...ANTHROPOLOGY 101 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology Queens College / CUNY, Spring 2015 TuTh 12:15-1:30PM, Kiely 150 Professor: Ramona Lee Pérez, PhD Email: ramona.perez@qc.cuny.edu Office hours: Th 2-3 PM, PH 315H COURSE DESCRIPTION This course is an introduction to the range of human diversity through an exploration of the peoples of the world. We will cover the basic concepts, theories, and methods that anthropologists use to study variations in cultural norms and social practices, economic systems and rules of law, social organization and patterns of inequality, identity and worldview, and patterns of social and cultural change. Focusing on the culture concept and the method of ethnography, we begin with the historical foundations of anthropology and then follow its attempts to understand contemporary human cultures. Comparative analysis of multiple ethnographic case studies and major theoretical approaches illuminates the range of human diversity, the forces that shape cultures, and how people adapt to a rapidly changing modern world. The central objectives of this course are to develop your intellectual skills, your cross-cultural fluency, and your sense of civic and moral engagement in global society. I hope that this course inspires many of you to become anthropology majors or minors, and grants each of you an anthropological perspective on your own life. REQUIREMENTS This is an intensive course that requires full participation from every student...
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...relation to individual differences • Skills of analysis, evaluation and application in relation to individual differences • Knowledge and understanding of research methods associated with this area of psychology • Knowledge and understanding of ethical issues associated with this area of psychology. |Content outline | |Social influence |Conformity (majority influence) and explanations of why people conform, including informational | | |social influence and normative social influence | | | | | |Types of conformity, including internalisation and compliance | | | | | |Obedience to authority, including Milgram’s work and explanations of why people obey | |Social...
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...she did not have many friends, at least she had a few people to support her and help her face the bullying with determination. Having a support group helped her by being able to intervene on her behalf, comfort her, or seek help, making future attacks less likely. Peer groups are incredibly important, especially for teens. Having close relationships helps kids like Kelby not feel so alone in what they are dealing with when they are bullied. Especially in adolescence, relationships play a major role in their overall development to prevent mental health issues. According to Hay (2014), “The roots of peer rejection lie in the earliest years of childhood, and peer rejection is associated with educational underachievement, even when many other causal influences are considered. Put another way, having friends in early childhood appears to protect children against the development of psychological problems later in childhood.” Bullying towards LGBT youth targets their non-conformity to gender norms. They are targeted so often, because they are a...
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...duction Socialization is the process by which society integrates the individual and the individual learns to behave in socially acceptable ways this involves learning interpersonal and interactional skills that are in conformity with the values of one's society. the society expects an individual learns to live in accordance with the its expectations and standards, acquiring its beliefs, habits, values, and accepted modes of behavior primarily through imitation, family interaction, and educational systems; it is primarily the procedure by which society integrates the individual. An agent of socialization is an individual or institution tasked with the replication of the Social Order. An agent of socialization is responsible for transferring the rules, expectations, norms, values, and folkways of a given social order. In advanced capitalist society, the principle agents of socialization include the family, the media, the school system, religious and spiritual institutions, and peer groups. It is important to note that our current social order is a tiered social order. It is based on authority, hierarchy, and the differential assignment of value to human individuals (i.e., some individuals like CEOs and presidents are worth more than others). Within this context, individuals receive differential socialization. Those born into the lower tiers receive a socialization process geared to fitting them into the low level, wage based sectors of The System. Those born into the higher...
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...Gender Stereotypes Common phrases frequently repeated in American households such as, “Girls don’t do that!”, often reflect a cultural and physical distinction between males and females. From the very moment children are born, they are labeled with predisposed gender characteristics— boys receive a blue cloth and are put into a room decorated with cars, and girls receive a pink cloth and are put into a room decorated with flowers. As they mature, many children start to recognize both physical and mental differences thus increasing the fixed gap between genders. In fact, gender has also hindered the progression of America regarding freedom of expression- a right included in the very first amendment of our Constitution. Currently, gender is...
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... it is extremely important to understand that although the valiant efforts and impact that African American’s had, particularly in the 1950’s and 1960’s, in helping restructure American culture, many of the racist views of the past still play apart in American society. The 1950’s is often described as the calm before the storm of the 1960’s. During this time period, society was very much conformed to the views of conservative living. The desire for security during this era, reinforced by McCarthyism at home and the Korean War, created was known as the cold war culture. During the post WWII period in America, the face of the nation changed greatly under President Truman and Eisenhower. Because of extreme paranoia caused by Communism following WWII, conformity in the United States became an ideal way to distinguish American culture from the rest of the world. Conformity became evident through the medium of culture, society, and politics throughout the era of the 1950’s. The country was in such fear of Communism, that President Truman led the government in a revolt against any who claimed to be a Communist in the American government. Again, due to fear of being ostracized, Eisenhower, the proceeding president, was reluctant to confront McCarythism. The...
