Chapter 6 - Politcal Systems (Group 3 Presentation)

We started off the presentation with a game of Jeopardy, political style. We gave clues about different terms we learned from the chapter and the class had to give the answer in the form of a question. It was confusing at first, but the class got the hang of it eventually.

We watched a short video that described different political governments we are more familiar with such as democracy and monarchy.



Then we watched another film that talked about how the U.S. Government is a "scam". It bashes the decisions of the U.S government and gives us an insight on what is really happening in our political system.




Lastly, we watched a video about life in North Korea under a totalitarian dictatorship.



Group 3
Hyun wook Jeong
Ken Zhen
Rickey Li
Xiang Wang
Terentiy Bronikou

Connecticut Ruling Overturns Ban on Same-Sex Marriage

For the groups doing their presentations on Families, Marriage and Kinship, make sure you pay attention to what's happening in the news. Current affairs are great topics for conversation.

Breaking News Alert
The New York Times
Friday, October 10, 2008 -- 12:17 PM ET
-----

Connecticut Ruling Overturns Ban on Same-Sex Marriage

Connecticut's Supreme Court ruled Friday that same-sex couples have the right to marry, making the state the third to legalize such unions.

Read More: http://www.nytimes.com/?emc=na

Go to the link to see the Text of the Ruling, which in part read:

We conclude that, in light of the history of pernicious discrimination faced by gay men and lesbians,1 and because the institution of marriage carries with it a status and significance that the newly created classification of civil unions does not embody, the segregation of heterosexual and homosexual couples into separate institutions constitutes a cognizable harm. We also conclude that (1) our state scheme discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation, (2) for the same reasons that classifications predicated on gender are considered quasi-suspect for purposes of the equal protection provisions of the United States constitution, sexual orientation constitutes a quasi-suspect classification for purposes of the equal protection provisions of the state constitution, and, therefore, our statutes discriminating against gay persons are subject to heightened or intermediate judicial scrutiny, and (3) the state has failed to provide sufficient justification for excluding same sex couples from the institution of
marriage.

CLARIFYING Social Construct

I noticed a few of you have been using the idea of a social construct a bit too generally. Here is the definition again:

A social construction (social construct) is a concept or practice which may appear to be natural and obvious to those who accept it, but in reality is an invention or artifact of a particular culture or society. Social constructs are generally understood to be the by-products (often unintended or unconscious) of countless human choices rather than laws resulting from divine will or nature.

People never see social constructs from an emic point of view. The insider never can see it. Like the fish never sees the water or humans never think about air. It's taken for granted. The etic view, the participant observer, the outsider (even insiders can become outsiders to their own culture from travel, migration, going away to college, etc.) the begin to see how people in a culture accept the invention as natural and obvious.

Anthropologists use interviewing inside of participant-observation to "expose the way in which a particular belief has been shaped by social forces" (Writes philosopher Paul A. Boghossian in WHAT IS SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION? philosophy.fas.nyu.edu/docs/IO/1153/socialconstruction.pdf).

For instance, how did we/you learn the belief that North is up. One social force impacting that view was colonialism by the British Empire. They created a view through maps emphasizing the upper parts where they were located in their emic view. Reading importance from top to bottom is a social construction. Not all cultures read and have their views correlated that way. Others are equally valid in seeing things differently. "Another society, differing from us only in their social values [their learned ways of thinking, feeling, believing and behaving], would have arrived at a different and incompatible belief [or view]." Boghossian writes further:

There are certainly many things, and facts about them, that are socially constructed in the sense ... : money, citizenship and newspapers, for example. None of these things could have existed without society [or enculturation and acculturation]; and each of them could have been constructed differently had we so chosen

If a belief of ours were shown to be socially constructed ... it would follow that we could abandon it without fear of irrationality [the earth is flat; Muslims are evil; carbohydrates are bad for you; noticing skin color causes racism]

[I]f we have the belief not because there is adequate evidence in its favor but because having it subserves some contingent social purpose [Muslims are evil], then if we happen not to share the social purpose it subserves we ought to be free to reject it.

