A Reflection and Critical Analysis in an Asian Focus
Nick Anderson
“The purpose of anthropology is to make the world safe for human differences.”
-Ruth Benedict, Anthropologist
I relied on my work and effort in the Sociology and Anthropology major to aid in shaping my personal values, ideals, and to foster my growth as a human being. Humanity shares commonalities and differentiations and it is beneficial in noticing these shared and diverse characteristics and to celebrate them. At St. Olaf College, a component of the R.I.C.H. statement is to respect and understand difference. My Sociology and Anthropology major has contributed to fulfilling this component of the statement, but has allowed me to discover what this means through my own creative methods and in my distinction paper I address my journey within this major while reinforcing this idea of difference and humanity in an Asian context.
The development of my Sociology and Anthropology major started as a first year student taking Tom Williamson’s Modern Elixirs course. This class made me aware of the other perspective and it inspired me to pursue more classes because it made me think critically and encouraged me to evaluate my thought processes of humanity. In my portfolio, I have included my ethnographic research project, Up in Smoke: Cigarettes at St. Olaf , in which I set out to discover the smoking scene on campus. Re-reading my first ethnography, I am surprised at my ability to perform an in-depth research on what it means to be a smoker at St. Olaf College. Interestingly, I also examined the ideologies of health in America, applying it to my results. At the same time, it is very clear that this is my first ethnographic research paper because I needed to ask questions that would provide for a “thick description” of smoking cigarettes on campus. Such as, questions that would provide insight into St. Olaf’s students and their relationship towards the act of smoking.
After this interim class, I was also taking classes through the Asian Conversations Program and I was enrolled in the Asian Studies course entitled East Asia and the West. During this class, we read several articles and novels that overlapped with the main foundations that make up Sociology and Anthropology. For instance, we read a novel on the cultural clash of Hmong culture and American culture in The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. I have also included my response paper to this novel, Child Removal From a Family: Is it Ethical?, in which I critically thought of a Hmong family being forced to assimilate and the challenges that this family encountered. It was during this time that I discovered my passion for Asian cultures and I wanted to examine culture in a correct, objective, and thorough way and this aided in the discovery of my passion for sociology and anthropology. Realizing the overlap between the Asian Studies and Sociology and Anthropology disciplines I confirmed my double major and have taken various classes that compliment each other very well throughout my St. Olaf career, mostly with an Asian focus on humanity.
The Sociology and Anthropology major has had a significant impact on my life and I discovered this through studying abroad in Shanghai, China in the fall semester of my junior year. The Sociology and Anthropology classes that I took before my departure allowed me to not only enjoy my time while in China, but it also encouraged me to ask questions in my daily life; questions that would not always have answers, but would motivate me to be constantly curious and to constantly search for meaning, therefore, I created a research project that would allow me to do so. I knew that I wanted to take full advantage of my time while in China and performed an Independent Study with Tom Williamson focusing on the international adoption issue in China and the concept of humanity. This experience challenged me in several ways including leaving my comfort zone, expanding my Mandarin Chinese vocabulary, and making contacts with native Chinese that I have maintained still today. Therefore, I have included my research findings and paper, China: International Adoption, within my portfolio because it illustrates the effort and seriousness that I have devoted to my Sociology and Anthropology major. This ethnography also shows my improvement in my research abilities, in my ability to conduct an objective study, and my ability to perform face-to-face interviews that provide helpful information. I discovered the importance of communication and the sense of trust and how these impact my study in gathering more in-depth information and in the end having a thoroughly saturated research paper.
Not only does the importance of this major impact my academic work, but also my vocational goals. I have been searching for my vocational goals since I was a first year and I categorized my goals as either long-term or short-term oriented. This major has affected a long-term vocational goal of mine completely changing my priority of self-success to my current priority of success for all humanity. The Sociology/Anthropology major has also shaped my short-term goals which consist of wanting to explore different cultures thoroughly within China, adopting different Chinese viewpoints and perspectives, constantly challenging myself in applying theory, and achieving all of these while being cautious in respecting China’s culture and language. These goals were shaped throughout my St. Olaf career not only through my Sociology and Anthropology courses and Asian Studies courses, but also through my experiences abroad, on campus, and college activities.
I remember clearly the attitudes I had towards “success” relating it strictly to monetary aspects and disregarding any other interpretation of this term. For me to be successful, I wanted to learn Chinese and be an Economics major determined to join the corporate business world and support the capitalistic efforts in China. Through taking Sociology and Anthropology classes helped me understand not only how to analyze culture and people critically, but also how to appreciate cultural differences and people of diverse backgrounds. These classes coupled with my Asian Studies major have urged me to want to work with the Chinese using my language abilities and my cultural understanding to start an actual dialogue of what success is for all humanity between myself and Chinese people. Therefore, to illustrate my understanding of success, I have included my paper entitled The Ideology of Success: Inclusive and Exclusive Factors. It is important to include this particular piece because it represents my “thick description” of the ideology of success and the process of how I created my main vocational goal.
