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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

#161

Post by badosu »

SerLava wrote: post #126
pif wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> There is no ambiguity when someone says "I am American," as people from only one country identify themselves as such. Well, they have the right to do so when talking among themselves. When talking within an international audience, good manners suggest sticking to definitions that are internationally agreed upon. America is a continent, and US citizens are not more American than any Canadian, Argentinian or Peruvia…

>America is a continent, But it's not. North America and South America are just as separate as Africa and Eurasia. >sticking to definitions that are internationally agreed upon. "American" is used as the demonym pretty much everywhere in the world other than Central America and South America. So that advice is backwards. And try to empathize by imaging that you can't call yourself a demonym, and you have to either go…

> But it's not. North America and South America are just as separate as Africa and Eurasia.

Could you clarify that? I understood that as both cases are separated by a channel (Panama vs Suez), or did you have another meaning?

Re: How Children in a Maya Village Do Chores

#162

Post by jessaustin »

Double_a_92 wrote: post #120
scotty79 wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because she does not want to. Then either you do it or if you too don't want to do it just leave it undone. Most chores are optional anyways.

If you are a house-wife or -man doing chores related to your home and family is literally your job. How can you argument with "don't want to"?

Some people mop the floors every day. Other people don't do that every day. Can we say whose decision is wrong?

Re: How Children in a Maya Village Do Chores

#163

Post by badosu »

maw wrote: post #159
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I mostly see "Western" used as a synonym for "NATO" I think of it as the corpus of cultures drawing heritage from the Ancient Greeks and Romans. If the Homeric epics have a home in your culture, it's Western. That said, the term is muddied enough to be somewhat useless for general discussion. Particularly given how it's been co-opted by racist elements in American politics.

Except that Islamic culture drew heavily on them too, especially the Greeks. Those of us who consider ourselves Western are right to consider the Greeks and Romans among our cultural forebears, but we're not the only ones who can or should do so.

> Except that Islamic culture drew heavily on them too, especially the Greeks.

Most of the reason Europe was able to even have access to Greek works was due to Arabic translations, in many cases the originals do not exist anymore.

While in Europe the barbarians were ravaging the remains of the Roman Empire and entering into feudalism and the 'dark ages', Hindu and Greek works were being studied and improved in the Arab world (e.g. Algebra, Algorythm words coming from Arabic works).

These later would be brought to Europe via trade with italian city states and copied by the church.

Re: How Children in a Maya Village Do Chores

#164

Post by username11225 »

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.…

> I started warning latin americans who wanted to learn english to be careful, that it's poison. I didn't want them to lose their....total non-anglo-ness.

That's awfully paternalistic of you. The idea that learning English would be some terrible corrupting influence strikes me as eerily similar to the idea of the "Noble Savage"[0].

It's nice that you have come to appreciate a culture outside of your own, just don't fetishize it.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_savage

Re: How Children in a Maya Village Do Chores

#165

Post by DoreenMichele »

watwut wrote: post #101
DoreenMichele wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My recollection is you are not American. America has this romanticized ideal from the 1950s of a nuclear family with a full-time provider (the father), a full-time parent (the mother) and 2 or more children. This has not been reality for quite a long time. Our demographics have diverged from that in recent decades. But that mental model continues to basically poison American life, in part by dictating cultural norms…

Yes, you recall right. I think that romanticism you talk about is inconsistent too. There is romantic memory of "playing outside alone whole day coming back only when lights are out" and criticism of todays parents who dont allow that. Simultaneously, when the kid is playing alone for an hour and half after school because parent is in work, then it is treated like a neglect. I used to go from school to extracurricula…

Kids also really did play outside unsupervised more and/or with siblings, cousins and friends to help keep them safe instead of an adult. I think some larger fabric of social life has changed and we can't figure out how to translate historical parenting patterns into modern life in a way that makes sense.

