Sociological Perspective: The Mexican Mummy Museum (Guanajuato)

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I. A way of Looking at Behavior:
A. Ethnocentrism vs. Relativism

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Ethnocentrism: looking at behavior and viewing it from the view of our own social group/perspective


Relativism: looking at a behavior from the view of the group's own perspective

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Types of Ethnocentric reactions to the mummy museum

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1. Creepy, scary or morbid
2. Usually disturbing or distasteful
3. Sacrilegious
4. Disrespectful
5. Criminal

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B. Isolated events versus patterns

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Isolated events:
1. Bus ride
2. Funeral Parlor - incorporated into their everyday behavior, they don't act differently around funeral parlors.
3. Day of the Dead: Makes you connect the dots and see how people think of death as not much different as life. Death related presents like toys, shirts, food, poems, and even a contest for the best poem writer!
4. Bullfighting: The bull in this case represents death and in the face of death, the matador shows calm and controls the bull.
5. Chichinitza: Mayan Ruins
Sacrifices
Winning or losing captains were sacrificed in the ball game. These ruins are a large Mayan grouping of temples and buildings that were steep because people were sacrificed on the top and when the body was sacrificed it was pushed down and would end up at the bottom of the pyramid. People assisted these sacrifices and since famine existed, people did not hesitate enough to eat the bodies.

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B. Patterns regarding death

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Patterns regarding death:
1. celebration of death
2. embrace death
3. public not private matter
4. opennes of death
5. not agraid of death
6. an everyday event

People accept death rather than fear or deny it, they celebrate death and respect spirits, they laugh at death and don't well on it as much as we do. The obituary is usually on the first page, and the age range is much more spread out than the age range in America. People remind each other that we re all vulnerable to die and that we will die eventually, so they re not uncomfortable to talk about dying at some point in time. They believe that we interact with dead spirits and that our existence is a ladder that goes down and up but that there are endless steps to it.

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II. Explaining Patterns of attitudes nad behaviors
A. Micro Explanations

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A. Micro Explanations:
Face to face interaction that shows how our behavior is influenced by smell, hear, taste, talk, visualizing the person. It is focused on concrete people and interactions. The role of parents in guiding their children is to make it normal to introduce their child to the concept of death and dying as not being such a big deal. For micro-sociologists who analyze and look at community, death is part of these people's lives.

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B. Macro Explanations of Behavior regarding death

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Macro Means larger features of society, not necessarily face-to-face. For example: the religions in society of a pattern of death a dying. The importance of religion ndto them comes from Roman Catholics, and Aztecs. Example of what happened with stack of coke cans in front of the altar and how people were killed for taking pictures. Pattern of coke cans explained that bringing cans in for the Aztecs meant that they were giving them up and this was a symbol of sacrifice. The Aztec side of their religion is also represented in the Church. The Aztec side of their religion has a number of ways and beliefs about death:
1. belief that our existence is a ladder and that you have infinite existence ahead and beyond
2. this belief mad the importance of current life to be diminished and hence the easy acceptance of death.
3. Aztec belief about spirits: talk to them and hear them, if you ignore the spirits or don't show them respect, you will be miserable.
4. The body at death is just a shell; once you're dead, the spirit is all that matters.

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Macro Explanation: Economy in Mexico

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Also an explanation for views of death and dying.
Rural Mexico is another world, because the infrastructure is dangerous, which explains that their views of death are a reflection of the economy.
There are people that make 30 cents an hour and can only afford essentials for living. Proper health care system to these people does not exist; there is no sewage, no adequate sanitation, so more disease. The inadequate living conditions reflect upon their belief that LIFE IS HARD; it gives them different thoughts about life as a struggle, so maybe its just better to die. In conclusion: death is not a stranger at any age, it happens across the lifespan

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Micro Explanations

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1. Learning through observation of other people's attitudes on behavior
2. Practiced in front of peers and adults
3. Performed in group rituals

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Macro Explanations

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Example: Religion is a hybrid: half Catholic, half Aztec
Religiosity: how strong your religious commitment is
Body Shell: our body is insignificant, only your soul is important
A lot of poverty, death is everywhere. No matter how old you are it is inescapable and unavoidable.

