It's Time to "Live Within Your Means"...possibilities in solving economic crisis.

     Just to start off, there is no way that I want to sound like a pretentious prick while writing any of this. I don't know any statistics, or percentages about this economic “crisis” that the United States is currently in. What I do know is that we are in a recession right now, with people out of work, companies going bankrupt, and people losing there homes. In fact, I know someone who has worked their entire life, and with just a couple months left on their mortgage to own their house, they were foreclosed on and lost the house they had almost completely paid off. Situations like this are not uncommon at this point in the United States, and there has to be a ways to get around people suffering from financial deficits.

     One way that I believe could provide a solution for this economic crisis is by strengthening the international communications. The United States has numerous companies and corporations that not only exist domestically here, but also have headquarters in other countries. By giving communication a more important role in how these companies interact, it might be a more reliable way to run a business and keep knowledge of exactly what is happening with the country all around the world. Understanding where the company does the best business, where it make the most sense to place a headquarters, and by constantly looking for ways to improve the way a business is run could make a positive impact in this time of recession.

     This crisis has not only caused companies to lose money (and shut down in some cases), but it has also caused havoc on people's everyday personal lives. Jobs got cut, and are still being cut. The working class saw the number of jobs dwindling, and the number of unemployed rise. The logical thing that seems like it would solve this problem of people losing their jobs is to create more jobs. There are programs put together by the government and programs put together at the local community level that are putting people back into the job world. While creating jobs would be a logical solution to the crisis, with the amount of people that are out of work not voluntarily, there would have to be a mass amount of jobs created. This would be the difficult part. These jobs that could be created might help rebuild communities and houses, they might be strategical and mathematical jobs to figure out ways for companies to get back on track, they could be farming and agricultural jobs, infrastructure...the possibilities are endless.

     My grandmother has always told stories with little pieces of advice woven into them. One of the common pieces of advice that she has offered was to “live within your means”. This could be another way to come to a solution for the economic crisis. Some people are buying into a luxurious life that they cannot financially support. This lifestyle might work for a little bit, but in some cases things like mortgages get too expensive to afford because of the niceness of the house, or their expensive car would be repossessed for failed car payment. This goes into credit card debt as well. If people in the United States would live within what they could afford, then this would lead to a more stable economic state.

What does it mean to be an "American"?

What does it really mean to be an American? There are endless aspects in which a person can look at this. Does the person posses an “American” culture? Do they follow the “American” tradition? Are they living the “American” dream? There is really no certain way to define what it means exactly to be an American. Everyone will have their own opinion on what this concept is saying.

There are so many different versions and images that might come to mind when you think of an American. You might think of a cowboy on a farm driving a Chevy truck. You could think of a business person on Wall Street carrying a briefcase, and being financially successful. Then there is football...the American sport. College students getting degrees to have good jobs waiting for them after they receive their degree. The stereotypical suburban house with a nice car in the driveway and a white-picket fence in the front. Or you could think of the ghettos that exist in the cities with their own sets of rules to live by. The gated communities that lock out people that don't belong. The list is endless...

I guess the “American” tradition would be growing up in a suburban neighborhood, with both parents being involved in your daily life, you get your education, get a good job, get married, and have kids. At least that was the stereotypical tradition. Up until recently, this tradition was basically expected out of everyone. If you did not fall into this pattern of living, you might be looked at as an outsider, or not part of the “correct” culture that is to be American. Now however, this tradition has wavered and taken many different routes. People are given the choice of having children or not (based on economic issues, health issues, or just choice of living without kids). Marriage is not only between a man and a woman now, it can be between two men or two women now in many states, or some people choose never to marry. There are so many different lifestyles that people grow up around. Now, more than ever, children are being raised in single parent households; this not only poses different influences on the children, but also causes the economic situation to differ (the parent must now earn enough on their own to support themselves, their children, and pay all the bills, and this is not always possible).

The “American Dream” is another aspect of what it could mean to be American. The “American Dream” can be found in plenty of literature from the 19^th and 20^th centuries, it can easily be found in the news, and in biographies. If you work hard, you can achieve anything you want. When immigration was thriving in America, this was considered a new start, a land of opportunity, a place where if you worked hard that your life would be good. This is not always true. Different groups of people will not get the same chances as others, and there will always be clear advantages based on gender, race, and ethnicity. Job opportunities, full-time careers, housing options, and income levels vary on gender and race factors in certain cases. More times than not, the people who are making less money to support themselves and their families are working hard and extreme jobs, long hours, and doing most of the work that the business takes to be run successfully. The people with the higher paying salaries (while there are exceptions to this) tend to just tell the people in positions lower than them what to do to get all the jobs done, and then they end up getting a larger paycheck than the person doing the work. So even if you work extremely hard, its not always the case that you can achieve anything you want. If we live in such an intelligent and “advanced” country, then why are people still so stuck on general characteristics that should not define a person.

