Knowledge in INDIAN CULTURE & HERITAGE
STEVE JOB
THE CULTURAL HEGEMONY OF AMERICAN FAST-FOOD COMPANIES
Over the last century, the entire world has gone through a lot of changes. The colonial powers of the west have certainly been pushed back but there is still only one hegemonic power in the world- The United States of America. Not only do they have political and economic hegemony, they also have cultural hegemony over the rest of the world. One of the key examples that we will look at in this essay are the various American fast food chains like McDonald's, KFC, Dominos, Subway etc. that, as a consequence of globalization, have spread out to thousands of outlets as a chain all over the world. In this essay, we will look at the impact of these American fast-food companies on the rest of the world. McDonaldization is a term that was used by George Ritzer in his book ‘McDonaldization of Society’. George Ritzer defined McDonaldization as “the process by which the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as the rest of the world.”(Ritzer 2010, p.4). We will continue to encounter this term and its characteristics throughout the essay. The image at Appendix 1 is from an advertisement of McDonald's in China. If we look at the image we can see how the burger itself takes up around half of the picture itself. This is obviously a reference to the caption itself ‘MEGA MAC’. One of the key characteristics of McDonaldization which was given by George Ritzer was Calculability or quantity rather than quality. This is the key when we try to understand how fast food chains work. That is because all fast food chains prioritize quantity over quality as they have to produce these food items daily by the thousands and the larger quality of the food that they produce, the cheaper it is for them. Also, it is much easier to try to assess the quantity of the food rather than the quality of the food. That is why whenever the image of the food is shown in either menus or advertisements, they are shown to tout the quantity rather than the quality. As we can see from the image at Appendix 1, the previous statement is also relevant here as the quantity of the product(“the MEGA MAC”), rather than the quality of the product (it is not the “GOOD MAC” or the “DELICIOUS MAC”) is emphasized. Also from the image, we get to see that the quality of the burger looks to be something that would have come out of a gourmet restaurant but this is, in fact, a technique that is used by almost all fast food chains so that their product would look more appealing to the public. The common saying of ‘What you see is what you get’ does not apply when we talk of fast-food restaurants. The actual burger is mass produced by the thousand and is later frozen and would probably never look or taste like the burger that is actually shown in the image at Appendix 1. When it comes to food we also have the notion of ‘Bigger is better’ and these sorts of images(ref Appendix 1) do tempt us. Also “People can quantify things and feel that they are getting a lot of food for what appears to be a nominal sum of money”(Ritzer 2008, p.14). This is again relevant here as in the image above we can see how on the left-hand side of the ‘ MEGA MAC’, there are also options for a combo meal which would imply that the customer would get two or more products at a lesser price if he buys them together in relation to buying them separately. The discounted offer could again possibly change the mind of the customer and he himself, due to his greed, might buy something more than he wanted as he thought that it was a real bargain. Advertisements such as the image in Appendix 1 play a very key role in how fast-food chains attract customers. If we look closely at the image, we can see that the two main colors used here are red and yellow. These two colors are used by many top fast food chains because these two colors play a very important role when it comes to attracting people.When we see the color red, it automatically triggers hunger and appetite. This is why we can see how the background of this advertisement is red and also how KFC uses the color red in most of its advertising, and even its logo. The color yellow gives us the feeling of friendliness and happiness. The color yellow is also the most visible color in daylight. That is why arches of McDonald's are yellow and can be spotted from far away. Another important characteristic of McDonaldization is Efficiency. Efficiency or “The optimum method for getting from one point to another”(Ritzer 2008, p.13). In this case, that endpoint is food. As previously mentioned, fast-food chains prioritize quantity over quality. This also includes the time it would take for one either to go to one of the chains of fast food restaurants or to get home delivery instead.Thus, in the image at Appendix 2, which is from Kenya, we can see the caption ‘30 minutes- between you and pizza’.For a family who has two wage earners, cooking elaborate meals would be a hard task as both of them have to work and cooking from scratch takes quite a long time, which they may not always have. In such a situation they might agree that rather than to wait for a couple of hours and cook a meal, it would be better if they would get some pizza within 30 minutes. The other caption of ‘free delivery’ if not