Strange Country This

I found this article interesting, it kind of disputes the idea of the 'Noble Savage' in Western European philosophy from the European (or at least Puritan) background we look at things through. Looking at other cultures we can see there is nothing new or novel about homosexuals being productive members of society and allowed full access to all the rights and services the majority enjoys. I can only imagine the shock and dismay of those religious groups that use the bible to justify their actions and prejudices against homosexuals if they were to read this article. Reading this article I kept thinking about a song by Tenacious D, 'I'm The Only Gay Eskimo', perhaps gay Eskimo's weren't as unusual as we would have thought before reading this article?

Blog #7

What stuck out to most to me about this article was how much being of a third or fourth gender was accepted in other cultures. It has such a negative meaning in the US which made me think that there weren’t places where it was so openly accepted, so much that it was even seen as having special powers. Also the way that one becomes a berdache is very different. In the US, the main reason you are considered one because you are interested in the same gender of yourself. In Native American cultures you take on an alternative gender role because you were influenced by dreams, visions, or the moon. They were seen as those that took on the specialized work roles of the other gender, dressed as the opposite sex, and had same-sex relations. One thing that I was at least partially familiar was the part about testing a child if he/she was going to be a berdache. I heard of something similar to this were instead of putting out a masculine and feminine object there were objects related to different careers. For example there might be a pen, a ball, and a coin. If the child picks the pen then he/she will be a writer, the ball then an athlete, or the coin then a business person. Reading this article sadness me a little because to read how good a non-heterosexual could be treated compared to how they are treated in the present US.

Strange Country

This is such a touchy subject in our culture today. It’s hard to believe that the concept of homosexuality has been so readily accepted as normal for thousands of years by people who we consider to be savages. In western culture it is not politically correct for a person to be attracted to the same sex, but there are cultures which have no problem accepting non-heterosexual individuals. A lot could be learned from Native American tribes. They are a more peaceful civilization because of their accepting nature towards each other. I thought it was particularly interesting that some women would ride out into battle alongside the men, and some men in turn would take up women’s positions. It seems as though everyone was treated equally, which solves a lot of conflicts. Our culture could be much more peaceful if we could embrace our differences. Anthropology shows us sides of the story we would not readily see on our own.

Strange Country This

This article kind of took me by surprise. I had no idea that Native American culture would be so accepting to difference in sexuality. One thing that stood out to me was that they accepted and sometimes honored a woman who led men into battle and had four wives was a respected chief. This seems so strange. I mean if a man can have multiple wives and be a chief, why can't a woman? I don't know I guess I find it weird because of our culture. Because in our culture this would be simply looked down upon.

Strange Country

It was interesting for me to read about the Native Americans having homosexual people in their communities. I guess this is because I still tend to think of Native Americans as a rough and tough culture and cross dressing and role reversal seems to me like something that would be frowned upon. But it wasn't it was actually revered and they were some times at a higher status because of it. It is funny that now we think women shouldn't ride motor cycles or work in construction let alone go out and hunt and be chief of a tribe. It seems that the Native Americans were more culturally advanced then we are now. Just to day I was sitting at the doctors office and two women were being all lovey dovey and I could not stop thinking how weired it sounded, and I grew up in Olympia and have been around gay people all of my life, I don't know. Something that stuck out to me was that they were classified as different genders ( three and four ) I think there is only two genders male and female well I guess three transgender but you still turn into a male or female eventually.

I liked this article very much. To learn how the native people of our land are so much more accepting of people who are attracted to opposite sex then modern western culture has been and still is, was quite uplifting. Modern western culture has in many ways despised and looked down upon homosexuality for so long that its just absurd. To dislike and hate someone for such a little difference is just so stupid.
Its almost unbelievable that the rest of the world couldn’t have been more accepting of berdaches. Learning how Native Americans held them with such high esteem was very interesting. My gay friends have to be careful who they tell that their gay too because they are afraid of being judged or hated by people who didn’t give them the chance to get to know them. If only our culture could be just as accepting.
You shouldn’t hate someone for just being who they are. Our American culture could learn so much from Native Americans if people would just learn about the past history of where we live.

Strange Country This

I have read about other cultures giving special roles to men and women who aren't attracted to the opposite sex. For example the Samoan people have a special name and role in their society for non-heterosexual individuals call Fa'afafine. They are men who choose to be raise as women during childhood. Fa'afafine are know for their hard work and dedication to the family. They are more willing to help raise their nieces and nephews, help pay medical expenses, and so on. Western interpretation is to call them gay or homosexual however there is no stigma attached to being fa'afafine in the Samoan culture. In fact homosexuality is seen as different and often repugnant, even by some fa'afafine.

Anthropology allows us to understand how sexuality is expressed in other cultures, how other cultures perceive non-heterosexual individuals and how they incorporate them into their societal institutions. It seems as though the foreigners from Europe who studied these different Indian tribes frowned upon how they chose to integrate these individuals into their culture because they would do so differently.

After learning about both cultures I found it interesting how each culture treated them with respect, acceptance, and superiority. Where we often discriminate and judge people who are born that way

Our Babies

I am not yet a mother but after reading this article it makes me wondering how i am going to take care of my children and how people are going to view my methods of raising my kids. This was one of the most interesting articles we have had yet. I liked reading about how other mothers in different countries care for their children. I feel it is hard to judge other mothers on their care giving methods because what might appear to be horrible parenting skills to us is clearly not for them and vise versa. Each method obviously works for that culture because otherwise their babies wouldn't be surviving.

Strange Country This

This was an eye opening article for me. Yes, I realize there has been people who are gay since there has been people. What I didn't realize, however, was that there were cultures who not only accepted them, but held them to high esteem. This article, specifically, is about Native Americans and is recorded back to the 16th century. The male "berdaches", as they were called in anthropological literature, held female positions and dressed as women and the women "berdaches" held male positions. Some women rode into battle alongside their male counterparts. Within their cultures, they were referred to as the third and fourth gender people.
When Eupopeans discovered the berdaches, they were disgusted and one Spaniard even put forty of them "to the dogs" and was praised for doing so and called a good Catholic Spaniard.
We have come a long way....haven't we? In 1986, the US Supreme court held up a law in Georgia against sodomy. Are we still telling people what they can do in their bedrooms? Behind closed doors? Why not? We are still telling grown men and women, living in the land of the free, that they can only marry those we deem appropriate for them to marry. Same sex marriage is a hot debate over the last 10 years and we haven't come very far where that is concerned.
Ususally, the berdache is chosen through a dream or a vision. Occassionally, they were chosen at birth and allowed to make a decision regarding their future ( to be-rdache or not to be-rdache?) during adolescence.
I find it interesting that we once referred to Native Americans as savages, yet we have proven over the years we are way more savage.
Jen Lucero

Raising Babies

I had a negative reaction to this article at first, thinking I have no experience with babies. But as I thought about it more I recalled how I was brought up. When I was 3 I distinctly remember having to sleep in a crib in my brothers’ room, while my older sister had a room to herself. I remember this because we started not getting along around that age, especially at night when I wanted to sleep and they would stay up late talking. Around that time I moved into my sister’s room, where we had our own beds, and we would sleep in the same bed a lot because we were good friends and liked to talk, like my brothers. This gave me comfort, having an older sister I could trust. As a result I became closer to my sister than my mother. As I said, I have no experience with babies, nor do I remember how I was raised before the age of 3. But I do believe that by comforting babies more in the US, duration of crying could lessen. As studies have shown, the frequency of crying episodes may not be affected by what care babies are given, but how long they last is greatly affected. How we raise our children depends on how we ourselves have been raised. We go off of what our society deems to be the "right" way to do things. Expectations and traditions vary from society to society, between different culture groups, and from person to person. The way a Kenyan mother raises her family differs from the way an American woman raises her children, or a Japanese, Dutch, or Australian mother. Every culture is different, and it is not our responsibility to criticize others for their methods of bringing up their family. We are just going by what our culture has set forth as the "right" way, and so is everybody else in the world.

babies

i feel as tho every culture no matter what has a different way at raising their young because of different areas and cultures that they live in, every culture deals with different problems there for children must be raised a different way to different accusums. children sleeping in their parents bed may be strange to some but to others it brings them together in another way. American culture has to many people breaking boundaries to trust any parent to sleep with their child. We have social norms being broken when these events accure because in american society we have seen these different ways go wrong. i have alot of experience with childrern and i feel as though every parent has a different say or opinion no matter what culture you live in.

Babies

I thought that this was an interesting piece. Since i am not a mother i do not know what it takes to be a mother nor will i pretend that i know what i am doing, but what i will say is that all of these different cultures are right in raising there children because to each is own. For example the like how in the US people do not hold babies as much as other cultures hold babies. The entire essay was interesting and showed me that babies from different areas react very similar in there ways showing us that we our born with blank slates.

