First Semester Extra Credit for Movies

1. Witness: 

In this movie, a Amish boy witnesses a murder while he is in a train station bathroom. For the rest of the movie, the boy and a detective named John (Harrison Ford), try to avoid the murder and his posey, eventually killing them. Throughout the movie, John is shown to become more Amish representing his transition from the way of popular culture to an Amish local culture. This shows how local culture can sustain itself against popular culture. 

2. Korean Drama- You Are The Only One: 

We watched episode 118 of the Korean Drama, You Are The Only One. It was hard to pick up, but in this episode we learn that Grandma Jo has had fraud committed on her fruit company, and her fortune and will be taken away from her. Meanwhile, dowon and his new wife are planning a honey moon and learn of the terrible news about Grandma Jo.  

3. Good Will Hunting:

 Good Will Hunting is a movie about Will Hunting's (Matt Damon) change in outlook on the world. In the beginning of the movie Will is working at a school at as a janitor, and solves a very difficult math problem assigned by a teacher. A good deal of the movie goes by, and Will is being put through personal therapy by a psychologist (Robert Williams). This movie represents a change in identity in Will Hunting. In the beginning of the movie, we are shown how tough of a life Will has been brought into, especially growing up as an orphan in the ghetto. Will is abandoned by the people that were suppose to love him most, which is why we see a defensive mechanism in his personality: his ability to leave people before they can hurt him by leaving him. We also see this in the form of him not revealing personal information to people that aren't his close friends, in other words, he feeds them lies. Throughout the movie, Will's identity is shaped by his girlfriend, Skyler, and his psychologist, in order to open him up to them, which represents his change in identity for the better. 

4. The Gods Must Be Crazy: 

The Gods Must Be Crazy is a comedy about a tribe in Africa called the Kalahari. This is a tribe about 600 miles north of a booming modern 1984 civilization, oblivious to modern technology. When an overhead pilot drops a coca-cola bottle from his plane, the Kalahari pick it up and are negatively impacted by it. The members of the tribe begin to fight with each other and the leader decides to throw the bottle off the end of the earth, eventually questioning the existence of his gods altogether. This coca-cola bottle represents popular culture invading the Kalahari's local culture, and turning the tribe members against each other.  

Thoughts & Ruminations on Chapter Five - Identity: Race, Ethnicity,Gender, and Sexuality

Trevor Jones

11/19/15

Per. 3 

Sources: 

Human Geography: People, Places, and Culture: Chapter 5 - Identity: Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Sexuality 

The Big Heart - by Tony Perrottet

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-27102643 

The Nuer rebels of South Sudan wanted control of the Bentiu oil well, which produces 90% of South Sudan's revenue, but the Dinkas had control over the oil well at the time, so the Dinkas sought shelter at a nearby Kali-Ballee mosque in order to avoid violence from the Nuer rebels. Then, the Neur rebels slaughtered 200 civilians in the mosque, leading to a large migration of 22,000 people trying to seek refuge at the UN peacekeeping base over the boarder of Sudan.  

This video is a "rap" done by African-American kids in Ferguson, Missouri about how racism affects minorities, specifically African-Americans, in the United States. 

          How was the city of Huston able to move away from its cultural stereotype of an Angelo "cowboy city", and emerge with a new identity? 

Houston is a largely diverse metropolitan area in Texas, known for its oil industry and redneck rodeos. But what most people may not know, is that Houston also contains the most equitable distribution of the nation's four major racial and ethnic groups: Asians, Hispanic people, and white and black people that are not Hispanic. Throughout the 60's, 70's and 80's, Houston was an overwhelming Angelo city, taking up of 63% of the human population. This was mostly due to big oil businesses hiring Angelo workers at a low price, but still a higher price than the alternative of working back home, which lead to an influx of Angelo population. However, the eight-decade long Texas oil boom fizzles, and the city lost over 100,000 jobs, most being low wage Angelo jobs. This lead to the decrease of Angelo population in Houston from 63%, to under 33%. Consequently, with all of the lost job opportunities for minorities, Houston became the most income-segregated of the ten largest metropolitan areas, with the greatest percent of rich people living among the rich, and the third greatest percent of poor people living among the poor. This lead to residential segregation and racism throughout many neighborhoods because most poor people in Houston were non-white minorities. All of these factors contributed to Houston's ethnic identity of a cowboy city that has massive amounts of oil, and as a cultural wasteland. 