delivered within that time frame might also be tempting for a few to try their luck for some free food. Another caption which is below the man on the scooter reads Minimum order of KES 1000”, with KES being Kenyan shilling, the currency of Kenya. Dominos also have a minimum order value for home delivery. This again plays to the advantage of the fast food chain as now the customers have no choice but to order a particular amount in order to get home delivery even though they don’t desire so much food. As previously mentioned one the reason why Dominos have the ability to deliver any pizza within 30 minutes is that mostly all of the food items on the menu are already mass produced and frozen. The food is required to be only warmed up and served hot. The image in Appendix 3 is a McDonald's menu from India. From the menu, we can see how McDonald's itself has gone through a cultural shift when it is globalized. Through this menu, we can see how there is now a fusion of cultures, which incorporates traditional Indian culinary products and McDonald’s western menu of burgers and fries. One of the reasons for this is the differences in traditions. The traditional American cheeseburger contains beef, which would not be culturally appropriate to be made in an Indian McDonald, as in India the majority of the population worship cows and sees them as sacred. Therefore, for McDonald's to be successful in a place like India, some changes had to be made. For example, as we can see from the image at Appendix 3, the iconic McDonald ‘Big Mac’ which was made from beef is replaced by ‘Maharaja Mac’ which is now made from chicken. That is not the only change that was made in the menu as now there were many items in the menu that had a part of the Indian culinary tradition in them, such as, the ‘McSpicy Paneer’ (Appendix 3) and the ‘Masala Grill Chicken meal’(Appendix 3). Another advantage of doing this is that they grab the attention of the local public. The best way to get the public interested is to give them something that they are familiar with, or something that they have been eating all their life. In this case, the terms ‘paneer’, ‘masala’ or ‘maharaja’ are something that the locals are familiar with and can relate to. Thus, the canny fast-food chain combines its secret recipes with Indian spices, and there, you have the Indian McDonald. If we look closely at the main caption on the image in Appendix 3, it reads ‘EXTRA VALUE MEALS’. As mentioned before, fast food chains always prefer quantity over quality and if the customer thinks that he is getting a lot of food at a substantially lesser price, then he would buy it. We can also see from the image (Appendix 3) that most of the picture has been divided into eight boxes and in each of those boxes you have an option of an ‘extra value meal’. There is also a variety in it as it contains non-vegetarian, vegetarian and fish meals, in an attempt to attract people of all food preferences. In each of the slots, we can see that there is either the main burger or wrap and also a large glass of coke and some French fries beside it in an attempt to show that it is a combo meal. Below the price of the meal is written how much money a customer will save if he purchases that combo meal. This would make the customer think that he will actually be saving money. So even if the customer wants only a burger and fries, or a burger and coke, he might see the value meal and also the money he might save and that might potentially change his mind towards buying that meal. Also, on the top left corner, another offer is given that you can upgrade your coke and fries for just 25 rupees to a large one. Continuing on my earlier argument of ‘Bigger is better’, this image also portrays the same qualities that we have seen earlier in the first image. The name of the wraps in the image (Appendix 3) say ‘BigSpicy Chicken wrap’, instead of just a ‘Spicy Chicken Wrap’ which would also have sufficed. We also see how many times either Dominos, McDonald or KFC offer limited time offer deals or bring on new seasonal food items. Most of the customers will get excited by these offers as most of them have ‘This is a once in a lifetime offer so I must buy it’ or that ‘This food item won't be here forever, so I must try it’ mentality. To the second part of the main question, as to whether these fast food chains subvert, the answer is yes. Fast food chains have influenced our society in many ways. Firstly, it affects the economy. Due to the popular demand of fast food, “Potato growing and processing, cattle ranching, chicken raising and meat slaughtering & processing have all had to McDonaldize their operations, leading to dramatic increase in production”(Ritzer 2010, p. 13). The resources put into McDonaldization of their operations could have definitely been put to better use if used wisely. Also due to the increase in popularity of fast food, the sales of local restaurants and vendors, who sell traditional food, also gets affected. The internal institution of social ethics within a family or a group also gets affected. The ethics of ‘eating healthy’ has been affected because of fast-food. The advertisements are shown to promote fast food chains, particularly target children. Most fast food is junk food and is not healthy. Thus, due to eating fast-food, the obesity levels in children are increasing year after year. For this, the fault is also of parents as most of the times they are looking for ways to feed the entire family without a lot of effort, especially when there are two wage earners in a family. The above examples amply demonstrate how the hegemonial canny and cunning strategies employed by American fast-food giants subvert the cultural sensibilities of vulnerable youngsters in their target markets and lure them into eating unhealthy junk food. REFERENCES- 1. Ritzer, George, ed. 2010. McDonaldization: The Reader. California: Pine Forge Press 2. Ritzer, George. 2008. The McDonaldization of Society 5. California: Pine Forge Press
