Vietnamese Wedding

Description

A traditional Vietnamese wedding ceremony

Sociological Interpretation

The culture we are born into, influences and moulds much of our behaviour. As Knutilla states, "we are above all else cultural creatures" a part of something larger—something we know as society. Society has its own culture and institutions that define our behaviour, conduct and actions in an organized, patterned, and structured way. What happens when the culture you are a part of is not typical of the society you identify yourself in?

A traditional Vietnamese wedding, like that in the picture would not be typically seen in North American society. At a simple glance, one can identify many differences. But are the differences simply in attire and appearance? Or is there an underlying significance in the whole wedding ceremony? Traditional Vietnamese weddings are mostly situated upon the importance of family. The bride and groom make offerings to their deceased and living elders, in hopes of having their marriage blessed. The strength and duration of a marriage between two individuals is strongly dependent on the harmony of both the families of the bride and groom. Ceremonies last 3 days and occur within the household of both the bride and groom. Marriage is strongly intertwined within family values and ties. The agreement to marriage itself is heavily discussed and planned beforehand between the elders of the individuals to be married. Divorce is strongly frowned upon, as it leaves a costly and disgraceful marker on the family name. In North American society, 50% of marriages end in divorce. However, one can also look at the constraint of family ties associated with marriages in Vietnam. A North American may say that traditional marriages in Vietnam lack the essence of love in all its glory, and is more so encouraged by family expectations. In some cases, marriages in Vietnam may be arranged or dealt with like a business agreement. Marriage reflects the status of a family in society, where a wealthy family would not likely wed their child to a poorer family that is not of equal status.

What is an individual to do when they are born into a traditional Vietnamese family, but raised in a North American society? The debate itself can be extended beyond the simple concept of marriage, but regardless of the behaviour being discussed, the ideal would be a balance between both culture and society. This raises the idea of diversity. Instead of constraining oneself in the boundaries of either culture OR society, one can share both values and norms instilled by culture AND society. In doing so, marriage would be seen as sacred to the family and to the couple being married. The importance of stability in traditional Vietnamese marriages could be balanced with North American's highly esteemed conquest for a spark of love.

History

Description

A photo I took at a concentration camp in Germany. Dachau was the first concentration camp established by the Nazi Party. This photo is of the "Intertwined Skeleton Sculpture", a memorial built on the roll call ground of the camp.

Sociological Interpretation

When I first viewed this statue, it sent chills up my spine. At first glance, it looks as thought it is a sculpture of barbed wire fences, depicting feelings of coldness, war, trapped and scared. When approaching closer to it, you realize it is a mixutre of barb wired, and frail human bodies. It right away sent me back in time, to think about the prisoners and victims who were kept there, tortured there, or died there.

The topic of the Holocaust and World War II history greatly interest me and I find it important to know the history of our world. When I spoke of the Holocaust in Germany, reactions from Germans were, maybe not what I expected. The topic is though it is taboo, no one talks about it, and no one cares to engage in any type of conversation about it. I had the sense as though it was still fresh in their minds, it's still a very familiar topic to them, maybe beacuse there are still people around who had witnessed it. This did not bother me, it gave me a sense that it was perhaps regretted, and embarassing that the event ever occured. It was such a major part of their history that it should not be forgotten, and therefore it is taught and talked about to all generations in school.

I think that world history is a very important topic, and should be addressed to students in Canada as well. It is discouraging to know that we have it as an option, but it is not mandatory. I believe our society and education system has changed, to think too far into the future, and not address the past events as much as we should. You hear of new technology, what is to come, and where we will be in decades, or centuries. What about how the past has shaped who we are today? How has our global history, national history, or even the history of our own city, made us who we are today? To understand our past, would perhaps allow us to understand the wrong doings of others. I was never taught about either of the World Wars, and am saddened to say I could not tell you a lot about Canadian history either. The only Canadian history I have been taught is that of the First Nations, but I know there are many other factors which brought us to where we are in society today. Such as the history of the RCMP, Japanese concentration camps, our participation in wars, and the settling of the Europeans.

Consumer Value Tied to Societal Value?

Description
These are photos of one of the newer housing developments in Regina and one of Regina’s vehicle sales lots.