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RESEARCH METHODS: PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION

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I. GOALS
A. FIRST ORDER INTERPRETATIONS (EMIC)
B. SECOND ORDER INTERPRETATIONS (ETIC)
II. TECHNIQUES
A. PARTICIPATION
1. Types
2. Purposes
B. INTERVIEWS
1. Types
2. Purposes
OBSERVATIONS
1. Types
2. Purposes

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Participant observation is

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first method used in sociology, when the sociologist imerses him or herself in a group's way of life by seeing and experiencing things first hand

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First order Interpretation
Ex: 8 year study on laboratory people. Doctors, specially students go to lunch wearing their scrubs with blood. They say its because they don't have time to change and are in a rush to eat. But it's really that they want other people to see that they are getting their "hands dirty" and really saving lives

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EMIC: To capture what people think feel and act, but not the public relations or what they want people to thing that they think, feel, and act when they are in the GROUP.

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EDIC: Second Order Interpretation
What is the goal?

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The goal is to take what you learn from what people thin, feel, and act, but actually understand this way of life as a sociologist. EX; the blood on doctor's scrubs shows that tho them it is pride, the rite of passage into a new role, younger people were the only ones with blood on their scrubs, it is a way of showing off.

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II. TECHNIQUES
A. PARTICIPATION
1. Types

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Participation can be:
1. complicated (restricted, less participation) or
2. unrestricted (more participation).

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Some things that limit participation are:

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1. Skill issue that prohibits you from participating (you won't open up an animal if you don't know how)
2. Legal problems: ex: criminal behavior (a risk is involved)
3. Power: when you are studying people with power. For example: the Board of Trustees at Northeastern, it is restricted and hard to even get to a meeting with them.
4. People will act differently because you are there

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2. PURPOSES

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since the purpose is to get to the point where the group you are studying TRUSTS you or doesn't really care that you are there. You want to fit in, create rapport (BUILD A SENSE OF TRUST)

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Types
A. DATA COLLECTION

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Purpose is to try and experience what the people are experiencing, to analyze whether they are all experiencing the same thing. Do they all see an opened up animal as a "goey mess" or do they see an animal as an "interesting gall bladder"

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B.Interviews
Types

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1. Unstructured Conversation: walking, talking casually
2. Structured Conversation: talking to people with formal questions, using a tape recorder

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Purpose of Interviews/talk

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The goal is to fit int, to become part of the scene, to learn the rules for what you can talk about amongst this group of people. You learn what is sensitive talk to them, what you can and cannot do. EX: if you are going to test on a cute dog, you do not treat the dog like a pet because that makes it harder for them to test on that animal.

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Example: Beautiful Cruelty

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This is great for publicity. There is some cruelty, but they use a cute, appealing animal and the animal is saved. All of this is does to get people to help with charity to animals

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Limitations to Interviews

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Sometimes there are groups which don't come together, but they are still a group. Ex: Amorphous group
people in extreme pain, intractable pain, chronic pain. There was no group where people got together, so it is only through interviews that you could get information

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C. Observations
Types

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1. Unfocused: not focused on watching one specific thing, it can be overwhelming sometimes. Ex: elevator experiment, you are not focusing your observations on one specific thing
2. Focused: you want to study adolescent prisons to see if people who are very violent can work to train dogs, you can focus observations to one group of 20 people out of 2,000 in a prison of adolescent people

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Observations
Purposes

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We observe because people will not admit to things (that are true) this is becuause people are very aware of what other people will think and are worried that:
1. concern of what others will have to say
2. Desirability (social) pleasing the researcher
3. Sometimes people can't put words onto what they feel or cannot really talk about it, so you need to see their actions visually to be able to tell; sometimes they aren't even conscious of the things they do, so they cannot even explain them
Ex: At a nursery where they studied chimps, people almost cared too much about the chimps, but not about people. It took Arluke 3 months of observation to realize that
4. People didn't say it because they didn't feel comfortable ex: it's routine to kill mice" thats all they said. He had to watch the vet actually kill 2,000 mice to notice her change in behavior, how her lip began to tremble, she had a depressed, gazing down look and said "we are going for a beer" so the NORM is: do not talk about what is bothering people emotionally, because you just cant do it.
5. What people do is ilegal, so they don't tell you
6. They don't tell you because they are stealing scales or something valuable. In this case people were stealing scales and Ketamine, a drug that paralyzes animals. This shows that it is important to observe, because you don't ask people about their stealing Ketamine