Kartik Mathur
Compare and contrast Malinowski and Brown’s theoretical argument and their understanding of social anthropology
Bronislaw Malinowski and Radcliffe Brown put forward their own respective theories of functionalism. In this essay, I will first mention the arguments put forward by both of them and then I will attempt to find out similarities and differences in those two theories. According to Malinowski, functionalism is the study of the natural aspects of the cultural phenomenon. Malinowski’s notion of functionalism also includes the concept that “human institutions, as well as partial activities within these, are related to primary, that is, biological, or derived, that is, cultural needs.” ( Malinowski 1960, p.159). Thus, his main argument was that culture exists just so that it can satisfy our biological needs. So, we can say that for Malinowski, the culture was a concrete reality and it was the main focus in his theory. Culture cannot exist without institutions as all institutions have functions for the society. For example, the family is an institution and its function in society is to produce children. We can also say that functions are a heuristic device. In the previous example, we took the institution of the family. What if a couple is a homosexual? Then they will not be able to produce any children. In the same way, the function of the law is to give justice but sometimes that does not happen, for example-the Shah Bano case. Each institution has structures and even though the structures may remain the same, the rituals and the techniques may differ. Malinowski also informed us about the importance of artifacts, which are material objects, which are used by humans to communicate with each other, either by speech or by symbolism. For example, a Hindu woman wears a ‘bindi’ on her forehead and ‘ sindoor’ to show that they are married. In this instance, the ‘bindi’ or the ‘sindoor’ acts as an artifact that shows their commitment to their husbands. He also mentions the importance of language as when an infant is born into a family, the function of the kinship is “to provide the infant with a sociological control of its environment through articulate speech.” ( Malinowski 1960, p. 156) According to Radcliffe Brown, Social Anthropology deals with the study of human society and the investigation of social relations amongst human beings. Brown’s theory of functionalism was in complete contrast to that of Malinowski as he thought that social structures were more important than culture. Brown considered Social Anthropology to be a branch of natural sciences. Brown also attempted to explain it through the methods of natural science. We get to know this when he explains as different branches of science deal with certain kind of structures, such as atomic physics deals with the structure of atoms, there will be a branch of natural sciences “which will have for its task the discovery of the general characteristics of those social structures of which the component units are human beings.” ( Brown 1940, p.2) Brown also used the term ‘Social structures’ to denote the complex network of social relations. Social structures include all interpersonal relationships, and also the division of individuals and groups based on their social role. He also compares humans to animals when referring to associations or relations as he gives the example of a beehive and understands the relation between the queen bee, the workers and the drones. He also mentions some social phenomena such as morals, laws, education etc. and that they play a very important role in the existence of social structures. He also uses the example of Latin as a language to explain how the indirect or direct relationship between a social phenomenon and social structures and the way in which they affect the relations between groups of people. He regards social structures as a concrete reality and refers to culture as only a vague abstraction. He also uses the body as an analogy to describe the continuity of social structure – “Throughout the life of an organism its structure is being constantly renewed; and similarly, the social life constantly renews the social structures” ( Brown 1940, p. 4). He's referring to social structures as being constantly renewed gives us the idea that Brown considers social structures to be stable and never-ending. This idea becomes clearer when Brown gives us the term ‘social evolution’, in which evolution means the emergence of new forms of structures while explaining with the example of how an African culture came in contact with an European or Western culture and then produced Western