Gender

     From birth, gender is weaved into our daily lives and has great influence on the ways that people live. Gender is defined as, “Referring to the culturally constructed roles assigned to males or females, which varied considerably from society to society” (Schultz, 104). Here I will talk about gender and how it has influenced power over time.

     We are taught starting from basically birth what gender to assume. When we are babies, rooms are generally themed by light pink and blue. As we move into being toddlers, male and female genders take two very different paths. Males are generally given cars, trucks, blocks, and are introduced to sports. While at the same age females are commonly given baby dolls, and are introduced to fairy tales and tea parties. As we get older, our gender roles only continue to evolve and build with the person.

      Most colonized communities over time were male dominant. In male dominant communities, males would make the decisions on how it would be run, where funds would come from and go to, laws, punishments, and standard morals to be held. This is not to say that there are not places in the world that are female dominant, because these places do exist. And from studies it can be seen that the societies that are female dominant tend to be less violent and have less wars. While that example cannot stand true for all societies, it is generally true. Is there a happy medium between the stereotypical characteristics of how each gender act when given the power?

     Since being colonized, the United States has been male dominant. Every single president to date has been a male. Like here in the United States, for a long time women were not permitted or advised to go through schooling, go to college, or to get a job. Their role had been to stay in the home and to me a 'maternal' figure by raising kids, and keeping the house in an orderly fashion. Men were the ones that would go out and work during the day and make the money to sustain a family. In present day, these routed gender roles are constantly being challenged. Between Feminist movements pushing for female rights for equality in work and rights in school, to the current economy status forcing families (who are capable) to have both parents working so bills can be paid, gender roles are slowly merging and blending.

Rites of Passage and Coming of Age

     At one point or another it is inevitable for a person to go from being a child to an adult. Not only biologically, but also mentally and spiritually. This recognition of going from a child to an adult is a “coming of age”. For different cultures around the world people have quite different ways that people come of age and are considered adults. Coming of age can be done religiously based, through rite of passage and done through rituals. Rituals are, “Repetitive social practices, many of which have nothing to do with religion...composed of a sequence of symbolic activities, set off from social routines of everyday life” (Schultz 72-73).

     For example, in the United States it is common for a 16 year-old to have a birthday celebration of greater scale than normal, their Sweet Sixteen. At this age, the person coming of age can get their license. And when a person turns eighteen, they are considered an adult. At this age they can buy lottery, get married, and vote. Rites of passage in our culture overlap some of the coming of age (marriage, and voting), but also employment and entry into the professional world.

     In other cultures different rituals and rites of passage are common. In Japan their rite of passage happens at age 20, when a person reaches this age they are finally allowed to vote, drink, and smoke. In Latin American and Spanish cultures children have Quinceaneras to celebrate their fifteenth birthday.

     Religion also plays a part on coming of age. In the Jewish religion, the sons have a Bar Mitzva. Once they have completed all the necessary steps, the boy is considered a man in his family and religion. Same goes for the girls of the Jewish religion, except the girls have a Bat Mitzva to show the same growth to be recognized as an adult now. In the Catholic religion it is common for the child to have a First Communion, and this signifies the growth in the religion into adulthood.

     While coming of age, and rite of passages are incredibly varied and have different qualifications in cultures around the world, they all have the similarity that the person going through it transforms through the process. No matter what rite of passage they enter, or coming of age event they go through, they will be considered an adult by the end.

Language: "Pahk The Cah in Hahvahd Yahd"...Dialects and Code-switching.

     Language makes the world go 'round; I know it's cliche, but its absolutely true. It allows humans to communicate via words, stories, news, books, television, orally, and through self expression. Language is officially defined as, “A system of arbitrary vocal symbols that human beings use to encode their experience of the world and to communicate with one another” (Schultz, 34).

     Dialects (or accents pertaining to certain regions) can give hints as to where a person is living, or where they grew up. Just this semester I transferred from a school up in New England to here at Towson University. When I would talk to people, I wouldn't tell them right away where I was from. But from my accent, they could pick up I was from Massachusetts, and more specifically the Boston area. To me, it didn't seem like I even had an accent, I thought the people I was talking to had a Southern accent if anything. With just a few sentences, or the way I said a word, people whom I had never met before could tell where I was from. Dialects can reveal to a person know what region someone is from, where they might have traveled to, where their family might have originated; they can give an anthropologist or just a normal-everyday-person a look into the lifestyles of people. They have the possibility of showing a persons educational level, and economic status among other qualities.