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III. ISSUES

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A. ETHICS
1. No harm: You do not want to harm people you study, so you have to maintain ANONIMITY
2. Damagin information that compromises people: You cannot publish information and lie or mislead. There is a cod of ethics that was developed for sociolocy.
Ex: Informed consent: which makes you aware of what something will do to help you, but also how it can harm you. There are cases where people were used for experiments without informed consent or without being warned that being a volunteer for this experiment would harm you or the larger group.
If you say something, not only do you harm people at an individual level though gossip and compromise yourself not only physically, but you can also harm the larger group.
Other issues:
Accuracy problems
Underinvolved (not delving deep enough risks accuracy of study)
Over-involvement (going native)
because there can be a physical and psychological, as well as emotional threat involved.

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PUBLISHING Issues

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What do you do when you hear awful things against the law?
You must keep anonymous and confidential both at the informal and formal levels. You must also keep anonimity when referencing in books or reports. You have to reassure people that there is no harm at a groups personal and group level.
Ex: When it is Obligation to tell: If the issue involves children or something that is just too delicate. If there are disturbing violations that may affect the larger field.

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2. PURPOSES

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since the purpose is to get to the point where the group you are studying TRUSTS you or doesn't really care that you are there. You want to fit in, create rapport (BUILD A SENSE OF TRUST)

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Types
A. DATA COLLECTION

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Purpose is to try and experience what the people are experiencing, to analyze whether they are all experiencing the same thing. Do they all see an opened up animal as a "goey mess" or do they see an animal as an "interesting gall bladder"

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B.Interviews
Types

Back 28

1. Unstructured Conversation: walking, talking casually
2. Structured Conversation: talking to people with formal questions, using a tape recorder

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Purpose of Interviews/talk

Back 29

The goal is to fit int, to become part of the scene, to learn the rules for what you can talk about amongst this group of people. You learn what is sensitive talk to them, what you can and cannot do. EX: if you are going to test on a cute dog, you do not treat the dog like a pet because that makes it harder for them to test on that animal.

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Example: Beautiful Cruelty

Back 30

This is great for publicity. There is some cruelty, but they use a cute, appealing animal and the animal is saved. All of this is does to get people to help with charity to animals

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Limitations to Interviews

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Sometimes there are groups which don't come together, but they are still a group. Ex: Amorphous group
people in extreme pain, intractable pain, chronic pain. There was no group where people got together, so it is only through interviews that you could get information

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C. Observations
Types

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1. Unfocused: not focused on watching one specific thing, it can be overwhelming sometimes. Ex: elevator experiment, you are not focusing your observations on one specific thing
2. Focused: you want to study adolescent prisons to see if people who are very violent can work to train dogs, you can focus observations to one group of 20 people out of 2,000 in a prison of adolescent people

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Observations
Purposes

Back 33

We observe because people will not admit to things (that are true) this is becuause people are very aware of what other people will think and are worried that:
1. concern of what others will have to say
2. Desirability (social) pleasing the researcher
3. Sometimes people can't put words onto what they feel or cannot really talk about it, so you need to see their actions visually to be able to tell; sometimes they aren't even conscious of the things they do, so they cannot even explain them
Ex: At a nursery where they studied chimps, people almost cared too much about the chimps, but not about people. It took Arluke 3 months of observation to realize that
4. People didn't say it because they didn't feel comfortable ex: it's routine to kill mice" thats all they said. He had to watch the vet actually kill 2,000 mice to notice her change in behavior, how her lip began to tremble, she had a depressed, gazing down look and said "we are going for a beer" so the NORM is: do not talk about what is bothering people emotionally, because you just cant do it.
5. What people do is ilegal, so they don't tell you
6. They don't tell you because they are stealing scales or something valuable. In this case people were stealing scales and Ketamine, a drug that paralyzes animals. This shows that it is important to observe, because you don't ask people about their stealing Ketamine

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III. ISSUES

Back 34

A. ETHICS
1. No harm: You do not want to harm people you study, so you have to maintain ANONIMITY
2. Damagin information that compromises people: You cannot publish information and lie or mislead. There is a cod of ethics that was developed for sociolocy.
Ex: Informed consent: which makes you aware of what something will do to help you, but also how it can harm you. There are cases where people were used for experiments without informed consent or without being warned that being a volunteer for this experiment would harm you or the larger group.
If you say something, not only do you harm people at an individual level though gossip and compromise yourself not only physically, but you can also harm the larger group.
Other issues:
Accuracy problems
Underinvolved (not delving deep enough risks accuracy of study)
Over-involvement (going native)
because there can be a physical and psychological, as well as emotional threat involved.

