Downton Abbey

Two societies in one house in the television show Downton Abbey. This show shows the aristocratic society of the Crawley family and their family’s servants. It shows the British Social Hierarchy during the Post-Edwardian Era. This era includes the sinking of the titanic, World War 1, the Spanish influenza, and the Interwar Period.

The directors do a great job of using all of the main eighteen characters fairly equally; therefore, when watching the show you can see how each society is different. The servants’ main job it to take care of the Crawley family and the estate, but they still have full lives and drama of their own. They use what is going on with the Crawley family as their soap opera. They also have a hierarchy within the servants in the house with the butler and the housekeeper at top- with valets, ladies maids, and kitchen staff following.

The Crawleys (also know as the Granthams because of their estate) are lead entirely different lives than their servants. They live to be served, they change their clothes around three times a day, they live the high society life. They don’t have jobs as far as I can tell. Their job is to handle old money well.  When they leave a room the servants come in quickly and make up the room to look like no one had been in it.

It is strange to me that that is how society used to be, yet it did lead to the society we have now.

The OLD and NEW Popular Cliques

This topic jumped at me while watching the movie 21 Jump Street How popularity changes with the times, it changes with pop culture. If you were popular in the 80s, with the same characteristics you might have not been as popular in today’s times.

Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill play the protagonists in the movie. Tatum’s character was popular in high school, and Hill was not. Yet as they step onto campus as undercover cops, roles seem to change. The popular kids care about the environment, dress with a hipster style, and are more involved in the arts. This is different from what they are used to. They were probably thinking of the popular crew looking more like a scene from Mean Girls.

Things are the same with movies like The Breakfast Club and 17 Again and the like; most “popular” kids have money, nice cars, and big parties.  The dynamic duo throws a big party in 21 Jump Street to gain favor with the popular gang, drugs and alcohol are definitely a part of this movie’s in crown too. Yet in 21 Jump Street they show that the kids like to hang out and sit around and play music too..

Tatum and Hill play undercover cops to stop the drug circulation at the school that they go to. Drugs have been present for a long time, but they drugs they have to run down are more synthetic. Drugs these days seem be more processed than before because of new technologies. Maybe high school students have more leisure in today’s times to use drugs. Or many that’s how the nation is changing.

Popularly changes with pop culture and culture itself.

Deaf Culture

There are many viewpoints about how to define deaf culture.

Some prefer to call it the deaf community. They say that culture is not an appropriate word because it is “too strong” of a term. Deaf people come from a variety of backgrounds, jobs, social standing; the word culture is too restrictive.

While others feel that the word culture defines it well, “Deaf culture is a set of learned behaviors and perceptions that shape the values and norms of deaf people based on their shared or common experiences.” My friend, that suggested this topic for my blog is and ASL (American Sign Language) major and is actively involved in the ASL community ,referred to it as deaf culture

There are also a couple of viewpoint as how to look at persons who are a part of the deaf community.

Pathological focuses on what is mistaken; it defines the problem and emphasizes how to fix it. The success of this viewpoint depends on each individual, and sometimes it is viewed as the negative viewpoint because it states that deafness needs to have a cure.

Cultural focuses on deaf people can do, not what they cannot do. Some say that those that hear are at more of a disadvantage because they are not fluent in both English and ASL.

Personally I would love to be able to sign and after studying the subject I want to learn more and find out if there are classes available to learn ASL.

Neverthirst

Providing Water

It seems hard to believe that there are more than one billion people in the world living without clean water.  Neverthirst’s goal is to change these statistics. Their purpose is to bring clean and living water to all of those that they come in contact with.

“In order to do this, we know that we need to change numbers to names. We ask that you allow us to take that 1 billion and introduce you to some of them – to Charity Jackson or Louis Martin from Sudan. Or maybe Ranjana who lives the life of a typical teenager in India – only she doesn’t have access to clean drinking water.”

–          This is a quote from Neverthirst’s mission page.

Right now Neverthirst is focused on providing clean water to the peoples of The Central African Republic, Sudan, and India. There are videos for each region and explanations for each as well.                         

According to Neverthrist:

Central African Republic– is the second poorest country in the world, and its people live on less than $1.25 a day.

India– 900 live on less than $2 a day and 130 million live without access to clean water

Sudan– People of the southern region have suffered from those in the North, the hope of having clean drinking water is important to them.