My short-term goals have experienced the most change and this is because a few of them I have achieved, but there is an endless list and they adjust to the phase of life that I am in. Currently, it is important for me to go and live in other cities in China than just Shanghai. I consider myself comfortable with Shanghai at the level of a Shanghai local and the Sociology and Anthropology major has encouraged me to welcome different situations. My motivation for exploring new experiences derives from my major because I am aware of how to analyze my surroundings and quickly adjust in using sociological methods and anthropological theory. An example of this is when I spent my fist week in Shanghai sampling all the foods. In my first meal, I applied theory to the food that I was eating thinking of the importance of rice in Chinese society.
My other short-term goal is to work hard in disregarding my own personal lens and adopt viewpoints and perspectives from others. This is very challenging and may even be impossible, but having this as a vocational goal of mine encourages me to constantly strive for it in all situations. This goal directly derives from my Sociology and Anthropology major because this is a major concept of both disciplines. I am appreciative of this because it is difficult to analyze a situation without it being affected by my personal experiences and values, but this major has enabled me to acquire the necessary skills needed to evaluate situations while being cautious of my lens shaping my perspective. In working to achieve these goals it is important for me to be mindful of Chinese culture and tradition. I have included my paper written in Modern Southeast Asia entitled Thailand: The Modern Economy and Stereotypes in which I dropped my cultural lens and performed a critical analysis of stereotypes in Thailand in relation to the Thai economy. This paper required me to fully understand the perspective of a Thai native and then describe a native Thai person’s response to immigrants, sex workers, and people that adopt the “tom” identity. This analysis developed my goal to understand the “other” and motivated me to further this goal in making it applicable to every situation that I find myself in.
To further describe the most important concepts that I have learned in this major, I am going to describe what I would not have learned had I been an Economics major. Skills in management and business are all tangible skills that can be easily learned with a month or so of adequate training. Skills regarding people and how to work with and understand people are far more difficult to achieve and understand. Therefore, my Sociology and Anthropology major has provided me with a crucial life long skill that can be applied in my future career. What is important to notice is that the skills I have learned through this major are not something that can be easily learned, but require years of education and study. Another important concept that I learned from my major is to constantly question, challenge, and be curious of everything. In every situation I encounter something that I am subconsciously asking questions about. After four years of Sociology and Anthropology classes, my immediate response to everything is to critically ask what does this mean? I recognize that as humans we are constantly in search for meaning and attach meaning to everything, but to recognize that we do this, that I do this, is a different experience.
Despite the major concepts that I learned through the major, I am entering the world with many unanswered questions and this is due to the complexity and messiness of many concepts. In my experience as a Sociology and Anthropology major, I have accepted that not everything has an answer or even a common consensus. I have discovered that complex questions result in a dialogue that convey possibilities for answers and is a mode for thoroughly thinking through a problem, but does not provide simplistic solutions. A question that I am currently grappling with is why is it so difficult to even start a dialogue? As an international community, we are experiencing globalization and interdependence, yet we maintain a distance from each other. It is very contradictory for an interdependent world to not engage in intellectual discussions that have the potential to unite the international community and solve global scale problems. As I leave St. Olaf, I plan on searching for an answer to this question while also encouraging discussion and an exchange of ideas in a cross-cultural context.
The theme that represents my work and interests as a Sociology and Anthropology major is a focus on the post-modern world, specifically its ideologies, stereotypes, categories, and its contradictions within Asian cultures. The research papers, response papers, critical analysis papers, and ethnographies I have carefully chosen represent this theme and illustrate where I have centered most of my work in the major. My inspiration is a result of my realization that Asia is an area that is largely unexplored and unknown to many people. My work and effort in the major show that it is crucial to understand that sociological methodology and anthropological theory are applicable in an Asian context, some theories and methodologies even originated within China. I have been able to attain the most from my major through focusing on certain aspects of Asian cultures and societies because not only am I interested in this topic, but I studied both disciplines simultaneously and was exposed to new material at the same time. The advantage to this is that I was able to understand both disciplines in relationship to each other through making constant comparisons and looking for connections; pushing both my Sociology and Anthropology and Asian Studies majors to the next level.
My major has motivated me to further my knowledge in Asia and therefore I am returning to China after graduation. This experience will allow me to continue using my major in applying theory to the concept of language, in understanding ideologies of health and ideologies of success in China, and applying methodology in social movements in an Asian context. To be able to continue my major throughout my other life experiences is important for me to continue learning, changing, adapting, and growing as a human being.
