100 people population report

We discussed in class a lot about what 100 people would be like if they made up the whole population of the world. I found a great youtube video that puts the statistics into a visual aid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdOY5fGKE7w

This video is put out by a website www.100people.org. It's purpose is to find 10,000 people and schools that represent what the world is really like. They encourage people to nominate others in hopes to find a sample of 10,000 people that really embody what the population is representative of. I thought this website and video was really cool because they took some simple statistics and turned them into a whole idea about community and uniqueness.

I also thought that this link was really interesting:
http://persquaremile.com/2011/01/18/if-the-worlds-population-lived-in-one-city/

it talks about how if all the people in the world fit into certain cities they would be certain sizes based on their density. For example if everyone in the world lived in NYC it would be the size of Texas because it is a really dense city. This website shows us a visual description about population density and the population in the world. I thought it related to our class because we talked a lot about population and the effects that migration, density, and relations have on different cultures. It would be really interesting if everyone in the world lived in one city.

Life History Project

I am really glad that I got to do this assignment. It really gave me an idea of who my grandmother was back when she was younger. I dont think that we take enough time to get to really know who are grandparents are. In reality they have so much wisdom and experience about life. By hearing the stories my grandmother told me I have such a better understanding about why she is the way she is today. I knew that my grandmother had a really interesting and event life but I never knew about all the stuff they went through during the war. My grandmother must be a really strong person because she had to go through things that no one should ever endure. I have a ton of respect for her and her family. Overall this project was great! I'm really happy that I could hear those stories from my grandmother, she truly is an inspiration to me!

White Privilege

I thought this article brought up a few very good points about how we still have some segregation between races even though we might not recognize it. One of the quote was really interesting to me it said: "If these things are true, this is not such a free country;
one’s life is not what one makes it; many doors open for certain people through no virtues of their own." I like this quote from the article because it is really true. Some people especially white people are offered more opportunities solely based on the fact that they are white! This is a terrible injustice and one that I dont think a lot of people really think about. The list of about 26 opportunities that white people are afforded really made me think. I would have never thought about the color of bandaids as being a race segregation but it really is. Overall this article did a really good job making me think about how different opportunities are afforded to different races and how this hurts us all in the end.

Race

I would agree that "Race evolved as a world view, a body of prejudgements that distorts our ideas about human indifference." this statement truly defines for me what I consider to be a huge problem in our society. We know the perceptions that are associated with every race and we instantly judge these people because of it. I think that we should get rid of the term "race" and instead use the word ethnicity. A person who is known as "white" has the possibility to be thousands of different ethnicities. Instead of "african- american" "white" "asian" and "middle-eastern" we should look at people based on their ethnicity and not on their race. It can't be denied that people are different but we need to label them differently and then we might have a better interaction between people.

Federally Sponsored Mexican Migrants

I thought It was really interesting about how the latino population was ever growing in North Carolina. The static that says, "In North Carolina the migrant population doubled between 1990 and 1997" really supports this fact. I am from Durham, NC. I live in what is known as "the triangle" which is three cities: Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill. The amount of Mexican Immigrants living in the triangle is astounding. There are a lot of jobs in the area and the cost of living (especially slightly outside the triangle) is relatively low. Because of the high amount of mexican immigrants in the area a new "business" has opened in the triangle. there are now countless mexican grocery stores, authentic mexican restaurants and other services directly marketed to the Mexican population. There is a public elementary school near my house that has a majority of latino children. I think the influx of mexican people in my area is a really great thing! It provides a lot more diversity and new things to learn or try!

Just Another Job?

I thought this article on domestic help was really interesting. It is too often true that people hire the illegal immigrants to do their household chores and then treat them poorly. My family has a maid that comes in twice a week to clean our house. While my family is well off enough to pay for a maid we hired her on the basis that my parents dont have time to clean the house due to the time that their jobs require. Our maid is a part of our family like described in the article. We pay her well and refer her to our neighbors. It had been really interesting to see how her business has bloomed over the years. When she first started cleaning our house she would come by herself or with her son. Now she has two other ladies that she has employed because her demand and business has grown. I wouldn't like to have a maid if I didn't feel like we treated her well and paid her well also. Like described in this article our maid has grown to be a part of the family and is truly valued in it.

