The Sociological Imagination Essay

The Sociological Imagination: race and racism

The sociological imagination is a capacity, ability, and a quality of mind that allows an individual to understand and connect her or his life with the forces and dynamics that impact it. It is about not blaming others for what they do, it is about judging ourselves before we judge others and understand people as if we understand ourselves for example if a student comes late to class there could be many reasons behind this student being late; there could have been traffic or an accident on the way that made him or her come late to class, so we should not judge but understand.

Although we should separate between personal trouble and public issue, for example a student could be coming to class late all the time because of his or her laziness this would be called a personal trouble but if all students are coming late to class than this is called a public issue, meaning there is something wrong with the class. 

Sociological imagination engages in, the minority status, gender, socioeconomic status and the family structure.

Sociological imagination is a social fact and empathy; social fact is the idea, feeling, behaviour of individuals. An example of social fact is when the sun is rising, this is a social fact that we cannot change whether we like it or not it will still rise. Empathizing is verstehen meaning when I ask myself what If I was this person or what if I was in this persons place.

There are many sociological issues in society; one of the issues learned in this course is the race and racism issue.

Race and racism are two different issues race is a social constructed aspect of identity in all cultures, race is not biological it is powerful; it is what makes us who we are for example what we are born with like hair texture and skin colour.  

Racism is an interlocking system of advantage based on race existing at individual and cultural symbolic. Racism comes from power, and culture. Racism happens when some social groups have more power over another social groups, but racism have changed even if it still exist it is not visible in which it is been described as dangerous or a hidden fact. Racism is racism that it can’t be better or worse in any country. even though being born with a specific skin colour is a cause of geographic conditions, in which where the person is born for example being born in a sunny place is different than being born in a place in which doesn’t have sun, so all humans are the same if we put skin colour a side, also black people are born with more melanin in their skin and that protects them from getting cancer that’s why white skin coloured people are more likely to get cancer than people with dark skin. So there are always advantages and disadvantages about what we have and what we don’t have.

The fundraising-dance

The Social Justice Scholarship fund-Dance was held at the conference center, at kwantlen polytechnic university at 72d Avenue in cedar building  on April 7 at 7pm.

In the fund-raising I learned how interacting with people is very important, meeting with new students, gathering and talking, sharing information about the course and talking about why we were there, this event was a very good opportunity for me to understand and see how people from different cultures, languages and different back grounds can get together and create social groups for example when I got to the fundraising-dance I met a student from the Langley campus, she was talkative and outgoing and we became friends so we created a small social group. Also it was interesting to see how different people with different cultures can eat the same food which belongs only to one culture.
i also realized how people can change and effect the way other people live  for example this new friend i made can change my life in an either positive or negative way.

It was also interesting to see how people have changed over the years for example before poeple used to most likely slow dance whereas now people go very close to each other as if they are couples. and how the music changes too for example the music now is becoming more modern and the lyrics are different than it used to be back in the day. over all the fund-raising was useful and enjoyable. 

The power of illustration video

The film: The power of an illusion; the differences between us

Human beans are different; we classify people by their hair texture, skin colour and eye shape. Race is real.

In a research students had to test their genes to classify themselves and to see to what racial group they belong to. Students had been asked to give a sample of their blood to test it and compare it with other student’s blood to see whether their genes are similar or different. A white male had been asked which of the students in this group do you think you are more likely to be similar to and which student in this group you think you are different from, he replied my genes would be more similar to the white male student and the most different is the black student.

Surprisingly the results show that this white student male’s genes are more similar to the black student’s genes and different than the white male student’s genes, so we are similar even though we look different.

This research shows that we have been mixing over the years and generations, there is no pure race

The danger of a single story video

By: Chimamanda Adichie

Chimamanda talked about the danger of a single story, seeing only one side of the story. She talked about her roommate in the United States who could only see Chimamanda as poor and non-knowledgeable of doing even simple things for example like using the stove and that’s only because she is African.

Chimamanda remembered herself when she was in Africa and how her mom described a family as poor when she wanted to explain to her and tell her how they have to give them food so they can survive. One day Chimamanda and her family went to this poor family’s house but Chimamanda was very surprised about how creative they are and how they can actually make beautiful things. Chimamanda did have a single story about this family; she could only see them as poor. As well as her American roommate in America who had a single story about Africa that she could only see Africans as poor.

