Power and Control: Elective Outcome

Power is the ability to get others to feel, think and act by your own exertions over others.

 

There are many aspects of power and control, within our lives and within cultures. Social control can happen between parents and children, influences by our governments and media to maintain and power over a society. In sociology it is referred to as ideological control, and it can happen in an overt or subtle way. It seems today in the United States, government and media are more and more tied together to maintain power over the people in respect to the Iraq war. The less the media shows images from the war and reports on the war, the less the American people pay attention, but you can show Britney Spears over and over, and people pay attention and talk about it. If the media showed more and more caskets with American flags, then the government's power over us, would be less. The idea of power and social control relate directly to the speech and language unit. This social mechanism is used to create conformity and group behavior. An example of the idea of using social control and norms to create conformity, is after 9/11 and when the Bush Administration decided to go to war in Iraq. 9/11 rallied the United States together, and made people more united, the Bush Administration used this patriotism to start an unnecessary war. But at the time, if anyone spoke out against the decision to go to war, it was a social norm at the time, to be called unpatriotic. The Bush Administration used the united country after 9/11 to to create norms of compliance, and social control through the media to keep people from talking out.

 

Control can be seen by laws, rules, and regulations. institutions are used to enforce laws, and these are a more direct, or formal form of control. But norms, myths, traditions, values are indirect, or informal forms of control, and it can be more powerful and successful. Power can take many forms. On large scales or small scale, from social control inside a family, a mother teaching a child what is right or wrong, uses norms and values, to achieve "good" behavior from their children. For anthropology it is an important aspect to study. It involves the norms, values, and traditions of a culture, and who in the culture holds the power. And the what extent the culture holds power over its people. To me it seems that all aspects of our lives are results of someone else's control over another. The institutions of school shaping what children think based on states guidelines of learning. Children, at home holding values that their parents want to instill in them, and probably traditions that were passed to them by their parents. All actions are in a way one person enacting power upon another. Again, we can see that in the speech and discourse unit, when we speak something it is an action, and that action is an exertion of power over another, or a struggle of power, that is seen in arguments.

As individuals make decisions and they effect others lives this is the point of power anthropologists watch, because this is the point when social structures have power. Hegemony is when one social group take power and advantage over all others. The hegemonic power has its hands in the formal and informal mechanisms of control, and the Formal mechanisms are used to enforce the informal ones. The Hegemonic aspect in our society are corporations. The have control over many aspects of our society. They try to build a society of consumerism through magazines, movies, commercials, so that we always want to buy, in essence making them more and more of a profit. Through commercials they give us our cultural ideas, and exercise social control. We go to school and are taught to behave and not think outside of the box, so we can fix inside of corporate boxes and be the busy obedient worker, that wont throw a wrench into the situation.

I think that most of our lives are examples of social control. The informal and formal mechanisms of control. Society dictates to us what we should do,  the paths we need to take to succeed, and if we do not follow that we can fail. If we do not take certain paths we can be looked down upon or shunned by society. We are given social roles and norms to follow, to make sure we all can be categorized and behave to our society's standard, and these things are ingrained in us by our schools, parents, and other institutions.

Ethnographic Exercise: Language, Speech and Discourse

Ethnographic Exercise: Words and Power

Concept Map

The event that I have chosen to observe, has to do with a few elements. I went to a class during lunch about a film called the Power of Nightmares, a British film, that was aired on the BBC around the world, but censored here in America. The fact that the film was censored was intriguing. It makes you think, there is something in this film, that people in power in the US do not want people to see. It shows the power that these words have. The film is about how the government, from the Reagan to Bush administration have used tactics of fear to scare the American people, and exercise power over them. The film discuss the similarities between the fundamental Islamic terrorists and the fundamental Neo-Conservatives in the United States. 

I watched the film on the Sierra campus the first time, and re watched the film at home with my father. The concept map is the ideology that the present Bush Administration uses to create fear in the American people and gain control and power. It only takes a small word like terrorist to spur a great deal of reactions. It reflects the ideology of fear, but has a great deal of more meaning and web of complexity. The word terrorism for America after 9/11 has been ingrained in us by the media and the government to mean, someone of Middle Eastern descent, that wants to blow up our buildings, because they hate the freedom that Americans have. Terrorism now goes hand and hand with Osama Bin Laden, and for a great deal of Americans, Iraq. It has created fear and racial tensions in American society. After 9/11 there were hate crimes against anyone who resembled the skin tone of someone of Arabic descent. This idea of terrorism, and the use of it to create fear and norms in our society, is an ignorant one. But it shows the power that words can have. Although, terrorism is a real threat, it does not include all the things that have been ignorantly associated with it now. 

