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.