SLFK 212, February 5, 2004
Human beings like order, need order
Human beings, in fact all creatures, like order
You mess with their sense of order, they get very unhappy
Comfort in knowing where something will be when you want it
Comfort of a routine and difficulty of changing sleeping and eating patterns, times
What is the pleasure in playing Solitaire? If not to establish order
The pleasure of rocking, knitting, petting an animal
Conversely - displeasure when things are out of order
Someone takes your usual seat
Kids put dishes away in the wrong place
Roommate puts toilet paper in upside down
Supermarkets changing things around - to get you to slow down, notice things and buy more
But risk reaction of anger, perhaps less so in American which is the land of the new and improved than elsewhere
New and different is part of our sense of order
America is the land of the new and improved
If people didn't try to new and improve things all of the time, that would be changing American order and you would think that something is wrong
To have a sense of order, you need to establish categories
Categories imply boundaries and, indeed, people are into boundaries big-time
Property boundaries
State, nation
City and county and debate about these
Property that you own, and the division between your house and your neighbors
What you mow, even if there is no fence
City and personal jurisdiction in case you have a sewer problem
Applies to animals too - wolves and pee lines
Marking territory
For both animals and humans - the power of the boundary
Wolves won't cross pee lines and neighbors stay in their yards
People will obey the queues in airports and post offices
Velvet divider
Time boundaries
Hunting season
Legal drinking age, driving age
Cat and lunch time
These boundaries may or may not have something to do with biology, physical circumstances
State line may follow a geographic feature, like river, but it need not do so
Virginia/North Carolina border, versus Virginia/West Virginia
Same with your back yard
Time - drinking, driving age determined by maturity? Some people much more mature than others
And drinking age differs from state to state
Statutory rape - in Ann Landers: boy 17 and girl 15. They have sex and it is okay, even with the parents. He becomes 18. It is now statutory rape
Does this age have to do with sexual maturity? Mental maturity? Yes and no.
Categories apply not only to time and space, though when you don't have the option of drawing a line, the boundary of the category is harder to see
Douglas examines dirt and she examines permitted and prohibited foods
What she finds is:
Dirt is matter out of place (where biology may or may not be a factor)
Prohibited foods are foods that are category breakers (same relation to biology)
Let us look at what is and isn't dirty and what you would and wouldn't eat
Gum - pre- and post-chewed
Would you take in mouth? Would a little kid? Would you touch?
Underwear - clean or dirty?
What about underwear (just washed and nice and clean kept in freezer)
Come home, toss jacket over the back or a chair versus toss socks worn that day over a chair. What is the difference?
What about spit?
Would you touch a goober on a desk in the classroom?
But it is fine while in the mouth
Moms use it to clean kids
It is a disinfectant - animals lick selves and wounds, too
Tendency to stick cut, banged finger in mouth - natural reaction and biologically sound
Volkswagen "claim your Volkswagen" ad
What about pee? Would you touch it?
Would you pee in the shower and would you use a shower than someone else had peed in?
Would you drink pee or put it on your face?
Extract of urea as a humectant
Urine as a cure for sty in the eye
Dog pee used as hair bleach
Would you touch poop?
Adobe bricks with horse manure in them
Horse poop patties used as fuel
Is America a clean and sanitary country?
What is clean or unclean depends on culture
And hopefully you question some of the things you consider clean
Living in Iavorivka
We would consider unclean (Baba Polia and the dirty glass)
But everyone was healthy
Conversely, what we consider clean may not be so
Already mentioned the chicken legs, Bushovye nozhki
What about Legionnaire's disease?
Radon poisoning in hermitically sealed American homes?
What about increased allergy problems in children?
What about American swimming pools versus swimming in the rather muddy stavok?
The American diaper rule in the pool
Problems with teeth among kids who use Frye Springs pool
Look at food:
Would you eat insects?
Insects are actually very good for you and considered a delicacy in many cultures
Various organ meats?
The stuff on Fear Factor, Survivor
Question of TEXTURE
Raw oysters
And reactions to slime
Honey and little kid in Douglas
Lover's tears versus snot
Okra slime and stringy cheese on pizza
The Gak phenomenon and Smell my Gak
Studynets
Iskembe
Salo - American prohibitions on fat
American fear of fat - low fat cookies, some of which have more calories than regular cookies (but no fat)
Olestra - the oil that "may cause anal leakage"
All things that are outside of category, be they boundary-crossers or category-breakers, are anomalous
What do you do with an anomaly?
Label - one or the other
Physical control - kill something that does not fit
Avoid
Label dangerous
Use in ritual - for power
You can claim that something is not anomalous at all
It may look really strange, or smell or taste really strange
Everybody has used the example of the deformed children
But what about the diaper example above?
When you are dealing with strange and anomalous things, there are often fights about labels and attempts to make labels that INCLUDE rather than EXCLUDE, usually on the part of the anomalous individuals or their advocates
Handicapped individual
Special needs children
Special needs people
You don't call it institutionalizing any more
Live in group homes
People are often afraid of these and avoid
Even old age homes
These people are not really functional and they are not really ill
So, what are they?
They are not sick or contagious or dangerous that way
They are no physical threat whatsoever
Yet people often avoid old age facilities
Feel repulsion, if not fear
Russian attempts to identify so that you can label and avoid
When we get to external and internal dangers, you will see that Russian society has few internal lines
This being the case, it is hard to tell who is a witch and who is not
Who has evil eye and who does not
Various ways to identify witches, usually in church
Labeling sexual predators
Physically control
The segregation of "special" people in group homes, old folks in old age homes
Students as anomalous - adults and not
University versus parent versus individual responsibility
Physically limit them: live in dorms
No car first year
Certain sections of town that rent to students
Avoidance of above
Lots of people won't go to group homes and just talked about neighbors and students
Dangerous - students will wreck your neighbor
Vomit on lawn and pee on bushes
And lower your resale value
Use in ritual
Maybe not sexual predators
But people from various homes above
See Dogwood parade
Various people with real, political power parade down the street and are applauded, and so are various people from these various homes
In ritual you will eat stuff you normally avoid - like fat
Loving Cup at UVA graduation - though gone now
And you would do things you normally consider dirty
Kissing strangers at New Years
Bat boy as an anomaly