This film is a documentary, and is not propaganda or false, it is just a different look into the idea of terrorism. The use of the word terrorism in itself, is propaganda or can even be considered a meme. it is part of an idea unit or mind virus, for most terrorist was a thing that no one really knew about or even thought about. But as the word was transmitted through the TV into our home and our minds, it was a word that was on our tongues and started to create ideas in our minds, and began to grow. Then we would talk about it within our families and friends, and the ideas and the words would grow, and would take on a life of its own. 

It in essence, was used to gain support of the people and to make people live in fear so they do not ask questions. After 9/11, i remember questioning, the war in Iraq and how that was tied to 9/11, but I was called unpatriotic and looked down upon by my friends. Discourse could not be entered into, with 9/11 and the Iraq war, there were only certain things that could be said or discussed without becoming an outcast or being looked upon as unpatriotic. I was only in high school, but the ideologically control was already evident. It just shows how strongly people can be controlled by words and fear. When I went to the showing of this film, a lot of people got up  and left and were upset about things the film was saying. That shows the strength of the ideology that has been created and the ignorance it can breed. Some people would not allow their reality to be changed by this film.

This directly relates to the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis that are language shapes the way we perceive reality. If we are only given certain words and ideas about something, we can only see the world through those terms. In relation to terrorism. We are told, terrorist are Fundamental Muslim, they are from the Middle East, they hate America and want to harm us. Terrorists want to impose their ideology on us, they hate our freedom and democracy. If we are given these words, that anything that fits into any part of this we become judgemental towards. The fact that these words were given to us, it made it okay for most Americans to go into Iraq, because it is the Middle East and that is were terrorists are from. This shapes how we see the world, how we react to someone that is Muslim or from the Middle East. Words are a powerful thing, it shapes how people view other people, how we view situations, words have the power to take us to war, and words have the power of creating fear. In terms of the Speech Act theory what people say can determine how things happen and have a transformative effect on how others act. It is important to understand the context in which people are using language, is it to change your perspective? To command you to do something or do they have an expectation of you? When looking at language with the idea that it has the ability to shape your reality and perspective, you realize how much control speech and language has in your life. it plays into the role of enculturation and power and control. Subtle words and propaganda that one tacitly experience has a greater act. And people are constantly enacting control over you with only words. 

I think that the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is a theory that works in reality, it is easy to understand, and observe this happen in your own life. The idea that your speech and language shapes your perspective on the reality around you is crazy, but true.  We are limited to think and express ourselves by the words and language we know. For example, my boyfriend is Croatian and that is his first language. Sometimes he wants to express something to me, but he tells me we don't have words in English that can express what he wants to say. Something that would take paragraphs and paragraphs in English, and still couldnt quite describe a feeling they have one word in Croatian to encompass it. Its an idea I sometimes cannot wrap my head around, but it is because my language limits my perspective and shapes what I can think about or even feel. For him, Croatian has a depth in meaning and more words to express emotions than English has, his perception and the language he has to express emotion, is vast!

Perspective and Experience

SHORT ESSAY 

Cultural shock pertains to being immersed into a foreign culture or situation, and a person is forced to cope with the situation without having the tools to cope or understanding. Culture shock, is in fact a shock to the system. Because culture is something that can be so tacit, we do not realize all the small things that we changed suddenly, can affect our system. A personal example of culture shock happened to me this summer. My boyfriend and I returned to his country, Croatia. We had been travelling through Europe for a month before we arrived there. We had stayed in hotels and with his family in all of the other countries we traveled, but in Croatia, the most inexpensive and customary way for travellers to stays is in the homes of people, especially in the tourist destinations. The bus drives you from the airport to the main city, in this case Dubrovnik. It is typical that once the tourist get off the bus, those who have empty apartments or rooms in their houses, come to the bus stop to show the tourists their spaces. So the bus stopped, and we gathered our bags, and as the bus doors opened, their were many people saying apartments, apartments, follow me, follow me. So my boyfriend who speaks the language found a lady and we began to follow, we were walking fast to her apartment, she was speaking in Croatian the whole time, having a conversation with my boyfriend. It was night and we were walking through the crowds down ally ways finally coming up to stairs where the apartment was located. She told us the price and told us to have a look around. By this time I was in complete shock, i couldnt breathe, my heart was racing, and I could barely speak. Our culture here, tells us to be on guard, to be weary of strangers, especially in foreign countries, and to keep to yourself. After I experienced a panic attack, my boyfriend and I left, sat down at a pizza place. He explained to me that it was costumary, that people rent rooms to make extra money, that most apartments are registered, and that it is normal. After that night, we found another apartment in a villa with a nice couple. They were the friendliest people, made us feel at home, and offered us drinks and to have a conversation with them. They gave us good beach spots and made our trip to Dubrovnik wonderful. But the panic that set in to the intial culture shock, is something i will always remember. This just goes to show, that when traveling to other countries and being immersed in other cultures is not an easy thing. One needs to be educated on those things that might be a shock to their system, to prepare yourself for the experience.