Tourism Matters

I thought the reference to tourism in Cuba was really interesting in this article! I took a class on Cuba last year and we discussed how tourism affects the communist country in depth. In a country where everyone is supposed to be an "equal" the tourism industry sets people apart from each other. The people who work in the tourism industry are automatically of a higher class level because they get tips and paid in American dollars. This creates a huge class divide. There is the really poor (which is the majority of the country) and the really rich (which is the tourism workers). I think this is a huge problem with the tourism industry. Tourism does matter though because it does provide a huge economic impact on the country! As mentioned in the article the tourism industry in the dominican republic provides a lot of income for the government a its people.

The Kayapo Resistance

I thought this article was really interesting because of the resistance and fight the kayapo tribe put up to keep their land. I have never heard about this tribe before but It is amazing to me that such a tribe still exists. We see this a very primitive but in a way it is cool that on the same planet we have highly developed and not developed at all cultures. We view our culture as the best one. The one that everyone should model because we think its the best. And while I dont this this is a necessarily bad thing I think its important to remember that we live in a world with many different cultures. The fact that the kayapo tribe is still so present is a true testament to their strength and the ability of the culture.

T-shirt Travels

I never knew that the clothes we donate to good will and the salvation army are then sold off to someone in Africa! This movie really surprised me and made me somewhat upset. I understand that people are using second hand clothes as a business but the fact that the clothing manufacturing/infrastructure in Africa is completely gone makes me angry. With out this business Africa would be able to create an industry and help the funds in their country. Even though I had no idea this business went on as I thought more about it I realized that on a recent trip to Nicaragua I found the same thing! The school children had shirts on that ranged from football teams to cartoon characters, all of them were american t-shirts. I imagine that the same thing in Nicaragua happens as it does in Africa. This industry does nothing but hurt the small companies and the people and boost the large companies that sell the used clothes!

Cell Phones and Africa

I thought the point about how people infer cellphone use was a really interesting one! They talked about how people would become upset if the person they were dating or had a friendship back only texted them because they didn't have the credits to call them. This seems kind of crazy to me but at the same time the more I think about it the more it seems like some of the cell phone etiquette we have here. First of all I know that when I text someone I expect a response within about five minutes. I know that I expect an immediate response because I usually give an immediate response. Also when it comes to calling someone like my mom I tend to get annoyed if she doesn't pick up. She usually picks up when I call so want her to pick up the phone every time I call. Another interesting thing about the article was the "flashing" aspect. I think its really creative of the people to think about something like flashing. The culture of cell phones has drastically changed our perspective of the world and its crazy to think that it has only happened in the past 8 or 9 years!

Globalization and Culture

I thought the article about globalization was really interesting because it brought up a bunch of different ideas. The most interesting. I thought it was interesting how they mentioned that every culture shouldn't necessarily blend with every other culture. I feel like a lot of time everyone thinks that every culture needs to be a part of every other culture.That was should live in a world where everyone knows or believes a part of every culture. And yes, while I think its important i dont think that we should lose site of the fact that each culture brings something different to the table. Each different culture is what makes our world unique. I think every culture should be respectful of every culture but I don't think every culture needs to be similar to every other culture. If each culture is the same then our world would be extremely boring.

The Berdache Tradition

The idea that the native americans have basically three genders is really interesting to me. I have never heard of the berdache gender before this article. One of the points that i think really reigns true in our culture is that gender is directly defined by your physical anatomy. I recently read an article that commented on the children who are born one gender but early on in their lives associate with the other sex. The question is do you let your child live they way they identify the most with or the gender that they are physically. This is actually a really refreshing article that shows someone, who we would call transgendered, as someone who is somewhat looked up to in the society. It said that in the Native American society the berdaches are considered the dreamers and visionaries in the society. I was impressed by this article. I think we as americans need to read this article and think more about how we treat everyone in our society.

