Language and Social Class in Demirciler

The informational article Islands of Meaning written by Eviatar Zerubavel is an incredibly insightful tool that has allowed others to better understand concepts of schemas, accommodation, and assimilation. The article illustrates how we mentally categorize things by segmenting and applying meaning to the world around us. This enables us to form ideas and opinions that aid in the development of society along with our own image of self. Our boundaries can be dependent upon our cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds influencing what is defined as normal or acceptable. In this critical analysis, I will initially recount in a short summary Zerubavel’s main concepts on synopsis, socialization, and language. I will also examine and review the article from a critical standpoint and give personal opinions on the concepts for in this article.

In furtherance, the sociology of gender analyzes how those forces manipulate the perception of the differences between masculinity and femininity, whereas the sociology of names examines how those same forces influence presumptions on people based on their appellations. Essentially, cultural expectations are attached to which gender a person has. In its intertwined relationship with names, gender explicates how culture presently links the suffixes “-a” to be with female names and “-o” to be with male names. In regards to sociological imagination’s concept of history, origins of names may date back to previous generations, which permits present suppositions of race, ethics, and beliefs. Concerning social forces and the concept of biography, both expectations based on gender and assumptions based on names are shaped by social interactions with family members, friends, and strangers. Ultimately, the historical force of cultural expectations and the social force of presumptions account for the social identities of gender and names—attributes that mold people’s perceptions of each other within their

To put the names “Armenia” and “Turkey” together evokes a wave of grief and anger. Over the years, a very few have challenged the two and strived to bridge the gap between Armenians and Turks. Dink “crossed that bridge to become a symbol of the struggle for human and minority rights, and of the struggle for democracy and European integration” (Cheterian, 16). Hrant Dink was one of whom who challenged the perceptions of the relationship between Armenians and Turks, starting with his discovery of the newspaper Agos, founded in 1996. The newspaper, which was written and published in both Armenian and Turkish, confronted topics about the complexities that existed between both countries over the years and advocated human rights and democratization.

1 One of the Age/Gender divisions between the United Sates and the Yanomamo culture are the fact that as women grow older they gain more respect. In the text, Chagnon states “A woman gains increasing respect as she ages, especially when she is old enough to have adult children who care for her and treat her kindly” (128). This proves that woman in the Yanomamo culture tend to get treated better as they grow older. This is similar to the United States because as a woman grows older in the United States she tends to have less of a chance to experience street harassment and other types of behaviors only younger women would experience. This could be because our society understands the challenges that women face in our society, and treat them nicer

Each individual pertaining to the !Kung is considered relatively equal, however in this egalitarian society, age becomes one of the forms of status distinction. Age becomes an important aspect when determining the structure of the kinship system. Thus, as a person ages, more control is granted (kinship). As a result, gender becomes irrelevant to the !Kung when deciding who will possess authority in relation to kinship, granting women and men gender equality within the kinship system. In addition to age, children of the !Kung are given the names of their paternal and maternal grandparents. However, the paternal grandparent’s names for both genders take precedence, as seen when Lee writes, “A first born son is supposed to be named after his

The word “community” is usually defined as a group of people living together in the same area and having some common characteristics, such as language, physical appearance and religion. In The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin, the common characteristics that form the Aboriginals’ tribal communities are familial ties and their culture (similar form of lifestyle, similar beliefs and similar traditions); while in Gilgamesh it is the city-state they belong to and their settled lifestyle that holds the community together. Another difference in the two works is that the society in The Songlines does not have a hierarchal monarchy that Gilgamesh has, but instead has everyone as equals for the most part. However,

Men and women have different views on kinship. Tiv men think that blood is thicker than water. “Here people looked for little in marriage. A man would turn to his sixteenth cousin twice removed before he turned to his wife. Here the important ties were between blood relatives” (122). However, women viewed kinship to be through relationships. In her time with the Tivs, Bowmen was given the kinship title of mother. “You feed Ihugh, therefore you are his mother.” Udama corrected me firmly but quite patiently now that she saw I meant no insult. “Listen, Redwoman, if a woman dies, do her children become motherless? Is not the woman who feeds them and cares for them their mother? Therefore these are not merely matters of birth. They are matters of deed as well.” . . . I wrestled with the implications of this dual aspect of kinship, by birth and by deed (118).