Chimamanda put her shoes in the others and thought what If she didn’t live in Africa, what if she lived her hall life in the United States and have been told repeatedly that Africans are poor, she found out that she will have the same thoughts about Africa as her roommate.

In the case of Africa people have made the image of Africans as poor, dark and can’t speak for themselves, but that’s only one side of the story.

Single story begins when certain people say the same thing over and over again until people believe that this is who they are. They make one story become the only story, but that only makes people feel different than other people instead of similar which also lead to stereotyping.

In the end Chimamanda wanted to send a message to everyone that there is never ever a single story.

Articles:

Author: Quest-Adade

In the 4 articles it talks about the 9/11 attack which was blamed on people coming from middle east, it talked about how everyone who is involved in killing in other countries are criminals, that if middleeasternians were called tourists for killing people in the united states by crashing the buildings, Americans are criminals too for killing women and children in developing countries and causing war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It also talked about how bush, the past president of the United States talks about peace and seeking justice and forgiveness and peace on war but spending millions of dollars on the war against Iraq and Afghanistan while some people in Africa live with less than one dollar a day, and that the reason for this war is because bush wanted to take the oil Iraq has.

It also talked about race and racism and how they are different. Race is a human invented concept and a social construct; race is basically the features we are born with for example, hair colour and skin colour.

In the world there is no such thing as pure race, everywhere there is mixed people, a good example of that is the United States, most Americans are mixed with Europeans. It is difficult to know what race you are, and it is even more difficult to find out to what racial group we actually belong to, we can go back to few generations before like three or four generations to know what race we are but it’s difficult to know what was before that, so race has no genetic basis.

As humans we share the same genes for example a Chinese woman can get married with a white man, they will have a half Chinese and half white child, but a Chinese woman can’t get married with a bird because birds don’t share the same genes as humans do. Another example of humans share the same genes would be, if a black child was born in Africa and both his mom and dad have black skin colour but the child has a white skin colour and look more like white people than to look like Africans. That shows that all people with different shapes and skin colours have the same genes.

Racism is an issue in every country, in the United States skin colour has been a major issue in the past and even now sometimes.  white people did and still do differentiate between themselves and black people even though being born with a specific skin colour is a  cause of geographic conditions, in which where the person is born for example being born in a sunny place is different than being born in a place in which doesn’t have sun,  so all humans are the same if we put skin colour a side, also black people are born with more melanin in their skin and that protects them from getting cancer that’s why white skin coloured people are more likely to get cancer than those people with dark skin. So there is always advantages and disadvantages about what we have and what we don’t have that there is no point of feeling that we are better than the others.

Race is not biological it is powerful.  In the Christian religion it says in the bible how Africans serve Europeans and how the image of Jesus of him being with blue eyes and white skin colour as if Jesus is European, this leads to differentiating and discrimination between black and white people.

Earlier before Europeans used to have black people to slave for them, making people think that black people slave only because they are poor, but war and debt is the reason why different coloured people slave for other people,   for example Europeans slave for Europeans and black slave for blacks and white people slave for white, so not because the person has a black skin colour it means that this person will always slave other people.

Racism comes from power, and culture. Racism happens when some social groups have more power over another social groups, but racism have changed even if it still exist it is not visible in which it is been described as dangerous or hidden fact. Racism is racism that it can’t be better or worse in different countries.

Black people have been described as the victims of racism and say that we need both black and white people to heal the process of racism, black people can’t do that alone and that both black and white people have to make rules and follow them about justice between them.

In the articles it also talked about Stereotyping and how not everyone is the same also how pre justice is different than stereotyping. It talked about praxis which is a mix of ideas and actions and about privileges and the power of skin colour and how people suffer and not benefit from anything because of their skin colour and people’s stereotyping.

for example white people don’t see white privilege unless if they put themselves on the shoes  of others like black people and imagine if they were themselves black than they wouldn’t want to be treated different, otherwise white people don’t find being racist as a major issue.

