Just as the summer foliage began to show in all it’s glory, a group of guests descended upon the pond. In a house on a hill, embanked along the waters edge, lived four roommates. That summer was their first together, and they enjoyed the surrounding land encompassed by trees. The sound of the nearby waterfall and the birds singing their songs set a peaceful tone in this special place. One day, the landlord’s daughter came home to visit, having lived in South America for six years. With her, she brought her troupe, a group of Colombians who were both her…
Tag: #norms
Examining Social Justice Part 2: Methods for Engagement
“Unless we engage in these and other conscious acts of reflection and re-education, we easily repeat the process with our children. We teach what we were taught. The unexamined prejudices of the parents are passed on to the children. It is not our fault, but it is our responsibility to interrupt this cycle” -Tatum Social Justice methods are a tool for reflection, to learn about how we are engaging each other, and to consider how our preconceived notions can lead to uninformed or accidental mistreatment of people. Contrary to this purpose, many have begun to see it as an infringement…
Examining Social Justice Part 1: A Road Map to Understanding
Tensions exist around issues of social import. If we are incapable of defining what it is that we are actually fighting for, we will be unable to engage one another constructively on topics that shape our world.” Social justice is a controversial topic whose definition and importance are often contested. There are those who claim social justice as their moral obligation when shaming someone for their behavior, leaving a bad taste in people’s mouths around this cause. When conversations come up that cite social justice or discuss social structures, inequity, race, gender, etc, people often back out of the conversation for fear…
Healing the Wounds of What it Means to Be a Man
In American culture, as well as other cultures around the world, young boys are taught how to be men. They are taught how to think, act, and behave in a particular way that is seen as manly. As norms are taught and passed on to the next generation, do we consider the outcome? For the past few years, I have been attending a regional conference, the New England Fathering Conference. The focus is on fatherhood as a crucial part of building healthy families. At this conference, there is always so much wisdom and spirit to be found and a sincere…
More Than Talk: Approaching Child Sexual Abuse as a Public Health Problem
Many disturbing things occur that we wish didn’t take place. We worry, we discuss, we wonder why. How can this happen when I just want the world to be a good place? Why does something like this go on when it seems like everyone I know is just as bothered as I am by these problems? What we often fail to realize is that everything happens within an environment that supports it and allows it to occur, grow, or even flourish. A plant without water or sunlight, no matter how much it is a plant, will die because it does…
Why anthropology?
Why anthropology? It’s just another social science. Why pay attention? The majority of people hear the word anthropology and know that it is somehow synonymous with culture. What is culture? It is a tool that shapes human behavior. It informs and creates our norms, patterns of thought and perceptions of reality. “There is a tendency for us to think that what we know, what we perceive, is solely a function of two things: our cognitive tools–our senses–and the physical reality that provides the stimuli for the senses. What we fail to realize, what we find difficult to admit…