The importance of American role to deal with global inequality created through globalization

Title:  The importance of American role to deal with global inequality created

              through globalization

Topic: Globalization

Relation: Spradley, Conformity and Conflict, Chapter 15, pgs. 146-155

Source: My information comes from the article of Judy Miller.

“Globalization Widens Rich-Poor Gap, U.N. Report Says”

http://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/13/world/globalization-widens-rich-poor-gap-un-report-says.html

Description: This article talks about that globalization intensify the gap between poor and rich nations. America dominates all economically over the world. Dollars is very strong in terms of monetary mobilization. As the Internet and computer technology spread in the world, this world has been globalized and developed. However, as this article states, the problem is wealth distribution is poorly divided between poor and rich countries like “Wealth inequality.” From this article, even if poorest nation face difficulty such as the corruption, and mismanagement of resources, they do not handle well and this lets other rich nation to hesitate giving foreign aid to them.  Since industrialized countries have more accessibility to technology, the gap between rich and poor gets bigger and bigger as one of elements to accompany in globalization. This is why there is anti American or anti free trade, as well as anti globalization sort of ideas are out there in our current society.  In the end, this article concludes that America should be a very helpful country in order to pursue human rights as well as democracy. The international community has not figured how to deal with such global inequality, and this would be next step that America has to deal with.   

Commentary/Analysis:  According to the chapter 15 in Conformity and Conflict titled Global women in the New Economy, the author says “Thanks to the process we loosely call ‘globalization,‘ women are on the move as never before in history.” This article is about as the world gets globalized, people tend to migrate to the rich nations from the poor ones, especially women. But even those women go to other nations for money, the gap between poor and rich does not minimize. Therefore, I thought that this chapter in Conformity and Conflict could be related with the article that I found. In CC, rich nations didn’t take any action for those who migrate from poor nation. “Global inequalities in wages are particularly striking” (CC 152).  However, like the article I found said, if richer countries try to support and give aids to poor nations, the gap between them can be gradually minimized.  

Hamar Cow Jumping – Ethiopia

Title: Hamar Cow Jumping – Ethiopia

Topic: Rites of passage

Relation: The concept of rites of passage introduced by Arnold van

Gennep in chapter 6 of ANTHRO pages 139-140

Source: My information comes from Jamie Frater’s “10 Bizarre Rites of Passage” and the site of Indians4Africa.com

1.    http://listverse.com/2009/12/28/10-bizarre-rites-of passage/

2.    http://indians4africa.com/sport/2012/03/hamar-cow-jumping-ethiopia/

Description: The post, written by Jamie Frater, that I found firstly tells us “Rites of passage in adolescence are a cross-cultural phenomenon.” Frater gave the information of 10 exotic rites of passage in the world. However, I focused on the one of the Ethiopian tribe Hamar’s ritual called “Cow Jumping. “ 12-15 years of boys have to go through this ceremonial to get permission from father in law in order to marry with girls. Those men have to jump four cattle stood in a row successfully. When Hamar boys succeed to pass this test, they earn respect and are able participate in the Hamar women-beating ritual that proves that Hamar girls show their devotion to their men.

Commentary/Analysis: Arnold van Gennep introduces the concept of rites of passage in ANTHRO (139). He says there are three phases of rites of passage: separation, transition, and incorporation. However, I found out that Hamar’s cow jumping is related with what Gennep says. Particularly, the cow jumping was associated with the transition and the incorporation phases. It is because the Hamar’s ceremony is one of the ways to prove that young boys are on the way of being men.  Also, this ritual emphasizes in marriage ceremonies. “We are not born with an identity; it is something we learn…In all societies, people are constantly changing their identities as they move through the life cycle.” (RR 139) It is true that we are getting to know ourselves constantly from the three phases that Gennep explains to us.

Title: Different conversation skills between women & men

Topic: Gender and communication

Relation: Conversation style: Talking on the job pages 61-68 in chapter 7

    of Conflict and Conformity

Source:  But What Do You Mean? By Deborah Tannen

http://faculty.rcc.edu/thompson/Marriage%20and%20Family/but_what_do_you_mean.htm

Description: In But What Do You Mean? by Deborah Tannen, the author states about the difference in speaking language between men and women, specifically when they praise, thanks apologize, and even when they talk. It says that men and women have different ideas about what is to say properly, and also have different ways of speaking. Generally speaking, when men and women communicate, women are the one who gets disadvantage often. It is because that men is naturally designed to preserve the one-up position or they seldom avoid one-down position when they talk with others. However, women do not try to avoid one-down position and this fact leads women to get drawbacks. This article shows various different conversation styles between different genders. And these kinds of differences lead both gender have a miscommunication. However, the author mentions that there is no correct way to talk but there are only differences between using language and how they understand by others.

