WWJD? Most everyone has probably ran across those letters in the past 10 years, and they can tell you they stand for “What would Jesus do?” Bracelets with those four little letters can cost up to $5, T-shirts can cost up to $15, and hats can cost up to $10. Many people, upon seeing the price of that merchandise simply say “Jesus wouldn’t pay $15 for a T-shirt.” One of the reasons the United States was founded was for religious freedom. Ever since the founding of this country, there has been religion entering the marketplace. There are no clear boundaries between religion and commodity. There is Clothing, music, books, television and radio programs, theater performances, and revivals (to name a few) all having to do with religion. These things cost money. In his book Selling God, American Religion in the Marketplace of Culture, author R. Laurence Moore explores this phenomenon.
R. Laurence Moore starts out by writing about the religion in the days of revivals. In a time when theater was considered to be evil, a preacher by the name of Whitefield turned his sermons into a performance. It transformed church into entertainment. Whitefield earned money off his sermons. People paid to see this “entertainment.” He was criticized for these sermons; the same way televangelists are criticized today. These eventually led to religious revivals. The revivals were a competition for people’s opinions. Read more…
Ideally, we would like to believe that we live in a society in which education provides an opportunity for every individual to develop one’s own talent and capacity. Education has also been seen as a means of equalization among all, because it has been argued that universal education for all would be an ideal environment where children could bypass factors such as race, gender and social class standing. In all actuality, the latter is merely a pipedream. In this paper I will argue that it is in fact education itself, which is a product of past elite education, that becomes a means for the reproduction of society’s inequalities and a method of social control, specifically ones own social class. The consequences are undeniable: education is liable for the reinforcing acceptance of class structure far more than it takes action to change them.
To put the current educational system into perspective, one should look to the past for clarifications and answers. Sociologists have argued that the foundations of the UK education system in the nineteenth century are products of class issues and desire for control. Andy Green in his survey of the rise of the educational system in England, France and the United States, actually singles out England as the most overt example of using schooling to secure authority and power over inferior classes. Read more…
Ethnographic research finds a home several fields of study. Anthropology, sociology, philosophy, as well as both creative writing and literature analysis found in the academic study of English all have uses for ethnographies. It is important to discern exactly what is meant the term ethnography is used, as it is represented differently depending upon the way it is going to be studied or used. A definition, though general, gives all a basis to build from concerning ethnographies is an in-depth analysis of a particular culture. Each discipline will of course focus the term ethnography to cater more to the core values each discipline holds, directing it to focus on perhaps one aspect of the culture more than the others. Because ethnography finds itself being used by so many different disciplines it’s not any wonder that this some what recent method of research has gained popularity not just in the scholastic world, but outside of the halls of academia and in what could be described as “the real world” as well. The study of other cultures that we are not familiar with, or aspects of our own culture that we had forgotten to be as amazing as they truly are, are both appealing and useful to the everyday populous not just those involved in the pursuit of knowledge.
What possible use could the general public have for ethnographic research? The question seems a bit absurd to begin with, as the answer may not be as evident upon first glance as it after deep consideration. The study of any aspect of culture especially if it be language, social structure, or technology would be very lucrative for people who are business oriented to read, and perhaps even more so those who are involved in both advertising and public relations would find this information to be like striking gold. Read more…
Socialization refers to the ways in which people learn to conform to their society??s norms, values, and roles. Primary socialization consists of the ways in which the newborn individual is molded into a person who can interact with others according to the expectations of society. Secondary socialization occurs in childhood and adolescence, primarily through schooling, and adult socialization refers to the ways in which a person learns the norms associated with new statuses. Among the most basic questions in the study of socialization is that of nature versus nurture to what extent does the development of the person depend on genetic factors, and to what extent does it depend on learning? In my opinion, I think the personality comes from nurture, because it is easy to find criminals in family with problem. The first social scientist to develop a theory that addressed this issue was Sigmund Freud. Freud believed that the personality develops out of the processes of socialization through which the infant is gradually forced to control its biological urges. He divided the personality into three functional areas: the id, from which unsocialized drives arise; the superego, which incorporates the moral codes of elders; and the ego, or one??s conception of oneself in relation to others. Read more…
As our society grows and changes many social problems arise from our-selves and the others around us. A social problem is a situation affecting a significant amount of people, which are believed to be sources of difficulty or threaten the stability of the community. Almost everyone is affected by a social problem at some point in his or her life. In American society there is a wide range of social problems. As our society advances more social problems are brought about. Suicide in American is one of the biggest and oldest social problems in today’s society. Suicide is the human act of self-inflicted or self-intentioned cessation. For medical, legal and administrative purposes suicide is often described as one of four modes of death. Today there are 140 different possible causes of death but there are only four possible modes. Read more…