In the end it talked about how we need to change the racism fact as we people created it, and change the educational system because that’s how the idea of racism can change, teaching children that there is no racism because we are all humans.

Sociological Imagination

“Public Issue”

The Economic issue in the United States and the educational system

The U.S. educational system is compulsory for the first 9 to 12 years of education, depending on the state. While most students graduate between 17 and 18 years of age, many states allow for the student to voluntarily remove themselves from enrollment, or "drop out" without earning a diploma^.

Although some funding comes from the federal government, public education is almost entirely funded and controlled individually by state and local governments and school districts. Within a state, primary control of the system rests with the state, which delegates authority to local authorities. Although the Department of Education wields some authority, most powers concerning schooling remain with the states.

The funding and condition of the school system in each municipality is largely determined by the school district or local government. In affluent communities, especially those with many school-age children, the educational system tends to be more heavily funded on a per-student basis and tends to be more effective. Communities that are less affluent or have a lower proportion of families with children generally spend less money per child. Statistical information generated by the No Child Left Behind Act, and similar acts at a state level, demonstrate the general correlation between money spent per child and academic success.

State governments since the 1970s have grappled with these issues of educational equity. Despite these attempts, in 1992, the U.S. General Accounting Office stated, "Although most states pursued strategies to supplement the local funding of poor school districts, wealthier districts in 37 states had more total (state and local combined) funding than poor districts in the 1991-92 school year. This disparity existed even after adjusting for differences in geographic and student need-related education costs." In some states, most prominently New Jersey, courts have ordered dramatically increased funding in lower income areas. In other states, legislatures have acted on their own initiative to somewhat equalize the funding available.

Articles:

Author: Quest-Adade

In the 4 articles it talks about the 9/11 attack which was blamed on people coming from middle east, it talked about how everyone who is involved in killing in other countries are criminals, that if middleeasternians were called tourists for killing people in the united states by crashing the buildings, Americans are criminals too for killing women and children in developing countries and causing war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It also talked about how bush, the past president of the United States talks about peace and seeking justice and forgiveness and peace on war but spending millions of dollars on the war against Iraq and Afghanistan while some people in Africa live with less than one dollar a day, and that the reason for this war is because bush wanted to take the oil Iraq has.

It also talked about race and racism and how they are different. Race is a human invented concept and a social construct; race is basically the features we are born with for example, hair colour and skin colour.

In the world there is no such thing as pure race, everywhere there is mixed people, a good example of that is the United States, most Americans are mixed with Europeans. It is difficult to know what race you are, and it is even more difficult to find out to what racial group we actually belong to, we can go back to few generations before like three or four generations to know what race we are but it’s difficult to know what was before that, so race has no genetic basis.

As humans we share the same genes for example a Chinese woman can get married with a white man, they will have a half Chinese and half white child, but a Chinese woman can’t get married with a bird because birds don’t share the same genes as humans do. Another example of humans share the same genes would be, if a black child was born in Africa and both his mom and dad have black skin colour but the child has a white skin colour and look more like white people than to look like Africans. That shows that all people with different shapes and skin colours have the same genes.

Racism is an issue in every country, in the United States skin colour has been a major issue in the past and even now sometimes.  white people did and still do differentiate between themselves and black people even though being born with a specific skin colour is a  cause of geographic conditions, in which where the person is born for example being born in a sunny place is different than being born in a place in which doesn’t have sun,  so all humans are the same if we put skin colour a side, also black people are born with more melanin in their skin and that protects them from getting cancer that’s why white skin coloured people are more likely to get cancer than those people with dark skin. So there is always advantages and disadvantages about what we have and what we don’t have that there is no point of feeling that we are better than the others.

Race is not biological it is powerful.  In the Christian religion it says in the bible how Africans serve Europeans and how the image of Jesus of him being with blue eyes and white skin colour as if Jesus is European, this leads to differentiating and discrimination between black and white people.

Earlier before Europeans used to have black people to slave for them, making people think that black people slave only because they are poor, but war and debt is the reason why different coloured people slave for other people,   for example Europeans slave for Europeans and black slave for blacks and white people slave for white, so not because the person has a black skin colour it means that this person will always slave other people.