Commentary/analysis: Like in Conformity and Conflict titled conversation Style: Talking on the Job, which talks about the different conversation skills in each gender is so related with the article that I recently read. Since both of articles have same authors and same topics, I could learn more about gender and communication. In the beginning, the author says, “People have different conversational styles, influenced by the part of the country they grew up in, their ethnic backgrounds and those of their parents, their age, class, and gender.” It is obvious that various countries people have their own styles of talking. For example, Americans speak directly to others, but in my country (or pretty much most of Asian) we do not speak straightly but say indirectly not to offend others feeling. However, both men and women have different ways of speaking too. Men usually do not take an action that can be harmful to their images; for example, men do not ask, even though they have some questions and they choose one-up communication skill. On the other hand, women ask as much as they can, no matter what other would think about them. But women avoid appearing boastful communication way and also less confident. However, Tannen concludes “Flexibility, again, is key. There are many situations in which it serves one well to be self-reliant and discreet about revealing doubt or ignorance, and others in which it is wise to admit what you don’t know.” I truly agree with the author that there is no right answer in the communication skill. So it is so important for us to understand that each individual and each gender has his or her own unique styles in the way of speaking.

Wealth: The significant problem not only in America, but also around the world

Title: Wealth: The significant problem not only in America, but also around the world

Topic: Wealth

Relation: Conformity and Conflict, Ch 15. The authors explain about many poor countries female migrate to developed countries to earn money.

Source: The data I used for this post comes from the video

                     “Shocking Statistics: America’s wealth gap between the RICH&POOR.”

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

Description: The video is talking about the wealth inequality in America. It shows us three types of wealth distribution; Actual distribution of Wealth in U.S.(Reality),  What Americans think the distribution is, the distribution that 92% of people choose as ideal one. The wealth that American people think each group has been distributed seems pretty similar with reality. Nevertheless, there is a huge gap between the distribution which is chosen as IDEAL distribution and Actual distribution of wealth in America. The ideal wealth distribution chart seems pretty okay with dividing wealth to each class in America society, however, according to the speaker “Actual distribution shockingly skewed not only do the bottom 20% and next 20%. The bottoms 40% of Americans barely have any of the wealth.” Also, this gives us example by dispersing money to each group. Even though the lower class works harder and spend much more time to earn money, they don’t make more than the upper class. We can realize that idealized distribution is desirable, but it is hard to apply in reality. It is because the rich occupy most of the wealth, even the wealth for the poor should have. Therefore, this clip states, “All we need to do is wake up, and realize that the reality in this country is not at all what we think it is.”

Commentary/Analysis: In Global Women in the New Economy (CC, Ch15), the author describes the pattern of female migration from the Third World.  This story tells us that most come from poor nations to find work in rich ones. At the beginning, men started to migrate to wealthier lands, but as time goes by women begin to move from poor countries to rich ones. However, those women who traveled can get jobs with limitations. They can get a job associated with a wife’s traditional role and these kinds of jobs provide the lowest income. “Women in Western countries have increasingly taken on paid work, and hence need other-paid domestics and caretakers for children and elderly people-to replace them“ (CC, 151). This is the reason why they only can get the lowest income job and this fact leads those women who come from poor nations not be able to escape from the lower class who earns the lowest incomes. The video is limited to only in America, but I thought that this is still related with the article that I read in Conformity and Conflict. It is because those female who migrate from poor countries are included in the poor class in U.S. society.  And because of people who are from poor nations have limitation of job opportunities, and it is not possible for them to be in higher class, like who occupied lower classes’ share instead of those who are in “lower class”.

What is "Beauty?"

Title: What is “Beauty”?

Topic: Naïve Realism

Relation: Introduction of Conformity and Conflict, page 5. The authors explain the term Naïve realism and this post explores this concept in relation to ideals of beauty.

Source: The data that I used for this post comes from the article  “Fat Is Beautiful”

             written by Dr. Susan Albers

            http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-susan-albers/fat-is-beautiful_b_526534.html

Description:  “Fat is beautiful” by Susan Albers, talks about how each culture values the meaning of beautiful differently.  This article starts with talking about the show that is called Price of Beauty. This show’s theme is that the meaning of beauty is defined uniquely in each and every culture. Jessica Simpson and her friend who starred in this show went to visit a remote tribe in Uganda with vastly different ideas from other western countries. They also had a trip to France and interviewed a woman who is suffering from anorexia; in France to be skinny is to meet the cultural definition of a beautiful woman. However, when they traveled to Uganda, they realized that Uganda people have different values of beauty than those of Westerners. They think a full figure is reflected as a beautiful woman. Uganda people even go to “fattening hut” to gain weight before their marriages, and they need to drink several jugs of milk. According to this article, we could clearly see how each culture has different perceptions of beauty. 

Analysis: The introduction of Conformity and Conflict explains to us some of the new terminology that we have to know while we are learning Cultural Anthropology. On page 5 the author explains the term Naïve realism as follows: Naïve realism is the belief that people everywhere see the world in the same way. If an ethnographer fails to control his or her own naïve realism, inside cultural meanings will surely be overlooked. When I read this article, it could be related with naïve realism because it shows the different perspectives of beauty between French (and also many other Western cultures) and Uganda people. This clearly implies that we should realize not all the countries have a same point of view of things. Also people sometimes think, decide, and consider completely different ideas to what I think is right.  Therefore, I think people should think with cultural relativism but do not think in naïve realism which is really a harmful way to look at the world globally.