Who ever thought we would talk about toilets in class?

This week in sociology we talked of material and non material items along with different cultural uses for language, signs, and many other everyday activities we don;t even stop to think about. For example, in America, if you hold up your hand with your thumb and index finger making a circle with the other three fingers sticking out, it usually means OK. Now, try doing that in Italy. You may not have reallized this but you basically just insulted somone. And try it in Japan, somebody might think that you are trying to say money. Most of us probably think it is strange that they use our signs for other terms but they probably feel the same way about us. Another item that we probably all thought was the same everywhere was toilets. All cultures have there own version of the toilet that they feel best suits their needs.

A Bronx Tale

So this week we are watching a movie called A Bronx Tale. So far it is very entertaining and enjoyable and I would even watch this film outside of school. So in this movie, there is a boy called C, troubled by sociological pressures. He belongs to many different sociological groups advising him to do different things. His first group is his family. His father is a very honest man who earns his living as a bus driver. His father permits him from seeing "Sunny" and all the guys at the bar, which leads to his next group. He witnesses a murder and lies for Sunny, the man who committed it, so Sunny decides to take him in. He makes $600 by throwing dice and serving them drinks. When his father finds this money he returns it to Sunny and permits C from ever seeing Sunny or going to the bar again. C disobeys and continues to go to the bar every chance he gets. C must struggle through sociological pressures to decide how he will act and who he will become.

Where do I belong..?

This week in class, we did an activity that aloud us to place ourselves in different socail groups that we felt we belonged. At first I was not sure where to put myself other than family and friends but then i started to think a little deeper. I was able to first split my friends group into two seperate groups, one for my close friends, and one for my friends that live near me. I then was able to split my family group into my imediate family and my large family. After doing that, I added work, student, american, intramural basketball team, jewish, and I even put down that I am a chicago sports fan (minus the cubs). After adding all of the socail groups that I felt I belonged to, we were asked to label our position in each group and what one is most important. Most people said that friends were the most important, along with myself, but others said family, religion, and even sports teams. This was a great activity to do because it makes you realize how important socioligy is and that all of the social groups we belong to help shape us in every way imaginable.

I'm so hungry I could eat a human...

Earlier this week we read an article about a plane crash that left many survivors stranded. Eventually, these survivors became hungry. Since there was no food on the island, they faced with a tough decision. Do we die a slow, painful, starving death, or do we eat the ones who did not survive to stay alive. After reading this article, I was of course very grossed out but I was also thinking what I would do in that situation. Well, to be honest I don't believe that my answer could be 100% accurate unless I was actually there. For the sake of discussion and for this blog I will answer with how I think I would go about this. I think that in these circumstances, I would do whatever it takes to survive. If eating a human is the case, I would have to exit societies "social norms" and complete the task to survive. Now of course I would never kill a human for food, I would only eat the already dead ones.