There are other options in supporting Neverthrist than specifically just sending money. Adopt-a-village is a 3 year program. They bring clean and living water through a local church. They also have a program that 30 women go through. These women learn all about clean water and total sanitization. This makes their village healthier and happier.

Neverthrist also provides ways to volunteer and fundraise for them. If this is a cause you want to help there is a plethora of ways for you to do so.

Belo Horizonte

Photo by Emily Paige Blodgett in Belo Horizonte

This summer I lived in the city of Belo Horizonte, a city in the city-state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Their culture is vastly different than ours, so in this post I am going to share a little with you- mostly my first hand experiences. Brazil is a lovely place to be! You may think the south is very hospitable, but the people of Brazil are more so. Brazilians do not have the concept of personal space; soon after living there for a while you no longer have this concept either.  Normally in the states you have three people sitting on a couch, five is a more realistic number in Brazil.

Every time I went somewhere new, when I entered the room it was customary to great each individual person. This was the case whether I knew each person or not, and more often than not I would hug someone and ‘kiss’ them on the cheek before I met them. This same custom happens when someone leaves the place you are as well, individual goodbyes.

When having a meal you can count on rice and beans. Rice and beans with chicken, beef, pork, and even pasta. Anytime you go to a buffet you dress nicely- completely opposite of things here. You do not go to a bar that has all of the food options laying on it, but people carry around the options and they ask you if you would like it. As you can imagine buffets were usually the best places to eat- but the hardest for me because I do not speak Portuguese.

There are many other topics I could write about such as traffic- since I lived in a city of 3.5 million, or about the college campus- since that is where I spent most of my time, but I will save that for another post.

Rend Collective Experiment has a Culture of Its Own

Starting out with 100 members, this band is more than a hand full of people that love music and make records for their own success. Rend Collective Experiment is an Irish band who’s genre include Christian experimental, folk rock, and worship. After doing what they love and seeing how this experiment was moving people, a core group of five started making a record. RCE says that all things are better home-made, that is why the group chose to make their record in their own homes. Collective can be define as of or characteristic of a group of individuals taken together. As RCE travels they say that the collective group grows bigger.  They even write with people outside of their core five.

The reason the RCE is vastly different than many artists that I come across is their main goal is to make music that reflects the creative nature of God and worship him in that way. Many artists make catchy music and their goal is to make in on billboard charts, make their albums go platinum, etc. ; which is not un-admirable, if I had chops or any musical bone in my body I would probably hope to be well know. Yet, RCE states, “People are more important than music, art, or apparent success.”  This why RCE stands out, they make their own culture. They are currently touring in Europe, and are having a U.S. tour starting in November. Listen to their continuously interesting collective experiment by watching their video called Camp Fire– where they shot the video and recorded it around a camp fire on the beach.

Little Boxes

Little Boxes is a song written by Malvina Reynolds in 1962. The song is a political satire against Western Culture. This first time I heard the song I watched a music video of the song in a cover done by Walk off the Earth. It is one of the most creative music videos I have seen. Everything is made out of cardboard boxes, a little play on words with the song title.

As I thought about this as a blog post, I found out that Walk off the Earth is not the original artist and that other bands have also done covers of this song-  Death Cab for Cutie, Regina Spektor,  and The Shins- just to name a few.  Artists from different countries made versions of this song in their own language, and Time magazine even wrote an article on it.

So why did this son have such a big following, because they lyrics spoke about some westerners of yester year and today. People live in suburbs of houses that look the same. When they grow up they are expected to go to college to get a job as a professional.  These people go to the country club, have pretty children. In the end these children grow up and the process repeats. Although this is just a satire, it is an interesting view of things.

 It is also curious that Reynolds and these other bands would have the confidence to write the song, or make a cover of it. This goes to show that not everyone likes their culture, or the way that people in their culture act.

A copy of the lyrics: Little boxes on the hillside
Little boxes made of ticky tacky
Little boxes on the hillside
Little boxes all the same

There’s a pink one and a green one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they’re all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same

And the people in the houses
All went to the university
Where they were put in boxes
And they came out all the same

And there’s doctors and lawyers
And business executives
And they’re all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same

And they all play on the golf course
And drink their martinis dry
And they all have pretty children
And the children go to school

And the children go to summer camp
And then to the university
Where they are put in boxes
And they come out all the same

And the boys go into business
And marry and raise a family
In boxes made of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same

There’s a pink one and a green one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they’re all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same

 

Western vs. Eastern Culture

There are big differences between Western and Eastern culture. It is good to know the differences when you travel. But it is also a good to know them because we have a lot of international students on Troy’s campus. If you are a reader of my blog and are not a Troy student there are opportunities to meet with people from other cultures every day.

