All of your comments about the circumstances of sweatshop labor revealed a deep concern for your relationship as students to others who are less fortunate in the world. This is the start of becoming a student OF the world rather than IN the world. Your insight and awareness is something to be proud of. Don't undermine it with guilt or shame, blame or fault, or even regret.Consider this re-definition from Landmark Education.
Responsibility is not about blame, shame, guilt, fault, or regret. It starts with a willingness to consider being cause in the matter.No one else is coming to save us. Responsibility might be creatively responding using the resources you have as a college student (technology, the power of your institution--Baruch/CUNY, the radio station, blogs, etc. ) or the resources of your position (galvanizing other students or people with similar interests) to make a difference, to impact the world we live in.
Perhaps you all could be like the students in the video and organize Baruch students to explore what unfair labor practices we as a group of people are unknowingly supporting. Awareness is an important form of activism.
Perhaps this poem might be useful in being cause in the matter.
"Our Deepest Fear"
by Marianne Williamson from A Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”ABOUT MIRACLES AND FEAR
By the way, how would anthropologists study MIRACLES or even FEAR? Guilt, shame or blame? What etic category applies or would be useful? How, when or where would you participate and observe miracles or fear? Where would you conduct fieldwork? Better yet, what social construct is at work behind the perception/reality of MIRACLES, FEAR or SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY? What construct prevents us from seeing them/it?
One thought for me, because I don't have an answer for this, is the social construct of "the individual" (does it really exists in nature or is it merely a social discourse perceived in some cultures and not others?). Hmm? What a paradox. "Individual" is a social construct. That's something I've NEVER thought about before.
IN CONCLUSION
What I am learning from my own inquiry is that "noticing" is the most powerful tool in participant-observation and ethnography.
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6 comments:
Noticing something and taking part in something is what ethnography is all about. It is somewhat fearful because of the thought of getting into someone else's business and wanting to know what is going on with their life. Anthropologist have that strength and that is what the study anthropology is trying to show undergraduates that study it. Everything has a connection to anthropology. Culture is who we are and what we are and how that defines our character to what we want to be.
Anthropologist cannot study miracles or fear, that is a reaction to what they try to learn to helps them see fear or determination in what they try to learn about. What prevents anthropologist from seeing guilt or fear is the thought that culture itself has that distinct way of preventing people from reacting when they do not know how to. Everything around their environment causes them to not open up to people because of the fear of people not worrying about what they are going through or maybe even the thought that what they are going through in their society cannot even be stopped.
I think "individual" is a notion that first emerged in the Renaissance? That people are actually important and each have their own individual value. Individualism started to really firm up in the 1950's, I believe, when civil rights movements begin. Before that, I think only the elites and politically powerful think that they are "individuals" and can claim they have a status of their own. But individualism is something very western, or in my knowledge, something very American. I know in Chinese culture, there wasn't such a notion. Everything is stratified by age. You're views are not so important less you have someone younger than you. You can not call older people by their names but always by a title. In Japan, their is no individual idea in a group. Individuals submit to the group for a common good. This is good because we see throughout history Japanese are very united, and a very proud country as a whole. So "individual" is a social construct, it is not biological since human being cannot survived in singles.
-jouman
"It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?"
This quote stuck to me in the poem out of all the lines. IT struck me that we put ourselves down and we tell ourselves we can’t do this or we can’t do that! But why? I think that we are god's children and we were put on this earth to make something of ourselves, whether it is for us, for the ones we love, or for the ones that suffer. It is mostly important not to put ourselves down, because by doing that we get nothing accomplished. By studying people and the surroundings they are put in we can help them if we really put our mind to it and are motivated by others to do so.
Anthropology has really opened my eyes to this and has made me think "out of the box" with all these concepts and ways of figuring out individuals, culture and society. It’s really important to know before actually getting involved.
Gabi Peic
XY24C
I like the way in which this anthropology class developed. It is not about learning the definitions of certain facts, theories, new words, but about its concepts and how we can apply anthropology in our everyday life. In the beginning of the semester when I would watch a certain you tube or read an article I had much more stereotypes and strong opinions about various subjects. However, throughout the semester I found out my strong opinions, believes and stereotypes start changing. I became less judgmental and more open to understanding and accepting different reality of my own. There is a quote that Prof. G put in the syllabus by Mel Silberman which can be our evolution through the anthropology class and one of the teachers first requirements to “agree to be offended.” We are not masters of the anthropology, but for sure we can teach another what we are taught: to not to be offended and to try to understand world that differ.
What I hear, I forget. What I hear and see, I remember little,
What I hear, see and ask questions about or discuss with somebody else, I begin to understand.
What I hear, see, discuss, and do, I acquire knowledge and skill.
What I teach to another, I master.
(by Mel Silberman)
TV24A
I agree with this blog post that “noticing” is important in participant observation. This point makes me see things better, especially when it comes to the ethnography I am working on for this course. No matter what that subject is, it is important that one notices many aspects revolving around certain situations.
I also believe that we can’t just sit around and watch what goes on in the world. If we don’t agree or see that something isn’t working in favor of the greater good of society, then we should do something about it. One person can’t change the world, but collectively people can accomplish many things, When someone doesn’t act towards change, then they have no right to complain. Readinf this post makes me want to get invovled by joining a cause.
I think participant-observation is noticing your surroundings. By taking part in participant observation we discover something we did not know before.It could be either about ourselves, our peers, our culture or the world. I think that everyone in this world has a purpose and it would be even better if everyone cared. If everyone cared about the war they would be no war, if everyone cared about the homeless everyone would have shelter, if everyone cared about the poor, the poor would not exist. But sadly people are cowards. They are afraid to bring out the best in them, sometimes its that they lacked ambition or simply they are lazy. But no one could change anyone. If you want change you do it yourself and as long as you yourself as a human-being do not realize that you are CHANGE and that you have POWER you will suffer life's greatest treasures.
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