Food- Trattoria Centrale

Another opportunity for a culture blog experience came as a surprise to me without planning it ahead of time. After leaving Sojourns fair trade store, I walked down the street to look around and find somewhere to eat lunch. I was really hungry, so I stopped at the first place that looked decent and would keep me from starving. The restaurant was small and bustling with noise. As I took my place in line I realized that this would be a new experience for me.

The name of the restaurant was Trattoria Centrale (I found out after some research that it used to be called ZaZa Trattoria) and they offer traditional Italian dishes. I recognized that I was in a new environment after looking at the menu and seeing choices such as linguine, risotto, and arugula salad, and I felt very out of place, not having a clue what any of the stuff was.

I did see one thing that I was familiar with, pizza. I decided that I couldn’t go wrong with traditional Italian pizza, and I was correct. The entrée was also served with a green salad, and unlike what I am usually used to, there was no ranch dressing in sight. The salad was topped with a light vinaigrette, a taste that was very new to me, but I wouldn’t say it was particularly bad.

Another thing that I have become aware of when eating at non American cuisine restaurants is the idea of portion control. Here at this restaurant, and others offering foreign food, I have been given a soft drink in a can. If you are eating at a traditional American chain food establishment, they fill up your glass just as soon as you can drink it. Habits such as these have led to behaviors which in turn cause the high rates of obesity in our country.

Also, it is interesting to see how our “Americanized” version of foreign foods varies so much from the actual authentic food. The pizza from Trattoria Centrale was very different than that of Pizza Hut and Dominoes, and actually a lot better. Individual slices were on display to choose from, and then as you placed you order, each slice was cooked separately. This kept an entire pizza from going to waste; only cooking the pieces that were actually going to be ate. Unlike American pizza, it was not greasy, and the crust was fresh bread. Inside the restaurant, I noticed people cutting their pizza with a fork and knife, and decided that this was the norm, and stopped eating my pizza with my hands.

I thought it was interesting how a culture blog experience could come out of the blue, and it made me realize how much other cultures are present in our daily lives.

Global Connections- Sojourns Fair trade Store

Last week I had a chance to visit Sojourns, a fair trade store in downtown Birmingham. On my way there, I began to think about what the term “fair trade” actually means. Fair trade deals with ensuring that those who produce goods are paid a just amount for their time and effort.
In our society, we constantly want to get more for less, no matter what the cost may be to other people. In many developing countries, people are taken advantage of and forced to work in terrible conditions, for long hours, and paid very little. People in these situations really have no other option because they are desperate for the money in order to survive.
This type of store exhibits the key factors of a market exchange, where goods and services are bought and sold through standardized currency. Due to our world becoming smaller and smaller, globalization has occurred and we are all becoming interconnected. This creates a bigger gap between those who have, and those who do not.
Another thing that I noticed while in the trade store was that so many things were intricately made and it was obvious that hard work and time had been invested to make one item. Now that machines and factories are frequently used for everything, something this delicate and time consuming can be replicated and duplicated so quickly that the price is driven down due supply and demand rules. We lose appreciation for tokens from a culture as they become just another trinket in a chain souvenir shop.
I believe that the mission of the fair trade store is to remember that every product we use can be traced back to an actual human being, and we often lose that point. It really helps to be able to put a face to a story, and have a tangible item as proof of their work. In the store, there are stories posted of people who make the products, where they are from, and how fair trade has impacted their lives.
It was very encouraging to see actual benefits that come from more people in America being aware that their choices as consumers can influence how businesses treat their employees. While we often focus on making the next dollar, and have profit as the main goal, we cannot overlook the lives of those involved in the process.

Religon- Grill the Muslim

The Muslim Student Association hosts a week of events on campus to celebrate their own culture and expose the public to their religion. One of these events was “Grill the Muslim,” an information session and Q&A that allows people to learn more. While I did learn a lot about something very foreign to me, I also felt a sense of alienation while at the event. I was in the minority group in attendance, which is something that I do not experience frequently, and allowed me to understand how minorities involved in everyday life must feel.

Throughout the evening I noticed many things that are different from my own religion. Although this experience was not exactly a ritual, some behaviors mirrored what they would do during a ritual. I noticed that as people entered, the young men and women (who I assume are students at UAB) were all very social with one another but when they sat down, the separation between male and female was obvious. Genders only mixed when they were older couples. Also all of the informants who spoke about Islam were male. It seems that leadership positions within this culture and only for men.
We were briefly introduced to Islam and terms within it. Then, the speaker read from the Qur’an. I had never heard someone speak Arabic before, and it almost seemed melodic in the way he read, almost like a song. They explained the role of prophets in their religion. I was surprised to hear the mention of Jesus, and reverence toward him. Because I have never had any encounters with Muslims, I assumed that they all hated and went exactly opposite of Christianity. Muslims believe that Jesus was a prophet, but not the son of God and that all the glory was placed on him by men, not by God.

