Entry 1: Nature and the Social

First blog entry....WAHOOOO! 

I'm not a huge blogger, so bear with me. I'm really pleased with this class so far and impressed with the book. With that said, onto Nature and the Social. 

As I was reading the book and other material, it reminded me of a ton of the Anthropology class I took last year. My class spent a lot of time discussing behavior, and whether it was biological or cultural. One example that stuck with me was the question Professor Palmer raised while talking about natural behavior v. learned behavior: if smiling is a learned behavior, why do blind babies smile? Well, after substantial arguing, we determined although smiling may seem like a natural behavior, something must make one smile, and without that stimulant, one would not smile. So smiling is technically learned, but not necessarily uniform in how it is learned. Kind of a tangent, but every time I hear nature v. nurture (or what have you), I think of that class. 

Talking about social foundations was interesting...the predisposition to engage with other humans is particularly fascinating. When I babysit young children, I've observed how attentive and alert they are to everything I do: they make constant eye contact and learn incredibly fast. That sponge-like learning is so cool...it makes me wish my parents taught me a different language when I was younger. Two of my best friends, Haye (pronounced "Hi-ya") and Siyi ("C"), are bilingual, and it makes me very jealous.

(Haye is on the far right and Siyi is directly to his left.)

Haye moved from Holland when he was ten and is fluent in Dutch. Siyi was born in China, but moved before she was one; however, she still speaks Chinese at home, though she seldom will in front of me. 

Another thing I though about was social construction of reality, and how literally EVERYTHING around us is constructed from human projections of reality...it really trips me up. 

Side-note: the device the director holds in his hand in this clip of the The Truman Show reminds me of an Ipad.

That's all for now!