Bullying in Your Genes

               This week’s article “The Politics of the Gene: Social Status and Beliefs about Genetics for Individual Outcomes” discusses the topic of our genes which give us our traits and helps us determine which characteristics we adopt in the end. The article discusses how there is the possibility that the genetics in races determine say how good someone is at math, athletics, tendency for violence, or their motivation. In class this week we also discussed cyber bullying and slightly touched on bullying in general. With the article in mind, you could say that a bully is determined by their genetics. However in class we discussed cyber bullying and some videos (and from my own personal experience) we were able to see how everyone is a bully in some form or another in their life and/or online. Personally I do not believe that genetics are a determining factor on whether or not someone will become a bully. I believe this because I have seen how people who are raised in a very positive and non hostile environment whose parents and grandparents seem like the most kind people around and how those people still have the possibility to tear someone down and be a bully. If one were to argue that being a bully is already in our genes then that person would also have to say that we all have that gene already because I have seen most everyone in some form or another be a bully.

Smoking is Just as Bad as Fast Food

Social norms are, and always will be, evolving to fit what the society and that culture wants at that time. Smoking used to be one of the largest agriculture products in the United States at one time, and it has chronically declined with the invention of better healthcare techniques and the realization that smoking is actually bad for you. While flipping through one of my Mom’s old high school year books, I saw someone smoking on almost every single page and I questioned if smoking really was that big back then. She told me how every magazine had an advertisement in it and many tobacco brands advertised to young children. I thought about how I really have never truly seen an advertisement for smoking and came to the realization that it was because of my generation had put a bad rep on smoking which basically has almost wiped it out (compared to what it used to be). My mom then questioned how smoking was so common only 20-30, or even less years ago, and how it had came to being such a disgusting and socially unacceptable habit. I then again realized that there will never be a situation where a previous generation is not confused or shocked by a new set of social parameters introduced by the following generation.

            We put ourselves with our social norms so that we can basically defy our previous or parental generations and then when the time comes to rethink these social norms and to open up to new norms it is extremely difficult, no matter what the case. Although smoking may have gone downward when the generation just before me had questioned it, almost all of the generations before had questioned it. Now comes a time that I can directly relate a generation adjusting to a new social norm because the generation just above me is currently trying to readjust to the evolving social norm of eating healthier. For the past 20 years it has been the norm that it was okay to eat fast food in large quantities and to “pig out” on whatever we want. Now the social norms are shifting, just like how the norms of smoking had too around 20 years ago. My generation is now in the position that the generation just above me was with smoking; we are trying to change the social norms of eating extremely unhealthy not necessarily for our own benefit, but to actually defy the generations above us who have been eating extremely unhealthy foods. All in all I believe that our social norms are every changing and each generation seems to want to "one up" the previous.

I thought this was a good depiction of how a social norm has changed. This 100 lady is shown lighting her cigarette up, which would have been the social norm when she was younger. However in the past 20 years it has changed to which it is looked down upon if you smoke.


-Tommy Harvey

I will be turning in a Castelli Coupon tomorrow before class, again I apologize for my blogs being so late. I followed the rubrics and the stuff you wrote out for me when I have came in early directly as you have put it so I can achieve all if not as many of the points as possible.

Culture Shocked by the Yanomamo

In the beginning of this article there was a very strong display of ethnocentrism by the author who gave a harshly critical description of the Yanomamo value system when he first arrived. I think that the Yanomamo provided a very good example of a culture that was very primitive which helped show extremely clear effects of culture shock and the value system of a culture that has barely even been touched by the ever evolving outside world’s influence. For me, I found that the author’s experience of culture shock was actually not that surprising. Normally one would think that being an anthropologist, you would be able to expect things and not be that affected if not at all affected by a culture shock. However the author was not immune from it and I don’t think that anyone who has lived in a non-primitive culture like the Yanomamo will ever be immune from it either.

            Another thing that I was fascinated by was how the Yanomamo’s culture was much more based on respect, NOT violence, although at times I could see how one may see it as violence. I was fascinated by this because it made me think of how our culture was once based on respect, or at least more so based on respect than it is now. As time moves on, our culture has moved away from respect (not necessarily respect through violence) towards one that is based on the trust with others and our honesty we have with others on the hierarchy of social values.

            In class we watched a film on Peter and Santino, two boys who moved from Africa to the United States where they tried to start up a new life. Peter and Santino experienced the culture shock that I was previously talking about that comes from the respect that we have inherently gotten and give to each other. With their culture, they were used to respecting their elders, neighbors, and all people as family while when they came to the United States they experienced a great culture shock because we do not treat strangers or even some of our closer neighbors as family. Instead we treat out neighbors and others with a respect that we have inherently gotten.  The connection between culture shock and ethnocentrism are very close and it is clear that the more ethnocentric you are, then the more of a culture shock you will experience.

I thought that this picture was a funny example of different people experiencing culture shock.

-Tommy Harvey

I apologize for this blog and my next blog being so late, I have been having trouble with how to write this and the next blog because I wanted to do as good as I possibly could on both. I will turn in two "Castelli Coupons" when I turn these blogs in tomorrow.