First Person Plural

The movie "First Person Plural" was a really interesting movie that was sad yet happy at the same time. I cannot even imagine the fear she must have felt when she got off the plane in the United States. All of the sudden she was forced into a completely new culture and new family. The adoption part of the movie was really happy! She was able to get a family who loved here. In my own life I have seen the great things that can be gotten through adoption. My neighbors recently adopted a little girl from korea. She is so happy it makes me really glad to see that my neighbors have such a huge impact in her life. My aunt and uncle also adopted four children from Colombia. They were unable to get pregnant and decided they wanted to adopt a child. After speaking with the adoption agency they were put in contact with this family. My oldest cousin was around 12 when he was adopted. It is amazing to me that my aunt and uncle adopted these children that were already so old. Most people want to adopt babies, instead, they adopted a 12 year old, a 10 year old, a 8 year old and a 6 year old. I think this example shows the true beauty in adoption
The sad part about this movie was the fact that she had a family in korea that had to give her up because they couldn't afford to feed her. No mom should have to give up her own baby due to lack of resources. The moment in the movie when they met was really heartbreaking. The thing that made me the most sad was the fact that her biological mother can never make up the time that she lost with her daughter. Regardless if they see each other a lot now she can never make up that time. This was the most heartbreaking part of the movie. Overall I thought this movie did a really great job at explaining a tough situation.

Elderly In America

This article brought up a really interesting point about how Americans treat the elderly. It is crazy almost criminal the lack of respect that american have for the elderly. You too often hear people talking about putting their elderly parents in a home. Like she said in her article this would have never even crossed a japanese person's mind. There they are held with such high respect and regarded as someone who can give wisdom. I think a lot of the problem is that the US government acts as though the elderly dont exist. When I went to visit my great aunt and uncle in the Netherlands I was astonished at just how good they were taken care of. They government pays for most of their medical bills, some of their rent and utilities. They even make sure that each elderly household has high-speed internet. The government needs to take better care of the elderly after all they raised us!

In Sickness and in Wealth

The movie we watched called "In Sickness and in Wealth" highlighted a lot of good points about health in America. I too think there is a huge distinction between classes health wise. The fact that someone who makes six digits has a life expectancy around 7 years more than someone who is below the poverty line is amazing to me. People who are below the poverty line have less resources medically than someone who has more money. This is really unfair in my eyes. It is really sad that someone who has so much stress in life because of their money problems has to be physically sick. The stress put on lower income families is immense. They always have to wonder about having enough money or providing enough food for everyone. One thing that made me really upset though was when the lady who was living in SSI and Disability said something about how she didn't want to find a job because she didn't want her healthcare benefits to be taken from her. I think this is a big problem in todays society. The government offers programs such as medicaid and some people decide that they would rather not work because they like the benefits. Why can't these services be offered as an incentive for employment? Someone who works minimum wage to support their family probably deserves those programs more than someone who just sits by and waits for her check. This scene opened up a huge loophole in the government that I think needs to be fixed!

Visual Anthropology

The idea of visual Anthropology is an interesting one. The article "Applying Visual Research Patients Teaching Physicians Through Visual Illness Narratives" made me think a lot about how pictures and movies can be used in the study of Anthropology. It is one thing for an anthropologist to ask questions, observe and even take their own pictures but another when the people of a certain culture take pictures. The results provide anthropologists a whole new look at each culture. Before they were just observers of a certain culture now they are a part of that culture. This method of visual anthropology also allows people of a culture to take pictures and videos of what was really important to them. By giving sick people a camera they can choose what they define their illness as. When they anthropologists can see what is important a person who is sick they can begin to formulate what might be important and try to tailor needs and treatments towards these people.

