Marwa Sakhizada (215030265)
Jennifer Meness
AP/SOSC 1140
10 October 2017
Individual Autonomy and Social Structure
In Dorothy Lee’s reading Individual Autonomy and Social structure provides readers a clear view of different cultures. Lee’s focus is to see how these different cultures implement the simple idea of individual autonomy into their everyday lives. She points out the individual autonomy of non-western societies to the individuality of western society. One group provides full freedom to an individual while the other does not and puts restrictions in place. Lee believes that the study of other societies dealing with similar issues in different circumstances can “furnish us with insights which we can use in understanding …show more content…
Each culture has a different approach to raising a child. In western societies we have boundaries and restrictions set for a child, usually all the way up to adulthood. Often find it hard to balance individual autonomy and social structure because our culture influences the way we think, act and react. In many cultures children are not seen as minorities, yet they are treated and respected equally similarly as someone twice their age. They are shown absolute respect from birth and respected as a sheer being for his own uniqueness. For the children of the Wintu Indians, they have complete personal freedom and autonomy to learn on their own. They are given independence to experience different feelings and emotions such as; pain, anger, happiness, and challenges without influences from others. Parents of the Wintu children refrain from interfering in the child’s life because they have complete trust in the child. Thus, knowing that leaving the child to overcome obstacles on their own will let them grow and acquire knowledge needed in …show more content…
As mentioned in the text “they do not impose an external time schedule on their infants, but feed them when they are hungry, and put them to bed when they are sleepy.” (6) Many parents would argue and say that the parent is being too permissive, especially when the child is very young. If you put the idea to perspective it makes complete sense, the child is learning form a young age to be sensitive and to show some type of emotion when they have a problem. If a child can decide from such a young age, it will give them a sense of self-worth and makes them aware of their power as a human. Moreover, when faced with circumstances in the future they will stand up and decide for their own instead of relying and letting the opinion of other affect their decision. They strongly believe that freedom isn’t theirs to give and therefore they cannot restrict a child when it comes to their