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Blog #10

    I think from all the individuals we met while reading this book I think Primo surprised me the most. He started off as a drug dealer who would do drugs and not work other then when he was selling drugs to getting a job and quitting drugs and alcohol.It's very surprising because at first even though he wanted to change he didn't really seem like he wanted to put much effort into it because he would give up easily.I was really shocked when I read that he cleaned up , stopped drinking alcohol, and even get a job  was pretty happy for him.Im glad he was able to leave all  the illegal stuff behind him and did better for him and Primo Jr.I was pretty sad and shocked when I read that he cheated on his girlfriend and that his mother got AIDS and started getting dementia.I didn't expect Primos future a the time to unfold like that because i heard that quitting drugs and all of that was really hard to do. I thought that the need of money and the need of the drug rush would be too much for him to leave even though he wanted to change.I really hope that he stayed clear of drugs so he can continue doing good and not winding up in prison.   When I read the second epilogue I was pretty disappointed that he was doing drugs again. I was hoping he was still clean from all of that. It's still good that he still hasn't gone back to dealing drugs and staying away from that line of work. It was pretty sad when I read that Primo’s mom died , I was expecting her to still be alive.I was pretty surprised that he started to do his own little business and got Jasmine pregnant. Even though he started doing heroin again he's doing pretty good for himself and I hope that he's doing better for himself because he seems to really want to move on in a better path.

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Blog #9

 In my own opinion I think all feminism waves make sense to me and  are important. Without these waves we wouldn't of have this much process in equality. I think feminism is just for equality between men and women  but also equality between human beings.. I think this movement has helped  other movements such as LGBT rights. I think feminism is something that is important to us and has helped america become what it is at the moment.

 I think one way that feminism has directly affected my life was by  showing females that's there is more to life than being a stay at home mom.Feminism taught me and other girls that we can do as good as guys.It has motivated  me and other girls  to continue on their a education after high school.I think feminism has affected me more indirectly than directly. Feminism has helped solve a lot of new world problems and have help give voices to the people who don't have any. For example feminism helped us understand how important birth control is for women. Without birth control  women would be getting pregnant more and be more in danger of getting STDs.Feminism has also helped women get equal job pay.Without this we would still get  less than men. I know it's still a little lower then men but it's not as horrible as it could be.

     I think one way it has affected one of my family members was to my aunt. My aunt was  raised in a very machismo family so she never had any say and opportunities like her older brothers. One she came to the united states she learned about feminist movements and took advantage. She went back to school and started working a full time job. Even though it was not something he family was supportive of she wanted to be considered equal to any other person.I don't think that my aunt of of gone this far if she never moved her and found out about this movement.

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blog assignment

1)How is the digital underground / dark web a response to forms of state hegemony? Cite two examples.

I think 2 ways hegemony is used in the deep web is in the silk road and online group chats in the deep web. I think they use hegemony in the silk road because Jamie Bartlett explains that in order for drug dealers to get cliental they are extremely polite , have good quality products and safe to buy  which is what  the clientele are looking for when they want to buy a product. This  shows that they are trying to create a agreement with the consumers without violence and force unlike in the real world is more dangerous. Another example of hegemony is when he would mention group chats like the anorexic group chat. This showed how a group of people (mostly girls from ages 13-17) would get together and support each other when it came to anorexia.Instead of making them feel bad and using threat they make it seem normals and okay.

2) How do participants in the digital underground / deep web exert their individual agency? Cite two examples.

I think the participants in the deep web exert their individual agency by doing things that go against western society norms. I believe 2 examples of this is are the pedofiles. Pedofiles in the deep web have their own websites and chat rooms that encourage their sexual preferences.Another example of agency being used in the deep web was the silk road because it was a site where people would go onto buy mainly drugs and in our society drugs are frowned upon.

3) How can we describe the digital underground as an economy ( = a cultural adaptation to the environment that enables a group of humans to use the available resources to satisfy their needs and to thrive)? What are the societal conditions that require an adaptive response? What are the resources that deep web participants are using to build an underground digital economy?

I think the digital underground can be considered an economy because people go on there and use bitcoins and then they get something in return.For example for 100 bitcoins you can buy a pound of weed or something.I think the resource that the deep web is using to build the digital underworld is the internet and hacking skills. They need the hacking skill so they can protect and modify the digital underworld so the government cant take them off and make it bigger. 

