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2700:2025:6 [2025/03/30 15:20] – [Every action sends a message. Everyday life is a conversation.] Ryan Schram (admin)2700:2025:6 [2025/04/28 01:18] (current) – [How do you define normal?] Ryan Schram (admin)
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 **Other reading:** Hendriks (2023); Shange (2019) **Other reading:** Hendriks (2023); Shange (2019)
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 +===== A bold assertion. What do we make of it? =====
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 +> [J]eans wearing cannot be assimilated within the implicit assumption of normativity that has been the foundation of anthropology for most of its history and that remains an implicit device even within theories of practice. (Miller 2010, 426)
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 +==== What should anthropology say about being "ordinary"? ====
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 +* The most important paradigms in anthropology assume on some level that social order has a normative aspect, and that social actors operate in relation to rules and rule-like ideas. Do we agree?
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 +* If Miller's jeans-wearers are representative of social actors in general, then people seem to be oriented toward being "ordinary," and that presumes a standard or model of "normal." What does the presence of that standard mean for a theory of society?
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 ===== A story from Portland, Oregon ===== ===== A story from Portland, Oregon =====
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 ===== How do you define normal? ===== ===== How do you define normal? =====
  
-  * The people in the Portland coffeshop were saying themselves “We’re normal.”+  * The people in the Portland coffeshop were saying to themselves “We’re normal.”
   * Orokaiva people are normal human beings because they aren’t like //ejeba// people, //ol waitman//.   * Orokaiva people are normal human beings because they aren’t like //ejeba// people, //ol waitman//.
   * Workers at Signature Fashions think of themselves as middle-income people, neither rich nor poor.   * Workers at Signature Fashions think of themselves as middle-income people, neither rich nor poor.
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 A: [serious, solemn] Oh… um, excuse me, Your Holiness. I am honored to be in your presence. A: [serious, solemn] Oh… um, excuse me, Your Holiness. I am honored to be in your presence.
  
-==== Obligatory reference to a classic early-aughts “wireless” ad tauting the company’s great cellular coverage area ====+==== Obligatory reference to a classic early-aughts “wireless” ad touting the company’s great cellular coverage area ====
  
-“Jimbo” [Cingular Wireless]. 2006. BBDO. https:%%//%%www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0pL_CsK3Dk.+“Jimbo” [Cingular Wireless]. 2006. BBDO. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0pL_CsK3Dk.
  
 Cingular has no dropped calls. You don’t have to worry that a long pause means you said something stupid to a future in-law. Cingular has no dropped calls. You don’t have to worry that a long pause means you said something stupid to a future in-law.
2700/2025/6.1743373207.txt.gz · Last modified: 2025/03/30 15:20 by Ryan Schram (admin)