Human Interest

The removal of an historical statue, is a broader reflection of what the population of a particular place is thinking. Who a people choose to honor, is a statement of the ideals they hope to espier to. For many people in South Africa, Cecil Rhodes is a symbol of racist colonial tendencies. You can not separate Rhodes from the age of western imperialism. He was one of the leading figures in the scramble for Africa in the late 19th century. In the United States we have seen a similar push to remove statues of historical figures with connections to slavery and racism. Many have called for the removal of statues honoring confederate leaders such as Jefferson Davis or Robert E Lee. The push has even spread to figures beyond those directly connected to the confederacy. The democratic party has removed the names of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson from there annual party dinners. There connections with slavery and Native American treatment are just too much for some outraged democrats to handle. I am uneasy about the removals of these statues. History can never be erased. It is futile, to even attempt to do such a thing. Historical figures should be judged by the context of the times in which they lived. It is unfair to judge Thomas Jefferson by the standards of our modern age  society. The overt political correctness is troubling to say the least. It is a whitewash of history.

Even though this is just an info-graphic, this is very interesting. What we can see from this map is the spatial organization of religion specifically in the U.S. It's interesting to see how protestant makes up the majority (but apparently not according to the article above this from Haak's page) and how drastically these views can change from coast to coast, and state to state. What I find particularly interesting is that you can clearly find hearths of many of these religions, for example, Utah has an extremely out-numbering amount of Mormons. For obvious reasons that is, but still very educational to see the centers of many of the big religions in the United States.

Looking at the map, it looks like the Northeast is predominately Catholic while the further South you go along the Eastern coast, you find more Protestants, mostly Evangelical, especially in the from Confederate States. The Mid and Northwest seems to hold a healthy mix of all the Christian denominations while places in the Southwest have a higher Catholic percentage, my guess would be from immigration from Mexico. The one odd ball out in the Southwest is Utah with its 58% of Mormons.

Different cultural religions and senses of place in America. This graph shows the diversity of religion around the united states as it varies from place to place. 

How about "cross-polination" and "cross-fertilization" in cultures?

unit 3

Unit 3

Unit 3 Cultural Patterns and Processes

This video shows how many different cultures can be combined in one thing. It talks about the currywurst, one of the most popular German street foods, which is a combination of ideas and ingredients from all around the world including German sausage, American ketchup, and curry spices from India. 

This relates to the culture unit by showing how different cultures can come together and create something that is loved by a lot of people. With this people from a country can get a lot of different cultures together in this one meal and understand other cultures later that help.  

Unit 3

As of late, all I seem to hear about from Germany is their anti-Islam protests and their lack of desire to host more immigrants in their country. This video, though three years old, is a welcomed change to that news. 

Bizarre Foods' Andrew Zimmermen puts it best when he says that food is the best way to learn about a people and that there is no better way to perform a sort of "diplomacy" with a people than by sharing food. A dish that combines elements from Germany, America, and India is just one of those melting pot foods that shows that globalization can combine elements of food to make one dish that becomes quintessentially German. The idea that this is a democratizing dish is also interesting. With some foods being considered exclusively for the rich and likewise some for the poor, currywurst shows that people no matter social class can agree on one thing, which is good food.

Im sure this poster was highly offensive to many people in the middle east, both male and female.  There is a lot of meaning in each picture, but the basic point seems to be that the image on the right is the way that a lady is supposed to dress, the way that is more appropriate.  Conservative with the candy wrapped, it shows that a woman should dress and act a certain way, while the other image has a girl, who appears to be naked with her hair blowing around, who looks like she has no values, or respect for her religion.