Freshman Humanities
Mask Socialization Project
The power of socialization
By Heidi Williams
"Society is an insane asylum ran by the inmates."
-Erving Goffman
Humans are creatures of socialization. We feed off of other humans. We know what we know because of other humans. We wear what we wear because of other humans. We eat the way we eat because of other humans. We are the way we are because of other humans. The power of socialization effects everyone on a personally, consciously, and subconsciously way. Socialization is a teacher. Its teaching us even when we don't know it is.
For example the day I was born, my mom’s best friend had her baby the same day, so my mom’s best friend’s son and I have been friends for life, literally. The people that surround you directly and indirectly in life shape who we are and how we do things. We are born in to our social identity categories. Some of my categories are I was born to the same parents as I have now, with not many changes financially, so I have stayed in the same socioeconomic class all my life. We all follow a path of sorts, a cycle in life that starts the day we are born, but even before that we have our social class, our parents, and even some of our friends all set out for us.
These examples of feral children show how much we learn from the people that surround us. What happens when all of a child’s human exposure gets cut short? When all they have is a family dog or a troop of wild spider monkeys for company? How do they act? In a movie I watched and in an article I read in Mr. Fishers’ 9th grade humanities class called “Feral Children” tells many stories of peculiar children around the world that had been abounded by their families and friends, or banished to the woods by a wicked mother. The children all act like the animals that surrounded them for so many years. One girl from Ukraine was abounded by her parents at a young age with nothing but dogs. The girl was found at age three walking on her hands and knees, barking, howling, and biting and nipping like a dog at the humans that came to retrieve her. The girl only remembered two words, yes and no. The girl had no humans influencing and teaching her how to act like a “normal” human being. She grew up watching dogs interact with other dogs. She was abandoned at such a young age she did not learn social norms. The result of this kind of abandonment leads to one thing, a dog-girl, or a “feral chid.”
Another way we can see the importance of socialization is threw cultural differences. Different social norms accrue all over the world. In most of the smaller countries of the world the average age to get married is 16-20 but in America and England and other major countries in the world the marriage age is 23-25. Today marrying at a young age is fairly widespread in parts of Africa, Asia, Oceania and South America. It is frequently associated with an arranged marriage. In some arranged marriages only one marriage-partner is a child, usually the girl, at the age of 6-10 years old and the partner, usually the guy, is 18-30 years old. See the age difference? Another custom learned by other humans is that most people in the world wear some sort of top and some sort of bottoms for clothing, but in some places like an unidentified tribe discovered three months ago living off the Amazon river (tribe will not give their name yet) wear nothing but piercings, paint, and a thin net-like blanket to keep away harmful insects. The woman of the tribe have some sort of an obsession with fish headdresses. The sociologists studying the tribe believe it’s because of the impact fish has on the mystery tribe. This is their social norm which has not been impacted by our social norms.
People who come from other parts of the world to the US or even just to a different state in the US have to adapt to an unfamiliar culture to fit in to the social norms of that community. In the book "American Born Chinese" by Gene Luen Yang, a young Asian boy comes to a new state after living in San Diego. All of the other kids and teachers expect him to be from China, expect him to eat dog and have other stereotypical Asian qualities. As life goes on he changes physically and mentally into what he sees the other kids in his community doing, he knows how to change by watching them grow up with him. The influence of the social norms have a great impact on him.
In my mask I have a tree stretching from my chin to my forehead with branches stretching over my cheek bones represents the “path” in which every person in every culture goes on in life, all of humanity, and the growth people go through in their life. The children holding hands across my forehead that fades into a yellow light represents the sun as well as other people feeding you in society, like the tree feeds on sun light. When you open my mask you will see a full white mask with the words “What happens when the branches break?” written across the brow in black ink. This represents the wonder of what happens when an event occurs in life that cuts off all exposure to other human beings (cuts off all sunlight to the tree branch) for a long amount of time, and represents the question of what really lies underneath.
The influence of others on me can be seen in a couple ways. I grew up watching my grandfather ride horses at his ranch. When I started getting more involved with horses I understood certain things just by watching him. For example, I knew how to get on and off of a horse by just watching him get on and off his horse. Another example is when I first started to ski I knew that I stood up and went down with the skis on my booted feet. I learned this from just watching my dad and the people that surround me ski. Most of what I know comes from watching others and adapting to social norms.
In my eyes, every person in the world is not just a result of the way other people act that surrounds them. Every person is significant in their own way deep down. Some of a person’s opinions, religion (in some cases) and activities are a result of ones family and friends. But, deep down every one of us is special.
By Heidi Williams
"Society is an insane asylum ran by the inmates."
-Erving Goffman
Humans are creatures of socialization. We feed off of other humans. We know what we know because of other humans. We wear what we wear because of other humans. We eat the way we eat because of other humans. We are the way we are because of other humans. The power of socialization effects everyone on a personally, consciously, and subconsciously way. Socialization is a teacher. Its teaching us even when we don't know it is.
For example the day I was born, my mom’s best friend had her baby the same day, so my mom’s best friend’s son and I have been friends for life, literally. The people that surround you directly and indirectly in life shape who we are and how we do things. We are born in to our social identity categories. Some of my categories are I was born to the same parents as I have now, with not many changes financially, so I have stayed in the same socioeconomic class all my life. We all follow a path of sorts, a cycle in life that starts the day we are born, but even before that we have our social class, our parents, and even some of our friends all set out for us.
