Individal Differences in Insider Feelings

Who has insider-outsider ? Everyone has them. However, the strength of these kinds of feelings varies a great deal from person to person. Some people have little insider-outsider feeling and do not discriminate at all. Others have very strong insider feelings. They join organizations made up of people interested in criticizing or even harming those they consider outsiders. Sometimes these organizations have speakers who travel around encouraging listeners to discriminate against certain outsiders. They may also print newspaper or pamphlets (sometimes called "hate sheets") containing articles the writers hope will increase insider-outsider feelings.

These are extremes, of course. Most Americans have opinions and feelings somewhere in between. 

Questions about what kind of people tend to have strong insider-outsider feelings are important. so are questions about the causes of such feelings. Better answers to these questions will eventually help to improve human relationship. But what is important at moment are the specific problems which result from these feelings --- the discrimination against certain people.

Following are several case studies and examples of discrimination in America.

As you read each piece, identify

1. The group discriminated against.

2. The problem being created by discrimination.

3. Reasons why the treatment of the outsider is unfair.

Social scientists often conduct surveys and experiments to find out more about discrimination.
In the early summer season several years age, two Northern newspapers carried advertisements for a total 100 different reports. A social scientist, S.L. Wax, tried and experiment. He wrote two letters to ............... 

What Think

Most of Americans believe in equality. They think every person person should have an equal opportunity to get an education and a job. They believe everyone ought to have equal chance to get ahead, should be treated equally by the laws and the courts, and have an equal amount of voting power.

Equality of opportunity and of treatment are American idealism but improved considerably over the last several decades. Laws have been passed which make it illegal to discriminate. In many communities, local leaders have organized programmes to help break down insider-outsider felling. Improved communication and travel have brought people into closer contact with each other. Perhaps most importantly. groups suffering from discrimination have used a variety of methods to call attention to unjust situations

From these kinds of efforts have come improvements, but much remains to be done. Sometimes there is unrecognized discrimination. Sometimes there is deliberate encouragement of insider-outsider feelings by those who hope to profit from it. Most often, there is a great deal of insider-outsider feeling left over from earlier times.

This section will help you look at insider-outsider feelings in America today.

Swedish Family Life, and The problem of Aging in Georgia

Families :

Would you like a  unisex marriage- with husband and wife sharing housework and breadwinning ? I can only report that Swedish wives flourish on it.

They are outward-looking, and a conversation with them is likely to be about their work, hobbies or families. It is scarcely every about what so and so said to offend them, or what women's place in society ought to be.

They are enthusiastic in all kinds of ways. During the three years I lived in Sweden while my husband was working there, I repeatedly heard how much Swedish wives appreciated and enjoyed their families and homes because they were away from them for some of the time in their own careers.

The average Swede, though tall and handsome, doesn't spend much time paying a woman compliments. Perhaps this is because he is quite prepared to threat her as an equal.

When a young couple marry they don't take it for granted that the husband is the breadwinner, and the wife the housekeeper.

They have a flexible approach, sharing out the work and chore in a way which suits them. No one criticizes them if they reverse their traditional roles.

As Katerina, a Swedish wife, explained to me : "Stefan and I have known each other since childhood. We went to same kind of school, and we both trained as dentists, so why should only one of us have a career ?"

A doctor who works in a Child Care Department thought that women had a right to work and to support themselves.

"I can understand a woman who prefers housework to factory work, but I just cannot understand an educated woman who doesn't work."

"When we married I was studying," a woman psychiatrist told me "And, of course, when I qualified, I started to practise," she could not imagine training and then not using her vital skills.

Nor is it only professional women who expect to work. The girl who came to clean my house told me that her husband was a postman.

He's up early, and then he comes home early in the afternoon and looks after the baby while I go out to work."

Increasingly, the Swedish husband accepts that house-hold chores are partly his responsibility.

Marriage in Tarong

Where will he find a wife? what kind of wife? where will her husband come from? What kind of person will he be? What happens if he or she never gets married? these are important questions for most human groups, including the people of Tarong. Because of their importance these questions and their answers control behavior.

Here, William Nydegger describes how a Tarong boy obtains a wife.

When a Tarong boy decides he wants to marry, he calls on his father, another man known to be a good speaker, and several relatives. These people (but not the boy) go to visit the parents of the chosen girl.

The visitors make a formal marriage request. But the girl's parents give only vague answers. The visitors may hint about the property the boy's father will give to the couple. If the girl's parents are interested, they will set a date for another meeting. At that time the girl's answer will be given.

The girl may appear during these meeting and reject the boy. She can say "I am too young." or give some similar excuse. If she does not, it is proof that she is thinking about saying "Yes."

At the second meeting her answer is given. If the answer is "yes," another meeting date is set. They may also immediately start discussing the property and gifts the boy's father will give to the new family. More meetings may be held to settle the marriage contract. A final, short meeting is held to plan the marriage feast.

The bride and groom go through elaborate rituals on their wedding day, beginning with the wedding ceremony in the church in the nearest town. Feasting and dancing last much of the day. Finally everyone meets for the reading of the marriage contract and the transfer of property to the new couple.

The ceremonies end with the two families competing in donating money to the new couple. A large amount of money is usually collected in this way.

1. All Tarong boys and girls know about the procedures leading to a marriage. How might this act as a social control on both boys and girls as they are growing up ?
2. Do you think this type of social control would be more effective for children of wealthy or poor families ? Why /
3. Occasionally Tarong couple will elope and get married without the approval of their parents. Sometimes the parents never accept the marriage. What pennalties might be imposed on the couple ? How would the treat of penalty act as a social control ?

Social Control in Tarong, Philippines

One the island of LUZON in the Philippines, about 190 miles north of Manila, is a rulal barrio covered with paths leading from houses to fields, to rice paddies, to nearby barrios, and between sitios (neighborhood clusters of houses). Most of the houses are built on the tops of ridges, saving the valuable valleys for farming.

Rice if the main food crop. It is raised during the rainy season, from June to autumn. Tobacco is the main cash crop, grown during the dry season. (A cash crop is one that people grow to sell rather than for their own use.) Barrio residents also grow sugar cane, corn, bananas and a variety of vegetables. They raise pigs, chickens and carabao (water buffalo).

Tarong : Tah-wrong

Ilocos : ee-Low-cohs

The written data on Tarong were provided by Dr. Villiam Nydegger, professor of Anthropology, Pennsylvania state University.

"How can a man live if he does not have neighbors to help him?" is a saying which is often heard in Tarong. Dr. Nydegger shows some of the ways in Which Tarong neighbors help one another in their everyday lives. The barrio people have several kinds of cooperative work groups. The most common is the tagnawa, a loosely organized group of men who cooperate for one day. The men do something that is too difficult for one man to do alone, like building a house or leveling land.

The kompang is a group of about six to eight men who regularly work neighboring farmland. They are usually kin, neighbors, or good friends. This group does heavy field work, such as repairing dikes after a flood. They go from one man's field to another's spending a day at each until the work is done.