Much important work has been done ... most significantly, it seems to me, [on the] topics of gender and race. Simone de Beauvoir (The Second Sex, 1953) and other feminist scholars since, have illuminated the extent to which gender roles are not inevitable but are rather the product of social forces. Anthony Appiah (Color Conscious: The Political Morality of Race, 1996, with Amy Gutman) has been particularly forceful in demonstrating that nothing physical or biological corresponds to the racial categories that play a pervasive role in our social lives, that these categories owe their existence more to their social function [stratification of resources and wealth affecting our views of who has wealth, power and prestige] than they do to the scientific evidence.

To clarify and be sure you are clear about what a social construct is, tell me what this says to you. How did you have the idea before reading this and how has it changed? If you get it, you can recreate it in your own words and even give an example back to me as if its yours.

Kottak Ch. 7 - Families, Kinship and Marriage

NEXT CHAPTER is on Families, Kinship and Marriage (Oct 21, 23)

Watch the Rick Smolan TED Talk on an Amerasian adoption (25 mins) BEFORE class Tue Oct 21 in addition to your assignment to take the online quiz. For the following Thursday, read "Life without Fathers" in Conformity & Conflict. We will discuss the implications of the photographer's intentions and impact in international adoption.

Questions to consider about Natasha's Story: If Natasha had been Amerasian, but looked more Asian than American, how would her enculturation have been different or how might her acculturation into an American family have differed? Would this story of adoption been as compelling? Why or why not? Consider these questions from several points of view: Rick the photographer, Natasha's grandmother, Natasha, Natasha's uncle, and Natasha's adoptive parents.

Your Final Project: Mini-Ethnography incl. an Interview

Don't forget to watch the video on ethnographic interviewing before next class Oct 16th. [Click on the index card and discover the INDEXED blog]


STAYING ON COURSE
Meeting once a week can lead to a pitfall -- being disoriented about our course of actions.
Remember to

1. Read the Kottak chapter for the week and read the Conformity and Conflict Chapter assigned and write a 250-500 response each week (exceptions are in the schedule).
   
2. Take the online quiz when indicated on the schedule
3. Prepare for your group's presentation -- the assignments are on the blog
4. Begin to consider an aspect of life/culture you would like to study through participant-observation for your final project -- a mini-ethnography. We will do some exercises and actually draft your proposal during class on Thu Oct 16th. You will revise it and set up an interview the next week. A deadline will be announced in class.
   

ABOUT INDIVIDUALS & CULTURE
Consider we are interviewing individuals but from an anthropological perspective, individuals are a reflection of larger cultural phenomena. The interview will be used to gain insight into the emic worldview of a specific culture through the individual/interviewee. As the ethnographer, you will have to determine the framing of what you learn--this is the etic viewpoint, applying anthropologial concepts and thinking, choosing what captures your attention and it may or may not be what the interviewee thinks is interesting about his/her own culture.

Here's a excerpt from Chapter 3 - Culture of the Kottak to get you thinking about what you will be studying.

Culture and the Individual: Agency and Practice (from Kottak Ch.3)

• People use their culture actively and creatively, rather than blindly following its dictates. Cultures are dynamic and constantly changing.
• Culture is contested—that is, different groups in society struggle with one another over whose ideas, values, goals, and beliefs will prevail.
• Common symbols may have radically different meanings to different individuals and groups in the same culture.
• Ideal culture consists of what people say they should do and what they say they do, whereas real culture refers to their actual behavior.
• Agency refers to the actions that individuals take, both alone and in groups, in forming and transforming cultural identities.
• Practice theory recognizes that individuals within a society or culture have diverse motives and intentions and different degrees of power and influence.
  1. Practice theory focuses on how individuals influence, create, and transform the world they live in.
• Culture shapes how individuals experience and respond to external events, but individuals also play an active role in how society functions and changes.

GETTING STARTED/BRAINSTORMING A POSSIBLE PROJECT:

• Who would you love to meet from NYC and why? Call or email about an interview for a course at Baruch College.
• What cultural event or institution do you already participate in that you could study? Who would be a great key cultural consultant?
• What matters to you regarding family, gender, ethnicity, nationality, religion, social stratification, or the world? Is there an institution, an event, or a person whom would make a great key cultural consultant on how things work?
  
• Who is a person you already know whom you admire and why? Consider interviewing them on their life from an anthropological view. (i.e., How did you become a successful stock broker on Wall Street as a woman? This would explore gender and business.)