Authenticity of bread, yes bread.

What is authenticity? And what defines an object, or an action, or a person, or a place, as authentic? Grazian explains authenticity by, what is defined as real or true or pure by a group of people. But who determines which group of people? Or how they interpret that object of authenticity?

When I was younger, I had a Croatian neighbor. She lived right across the street. Everyday, she would come to my house to have some authentic “Arabic bread”, and then we would cross the street to her house to have some authentic “Western toast”. That way everyday we both have had something to eat from the other persons culture. As cheesy and factually incorrect as that is, we were very young, so I wouldn’t judge or laugh at me if I were you… but anyway, remembering that story now, makes me realize that even as children, we would classify objects with authenticity.

So I decided to go to a bakery and ask people their opinion on the authenticity of bread, and what they think is authentic “Arabic bread”, or authentic “Western bread”.



As I walked into the store I observed where each type of bread was displayed. The burger bun and hotdog bun were displayed right next to each other, and the thin, round Arabic bread was displayed on another side. Which already shows some kind of differentiation.



I found a Muslim, Arab women there, and decided to ask her opinion on the matter. I asked her what she defines as authentic Arabic bread, and why, and what she classifies the other types of bread as. She pointed to the thin round bread and said, this is our bread, this is what authentic Arabic bread is. Her reasoning behind that was the following exact quote: “This is what my mother used to bring home to us ever since I was a little girl, I grew up on this, so this is our traditions, the Arab tradition.”



Then she went on to talk about the other types of bread. She generally classified all the rest as “Western”. And said that just because a certain type of bread is classified under a certain culture, doesn’t mean that only that culture is expected to buy it. “I’m buying American bread right now” she said.

It was very interesting to hear this woman’s opinion on authenticity, and how she decided to classify these types of bread and why. Which takes me back to the theory of socialization. She was socialized, her beliefs and authenticity classification, were socialized into her as she grew up, and still have not changed until now. She is 24 years old.

Men Make Fire.

I went to the beach this weekend with a group of friends to celebrate one of our friends’ birthday. I found that the perfect opportunity to analyze the men and woman’s behaviors in such an environment. The men were particularly interesting to observe. Arab men find going to the beach, a chance to practice their “machismo”, like it was an activity.



The western world is a more free world than the Arab world. I don’t like to generalize but that’s my personal opinion. In the west I guess it has become okay to embrace the different types of men’s behaviors. Like Sutherland discusses in her book, there are many different ways a man can be a man. There’s the heartless tough man figure, referred to in his book as the terminator, after Arnold Schwarzenegger in the movie terminator. And there’s the emotional sensitive understanding man figure, referred to in his book as the kindergarten commando. Of course those two are the extremes, there are gray areas in between where other people lie.



In the Arab world, the kindergarten commando is not an accepted way of life, and if a man were anything but a “terminator” they would start to question his sexual orientation. This was reflected in my friends’ behaviors on the beach. I noted “macho” behaviors, or what they considered as expression of their masculinity, like logging heavy rocks and wood around to make a bonfire, cooking the meat (meat is a very manly type of food for Arabs, so cooking it on the beach with the fire they made represents their masculinity), and finally, ordering the girls around to clean, set the place where we’re going to eat and organize the seating area. When the girls offered to help with the fire making or meat cooking however, the men replied with “of course not! What kind of man do you think I am”?



I found it extremely interesting to take theories based on the behaviors in west and apply them to the Middle East. It has proven that what people consider appropriate or acceptable differs drastically between different parts of the world.

TV Series - Shaping the evolution of behaviors?

Recently I was re-watching a TV show I used to love a few years back. 8 simple rules is an American comedy that went on from 2002 - 2005. While watching this show I noticed the family’s situation, and the first thing I could think of was the breadwinner system, and how this show defied it. The breadwinner system basically states that since the dawn of time, the man has always been that one that earns money to feed the family, while the woman stays at home and takes care of the kids and the housework.





For those of you who don’t know this show, it’s about a family of five, the parents, two girls, and a boy. The parents are trying to control their two teenage girls, while juggling work at the same time. But, opposite to the belief of the breadwinner system, this TV show does it differently. The mother is a workingwoman that sometimes has morning and night shifts in the same day. The father has a job too; but he works from home as a sports writer for a newspaper, and he’s the one who’s responsible for taking care of the kids, and sometimes cooking and cleaning. However, when the mother comes back from work, she is still expected to make dinner and clean.





A decade ago TV series like this one were viewed mostly in the west. When people watch TV shows that challenge and change social norms, eventually over time based on the cultivation theory, these new ways of living portrayed on television, become the social norm. This is one of the many reasons for this change.

Similarly, when we started watching these shows in the Middle East, the same thing began to happen. We started challenging these social norms, changing them, and calling it “modernization”. Due to the fact that not a lot of people in the Middle East speak English, only the ones that do have received this ideology from TV series. That is the reason why this new way of life hasn’t spread as much as it has in the west. However, I do believe that in the near future this change will spread drastically in the Middle East just like it has in the west.

Education, Culture and Society

Education is an important part of our lives and contributes to our socialization. When speaking of education, sociologists focus on the "formal and informal social interactions that train, discipline, or shape (or reshape) the mind and body in planned or unplanned ways" (Ferrante, 366). We all achieve some sort of education during our lifetime, whether it's spontaneous or intended. Much of our education begins at a very young age in schooling systems. Schools are designed to provide formal, systematic instructions that take place primarily in classrooms. Schools also include extracurricular activities and assignments to be completed outside of the classroom.




Although the aim of schools is to educate students, sometimes the type and method of education is different. Growing up, I went to multiple schools and in different countries. I was born in Saudi Arabia and attended school there until the age of five before I moved to Scotland and studied there. After almost two years of living in Scotland, I returned once again to my previous school in Saudi Arabia. During this period in my life, I realized how different the education systems were. The type of schools were completely different as well.



Saudi Arabia is an Islamic and Arab country, so the majority of the schools taught and encouraged Islamic behavior and Arab culture. Manarat Al-Riyadh, the school which I went to in Saudi Arabia, was an International School that taught both American and British curriculum. In addition, Arabic and Islamic studies were also enforced on students even if they were not Muslims. The cultural and religious studies started from as early as the first grade and continued until the 12th grade.



On the contrary, when I was in Hillhead Primary School in Scotland, the curriculum that was being taught was very different. Unlike my previous school, in Scotland, my school emphasized mostly on manners, behaviors and how to work and interact with people. There was less emphasis on studies and more emphasis on social interaction. Also, there were no classes offered about Scottish or Western culture and no theology classes. Contrasting to Saudi Arabia, the students in my class were of different religions and cultures. There were Muslims, Hindus, Christians, Buddhist, Arab, African, Caucasian and Asian.



We can see how schools are designed to serve society by functioning as places for education, discipline and socialization. The curriculum for schools differ on which background they're from, nevertheless they're purpose is to socialize people to allow them to function according to their society.