Healthcare

I thought the article brought up a few good points about healthcare. I personally believe that everyone should have equal access to healthcare and I think our country is falling behind in this aspect. I once saw a documentary about people who lived in Canada but near the border between the US. They refused to ever set foot in the US because they were afraid if they got hurt they would have to pay a lot more than the government provided healthcare that Canada offers. I think that people shouldn't have to "wait till it gets bad" in order to go to a doctor just because they can't afford it. The stories from the people in the article were heartbreaking because no person should have to suffer with an illness just because they can't afford help or they don't get treated right at a community hospital. The opening few paragraphs of the article bothered me though. They cited some (to me) extreme quotes and data. Like: "the risk of premature death is higher, with uninsured non-elderly adults being 20–50 percent more likely to die than those with health coverage." This bothered me first of all because everyone is going to die and what makes people who are non insured more likely to die early? Are they genetically programed to get sick because they don't have healthcare? I guess it might make sense in the fact that people who don't have healthcare are less likely to go to the doctor therefore more likely to get sick. However, there are a lot of lurking variables that might come into play in some of these statistics.

Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? - Response

This article brought up a very interesting topic of ethnocentrism. Often, as Americans we believe that our culture is far superior and therefore is the "right" way to do things. That of course is not to say that other cultures aren't just a ethnocentric towards our culture. This example shows a strong discrepancy between our American culture and the Middle Eastern culture. I thought it was really interesting what Laura Bush said about how one of the main reasons for starting the war was to "liberate" the afgani women. To me it seems that these women cover because they want to respect their family, their culture and their religion. I bet if you asked an afgani woman if she liked to wear the burka she would talk about how it is respectful to her family. I think this is very commendable. The burka might be viewed here as a restrictive, oppressive piece of clothing but in the middle east the women who wear them are high regarded. This article really hits home the point that different isn't always bad.

Tattoo Juicing

This article was interesting as well as pretty comical. I always considered a tattoo parlor as a place where I really wouldn't want to spend much time. Now that i've read this article I think it would be fun to see what a tattoo parlor is really about. A tattoo parlor is a culture of its own. I am not a tattoo person so the thought of going to a tattoo parlor scares me a little bit. I thought the concept of juicing was really interesting. It makes sense that they would have to be extra nice and cautious when it comes to such a permeant thing like tattooing. The idea of juicing made me a little upset though. If I were to go and get a tattoo I would always be wondering if they were being fake and "juicing" me. I understand that tattooing is just as much a business as selling clothes but I would want the person who was about to permanently mark my body to be sincere. This article was interesting but it made me much less likely to get a tattoo because of the juicing concept.

Communication and Anthropology

This article brings up a lot of good points about communication and how it has evolved over time. Now that we have all this technology it is like having an entirely new culture to explore. From cell phones and texting to skype and "web lingo," a whole new culture has been born. This article caused me to think a lot about how I use technology. I find myself texting people because its easier and then I don't have to have a lengthy conversation with them. This article points out that texting and IM provide continuous conversation throughout the day. The thing that I like about texting is that I can respond when I want to but also I can get directly to the point of what I need. If I want to have an actual conversation with someone then I will call them. I also thought the information about how immigrants use technology more creatively was really interesting. Since I can't go home a lot, I find myself using skype to talk to my parents. Its really nice to actually see them as opposed to just talking to them on the phone! Overall, It was really interesting to learn about how technology is being introduced into our society. Technology is quickly advancing and I know in 10 years our iphones and computers will be considered old and out-dated.

Fieldwork on Prostitution in the Era of Aids- Response

This article provided an insiders look into the lives of prostitutes, something that most people try to ignore. In todays society people try to sweep prostitution and human trafficking under the rug and pretend that it does not exist. Sterk, however, allowed us an interesting look at the era of prostitution. One thing that was particularly interesting to me was that the world of prostitution is truly a culture of its own. Sterk talked about the different types of prostitutes: the street walker, the hooked prostitutes, the prostituting addicts and the crack prostitutes and how each one of them provides a layer in their culture. She also highlights the relationship between the prostitutes and the pimps. It is still unfathomable to me how the men in this "society" treat the women as if they were a commodity or an investment. Overall this article highlighted the life of prostitution as a culture in society. Stark did a great job of letting us into a world that we don't often see. I was also impressed with her courage to go up and talk to the women. The world of prostitution is not a warm and inviting one so for her to reach out and interview the prostitutes is commendable. I hope that this article made people think about prostitution and its detrimental effects on our society.