Gender based similarities between “Boys”, “Girls” and “Boys and Girls”. Throughout the history of humans both male and female have different roles to play throughout their lifetime based on influences from elders or ancestral norms. Each gender has a specific role to play throughout their lifetime, even if that role is accepted voluntarily or rejected by based by their own free will. For centuries roles are being selected and influenced on both genders and both as a whole may become dependent on another to fill that specific role in order to be truly male or female.

First and foremost, the author states “devshirme” as one possible practice for making Mediterranean society more eclectic. “Devshirme” was Ottoman method - kidnapping young boys from Christian societies and forcing them into empire’s service. This manner had an influence on many nations,

The kinship system she explains for instance, “Devadasis are described, recognized, and related to as persons who are both women and sons. They are not either women or men, either daughters or sons. They are both women and sons” (198). Their position in natal families as sons does not affect their embodiment of sex or gender or their recognition as women. In short, devadasis are wives to Yellamma, sons in their family, fathers to their children, mother’s brothers to their sister’s children (206). From these categories, again, Ramberg does not deduce the definition of kinship in her ethnography. She just notices that the kinship she takes is to be systematic, as structuralist approaches have (Lévi- Strauss 1969), and inventive, as culturalist accounts do (Schneider

In Melanesian societies, gender roles have a different meaning to the Trobriand people, in their society, the names ‘mother and father’ does not necessarily mean male and female. It can be anyone who stands in relationship to that person as a mother/father (Malinowski B et al 1972). The relationship of mother’s brothers and their nieces and nephews are treated with great familiarity, they laugh, joke and provide food where as father’s sister have the opposite relationship. In these societies, biological fathers in contrast are very severe, strict authoritative figures (Radcliffe-Brown AR et al 1935). Fathers, are treated as a source of wealth (cattle) as well as your rights in land and are believed to have no role in human reproduction, they believe sexual intercourse did not result in conception but instead paves the way for the entry of ‘spirits’ which was the enlivening force that created a new human being (Malinowski et al

Last but not the least, because this study only chose the specific aspect of the worldview, the mythology, the social structure and the mode of subsistence, which are limited from an anthropological perspective to look at a society and certain characteristic it demonstrate. And so further research can be done using more holistic perspective in researching the two gender egalitarian societies, thus the conclusion drawn could be more complete and

Discourse is verbal and non-verbal way of exchanging thoughts and feelings. Although in Veiled Sentiments, Bedouin people seemed to be sharing the same opinions and emotions privately as well as in public, noticeable contrast between the public and private discourses existed. In this paper, I will try to clarify the distinction and provide an example of a discourse from my everyday life.

In many circles of the world, various groups of people distinguish themselves from one another through religion, language, culture, and sometimes gender. People also develop stereotypes about a particular group of people in order to identify them. However, most of the time, these stereotypes hold true for only some members of a group. Sometimes, these stereotypes are just plain misconceptions that do not even apply to the group it claims to. Stereotypes are placed on people because it is a way to easily identify what type of person or ethnicity an individual is. At one point in time, these stereotypes may have been true; however, in today’s modern society, most of these stereotypes are outdated and false, which leads them to turn into

Deutscher divulges how the Guugu Yimithirr language enables the speakers to develop an innate ability to assess their surroundings cardinally at a very young age. Moreover, Guugu Yimithirr speakers interpret their cognitive memory with geographical references. Even though this innate ability of having an internal GPS system is impressive, Guugu Yimithirr speakers find it difficult to get adjusted to languages that use egocentric alignment. “It is not easy for us to conceive how the Guugu Yimithirr speakers experience the world”, the author admits (Deutscher 220). According Deutscher, Guugu Yimithirr speakers stay away from self-conceded statements, mainly because they perceive life through their external surroundings. Guugu Yimithirr celebrate the fact that the world around is positioned irrespective of where they are orientated .Deutscher predicts semantic researchers would analyze how language can influence the different aspects of reality. Overall, in this article the author emphasizes that languages play a vital role in an individual’s perception of life, however, it does not impede their crucial thinking ability. Moreover, Guy Deutscher implores how the society should start accepting the differences between various social- cultural communities to prevent conflicts between two indigenous