     A way that a person could hide or deter their educational level and economic status is by code-switch. Schultz defines code-switch as, “Speakers generally using each code in mutually exclusive settings, switching back and forth between codes as the situation demands” (43). So basically a person who is capable of using two or more languages or dialects being able to switch their “code” to fit the situation that they are put into. For example, a person who is well educated might use correct grammar and a large vocabulary around other students to make them sound equally as smart, but while hanging out with friends made outside of school, the same person might use a lot of slang and a smaller vocabulary to fit in with his or her not as educated peers.

     Just this week I have filled out twenty something job applications in hopes that some business around here will employ a broke college student. Almost half the applications were done online, but for the paper ones, when I would turn them in to the store, I would speak to the managers in a more eloquent fashion. I was speaking more professionally to come off as more intelligent and leave a better impression. I know that how I speak with the managers of the stores is different than the way I speak on the phone with my mom, or while I am out with friends. This code-switching can be done to sway the way a person see's you.

Ethnocentrism

     Why must cultures think that their people are better than the people in other cultures? From centuries ago, many people (and cultures) around the globe have had ethnocentric tendencies. Ethnocentrism is, as stated in the Webster Dictionary, “Characterized by or based on the attitude that one's own group is superior”. In this theory, things quickly turn into “us” and “them” situations. Groups and societies are compared to each other in unjust ways; this places groups of people with titles such as savage, barbaric, uncivilized on the lower end of the spectrum and civilized, and proper.

     While many anthropologists in the past have studied aspects of ethnocentrism, it can be found in many cases in history books. With colonization, countries like Britain, and France had control over lands far away from the base country. With this control, politics, medical, social, and economic factors were forced upon the territories that were being colonized. The territories that were being inhabited were viewed as having less culture (which is a matter of opinion).

     A modern approach to this theory can be found in the way that more “powerful” nations and countries are going to what is viewed as “third world” countries. Anthropologists might ask, Why does this society keep these old traditions?, and What is it that allows this society to remain orderly and harmonious to their standards?. One example is moving companies overseas, this is an economically smart move for the company; at the same time it makes the native people of that land look like they are lesser civilized (it provides jobs for people of that area, but these jobs aren't the natural and traditional jobs of the people that have been there over time). A political aspect on modern ethnocentrism could be found over in the Middle East. While the people that live there have their own systems of how things work, democratic views are still being pushed there to try to make life easier and more modern. While the culture in this region was not harmonious in recent years, trying to push a different or “better” view/system makes this an ethnocentric example.

     Different nations have alternate views on what works as orderly, and harmonious in their environment. Change is not always the answer, even when one person might be thinking they are helping the nation out by influencing their views onto the more “primitive” nation. Only the people that have grown up in that society can fully understand the workings, and what make it tick. Anthropologists emerge themselves in these societies to try to understand more about the people, while economists and political figures do not always (and thus can not always make the right choices). By understanding what ethnocentrism is, it is easier to know that it is better to not be judgmental, and allow each society to thrive on the traditions that it has kept, and allow the society to advance in its own ways. This does not mean that anthropologists should not continue to ask questions though!

The Similarities and Differences.

     Anthropology can be found in any aspect of human life. Seeing as it is a study of humanity, it can be holistically linked to human life. The four sub-fields of Anthropology (cultural, archeology, physical, and linguistics) cover human history from past to present, and into the future.

     The concept that caught my interest the most was the concept of cultural and visual Anthropology. The visual concept deals with things such as films, photos, and art. I learned that while studying cultural anthropology a person will become acquainted with different cultures and what makes up the cultures unique in parts of the world, the varied customs that go along with the cultures, how relationships are formed in cultures and the strengths of the bonds between people, and even more topics that build into a culture.

     Cultural anthropology can be seen in many places in the everyday world. The Internet and news relay constant information coming from places around the globe. It is easy to just jump online and research an entire culture, in moments you can know their location, how long they have been around, and current events about the culture. Television displays aspect of cultural anthropology; on the news and with television shows. With the TV shows, it gives a visual insight into what cultures deem important enough to make it on air. Photos provide snapshots (and freeze time), and while the photograph could have been meant to be artistic in nature, it could very well describe and show the beauty of a place or group of people.

     I would say that I affect cultural anthropology as much as it affects me. I am living in a culture that will one day be studied, and I have the chance to make an impact in this current culture...I can change things going on right now in this place and time. But at the same time, understanding cultural anthropology does affect me as well. By knowing what different cultures are experiencing currently, this directly influences economics and politics which directly have an effect on me.

     While this is only my first anthropology class, I have a huge interest in learning about the different groups and cultures that are on this planet. I love learning about far away places and the people that live there. It is even more interesting for me to learn that while yes, we might have very different cultures and customs, that we also have similarities.