Racism comes from power, and culture. Racism happens when some social groups have more power over another social groups, but racism have changed even if it still exist it is not visible in which it is been described as dangerous or hidden fact. Racism is racism that it can’t be better or worse in different countries.

Black people have been described as the victims of racism and say that we need both black and white people to heal the process of racism, black people can’t do that alone and that both black and white people have to make rules and follow them about justice between them.

In the articles it also talked about Stereotyping and how not everyone is the same also how pre justice is different than stereotyping. It talked about praxis which is a mix of ideas and actions and about privileges and the power of skin colour and how people suffer and not benefit from anything because of their skin colour and people’s stereotyping for example white people don’t see white privilege unless if they put themselves on the shoes  of others like black people and imagine if they were themselves black than they wouldn’t want to be treated different, otherwise white people don’t find being racist as a major issue.

In the end it talked about how we need to change the racism fact as we people created it, and change the educational system because that’s how the idea of racism can change, teaching children that there is no racism because we are all humans.

Black History Month And Africa World Civilization

Conference held by Dr. C. Quist-Adade

In the conference today a very important topic was covered which is black history and black history month as well as Africa world civilization.

Black history month is February. Every February all countries celebrate the history of black people. They talk and get to learn more about black people, about all the interesting things in their culture. Black people are just like any other people, they have high and low class, and they have famous people just like white people do, such as Michael Jordan, the most famous black basketball player in the world.

Classical African civilization is also an important topic that had been covered in the conference.

Usually when talking about classic civilizations the first thing that comes to our mind is Europe and specifically the culture of Greek and rom, the reason behind us thinking that is because classic civilization had been ignored in all other cultures including the African culture by the United States and European countries. Classic departments such as well-known Universities like Oxford in the United States and Europe focused on publishing books about the importance of the Greek and Rome’s culture to be described as the highest class in the world.

Chapter three in social justice issues in local and global contexts

Chapter three social justice and the social construction of inequality and difference, in social justice issues in local and global contexts book talks about inequalities and differences between people how they are reinforced in our society. It talked about how people seem to find themselves more comfortable living around people with the same culture, religion and language. It also talked about how power and the power of control, race, gender, and class could result and lead to inequality in our society, for example: talking about classicism, how a high class group of people can control and have power over a hall population because of the amount of money they have. Another example is about racism as how in the United States white Americans used to differentiate between themselves and black Americans by believing that they should not exist only because of their color which they were born with, this also created inequality in society. These examples don’t only lead to equality they also violate human rights, because the decisions that these people made have affected those victim’s lives and made them suffer as well. This chapter also talked about oppression and the types of oppression, such as the internalized oppression which is directed at oneself. The last thing it talked about is stereotyping which is as the American journalist Walter lipmann said, that the imagination is shaped by the picture seen, for example if a Chinese person have been seen by an individual littering on the street and this individual believed that all Chinese people do the same thing, than it’s is called stereotyping and this could lead to racism.

Chapter two social justice and the social construction of inequality and difference in the book socialjustice issues in local and global contexts

Author: Charles Queist-Adade
Chapter 2 social reality construction and global justice in the social justice issues in local and global contexts book talks about social constructionism that there is nothing natural in the world and how social reality is made or created by people, and how people from the same society seem to understand and read things different than others just like for example reading a text message, some people will take this message as a joke and laugh at it and some others might take is serious and get mad. It also talked about critical constructionism which is the way social reality is constructed. also about how media takes place in society in which it makes people believe in certain things that they may have not happened, and how different people commit the same type of crime but because some have more power and control than the others have they don’t consider what they do as a crime which means there is no social justice. The last thing it talked about is is the global social justice that we should have not only health and income but also freedom and equality.

