So I have been trying and trying to get this clip of Francis Chan speaking to post but I cannot! Instead, I will summarize and explain.
Francis Chan grew up in Hong Kong for the first 5 years of his life, then he moved to the
I was just thinking about the concept of being “abnormal” and why we consider things to be abnormal. I think that the concept of abnormality is very much a cultural phenomenon, which is not an outstanding idea or anything by any means, but I just thought this was a funny anecdote that demonstrated the idea. It’s very much socially enforced by the “norms” of that society and perhaps abnormality is not always transferable across cultures. I had more to say about this but I've kind of forgotten it right now since I had a little cooking mishap a couple of minutes ago so perhaps I will add an additional comment later!
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Becca, I think you are absolutely right in the concept of abnormality being cultural. I think this is one of the sociological precepts for war. Take the Crusades for example - a series of wars that can be crudely outlined by the desire to enforce one cultural norm, Christianity, on another which did not accept it as the norm.
ReplyDeleteCross cultural awareness is much more commonplace now given the availability of cable TV and internet, but in the past, one society was not necessarily aware that other societies acted differently. "Normal" became a much more concrete description in those circumstances.
Even now, it could be argued that we went to war with Iraq in order to compel democracy (what we view as normal government structure) on a country that embraced (in theory) totalitarionism. We can't grasp the acceptance of domination and subjectgation because it defies our "normal" just the same as their culture rejects the concept of "voice of the people" and independence.
I think this is a very good observation.
I agree - really interesting example! Rebecca, I'm going to disagree with you a little here (I feel like I'm always doing that! It's good - you give many points for discussion!). I'm not sure I'd categorize these reasons for war as issues of "norms" as much as those of political dominance and ideals. I wouldn't say that Christianity or Democracy is "normal", especially since, as we've discussed it, this "normal" is tied into a perception of "naturally correct". Democracy isn't normal or abnormal, it is believed to be the best way to govern -- and many religions argue that there's is the *right* religion, the one that is correct in God's eyes.
ReplyDelete"Normal," in the context of Becca's example, is, indeed, a cultural construction -- a combination of relatively benign measurements (mathematically, people in the US are simply bigger than those in Hong Kong), and a social and/or value judgment added, making "normal" what is most correct and desired.
This is close to what is going on with the war examples, but not precisely the same thing.
It's okay, I'm usually wrong! LOL I have a "monkey see, monkey say" mentality :)
ReplyDeleteRelating this to my ponderings of "beauty" being abnormal, yet not abject -- the subjective description of "beauty" is a cultural construction. What is valued as "beautiful" in one culture is not necessarily "beautiful" in another. I saw a documentary on TV a few weeks ago in which young, marriageable women in one African village spent a year being fattened before being presented for marriage. It was a whole process of eating very specific fattening meals and then having the fat massaged so that she was more adipose in desired areas (belly, bottom, breasts). Once she achieved a desired look, her family would present her to the community and a man would ask for her in marriage. Now, compare this to the United States in which a woman will spend the year before her marriage dieting to be as thin as possible for her wedding day.
I agree, normal is define by our culture or even in a smaller concept. For example, not smiling and greeting someone while walking would deem you as rude in the South but up North it is perfectly fine.
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