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How Children in a Maya Village Do Chores

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Re: How Children in a Maya Village Do Chores

#141

Post by fjsolwmv »

euske wrote: post #41
jordigh wrote: post #27

I know this is a bit petty, but I've stared to resent a little that even though I'm Mexican, I'm not considered Western. What am I, then? Eastern? Central? Southern? I'm not just arguing about the geography, but about the culture. I feel much more like a Canadian or a USian (or a Guatemalan) than I feel like an African, Middle Easter, East Asian, or South Asian. I speak the same languages as Europe, have been mostly…

I think the term "Western" is often mixed up with "Westernized", which has a rather different connotation. I live in Japan that is not technically Western at all, but very well Westernized.

Westernized made sense 100 -200 years during the era of the first huge cultural exchange (or imposition). Nowadays Americans drive Hondas and play Nintendos, calling Japan "Westernized" makes less sense.

Re: How Children in a Maya Village Do Chores

#142

Post by Bakary »

coldtea wrote: post #77
jordigh wrote: post #27

I know this is a bit petty, but I've stared to resent a little that even though I'm Mexican, I'm not considered Western. What am I, then? Eastern? Central? Southern? I'm not just arguing about the geography, but about the culture. I feel much more like a Canadian or a USian (or a Guatemalan) than I feel like an African, Middle Easter, East Asian, or South Asian. I speak the same languages as Europe, have been mostly…

> I know this is a bit petty, but I've stared to resent a little that even though I'm Mexican, I'm not considered Western. What am I, then? Eastern? Central? Southern? It's not about the geography. It's more about development (e.g. money) and culture -- and in essence an arbitrary historical capture of the term by Western Europeans and WASP-like Americans to mean themselves. It's best to not thing such terms as about…

Insignificant or not they will live on through the consumerist culture they have refined and disseminated, just like the Romans live on in Western mores themselves.

Re: How Children in a Maya Village Do Chores

#143

Post by spicymaki »

badminton1 wrote: post #61
jordigh wrote: post #27

I know this is a bit petty, but I've stared to resent a little that even though I'm Mexican, I'm not considered Western. What am I, then? Eastern? Central? Southern? I'm not just arguing about the geography, but about the culture. I feel much more like a Canadian or a USian (or a Guatemalan) than I feel like an African, Middle Easter, East Asian, or South Asian. I speak the same languages as Europe, have been mostly…

English and French colonists did not mix a lot with other races, unlike Spanish colonists. There are many exceptions, like the Métis in Canada, but that did not happen very often. Later, the US and Canada received various waves of immigrants from Europe, making multi-racial people an even smaller portion of the population. In recent years, multi-racial couples have increased. This happened mostly because interracial…

@partycoder you are dead wrong about that. The English and French racially intermingled a lot more than you might think. http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2014/12/genetic-study-reveals...

Re: How Children in a Maya Village Do Chores

#144

Post by Bakary »

baxtr wrote: post #63
jordigh wrote: post #27

I know this is a bit petty, but I've stared to resent a little that even though I'm Mexican, I'm not considered Western. What am I, then? Eastern? Central? Southern? I'm not just arguing about the geography, but about the culture. I feel much more like a Canadian or a USian (or a Guatemalan) than I feel like an African, Middle Easter, East Asian, or South Asian. I speak the same languages as Europe, have been mostly…

If you want to use words to differentiate, there have to be some break points. The same could be asked by Russian. They are mostly of Christian Faith, and, speak a language that is very similar to some European languages. If I remember right, Huntington (Clash of Civilizations) introduced the Ukraine, Turkey and Australia as countries that needed to make a decision which part they wanted to belong to finally. Maybe,…

What alternative does Australia have?

Re: How Children in a Maya Village Do Chores

#146

Post by dkarl »

rossdavidh wrote: post #12

Reminds me of something I read from Jared Diamond, wherein he said that in traditional societies that he had investigated, the kids play is just small versions of the adults life, that gets more and more realistic until it's the real thing. So, a child gets a piglet to look after, if the adults raise pigs. This would make sense from a biological point of view; the young watch the adults and imitate what they're doing…

Yes, kids have a great appetite to become more adult and take great pride in it. I suspect what the psychologist was observing was that children were eager to start doing the things that earn appreciation among adults. This doesn't translate at all to the affluent west where housework is taken for granted and doesn't earn anybody respect. I think kids are sensitive enough to intuit that it's because there's no social reward in proportion to the effort, and as a result people do as little as possible and pursue other ways to establish their social worth.

Re: How Children in a Maya Village Do Chores

#147

Post by fjsolwmv »

M_Bakhtiari wrote: post #72
jordigh wrote: post #27

I know this is a bit petty, but I've stared to resent a little that even though I'm Mexican, I'm not considered Western. What am I, then? Eastern? Central? Southern? I'm not just arguing about the geography, but about the culture. I feel much more like a Canadian or a USian (or a Guatemalan) than I feel like an African, Middle Easter, East Asian, or South Asian. I speak the same languages as Europe, have been mostly…

I see your point. I'm also puzzled by how Americans seem to talk about Spanish-speaking people as if they are some kind of race.

It's data compression. Americans talk about "white" people as if they are some kind of race!

Re: How Children in a Maya Village Do Chores

#148

Post by ramblerman »

yesenadam wrote: post #130
cambalache wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My friend, this was something that surprised me 15-20 years ago when thanks to the Internet I started to interact with Americans. At the end Western is a code word for White dominated places or sometimes just Anglo. This came from Huntington's Clash of Civilizations a profoundly ignorant work. As you wrote you can live in Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo or Mexico City, huge cosmopolitan places, maybe you have some recent rel…

That's one of the greatest comments I've read on here. 100% gringo here, UK-born Australian. About 10 years ago I started meeting latin americans online (also filipinos), I liked them so much I learnt spanish and was soon chatting online 95% with latin american friends. Played Clash of Clans in a colombian clan hehe, love watching online chess tournament commentary in spanish etc. Am starting to love Portuguese too.…

> EDIT: Would the downvoters care to explain why?

It might be that you are trying argue away one prejudice with another.

Re: How Children in a Maya Village Do Chores

#149

Post by okmokmz »

acheron wrote: post #123
edanm wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"There is no ambiguity when someone says "I am American," as people from only one country identify themselves as such." That's... not really true? I mean, it's true in the sense that everyone "knows" that when you say American, you mean "someone from the US". But that doesn't mean it doesn't bother people from other countries in the Americas. And even if they speak e.g. Spanish, they will tend to also speak English,…

Please let me know which countries have "America" in their name and I will be happy to refer to people from any of them as "Americans".

South America: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela

Central America: Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama

North America: US, Canada, Mexico

i.e. The Americas

Re: How Children in a Maya Village Do Chores

#150

Post by girvo »

Bakary wrote: post #137
johnchristopher wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds me of a quote about culture in star trek: somehow, in this utopy, they only know of Shakespeare,an edgy hard boiled detective character, Captain Proton and baseball. The vision americans had for the ST utopia was very los angeles centered.

Are there any notable SF works where it's more or less impossible to estimate the culture and era of the author?

Perhaps the Culture series?
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