What communities do you belong to and how are they constructed in relation to other communities and larger society?

Journal Entry #1

I was raised in a predominantly white, middle-class community. Being of Jewish descent,

I understood the perspectives of minorities to a certain extent, but I was never truly exposed to a

culturally diverse society. With that being said, as I grew up, I thoroughly enjoyed learning about

different cultures. I became interested in law and government, which led to my passion for

current social issues. Among these are criminal justice reform, Black Lives Matter,

undocumented Latino/Latina immigrants in the U.S, and other legislature that works towards

equality in the U.S.

Although I am educated on these cultures and continuously strive to acquire new

knowledge, all of my information has mainly come from secondary resources such as reports,

articles, books, and documentaries. Given that I did not participate in any of the experiences of

these cultures, there was always the possibility I could unintentionally regard these groups of

people as “The Other.”1 The concept of “The Other” is a sentiment among Armchair

anthropologists, who used secondary resources for their research as well.2 While I make efforts

to empathize with these groups and understand their perspective, in contrast, early

anthropologists evaluated these cultures using their own standard of culture, leading to racism

and misrepresentation.3

I acquired a broader, more in-depth understanding of a particular culture during a summer

program while bonding with another student who was an undocumented Mexican immigrant. By

learning about her family history and struggles, I could see more clearly her culture in its

1 Featherstone, Don, director. Babakiueria. 1986

The film as a whole demonstrates the concept of "The Other" and treating unfamiliar cultural groups as exotic

2 “Chapter 3: Doing Fieldwork: Methods in Cultural Anthropology” Perspectives: An Open Invitation to Cultural

Anthropology, by Nina Brown et al., 2nd ed., American Anthropology Association, p. 49. 3 Lecture 9: Franz Boas; slides 3 and 9

entirety. Even more, I recognized what united us as teenage girls but also as simply human

beings. I now realize that the study of particular cultures as well as developing general principles

for all humans are both methods that when used in conjunction, can provide a more wholesome

view of humanity.4

4 Lecture 9: Franz Boas; Slide 11