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Blog #6

The movie “Head On” was really interesting. I felt bad for Sibel though. I didn’t know girls could be treated so badly in a Turkish household. The part of the movie that shocked me the most was when Sibel was in the hospital after a failed suicide attempt and her family (except her mother) were yelling at her and her brother threatened her by saying that he would kill her if she caused her dad any more trouble. I think this is where you can tell theirs a cultural difference between an American family and a Turkish family. I think most American families if their daughters tried to commit suicide they would worried and sad and want to help them in any way possible. In Sibyls family it seemed that they cared more about their family honor then what Sibel felt. I also found it odd how she was willing to marry a man that she didn’t know only to run away from her family. Overall “Head On” was a really good and touching movie.

       I believe the sexuality of men and women discussed in a Turkish culture was that the men were really dominate, big, tough, what they say goes and they had to protect the family honor. For women it was different it seemed like they have to listen to what they are told and are expected to be good people in general and not be like Sibel who didn’t want to settle down with one man. She wanted to live life to the fullest and wanted to sleep with men. I think they are meant to be more conservative. In the German culture from what I could see want that they went as strict as the Turkish.

        I think since Sibel and Cahit were raised in a more modern era unlike Sibel parents they are more flexible with their sexual desires. For example, Sibel and Cahits find it normal to sleep with a lot of people without commitment, party, do drugs, and drink. I think it was something normal within young adults during that time since when she would go out there were people around the same age doing that. I don’t think young adults would really care they just wanted to have a good time. For her parents it was different, they think a good Turkish woman should do things like that and just get married and just please one man. From what I understood from the film I think what they found normative and un normative expressions of sexuality between them was for a male and a female to be together and I think they thought being homosexual for example was un normative because when a guy accused Cahit of being gay Cahit got angry also when Sibel accused him of being gay because he refused of marry her at first.Also in the beginning of the movie Cahit got mad at a male character because  the male character called Cahit  gay for rejecting a  young beautiful lady.

I think the gender performance change depending who they are with. When Cahit is with Sibels male relatives they are acting tough and talking about going to a kind of strip club and one of the males gets mad and tries to fight him but when one of the male’s wife’s come into the room they act as if nothing has happened and calm. I think their gender performance changes because there are some things you can only talk about and do with a certain groups. For example the women were talking about how the men are in bed it was normal to talk about it within that group but its not something they would talk with another group of people for example their parents or husbands friends.

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FieldWork #4

1)  I  think  the documentary on the Yokonami was really interesting . It was also pretty sad.It was intresting because it was fun to see how other people live and how their culture was. But it  was sad because of how that anthropologist would take advantage of the men in the village including young boys.I don’t think anthropologist should be able bribe and do such horrific things to innocent boys.I also found how an anthropologist ended up marrying a yanomami women pretty weird since she was still a young girl.This documentary was really interesting and I Really enjoyed watching it. 2) By what I saw in the documentary some of the anthropologists were judging an anthropologist who had married a girl from the Yanomami tribe who was under age.I think those anthropologist were judging him with an etic perspective. The anthropologist who thought this marriage was bad were saying how the girl who married the anthropologist was very young and that it is unprofessional of him to do that. In our culture the  emic idea of this  is that it is taboo and illegal for children to marry and it's something that is considered bad. But they also had to take in consideration that in the Yanomami  tribe it is a cultural norm to get married at a young age.Forexample to them young girl getting married would be something like an 18 year old getting married in a western society.        The anthropologist would explain how what he was doing was podophelia and that anthropologist shouldn't do that kind of stuff during fieldwork. He also claimed that he did it for publicity since he wrote a book about them and is public about their relationship . The anthropologist who married the young girl argued that what he did was ethical in the yanomami culture since he  married her at an age that was normal for yanomami women to marry.Some yanomami girls actually wanna marry foreigners because they would be able to take care of them better. He claimed that other anthropologist  were being ethnocentric.From what I saw I can see why he might believe that. The anthropologist that would judge him for marrying that young girl  even though that is something normal  done in the yanomami tribe because in our westernized culture it is considered bad .He explains how horrible and bad what he did is because in our own culture it is looked at as something that you should never do and expects no one else to do it.In our culture its bad because they are at an age where they know what they want.

