Bumble: post class 3/18

Shared cultures or understandings can unite people. The idea of Barthes that mythologies or stories are these shared perceptions of a word or an experience is seen in every day life! When you meet someone and start talking about things you used to do in your childhood, sometimes a movie called “We sing in silly-Ville” would come up. If the other person knew that movie, suddenly there was such a connection between us and we were instantaneous best friends. I know that my baby sisters who watch their shows have a different understanding of whats cool to watch versus what was cool for us to watch.

Ideologies are clearly unconscious, and the best way to realize them is to be in a different country where a cultural norm is very different from a cultural norm in our culture. The greatest example of this was a trip my father went on to India. My father is a big runner and every morning he runs about 7 or 8 miles. It is his daily routine for fitness, and mental awareness, and of course the adrenaline rush. It was a morning in Bombay when he started running; he was doing his usual thinking and breathing when all of a sudden about 10 men in their rickshaws start chasing after him. Some are on their rickshaw bicycles; some are in their rickshaw cars. All of them were yelling stop! Stop! Get In Get In!! What my father did not know before that day, (which he quickly learned) was that in India you run or exercise if you need to go somewhere. You never ever move if you do not have to. When this happened in India there was no such thing as a leisurely run for enjoyment. All of the men on their Rickshaws assumed because of their cultural ideologies that he needed to get somewhere. They all tried asking, “Where are you going?” He was thoroughly confused at first and responded, just on a run. The baffled looks and lack of understanding is that cultural difference of ideologies of a simple thing like a jog.


In response to the issue of abnormal or normal behavior, this happens a lot on a daily basis regarding food. Everyone grows up eating different things and trying different food combinations. During Passover one year at Rollins College, I was serving myself some matzo ball soup and had at least 5 people stare at it in disgust. WHAT IS THAT!!? It is so easy to forget that eating certain types of foods (particularly culturally defined food) is not natural but is a learned and solidified thing. I initially reacted in shock that they had never even seen it before, this is because where I am from it is such a cultural standard. A deli has matzo ball soup. At first I was offended but then I realized that they had simply not been exposed to this type of food and what a great opportunity to expose them to a different ideology!