Space and Organization (Ch.2 pg 74-75)

Part 1: How I Would Draw the Uof R....
Part 2: After driving around campus, how is the space organized?

I am a sophomore at the University of Redlands and I live off campus. I have lived off campus for both years but I have spent a lot of time on before I attended this school. My dad used to work at the school and I basically grew up on campus, but I really only went to the School of Music and the Commons. You would think that my map of the campus would be pretty accurate, but trust me…it wasn’t.
Since I have started my education at the University I haven’t spent as much time on campus. I tend to just come to my classes, go to the library, and maybe the commons, and then go home. I noticed that when I made my map the largest parts were the spaces where I took my classes and have spent time, otherwise the spaces on my map were small or non existent. I realized this when walked around the campus after class one day.
While I was walking around campus I saw the divisions of work vs. leisure. I noticed that all of the work or class were around the campus while the leisure such as the commons and the dorms were at the center of the campus. The leisure places were the most populated at the time when I walked around campus, the work was quiet while the leisure was loud, and the while the work was not as friendly as the atmosphere of the leisure.
I also realized the separations of different categories of people on campus. The students were at the center of the campus while the faculty was around the edges. I saw a larger population of the females in the library then of males, that could be due to the school demographic. I noticed that more men were walking from the gym than women but there were still women at the gym. I didn’t see any real gender separations throughout the campus.
The faculty of the university is also separated through space. They are separated from their students, their offices are in a certain area of the building. They are also separated from the student workers in the library, they have their own large desks while student worker’s are smaller. I also noticed that the clerical workers of the university are separated from the teachers, they all generally share an office with each other and are at the front of the building than at the back.
I felt that I had a large amount of freedom moving throughout these space but a different amount if I wanted to interact with these spaces. I had to show my ID to use the library, to talk to a worker I would have had to be invited into their space, I felt awkward walking throughout campus by myself, I felt as though I wasn’t a part of the campus community, which effected my perception of the space.
Space at the university is also categorized by activity. All of the buildings of the same subject were grouped together. All of the sciences were grouped together at one end of the campus while music was on the other side. Every building has its own name and its own subject. The commons are categorized by everyday life and the dorms are categorized by personal space and social life.
The thing that made me think about space the most were the sorority and fraternity houses. As I drove past them I got this feeling that they weren’t part of the campus, that they were their own little private community. Their placement is on the very outskirts of campus and I didn’t see a lot of students there. I saw flyers for events going on at the house but they felt very exclusive, as if you had to know someone to go there. I felt that the small campus felt very inclusive but the way that the sorority and fraternity houses are placed in space they feel very exclusive. Since I don’t live on campus it was interesting to see how the university is organized by space and how my perception changed after I took the time out to walk the whole campus.

Myth and Magic

[Based on the reading "Magic, Science, and Religion" By Bronislaw Malinowski]

Malinowski states that there are three kinds of stories in primitive cultures that have different meanings and purposes. A fairytale, which is told by a certain person at a certain time, is a story for entertainment. The person is judged by how they told it and to what accuracy they told it. This story has no real meaning to the tribe other than entertainment. The second form of story is legend. The legend is a true story of something that is ordinary to he tribe and explains to most what is coming up in their life. Legends are told at anytime and are mainly told by elders to younger tribesman. The third and most valuable story to the tribe is the myth. The myth is thought to be a true story that focuses on things such as origin, magic, life and death, ect. It forms the cultural beliefs and norms you would see if you were observe the tribesman.

Malinowski believes that "myth is believed to be the real cause which has brought about the moral rule, the social grouping, the rite,or the custom" (pg. 108)of the tribal culture. He focuses on the impact of myth on culture through examining the myth of origin, the myth of life and death, and the myth of magic. These myths were created in order to give reason to the experiences they face in everyday life. Myths are seen mainly in ceremonies, traditions, and social customs. Malinowski believes that we can not understand a tribal myth without understanding and experiencing the tribe itself. We are not able to understand the myth in text without seeing the effect of the myth in person. An example he uses is the myth of magic. which is used to "bridge over the gaps and inadequacies in highly important activities not yet completely mastered by man" (pg. 140) This gives us a great example of how myths affect their social customs and everyday life through gardening, fishing, ect. They always do a certain chant or spell before they engage in certain activities.

In the conclusion of Malinowski's writing he states that after examining a more primitive culture "we may be able to gain a new sense of proportion with regard to our own institutions, beliefs, and customs." (pg. 145) I began to examine the myths in my culture and came to realize that the myths in U.S. society is entirely based on religion. With that we have looked more at the myths in society as symbolic with morals at the end and such that we don't take them as true instances that occurred. Some believed the stories happened but from what I feel myths in society are more for interpretation and symbolism rather that pure fact.

In examining the magic of the more primitive culture I gathered that they truly believed in magic, that if magic wasn't used their society wouldn't have justified things such as life and death. In the U.S. society I believe that magic is used more as an entertainment factor, something that we can use are imagination to play with, that children believe and as they grow up realize it was false. I feel as though in society magic has been replaced by science, the tribes used magic to explain phenomenons while now we generally try to use science. I thought reading about these myths was interesting and I do agree wit Malinowski that "myth conveys much more to the native than is contained in the mere story; that the story only gives the the really relevant concrete local differences; that the real meaning, in fact the full account, is contained in the traditional foundations of social organizations."

Introduction

Hi!
My name is Chelsea and I am a Sophmore at the University of Redlands. I am a Psychology major with a minor in Sociology. During this class I am interested to learn about the many symbols that an objet can hold in a culture that I would have never noticed without having the discussions and assignments that I am going to participate in, in this course. So....this is my blog of what I find interesting and notice in everyday life as I start thinking more like an anthropologist.