After talking about space for the past week I began to observe how different cultures feel about personal space. I realized that all of my friends and I give each other hugs when we see each other but when we meet new people we generally don’t even shake their hands unless it is an adult or a formal introduction. When I went over to my boyfriend’s friend’s house the other night everyone gave me a hug, they sat close to me and when the spoke to me they stood very close. This was a very close Mexican family that my boyfriend had grown up with. I felt as though my personal space was being invaded at some points, but I realized that they just had a difference sense of personal space than I did.
After thinking about this topic I thought about the Arabic household that I have visited quite often. They seem to be the extreme opposite where personal space is much larger than mine. I remember my friends little sister was crying and talking to me and she thought it was weird that I gave her a hug, especially in front of others. The parents were quiet and straight faced as she was crying and consoled her with words and no visible affection. I felt as though I invaded her personal space now. It’s hard to judge other peoples personal space and I think that’s why in America we are not very touchy feely people.
I have always been told to keep distant of people until I am very close emotionally with them. I have never really given someone I just met a hug unless they give me one first. As children we have always observed adults shaking hands and being formal and I think we internalized that. We have internalized our own personal space and have not only made it a “bubble” around you but physical spaces.
As I was younger my personal space was just the space around me, now that I am older my personal space as grown to physical places, such as my room, my car, and my office. I realized this when we made our maps in class. Personal space is important in our society and after reflecting on this I saw how much our culture keeps people at a certain distance with our personal space. I think it determines who are friends and family are, who we trust, who we love, it represents a lot about who we let into our personal space.
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Yes, we can certainly read kin and friend "closeness" through spatial analysis, and then also how we are interpreted if we have different spatial practices -- being formal for example, in a "friend" interaction can be jarring if one expects friends to be different.
ReplyDeleteAlso interesting on how we expand our personal space to include physical spaces.