As you know from this course, babies are not born belonging socially to their groups. All of us have to learn to belong. As we learn to belong to “our” people, we simultaneously favor our group(s) over “others.” That’s the dilemma of being a cultural species. We are born destined to become ethnocentric, to see the world through our people’s cultural lens, and to favor “us” over “others.”
For this post, you make sure that you have re-read this module 13-1’s reading in Culture as Comfort. Then proceed to answer the following questions in your post (always using their numbers);
- In the segment of Chapter 4 that you re-read, the author argues that social belonging becomes more difficult to achieve in larger societies than it was among food foragers. Why? comprehension, substantiation
- What cultural solution to this problem did people invent (and continue to use)? Give the social science name and explain what it means. comprehension
- Apply this concept to how social belonging around nation and national belonging is cultivated in children. Give concrete examples from your reading. comprehension, substantiation
- Apply what you’ve learned to your own life. Examples: what do you recall about learning to identify with a country or countries? What do you see about our political life in the U.S. today that relates to what you’ve learned this week? comprehension, substantiation, thoughtfulness
