Blog #3

This past week, the class briefly discussed superstitions, which is one of the two categories of folk beliefs (the other being worldview).  A superstition has no rational basis in reality, but still numerous people continue to practice them and participate in it.  Some of these that I have commonly seen is spilling the table salt and throwing of the left shoulder (I think) or crossing your finger in hopes for something to happen or not to happen.  Superstitions, like rituals (which can be superstitious), can and do vary all over the world and have a huge cultural influence, but most superstitions have to do with luck. We all have the need to know "what will bring us luck?”  This luck can be good or bad, which means a superstitious person wants to know what will bring the good and keep the bad away.  The image below shows some common superstitions that many people in the American culture will be familiar with.

One can see that the woman is having a bad day in the superstitious world.  She is walking under a ladder.  Bad luck.  It is Friday the 13^th.  Bad luck.  The mirror is crack.  7 years back luck.  She is crossing paths with a black cat on a cracked pathway.  Double bad luck.  There is an open umbrella, inside probably.  Again, bad luck.  One could say that this woman is going to have a very bad day.  Others could say that this is just another day, nothing is out of normal.  What the difference in people?  I cannot say exactly why or why not a person is seriously superstitious, but something I do know is that superstitions can be fun, which I probably why some people, including myself, somewhat foolishly participate in them.  In my Italian family, having a loaf of bread upside-down is bad luck (why? I don’t know, but it is) and it is something we can all agree and laugh about. 

Below is an article I found which was written a couple years ago.  It discusses numerous different superstitions around the world.  Some I have never heard of, or quite frankly understand, but it is interesting to learn about.  Enjoy…it’s short!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33792757/ns/travel-travel_tips/

Blog #2

Part of the reading that was due in class on January 19^th was one of the appendix’s (A,B, or C).  Because the topic of research methods was just short of being pounded into the group, I decided to blog about my reading, Appendix A.  For those who did not read this, it is about the event of a female firefighter, Alice, coming into the world of many firefighters.  I am not going to give a summary of it, but there were a couple of points about normality that were very interesting and worth mentioning.   One of the first was the fact that one would assume that a female coming into a group of males would cause conflict and a sense of discomfort on many levels.  On some levels this may be true, but the author mentions that there is a sense of a kind of preconscious (meaning not completely aware of) compromise because “both she and the men on her shift must share some sort of common sense of what is and is not appropriate behavior” (200).  This is fascinating due to the fact that there is a shift the firefighters normality when Alice comes into the picture; however there is an overall sense of give and take which demonstrates that the way of life is not only constantly changing, but the individual is changing or adapting right along with it whether or not it is known to that person.  When interviewed, Alice mentioned how many of her male coworkers would apologize after swearing, which shows that they would still at in their norm, but soon realized that their norm had changed.  In addition to this, Alice mentioned how one particular coworker would purposely be crude and say sexual jokes in order to make her uncomfortable.  He was deliberately going out of his norm so that the thing interfering with his normal way of life at work would go away and things could return to his normal.  This can go to show that some people can handle a shift in their norm and some cannot.

On a personal note, I have had some experience with this.  I work at a daycare at an elementary school and have worked there for almost four years.  My company recently hired its first male employee ever since it has opened in 1988.  Now there was a definite shift in the norm at work, in my other coworkers, and myself.  For me, it did not take me long to return to where I felt comfortable, but I think it is fair to say that where my norm is not is not where it was a year ago.  Overall, it seems like the lesson to be learned here is obvious, there are changes that are going to shift your norm and your comfort level, but eventually you will change and adapt so you will gain a new norm.  I still wonder if there is ever a change that I cannot adapt to and what would happen in that case?

Blog #1

During class on January 12, 2011, one of the topics that were discussed in lecture was the topic pertaining to nature versus culture.  Nature means the biological needs of all humans need to participate in to survive.  These biological needs include breathing, eating, sleeping, eliminating, and drinking.  Culture pertains to the differences of how people achieve these biological needs.  The example that was used in class was the one of eliminating.  In American culture, this act is very private and one that people don’t talk about at length.  In other cultures, however, this act is not as private and is seen as a no-big-deal piece of living life.  I don’t think that when a person hears the word “culture” that he or she think of the differences in those situations; he or she probably think of more along the lines of language, art, and traditions within a group of people. I admit I was one of those people.  These biological needs are so obvious, in a sense, that a person does not take them into account in terms of looking at culture.

I found a wonderful example in the differences in these needs in different cultures and how sometimes different cultures clash.  I saw a movie awhile back entitled “Mr. Baseball” starring Tom Selleck.  This movie is about an arrogant Yankee baseball player (Tom Selleck) who is transferred to a Japan to play baseball on a Japanese team.  One can probably already foresee countless culture clashes that can possible happen.  In the scene I have linked below, Selleck is at the home of the woman he is seeing, who lives with her father (who happens to be his baseball coach) and her grandparents.   They are sitting down for a meal and there are obvious differences in how the two cultures participate in the biological need of eating.  There is one scene where the daughter is faced with the choice of pouring Selleck or her father the tea first.  Before this scene happened, it was explained that the daughter traditionally pours the tea to the “man of the house” before anyone else.   I really love this scene in the movie because one can view the culture difference in eating where there is custom and tradition.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgPtMB7KfLA

One reason that Selleck has a hard time fitting in this culture is because he does not want to have anything to do with it (at least in the beginning).  This makes me wonder how difficult would it be to adapt to another culture if one was willing versus not willing to participate.  Especially considering the way the biological needs are taken care of, which adds a whole new dynamic to just thinking of language, art, and customs.