What I found most interesting about this article was about the children sleeping in the same bed of their parents. In our culture it is frowned upon to have your child sleep with you. The longer the child sleeps with you the worse it is looked on. I never even thought that this thought may be different in other cultures. No matter what culture it is they want to look out for their children, and want the best for them. Cultures may vary with methods of raising children, but they all have the same goal.

Our Babies

This is my favorite reading in this class so far. I am a mother so I think I am naturally more intrigued by child rearing behaviors from around the world. When you are a young mom, everyone has an opinion and are willing to share it with you so that you know what, exactly, you are doing right or wrong. I wonder if mothers in other cultures are exposed to this behavior. I doubt it. Unless a child is neglected, abused or abandoned, I feel it is the responsibility of the parents only to determine what is best for their child. Even within a family, children are different, with different needs and personalities. What works for one child, wouldn't neccessarily work for the next so decisions need to be made on an individual basis. Every culture raises their children in different ways for good reason; we don't live with the same norms. But even within a culture, parents should do what they feel is best for their child.
My daughter slept in bed with me until she was 2 years old. My friends and family would tell me that she would never be able to sleep alone, she'd always cry now if I put her in her own bed, she'd have nightmares......the list went on and on. When my daughter turned 3, however; she would grab her blanket, right around 8pm every night, say 'nigh-nigh, mommy' and walk down the hallway, close the door and get in bed. She never wanted a night light, preferring to sleep in the total darkness. She has never been scared of the dark, never fought sleep and still to this day, wakes up on time every morning. Well rested. Without a nightlight.

INfant care

I'm not really sure what to say about this blog as I have zero experience with infants. It would seem that there are many different approaches that all achieve the same end. I thought the Japanese custom of waking an infant in the middle of the night to show it who was in charge to be novel. The Dutch system seems to be a good one and perhaps more people who want children should look into this in our society as I have noticed that most people with newborns look pretty haggard nearly all of the time. I t doesn't seem practical to us to carry our babies around everywhere, yet for a lot of people it might be a solution with more merit than has been previously thought.

Blog #6

Even though different cultures have their own unique way of taking care of a baby, I believe they are all acceptable ways. People from all over the world are successful and live great lives. If the way we raised a baby mattered that much then wouldn’t we have only one population/culture producing successful individuals? If the way they took care of their children was unhealthy and brought harm to the baby, then they change their ways to make it right. Just because someone does it differently doesn’t make it wrong. These traditions of caring for the young have been passed down through generation after generation and have withstood the test of time. Different cultures all have different values of what is right and wrong because each culture is based from a different environment. You can’t judge another person’s way of doing something until you understand their culture and the result of how they do what they do. The same way you might think that have the child sleep with the parents leads to dependency, they might think that having the child sleep alone leads to insecurity. Personally, I have heard that those who slept in the same bed as their parents when they were young become more independent. The thought is that since the child feels secure they learn to be strong and independent because they have the support at home. Also when a child has to sleep alone in a separate room, they are more likely to feel less safe and protected, so when they get older they don’t feel strong and able to do things by themselves. In addition as time goes by and the culture changes so do the ways that people take care of their babies. I think that earlier in history people relied more on how the baby reacted and acted instead of using time as a way of determining when things should happen. Since time became such an important aspect of our lives it has made its way into everything and has taken over nature itself. For example, now, some babies are fed according to a schedule which may leave a baby hungry when before time was a crucial part of our lives the baby would just be fed right then and there. Feeding was based primarily on needs instead of time.

Our Babies, Ourselves

I’ve always thought it interesting in how other people, including other cultures raise their children. Everyone, even throughout our culture, have varying ways of nurturing. Our western culture would primarily think of other cultures nurturing skills as over protective, and making the child too dependent on their parents.
In some ways each culture is doing a significantly better job at nurturing then the next. Our beliefs are that by letting the infant cry instead of coddling them, that we are helping the infant to build character and become more independent. This is how me and wife feel about raising our son. If we see to his every cry, he may think that whenever anything happens, no matter how small, we will be there to make it better. But we cant always be there for every little thing, he just has to learn that not everything can be perfect.
There is a fine line between letting the infant cry for there own benefit and neglecting them when they truly need you. That line however is in the eye of the beholder. What one person sees as beneficial to the infants learning, another may see possibly fatal neglect. I like how some cultures embrace their children and care for their every want and need, and I think that our culture could learn from those people. But sometimes a child just has to cry to learn that they cant get everything their little heart desires. If you’re a parent in our western culture you have to find a medium that you can live by that allows you to care for the child and be able to care for your self as well.

Our Babies, Ourselves

In our anthropology class we have all read the articles and realized things that we do in our culture that we would not normally think of. Raising children is a prime example of how different our culture may be to another, or how "weird" or "wrong" another culture does things. Our everyday lifestyle shapes the environment we raise our children in. The difference in cultures starts as young as the day you are born. There are truly no right or wrong answers to raise a child, but our culture may find another way morally and ethically wrong. It is so easy to judge another culture based on their ways by doing the complete opposite of what we are used to when in reality it is what they know. I do not have much experience with my own babies but I have interacted with them. The way I act around babies is the way I see others around me acting. We tend to ask a lot of questions, what is right and what is wrong when it comes to dealing with the baby crying. Different cultures have different ways of handling things so to us, what we do is "right". People may thing that it is from studies or statistics but I think it is simply what we see our parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles doing. It will be passed on from generation to generation.

Our Babies, Ourself

This article was very interesting to me. I never really thought about how different cultures raised their children so differently, but I guess it makes sense. Of course a family's life style and beleifs have a lot to do with how they see fit to raise their children. But I never knew that there were so many cultures that thought of it a being a bad parent to let their child cry for more then a few moments with out being picked up and cared for right away. I was always taught that it was good to let a baby cry sometimes beacuse if you pick them up everytime they make any little fuss, they they will become dependent on that and in the end will start to cry more. And as for the baby sleeping in the parent's bed with them, I don't think it is a good idea either for a lot of the same reasons, they become too dependent on their parents. I never spent one night in my parent's bed or even in their bedroom for that matter. I have always had my onw bed in my own room, and I started sleeping through the night after about 5 or 6 weeks. If the child starts sleeping in their parent's bed as a baby, then before you know it they will be 2 or 3 and still want to sleep with their parents. Where does the line get drawn? Are they going to be 8 or 9 and still sleeping in their parent's bed??? It does not make someone a bad parent for making their child sleep down the hall from their room in their own bed from day one... that is what they made baby monitors for!! Now as for child care, the author mentioned an example of a resident that came across a parient that left her 3 month old and 2 year old child in the care of her 9 and 11 year old children while she was away at work or at the store or wherever she had to go. The resident's supervisor told them that it was not their job to critique her parenting choices, but to renforce her parenting skills. All I can say about that is BULL!!! I would NEVER leave a 2 year old let alone a 3 month old in the care of a 9 or 11 year old. That is irresponsible and dangerous for all the children and the parent. If something like that was happening in America, CPS would be knocking down their door and have those children removed from the home in a matter of minutes! Putting your child in daycare or in the care a responsible ADULT does not make someone a bad, neglagent parent. After all, daycare or pre school programs are important for a child social growth and interactions with other human beings besides their parents and other caregivers.

Our Babies, Ourselves

It is quite surprising to me how some cultures differ, especially when it comes to such a common practice as raising and upbringing children. There are indeed some similarities, but I don't know if there is one 'good' or scientifically 'better' way to raise a baby. In some culutres that the article mentions, carry the babies all the time. The mother's care to every whimper, every cry. In this culture, I have often experienced for myself, mother's who will simply ignore their babies when they cry, or hush them to be quiet. Not to say that most mother's do this, but the emphasis for babies to start becoming independent of their mother definately starts at an early age. I think this culture is so different, especially considering how much the roles of women have changed, even just in the last one hundred years. Women are no longer being confined to the home, their major purpose or goals don't have to be centered around the children and making the home. And perhaps this is where women don't feel the need to attend to every cry of their babies. I do think babies need to have contact with their mother, and that interaction is vital to a baby's growth. But I'm not sure if it would be possible for a woman in this culture to strap their baby to their back and go to work all day with the baby just hanging there, "breast feeding at will." I think, especially in this culture, things like that would be really against the norm that we have developed for ourselves.