Differences between Western and Eastern Culture:

• The way of thinking. Western culture tries to get from point A to point B, or go from problem to solution as direct as possible. Eastern culture takes a while to make a decision. They might go through previous research on the subject several times before getting to the solution.
• The way of life. Most westerners think of everyone as an individual. Easterners think of society as a whole.
• Being on time. Westerners think being on time is very important, five o’clock means five on the dot. Easterners are more relaxed on punctuality. Five o’clock could mean five minutes before or up to ten or more minutes after.
• Emotion. Westerners tend to show emotion. If they are angry they will express their anger. Whereas, Easterners tend to not show anger and other emotions to the rest of the world.
• Retirement. Since Westerners are an individualistic society one retirement is a way to do the things that they couldn’t do in the past, but can do now. Because Easterners are a collective society they view retirement as a way to pass on their wisdom to younger generations.

There are many other differences, but I did hit on a few of the differences between Western and Eastern culture. Use this information to get to know people from other countries better.

The difference of the cultures in pictures:

Understanding Western Cultural from David Gilbert

 

A Culture of Social Media

In almost all of my classes, especially advertising, intro to communications, and intro to public relations, we have talked about social media. We have talked about its pros and cons; as well as, the way it is affecting the world.  It affects the world around us, in our daily lives, but also the media world. One of Troy University’s public relations staff gave a speech in my PR class. He talked about how a miscommunication on social media about the Newman Center caused an uproar. The university made national news because of this mistake.

In an article titled “Social media, western culture replacing traditional arts´- Rajulapudi Srinivas explains how traditional arts are getting replaced by social media, the  internet, and flash mobs.  He writes that flash mobs are taking place of traditional ‘burra kathas’ (mythological plays) and  ‘puppet shows’.  “Many youngsters are attracted to western food habits, garments and the lifestyles,” Rajulapudi Sriniva reasons. Social media is clearly changing views of culture in the Western world, as well as other areas of the world.

Sriniva’s article: http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Vijayawada/social-media-western-culture-replacing-traditional-arts/article5034839.ece

Another article on social media I researched for this article is an enlightening one. One section of the article, The Paradox of Online Closeness. How Social Media Is Having a Positive Impact On Our Culture [OPINION] by Josh Rose, states “Social media simultaneously draws us nearer and distances us.”  The article has a surprisingly good outlook on social media.  

I will end with some of the points of view Rose has on social media. The internet aids us in thinking globally, a machine does not control us, it is simply a tool. Just like a sharpened stick was a tool millions of years ago. Without social media- blogs and such- I would not have  able to write this article as easily.

Rose’s article: http://mashable.com/2011/02/23/social-media-culture/

The Western World

When thinking about the Western world, most people don’t think about its origination. I feel like I think about the American dream, social media, etc. I am going to touch on its origin and core values.

Western culture starts in Ancient Greece, and it spread in the first century through the Roman Empire. In the fourth and fifth century it was strongly influenced by Christianity.  Right after that it  stagnated during what is known as the Dark Ages. The rebirth of the culture was during none other than the Reniassance which took place in the fourteenth through seventeenth century. Then next three big events were the Agricultural Revolution, the Age of Enlightenment, and the American Revolution, all going on during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.  Lastly before modern day, was the Industrial Revolution.

The five core values of the Western world are: capitalism, reason, individualism, happiness, and rights.

• capitalism- an economic system in which ownership is chiefly maintained by private individuals or corporations
• reason- to think through logically to solve problems
• individualism- a person is successful if they are independent and relies solely on themselves
• happiness- contentment and world serenity should be on peoples thoughts
• right- like the Bill of Rights- people should be able to act without interference, as long as they are follow the law

As the Declaration of Independence states that we are “endowed” to have the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  The Western world is such an individualist society.There is much disconnect with the Eastern world in this way of thinking. I hope to talk about differences in the Western and Eastern world in my next post.

To learn more about western culture read here: http://www.westerncultureglobal.org/what-is-western-culture.html