If a person has an idea, given to them by their culture it is deeply engrained. If another culture goes against those ideas, we might look upon something as negative, even though it is not negative, but just different than how one culture views things. For me, walking into a stranger's home to sleep and be safe was negative. But in this culture, opening your home and welcoming people in, is seen as natural and polite. Once I became familiar with the idea and values, I saw it in a different perspective.

This idea plays into ethnocentricism, being too attached to one's own culture. Putting your own culutre, ideas, and beliefs above another. And to go further, thinking one's own culture is more superior or more advanced than another. Thinking that your culture is right and the other culture is wrong, because it differs from your own. We take our view of life that as been impressed upon us by society as the best way of live or the best view of life. When you are ethnocentric, you view the world only through the lens of your own culture, and are not able to imagine life through someone else's point if view. Ethnocentricism is inevitably and negative. Cultural relativism tries to remedy this by saying there is no way to not judge another culture by one's own standards, there is no way to look upon another culture with out bias, therefore, we must suspend all judgement with observing other cultures. This idea cause trouble and conflicts with human rights perspective, because relativism negates human rights, for example the practice of female gential mutilation or arranged marriages. The conversation goes, like this between relativism and human rights perspective. Human rights perspective says, female genital mutilation is wrong, it goes against the rights of women and is a backwards practice, those people being violated need help. Relativists will say, there is no way you can judge, it is a different culture, and it has a meaning in their culture, you cannot look upon that practice and judge it based on what your culture says is right or wrong......

Ethnography

Methodology is a set of procedures used in anthropology to create order to the things the study. Its a formal classification. Methodology is categorized into two sub fields: qualitative and quantitative. Quantitative are the things that can be counted and represented as data. Qualitative methods focus on the qualities and characteristics of an object or event that cannot be counted or represented as numerical data.  Methodology is important in the general social science fields. Empiricism can play an important part in the foundation for anthropological methodology. It means that the "stuff" anthropologists talk about are observed through sight, conversations, etc. There is a further discussion of philosophy in anthropology which is that of realism vs. idealism. Realism is used here, because it refers to those things which are observed in reality, those things that we can find in observation and interactions. The fact that anthropologist base their ideas on those things that are seen and that are "real". But as the empirical, quantitative methodology happens, qualitative measures are incorporated and used in Ethnography. 

Ethnography is qualitative research methodology to study cultures. Some ethnographic methods used are interviews, conversations, surveys, observations and participation. Ethnographers study abroad to study cultures and participate in the culture as well as observe to get a good understanding of what key aspects of the culture are and to gather information. They may observe a ritual or celebration, interview people, survey them on different aspects of their lives. Ethnographers uses empirical data, but rely heavily upon the qualitative experience to learn about culture. They throw or immerse themselves into the culture to understand key aspects. Ethnography is not only used to learn about others cultures, but to see the relation between your culture and the culture you are studying. To see the differences and similarities, it helps to bring a holistic view and create a open mind.

The findings of ethnographers are usually recorded in the form of writings or a representation of a culture.  Writings can be a tricky subject when recording ethnographic research, because writings can often take on a certain bias, of one's own culture over the culture one might be researching. Dialogue and quotes become important in conveying the culture in the writing without the writers bias and personal ideas.

The Concept of Culture

Culture, a word that is so personal to everyone. Culture can be something you this about of something you do not even realize is a part of you. Culture, to me, are beliefs we hold, the clothes we wear, how we see beauty, things we hold important. Culture are our traditions, the food we eat, and how we eat it. The smells, colors, sounds you hear on a daily basis. Whether its birds chirping or sirens at midnight. Culture deals with the places we call home and what home means. Culture can be a big as a whole society or what happens inside of a family. Culture is whether or not you kiss your loved one in a park on a sunny day, or if you see that as disgraceful. Culture by definition is the learned and shared knowledge that people use to generate behavior and interpret experience. 

