Sunday, September 28, 2008
What is that person doing?!
All this past week, we've been talking about gestures and different cultural norms. It was clear to see who was more open-minded than others in class, based on their reactions to what other countries did. Many people said things along the lines of, "that's weird!" and some even dismissed it as dumb. This really got me thinking about the people in our class and their reactions. I will admit, some things that other countries do are strange to me, but when I stop to think about it, I see where they're coming from and why it makes sense to them. Such as Indians eating only with their right hand. To Americans, eating with your hands is barbaric enough, but Indians use them as resouces. It's not dumb, it's just different, and I can understand that. I like learning about different cultures and what they do and why - it's why I took sociology in the first place. I suppose I expected other students to be less critical of different cultures also. The Japanese way of using the bathroom, while immediately baffling, makes perfect sense. It is very hygiene-conscious and clean, which is how their culture is and why they have people living to very old ages. So it is nice to learn about what they do and how it benefits them, because maybe the United States would be better off if we took after some other cultures.
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3 comments:
I noticed the exact same thing. During class, I was extra conscience of my responses to the new norms we learned. My first inclination was always to be shocked and confused, but then I'd think about it. I realized that yea seeing King Abdullah hold hands with President Bush may seem wierd to us, but if King Abdullah hadn't done so, then his country would have seen a bad business relationship. And who knows what would have happened then! Every single culture would look at America with distaste because most cultures are ethnocentric. What we have to work on is to stop seeing things as strange just because we don't understand them.
yea i agree. Though what the cultures did were different, It's kind of like-who are we to say it's weird? It's surprising though how different cultures can be completely different, and how cultures don't just mesh w/ some ideas.
I agree, and found it kind of sad too when some people started to say that is stupid, when it is only different. I actually thought it was pretty cool that people did things completely different.
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