It's all about Perspective: Norms and Sanctions

I was sick all week with a nasty respiratory virus, causing me to miss 3 days of school. This experience has allowed me to stumble upon a perfect real life example of a sociological norm and sanctions.

Norm: what exceptions, thoughts, feelings are appropriate within a given group or culture.

Sanction:  a reward or punishment that results from a norm being followed or violated.

In the United States and especially well off towns like mine, kids are supposed to go to school. It is a norm.  If they do not they get behind in material their fellow students are learning and quickly try to play the catch up game before their  grades begin to sink with them. This negative consequence is called a sanction.  There are many positive sanctions for following this norm, as well. For example, one who attends school on a daily basis will eventually have the ability to attend college and one day get a worthwhile career. On a smaller scale, one will simply be on track with his classmates if he attends school. He won’t be trying to make up tests or homework, like I find myself right now.

Like I showed you with my example above, sanctions come in all different “shapes and sizes”. They can be positive, if you followed the norm, or negative, if you neglected to behave appropriately for that certain group or culture. But they also can be temporary and short term consequences of your actions or permanent and long term consequences.

Here’s an example relating to our world today:

Big Love: a TV show on HBO about a man with three wives and children with each.

There are laws in our states that that say it is illegal to have more than one married spouse. The term is known as polygamy or sometimes bigamy. It is against the norm. That is in the greater picture of our country. However, The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) have a different view on polygamy. They are a community filled with husbands with more than one wife and children with each. They view this behavior as a norm. The greater of the country however, views this type of lifestyle as inappropriate, and there for violating a social norm. Polygamists are violating the norm of marrying one single spouse and only having children with that one person, according to each state government. But if a man in FLDS decides to only have one spouse that is going against their norm.

Here's a link about Polygamy in America: http://www.pri.org/politics-society/polygamy-in-america1873.html

So our norms are relative. They depend on what group, big or large, a single individual belongs to. If I lived in a rough neighborhood, and did not attend school for 3 days, one would not assume I was sick right away. Worse things keep kids away from school than illness in high crime areas. But in my school illness is usually the root to school absence. Overall, it is all about perspective.

It's all about perspective...

Remaining Socially Relevant

In the study of sociology, culture is a large defining part of how societal values are determined and how that society affects the individual. Napoleon A. Chagnon; an anthropologist, who specifically studies culture; wrote an informative essay, “Doing Fieldwork Among the YanomamÖ,” about a specific aggressive Indian tribe. He defined how certain cultural values led to the society functioning and acting as a whole. While reading the article, one may find themselves judging the way these people live. This is known as ethnocentrism.

“Ethnocentrism: The use of one’s own culture as a yardstick for judging the ways of other individuals or societies, generally leading to a negative evaluation of their values, norms, and behaviors.” (Sociology, textbook)

Instead of being ethnocentric, and only thinking of terms of your own life, one should become culturally relative. Cultural relativism is the exact opposite as ethnocentrism. Cultural relativism encumbers the idea that the observer forgoes judging the new culture by trying to understand and relate.

So while studying the YanomamÖ, Napoleon A. Chagnon, had a duty to remain culturally relevant. With the initial culture shock, it is difficult for any researcher to refrain from judging and making assumptions right off the bat.               

In short, The YanomamÖ is a culture with very different values that reflect their very different society. They are a primitive Indian group of southern Venezuela. Overall, there are 125 scattered YanomamÖ villages in the area that live with different morals and traditions than that of the United States.

The YanomamÖ culture affects the way each member portrays one another and determines how each individual will react to their surroundings. For example, the YanomamÖ value toughness, so there lifestyle is full of violence and aggression toward their own villagers or surrounding tribes. Chagnon wrote, “The important thing is that the man has displayed his potential for violence and the implication is that other men better treat him with respect and caution.” In the YanomamÖ society, a male’s strong and respectable character is defined by his likelihood to lash out on anyone who “rattles his bee’s nest” Unlike our culture in the states, the YanomamÖ men are praised for beating their wives, killing their neighbors, and robbing the innocent. All men in the tribe fight for what they believe in physically and they would not stand to be denied. Chagnon captures this idea, “YanomamÖ refused to accept “no” for an answer until or unless it seethed with passion and intimidation.”