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PUBLISHING Issues

Back 35

What do you do when you hear awful things against the law?
You must keep anonymous and confidential both at the informal and formal levels. You must also keep anonimity when referencing in books or reports. You have to reassure people that there is no harm at a groups personal and group level.
Ex: When it is Obligation to tell: If the issue involves children or something that is just too delicate. If there are disturbing violations that may affect the larger field.

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Culture: Yanomamo Violence

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I. Background
A. Napoleon Chagnon
B. Culture Shock
C. VIolence Levels
II. Ecological Pressures
A. Physical environment
B. Reproductive Resources
C. Spiritual Resources
III. Material Culture
IV. Symbolic Culture
A. Language
B. Norms and Values
C. Sanctions

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I. Background: Case Study-Brazil
A. Napoleon Chagnon

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All that was known was that nobody studied this group, stone-age people
no math system, no concept of wheel, no written language (only symbols), hunter gatherers, 3 MAIN CHARACTERISTICS:
1. Small Tribes; don't live in one place, but in small groups of 40 or 50, maximum 200
2. Very mobile (nomadic) since soil got depleted they left
3. Very little domestication-no modern fertilizing techniques, so rely on population of chimps; they follow them and Napoleon did this study, and was left in the Amazon with these people

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B. Culture Shock

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When nothing makes sense to you, you are emotionally and psychologically shocked. This is what happened to Napoleon when he thought that he was going to be killed by Yanomamo warriors. Tribes attack each other to catch women and their noses are running and like a pendulum of goo is running down their noses. They put it on their hair.

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Ethnocentrism

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To NAPOLEON this is gross. The Yanomamo started breaking his stuff and food supplies. They broke open his cans, ad laughed at his cocktail hot dogs. They thought that they were small animal genitalia. They also thought he was eating rodent doo-doos.

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C. Violence Levels

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The "fierce people", this group is described amongst the most violent, 30% of the men among Yanomamo die in some form of violent death and 60% of them kill somebody by age 25

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Culture:

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A group's way of life

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II. Ecological Pressures:
What about Yanomamo's einvornment is it that contributes to violence?

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A. Their physical environment
There is scarcity of food, most typical meal is larvae and the best is monkey meat. Yanomamo men try to kill a monkey. It takes them about a week to kill a monkey with a blow gun that they use as a tool. All Yanomamo follow the flow of monkeys so there is competition among tribes due to scarce resources (land, streams, animal populations)

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B. Reproductive Resources

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Capturing women is part of their everyday life. The more women the larger the population of the tribe. the problem is that they capture women, but there is no food to feed them. Women are also traded. If there are many men and little women it is a symbol of weakness. In order to be effective you need EVIL SPIRITS

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C. Spiritual Culture

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The Yanomamo believe that you need evil spirits in battle to be more victorious. Problem: belief that there is limited amount of evil spirits and how they make evil spirits fight with their tribes is like their religion. They talk to the spirits only by using hallucinogenic drugs, which is a powder from under trees that they snort up their noses using blowguns

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How does social context influence their level of violence?

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You can tell through their belie in only evil spirits, in that to them there is no heaven, only hell, no good, just bad.

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III. Material Culture

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Physically made objects of a group
Ex: building, books, pens, objects lke phones, cellphones. To the Yanomamo, these are weapons, a blow gun, and tools. Material culture is nothing abstract like feelings or emotions. The meaning of these objects is not inherent in the object.
Tribute: you put meaning into the object

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A Watch to the Yanomamo means:

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One body down. This means that if you have many watches, you have killed many men and you are strong

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IV. Symbolic language

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Verbal/non verbal gestures
Ex: when we sneeze, we cover our mouths. Meaning: does it exist in the words? you have to go back tothe group. If you meet a Yanomamo, they do two things:
1. How you say hello: since its a violent culture, even their gestures are violent to us and the way they say helllo is violent
2. Binging: what they do to get their mind off things

