I never knew this history of Thanksgiving, but I think that this example very clearly demonstrates the idea of invented tradition. I have always thought of Thanksgiving as being one of the "purest" American traditions. Thanksgiving is taught as a time solely for family bonding and celebrating American history. However, it makes sense that the true origens of Thanksgiving were due to a hidden agenda. The goals of bringing the country together during the Civil War and boosting the economy after the Great Depression are definitely bigger than individual family units. Thus, it is easy to see how invented traditions emerge.

This phrase brings forth the image of those huge developments where every house looks the same and you just see rows of thousands of houses in a line. I think that this is a clear example of a place with no meaning; however, I think that the fact that this image so clearly represents no meaning in my mind gives it meaning. This homogeneity demonstrates an erosion of culture, but doesn't this erosion create a new type of culture? These contradictions demonstrate how McWorld can give itself meaning through the meaningless.

This reminds me of the role of social media in social movements. For me, Facebook is the outlet I see the desire of the globalization of new social movements become apparent. It's so easy to share articles and opinions on Facebook, so based on the number of friends that you have and where they're all from, you have a vast number of people that you can reach without much time or effort. Thus, it makes since that there has been a rise in new social movements in this time period because of this ease of influence.

I think that culture definitely is a source of power. I especially have seen this in the context of Western cultures looking down upon other cultures. There have been repeated instances throughout history of Western cultures trying to "save" other cultures through colonialism or missionary work. Even the thought that we have the right to save other cultures demonstrates self imposed power. Furthermore, framining it as "saving" naturalizes the idea that Western culture is superior. Thus, this is a very clear instance of cultures being used to organize power.

I think that rationality is one of the clearest examples of Western ethnocentrism. Our ideas of rationality and the fact that we believe that our perception of what is "rational" is the correct perception is often used to justify the superiority of Western culture. For example, witchcraft is almost seen as humorous in our culture because it seems so irrational. However, this mindset prevents us from taking groups that believe in witchcraft seriously. This creates a cycle that enforces this ethnocentrism because our ideas of the irrationality of witchcraft prevent further exploration that could reject this belief, and we never are able to change our ideas about it. This also causes us to never challenge our idea that we are the only rational ones.

I've never thought of conflict in this way. Last semester I took a communications class where we studied conflict resolution styles which emphasized the importance of communication in conflict. Even before this class, I always thought of conflict in terms of relationships. However, I think that it is interesting to zoom out and think about conflict outside of this realm. Because conflict challenges the former structure, it is interesting to think about how a system of anti-structure is necessary in order to resolve it.

This number was crazy to me. I love sushi, but I was surprised that bluefin tuna was this expensive. We talked about the fact that sushi made with this tuna is only sold at the fanciest restaurants, and I personally am fine with my sushi not being of this quality because I don't like sushi enough to pay for this. I think that the fact that people are willing to pay this much demonstrates how big of a delicacy this fish is. I feel like people aren't going to invest in this unless A. they really care about their sushi, or B. they want people to know that they can go to a restaurant with this kind of sushi. Thus, I think that the fact that people are willing to invest in this shows something about their desires as well.

I'm an economics major, so I have looked at different types of utility functions in both micro and macro. However, even though it is easy to be given a utility function and use it to answer questions in a problem set, I think that I sometimes forget to think about where that utility function comes from. Thus, I am interested in looking into the concept of utility from an anthropological viewpoint because I think that it is important to think about what actually gives us utility instead of just assuming that there is a random function that gives it.

I'm currently in economic statistics, and when I read this article, it reminded me of what we have been taught NOT to do in the class. Our professor has emphasized the necessity of not simply using numbers as proof but using the whole picture. It was clear that Broca was going into his research with expectations, and he used his numbers as a way to support his prior beliefs. My stats professor emphasizes the fact that correlation does not necessarily imply causation, and I think this idea is important to keep in mind. This reading demonstrated the ways that prior beliefs such as racism can lead to an acceptance of the implications of a correlation without being clear.

Our discussion in class today about IVF being a "choice" in the same way that college was a choice has made me think about my own life. Not going to college or even just taking a gap year never seemed like an option to me. I feel like going straight to college right after high school just seemed obvious. My parents always expected me to, and I think that I never even considered other options because it seemed like what I had to do. Even looking down the road, I have always seen a future for myself with children, so the decision to have kids doesn't really seem like a choice either. Thus, even though IVF is not necessarily rational, I can see why it is so popular and why it is so important to these women.

I think it is easy to take an ethnocentric approach to looking at marriage and only see it in terms of how it is defined in the United States. I had never really thought of marriage in any other way than what is typical here. However, I think that it is telling that I cannot really define what marriage is here, let alone in other places around the world. Thus, I think that it really is true that it is only something that you know when you see.

I definitely understand why it is so important to take fieldnotes quickly after being at the fieldsite. This reminds me of how writing papers and doing homework for my math classes is always much easier and takes far less time when I do it quickly after class when the material is still fresh. It is very easy to forget little details in a short amount of time, so it makes sense that anthropologists try to record information quickly.

Although I have never been involved in any anthropological fieldwork, this statement reminds me of the way most people (myself included) feel when adjusting to Davidson during the beginning of freshman year. Davidson certainly has its own unique culture, so it is definitely very overwhelming to be thrown into it. As the YouTube video on the "Davidson Dictionary" demonstrates, you almost have to learn a new language when coming to Davidson. As someone who went to the same school from kindergarten through senior year of high school, adjusting to a new culture definitely caused me to feel a little helpless. Thinking back to this and the thoughts going through my head when adjusting to a culture that in the grand scheme of things was not too different from my own culture, it is difficult to imagine how alienated and helpless I would feel when having to rapidly immerse myself in an entirely new and different culture.