Even though the YanomamÖ seem foreign to us as readers, there are many common similarities. Men are honored when they stick up for their beliefs, punish men who hurt their women, and protect their deceased ancestor’s reputation. Our inability to first sight similarities and instead notice the blatant differences comes back to the idea of ethnocentrism. In class, when we read two articles observing two cultures called the “Narcirema” and the “Asu”, we came to a quick conclusion that these cultures are barbaric and insensible. For example, I quickly judged the woman of the Narcirema culture who burn their heads in an oven. I failed to notice that American woman instead cut and probe  their body in order to look younger and more fit. If we look at the Narcirema and Asu in a culturally relevant way we realize that the Narcirema shrines represent American bathrooms and the Asu rac’s represent American cars. Overall, their society makes sense to them, like our society makes sense to us.

In sociology, it is always important to look at things in a culturally relevant ways instead of jumping to quick judgmental conclusions.We must remain open minded (picture). It will help on understand how that particular society truly functions and why.

In our world today, we see people remaining ethnocentric all the time. Ethnocentrism is one of main reasons for divisions among race, religion, and gender. Each group judges the other because they don’t bother to look at the other side of the spectrum. For example, the United States has always viewed itself as the “power house”. Americans view their own nation as more economically sound, culturally diverse, and more dominant in foreign affairs. This is shown by the United States involvement in many conflicts around the world. Right now, the United States are heavily involved in the Middle East, trying to be the authoritative and more powerful nation. In reality, we are being ethnocentric, because we think our way is the right way. Being ethnocentric doesn’t always demonstrate selfishness and greed because it is natural to try to change things to your familiar perspective. Overall, ethnocentrism is everywhere in society. (see link) http://www.yourdictionary.com/grammar/examples/examples-of-ethnocentrism.html

We Create This: meanings we may not mean.

To make a long story short: a group of young and promising men and their loved one’s crashed in the bitterly cold and barren Andes and chose to eat the dead men for survival. Many of you will cringe and reread the last part of the sentence.

They ate the dead men for survival.

Cannibalism; our society views it as grotesque and unacceptable. And most of the time it is. But if you were dropped into the freezing snowy mountains with absolutely no food source, would you face a slow and scary death or would you put an effort into maintaining your life, if not for yourself, but for your family praying for back home?  Like one of the men said, “We have a duty to survive. If we don’t eat the bodies, it is a sin. We must do this not just for our own sakes but also for our families.” In the end, three courageous men gathered enough strength to hike for help. They were saved. One man said, “It was like holy communion. God gives us the body and blood of Christ in Holy Communion. God gave us these bodies and blood to eat.” It’s a simple story of survival. However, to many it’s simply extreme because these men broke truly embedded social standards. Society puts an arbitrary meaning on human bodies.

Humans are “not food”.  We have symbols and meanings for each item, concept, and activity in our life. Humans are not for eating, mathletes is for losers, and marriage is supposed to be full of love and fun.  Symbolic interactionism is how people use symbols to develop their views of the world and how they communicate with people. In the show, Freaks and Geeks, dodge ball resembles pain for the geeks and the smocking patio resembles the hangout for all the burnouts. Nothing comes with built in meaning, people in society give it meaning.

So the men stranded in the middle of the Andes Mountains needed to decide, were they going to change the meaning of “the human body”? Would they go against social norms to refrain from starvation? The answer is yes, they ate the meat of the frozen men on the flight F-227. They survived.

Eventually, since there was no other men or women in their “social location”, eating human meat became normal. The human body now symbolized nutrition energy, and survival. In the article it said, “The dead became part of their lives.” The meanings of everything around us can change depending on our viewpoint and situation.