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A. Language

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It is important because it seeks many uses. Binging: occurs among groups that need to tease each other to deal with stress, to show that they trust eachother. Ex: guys on beams on the high floors are always teasing eachtoher. This is like among the Yanomamo, they insult each other about physical appearance Ex: fat lips, big alligator eyes
If they insult you, they do not expect you to cry or to get mad, they want to build trust

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Sapir Worf Hypothesis

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This is how language shapes perception (how you see the world) There are million words for ice, seeing snow or ice with more divisions. Ex: Way of seeing reality for doctors; people who look like they're getting ready to die.
Gomer: if you get labeled this, get out of my emergency room, people only look at people with real emergencies. Dirt balls/turkeys: an inferior patient (junkie/uses drugs) becuase he was injecting himself
LOLINADS-little old lady in no apparent distress, got ready to go to the ER and just chill
AMF-Adios Mother fucker: cause trouble and are not sick, they just steal things.
SAPIR WORF shows how language is a primary way for people to transmit culture. Having a way of life, a way of sharing.

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Values

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Abstract ideas that a group has about what is desirable or good. Inherently fuzzy, abrstract

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Norms

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Concrete expectations for behavior in particular situations, not fuzzy, not abstract.

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Sanctions

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The punishments and rewards that a groups has to encourage the right behavior. Ex: the culture's police force, grades.

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Value Cluster

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Success: good to get an education, achievement, family and picketed fence

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Group Survival Link

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3 values-core and essential to the Yanomamo:
1. Violence is good
2. Individual needs are less important than the group
3. Harmony is key over discover among members of the tribe

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Norms

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The meaning of pain (like what it means to a mother when she gives birth) is what happens among the Yanomamo, because there are norms (specific ways of acting)that show that violence is good

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Norms for Yanomamo

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1. Striking wife; gets a bump and shaves head and puts red powder on it to show other women her bump. This shows how culture affects our experiences of pain
2. Practice of infanticide; if there is trouble with feeding, they must eliminate mouths to feed, but interesting becasue they kill females, prefer to have warriors and steal women from other tribes, so whose needs reign are different
3. Adultery; this is like civil dity. In weak tribes, the more men, the weaker, there is tension around sex, so men have to agree to share women. If husband objects to share his wife, he is unpatriotic to sexual needs, which must be met.

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Folkways

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No prison if violation (no laws on how to stand in an elevator) you are just aware that you've done something that goes against the culture norms, or against what is expected.

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Mores

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Strong expectations, more severe violation, criminal murder, and nudity.

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Sanctions among Yanomamo

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Making sense of sanctions means understanding culture. To them, whenever there is a problem it is important to solve it with violence. Draw circle on the ground, accuser gets hit by accused and if he falls, he loses and so forth. The most violent wins. They deal with their problems using violence.

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Culture encourages (in this case) violence and regulate it

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encourages violent behavior but also limits it

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Culture represents

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who we are as people, it shapes our personality. Yanomamo violence and elevators have behavior that occur in a routine way. There are norms in an elevator, just like norms to be a Yanomamo.

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Second Nature

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Being your own police agent

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Socialization: Medical School Cadaver Dissection
Anatomy Lab

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Learning the subculture of medicine

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I. Primary Socialization

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A learning process where we make it part of our self and our norms

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Superego or "me"

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culture you have taken inside your head

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Taboos

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norm violations that are almost sick

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Secondary Socialization

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cultural norms, rules, value we learn

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Tours

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think about dead body (not as human) but as an interesting science experience

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Jokes and funny stories

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they laugh at things that happened during dissection and think of what happened as no big deal and just laugh about it. They tell students how they must behave when dissecting. Must treat dead body like an object. Used as TENSION RELEASE

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Rite of passage

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important moments where you enter a new role and people look at you differently. Ex: voting, confirmation, bar mitzvah, getting past book leaning, first dissection)

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Significant Others

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TA becomes a significant other because she is someone that most medical students want to copy. She enters and acts as if everything is ok, no big deal and instead of re-assuring them, she just leaves and assigns them to do stuff

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symbol Learning

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Learning how to control emotions
Medical student-lay person
using piece of cadaver
Medical student using cadaver genitals of fellow medical student
Medical student making the body lok alive to scare other fellow medical student

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Ambiguous person

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you are both human and object, face, genital, hand, don;t let you think of it as less human, but you need to learn DETACHED CONCERN and learn to control emotions, turning the switch on and off