I also learned that Allah is the same thing as God to us, and that they just call it a different name. Another difference is that Muslims believe faithfully in Muhammad, the prophet who received the first revelation, organized the early church, and developed the Qur’an. Also, they believe that people should dress as modestly as possible, especially women, who should only show the face and hands. I did notice, however, that as the generations go on, more and more girls are choosing to dress in western attire instead of their traditional garb.

I was a little leery to attend at first, I was really glad that I decided to attend. While I felt a little out of my comfort zone, but that is the point of the culture blog. I was able to learn a lot about a culture that I am constantly around, but never knew anything about. I think that events like this are a good idea because it creates an environment where everyone can come to learn more, and I would have liked to see more people in attendance. If people took an effort to learn more about those who are different from them, acceptance and coexistence might be a little easier.

Global Connections- My trip to the Dominican Republic

A week ago I returned from the Dominican Republic and I feel like I just now have had time to take the whole experience all in. While it was my fourth visit to the island nation, every time it touches me in a new way and captures my heart. From the time I step off the plane, it is obvious that things are different. Things that we take for granted, such as clean drinking water and reliable electricity are scarce there. This is mostly due to the corruption within the government that prevents progress on public works.

Spending this week in their culture really allows me to become a participant observer because I experience life on a daily basis in the same way they do. Many people visit the Dominican Republic as a tourist and never leave the gates of the all inclusive resorts, but drive only a few minutes away from the beaches and crystal clear waters and you will find the poverty that the majority of people live in.

The amazing thing is to see how happy the people are despite their dire situation. The entire way of life is different. There is no concept of doing things on a schedule or being on time. Many times, Americans can get frustrated with this idea, but you must use cultural relativism to understand the things that are most important to those people in that culture. This trip has so many aspects that we discuss in my Anthropology 101 class that I could go on for pages, but I will discuss a few.

The purpose of the trip is a medical mission trip, and for this trip I traveled with a group of three doctors and a dentist into the campo (countryside) each day to set up temporary medical clinics. We had a group of translators that would go with us to assist, and this allowed me to see firsthand the differences in language. Even though the translators had studied and practiced English thoroughly, their native tongue was still overbearing. When speaking about his family he would say “mudder” and “fadder” because in he was raised without the phones of the sound –th. This is just one of numerous examples.

Their food getting methods also differ very much from ours. While some fast food chains do exist, most of the poor citizens cannot afford to eat there. All over the countryside are fields filled with plantains, rice, wheat, pineapples, and other crops. Not only does this allow for healthier food, but is the way that many Dominicans make their living. Women have many children, and it is not viewed as socially unacceptable or unusual for a girl to begin her family at 15 or 16. While men are out working in the field, women stay closer to home taking care of children, cooking, and tending to the home. Gender roles tend to follow the expected norm in this country, although there is a new revolution of young girls becoming educated and receiving employment instead of staying home. With every trip it seems that the Dominican tends to exhibit influences from America and other more developed countries.
I have attached the video that I made which contains all my pictures from the trip. This country and the people have captivated me. I look forward to going back and this experience has made me even more interested in a career in Public Health. While there are so many things that I can do to help them, I feel that I also learn so many things from them.

Diversity and Culture- LGBT Dialogue Session

Recently in class I attended a Safe Zone Dialogue Session which highlighted the lives of those in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trans gender community. For me, this was a very enlightening experience because I have never had many personal experiences with individuals such as these, or so I thought. Within our session we had two panelists, one a student here at UAB who is gay, and another who is an academic adviser at UAB who is a lesbian.
I was able to connect a lot of topics discussed in the dialogue group with concepts learned in my anthropology class. Before understanding these ideas, I really thought that someone’s sex and gender was the same thing, and to me it was simply a box that you fill in on standardized tests and really didn’t have much meaning beyond that. However, I learned otherwise. Sex is the determination of whether something is male or female. As humans, we have the need to put it in either one box or the other. Gender is the way that sex is interpreted and expected to behave. Sexual identity is orientation, defining yourself as gay, straight, bisexual, transgender, lesbian or any other category that may exist.
Gender is something that is socially and culturally constructed, and this concept was reinforced by the student panelist from our session. While his college friends and even his siblings knew that he was gay, he had not come out to his parents yet, and addressed the fact that his father would probably exhibit some feelings of disappointment. It had never occurred to me the stereotypes that we place on certain genders within society. Males are expected to be athletic and tough, and any male who exhibits interest in arts or is emotional is automatically labeled as being gay, even if they are not.
I was interested to learn that in different cultures, who are more primitive than America and have to forage or hunt for their food, duties are often divided based on the woman’s physical abilities and need to be able to child rear while performing a task. While the men may conduct the more laborious work, the food gathered by the women often accounts for more of the caloric value. This shows that although men are often labeled as providers, women are also a vital role in survival of the community. Because of these differences, each instance of gender roles is culturally relative.
Also, I was able to exercise the practice of cultural relativism in this situation, which means understanding another culture on its own terms. Having never really been in contact with anyone with a sexual orientation different from my own, I was not even familiar on terms that were acceptable and those that would be offensive. I felt that this experience allowed me so much insight into a world that is often very disconnected from the general public.