I think a lot of parents feel very stressed right now and that fosters these weird conclusions that "if only X piece were like the good old days, everything would work" and it's just not true. Then "X piece" changes from one conversation to the next, like the six blind men and the elephant. What we don't realize is we mean we are dealing with an entirely different animal, so to speak.

We need to somehow create a social fabric that is more parenting friendly while not creating a social fabric that assumes every family is a nuclear family or that actively promotes the idea that marriage and children is an ideal to strive for. In the US, we absolutely haven't yet figured out how to do that.

Some things that would likely help: a less car centered built environment and universal health coverage.

Re: How Children in a Maya Village Do Chores

#166

Post by ASalazarMX »

SerLava wrote: post #126
pif wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> There is no ambiguity when someone says "I am American," as people from only one country identify themselves as such. Well, they have the right to do so when talking among themselves. When talking within an international audience, good manners suggest sticking to definitions that are internationally agreed upon. America is a continent, and US citizens are not more American than any Canadian, Argentinian or Peruvia…

>America is a continent, But it's not. North America and South America are just as separate as Africa and Eurasia. >sticking to definitions that are internationally agreed upon. "American" is used as the demonym pretty much everywhere in the world other than Central America and South America. So that advice is backwards. And try to empathize by imaging that you can't call yourself a demonym, and you have to either go…

> "American" is used as the demonym pretty much everywhere in the world other than Central America and South America.

Solely by misappropriation. America was world-wide known as a continent before England sent their colonizers. Somehow migrating to America was misappropriated as meaning "migrating to the English colonies in America". Somehow the United States of America became the only America.

I have the theory that if their name had been less generic, say United States of New England, The word America would have retained its original meaning.

Re: How Children in a Maya Village Do Chores

#168

Post by wavefunction »

jordigh wrote: post #114
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Mayans and I are by now part of the greater western world "Western" is used as short-hand for the cultures "that have some origin or association with Europe. The term also applies beyond Europe to countries and cultures whose histories are strongly connected to Europe by immigration, colonization, or influence." Modern Mexican culture could be argued to be "Western". It would be difficult, on the other hand, to arg…

> Linguistically, the use of "USian" strikes back at your argument. There is no ambiguity when someone says "I am American," as people from only one country identify themselves as such. Using the term "USian" thus explicitly rejects one's affiliation with the United States. There is ambiguity to me, because I consider myself as American as the US does. What does America mean to the US? It usually means things like th…

>new opportunities for immigrants, such as for Salma Hayek

Of course she was getting pigeon-holed by Harvey Weinstein and the Hollywood machine who were trying to limit her opportunity to take on roles that didn't rely solely on her beauty and ethnic background.

It is still a country of some opportunity but much of that opportunity comes from fighting against the existing power structures.

Re: How Children in a Maya Village Do Chores

#169

Post by jhoward321 »

badosu wrote: post #161
SerLava wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>America is a continent, But it's not. North America and South America are just as separate as Africa and Eurasia. >sticking to definitions that are internationally agreed upon. "American" is used as the demonym pretty much everywhere in the world other than Central America and South America. So that advice is backwards. And try to empathize by imaging that you can't call yourself a demonym, and you have to either go…

> But it's not. North America and South America are just as separate as Africa and Eurasia. Could you clarify that? I understood that as both cases are separated by a channel (Panama vs Suez), or did you have another meaning?

Well in both cases North/South America and Africa/Eurasia are on different tectonic plates.

Re: How Children in a Maya Village Do Chores

#170

Post by rkangel »

theBobBob wrote: post #75

I remember when I moved away for college I was so shocked at how quite a few people basically couldn't look after themselves at all. I ended up teaching one guy I lived with how to do the most basic things. I actually had to show him how to put a duvet cover on, how to boil rice, how to use a washing machine, the fact that if a chicken fillet is 50% pink on the inside is not yet finished. He had never done any of the…

There are negative sides to boarding school, but developing some functional and emotional independence is definitely a positive. When I arrived at University I was immature in a lot of ways, but much better prepared for that sort of life than those who hadn't been to boarding school.
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