Blog #5

I enjoyed reading this article because I could really relate to what Gary Fine and Michaela Soucey were saying. When they described the four different effects of joking I could think back to specific situations in which the joke actually had that effect. I think that most of the jokes in my culture consist of those that have the separating and sharing. Also when they talk about how joking is embedded, interactive, and referential I can verify the truth in that. I had never put a lot thought about how joking impacted our culture until I read this article. My only thoughts on it previously were that they helped bring people together by creating a common emotion and thought about a certain situation. However jokes also had the ability to isolate other from the group. You could say that a joke is a two sided sword. I plan on doing my research on a boys’ soccer team that I manage, and I can already think of times that support what Fine and Soucey say. My friend also in this class is thinking about doing the same culture group as me, but from a different angle. I am more in the culture group while she is more of an outsider and therefore will most likely see and interpret things differently than I would. If we do this then we can also compare our observations which should yield some interesting results. So far I’ve noticed that even within the culture of the team as a whole, there are other subcultures that also exist. Each has their own joking cultures, but they are not totally separated. There are many aspects that are consistent between the subcultures. For the first fieldwork paper I am choosing to do the first option which is about humor.

Joking Culture Blog

I absolutely loved reading this article because it makes so much sense to me. I never have really thought of humor being part of culture in such an impacting way. "Joking Culture" is always around us through so many different individuals in very diverse groups. Our culture's humor is very out there and different, but it seems normal to us. Many of our jokes are not to be told to others because it is just unacceptable, but it is still funny. A great example is the popular TV show Family guy, some people think the show is hilarious and others are greatly offended by it. Humor really has to do with how you grow up and the environment you are in. It is a perfect glimpse inside someone's personality. I know I show some of my humor to some people, and some of it to others. I have a wide sense of humor and laugh at pretty much anything, but when it is inappropriate in public, I try to stay polite.

What a joke!

Having a joking culture serves many functions on multiple levels. The way that you joke with your parents differs than the way you joke with your sister. The joking you do with your sister may be different than you do with your friends, co-workers and so on. The first function of joking is to feel included in the group. Usually, joking is done within a group or between people that know each other fairly well, not between strangers. Although it is somewhat common to make a joke around a stranger (last time you were on the elevator perhaps?), one joke does not create a joking culture. Often, the jokes that happen in a group are an ongoing interaction with more than one person. Various people tend to jump in at any given time and contribute to the joke, adding their own twist. Often, this serves to make the original joke even better and the laughter gets louder and louder.
The second function of a joking culture is that it creates history within the group so that at a later time, anyone from that group can mention all or part of the joke and it creates a similar response, if not larger response, than the original joke received. This causes the group to bond and become even closer as they share a good memory of a funny joke.
Another function might be at someone else's expense although it seperates one group from another group. This helps the group to strengthen their identity by everyone finding humor in the same joke(s). This could cause a dysfunction as the person or group being made fun of could be hurt if they found out a joke, or jokes, were made at their expense.
In younger age groups, joking may happen in the form of teasing. Especially when a young boy is crushing on a young girl. The boy might tease her as a way of saying, 'I like you'. Nine times out of ten, this only serves to reinforce the 'boys are so stupid' mentality girls have at this young age. As kids grow older, teasing often revolves around good friends. This is a way to show friends how much you like them and are comfortable being around them. This teasing is done very casually and usually stops if someone goes too far and hurts someones feelings. Teasing in this form can be something like creating knicknames, telling a friend they will end up marrying someone they will absolutely never be remotely attracted to or even teasing about a certain feature that stands out and makes then unique, for example culry hair or freckles.
Some people make a living out of telling jokes; comedians. Joking is so important in our lives, we will even pay to see someone who is talented at telling jokes. Often, this is done in storytelling form although I have seen some stand-up comics perform simple knock-knock jokes that brought the house down.
I'm thankful that a joking culture exists. It makes it easier to be a happy person as a joke can simply cheer you up if you are having a hard day. So, that being said...........a priest, a rabbi and Buddah walk into a bar.....................well, you know the rest of that story. Lol!

Blog #5 Joking Culture

This article made a lot of sense to me. I had never really thought about joking as a cultural aspect in that a "joking culture" is formed within groups. Look back now, I can identify how a joking culture has been formed between me and my group of friends. We make jokes with each other that would normally not be socially acceptable. However, since a joking culture has been formed, we are able to "get away" with these jokes, just as mentioned in the article. I also know the feeling of what it is like to feel awkward when entering a new group. For example, I can remember when I first joined my car club, and how embarrassing it was at first trying to make jokes with people I had never met before.

Joking Culture

For me it is odd and also interesting to analyze humor. It is not something that I necessarily pay much attention to however it plays a huge factor is many aspects of my life. I get along the best with a stranger or co-worker if we share the same humor. If someone laughs or makes jokes at cruelty I tend to find them repulsive because their type of humor tells a lot about their personality. Inside jokes are often a way to exclude a person from the group because when you don't get the joke you feel left out and wonder what you're missing. I know I am being accepted into their "circle" when they fill me in on the story on how the inside joke became and then let me join in. We also use humor to reminisce with friends about old times. Humor is an attractive quality. I look for a sense of humor in a boyfriend, friend, movie, co-worker, professors, etc because I don't like to take myself too seriously and I look for that in others.

Joking Culture

Jokes are often used to make light of a situation that is uncomfortable, or just to get attention. Everybody's heard of dumb blonde jokes, your mom jokes, Asian jokes, and other racially descriminatory jokes, and everybody can relate to them. While they do come across as funny to some people, there are still some people who may be offended (blondes, Asians, etc.). The solution though is to ignore the discomfort and laugh along. Even when someone is offended by a joke their reaction is usually to wear a mask and go along with it, laugh with everybody else. A joking culture is very important because it creates a foundation for what can and cannot be said. It gives people the right to joke and the authority to get away with it. Joking is interactive, embedded, and referential. When two friends laugh about a joke, that joking comes from previous knowledge they share, from their history together. They are responsive to each other and view their relationship as continuous and consequential. It is the same way in groups. Within joking cultures there are five elements that affect the continuation and creation of themes: “the item needs to be known, usable, functional, appropriate in light of the group’s status hierarchy, and triggered by some collectively experienced event”. Although jokes do emerge from group interaction, “prior knowledge and past experiences affect the form that this humor takes and how it is interpreted by group members in contrast to outsiders”. While jokes do bring people together, they can also highlight the separation between people. Two people may understand a joke and laugh about it together, leaving the third person—or the rest of the group—in the dark feeling embarrassed or slighted even. I could relate to this article a lot because I have a lot of jokes with my friends, and those jokes and the way we joke changes between different groups of people I am around.

Joking Culture

Humor is a great way for people to help relieve tension from stressful situations. Other times its just a great way to “break the ice” when in a quiet area. We use humor to entice people who would otherwise be too shy to just start talking. It can bind people together or drive a wedge between them.
From what I’ve noticed, you don’t have to be able to tell a joke to be part of a joking culture, you just have to have a sense of humor. Sometimes just being the punch line of a joke is all the is required. I’ve seen and heard some of the most socially absurd and disturbing jokes over the last few years that’s its hard to think of all of them. In some situations of high tension the only way to distract everyone from their anger and frustration is to say something so far out of left field that its not even funny. Rather its just incredibly wrong and so far past what our group would consider acceptable that it stops all the thought processes that were focused on our problem.
Jokes about death may be very taboo in the public eye, but they are, at times, necessary to keep ones sanity. Sometimes this backfires though, e.g., the attempt at creating levity when a soldier commits suicide. However funny the joke may be, its such a taboo subject to talk about that no one would dare laugh.
In some groups obscene gestures, racism, and sometimes even nudity are the jokes themselves, e.g., the movie “Waiting”. My platoon thought that movie was a great idea and that it needed to be practiced almost daily. The groups that do use these methods are often cautious of where they use them as to avoid unwanted judgment.
Like I said, to be part of a joking culture all you need is a sense of humor.

Joking CUlture

This was an interesting read for me. I have just recently made a new group of friends, who have already known each other long enough to for their own joking culture. Looking back on my interactions with them it is easy to see where the commonalities of the shared humor originated even with tings that I did not 'get'. I think most people who are friends and share a group humor are quick to accept new people into their group, if they are no longer in high school. This is a process that I have never really thought on before, but is an easy one to reflect upon whenever you encounter a new group of friends or acquaintances who already share group humor.
Rus

A Joking Culture

I thought this article was quite intriquing because it dissected everything about humor; Almost to where we can see that humor in our own way, isn't actually that funny. An ongiong joke with a co-worker or a group of friends is almost the product of wanting to feel acceptance. Without these jokes in our society, I suppose, it would be a lot harder to fit in, or to be seen as an agreeable person to the majority. It doesn't mean you have to be "funny," but rather have a sense of humor. I guess in this culture, and according to the article, humor is a part of life that is shared and shared alike, and if you don't have a sense of humor, or are willing to laugh at something ( even if you think it is grotesque or unamusing) then you might be seen as a prude, or somone who is above the humor which presents itself in everyday life. I don't know, I found it rather interesting because all of us share some sort of humor with our family, friends, classmates, co-wokers, and we all seem to repeat these jokes. And no matter how many times we allucidate on them, they always seem to be funny...as if we are trying to constantly build that relationship up with the humor that we find in ourselves and the people we are talking to. The only reprecussion from this, is that humor tends to be truth with a funny mask on. You could say, "You are SO fat...oh just kidding," and play it off that it was just a joke, that you were not serious. However, sometimes those implications reveal what you really think, so you prepare to dig yourself out of the whole you just shoved yourself into by saying, "oh just kidding. You know that I am only teasing." Teasing is another form of mockery, and yet we don't really think of it as such because everyone else seems to be enjoying themselves in the joke directed around our faults. It's kind of sad when you think about it.

