post 4

Because I have lived in one place for my entire life I haven't been exposed to very many different cultures other than my own. This makes me and other people like me very ethnocentric and not being able to see what other cultures are like. Being ethnocentric means looking and evaluating other peoples cultures according to your own. One specific example could be the video "God Grew Tired of us" which shows young african boys transition into American life. They find things we do to be weird such as our lack of being social on the streets or not being able to go into a strangers house which would be normal back in their home country. In this film one of the boys was seen cooking which he said is looked down upon in his culture because he is a man, but here in the U.S. no one would think twice about it.
           So far in my life I have noticed differences in nonmaterial culture between different groups of people. When I went to the Dominican Republic a while ago, everyone was very friendly and inviting. They also were very touchy such as climbing on our backs and hugging us. This is a gesture and nonmaterial culture. This can also be connected to the video of President George Bush and the foreign minister which showed them holding hands. To us this is considered weird and not normal, but the President knew he had to conform to the foreign culture to get the trust of the foreign leader. Also in the video you can clearly see that when the two were speaking both feet were firmly planted on the ground not showing the soles of their shoes. The reason is because in the culture of the foreign leader it is a mores to shoe the bottom of ones shoes or feet and is considered disrespectful.

post 2

About four years ago I had the chance to go on a missions trip to the Dominican Republic. We went there and helped to build a church and walls around it. Throughout the week that we were there  we got to spend time with the people who lived near us. Some of them didn't go to school, some didn't have fresh water to drink, but everyone had a smile on their face. While we were working there our biggest goal was to affect the lives of the people. Being aware of the affect we have on people is being sociological mindful. We could clearly see how we were affecting the lives of the people who lived there but one thing i didn't realize until I got home was, how much they affected me.
           Whether it was being invited into someones home for some food, or being given a gift before you go home. Little things like this impacted my life more than I realized at the time. This experience humbled me greatly. Experiencing people who had so little give gifts to people who had a lot more made me realize how less privileged people can be happier and better people than people who grew up with everything. Realizing that just by someone giving me a gift impacted the way I viewed society is having a sociological imagination.
         
Sociological Mindfulness: Realizing how we affected the lives of people there by building them a church and handing out food.
     
Sociological Imagination: Understanding how their society and way of life impacted us while we were on our trip.