Individual Autonomy In the article “Individual Autonomy and Social Structure,” by Dorothy Lee, a comparative method is used to understand various cultures in order to resolve conflicts that we experience in our Western society. The key social problem Lee is addressing in this article is the conflict between personal autonomy and cultural framework. She believes that Western culture lacks integrity and human dignity and this can be amended by looking at practices in the Wintu Indians’ culture. This essay will show how social structure and personal autonomy can coexist by examining the Wintu Indians’ language structure. It is difficult to adhere to the American tenets of human dignity in our modern heterogeneous society. Western society has become so engrossed in the concept of personal freedom that we …show more content…
are blind to the real freedom that govern our lives: negative freedom. However, Lee believes that personal autonomy can be preserved with the correct practices. One practice in particular is derived from the Wintu Indians of California. Their language is styled in such a way that the principle of inviolate integrity of the individual remains central. The Wintu Indians speak in a cooperative effort as opposed to the more Wester coercive style.
Where we would say, “The chief ruled the people,” they instead would say, “the chief stood with the people.” (Lee, 8). This manner or speaking gives more of a social edge where it conveys the chief is not a dictator but is instead a party of society in which he gives guidance and seeks what is in the best interest of the community. Also, phrases such as, “I went with the baby,” instead of “I took the baby,” (Lee, 8) conveys human dignity and shows that the tribe does not think of babies as objects, but instead as human beings. Additionally, the Wintu Indians have a profound sense of respect which they show in their language. Instead of saying they own something, they will say they live with it. This shows a loose sense of possession and a strong sense of respect. Even when talking about human beings, they will say, “I live with my sister.” rather than, “I have a sister.” (Lee, 8). A loose sense of possession increases personal autonomy. Everyone in the community is their own person and no one has any rights over anyone. By living like this, everyone is shown respect and
given a sense of autonomy. However, even though the language has such a great emphasis on personal inviolability, it does not mean that the individual is an isolate, as stated by Lee. The language easily conveys empathy among the people. For example, if a boy was sick, the father would use a special form of the verb phrase “to be sick,” and would say, “I-am-sick-in0 respect-of-my-son.” (Lee, 8). The phrase respects the personal autonomy of the son whilst still being there to help him. People from Western culture have a social tendency to phrase sentences in a way which can be mistaken as possessiveness towards other people. If the Western world spoke English the way the Wintu Indians spoke their language, the concept of individual integrity would not be lost among ill-worded phrases. Our language would be friendlier, respectful, appreciation of human dignity and less invading of personal autonomy. Western culture has evolved over time whereas the Wintu Indians’ culture has remained fairly consistent. While we cannot directly apply their practices to our society, we can use their language to enhance our structure. Integrating these language idioms and other permissive practices from various cultures, we will move from a society primarily governed by negative freedom to a more individually autonomous society. This will allow for personal autonomy and social structure to coexist.
Historically, the United States has prided itself as the most egalitarian and autonomous nation in the world. Political figures and institutions have attempted to uphold the theoretical ideals of the nation, while in practice often fail to fulfill their promises to the people. This gap between our fundamental values as delineated in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and our discriminatory practices such as slavery and gender discrimination can be found in competing political ideologies which purposefully exclude marginalized peoples. The framers built the United States for the white man; every other person’s rights came, and continue to come afterwards. Once one people’s freedom is postponed, the same oppressive strategies
In the article “Individual Autonomy and Social Structure”, Dorothy Lee talks about individual autonomy. She goes through the topic by examining different groups such as; the Wintu Indians of California, the Sikh family, the Navaho Indians of Arizona and New Mexico, and the Chinese culture. All of these different groups and societies give personal freedom to the individuals regardless of age groups. The example of Navaho Indians is used by Lee to demonstrate how “personal autonomy is supported by the cultural framework” (Lee, 1959, p.5). She points out the individual autonomy of non-western societies to the individuality of western society. One group gives full independence to an individual while the other does not and puts restrictions in place through some form. She states “...in a heterogeneous society such as ours, and in an era of induced change and speeded temp of living, it has been difficult to implement this tenet in the everyday details of living” (Lee, 1959, p.5). She points out the fast living pace of western society, where the personal autonomy given from the other cultures is lacking.
For this study, researcher classified the cultural identity of the participants as traditional, assimilated, bicultural, or marginalized by how they identified with highly with Indian values, highly with white values, ewally with both, or with none.