Sociological Interpretation

In today’s society if you were to ask someone what their idea of success is two of the major pieces would be a nice, large home and a nice, new car. What does this say about our consumer driven society? It tells us that we, as a society, see status symbols much differently than some other cultures.

In North America we see a large house and a nice car and we most often assume that the person or people that own them are “wealthy.” We often strive for these things throughout our life. We work hard in hopes of acquiring things like this. For some people they do not consider what needs to be put into owning these things and acquiring these status symbols. They often come with large monthly payments and years of interest. Many do not consider the utility that comes from these assets either. What does owning a larger house or better car give you over your neighbour? A status symbol yes, but what else? Does a family of four really require a three thousand square foot home with an indoor pool or could they get by with something less extravagant. The purchases of homes and cars seem to be made more with status symbol in mind than sheer need. Keeping up with friends and family or being the best on your block can be driving forces for these purchases.

Even with the changes to borrowing rules it remains fairly easy to obtain financing for vehicles or mortgages for homes. Often all that is required are a few pay stubs and a willingness to pay. In some instances it becomes even easier to obtain mortgages or financing than it is to obtain a small personal or student loan.

Using the Sociological Imagination we can speculate as to why this is. Is it a personal desire for status or has it been spurred by societal values and norms? If the status symbol was removed from large houses and expensive cars would we see the same demand or would these manufactured wants become obsolete? Society has created the image of “wealth” and “power.” It we humans who struggle to attain these statuses. In the same respect we humans create and shape our society. It is we who have created the market for consumer debt and it is we who buy into it. We can blame government or financial institutions but in the end we, ourselves have control over our own spending and limits. When will we as a society realize that it has been a trend of saving that has gotten us as far as we are, in having the luxury to purchase these goods, and it is now turning into a debt run market without the savings?

Other cases throughout the world have illustrated that this appetite for unnecessary consumer goods is often only ceased when the river of credit begins to dry up. That is when spending and debt, have hit an all time high and we simply have no more to spend.

In conclusion we have created the market that we choose to live in and only we can drive it back to where it should rest comfortably. Can we ever become a nation that relies solely on what we need or will we always choose to be a nation that relies on material goods to illustrate status?

St. Agnes Community School

Description

This is the St. Agnes elementary school in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.

Sociological Interpretation

In this photo, the elementary school, St. Agnes, looks like an ordinary school. The building is plain, and one would assume it is like any other school. This elementary school is considered a “community” school, having a majority of underprivileged children in attendance.

An institution is defined as “a set of organized relationships, structured interactions, patterned behavior, and regularized and routine collective actions that are geared to or serve to meet some problem, need or drive.” (Knutilla, 52). The children at St. Agnes community school often have more problems and needs than an average student. For example, the school often encounters students that are not being adequately fed. St. Agnes works to provide numerous social programs to benefit the students, including ‘the breakfast program’. Many of these children do not come from stable homes, and often do not eat the most important meal of the day. St. Agnes has this program to ensure their students do not go hungry. This school has children with unique needs, leading to remarkable relationships and roles of students and teachers. Many teachers put in longer hours, in attempts to increase funding for the variety of extra programs needed. Many of the families are in need of help, leaving the teachers to be very leery as to how children are being treated in the homes. One would not realize all of these different relationships and behaviors taking place at St. Agnes community school simply by looking at the picture itself.

Oilfield Industry in Saskatchewan

Description

This is a picture of one of the very many drilling rigs around the Estevan area. I took this photo in the summer for my dad who works in the oilfield, hence the lack of snow!

Sociological Interpretation

There are such an abundance of oil field jobs available in Saskatchewan that many people are getting hired for and many families and individuals are moving here from all over the world to be a part of this growing industry.

Society has many different classes of people, from those who strive for power and wealth and get it, to those who strive to simply survive day after day. In a perfect world, everyone would be equal. People would work equal hours and equal jobs; people would have same amounts of money and benefits. No one would be unsure as to whether or not they will have enough food for tomorrow, or if they will still have a roof over their heads next week. However, today, all over the world, there are people who need to worry about their jobs (or lack of), money, and surviving. These people may be incredibly hard workers who only want the best for themselves and their families but just haven’t been able to achieve it yet. Many of these people come to Saskatchewan in hopes of a new beginning and a better outcome and work in the oilfield, which can be a very rewarding, however unpredictable, industry.