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...collectivistic culture which is the Amish culture. A few details regarding the background of the Amish culture is they are most concentrated in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana with 273,700 adults and children and nearly 350 settlements in thirty states of the USA and in Ontario (Kuhnova, 2012) The Amish culture tries to live in nonconformity to the world. This is demonstrated by their dialect, their plain clothing, transportation of horse and buggy, and their housing, functioning to the outside world as distinction and to the inside community as confirmation of a shared identity (Kuhnova, 2012). This clothing style is uniform and leaves little room for individualism, although small differences are perceptible in sewing and cloths. Where for non-Amish this might sound like a limitation of freedom. They fear that owning a car leads to individualism, distinction, social inequality, and too much personal freedom (Vonk, 2012). The above behavior choices of the Amish cultural emphasize togetherness and reinforce group cohesion. According to Vonk (2011), “The community and its welfare are ranked above personal freedom and individual rights, what contradicts modern values such as individualism and self-expression the Amish receive a durable and visible ethnic identity” (pg. 68). The traditional community is quite separate from the outside world, with strong social capital, is known for keeping and sustaining their faith, identity, important beliefs, values, and communal behavior choices...
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...This memo provides an insight on why a board’s composition plays a crucial role to perform and function effectively and why board diversity has become increasingly necessary in order to add more value to the firm. The board’s composition is likely to impact how the board functions, how it makes its investment and financial decisions and how authority and influence are allocated and manifested within the board.[1] Each organisation has its own regulations and guidelines for the formation, roles and compensation of the management board as there is “no one size fits all” rule, they are largely governed by governmental regulations and other international regulatory bodies such as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC). Some positive relationships have been explored between the number of women, director ages, nationalities and other minorities on the board and the overall value of the firm. Being a household products and pharmaceutical company it is imperative for HouseDreams to incorporate measures to include more women on its board of directors thereby making it more diverse. This is because of the fact that women are the prime household decision makers and have a better understanding on the company’s target consumer. Boards with no or limited female membership may be weak in terms of understanding and connecting with the customer and workforce and offer limited encouragement to female employees. Based on...
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...Multiculturalism is a public policy approach for managing cultural diversity in a multi ethnic society, officially stressing mutual respect and tolerance for cultural differences within a country's borders. As a policy, multiculturalism emphasizes the unique characteristics of different cultures, especially as they relate to one another in receiving nations. The word was first used in 1957 to describe Switzerland, but came into common currency in Canada in the late 1960s. It quickly spread to other English-speaking countries. Looking at the term broadly, it is often used to describe societies, especially nations which have many distinct cultural groups, usually as a result of immigration. Citrin,J., Sears,D., Muste,C and Wong,C. (2001 p.249) describe multiculturalism as “the presence of people of diverse racial or ethnic backgrounds within a single polity.” This paper will look at the impact that multiculturalism has had on western societies and the different changes that have occurred in societies as a result of multiculturalism. It is very important to think about what we mean by ‘culture’ because it is the main part of ‘multiculturalism’. So, multiculturalism means that there are many different kinds of cultures in one society. This can lead to anxiety about the stability of national identity, yet it can also lead to cultural exchanges that benefit the cultural groups. Such exchanges range from major accomplishments in literature, art and philosophy to relatively token...
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...medicine, psychiatry, the prison system, and the human sciences in general. Specifically he focused on how these institutions relate to power interactions. For a time he was associated with structuralism, which is an intellectual movement in which the culture of humanity is semiotically analyzed. However he distanced himself from the structuralism movement after the 60s. He wrote on a wide array of topics from knowledge to power and discourse. He considered himself "Nietzschean" (Fox 169). In viewing his own system of philosophy this way, he rejected the postmodernist label attributed to him. In fact, he held that his work was in line with the modernity of the philosophies of Kant. In The History of Sexuality Foucault examined the role of sex and gender in power relations. This three volume series was published in 1984. In the first volume, Foucault explores the functioning of sexuality as a way to analyze the relationship between power and the science of sexuality. Foucault's History defined sexuality as "the set of effects produced in bodies, behaviors, and...