More so, this type o view allows Americans to be perceived as being “above the law”, which has caused resentment on the issue of cultural superiority in a socio-economic perspective: “The United States rejects global human rights norms because they embody a different conception of rights—one skewed toward “positive” socioeconomic rights” (Ignatieff, 2005, p.162). This form of American Exceptionalism defines the materialistic view of Americans as neglecting human rights and fair trading policies in corporate dealings around the world. More so, the global business community is forming regional and national alliances to oppose this form of cultural superiority being projected by the
his own life how he wishes, even if it will damage health or lead to
American political culture emphasizes the values of liberty, equality, and democracy. Most of America’s debating is not over whether these issues are important, but how to best go about achieving these ideas. American’s define liberty as freedom, but America believes that liberty should be contained on some levels so they can create a stable society. The definition of freedom is that we can do whatever we want, as long as we do not affect another person’s freedom. American’s want to be able to do what they want, while not affecting someone else. So some rules are set to protect people and create a stable society.
Since the beginning of American history, citizens who resided the country lacked the basic civil rights and liberties that humans deserved. Different races and ethnicities were treated unfairly. Voting rights were denied to anyone who was not a rich, white male. Women were harassed by their bosses and expected to take care of everything household related. Life was not all that pretty throughout America’s past, but thankfully overtime American citizens’ civil liberties and rights expanded – granting Americans true freedom.
Through these two comparison of texts, this shows the cultural differences between two different groups of people. Because of their different cultural groups, getting along became difficult for the two groups. The two texts shows how the settlers treat Indigenous poorly and without regard of respect towards them. Even today much of the settlers living here still regard Indigenous poorly. The history between the two groups still bring tension to each
Indigenous Critical Concepts and ‘The Hollow Men.’” Language In India Apr. 2012: 473+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 21 Jan. 2014.
• AW’s work is deeply rooted in oral tradition; in the passing on of stories from generation to generation in the language of the people. To AW the language had a great importance. She uses the “Slave language”, which by others is seen as “not correct language”, but this is because of the effect she wants the reader to understand.
very American citizen has the same basic rights called civil liberties that is protected under law. Despite this, over the years, America has had many civil liberty issues in which they are denied to some citizens. Susan B. Anthony’s Grave photo, Beyond Vietnam, and Ain’t I a women?, uses persuading pathos, steadfast ethos, and undeniable logic to delinate that while some civil liberty issues in America have been resolved, many have not, making America both a success and failure in terms of improving upon these issues.
Since the dawn of the ages, cultural norms have always been present and have rarely been broken. Culture is what the community as a whole abides by and operates within. However Individual autonomy (or otherwise referred to, as ones independence or freedom) is unequivocally subjected to judgment and social condemnation. Tensions are high solely because an autonomous individual who shows disregard for culture are deemed disrespectful by the community who in turn pass judgment. Predominately, East Asian cultures are the most culturally conformed when in contrast to their counterparts. The country of Japan is a perfect example to analyse – Japanese culture is one of conformity and a heavy emphasis is based on the community’s expectations – such as honour (Benedict, 1946, p162). Japanese communities are based on a socioeconomic hierarchy where employment affects friendship groups and status. A culture such as the United States of America’s is exceptionally opposite to Japan’s, due to, America’s greater number of immigrants. America has the concept of being ‘the land of the free’ (MacLeish, 1977, p93) that emphasises the trait of individual autonomy which migrants found to be a little more difficult than the preconceived notion. All cultures have one trait in common – conformity, the notion of culture is for individuals to think the same and become a group with similar beliefs thus defeating individual autonomy. Though culture is different across all nations, culture indirectly eliminates individual autonomy within the community due to its conformist nature.
Humans have established their own rights in society for many, many years now. However, because some humans differ from the norms that are built in society, they are shunned and denied their rights until they conform to society’s norms. There have been numerous groups of people who have been denied their rights in America. African Americans, immigrants, Native Americans, and gays have been isolated simply because that is the way they were born into this world and others do not find them “normal”. There is another group that has also been mistreated though: people who identify themselves as transgender.
In the very different Zuni and Dobu tribes there is a common theme. The Zuni culture concentrates on the well being of community as a w...
Independence and selfishness are not standards in such communities or tribes, and consequently security results from selfless loyalty towards others in the tribe. This kind of attitude towards others that demonstrates allegiance to one's people is prominent among people such as the Indians in the west.