III. Economics, Different Political and Class Ideologies

UAB offers a program on campus called “Free Food 4 Thought.” The purpose of this program is to give students and faculty within the community a chance to talk about a variety of topics, many dealing with lifestyles and cultures. In exchange for your opinion, you receive a free, and might I say, tasty, lunch.
The particular session that I attended was entitled “Are you willing to pay for Someone Else’s Health Insurance?” When I heard the topic of discussion, I must admit that I was expecting an hour of constant argument from people. Due to the healthcare reform issues currently being undertaken in Washington, and the subsequent gridlock resulting from disagreement on what to do to solve the problem, I assumed that the session would be much like the example we are shown from our political leaders; lots of talking around the dilemma without actually accomplishing anything.
We began the hour by participating in an interactive survey that polled the audience on a variety of questions dealing with healthcare in America. I was very surprised to find that when asked if access to quality healthcare at an affordable rate should depend on the number of hours a person works, the majority of those attending selected no. I think that this shows how the media can skew our perception of reality.
A film, “A Pound of Debt” was shown, which highlighted the struggles of local people from Birmingham who are struggling to make it on their meager wages, and due to either the nature of work they do or the hours they work, do not receive any type of benefits such as medical coverage. I had never considered how artists and others working independently could face a problem such as this. Also, in the hard economic times, many employers are not offering full-time positions, which leaves the unemployed in a situation where they must take the available job but it results in their being a gap in coverage.
To me, I feel that this situation within American society (or any other in that matter) can be described as an example of applied anthropology, where the study focuses on a problem based approach, and attempts to solve a questions to better society. In order for this to be most effective, one must investigate a culture’s multiple systems and understand how they are interrelated. For this reason, it is very hard to find a quick fix to such a complicated issue. I think that if our politicians were to take an Anthropology class, maybe they could understand the problem more clearly and be able to determine a more appropriate action plan.

Ethnic Foods

After reviewing the available topics and surveying the qualifying locations, of course the ethnic foods category stood out to me the most. I decided to visit Mr. Chen’s Chinese restaurant in Hoover. I have always eaten at the traditional “Americanized Chinese” restaurants. I was interested to see what true Chinese cuisine was like. Some preconceived notions that I went into this experience with were the fact that Chinese food consisted of different sorts of chicken (orange, sesame, general Tso’s ect) and rice and vegetables, because, only going to chain franchises this is the idea that you get. For the culture blog assignment it suggested that we try the basil pig leg. I don’t think I quite understood what I was getting myself into by ordering these but I figured “what the heck might as well try it.” I asked the waiter to describe the dish to me. He told me that it was made using the feet of the pig, and that it was cooked using several herbs including soy cooked just long enough to tenderize the skin. I found it interesting when he told me that the Chinese like to use all parts of the animal in order to not waste anything. I must admit that at first thought eating pig feet seemed a little disturbing but when I considered this fact I was able to understand the culture in its own terms, using cultural relativism. It must have been obvious that I was out of place because several waiters and even the cook came out to confirm with me that I was sure that I really wanted to eat the pig feet. One young lady explained to me that it is a popular dish with native Chinese but that they rarely have any Americans request it. Until my dad reminded me, I had forgotten that many people here in the south eat pickled pig’s feet on a regular basis, so in a way this dish could be found similar to one in my own culture. Another interesting thing that I noticed during my experience was that when I ordered my drink, the waitress brought me a can of diet coke instead of a glass filled from a soda fountain. I assumed that this act goes along with their norms of not wasting any beverages by constantly refilling a glass. This is certainly different than another other American cuisine restaurant that I have visited. I feel that my first experience using participant observation was a very informative and successful one. I was able to immerse myself in another culture and remove my opinion on the culture long enough to truly learn something new about them directly from the source. By gaining an emic view, I can now override my assumptions and understand more about people who are different from me.