Houston has done a fair bit of structural modification with the addition of skyscrapers and endless concrete highways, but has also managed to develop its ethnic identity in the form of artistic expression. Over the past few decades, Houston has constructed a multitude of museums, galleries and 17 block theatre district, that claims to have the largest concentration of seats outside Broadway. These buildings as well as many others contribute to Houston's growing artistic identity. One of the more notable buildings is the Rothko Chapel; a masterpiece of religious art, with 14 rich-colored paintings mounted across the octagonal space. This silent sanctuary allows for people to contemplate life, as well as pray to their God with the addition of over two dozen religious texts hung over benches. Another example of artistic expression is known as Project Row Houses. This idea, originating with artist Rick Lowe, began by renovating a block of decrepit shotgun shacks into gallery spaces. By doing this, these abandoned spaces are given a practical use, and turned into social hubs. This as well as many other examples gives the people of Houston a sense of place and allows them to construct an identity, rather than conforming to the previous 'cowboy city' identity. Houston began to draw attention from outsiders who wanted to share their artistic expression with a community. This process was also made easier on migrant's into Houston due to the low rents, lots of wide open spaces, and cheap food. Due to the vast amount of ethnicities in Houston, most migrant's who come don't even need to speak English, by identifying with art, ethnically different communities can find their own voice. Although Houston still retains its former identity of a cowboy city to a certain degree, it is slowly developing a new identity constructed around artistic expression within a community. 

 This is a map of Northeastern USA. I decided to color this map because it contains New York, New York. New York is a large metropolitan area with the greatest number and diversity of immigrants of any city in the world. Around 65% of the city is composed of Hispanic ethnicity, including Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, and Dominicans. There is also the presence of other ethnic minority groups such as Asians, Pacific Islanders, and African Americans. This gives ethnic minority groups a chance to create their own identity and share it with the rest of New York. 

Yugoslavian Civil War Project

Trevor Jones 

11/16/15

Per. 3

Yugoslavian Civil War Write-up

In 1945, Josef Tito  became the monarchical communist dictator of the Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia. Under his tight rule, ethnic tensions were kept in check in a region where such feelings were flaring amongst the many diverse groups of people forced to live together in a single sovereignty. When Tito died in 1980, the tensions that built up over the past decades exploded, leading to division of the people, a bloody civil war, and the perpetration of atrocious crimes against humanity. This conflict is unique in the fact that it was not sparked by a single factor, but rather many factors and differences between the people, built upon each other until they finally reached a tipping point and exploded into conflict.

The first factor that helped start and continue the Yugoslavian civil war was the impact of Nationalism on the conflict. This was caused by the high amount of diversity in the country, with over 4.4 million people who were 40% Muslim, 33% Serbian and 19% Croatian. Of the ethnic groups that inhabit what was once Yugoslavia, the main group is Slavic that includes Serbians, Croatians, Bosnians, Slovenians, and Macedonians. There are also Italians, Hungarians, Albanians, Turks and Gypsies living in this region. The amount of diversity in the country worked well under communist rule, but when the communist party fell, the strict rule of the president, dictator Josef Tito fell as well. This meant that the different ethnicities were free to fight each other, and claim land. An example of this is when Serbia wanted to create a greater Serbia by carving out enclaves where Serbians lived in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and adding them to Serbia. When Serbia defeated the Turks in Kosovo in 1389 giving the Serbs a feeling of ownership of the region. However, Kosovo is the cradle of Albanian nationalism in Yugoslavia. Another factor that lead to Serbian dominance was the fact that The Yugoslav army was Serbian led and dominated, which lead atrocities committed by the Serbian army during the War. These are just a few examples that help us understand why such a diverse country can have conflict, and why nationalism was a major cause for of war.

One of the slightly more important causes of the Yugoslavian civil war was the economic aspects of it. Several economic aspects contributed to the growing feud between peoples, such as Serbia’s want for expansion and sea access. Geographically, Serbia was landlocked and separated from the Adriatic Sea in the 80’s so they wanted to take enough of Croatia’s land in order to have access to the sea. The Croatians were obviously not keen towards this idea which brought up problems in the Serbian and Croatian relationship. The 1980’s also marked a widening of the gap between communist and capitalist economies. However, the spread of communism was slow, as well as considered technologically backwards by some, and lead to chronic shortages. On top of all of this, inflation was growing rapidly and in the early 90’s, inflation levels were at 2600%. This impacted the economy greatly, and even resulted in a strikingly high unemployment rate of 20% in Yugoslavia, as well as a national debt of over $23 billion, an internal debt of over $14 billion, and a personal income level that had decreased by 20% since the 80’s. These figures had a great impact of the identity of the country as a whole, as well as individual groups within the country. The economic causes leading up to the Yugoslavian civil war were severe, however there were several other types of causes that contributed as well.

Another factor that greatly contributed to the onset and continuation of the civil war in Yugoslavia is the political complications of the tensions and conflict between groups in Yugoslavia. With over 40 political parties and no predominant nationality in Bosnia & Herzegovina alone, political tensions and division of the population is inevitable. Additionally, the fact that the European Commision would not recognize Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina's nations effectively set the stage for major conflict because it forced groups with different political views and platforms to live together under a single political body and to identify against each other. Even though Yugoslavia had only been a democracy for only eleven years as of 1989 due to it’s history as a single body under authoritarian rule, the contribution of the ongoing global conflict between the democratic world and the communist world created unique tension between the Serbians and the Croatians because Serbia still favored a communist system and a united Yugoslavia while Croatia favored independence and a free market democratic system. When all of these sources of political tension are combined under a single government that had been gradually decentralizing since the death of Josef Tito, it is impossible to prevent the spark of a major conflict between the multitudes of ethnic and political groups forced to live with one another in Yugoslavia.

