculture is also cut and dry because it shows the differences in ideas that this group has that goes against the broader culture. The means of identifying different groups of culture as sub or counterculture helps with organization because it is cut and dry. This leads to the organization of groups whose experiences have led them to live distinctive lives.
One example of when i encountered a culture difference is every time i go to a big city. In the summer of 2006 a few of my friends and I would make late night trips to New York City. Being on the subway and observing people getting on and off made me think alot. The subway system is a very confusing thing but watching these people getting on and off they knew exactly where they were and where to go. Also in big cities you see multiple types of cultures and everybody does what they do because thats they way they do things. I tend the use the concept of enthoncentrisms. I'll watch people in these cities and say why do they do that thats not make no sense and my way is easier. We all think our way is right because thats how things make sense to us on our level. People do whatever to make themselves comfortable.
I used to work at an ice cream store and I would have customers come in that didn't understand much english. I was able to help them complete their orders by speaking spanish that I have learned from previous studies in spanish. I later got a new job at a bank. A customer came through the drive thru and also didn't understand much english. I also got to help him through the little spanish that I did know. There is a big cultural struggle in our society and there are many people that I have been able to help because I took the time to learn more about others' cultures. I think that cultural relativism is an issue that I have been able to use to better understand others cultures. I feel that people should not be quick to judge others based on their cultures and this has helped me to be more open to learn other cultures and also learn a different language such as spanish.
The distinction between subcultures and countercultures is subcultures go along with the world around us. They fit in and are compatible with the main culture of the world it's in. Countercultures don't fit in with the other cultures. They go against a lot of what the main culture is all about. an example of a subculture would be a church. A large group of people is joined together to fellowship and worship God, and it's rules, activities, and values go along with the world outside of the church. Everyone is happy, and no one is disturbing the peace of the communities. An example of a counterculture(just to make it real easy) is the KKK. The klan's values and ideas went against what the majority of what the culture outside of it's own thought. Their activities were selfish and oppposed everything our culture was trying to get to at that time in history. I do feel that the distinction between the two is very cut and dry. Your either with the crowd or against it!
In many asian cultures women do not have the freedom to express their opinions, dress or make decisions. Also, their husband can be married to more than one woman. In those cases I practice ethnocentrism, I totally disagree, I dont think is right that women cannot express there opinions openly or that a man has more than one wife. I don't think that's right because that is not the way things are around me that is not the concept I have about womens role in society, but to them it is right. That is the way they were raised and most of them do not want things to be different. I think we all practice ethnocentrism, but we should not discriminate others just because they have a different culture.
The distinction between subcultures and countercultures is described in Chapter Two in the following way,
a Subculture is a world within the larger world of the dominate culture.
Subcultures consist of people whose experiences have led them to have distinctive ways of looking at life or some aspect of it.
In my opinion a subculture would be a specialized group of professionals that have an elevated understanding of a complicated subject, possibly
cancer research scientist.
who study complicated data, not easily understood, by those not in that field.
While not understood they contribute to society in a beneficial way.
a Counterculture is a group whose values put them in opposition to mainstream society. One example of this would be white supremacy groups.
The distinction between the two is very clear one can be helpful, the other would clearly have a negative impact possibly resulting in harm and violence to others.
The distinction between subcultures and countercultures is described in Chapter Two in the following way,
a Subculture is a world within the larger world of the dominate culture.
Subcultures consist of people whose experiences have led them to have distinctive ways of looking at life or some aspect of it.
In my opinion a subculture would be a specialized group of professionals that have an elevated understanding of a complicated subject, possibly
cancer research scientist.
who study complicated data, not easily understood, by those not in that field.
While not understood they contribute to society in a beneficial way.
a Counterculture is a group whose values put them in opposition to mainstream society. One example of this would be white supremacy groups.
The distinction between the two is very clear one can be helpful, the other would clearly have a negative impact possibly resulting in harm and violence to others.
"You can take a nigga' out tha' jungle, but you can't take the jungle out tha' cat"
-Jeru the Damaja
Sub-Cultural Maxim of the Black Hunting Park Community
There I was, where the city runs out of the headlights. Having made a wrong turn
in an alien city, I stood flanked by ominous shanty's on a deserted road. I could see without sight, the predators eyes furtively stalking their prey through the chicken-wired windows. Should I stop, I wondered, turn back and retrace my footsteps. No, that would be like adorning a giant phosphorescent question mark over my head, and surely the jackals
in the bushes would seize the opportunity with a feral zeal not unlike a real jackal.
I pressed on, hoping to find some semblance of the humanity I had left behind that
last right-turn. Why were there no lights here? Not even house lights. The occasional
tele scintillated behind detritus caked blinds, a faint ghost of life -- a masquerade of
the true life I had known. Where the hell am I?
Then they came.
Slowly defining shapes, three of them, approached with an inhuman calmness--Run!--
I was paralyzed--Run!--Couldn't move, but why not? Adrenaline seared my bones, drowned
my mind, but I stood still. I wondered if my eyes glowed like a cats in the headlight's of
its destroyer.
"You listen to rock music?" one of them inquired, his voice toned to amplify the offensive nature of his question.
Run!
I responded with the a speed and clarity I thought lost ever since the days of my Adoral
binges. "Listen to whatever interests me."
"Know any gangsta' shit."
An inexplicable calm flooded over me. I did in fact have quite a formidable knowledge
of "gangsta shit", as well as any other variation of the rap genre. I recounted six or seven
MC's each with distinctive attributes in a bid to impress my assailants. Cruel mistress that
fate is, providence had forged her my muse.
Three years later, I was welcomed by much of the Hunting Park community of Philadelphia.
With the help of Adrian, Charlie, and Octavius, I had managed to ingratiate myself into
their community (crack-houses, poverty ravaged families, High School drop-outs), adopting more than enough traits from both their material and non-material sub-cultures while I shared with them some aspects of mine. I introduced them to the poet Phillis Wheatley, the literature of the Black Panthers,
and to some extent, the sprawling ass-kickery of Hunter s. Thompson. I even went so far as to help a few of them acquire jobs at Best Buy. In turn, they allowed me to shoot a short documentary of them
for class, shared their philosophies of American culture and invited me to underground hip-hop venues. Despite knowing of their illegal recreations, I never once felt threatened by them.
By the end of my Senior year, I had managed to glean enough of their lifestyle tenets to understand their way of life and to even sympathize with them. Their envious hostility towards the wealthy and the educated may come across as bitter and violent, but they're really yearning for precisely what they hate. No more is this evident than in their music of choice. Not the standard kill, pimp, snuff the white stuff rap that permeates the mainstream musical culture, but songs with lyrics such as-
"Hazardous to the health of America
Black rebel in your area
Psychoanalyze this
Then send your forces cuz now we mean business
You should now bear witness to a new brand of nigga'
This nigga' is smarter than the nigga' of time's past
This nigga' is the nigga' of the future"
and
"It's been awhile since I escaped the library
fightin ignorance everyday, its gettin weary...
still I need medical attention
but Im not bitchin, gettin Ignorance is my mission
all of a sudden Greedy Lou comes creepin' around the corner talkin' bout..Prophet your a gonna'
We knew you followed Trick uptown because you wanna' get rid of Ignorance but that don't make no sense
He runs the world I know this from experience."
-Perhaps if we all took the time to listen and contribute, they could achieve their goals
without the violence, drug use, and robberies, and assume their role as the "nigga' of the
future."
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