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Understanding proxemics
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Recommended: Understanding proxemics
Theory of Proxemics: The Anthropology of Space Hall (1966) defined proxemics as the “interrelated observations and theories of man’s use of space” (101); from the observations he made from animal studies regarding territoriality, spacing, and population, he proposes an organizational model of the underlying culture. This model is organized by Hall (1966) as a set of patterns divided into three different cultural levels: the intracultural, the precultural, and the microcultural. Infracultural “is behavioral and is rooted in man’s biological past” and precultural “is physiological and very much is the present” (101). Microcultural, used by Hall (1966) to make most of his observation, has three aspects: fixed-feature, semifixed-feature, and informal (101. Fixed-feature space is described by Hall (1966) as a way of organizing individual activities that feature behaviors that are fixed and rigid; examples of this include territorial behaviors for courting, nesting, as well as physical manifestations of behaviors such a building walls or the way they are grouped together (103). Semifixed-feature space is described by Hall (1966) as space that is both movable and …show more content…
He goes on to elaborate that each ethnic group has its own way of setting distances unique to them, which seems limited. It is true that in a broad generalized way these concepts appear to be at work but it also assumes that these cultures are working in a vacuum and do not influence each other. In the United States an individual may exist in multiple layers of these “ethnic” groupings. For instance a young Jewish girl would be influence by her ethnic proxemic patterns at home but may enter an academic institution that conforms to Anglo-American Christian proxemic patterns, then after graduating may enter a business culture that is employed with majorly Haitian
Most often it is when a person is more than one racial identity. This makes people socially identify with a particular race. The text discusses “immigration exposition and the desire to claim ones heritage in full measure , as well as greater openness to intimate unions across racial an ethnic lines “multiracial” is now identity classifications. I know the Garcia daughters are full Dominican but the girls struggled with their race several times. They felt as if they were more American then Dominican. They felt more comfortable speaking the English language then their own native Spanish language. The Garcia daughters would classify them self as Americans more so then
Second, I will discuss Brook’s ideas about social groups working together and social groups coexisting in a specific area. According to Brooks, in the United States we cannot see neighborhoods with different races or cultures because people always try “to group themselves with people who are basically like themselves” even in their workplaces (306-307). He makes this asseveration giving just an example on how wealthy Democratic and Republican lawyers do not tend to buy expensive houses in the same neighborhoods (307). However, in our country we can see middle class neighborhoods where we have different social groups coexist together, such as Coral Gables in Miami, Fl or Pembroke Pines in Broward, Fl.
Anthropologist Mark Weber outlined three factors that mark the existence of an ethnic group. Firstly, membership of an ethnic group may be by personal choice, through heritage or through force, and signifies an existence of otherness. Secondly, ethnic groups are generally in a search for a common identity, Thirdly, the existence of ethnic groups are often influenced by the perspective of the ‘other’ groups not in membership. These stereotypical markers point out the ethnic community (Bolaffi, 2003).
Power distance, it deals with the inequality existing in a culture and how the culture and the person react towards that inequality. In Haiti, people are divided into social class, and people in each social class think that their value provided to their class. People give importance and respect people who have a good standing in the society. They think that position in society or in their workplace, the house they live in, the school and university thy attended, the car they run, the clothes they dress and the computer they use make them what they are. It seems as everyone accept it
The subject of race and ethnicity is attracting a lot of attention from scholars and practitioners from different disciplines. This owes to the reality that race and ethnicity affects people differently. It could affect our personal and professional growth, educational achievements, and the progression of future college graduates. What is the meaning of these two words? The term race could be elucidated as a collection of people who may have similarities and differences genetically. Analogously, ethnicity is defined as shared perspectives, cultural practices, and variations that differentiate characteristics of groups of people. Some of the traits used to distinguish people along ethnic lines include mode of dressing, religion, ancestry, language,
Before reading this paper, my definition of ethnicity included ideas of appearance, language, and religion. The authors argue however, that “ethnicity is socially contructed”. Therefore, ethnicity is a product of human action and speech over time meaning that they do not remain constant. My definition can be regarded as ‘everyday primordialism’ and the second a constructivist view. Fearon and Laitin argue that social scientists should be concerned with using ordinary language definitions of terms that can be popularly used. They finally come up with a definition of ethnic groups as “groups larger than a family for which membership is reckoned primarily by descent, is conceptually autonomous and has a conventionally recognized ‘natural history’ as a group.” Although I agree with their premise, I think there are some issues with their description of conceptual autonomy as a defining factor for ethnicity. While F&L agree that “it is an empirical fact that ethnic groups ‘understand themselves’ through contrasts with other ethnic groups,” they don’t recognize that there are no ethnic groups in history that have not defined themselves in opposition to another group. Also they argue that casts and classes are not conceptually autonomous, which is not