Blog #4 Male/Female Miscommunication

The article made me take a step back to look at my own communication experiences throughout life. Often times I don't realize these communication barriers in our day to day life. It is so deeply ingrained into our culture that we don't even think about the different ways we communicate and interact with family, friends, or strangers. I found it especially interesting to read about how boys communicate because I was able to connect the text to how my boyfriend's group of guys act and see that every comparison was true. I see the same resemblance in how they tell stories, the way they hassle each other, and how my boyfriend doesn't engage in conversation the way I look for in my girl friends. He often doesn't make responsive noises or can talk to me without interrupting at least once when we are having a two sided conversation. Sometimes we will fight to talk over each other but most of the time I give in and let him finish his point because I don't like being interrupted. Reading about how girls/women interact was less interesting to me because I didn't feel I was reading information that was unfamiliar.

Male / Female miscommunication

This article made think of something that I have never thought about before, communication. And where I learned to communicate and the rules that fallow. We all tend to think that we are individuals and walk, talk and think in our own ways and it feels weird when we can be categorized by research that was done thirty years ago. But it's true thinking back to the school yard the boys were out playing kick ball or dodge ball while the girls were having their secret meetings in the jungle gym. This article also made me look back at the personalities of guys that I grew up and what roles they played in conversation. The story teller was usually the center of attention fallowed by the one that always had a smart remark about everything. Me I fell in the middle I got my jabs in when I knew that the backlash would be low. Their are a few things that I feel were left out such as what happen when a boy is brought up primarily by women and visa versa. In my case my father wasn't around a lot growing up so I spent most of my time with my sister and mother. As a result of this I can pick out some feminine characteristics in my communication style as it pertains to this article. Another is family dynamics and how your communication is formed by your family, so lets say that a boy or girl grows up on a farm and is home schooled and they only know their home life what category do they fall under. In all this article made me think about myself and made me more aware of why I do some of the things I do.

Blog #4

This article is something that is so true but we never take the time to stop and think about. Men and women communicate so differently in our culture is has become something we are all used to and sometimes even joke about. People often communicate differently depending on the gender someone is around as well. A conversation full of guys tends to be different than a conversation full of girls. A mixed group is where you will truly be able to see the tendencies among the males and females. Males, showing more dominance, will act this way especially with other males competing in front of the females. This is not just for humans as well, males animals are like this too. Communication does not even have to be a verbal conversation. We can read someone's body language and overall attitude toward the environment they are in. It is good for us to become aware of conversations going on throughout the day because we do learn a lot about our culture.

Male- Female Miscommunication

This article pretty much made sense. I'm not sure if I agree with the findings of men interrupting more than women, but coincidentally, that may just based on my rude girlfriends and polite guy friends around me. lol. The "hmm mmm" thing is right on the money! Also about the school aged kids I distinctly remember several groups of kids that would adapt there social interactions based on the kids were around, then 5 minutes later, yet a new personality. Unfortunately the part about girls avoiding conflict and blaming a third party for there own criticism has to be true. Been there. The comments about women asking questions during conversations, makes total sense, I've noticed, even in customer service (generally women as well) women ask a lot of conversational questions even to me, another women, and I remember thinking several times, "are you just talking to take up quiet time or guide this conversation?" :)

Blog #4

This article was actually quite entertaining. I never realized that by the time we are adults, we have learned many rules for interacting with people in different situations. When we are children we already have differences that help determine these rules. It seems almost silly to me that "mm hmm" can be interpreted so differently from males and females. I can totally relate to what the article is saying though.

Blog #4

This is probably my favorite piece of reading than all the others. I laughed at this article more than anything. I've never read an article that talked about converstions between males and females and how they have different roles and different ways they ineract. For example, in the article it was talking about when males have a conversation, males tend to interupt eachother trying to establish that dominance and be the lead contributor to the conversation. (I tend to do the same thing, but not all the time. It depends on what people I'm around.) If it's like my best friends I won't be like that. But if it's some guys I just know, then i'll contribute more so. Then it was says that when females are talking to eachother they tend to not interupt but they want to get the last word in. lol I gotta listen to a conversation to believe this. lol I think females try to establish that dominace over the other females. I think it's natural for them to do it. Then the article was talking about the different language we use when we're giving directions. Males say specific street names while females tend to give landmarks. This is so true. My mom hates it when I use street names. But I actually don't mind getting directions by landmarks. Sometimes it's easier. I loved this article.

Blog #4 Male-Female Miscommunication

Before reading this chapter, I had never really given much thought to how differently males and females speak. However, after reading it, I realized that I have noticed these differences before, but never attributed them to being a difference based on sex. The example of how men and women use short responses such as "mm hmm" differently was one that I really connected with. I know when I talk to my girlfriend and she says "mm hmm," I feel like she is just agreeing with me, rather than just acknowledging that I said something. On the other hand, when I say it, I am just acknowledging that she said something, rather than ignoring her or giving my opinion. As far as the part of the chapter that talks about how boys and girls interact and speak in groups, I found it easy to understand. I remember growing up in elementary school and being a part of that hierarchical social system that boys formed. I also remember seeing how girls formed kind of bonds with each other and shared secrets, and when one of those bonds were broken, secrets would be let out.

Blog 3

The article kinda caught me off guard. I was expecting something a little different but in a way I saw similarities and differences within the Apache Tribe and us as a society. The Western Apache are known for being silent and describe 5 instances when they are. When an Apache meets a stranger. ( I'm like this most of the time) There is no introductions for several days until they finally decide to say something to eachother. One of the key things the Apaches did was read the other peoples body language before talking to them. (I do this all the time). The second instance is where 2 people of the opposite sex would be silence towards one another and you would sometimes see the couple hold hands or sit really close to one another. (Kinda weird to me) Then it talks about how the Apache are silent when a relative has left for a long time and has came back. (I am the complete opposite to this. I wanna talk to them, hug them, ask em how they've been....etc) In the article it was saying that the parents would evaluate their child after they got back. They would see how they changed. Another cool one was that when an Apache was angery, the best thing to do was be silent because they're not in a good state. (I do this) The last one was that the Apaches were silent when in mourning. (I'm like this) I can see where they are coming from. I wouldn't wanna talk to someone who just lost a close relative. Too sensitive of an area. This was a good article to read and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Male-Female Miscommunication

Most people don’t really think twice about how we interact with other people, its just something we do. I didn’t think much of either. I’ve always seen how men to each other differently when compared to women, but I never really thought much of it. A lot of what we say in conversation is so natural and been taught to us for so long that we don’t even realize we’re saying it sometimes.

When us guys get to talking we’ll say a snappy insult or joke right in the middle of someone else’s sentence with out thinking. While I was reading about how men talk to each other I started thinking about how often we really do that. For my friends in the military it was just a natural thing to insult one another while someone was talking. We would start our off by insulting and making jokes about each other and it would continue all day. Along with the jokes there would be stories that were seemingly about nothing most of the time that we would tell to help pass the time. When we would have to work with the females in our battalion, all the guys would be yelling at each other and the women would look at us like we were idiots, followed by calling us other names and telling us to shut up. Granted that women tend to be more polite then men, but a lot of the women I know are as assertive as any man. They can dish out a string of insults as well as anyone I know.

When the article was talking about how men and women misunderstood what the meanings of certain words and suggestions were, I was started thinking that that was why my wife and I confuse each other so often. My wife still gets mad at me every once in awhile, when we misinterpret the subtle things we say or don’t say in conversation. These little misinterpretations are just something you learn to work around.

Explanations of Miscommunication

This article has been the most enjoyable to read thus far. I couldn't help laughing as I thought of conversations I've previously had with people of the opposite sex. The way in which the article described how one gender communicates with the other was very effective and I found it to be quite truthful. It is amazing how many misunderstandings there are between men and women simply because they have different ways of following conversations. One of the simplest things: listening to and following what another person is saying. How could it be so hard? Men seem to get irritated when women ask a lot of questions. Women expect men to answer their questions but in this sense when women are asked questions themselves they too often become frustrated. It seems kind of hypocritical of women. Another thing I thought was interesting is the fact that men have a tendency of interrupting people more than women do, yet it is just as frustrating for a man to be interrupted as it is for a woman. While women take their interruption silently, causing the man in the conversation not to notice their error, men tend to interrupt back which continues the cycle. The article gave many explanations for common misunderstandings, and points out that men and women have different interpretations of the meanings of conversations because of cultural influences.