    In conclusion, conflict caused by economics, nationalism, and politics created heated and potentially deadly tension between ethnic groups in Yugoslavia, and when communism fell, the tension was released, causing a deadly civil war that lasted ten years. By analyzing these these factors, we can conclude that conflict in Yugoslavia was caused and sustained by economic, nationalist, and political tension.

Thoughts and Ruminations on Chapter 4: Local Culture, Popular Culture and Cultural Landscape

Trevor Jones

11/9/15

Per. 3 

Articles: 

Human Geography: People, Places, and Culture: Chapter 4 - Local Culture, Popular Culture, and Cultural Landscapes 

Cultural Intercourse and Landscapes - by Unknown  

The Pressure to Modernize and Globalize - by Helena Norberg-Hodge

https://www.quora.com/Which-country-has-the-most-ethnically-diverse-population-in-the-world 

Somebody wanted... But... So... Then: 

In the late 1990's, the Makah American Indians of Neah Bay, Washington wanted to hunt whales just like their early ancestors had for 1500 years, but whales were an endangered species so the United States government removed the North Pacific gray whale from the endangered species list in order for the Indians to hunt them. Then, the government instated new laws for the humane hunting of whales, as well as the filling out of a form before one is allowed to hunt whales. 

Essay question: 

How does isolation preserve the local culture of an area, and when that isolation is removed and the country (state, group, etc.) is forced to modernize, how does popular culture re-shape said country (state, group, etc.)? 

Essay: 

A local culture by definition is a group of people in a particular place who see themselves as a collective or a community, who share experiences, customs, and traits, and who work to preserve those traits and customs in order to claim uniqueness and to distinguish themselves from others. This uniqueness is what separates this group of people from the mainstream popular culture of the rest of the world. The key to remaining unique in culture is by isolating a population from the outside world, in a way that the culture's authenticity is not compromised. How does a culture do this if the rest of the world conforms to popular culture one might ask? The Pressure to Modernize and Globalize by Helena Norberg-Hodge writes about a high-altitude desert on the Tibetan Plateau in northernmost India, called Ladakh. Until 1962, Ladakh remained almost completely isolated from the outside world, but in response to the conflict in Tibet, the Indian army built a road to link the region with the rest of the country. This lead to the presence of tourists in Ladakh and the destruction of almost all that makes a local culture authentic, which is excellently described in the reading Cultural Intercourse and Landscapes, by George Demko.

Norberg-Hodge describes how the region was affected by early tourism, especially by the teens of Ladakh. By seeing tourists spend enormous amounts of money (comparatively) on what seemed frivolous at the time, teens were made to feel self conscious and ashamed of their cultural roots, desperate to appear modern. Teens began to further themselves from what was a cohesive family and community, and soon to follow was the adult population. What seemed pointless to the people of Ladakh previously, such as electricity, governmental support, or elements of material culture from popular culture, now seemed necessary and a part of everyday life. Over time, the people of Ladakh moved away from their traditional customs such as living off the land, and relied more on the government and foreign sources to supply the people with food, money and assistance that previously was unnecessary. The people of Ladakh had lost contact with their traditional methods of farming and living off the land which furthered the young population from the old population, due to their values being considered outdated and pointless. The region of Ladakh was slowly losing the customs that made them a unique local culture, and falling culprit to the effects of popular culture and modernization. 

In Demko's writing, he talks about all of the elements that go into making a culture unique. There are several elements that contribute to the making of a unique local culture, but some that should stand tall over the others are language, religion and folklore (such as music, stories, etc.). Traditionally in Ladakh, the Buddhists and Muslims lived in harmony, each religion sharing a mutual respect for one another, however this would also change with the influence of popular culture. As popular culture overcame Ladakh, a noticeable change in religious structure occurred. Fights broke out in between the two harmonious religious groups, and suddenly, they were at each others throats. This happened shortly after people started to define themselves based on whether they were Buddhist or Muslim. The influence of popular culture on the region of Ladakh made members of both religious groups self conscious as well as gave them the idea that the two groups were not suppose to get along, and their false paradise was historically incorrect compared to religious wars in other countries that they had recently received the word of. A switch in religious structure as well as social and governmental structure transformed the region's community revolving around neighbors and family ties into a community revolving around consumerism and independence. This short process taking only a little over a decade to complete, completely modernized Ladakh into a modern culture society, showing great signs of placelessness similar to other regions around it. This modern culture is producing environmental and economic problems that, if left unchecked, will lead to an irreversible decline as well as the breakdown of community and the foundation of personal identity.

Map: 

The map shown above is a map of Northwestern South America. The reason that I decided to color this map is because it contains the country Peru. Based on percentage of population, Peru is the most ethnically and culturally diverse country in the world, containing over 100 distinct ethnic and racial groups, dozens of which are in the Peruvian Amazon. No predominant ethnic or racial group in Peru is larger than 20% of the total population.