chapter 1 in social justice issues in local and global contexts

Author: Cahrles Quist-Adade

The first chapter in the social justice issues in local and global contexts book talks about many things such as critical thinking and how in society people need to think critically and how we people need to understand the nature of things and look in to the reasons behind other peoples behaviours and cultures without judging them because there is always something behind what appears to be.  Also how we need to accept new and different ideas and have an opened minded, this chapter also talked about human rights and justice which is the equality and fairness between all humans with different back grounds, color, gender. it also talked about the norms and how people are born to rely on each other to survive and how life and society is constantly changing, also that we have to know that there is no gender without race and no race without gender and no class without gender either. It also talked about how our chances in life are based on our gender, race and class but not in all cases for example someone poor could actually have the chance in life to be rich, and a rich person is not guaranteed to live rich for the rest of his or her life. It also talked about that we have four types of ideology which are dominant, reformist, radical and counter. And about the sociological imagination which is the capacity, ability and equality of mind with allows people to interact with others and how sociological imagination includes the problems and issues of society and how our actions and interactions takes place withen the context of social structures.

Chapter three Human Trafficking: Issues in Social Justice

Author: Jacob Armstrong

Human trafficking is control over humans: humans buy other humans to work for them. Trafficking became a major issue and social problem in the United States. Trafficking is increasing because it is a good business “the business of selling humans” traffickers make the United States approximately about 32 billion dollars every year. How trafficking works is when traffickers walk to find victims of the street such as homeless, poor, jobless or non-citizen people with no protection or back ground, and who are desperate for money, food and jobs or even for a better life style. This is like a contract or a promise, those traffickers job is based on deception, they work by convincing those people or make them believe that their life will eventually get better but only if they work as hard as they could and do everything they are asked to do and under all circumstances’ they still have to obey and work, even if the job was unsafe, dangerous and pose significant hazard, sometimes diseases and for most times get physically and verbally abused. Although there is no health care or protection for those kind of jobs.

There are five reasons why trafficking is increasing: one is the transformation of individuals; whenever traffickers are done with an individual they transfer him or her to a different country and make money out of them. Second for military needs, traffickers make children work in the military with no training. Third is when parents produce children to sell them for money to survive. Forth is traffickers make billions out of sex when they make women sleep with multiple men each day, and fifth is when traffickers make those humans work in labors that no other human would want to work in because its hazard and unsafe.

Traffickers call those humans reusable or recyclable because they use them over and over again until they are no longer usable for becoming physically and emotionally injured and specially for children under 18 they become not fully developed neither physically or mentally and most likely with diseases.

Some organizations in the United States have worked to end trafficking like the NGO and had been successful but did not get enough support or money from the government, so this organization and all the other ones are very limited. Also the fact that some countries still accept transformation this will make trafficking exist.

Chapter two Discrimination faced by members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community: Issues in Social Justice

Author: Jacob Armstrong

In the Issues In Social Justice book, Chapter two talks about discrimination faced by members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. In June 28, 1969 the genesis of the gay rights movement began then became an issue because same sex marriage became a threat to the traditional marriage as well as to the hall community. In society there is rules based on our gender for example women are expected to be more emotional than men, but for some people they find it very difficult to follow their gender rules for example a girl maybe interested on be women instead of men, that she does not see men attractive. So sexuality is a big issue and what makes sexuality even more complicated is when something falls in between heterosexuality and homosexuality which is bisexuality, this is related to an individual who is interested in both men and women.

 The process of coming out of the individuals heterosexual identity change for becoming lesbian and bisexual begins in their mid to late teen years and sometimes to mid-twenties, and sometimes  social interaction would be the main influence of the individuals sex change.

The process of coming out is very difficult and sometimes shameful for some people when they think about the consequences of becoming homosexual, about the society and its acceptance to gays and lesbians, about their friends, family  and most important their “rights” on how much support they will get from the government and  legislation, knowing that the state tried to silence and limit their population right after they made the decision on legalizing same sex marriages, also knowing that the federal government did not want to be involved in this for its conflict with the bible.

So homosexuals are not well protected by the states or legislation for example: that even if an assault was committed to a gay or lesbian either emotionally or physically sometimes they believe that the assault would not have been committed to this specific individual if they were to be straight.

Jobs and housing have also became an issue for homosexuals, many gays and lesbians have actually been fired from their jobs or not even been hired in jobs or got hired but paid less and that’s  be and that’s cause of their status, it was also difficult for them to find living as well for the same reason. So homosexuals suffered from discrimination within employment and housing because there is no legal protection against employment and housing discrimination, so some of them started to hide their status in order for them to get a job and a house.  Homosexuals did become a threat to the United States that based on their behaviour there became an economic effect.