Race and Ethnicity is a widely discussed issue in our society and in the world we live in today. Often times there are two alternatives on race and ethnicity, whether they are fixed or fluid. This discussion over time has lead to the different paradigms attempting to explain race and ethnicity and how sociologist feel they apply to people (Cornell and Hartmann, pg. 44). A more popular fluid approach at race and ethnicity is the assimilationist perspective. This perspective was first introduced to debunk the biological/social darwinism perspective, instead of defining racial and ethnic differences due to biological terms researchers now introduced these relations according to cultural differences. The assimilationist perspective allows us to
As an immigrant, I have talked about my culture numerous time, and as a Psychology major, I was certain, I knew all about culture. For instance, Dominicans we are loud, we are always talking about food, merengue, salsa or bachata music, or things we used to do when we still lived in the Dominican Republic. In fact, my Dominicans friends and I use the phrase “that’s so Dominican”, as though we have identified every pattern of behavior of my country. Interestingly, after I read the initial chapter of this course textbook, I realized that culture was not limited to customs, or typical dishes, but rather, that the extent of culture goes beyond race, ethnicity or nationality. In the book, there are two ways in which culture is defined: broad and
...ground or where they are located in the world, it is ignorant to put these differences up as a way to distinguish one people from another, or to say that one race has greater hierarchal significance than another. These constructions provide insight into how people have come to see one another and can also help to see ways through which avoiding racism in modern society may one day be possible.
Christopher Dunn author of The African Diaspora: A History Through Race described race as the essence within us that makes each group different (Dunn 12); meaning that commonly color is used to distinguish amongst races i.e. black, and white. However the idea of race is much deeper than that there are many other ways in which to define race which include phenotype (physical characteristics of a people), lineage (purity of blood, i.e. jewish people/ Israelites), and lastly in culture (religious preferences, dress, food). The main problem that lies within these four definitions of race is that it separates people into two categories “us” and “others” ( Dunn 13). It is from these judgments and beliefs of the ideas of “us” and “other” that stems racism. Additionally this idea of hierarchy and the prolonged affects
Ethnicity is an intrinsic part of one’s life as its the basis of what assists in personal development. Within society today ethnicity continues to denote a form of unity and commonality
As seen in the novel Red Sky at Morning, there existed three different groups, creating complex ethnicity, and clear distinction. An example of this in the story is when Steenie explains to Josh "We only recongnize three kinds of people in Sagrado: Anglos, Indians, and Natives. You keep your catagories strait and you'll make out alright." (36) In this conversation Josh as the newcomer to Sagrado, is educated by Steenie to the cultural rules of the unique town. In that part of the country Indians and Natives came first. Josh being an Anglo was considered a minority and discovered that he better keep his place. Steenie told Josh to keep predjudiced comments about Mexicans or Indinas out of everyday coversation if he planned to s...
This essay will explain the concepts of culture and ethnicity, and it will focus these concepts in ...
Most of the world's inhabitants view space and structure through visual elements such as bricks, rock, vegetation and foliage, hallways, doors, windows, trims, and flooring. These elements combine to allow each individual's experience of a space. The German word gestalt means form or shape. Gestalt psychology attempts to investigate the human mind and how it conceives of or recognizes patterns. Scientists believe the human mind is wired to search for import and significance in sensory information input. This wiring may be the evolutionary result of hundreds of thousands of years of human development. “Human instinct for survival was based upon changes in color in the environment (to seek shelter upon lower light levels indicating the coming of night) or auditory input (the snap of a twig indicating the threat of a predator)” (Popow, 2000, p. 2). A central issue of environmental psychology is the manner in which different types of settings can trigger different emotional states in individuals; whether positive or negative reactions and behaviors.
In chapter 2 they spoke of the everyday impact of culture. Defining “culture as a pattern of assumptions that determine how we see the world, thin it becomes more obvious that culture is an encompassing concept that affects every area of every person’s life.” (Choudhuri, Santiago-Rivera, & Garrett, 2012) This one sentence changed my philosophy from education to understanding and open-mindedness. It’s so important that we are open to the culture of others, not just open but accepting as well. People are different in so many ways, from religion, social class, gender, sexuality, economic status, and many more. So it is impossible to learn all the different facets of every individual. However we can be continuous learners, and seekers of education. We can also be open to change and open to viewing the world from an unbiased looking glass. Meaning we set our pre-distinguished cultural views aside and look at others as if the way they view the world is the correct as well. This is easier said than done. It will be quite difficult to unlearn all of the things you have been taught since birth and adopt someone else’s culture even if only for a 1 hour