To Give up on Words

I feel many of the Western Apache and American culture traditions are completely opposite. For example it is polite and expected to introduce people and to speak right away when meeting a new crowd. For instance when I met my boyfriend's parents for the first time I wouldn't just go about the whole situation in silence just because that was our first meeting. They would think that I am a complete weirdo. Where as in the Apache culture you would be looked at suspiciously if you spoke too quickly. They take ALL of their relationships very slowly. I feel this relates back to their culture not rushing whereas in the Western culture it is always "Go, go, go!" From a young age we are taught that time is money and to not waste it. I like that the Western Apache's view on social relationships are to be cautious, to use careful judgement, and plenty of time. This better insures a sincere and meaningful bond.

Tripping and Tricking

I felt the author's choice of study was quite interesting. I wonder what made her want to research prostitution in the first place. And for 10 years at that. Although she didn't elaborate on any of her stories I'd have liked to read about what she learned from them. Several times she'd begin to branch off onto and interesting topic such as when she was attacked or interviewing the women or what happened when the police would show up. She didn't give very many details and each time I expected her to carry on with the story she changed topics. Sterk is extremely brave to walk into an ugly and dangerous world to study and observe prostitution from the inside.

Male vs Female communication

Having taken several communications and psychology classes, this is not the first time I have been exposed to this material. An interesting point that the article made was that the most differentiated period is in early adolescence and not adulthood as was previously thought. This is an interesting aspect of communication as it does show that we are continually learning and using our experiences to shape our thoughts, beliefs and even communication styles. It would be interesting to see more about how we could cross the barriers that still exist as adults to communicate better with others of the opposite sex in our lives. One thing that I as a man have taken from this information is that when a woman is telling me about something she is not always asking me for advice or a solution to a problem. Yet I still have difficulty not giving advice or solutions!

Blog #4

I thought that this article was fun to read because as Daniel Maltz and Ruth Borker describe how the different groups of people talked, I could see the truth in what they were saying. I can remember specific situations when a person’s or group’s speech was exactly to how they described the group would talk. I feel like this is going to be one of those things that sticks with me and I’m going to always be comparing people to what I read in the article. I think that most of the miscommunications in my life are because of words that either of the parties don’t know the meaning of instead of misunderstanding minimal responses. I feel like personally as far as minimal responses go I use them the same way whether I’m talking to guys or girls, and it doesn’t seem like how I use them creates problems. I have also always thought of myself to be more a tomboy than a girly girl so I wish the article had more information focused toward that type of communication. When I think back to my childhood I don’t really remember there being many misunderstandings or it being uncomfortable when I talked to boys. This could have been because I hung out with guys a lot so I was used to how they talked and my way of speaking became partially like theirs. Also I was shy when I was younger so when I was with guys who liked to talk and be in control of the conversation there were no conflicts. The two speaking personalities just fit together. I think that when you are young you spend more of your time with your own gender, but for me it was more like 50-50. Even now when I think about it, I spend a lot of time with guys and have a lot of friends that are guys, but when it comes to close friends, they’re girls. They aren’t girly girls either. This article has got me thinking if I change how I talk to different people even if they are the same closeness or at the same level of friendship to me. I have come to conclude that I do communicate different. I think it depends mainly on the situation which includes the topic and who else is listening or might be listening in on the conversation.

Tricking and Tripping

I really enjoyed this article. I thought it was amazing that this woman risked her life to do research on prostitution. A few things that stood out to me was the fact that there was cool prostitutes (the in crowed ) and not cool prostitutes, and who you talked to gained you more or less access to the community this also stood true for pimps. It's funny because we think of them as all bad people or not cool people. I can't even imagine going in and hanging out at a crack houses let alone being a white lady all by her self going in to a crack house and living to tell about it. I wonder what it was like to interview a crack head prostitute, it could not have been easy. Another thing that I thought was interesting was how thorough she was with her research, she visited many different streets, crack houses and even went home with some of the girls. Claire Sterk has more guts and ambition then I ever will, it scares me enough walking through downtown Olympia by my self at night let alone New York City and Atlanta. What drives a person to want to do this? is worth risking your life for research?

Blog #4: Men Talk Vs Women Talk

This article was very interesting for me. It's something that we deal with everyday but I never really thought about it till now. After I read this article, it brough awareness to the conversations that were going on around me. I noticed a lot of what the author was talking about was true. The interactions that occured during a typical conversation depended a lot on who the conversation was taking place between, two women, two men, or mixed company. Right after I read this article, I walked past a group a three men that were talking and I noticed that they were constantly interupting each other and trying to be the "center" of the conversation. Before readin this article, I never would have thought twice about the fact that they were competing with each other. But now that I have read this, it told me a lot about their personalities. They had to be the one in charge or the power contributor in the conversation showing their dominace over the others in the group. Now if the group was a mixed group, these tendencies might be even more pronounced between the males because of the natural urge to show dominance in front of a female and the natural competition for the female companion. If the group had only women, it would be interesting how the interactions would be similar or different to what the author says. I beleive that there would still be a level of competition to talk but women tend not to interupt, they try and get the last word in. This could be because even though there still is that level of competition, but it's not as strong as it is for a group of males. Another thing that came to my mind when the author started talking about the differences between how males and females communicate was about how men and women give directions. In my personal experience, men tend to give directions based on street names or other proper names where as women, me included, tend to give directions based on land marks. For example, men will say go to Trosper and take a left and then drive .5 miles where as a woman may say go to the 7-11 and take a left and drive till you past the coffee stand on the right sideof the road. I don't know why this is but it was just something that came to my attention and I thought fit with this topic of how men and women communicate differently.

Blog 2

After reading this piece I'm actually not on the same page as the author. The article talks about prostitutes and how we precieve them just because of the media. The media labels them as trashy, not respected, girls lookin for sex, etc. The list can go on. But you know what? That's what they are. They solicit their body for money. When you look at their backrounds and lives, some had harsh lives but having people have sex with them for money is a choice and a bad one in my opinion. They can job search and pursue a better life. When it talks about how some of the prostitutes have a high school diploma and/or attend college. It's just bad decision making. I don't think I can have simpathy for a woman who had a harsh life and chose to be a prostitute. It's called buy some clothes and get a job....

Absense of speech

I think many people could benefit by not talking as much as they do and listening more. Many aspects of the Apache and Navajo culture seem extreme, yet familiar to my cultural experience. I would not find it unusual to either not say much when first starting to work with anew crew or to be on an established work crew and have a new member come on who did not say much either. Not talking to enraged or drunken people is just generally good advice! Also, maybe we could learn a thing or two from their dating practices. First dates would be a lot easier if you didn't have to worry about what to say.

Blog1

I found this piece of reading to be very interesting. Being a minority, I've never really had to deal with racism in my life. When I read this and see examples of racism. I try and put myself in that situation when I read these and say to myself, Wow. This sucks. lol I think it's bologna that when you walk into a clinic that everyone should be equal. You shouldn't be getting less help just because of your skin. Stupid... That had to of been tough to deal with and very frustrating for African Americans. I wonder if some African Americans straight up said," I'm not takin this." I understand these times were tuff and that to this day we're still trying to get rid of racism. Has to start with the education of the kids and have that flourish throughout time, while reminding them through media, and school.

Tripping and Tricking

I finally realized what the 'tripping' portion of the article was referring to just now. This article was interesting when the author got to the six ethnographic forms of prostitution. Before that I felt the author had a smug and condescending tone and was interested in the people in the story in some odd manner that I was not getting. This may have been due to the author being from a different country and some non-standard word choices. I am not sure what to think about this whole issue, but I think that increased education is always a safe answer to any problem. I think the real answer would be to legalize drugs and prostitution and regulate them to some extent like some of the more progressive Western European countries have done.