There is a policy or protection that could be made against discrimination but it may not work anyways for employments and housing, but in society the acceptance of homosexuals into an everyday life now is becoming wider.

Bell Hooks

Bell Hooks is an American author, she was born in September 25,1952. She studied sociology and her main focus was on race, gender and class. She became a distinguished professor of English at city college of New York and started with feminist theory then became the author of 14 books of commentary and autobiography. hooks had writen many quates, some of her quates were

In her video cultural criticism and transformation she talked about the book she wrote about how important it is and why we should study popular culture. and that much she had always focused on thinking and writing critically in general and about the practice of education in peticular. She aslo advised people to think critically as well. one of the most important things she talked about is how media takes place in which it makes the picture of black people look bad in American society.

“If any female feels she need anything beyond herself to legitimate and validate her existence, she is already giving away her power to be self-defining, her agency.” and

“No black woman writer in this culture can write "too much". Indeed, no woman writer can write "too much"...No woman has ever written enough.”

Sociological Imagination

“Public Issue”

The economic issue in the United States and the educational system problem,

The U.S. educational system is compulsory for the first 9 to 12 years of education, depending on the state. While most students graduate between 17 and 18 years of age, many states allow for the student to voluntarily remove themselves from enrollment, or "drop out" without earning a diploma^.

Although some funding comes from the federal government, public education is almost entirely funded and controlled individually by state and local governments and school districts. Within a state, primary control of the system rests with the state, which delegates authority to local authorities. Although the Department of Education wields some authority, most powers concerning schooling remain with the states.

The funding and condition of the school system in each municipality is largely determined by the school district or local government. In affluent communities, especially those with many school-age children, the educational system tends to be more heavily funded on a per-student basis and tends to be more effective. Communities that are less affluent or have a lower proportion of families with children generally spend less money per child. Statistical information generated by the no child left behind act, and similar acts at a state level, demonstrate the general correlation between money spent per child and academic success.

State governments since the 1970s have grappled with these issues of educational equity. Despite these attempts, in 1992, the U.S. General Accounting Office stated, "Although most states pursued strategies to supplement the local funding of poor school districts, wealthier districts in 37 states had more total (state and local combined) funding than poor districts in the 1991-92 school year. This disparity existed even after adjusting for differences in geographic and student need-related education costs." In some states, most prominently New Jersey, courts have ordered dramatically increased funding in lower income areas. In other states, legislatures have acted on their own initiative to somewhat equalize the funding available.

Chapter 1 Religion And Homosexuality: Issues in Social Justice

Author: Jacob Armstrong

Chapter one in the issues in the social justice book talks about Religions and Homosexuality. Organized Religions have the concept of power on making rules to maintain order within society in the countries, but the states is more powerful because it could force obedience and enforce the law. In the United States Christianity became the most powerful religion that 75 percent of Americans follows the Christian religion, Few years ago a public issue has surfaced, It was the “Homosexuality”. Although it clearly says in the bible that homosexual is unacceptable and sinful to god, but the united states have challenged this social issue, so the state made its own decision about it so they legalized the homosexual marriages to be fair and understanding to peoples cultures and interests of practicing their own things and avoid racism. In this way both ex-gay and gay people can practice the Christianity still but in their own believes of who they are as humans. Overall a social change can happen while enforcing the law and religion.

Global sociological imagination

Global sociological imagination

My parents are both originally from Palestine but they have lived most of their lives in Saudi Arabia. They got married there and started to have a family. My dad worked really hard to support us “his family” as well as he went to postsecondary school to get his bachelors in economies. In the meantime and my mom stayed focused on raising us “her kids”. As we were growing Saudi Arabia’s rules started to change. One of the rules they changed is that any non-Saudi resident in their country will not have the right to attend postsecondary school any longer. This rule have got my dad’s attention which made him think deeper about our future and what will happen to us “his kids” when we grow up without education. He took an action and started looking for a place where we can attend school and found out that the best thing to do is to immigrate to Canada. This rule Saudi Arabia had made changed my life today. Now that I am in Canada, and in post-secondary school, I realized that my life has been impacted by other people’s actions.

