Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Chapter 10- Gender Stratification

Women have serve in the US armed forces since the colonial times. By WWII women represented the 2% of the armed forces. In the Irak war women represented the 15% of the armed forces the same with people serving  in all capacities in the army.
the women's role in the military has been debated for a long time. Some say that women are more intelligent than military man. But in our society is more common to see a women as a nurturer.
In our times war is more technological and advanced so soldier don't need to be necessarily in the fire line.

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Chapter 9- Global Stratification

Theoretical analysis for global stratification. Two major explanations for the unequal distribution of power and wealth in the world are, the modernization theory, and dependency theory. This theories suggests different solutions to end with this inequalities in the planet.
Modernization theory explains global inequalities in the world in terms of technology and cultural differences between countries.
This theory also faces criticism like fails to recognize that how rich countries became wealthy by ruining another, an example of that could be countries from Europe, they became rich thanks to the colonization of the Americas.

Friday, October 28, 2011

Chapter 8- Social Stratification

Social stratification is defined as a system by which a society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy.
Most of all societies are marked by inequality, people having more power than others, more money, schooling, health, etc. The four important principles are:
1-Social stratification is a trait of society, not simply a reflection of individual differences.
2- Social stratification carries over from generation to generation.
3-Social stratification is universal but variable.
4- Social stratification involves not just inequality but beliefs as well.

Chapter 7- Deviance

Deviance is the recognized violation of cultural norms. We as a society follow norm all the time so the word Deviance as more than one explanation.
Braking the law by committing a crime is deviance, could be a minor parking ticket to a  murder.
But not only bad behaviors are categorized as deviance, also a person very enthusiastic about a new movie, somebody that protest for the right reasons.
Also Deviance is not only an action or choice, it could be something that is very existence like a disable person can be viewed differently  (not necessarily in a bad way) to another person. Somebody of color in a group of white racist people.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Chapter 6- sex over the life course.

The patterns of sexual activity begin to change as we grow up. In the U.S women become sexual active around 16 years old and women by the age of 17. By the mid-twenties more that 90 percent of woman and man are sexually active.
By the age of fifty, the rate of sexually active people start to decline. By the age of sixty, the 15 percent of man and 40 percent of woman said they haven't sexually active in the past year.
And contrary to popular stereotypes, sexual activity is a normal part of life for most older people.

Chapter 5- The "Mcdonaldization" of Society.

McDonald's is far more than a chain restaurant; it is a symbol of the United states culture. Everybody associate the golden arch with America and know that is part of the culture. McDonald's has restaurant all over the world specially in Asian countries like China and Japan.
Has been said that our culture is becoming "McDonalized", Meaning that the way McDonald's operate as a fast food restaurant. The efficiency, to serve hamburger, french fries, and a milkshake in 50 seconds is a good example. Predictability, like preparing all the food using set formulas.
Uniformity, they cut the french fries the same length/32 inch thick and the burgers same fat content and lengths too. It's all part of the McDonal's standard.
Control, McDonald's has pretty much conntrol of everything that they can, but there is one element that is the most unreliable HUMANS.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Chap 4 Social Interaction in everyday life.

This chapter talks about the behavior of humans toward society. Everything we do and how we do it. Social interaction study how we apply what we learn in life to manage interactions within society.
The three everyday experiences are: emotion, gender, and humor.
The structure of society is the Status, which is the social position that a person holds. The ascribed status is a position that we receive when we born or involuntarily later in our life's. The Master status refers to a status of certain importance for society, something that makes our identities different from the rest.
Role, is a behavior that somebody has depending on their status.