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...CHAPTER 7 DEVIANCE AND SOCIAL CONTROL Deviance 171 Social Policy and Social Control: Illicit Drug Use in Canada and Worldwide 193 What Is Deviance? 171 Explaining Deviance 175 Social Control 182 Conformity and Obedience 182 Informal and Formal Social Control Law and Society 186 Crime 185 187 Types of Crime 188 Crime Statistics 190 The Issue 193 The Setting 193 Sociological Insights 193 Policy Initiatives 193 Boxes RESEARCH IN ACTION: Street Kids 183 sOCIOLOGY IN THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY: Singapore: A Nation of Campaigns 186 TAKING SOCIOLOGY TO WORK: Holly Johnson, Chief of Research, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Statistics Canada 192 Cigarette smoking has become stigmatized in Canada. This newspaper advertisement, sponsored by Health Canada, reverses the typical advertising strategy of equating smoking with sexiness. 169 H eidi Fleiss was in her late twenties when she was arrested for operating a call girl service. At the time, her pediatrician father had reacted flippantly, “I guess I didn’t do such a good job on Heidi after all.” Later, he would be convicted of conspiring to hide profits from his daughter’s call girl ring. Fleiss had dropped out of school when she was sixteen and established a liaison with a playboyfinancier who gave her a Rolls-Royce for her twenty-first birthday. In her early twenties, Fleiss interned in the world of prostitution by working for Madame Alex (Elizabeth Adams)...
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...Running head: SUBTLE BIAS SHARED WITHIN AN AMERICAN SOCIAL CONSTRUCT Subtle Bias as a Social Construct In America May 28, 2012 Abstract An understanding of the subtle bias that affects our society is a form of humanistic deception. Although the norms in America appear to be uniform; we will see that biases are influenced by various social factors such as stereotype, prejudice, discrimination, and labeling including the Attribution Theory. This paper will compare and contrast scientific literature to gain more insight into the subtlety of this social construct. I am seeking not to understand the reason why we as social beings are bias, but to simply show that this distorted truth exist. Subtle Bias as a Social Construct In America My theory of unconscious bias along with the self-affirmation process that accompanies it clouds our worldview in our present society. We all do it no matter how accepting we appear to be or even claim to be. Irrational thoughts are usually based on a worldview that illustrates our interpretation of the world we live in (Wilson, 2001). This worldview is a set of assumptions and beliefs that we hold on to that guide our behavior. It helps us to make sense out of our lives. It determines what we think about human nature, causes of emotional issues, and where bias comes from (Entwistle, 2004). There is always some form of discriminatory behavior or covert prejudice prevailing within our essence. Unfortunately, there is a strong manipulative...
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...physical contact, along with others who are simply not interested in sex (Scherrer, 2008: 634), a discourse appears frequently in which self-identified asexuals participate. It is in this context where identity labels such as demisexual, hyposexual, romantic or aromantic asexual, hyporomantic, straight-A, gay-A, bi-A, grey-A, etc. take on meanings, as asexuals attempt to position themselves not only according to the genders of people to whom they experience romantic attraction, but also according to the degrees to which (and the ways in which) they do so (DeLuzio Chasin, 2011; 713). It is already clear from the language of asexuality that it positions itself as an alternative to sexual, instead of as an alternative to straight or queer, with significant variations in both ‘romantic orientation’ and the degree to which romantic and sexual attraction is, or is not experienced. While the emergence of asexuality as a separate identity has disturbed the limited equilibrium that has developed between heteronomativity and queer identities in the last few decades, asexual non-conformity to either hetero or queer normativity has resulted in asexual agitation against perceptions of sexual normativity in order...
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... related problems and those with regard to stigmatization? 3. Discuss the major differences in drug use among races and ethnicities. 4. Which age cohort is most likely to use drugs and why? 5. How are drug use and effects unique in the elderly? 6. Describe the social class correlates of drug use. CHAPTER OUTLINE______________________________________ I. Introduction A. Two correlates of drug use 1. Demographic-population categories, which have some relationship to drug use. I. Demographic Correlates of Drug Use A. Drug use is NOT distributed evenly throughout any society. B. Sex and gender correlates of drug use 1. Drug use affects men and women differently,...
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...EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In its basic form, negotiation is a method of conflict resolution. It is a problem-solving process in which two or more parties attempt to resolve their disagreement or conflict in a manner, and through a process, that is mutually agreeable. Whereas the general concept of negotiation is easy enough to understand, in practice it can be an extremely difficult proposition. Opposing views about what is right and wrong, disagreement on what is fair and equitable, understanding each other’s message and form of communication, and even the procedures that will be used to conduct negotiations are but a few of the hurdles that negotiators will encounter. Negotiation is further complicated when the parties find themselves negotiating across dissimilar cultures. Culture is a powerful factor in shaping how people think, communicate and behave. It therefore affects how they negotiate. In business arena, negotiations are crucial aspects of inter-organizational relationships like joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, licensing and distribution agreements, and sales of products and services. As the proportion of foreign to domestic trade increases, so does the frequency of business negotiations between people from different countries and cultures. To successfully manage these negotiations, businesspeople need to know how to influence and communicate with members of cultures other than their own. This paper investigates the impact of culture on negotiations. It begins...
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