Men's Speech vs. Women's Speech

When I read this article I was sitting in the SPSCC library, minding my own business. But after I read certain parts, I became sort of an eavesdropper. I tried to apply what was in the article to what I saw around me. The SPSCC library is often full of different people, all doing different things, all there for different reasons. Initially mine was to read this article so that I could blog about it. However, after I read it, I looked up at the people around me and began to observe their interactions. And no, I'm not talking about stalking behind book shelves and peeking my head around the corner. I just sat in my same chair and had my head down on my book, but instead of reading I was listening intently on what the people sitting next to me were saying. Two guys, both seemed rather non-chalant, talking about everyday stuff like what they were doing later, or what they were going to do over the weekend. But what I noticed was that neither of them initiated convsersation with a question. Kind of related to the article, neither of them really wanted to know what the other was doing, or else they would have asked. And they both interrupted eachother constantly. The end of every sentence was cut off by the beginning of the other guy's. It was like one run on sentence because their was no pause after each statement. And then I looked at another couple, a man and a woman who were talking in the chairs right behind me. I assumed that they were friends by how they spoke with eachother; but the thing I noticed most when considering the article was that the woman would ask questions all the time, initiating the next step in the conversation, or trying to ineract more with the guy she was speaking with. She would also nod, or give the occasion "uh-huh" to just reassure him that she was truly listening. She would laugh at something that he said, without it actually being funny, perhaps just to emphasize her participation in the conversation. I think it is so interesting how we talk to eachother, even in just simple settings as the library....where you would think nobody would be talking at all. And even though this article tends to generalize about both sexes, I think it could give a little insight into the daily conversational routine of everyday people we meet in the most common of situations.

#4 Men are from mars, women are from venus

While I appreciated the subject of this essay, it is slightly outdated. Taking place in the late 70's, these studies focus on the differences in communication styles in men and women. It's amazing really that we can survive on this planet together sometimes. It's as though we're speaking two different languages.Books have even been written on this concept of miscommunication. The most popular being the book, Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. Even the non-words we utter such as, 'hmm-mmm' have different meaning between the sexes. I think these studies need to be done today and I'm sure the findings would quite different. Just in the last 20 years, women have become much more agressive and some even more than men. Sure we still may lead with our emotions, take turns speaking, reiterate the previous speaker's ideas to show we are listening but in areas where agression is needed, more women than ever before are stepping up to the plate.
It would be interesting to find out how parents are interacting with their children through speech, and how they speak to their sons differently than their daughters.
I appreciate that anthropologists are studying mis-communication between the sexes because I feel an unknown amount of fighting has occured over misunderstandings and taking things the wrong way. This essay taught me how easy it can be to misread what someone is truly saying to me and how their response may indicate something other than what I'm getting from it.
I liked this article way better than the silence article.

To give up on words

Wow. I did not like this essay at all it was hard for me to read and pretty much understand. I was able to understand some of what the auther was trying to convey but not all of it. For the most part i understood that the Apache's have certain customs around silence and not talking. But how did they come up with the idea of not talking and being silent in certain social enviroments when in our culture we would talk or at least i would talk. I would like to though how they came up the such a thing as to not talk in certain situations were most of us in our culture talk.

Silence is Golden

A few years ago my band teacher did an experiment of not talking for a whole day. He did everything, conducting, giving instruction, without making a sound. This made people pay a lot closer attention to the details and pick up on visual cues. "To Give up on Words" reminded me of that day and how strange it seemed. Verbal communication has become an essential part of our culture. We almost take it for granted that speech is a way of communication and use it too freely. Western Apache culture uses speech as a form of communication only when absolutely necessary. The first instance which speech is significantly reduced is the meeting of strangers. The Western Apache are reluctant to speak to any person they do not know as long as it is not necessary. Furthormore, strangers are unknown and therefore less trustworthy at first. "Strangers who are quick to launch into conversation are frequently eyed with undisguised suspicion." They are viewed as wanting something. "Western Apache are extremely reluctant to be hurried into friendships." The second category is courting, during which girls are warned not to engage in conversation right away because it would infer that the girl has had previous experience in that field. Men and women are also silent during the initial stages of courting due to their shyness and lack of knowledge of what to say. The third setting is the period of time when children come home after an extended absence. In this case the parents are silent at first to let the children talk if they choose to in order to see if the children have changed or grown distant. The fourth category is "getting cussed out", which is usually associated with drinking. It is essential to keep quiet due to the Western Apache's belief that the person who is "enraged" is also irrational or crazy. They are said to be dangerous and not themselves. The fifth category is "being with people who are sad", which refers to being around a person who has experienced a death. A native explains, "everyone is familiar with that has happened, and talking about it, even for the purpose of conveying solace and sympathy, would only reinforce and augment the sadness felt by those who were close to the deceased." The sixth and final instance in which silence is encountered is called "being with someone for whom they sing". This is restricted to a small number of physical locations. It takes place in the form of "curing ceremonies". Medicine men use their supernatural powers to cure patients, during which it is extremely potent to the patient to speak.
I thought how strange all of these reasons for not speaking are, until I realized how many similarities there are with our culture. Often we do not speak at first to strangers, or do not know what to say to the person we 'like'. When I have return from trips my parents have given me my space to get situated a little before telling about my experiences, not as long as three days, but at least up to a day. Also when encountering an enraged person we have unspoken rules that it is better not to say anything to cause that person to become more angry. It is common courtesy to say as little as necessary about a death. It is understood that the person is feeling grief and speaking unnecessarily about the incident would hurt more than help the situation. The similarities I thought of with the medicine men ceremonies were situations such as operations, or visiting the doctor. In these situations little conversation is exchanged. Although conversation is much more limited in the Western Apache culture than in our culture, there are still recognizable similarities.

Blog #3

It seems interesting to me that in this Native culture there is a norm with silence. In our culture someone is considered to be somewhat rude if they do not great someone with questions the first time meeting them or in many of the other situations discussed in this article. Overall this article really made me think about how different little things such a greeting can differ from culture to culture.

Before I read To Give up on Words, my initial thought was that Apaches were sort of making life more difficult for themselves than it needed to be, and it would benefit them to catch up regarding communication.

My favorite part of the article is when one of Basso's informant says ..."Then after a while, when you know each each other, you...can talk good" That's a lot to be said about whats actually filling up all that silent space. So really its not about lack of communication like I initially assumed, they communicate just fine just in a different way. They get to know each other with out saying a word. I think society today could really learn a lot from them

The beginning quote is great: "It is not the case that a man who is silent says nothing"
-Anonymous

In the beginning of the article it asks how silence differs between our culture and the Apaches'. It seems to me at least generally, silence for us has adopted a negative reputation. For instance you may think some one is mad, being distant, holding a grudge, etc. We have to label it as SOMETHING rather than accept it or enjoy it for what it is. Shhhhh.... :)

I give up on this essay

I found this story to be incredibly hard to read. I found myself rereading sentences often and at times, was still unable to grasp the point he was making. I get that the Apache's have customs around silence. I also understand this is done around times of transition. These times, including being around strangers, children returning home after an absence, mourning a loved one, being angry and being ill were all examples of these times when the action taken is silence.
It intrigues me, this idea of not speaking during these times when, in our culture it would be outright disrespectful. Who came up with these norms?

Blog #3 To Give up on Words

Surprisingly, after I finished reading this chapter, the concept that was being conveyed in it did not seem totally alien to me. While I know that I don't fully understand how they remain silent in so many social situations that we would normally not remain silent in, I can sort of relate to them. When someone gets incredibly angry in our culture, sometimes the best thing to do is just ignore them so you don't intensify the situation or draw harm upon yourself. Although, I don't understand how there can be a collective reticence involving the situation. In our culture, there is usually at least one person who speaks out against the person who is angry or going crazy, but I can see how being silent would help. If everyone just ignored someone who was acting in such a way, it might be somewhat humbling to be ignored or recognized as not being yourself. I also find it interesting how parents do not openly talk to their children when they come home. When I leave for just a week, I come home to a barrage of questions from my mom. I am just used to my parents accepting me for who I am, I suppose. I can also somewhat relate to how they deal with sadness. Sometimes when I am sad I like to just be left alone to reflect on what has happened. On the opposite note, the best thing to help sadness can be to just talk about it, I guess it just strikes me as a little odd how the Apaches don't have this kind of emotional relief.

Blog #2 Tricking and Tripping

Claire Sterk offers a very interesting and seldom seen point of perspective in the issue of prostitution, which is the point of view of someone associating with the prostitutes. Before now, most of what I had learned about prostitution was just factual or statistics. Rarely had I actually heard about what prostitutes actually go through on a daily basis. Also, I had never learned about the experience of trying to infiltrate this underground scene. I did not realize how difficult it would be to get information about the lives of these women. I would bet that the reason that you don't really hear about this too often is because it is a very risky procedure to get close to prostitutes and their pimps. Sterk describes the dangers present in the field of work she was working in very clearly. She explains how she was attacked by a gang of people whom she had offended, and how she would have to leave a situation sometimes to prevent being harmed if things got out of hand. I guess that kind of danger is just inherent when dealing with drug addicts and criminals.