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Blog assignment #3

 I decided to do my social media fieldwork investigation on a fandom  called “Directioners”. This  fandom  is made out mostly  of girls who are obsessed with the boy band called One Direction. I used Twitter, Instagram,and  Facebook  as a way to investigate this group. From what I've gathered “Directioners” haven't been as active as previous years due to One Directions break, they mostly  Reminisce on old memories of the band's earlier years. Directioners like and share a post about wanting the band to get off their break and about some  recent news. For example how Louis Tomlinson had a child and how Niall Horan is beginning to have a solo career. But one news that took the fandom by storm was when Louis mother died. Directioners started the hashtag trend #RipJohanna to show support to Louis in his time of need. But this got me wondering , why are Directioners so committed to this band?    

From what I've seen most Directioners  spent hours online trying to get attention from the band members by commenting on their posts, retweeting and starting hashtags. Some of them will go as far as to stalk them and post where they are so other Directioners would know where they are. I personally found it really creepy and amazing. A lot of these directioners enjoy sharing one direction gifs and memes. Some of the hard core directioners would share a link to  their fanfiction about their favorite band member . Depending on whose fanfic you're reading the content can go from cute innocent stories to sexual fantasies. After reading a couple of Fanfictions I became a little disturbed with some of their hard core fanfiction but I enjoyed the romantic ones.  A lot of directioners would also like to share links to old music videos which I liked.

After a few hours of scrolling through stories and post I found that a lot of girl talk about how grateful they are to have found One Direction. Some claim that they help them during hard  times and explain how they have saved their lives with their love and music. For example, I spoke to a girl I met online and asked her why she was so obsessed with this band. She explained that after years of self harm and attempts of committing suicide she found comfort within their music. She talked about how their lyrics felt as they were dedicated to her and made her fall in love. She introduced me to her group of online friends (who were also directioners ) and most of them had a similar story. Others said that they thought they were hot and sexy so they started to like them. But no matter what their story was they all cared about them and seemed like they would give their lives for them.

     In conclusion I believe that most directioners are so committed to this band because they have a special connection with them. They feel as if they own them all their love and support because they had help them through hard times. I think that their music connects to them because their lyrics are mostly about what girls wanna hear. In their song “What Makes You Beautiful” they talk about how no matter how insecure you are you're still beautiful. Another example of a meaningful song  is “Diana” which i really enjoyed. Louis explained on MTV, “... I think that the lyric probably pertains to what a lot of the fans are going through and feel... People feel like they're alone and that's what their escape is, Twitter and finding people that also relate to them, and everyone finding each other from different parts of the world that are going through the same things,I think it was a kind of a pretty accurate depiction of the loneliness someone can feel in such a huge world and someone saying 'Hey, I feel you. I know you're there. I notice you; it's OK. You're not alone'." I think song like these really get to the fans and encourage them to keep supporting and committing to this amazing band.

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FieldWork Blog #2

After reading “The Narcissism of Minor Differences” I believe that narcissism of minor differences doesn’t affect me the same way it does to others. I don’t feel the need to judge and feel superior than other people. For example, only because I’m vegetarian I’m not gonna think I’m better than people who eat meat. I don’t care what people wear, what they like or what they believe in, as long as they respect me I will do the same. I was taught to embrace people's differences and to treat people the same way you want to be treated. I think that the lack of “ Narcissism of Minor Differences” in my life is due to hegemony. I believe this because agencies are individuals or groups of people that want to go against someone's beliefs and challenge them. In my household I was taught to respect anyone no matter what they look like,believe, wear,and so on. In conclusion, “Narcissism of Minor Differences” will affect everyone differently but in my case I don’t believe it affects my life very much. 

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Fieldnote Reflection #1

        My name is Suleima Cervantes. I’m 17 years old and I’m currently a Junior at Modesto High School. I was born in San Jose,CA but I moved to the country and lived there for most of my life until I moved here to Modesto. I’m a very  shy and quiet person. I am terrified of spiders and clowns,they are creepy and I can't stand being anywhere near them. I also enjoy watching anime on Netflix, sleeping,and listening to music. My music taste can go from One Direction to Asking Alexandria, it all depends on my mood. I believe music is a big part of my life ,it inspired me to learn how to  play piano,guitar and baritone. I’m also a vegetarian but I don’t enjoy tofu.

      Some school activities I’m part of are the Modesto High School Band and color guard. I love any class that has anything to do with history and culture. I come from a family who couldn’t get an education so I want to be the first one in my family to graduate high school and college. When I’m older I want to become an archaeologist and be able to travel the world. To me being able to travel  to new places and discover new things would be a dream come true. The reason I decided to take Cultural Anthropology is because anthropology is something that interests me and  is cool. I hope this class ends up being as wonderful as I hoped for.