Harris (1974), "India's Sacred Cows"

In "India's Sacred Cows", Harris investigates into the phenomenon that people in India refuse to eat beef from the sacred cows which can be found almost everywhere, even though they are starving to death. He points out that the culture of not eating cows is highly related to the importance of the role of cows in the low-energy, small-scale and animal-based agricultural system in India, as killing cows for consumption would give a higher economic loss in the long-run. Inexplicable cultural patterns are indeed created to be everyday strategies for human survival, no matter consciously or unconsciously.

I find Harris's illustration of cultural ecology using the example of the sacred cows in India very plausible. It is interesting to see how culture is affected by its adaptation to the environment. The culture that we have accepted as a norm and have been living with is actually a product of the everyday strategies for our own survival being pressed by our ecosystem. Adopting this perspective, a lot of seemingly unexplainable cultural norms can be interpreted in a way which is highly applicable and closely related to our daily lives. For example, Muslims and Jews do not eat pork due to the uncleanliness associated with pigs and most of the religions impose sexual restrictions by different codes of sexual morality.

Back in the old days, there were serious health concerns about pork-eating. As we all know now, eating pork which is raw or not fully-cooked might cause trichinosis. In the past where the quality of cooking fuel was poor and the design of cooking stove was not that advanced as well as with the setting of poorer hygiene conditions, pork could not be cooked thoroughly, usually with the problem of poor and uneven heating. So it led people to derive a divine meaning behind the relationship between pork eating and trichinosis. Moreover, pig-rearing is not considered to be economical. Pigs require water and shady woods, and they do not graze on grass. In places like Middle East where these two religions originated, the climiate is dry and arable land is scarce, let alone the area of shady woods and meadow present. Therefore, the pigs compete with humans land and food. Thus, pork-eating is restricted as a dietary law in the two religions to help ensure survival of people living there.

Another prominent example of cultural ecology is the sexual restrictions imposed by almost all of the religions. Most of them, such as Christianity, Islam and Buddhism, consider sexual intercourse as a pursuit of sensual pleasure as sinful and undesirable. Sexual intercourse should have the ends of the production of offspring and it should only be carried out after marriage. Indeed, it has a huge implification ecologically. In the old days, the technology of contraception and abortion was not advanced. There was still a high chance of pregnancy even when the primitive form of contraception was used. Yet, sexual urge exists and it is a part of the biological responses of human beings. Therefore, some codes of conduct had to be created to regulate people's sexual activities so that they feel compelled to follow due to the pressure of morality and the associated punishments. Or else, there would be a rapid increase in human population that the environment cannot sustain due to limited food and space for inter-competition. Therefore, this cultural restriction by religions can be viewed as a survival strategy in natural environment too.

It is also interesting that how Christianity condemns the use of birth prevention and this fact further exemplifies that these religious codes were designed for population control. As it is already established in christianity that sexual intercourse should only be carried out after marriage and to produce offpsring, the prohibition of the use of birth prevention further ensures the balance of population by preventing low birth dates.

I find that a lot of examples illustrating cultural ecology can be found in the context of religions. After all, as many of these cultural patterns are inexplicable yet require a big population to follow in order to elicit the desired effect, religion serves as the best instrument as an influential authority.

Merton (1957), "Manifest and Latent Functions"

In "Manifest and Latent Functions", Merton states that sociologists examine planned social practice to ascertain the latent functions. Only by studying both the anticipated and unintended consequences of a social practice, the prevailing pattern of practice could be explained. If the latent functions are removed from the practice, the pattern would be severely changed, as illustrated by Veblen in the pattern of conspicuous consumption.

The concept of manifest and latent functions in analyzing what we do is generally true in the world around us. There are always times that we find unexpected consequences which we do not intend when committing the act in all sorts of contexts. First, at a personal level, when we see an old lady getting on a crowded subway, we give our seats to her. Though our intention to give up the seat for her might be solely due to our sympathy and loving heart, hoping not to see the lady stand and squeeze with others with weak knees, there are certainly "latent" functions by giving up the seat. Others would praise us for our good deeds and we would gain a fulfilling sense of satisfaction from the compliments. A good image and impression of us could also be established, as helping the needy is socially desirable.

Extending to a societal level, examples of manifest and latent functions are also present. The manifest function of violent comics and video games is to provide a channel for venting anger and satisfying violent desires in a virtual world as a form of entertainment. However, the latent function could also be inducing imitation of violence in real life by the players. The Japanese stabbing rampage over the summer recently illustrates the idea of manifest and latent functions too. A man who was sick and tired of life went on a stabbing rampage in Tokyo intending to express frustration towards life. But unrecognized consequences came up as he set an example encouraging imitation- another Japanese woman went on a stabbing spree a month later and Japanese police had been discovering people threatening to commit similar random murders on the Internet. In Freakonomics, Levitt's theory on the legalization of abortion bringing a drastic crime drop, though controversial, further exemplifies the manifest and latent functions. While the manifest function of legalizing abortion was to assure women's rights to decide whether to terminate their pregnancies or not, the latent consequence of crime drop came out as mothers without ability to support the rearing of a child could now decide not to have the child. For these mothers, they have a limited access to sufficient resources to raise their children, such as provision of education, making the kids more vulnerable to hardships in life and engagement in criminal activities.

From the above examples, it can be concluded that latent functions are not necessarily desirable. But when the unintended consequence is discovered to be desirable, the distinction between manifest and latent functions starts to become obscure. Take the pattern of conspicuous consumption in the reading as an example: its latent function "results in a heightening or reaffirmation of social status". As time goes, this latent function would become generally recognized in the society. Then, this "unintended" consequence which has gained familiarity would provide a new incentive for people to commit the act, which in turn becomes a planned consequence and by definition, a manifest function.

In readings such as Berger's, we learnt that the work of sociologists is to debunk what seems natural and obvious is actually social construction. Now in Merton's view, the unfamiliar and unintended latent functions belong to the layer under those which are generally accepted as obvious, and they await us to be debunked.

Intellection

I feel like it's time to add some intellectual writings to my blog. And I thought, since I have been writing journals for my soc class every week, why not put them up here to add a slight intellectual taste to this deserted blog? This is a Friday night that I am sitting at home peacefully. No party, yet no intention to read. So it is a good chance. Yes!

i just have a very scary thought inside me. i'm reading how finagling is at work in scientific researches under unconsciousness. i thought about how i did my lab, my research project during intern, the blogging research project in alevels, i remembered that i did try to put weight on favourable data to support my desirable findings. so i started to contemplate on the role of human nature on science. i wonder if all the scientists in the past have this inevitable mindset. well, after all, they are human too, aren't they? perhaps all the debates and controversies only arise from their prejudices. actually in reality, if scientific studies are conducted in a really unbiased way, we might find that things are random in the world. and they do not point to any particular direction. and perhaps, this would give us an answer of whether the Greatness is up there.