Norms -

In class over the last week or so, we've been talking about our social "norms". We talked about the classifications of the different types of norms that we have. Things like folkways, taboos, and mores, are all things that we know exist in our culture, but we aren't really sure how to define them. For example, something that our culture classifies as a Folkway, is something like eating with your hands. Now, in our culture, we do say that certain foods are okay to eat with your hands, but in general, we see eating with your hands as something that is uncivilized. In class we also talked about the general ways in which our culture interacts. For example, the pace of life. The expectations we have for our fellow citizen and so on. We have a mind set of that "go go go" personality and we can't help it. When we are asked to just relax, we can't do it. This was proven to me while doing the homework assignment where we literally had to do nothing. No thinking, moving, watching, etc. was allowed. As Americans, we are constantly thinking. If our body isn't in motion, our mind is. We can't stand to be int he present. We have to be planning or reminiscing about the past. We cannot simply be.