In my own experience, culture is what makes a person, whether or not you identify with your culture, it dictates your experiences. But culture is a changing thing. As I have travelled to various countries in Europe, i find that each place i go and each culture i experience, i pick something up and it becomes important to me and relative to my life. I build that upon things I've learned or use it to reevaluate things i have learned. Culture is a combination of experience and reflection. Enculturation is the process by which we learn our culture.  Because we all know, we are not born with culture but learn it as we grow. Culture is all around us, so by engaging in society, living in different groups we are constantly learning culture. As a baby you are with your family all the time, they are teaching you about life, bestowing their culture upon you, then you get older and go to school. Children learn culture from their teachers, what is right and wrong, then they learn things from the peers and create groups where cultures combine and new culture is created. Television imparts culture upon you. When you grow older and are in relationships, your partners culture rubs off on you. Because culture is everywhere, we are constantly being affected, so the process of enculturation never ends and is constantly happening.

We are constantly in contact with culture, and the ways in which culture is imparted upon us, happens in different ways. Cultural analysis helps the anthropologist to break down culture in terms of elements in order to understand it more clearly.There are two different kinds of culture, explicit and tacit culture. Explicit culture is cultural knowledge that people can talk about, its those obvious things about your culture. Most importantly explicit culture is what anthropologists use the to make observations, and understand cultures and can help them discover important key words and objects in culture. Words in a culture, either written or spoken, help to discover and understand cultures. Tacit culture is culture that is not expressed, its subtle, and not clear from just observations. Tacit culture can be seen in speaking differences, in the book it speaks about the different sound differences. In the United States, most people speak English, but from coast to coast, accents and pronunciation of words distinguish culture and geographical regions. Tacit culture can only be seen through behavioral observation. Culture can be words you pick up from a friends to a certain way you view the world. I was a nanny for a while, and the little girl I watch picked up culture when she started kindergarten. Her favorite show when she was still at home all the time was Dora the Explorer, she was on her on and enjoyed the show. She started in kindergarten in the fall, and her new "best friends" we little boys. She came home, and i asked her, would you like to watch Dora, and she said, nope! Dora is for little girls, I don't like girlie things. She had learned the show she watched was for girls, and because she was associating with boys more, she had picked up their ideas, that the show was for babies and little girls only.

culture is our guide to experience the world. it shapes our views.

culture events involve the arrangement of knowledge, practices and artifacts. it is a time when culture is exchanged, ideals, values, beliefs, thoughts are exchanged. The objects, spaces, actions are also important during a cultural event. These cultural events give life, shape to our experiences and life and further interactions. During my trip to Europe I took part in a cultural event, that is an experience, that I do not experience often, but that shapes the lives of people. When I was in Paris, it was the morning and we woke up and started walking down the street, we heard loud noises and their was a large group of people in the street. Their were police standing and watching the people. The people were chanting in French, they were laughing and talking, holding up signs, with the newly elected President Sarokzy. Cars were stopping and honking, smiling and going on. The French are known for protesting political matters that they do not like or agree with. That was something that I have never seen happen in the US. We had stopped and asked what was going on, the young man told us, that we were near the Sorbonne, which is a university in Paris, and they were having a protest against the newly elected President that they did not like. I thought something was wrong, but he informed us that protest happen all the time. Protesting is something that the French value. Having a voice and using it to influence change, is an ideal that they have had since the French Revolution. The idea that they could stand in the middle of Paris and make a statement, getting the people involved. There were many children with the parents, that had stopped to listen to the protest. For a child walking by, seeing this empowers them, and changes how they view themselves in a political system, and implants the idea that you can stand up for your rights. In another country, that might not be as acceptable. In the US, where we have freedom of speech, that is not something we see. It is a cultural event that is inherent in the Parisian culture. It is an cultural event that shapes their view and shapes how they influence things.

Culture is important, there are so many different cultures worldwide, that differ from each other so much. But once you have a look inside the culture, and understand the meaning behind beliefs and behavior, it brings depth to the people and the culture. Something you might have looked at as strange, becomes clearer and the importance of objects, ideas, beliefs becomes meaningful, and full of substance.