Many of the people hired to work in the oilfield industry may lack necessary training and qualifications, however are still hired because workers are needed or their lack of training was simply overlooked. Many of these people desperately need the jobs to survive and support their families and may be willing to do a job without the right training, because that is what they need to do in order to survive. Employers may also be at fault for overlooking these lacks of qualifications because they need the workers in the growing industry. These workers, with their lack of training and qualifications, and the employers who hire them before providing them with necessary training, pose a serious safety hazard for themselves and their fellow workers. More and more accidental deaths are happening in the oil field due to unqualified workers not knowing proper procedures and safety measures. Society and the industry needs to make sure that every worker they have is up to date in their training and safety and that they have available courses for those who aren’t so they can begin legally working as soon as possible. Unfortunately, in our society the workers would be missing out on pay checks and working hours if they were to take the necessary courses and training, so often it’s overlooked. In order to be successful in our society, people need to work and earn money. In order to do this, many careers require prior schooling, training, etc before they can advance. Unfortunately many people cannot afford this schooling and must either settle for a less paying, lower job or else illegally make their way into a particular career, as some oilfield workers are forced to do.

Gender Roles: Female Influences

Description

This picture was taken in a local Shoppers Drug Mart, as we can see it is a picture of many types of beauty products.

Sociological Interpretation

Gender roles are considered to be socially appropriate behaviours that have been learned by males and females. An example of this is when you think of careers for men and women, women are typically thought of the care givers such as nurses and teachers while men are thought of strong masculine police officers or fire fighters. I will be focusing on the female gender role in our society and as we can see in the picture makeup is a female based product.

The media advertises makeup to help enhance a females beauty, and this hits home with most females because who doesn't want to look and feel beautiful? Applying makeup is apart of most women's daily routines, because it is a social norm for a female to use makeup to look her best. The question is why has such a simple thing such as applying concealer, mascara and lipstick become one of the most important things to starting a females day? It is because of our culture, I learned to use make up from my older sister, who learnt it from our mother and etc.

The media has catch phrases such as " Maybe she's born with it, maybe its Maybeline" and "Easy breezy beautiful Cover Girl", the Maybeline slogan translates maybe she's born with it, no its just our make up that makes her beautiful and the Cover girl slogan translates that their make up will help make you look like a cover girl. Is there any beauty product that wants you to look and feel beautiful just the way you are? Don't lose hope yet girls, there are many companies that focus on a women's natural beauty, companies such as Dove. Unlike makeup companies that focus on swaying a women to use their products to be beautiful, Dove has workshops for women and young girls to help them embrace their natural beauty.Dove also uses real life women of all shapes and sizes instead of surgically enhanced women and models for their campaigns. We need more companies like this in the world!

The makeup industry only has as much power over us as we give them, but because of the culture we live in, it is a social norm for females to use makeup to fit in with the gender role of being beautiful. The norms of gender roles are changing for the better, although the media still has its grasp on the female mind, we can now be less affected by the slogans and models they throw at us. We are beautiful just the way we are fat, skinny, tall, short, black, white or purple. As long as a women can feel beautiful inside and outside of her own skin that is all that matters!

Regina: The Start

Despriction

A field located in southeast Regina.

Sociological Interpretation

When Regina started there was nothing, no lake to get water from and no trees to get wood from. There was no large body water around Regina which did not make sense, why not make a city on a large body of water, instead of making a large body of water in a city. Regina also had no natural trees, all the trees in Regina are human planted. Regina was just flat land and was actually known as " Pile of Bones".

Regina would not of been possible if it were not for the people who live here. Our society has over come the odds, that when Regina was first being built it would not last, there was no large water source close by therefore, it will never be well populated. Society had different plans in Regina though the people planted trees and built a large body of water and kept building from there. Regina now is continuing to grow and the population is on the rise and it's all becasue of the people who live here and enjoy living here so they do not leave. Logically Regina should not exist, there is no reason for a city to be located where Regina is located.

This goes to show that if people are living somewhere, where they enjoy living and continue to live there, that other people will hear about it and come and live there as well. Even if it was nonlogical to move to a city like Regina they still did it because they beielved it was better than where they previously lived. Regina now has over 200,000 people, plenty of trees and vegation and also has the man made Wascana Lake. If the society that had started here would of given up when they were told of the reasons not to build a city here, then where would we be now?