Day 50 - You & Change . . . It's Harder Than You Think. Insiders vs. Outsiders

Human Rights With a Twist - Baltimore

Dan Ariely's Ted Talk on... 
"How Equal Do We Really Want The World To Be?"

As a reminder here are some previous ideas . . .

Forces that Help or Hinder Societal and Cultural Change:

1. Worldview

2. Anomie

3. Alienation

4. Conformity

5. Charismatic Leadership

6. Subjective Validity

7. Pluralism

8. Dominant Paradigm

9. Traditional Cultural Values

Some Cultural Universals:

          Food, Shelter, Clothing (Basics)
   Sports & Recreation
   Entertainment
   Marriage
   Medicine / Healing
   Celebrations / Holidays
   Music and the Arts
   Education
   Religion & Beliefs
   Government / Leadership
   Gender Roles / Division of Labour
   Raising Children
   Communication
   Rites of Passage

Your Values are reflected in each of these.

Insiders vs. Outsiders - You Be The Changer - Link to Project  -  Link to Marksheet

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Day 46 - Cultural Universals

Cultural universals are parts of culture that:

a) meet the basic needs of people

b) and are found in most cultures. 


Some CULTURAL UNIVERSALS

Food, Shelter, Clothing (Basics)

Sports & Recreation

Entertainment

Marriage

Medicine / Healing

Celebrations / Holidays

Music and the Arts

Education

Religion & Beliefs

Government / Leadership

Gender Roles / Division of Labour

Raising Children

Values

Communication

Rites of Passage

Day 43 & 44 - Awesome Sub-Cultures at School Adventure !!

Sub-cultures at school handout

Sub-cultures at school marksheet

  How many subcultures are there at Acton High School?

  An anthropologist would answer this question by identifying each of    the characteristics of a culture that we have discussed or studied in class.  This assignment gives you a chance to consider, academically, some of the subcultures we find in school.

Describe Where and When (time of day) you can pinpoint a particular subculture that has claimed an area as its territory.  The claim to the zone does not have to be permanent; it can rotate according to time of day.  

Include graphics and a name (be kind!) that can be representative of the subculture.

Write a profile or description for the subculture that you have identified.  Your profile should include the following:

Status of the individuals within each subculture: Who are the leaders?  Who are the followers?  What is the relationship between the two?

Status of the subculture within the school: How is this group perceived by others in the school?  Why do you think it is perceived in this way?

Roles within the subculture:  How does this subculture expect its members to behave?

Values:  What do members of the group think is right, good, important, or desirable?  What fashion styles do they prefer?  What music do they listen to?  What are their attitudes towards school?  Family?  Authority?  What are their ambitions and goals?

Why does the subculture exist?:  To address this you must consider that both Conformity and Alienation  likely play a role in the existence of the subculture, each of which is a powerful force of social change.

Conformity is a type of social influence involving a change in belief or behavior in order to fit in with a group.  This change is in response to real (involving the physical presence of others) or imagined (involving the pressure of social norms / expectations) group pressure.

Alienation, as discussed in detail yesterday, is the feeling of abandonment and separation from one’s surroundings, notably groups of students in the school setting.  This leads to a sense of powerlessness, meaninglessness and isolation brought on by the lack of fit between individual needs or expectations and the social structure of school.

Day 42 - Sources of Change

Sources of Cultural Change Lecture Notes

Day 41 - Forces of Cultural Change

Today we broke into groups and you did an exercise to define several terms, explain using examples of how they have played a positive or negative role in change in society and you explained how they helped change or hindered it.

Here's the handout - Forces of Cultural Change.

Here's the list of Forces:

1. Worldview

2. Anomie

3. Alienation

4. Conformity

5. Charismatic Leadership

6. Subjective Validity

7. Pluralism

8. Dominant Paradigm

9. Traditional Cultural Values

In your assigned groups you were to do the following with the conditions listed:

1. Define it in your own words.

2. Using real world examples, explain how your condition has helped with social change somewhere in the world.  Explain how this has been a positive and/or negative for the people affected.

  3. Using real world examples, explain how your condition has acted as a barrier to social change somewhere in the world. Explain how this has been a positive and/or negative for the people affected.

Day 37, 38, 39 Intro to Culture and Anthropology Lecture

Intro to Culture and Anthro Lecture

Day 36 - Test on Intro and Psych

The Title Up There Says It All.

Day 35 - Culture and Anthropology Introduction

We spent part of the day discussing the meaning of "culture".  I gave you some ideas to ponder including the fact that throughout our history as homo erectus, homo habilis, etc. etc. up to our current form of homo sapiens, we have been a relatively week member of the natural world, meaning that there are many extremely powerful, fast, cunning and otherwise deadly creatures in our environment that could kill us easily.  Also, we have always had to search for food sources and compete with other species.

Our big advantage out there in the dangerous world has been our brain, but our brain does not work in isolation. Collectively, the knowledge and strategies that we have used for countless millennia have, in fact, given us a distinct advantage over all of the other dangers that we have faced.  This collective knowledge and those collective strategies  have enabled us to out compete all other species and to flourish.  This is what we now call "culture". 

In a simple sense culture can be thought of as a mechanism to adapt in order to find food and remain safe in hostile environments.

Of course today when we think of culture we think of the complete set of learned human behaviour patterns which we know are different from place to place and country to country.  This is what our second unit will study, Anthropology - the study of human cultures.


We started my lecture on Culture as well . . . it's posted in tomorrow's blog entry.

Day 34 - Optical Illusions and Psych. Test Review

Here's the link to the Optical Illusions presentation that we looked at today - it's a fun way to demonstrate just how adaptable our brains are and just how vulnerable our brains are to over stimulation and/or incomplete or conflicting data through our eyes.

Here's the Psych Unit Review Sheet that I distributed as well - we'll plan the best day for our Psych Test together as a class.

The Psych Unit Test will be April 1.  Remember, the best way to study is to review your stuff several times a week - best time to start was in February, but if you haven't done that then start today!