To Give up on Words

This chapter shows how very different the cultures of our own land are from one another. Our culture predominantly teaches us how we are supposed to acknowledge others, especially those who are of a higher ranking status. Many people from Western cultures would find it very rude not to talk to someone whom they are supposed to work and interact with. The same principles apply in many of our family settings as well.
When I was younger I never realized that families were supposed to interact and talk with one another whenever they were to meet. On my Dads side of the family we hardly talk even if we haven’t seen each other for many years. When I was reading how the Apaches wouldn’t talk to people they hadn’t seen for a long time, to me that made perfect since. Sometimes when you come to meet someone who you haven’t talk too for a long time, its hard to think of something you both have in common.
The Apaches seem to think in a similar fashion as how I was raised. That is, that after some time of observation has passed and someone from the group has concluded that the stranger is either trustworthy or untrustworthy, the silence will be broken. There is no need to rush a friendship, or hurry to make an enemy.
Our culture is in such a hurry to learn things about people before we can even tell that they are people worth knowing from just being around them. People in our society feel such a need to belong that they will try and squeeze into a conversation with any chance they can get. The Apaches view on this seems so much more peaceful, then what most of the people in our culture do.
When you see a drunken fool needlessly yelling at someone many would try to intervene. The Apaches view of this comes off as being much more intelligent. To let someone go and only intervene when absolutely necessary is better than risking an escalation of a minor argument into a violent brawl.
When someone passes we are told that we need to go to the ones who have lost and console them. We are told that we need to be there for them in their time of need. But what can you truly say to them? I have never been able to find what really needs to be said to make someone feel better. When the woman who lost her husband lashed out at her family, the family let her mourn. They knew that they couldn’t ease her sorrow. People don’t know that going to the family who has lost often intensifies the sorrow. By reminding them that their loved one is gone from this world can hurt them deeply. We need not be there with them, we only need make ourselves readily available for them should they need us. The Apache seem to truly understand this.
Its easy to find the differences in a culture, and its easy to see how someone else is different from yourself. What this chapter really made me aware of was not how our cultures differ from one another but how much more we could learn from them.

Blog #3

I consider myself to be a quiet one so as I read the article I thought about why I am quiet and how I relate to the Western Apache culture. Keith Basso describes the five instances when the Western Apache are silent and their reasoning for being silent. First Basso describes when an Apache meets a stranger. They don’t even have introductions. They may go several days before saying anything to each other. During this time the Apache is observing and getting to know the person by their body language, what they say and how they act. I would say that is very similar to way that I act when I first meet someone. However in my culture we introduce ourselves unlike the Apache. Since I am more of the quiet type I don’t usually start the conversation, but if spoken to I would respond in my usual way. Eventually we would speak to each other when the right time came. The second is when there is silence between two of the opposite gender. Basso writes that they don’t talk to each other at first, but they may hold hands and sit close to one another. I can think of a time in my life which was very similar. We didn’t say anything to each other, but we both knew what each other’s body languages were saying. The third Basso writes about being silent when reuniting with relatives who have been away for a long period of time. In the Western Apache culture, it is customary for the adults/parents to not speak while the child does most of the talking. When the child is talking the parents are evaluating how the child has changed while he/she has been away and how their ideal and habits are now. Even though I have never really been away from home for an extended period of time I know what if I go on a trip and then come home, I am usually the one who speaks the most. I tell stories of what I did when I was away, but when my parents listen they aren’t judging me and trying to figure out how I changed. They just listen and are interested in my trip. Basso’s fourth situation is silence when someone is angered. According to the Western Apache when someone is enraged, they are not in their right mind and can’t control their actions and therefore it is best to try not to disturb the person anymore and the only way to do that is to remain quiet. I can easily understand the thought behind this because in my family if someone gets mad they will go to their room and just be by themselves which means no one can talk to them. When they are angry the only thing you can do is take and wait for it to be over. Yelling back or arguing only worsens the situation and should always be avoided. The next situation Basso describes is silence when mourning. Talking is avoided when with someone who is grieving in the Western Apache culture. They believe that the person may be not in their right mind and therefore quick to respond in an unexpected and unwanted way for example becoming enraged. I know from person experience that if something bad happened to someone to not bother them anymore because their patience will be very short and anything could upset the person. I can also recall times when I became so down that I felt mad and actually the other way around also. There have been situations where my madness went so deep that my eyes started to tear up. As soon as someone says something to me when I am at that stage I just break down. The last situation that Basso talks about is silence when someone is being healed. There should be no talking during this because the supernatural powers that are healing the person can’t be disturbed by disrespectful talking. I understand the concept, but I think this is the opposite for me. I feel that if people talk to me when I am trying to get better it shows that they care and are trying to help and give me support. This difference is most likely due to the fact that I don’t believe in supernatural powers that heal me while the Western Apache do. For me, this article has been the most enjoyable to read because I can relate to it the most.

Blog #3

When I was readint he introduction paragraph of this article, I thought to myself how different and weird it was that the Western Apache had such strict "rules" for talking. But when the author went through the different social situations in detail, I started to realize that our culture does not act that much differently in the each of the social situations. When we meet strangers, even though we may introduce ourselves or someone else in the group may introduce us, people may not talk to each other again until they get to know each other a little better. Being around them for a longer period of time allows both parties to get comfortable around each other enough to carry on a meaningful conversation. As for courtship or dating, the first few dates are usually awakard and eveyone is worried about sounding stupid or dumb. But we tend to carry on the conversation even if it is awakard because just sitting there is even more awakard then forced conversation. But if the woman talks on the first few dates, in our culture, doesn't mean that she has a lot of experience with guys, it could just mean she is a friendly person and talks to everyone. And also parents may give their children advice before going on their first date similar to the advice given by the Apache parents but it's more along the lines of don't talk too much about yourself or it takes two to have a conversation so let both parties contribute. When children come home from a long period of time being away from the family, we act very similar to the Apaches. The one who has been away from home will usually spend a few days telling the stories of their trip to their family and friends while they listen, which is showing respect to the story teller and that they are in fact listening to the story. the only difference is that when people are listening to the stories, in our culture, the listeners are not evaluating if they person who has been away has changed their values or views on life, they are listening because they are interested in hearin about their adventures. Finally, in situations when a loved one dies, people in our culture want to help and usually tend to give the family thier space but let them know that they are avaiable to help with what ever is needed of them. So as you can see, there are a lot of similarities between the Western Apache culture and our culture as well as some major differences. In our culture, the rules are "unwritten" or "assumed" based on the situations. these behaviors are learned as we grow up and are taught to us through out life.

To Give Up on Words

I found it very interesting that the Apache people will go without speaking in many, if not at all, of their social situations. It is amazing to me how different cultures operate and how, even in similar situations, the people of that different culture act in a manner that may not seem to make sense to others. A social situation that stuck for me from the article is when a relative, spouse, or friend dies and the immense grief that takes hold of people. Even in my culture, grief is a difficult thing to mentally process. But it seems that in this culture, people are more vocal, or more forced to speak about their grief, i.e. funerals, sympathy food (when your neighbors and family stop by to bring food in condolence), individual therapy, etc. And the woman in the article who lashed out at her family because of the death of her husband sort of amazed me because her family didn't try to make things better; they didn't try to solve her problem. And they just knew that they couldn't, so they let her go and grieve. They just let her be, which is something that I think in this culture, would be considered rude or acting cold and indifferent. I think that self processing the grief is something that people all must go through to get over something like that. To read that the Apache culture allows people to do that, makes me wish that sometimes our culture allowed more oppurtunities for people to do that. Another part of this article I found rather intriguing was the fact that the Apache people do not talk to strangers, and may not even talk to them even if they know eachother or are close aqcaintances. I would stick out like a sore thumb in their culture because I enjoy talking to strangers and meeting new people. But there again, it's just the conflicting views between two very different cultures. And what I love about this idea is that no culture has a the right way of doing something, which just fascinates me.

Blog #2

This article was a very eye opening experience for me. It got me thinking about prostitution in a whole different perspective. Having no experience at all in prostitution it scared me at the fact that none of these women did either. Some are well educated workers that had high school diplomas and some that had even attended college. When you think of a prostitute, we think of a trashy woman that has absolutely no respect for herself. We all see them, if we want to look. It is a reality we all do not want to see, but we all know. And we know who the prostitutes are and how they act because of T.V, movies, video games, ect. The media has such a high influence on what we can experience in everyday lives, only if we truly look in the real world for them. The way the media makes prostitutes look is downgrading, filthy, and we are almost immediately superior to them. But if we really stop; stop and look at each individual face, some will feel very differently about the situation. There are about 100,000 prostitutes in the United States of America. But that is just a fact, a statistic, a number. If we put a face to every single one of those women, we have a story. A sad story, an understanding story, anything. If we truly look at these women, we will feel sympathy, insightfulness, and awareness. The author said that most of the working girls were neglected children, which are so easily influenced by anyone around them or anyone that says they care. If you grow up in a city with drugs and alcohol you are more susceptible to it. With drugs and alcohol always come sex, it is just a given in our culture. Back to the judging and degrading of these working women, it come to my attention about how they are considered "working" women. Well, they need customers and they get customers. But who are these customers? Some of them are men with wives and children that make 6 figures a year. So why are they not looked down upon? I think that is something our culture never looks at from both perspectives. We know they are two sides to every story but we automatically judge the good from the bad. And what side do we take? The good, because we could never understand the "bad" people. Though prostitution is so dangerous for whoever is involved, we need to spread the awareness that it does happen in our country, in our state, and in our own cities. If we can focus at a young age on the awareness of any abuse, maybe we can stop the outcome for some of these unfortunate young ladies that never had the chance to seek help.