In recent years, divorce rates have climbed higher. We can apply the sociological theorem of symbolic interactionism to this situation. Over the years, marriage has grown to be more exciting, personal, and full of pressure. The meaning of “love” has become more important for marriage compared to the 1940’s, for example. The meaning of children and the meaning of parenthood has evolved. These two elements have become stress factors on marriage. There is so much pressure to have beautiful children and to be perfect parents. Also, the role of husband and wife has become blurred. In the 1940’s men worked and women looked after household chores. Now, it is hard to organize specific roles for a wife and husband because women are gaining more self righteousness. Also, one of the most symbolic changes is the meaning of divorce itself. Before, it used to be irresponsible and immortal to divorce your spouse. Now, divorce means freedom and new beginnings. All these changes in symbolism have led to 1.1 million more divorces than in 1890. Our society changes the meanings of things and has direct consequences, as predicted by the symbolic interactionism theory.

Divorce occurs because society is changing; our views are changing. Here's a link explaining the top 10 reasons for divorce. All of the elements have some tie to societal standards and expectations that people create. We create the world we live in, even if it's a latent disfuntion, we create it.

http://www.divorceguide.com/free-divorce-advice/marriage-and-separation-advice/the-10-most-common-causes-of-divorce.html

Science: the common explanation

   We, humans, are interested in the world around us. Science, and all its subcategories, forms theories and explanations for the natural occurrences and social aspects of our existence. Sociology is one detailed way of categorizing the scientific details of the human nature versus society.  James M. Henslin wrote, “Sociology offers a framework that provides a penetrating perspective on almost everything that we do in life.” Why do we feel like someone is always watching and judging? Why do we value what we value?  And act like we act? 

  In class, we discussed the ways religion, economic status, family expectations, gender roles, and cultural expectations can affect the way one lives. Usually, like the place where Ted and Zelda lived, those who live in a "well-off" area are educated. The importance of education for money becomes so engraved in these wealthier children's mind that they may become blinded by the real value in learning. Society makes people oblivious to the original importance of such simple morals. Little do people know that these actions and values directly effect the people around them.

   The illustrative article, What Is Sociology? Comparing Sociology and the Other Social Sciences helps one understand how the study of sociology fits into the scientific world as a whole. Sociology is a specialized field of social science. Social sciences specifically deal with human behavior. James M. Henslin helped me understand and become deeply interested in all different angles of the human behavior. He compared and defined the anthropology, economics, political science, psychology, and sociology.

   What I find bothersome is the fact that he separates each specialized field and their definitions. He didn’t really wrap together the point that I was looking for all along. In reality, all these social sciences have one major purpose, to define why humans function the way they do. They should not be so isolated when trying to explain the complexity of human deeds. For one to truly understand humanity, they must piece together information from each individual social science to even come close to a realistic summation. One does not kill themselves, for example, for solely societal issues and pressures. Psychology issues, or inner problems, adds to this severe pain too. Figuring out how to connect and be aware of all social science causes and effects takes a brilliant man with a brilliant brain.

   In another article called The Promise C Wright Mills wrote, “ordinary men do not usually know what this connection (between their own lives and the course of world history) means for the kinds of men they are becoming and for the kinds of history making in which they might take part.” Ordinary men do not realize the effect they can have on the history of our society. For example, social “norms” become common among certain cultures because people follow trends..One person can create a domino effect that can alter the way plenty of people live their life. There is a high chance that this “ordinary” person has no idea the effect their behavior has on others and society as a whole.

   Social actions are similar to DNA. They are engraved in our being from the moment we’re born. And our actions most often originate from our parents. Humanity has unspoken rules and expectations. We are taught to recognize achievement as a good salary and an impressive educational record. We are expected to “act like a lady” or “be a man”.  We follow these invisible rules that society and our souls have implemented on us and act our best to be content with whom we’re becoming. After all, society does not always try to hurt our beings. 


Society puts a negative spin on the term "alone". Here's a video showing that being alone can be the best way to get a grip on your life. To appreciate those few minutes when all you have to do is ponder your thoughts.