StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Discuss The roles of power and social stratification - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
These are supported by several instances as is evident between the doctors and Lee’s parents, and the Americans versus the Hmong peoples. These struggles, seemingly emerge from…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER98.6% of users find it useful
Discuss The roles of power and social stratification
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Discuss The roles of power and social stratification"

The roles of power and social stratification In The Spirit Catches you and You Fall Down, the themes are driven mostly by tugs of war for power. These are supported by several instances as is evident between the doctors and Lee’s parents, and the Americans versus the Hmong peoples. These struggles, seemingly emerge from the issue of social stratification between the two ethnicities which plunges them into the constant battles. These two elements from the book are highlighted here in.The first event where a power struggle emerges is after Lia’s family immigrated to the United States and they found the western cultures to be quite dissimilar from their native origin.

These western influences impacted on Lia’s family in several ways; first of all, they became entangled in constant tugs of war with the American doctors who brushed of Hmong strong cultural beliefs as unreasonable and stupid. On the contrary, Lia’s family believed in the Hmong beliefs, and in it, was confused by the medicine administered by the doctors together with the Hmong rituals they were still holding onto. The other effect that Lia’s family encountered while on foreign soil was that by accepting the [new] western cultures.

To them, the western cultures were overly rude and disrespectful as was seen in the medical settings. In the Hmong beliefs, a doctor could not undress a patient or use powerful drugs on them. These were, however allowed in America. Again, they did not understand the medical explanation for epilepsy as an effect to the brain; rather, they perceived of it as “exit” of one’s soul, which to them was caused by Lia’s sister banging the door to her little sister. These are some of the cultural challenges they encountered in America.

On the other hand, the statuses of the Hmong were also affected by their arrival to America. At the outset, they comprehended that they had plunged themselves into an excessively stratifying culture, and in the segregation that followed, they felt less welcome and enslaved in the west. This is because the westerners perceived on the Hmong as inferior and “contaminators” of their culture. As such, they looked upon them as mere aliens invading their land and went on to be rather harsh on them.

The effect of this was the Hmong is acquiring lower levels of esteem while on foreign soil. On the other hand, they also deteriorated materially in that they did not find any worthy jobs to act as sources of life for them and had to compete with unemployed Americans in seeking for demeaning jobs. Their unemployment statuses were influenced by the beliefs of their hosts that they were less able, and could not match the American intellect. As a result, they only had the meanest jobs allocated to them.

In short, life for them in America was worse than it was in Asia.All these atrocities and disagreements between the two cultures can be attributed to prejudice and radical ethnicity. First on the Hmong side, they were not ready to absorb new cultures even though they had moved to new localities. This was obvious in placing them at loggerheads with the wider American Society. This was evident in their resistance of Western medical ideologies. On the contrary (American) side, seemingly the biggest perpetrators of the hostility, they perceived of the Hmong as aliens who were in their country to hamper with their ordinary way of life.

To add to this, they felt that the beliefs that the Hmong brought along with them were stupid and were not applicable. As such, both sides were responsible for the tugs of supremacy which emerged between them. Concisely, the westerners were seeking to enforce their cultures on the foreigners who on their part were unwilling to give up their cultures for the western ones (Fadiman, 1997).ReferencesFadiman, A. (1997). The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. Best Notes.

Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Discuss The roles of power and social stratification Essay”, n.d.)
Discuss The roles of power and social stratification Essay. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/anthropology/1647267-discuss-the-roles-of-power-and-social-stratification
(Discuss The Roles of Power and Social Stratification Essay)
Discuss The Roles of Power and Social Stratification Essay. https://studentshare.org/anthropology/1647267-discuss-the-roles-of-power-and-social-stratification.
“Discuss The Roles of Power and Social Stratification Essay”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/anthropology/1647267-discuss-the-roles-of-power-and-social-stratification.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Discuss The roles of power and social stratification

Memed My Hawk in the Light Of Social Stratification

This term paper "Memed My Hawk in the Light Of social stratification" focuses on a brave, enthusiastic and tenderhearted boy who grows up in a mountain village where people are kept in slavery by the local landlord and the poor and the helpless are expected to live.... The plight of some of the characters created by the author throws light on the social conditions.... Women have no power to oppose what is told to them, and if they do they will be cursed for life and they have no voice....
8 Pages (2000 words) Term Paper

Stratification by Gender and Agege

Women perform the roles of being expressive and emotionally supportive while men take the role of being instrumental and practical (Schaefer, R, 5th Ed).... To discuss the issue various sociological theories are postulated to explain the stratification by age and gender. Sociological theory is the backbone of any discipline.... Sociological theories explaining stratification by gender and age are based on theoretical assumptions encompassing positivism, materialism, idealism, determinism, individualism and free will (Schaefer, R, 5th Ed)....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

Response and reflection paper in Sociology

They make studies in areas of social stratification, deviant behavior,… Sociology has the responsibility of trying to determine the rules governing human behavior in social situations.... They center their topics on models of social stratification where people categorized in sets of hierarchical social groups.... Social classes are a set of concepts found in the political theory and social sciences.... It covers all aspects of activities; social, political, religious and economic....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

What is a social construction and why is it important to a sociological understanding of the world

Discussed below is gender and social construction Giddens (1989) defined sociology as the academic discipline concerned with the study of human social life.... Discussed below is gender and social class, which are both socially constructed classifications.... social construction is a sociological concept, which refers to individuals or groups' perceptions or ideas that are created through social and cultural practice.... Through… More often than not, classifications created through social construction segregate individuals by assigning stereotyped traits to each specific group....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

Social Solidarity in Modern Societies

This paper will discuss the opinions different socialists and theorists on social solidarity.... Many socialists have highlighted that the need for social solidarity, which results from a shared identity and a sense of belonging has been… Many argue that modern societies are defined by individualism because of the structural complexities of the society that have emerged in the modern day.... social solidarity has been described as denoting several aspects obligation, dependence, responsibility However, despite all these aspects, social solidarity is used to signify a society that has its members pursuing social interests instead of individual interests....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

Structural theories

The research essay “Structural theories” will concentrate on widely used theories in sociology and link them to our experiences in the world through factors like family, culture, social class and religion and how they have shaped these factors to date.... Religion also brings social cohesion and a sense of belonging through, for instance, the Holy Communion in the church.... According to Kunin (2003), Emile also proposed that religion brings social control and support for the government....
9 Pages (2250 words) Essay

Sociological Approach to Power

Subjection is the nature to articulate power in order to have control over different subjects while stratification is the expression of power within managerial hierarchies that is mainly based on asperity of different resources.... In order to establish the meaning of power, there has been several of those ideas that crept up.... Now, in that case, the various forms of power define the characteristic feature of the agency.... In a given state with its military and society, there is interpenetration of different social spheres that brings a change in the organizational structure....
10 Pages (2500 words) Assignment

Does the Idea of a Ruling Class in Canada Make Sense

The ruling class is the group of elite members of the society that are known to influence at both political and social level in order to gain benefits and secure their own interests.... They believe that wider is the gap between them and the subordinated groups, the greater is the power and control that they possess over them.... nbsp;… It is quite essential to state that stratification of societies is an ancient concept that still persists in today's world....
8 Pages (2000 words) Case Study
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us