Blog # 2

Prostitution seems to be a touchy subject for Americans (myself included), so it was with little difficulty which I began reading the article. I have no personal link or background in the subject so I found it hard to relate to the issue. While I did not previously understand prostitution and its effect on women, I felt that Claire Sterk did a good job covering all aspects of it. She went in depth to explain all sides of the story, what each woman she had come in contact with had gone through, and how their lives were built dependent on sex or drugs, or both in most cases. The author states that her main goal in her research was to "...provide the reader with a perspective on street prostitution from the point of view of the women themselves". She presents six main points, or themes, to her work which describe the women's lives as prostitutes. The author points out the women's own views and justifications for the way their lives have become entangled in prostitution. She compares the women's relationship between prostitution and drug-use identities, how there are different forms of prostitutes; street walkers, hooked prostitutes, prostituting addicts, and crack prostitutes. Sterk explains the roles of pimps, and how most women dislike that label, often calling them their "boyfriend". The author points out the violence and abuse involved in the women's lives. She points out how high the risk of HIV/AIDS is and the impact on the women's lives. Finally Sterk ends on a high note, that there is hope for these women. She points out that while there is a way out, which many do not find, the impacts of prostitution carry over into their lives and follows "...them like a bad hangover". But there is a way out of prostitution.

Blog 2

Hmm, I really have to look outside the box on this one, or outside my own mind, I guess. In the beginning of this piece I imagined my self coming up with all these opinions and judgments about these women and the "choice made" to be a prostitutes. Surprising to myself I ended up concentrating more on the mindset in must involve. It's very easy to say something is the right or wrong choice for someone, what's not easy is grasping the circumstances and paths that led someone to make that choice. It doesn't happen over night. Its a lot of grey. Imagine where your mindset would have to be to convince yourself that this is acceptable. Not just sex for money, that has been going on forever, but the rest of it in this article, the downward spiral full of abuse, addiction, punishment, the list goes on...Its like, rather than make a choice based on the circumstances, these women have let their circumstances mold their choices. Which doesn't leave much room for success. :(

Blog #2

Prostitution is a tricky issue to discuss because we all want to show negativity towards it (even myself personally). However, we forget that in some cultures prostitution is common and socially acceptable as a career. Don't quote me on this, but i want to say India is one of them, but i could be mistaken.
In our culture, prostitution is looked down upon. Its against our morals; but then that also raises the question of why there are so many of them? There are plenty of stereotypes of a "common" prostitute; on drugs, disease infested, uneducated, and highly dangerous. From this article, we see that isn't always the case. Some have graduated from college, they just got caught up in the wrong people and things at the wrong time.
It's crazy to think how common these things are. Imagine knowing a friend, or sibling, or even yourself as a prostitute. I'd like to see a follow up on some of these women lives. What they're doing now and some sort of reflection on their past and if they'd change anything.

Blog #2

This article was a very interesting read and opened my eye to view the whole prostitution world differently. My only references for what prostitutes live like is what I have seen on TV, and we all know how accurate TV is. There were a lot of similarties between the TV prostitution world and the real life prostitution world. As mentioned by the author, a lot of the working girls had troubled past where they were abused and neglected as children, which made them more succeptible to turn to drugs, alcohol and sex as a comfort factor, which leads to prostitution. The one thing that cught me by suprise was the high number of "educated" working girls. the author mentions that most of the girls she worked with had graduated high school, and many of them had at least a little bit of college if not a complete degree. It made me wonder, where things went wrong? I could understand if the girls were abused or neglected, started rebelling, dropped out of high school and sold themselves in order to survive. But many of these girls had other options that were better. With a college degree there are a lot of opportunties out there for employment that will put food on the table with out having to take their clothes off and put themselves at risk for diseases. As mentioned by the author, there are many different reasons why these girls do what they do. Some do it for money in order to make a living, some do it beacuse their pimp is their boyfriend and they think they will only love them if the have sex for money, and then there are those who have sex in order to support either their or their pimp's drug habits. Regardless of why someone is having sex for money or drugs, it's wrong and dangerous for everyone involved. I beleive that if there were more options for these working girls to seek help if they wanted to get out but don't have anywhere to go, then maybe the number of "working girls" beaten, mistreated, degraded, or infected with God only know what kind of gross diseases would gradually decrease creating a better world for all involved.

Blog #2

Over the course of a few years, Claire Sterk managed to be in the shoes of a prostitute. Through her experiences she discovered six themes about prostitution. The first theme is why the women became prostitutes from their point of view. The main reasons that lead most women to prostitution were because of traumatic past experiences such as sexual abuse. The second theme Sterk mentions is the different types of prostitutes. She puts women into four main groups which are street walkers, hooked prostitutes, prostituting addicts and crack prostitutes. Street walkers are women that don’t use drugs. Hooked prostitutes are those who see themselves as prostitutes, but then also started using drugs around the same time they become prostitution. Prostituting addicts are women that see themselves mainly as drug users who started prostitutes as a way of getting drugs. Lastly, Crack prostitutes are women who trade sex for crack. Sterk’s third theme is the role of pimps. There are three different types of pimps. There is the entrepreneur lover who employs streetwalkers and hooked prostitutes for business reasons. Second is the lover pimp who targets prostituting addicts and hooked prostitutes and becomes their steady partner who lives off their pay. In addition, for crack prostitutes, their pimp is crack itself. The fourth theme is how HIV/AIDs changes how the prostitutes work. Most women know about the risks and how to reduce it, but just knowing about it doesn’t make them take the appropriate precautions. Others know they are positive with it, but are unsure how to handle it. The fifth theme Sterk presents is the violence and abuse the women receive. Her research shows that they are most abused by the customer and sometimes law enforcement officers. The last theme is the break away from prostitution. From her talks with those who have escaped she learned that it was a struggle to create a new identity and how to deal with their past on their new relationships. The women who were also drug users see themselves as recovering addicts as well.

I am amazed that Sterk had the bravery and will power needed to do this fieldwork. She mentioned that she was once followed home and then beaten. Through that experience she learned to work through the pimps before questioning the women. She also let the women use her car, which I think is a very risky thing, but when you are trying to gain their trust it seems necessary. This article really opened my eyes about when caught up in prostitution. After reading this I am intrigued to find out that the women use different strategies to trick their customer. That instead of being powerless, they do have control over the situation. However I would have liked to read more about what happened to those who were able to break loose from prostitution and how their lives have progressed. Those most surprising thing I read in the article was that 30% of the women had graduated from a college. It’s a difficult fact to get my head around. When you think of a person who has graduated from college you think wow they must have a successful life now that they have the education they need to make it in the real world, but then to read that a good amount of the prostitutes had gone through college, it just caught me off guard.

Blog #2; Tricking and Tripping

I can't imagine what it must be like to be a prostitute, so I can't judge them based on my own predisposed biases and my own values in life. I found this article very intriguing because it gives a better picture on the personal lives of these people and how they operate. What I would like to know, based off of the stories in this article, is what each woman feels is necessary to survive. The use of drugs may be a driving force, but I want to look deeper into what they think their purpose is; whether or not serving their pimps or selling their bodies is worth what they think their purpose in life is. I'm not going to get into any religious politics, but I want to know where they see themselves twenty years from now. And twenty years from now, would they be able to look back on their life and say that it was all worth it? Instead of living in the 'now' which I think could be a primary focus. Do they see themselves being alive twenty years from now? That's kind of a scary concept when you think about it. And based off of the common stereotype, is it quite surprising that some of these women graduated from college, or at least had some secondary education. I thought that contradicts what many people think of prostitutes today. Before I read this article, popular culture allowed me to believe that these women were not as well educated and had no other choice. I can see here, based off of the statistics in the article and also some of the personal stories of these women, that some of them do indeed have a choice to make this life for themselves. Of course, some may be pressured by their partners (or I guess pimps, in some cases) and threatened to work like this to make money for them. The crime and disease rate also baffles me. AIDS is a scary thing. It's a widespread epidemic, and so to hear that someone willingly having sex with someone who is HIV positive without using protection makes me rather angry. And this woman was not ignorant of the risks either, which lead to my frustration at the situation. But overall, I think this career choice would be an interesinting study because of all the underlying issues that nobody really looks at until they overcome their predispositions and look up close into what the real issues are.