These examples of feral children show how much we learn from the people that surround us. What happens when all of a child’s human exposure gets cut short? When all they have is a family dog or a troop of wild spider monkeys for company? How do they act? In a movie I watched and in an article I read in Mr. Fishers’ 9th grade humanities class called “Feral Children” tells many stories of peculiar children around the world that had been abounded by their families and friends, or banished to the woods by a wicked mother. The children all act like the animals that surrounded them for so many years. One girl from Ukraine was abounded by her parents at a young age with nothing but dogs. The girl was found at age three walking on her hands and knees, barking, howling, and biting and nipping like a dog at the humans that came to retrieve her. The girl only remembered two words, yes and no. The girl had no humans influencing and teaching her how to act like a “normal” human being. She grew up watching dogs interact with other dogs. She was abandoned at such a young age she did not learn social norms. The result of this kind of abandonment leads to one thing, a dog-girl, or a “feral chid.”
Another way we can see the importance of socialization is threw cultural differences. Different social norms accrue all over the world. In most of the smaller countries of the world the average age to get married is 16-20 but in America and England and other major countries in the world the marriage age is 23-25. Today marrying at a young age is fairly widespread in parts of Africa, Asia, Oceania and South America. It is frequently associated with an arranged marriage. In some arranged marriages only one marriage-partner is a child, usually the girl, at the age of 6-10 years old and the partner, usually the guy, is 18-30 years old. See the age difference? Another custom learned by other humans is that most people in the world wear some sort of top and some sort of bottoms for clothing, but in some places like an unidentified tribe discovered three months ago living off the Amazon river (tribe will not give their name yet) wear nothing but piercings, paint, and a thin net-like blanket to keep away harmful insects. The woman of the tribe have some sort of an obsession with fish headdresses. The sociologists studying the tribe believe it’s because of the impact fish has on the mystery tribe. This is their social norm which has not been impacted by our social norms.
People who come from other parts of the world to the US or even just to a different state in the US have to adapt to an unfamiliar culture to fit in to the social norms of that community. In the book "American Born Chinese" by Gene Luen Yang, a young Asian boy comes to a new state after living in San Diego. All of the other kids and teachers expect him to be from China, expect him to eat dog and have other stereotypical Asian qualities. As life goes on he changes physically and mentally into what he sees the other kids in his community doing, he knows how to change by watching them grow up with him. The influence of the social norms have a great impact on him.
In my mask I have a tree stretching from my chin to my forehead with branches stretching over my cheek bones represents the “path” in which every person in every culture goes on in life, all of humanity, and the growth people go through in their life. The children holding hands across my forehead that fades into a yellow light represents the sun as well as other people feeding you in society, like the tree feeds on sun light. When you open my mask you will see a full white mask with the words “What happens when the branches break?” written across the brow in black ink. This represents the wonder of what happens when an event occurs in life that cuts off all exposure to other human beings (cuts off all sunlight to the tree branch) for a long amount of time, and represents the question of what really lies underneath.
The influence of others on me can be seen in a couple ways. I grew up watching my grandfather ride horses at his ranch. When I started getting more involved with horses I understood certain things just by watching him. For example, I knew how to get on and off of a horse by just watching him get on and off his horse. Another example is when I first started to ski I knew that I stood up and went down with the skis on my booted feet. I learned this from just watching my dad and the people that surround me ski. Most of what I know comes from watching others and adapting to social norms.
In my eyes, every person in the world is not just a result of the way other people act that surrounds them. Every person is significant in their own way deep down. Some of a person’s opinions, religion (in some cases) and activities are a result of ones family and friends. But, deep down every one of us is special.
MASK PROJECT REFECTION
Now that I have finished my project, I know that project based learning is different then what I have experiences in the past three years of middle school is that my teachers really teach me. They are really involved with the class. In middle school my teachers would say just get this done, they never said be proud of your work or have fun while you’re doing it like my teachers now do. My school is way closer than my old school, I feel like I’m on a personal level with all of my classmates, were a family. Also the things I have learned in the past five weeks I will never forget. Last year I forgot what we did in the class right after I left that class for the day.
I need to work on refinement, because I get one Idea and it sticks in my mind and I get so excited about it and I don’t want to change anything. I believe project based learning is going to change that, fast.
I’m most proud of the metaphor behind my mask, which is trees depend on sunlight like humans depend on other humans. It’s very natural and organic, like me. I love how my mask turned out physically as well, the tree, the paint and everything came out beautiful. I’m overall very proud of my work.
The piece of my essay that I am most proud of is in paragraph fore it tells about a mystery tribe living off the Amazon river and the young marriages that occur all over the world. I am most proud of this part of my essay because it took extra time and research and I am very interested in everything I learned on my own.
I want to take the errors and understanding in this project with me forever. I want to hold on to all I know about sociology because I have worked so hard to get this far and it’s too much to let go.
I need to work on refinement, because I get one Idea and it sticks in my mind and I get so excited about it and I don’t want to change anything. I believe project based learning is going to change that, fast.
I’m most proud of the metaphor behind my mask, which is trees depend on sunlight like humans depend on other humans. It’s very natural and organic, like me. I love how my mask turned out physically as well, the tree, the paint and everything came out beautiful. I’m overall very proud of my work.
The piece of my essay that I am most proud of is in paragraph fore it tells about a mystery tribe living off the Amazon river and the young marriages that occur all over the world. I am most proud of this part of my essay because it took extra time and research and I am very interested in everything I learned on my own.
I want to take the errors and understanding in this project with me forever. I want to hold on to all I know about sociology because I have worked so hard to get this far and it’s too much to let go.