Canada had given me the chance not only to finish my education but to work as well. When I had my first job I felt very responsible about myself and surprisingly about all the poor kids all over the world who suffer from hunger, I felt really bad for them and now that I can actually do something such as to donate for them, I started doing it frequently. I was proud of myself as well as thankful to Canada who gave me the chance to do so. I hope I changed something in this world and hope my action gave those poor kids the chance to be alive.

Body Ritual Among The Nacirema

Body Ritual Among The Nacirema

Author:Horace Miner

Nacirema is a north  American  group of people who lived between the Canadian Creel the Yaqui and Tarahumare of Mexico. Those nacirema people were and still hardly understand by others, they were very rich by nature but the poor once of them were not treated equally with the rich ones. Nacirema are well focused on eating fruits for the wealthy look or for what they call it the “human body” . They use their wealthy looks as power of ritual and ceremony. The richer the native was the more control he had over others, and the more shrines he would have.

In the shrines natives have built chest or box on the walls which has charms and magical potions and pure water which is the main thing in the hall temple. They believe that without it they could not be alive.

Nacirema believe that there is a supernatural influence in all social relationships and a strong relationship exists between oral and moral characteristics, but their strongest believe was the medicine man who writes down the ingredient of the medicine in a secret language that only he would understand it.

The medicine man has both the power and the magic from the devil to assist sick clients with all their needs and wishes  such as taking the fear away from children and changing woman’s shape  by making a fat woman thin and small breasts big and also avoid women’s pregnancy and many other powers of magic such as the  “holy-mouth-men” which is  power with the mouth, It is some kind of power and magical material put in to the clients mouth making the client believe that this men hold the teeth from breaking down and to draw friends as well, when it actually breaks the teeth down even more.

The actual reason is to make the client come back to the holy-mouth-men once or twice a year because for every treatment the medicine man has to get a valuable gift from the client and if the gift is not valuable enough the sick patient will not get treated even if the patient is poor.

The understanding of sociology

I am Rola Elhayek, I was born in Saudi Arabia in 1988. I am interested in sports, music and arts. The reason why I am in sociology 1125 is because my major area of study is criminology and sociology is one of the courses I need to take in order for me to graduate.

Sociology is the knowledge of society; it is the study of human social behaviour, especially the study of the origins, organization, institutions, and development of human society.

Sociology is the human interactions and social groups. It is what happens between individuals when they meet. We can’t see or feel society, this is why it is not phenomenon, but we have to believe in it because it exists.  Sociology is dialectic. We create society and it creates us, so we create what create us, which means it works the opposite way. People move on in this world but the social life will continue to go on and it never dies.

With society and making social groups we need rules for example: 1125 sociology class is a society but it needs a teacher to create rules and the students have to follow these rules, for successful, organized class. That’s how society works. We have agencies to act, if there are no rules and no agencies we wouldn’t be here. We live by values, and our actions are controlled by the society rules.

We depend and lean on others, People come together to interact, we can’t live without society. We are social animals, we need others to survive, it is our nature that we need to rely on people to survive.

We live in iron cage, which means we have to obey and follow rules just like a bird in a cage who has freedom but only inside the cage. We are born free but as we grow we begin to realize that we have to balance and compromise our needs with other people’s needs.

We have to surrender some of our freedom to create society and when we create norms we follow it, in other words we create society and society controls us, so it turns out to be a self-creating process.

Some elements of society are “Relationships” which are real but they have consequences’, because wrong behaviour can get you yelled at and sometimes dead. “Statuses” which is the location in the relationship, we play rules based on our statuses’ for example the husband play different rule then the wife does.

The purpose of sociology is to understand society realistically; we use reasons, logical to study, Like what is realistically happening, not hopping or wishing and assuming what will happen. It is to understand why certain people are the way they are, find the reason for their behaviour before judging them and jump to conclusions.

we are logical and social beans, we were born twice, first we are biological beans which is the nature of our behaviour,  second we are born by social beans which means our behaviour is controlled by the rules we need to follow which in the first place we made and created.