African culture. I will now give an example which I think will make the distinction between these two theories clear. Whenever I am hungry I will want to eat food. According to Malinowski, I will only want to have seafood as I am from Goa because I am used to eating seafood as it is part of my Goan culture. If we take the same situation and compare it with Brown’s argument, he will say that if I am hungry then I will have anything to satisfy my hunger and not only try to find seafood. This is because according to Malinowski, the main aim of culture is to satisfy the physical and the biological needs of the individual but on the other hand, Brown does not think culture has an important part to play in any individuals life. We will first look at the similarities in the theories put forward by Brown and Malinowski. Both Malinowski and Brown and trying to develop a universal understanding of functionalism in which they are trying to attain a method which will be applicable and useful when comparing different phenomena throughout the world. This is especially true for Malinowski as he talks about his theory being used for the comparative analysis of phenomena in various cultures. Another similarity is that they are using language as a foundation to explain their theories, as we have already seen earlier in the essay. There are also many differences in their theories. The most visible is their view on the theory of culture. For Malinowski, the function of culture was to satisfy the biological needs of the individual and on the other hand, Brown considered culture to be abstract and claimed culture only played a role in maintaining the society and not to satisfy individual needs. Brown also only considered society as a whole and thus considered individuals as irrelevant or replaceable, in contrast to Malinowski, who emphasizes the importance of individuals. Even though there were many similarities and differences in their theories, both Malinowski and Brown had the greatest influence on the development of functionalism. BIBLIOGRAPHY:- Malinowski, Bronislaw. 1960. A Scientific Theory of Culture and Other Essays. New York: Oxford University Press Brown, A.R. Radcliffe. 1940. “ On Social Structure”. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 70(1): pp.1-12
Cross-cultural perception of the changing nature of parenthood and designer babies in urban India
The concept of parenthood and the idea of a family have always been private and personal. But with the onset of globalization over the past few decades, we have let technology interfere into our personal matters. In this essay, we will look at the cross-cultural perception on parenthood with reference to designer babies and changing family structures in urban India. With the help of in-depth interviews and micro-analysis, this study will also examine the relationship between intimacy and technology. Background The family structure has drastically changed over the past few decades. During the mid 20th century the idea of a joint family was very popular. Thus we could see many families living together in one large house. This idea was more popular amongst Asian countries in comparison to western countries, as in Asian societies, culture, traditions, and family are given more importance whereas, in western countries, people are taught to mostly live an individualistic lifestyle in a very competitive society. But due to globalization and the exchange of ideas, the point family stricture started to disintegrate and was replaced with the nuclear family, comprising of a father, a mother and their unmarried children. With this, the ideas of parenting also changed as now the parent's primary concern was the well being of their children and not of the whole joint family, which mostly included aging grandparents. With new movements and revolutions such as the feminist movement in the 1960s, parents became a lot more liberal in their views and the children also got a lot more independent. Thus we can say that marriage and family patterns have changed worldwide in the 21st century. The above statement is backed up by Therborn, a professor of sociology at Cambridge University, who states that “ the combination of increasing rates of divorce, high remarriage rates and more people living alone seems to disprove the thesis of a convergence of family structures, even in the west.” ( Giddens 2009, p.337) nowadays we can see new family patterns emerging such as live-in relationships, same-sex marriages, and single parents. With society nowadays is more and more dependent on technology, we have let it interfere with our most intimate parts of our lives, such as our children. For example, parents are giving their young ones access to play on their smartphone, for the purpose of keeping them quiet or busy. Technology has also now play a very important part in the reproductive process, with many couples opting for methods such as in-vitro fertilization ( IVF )or surrogacy rather than the traditional method of coitus. The latest technological development that has taken place in this area is designer babies. A designer baby is a baby that is genetically engineered for the purpose of having some specific traits that are chosen by their parents, such as the gender of the bay, or the color of the eyes and the height of the baby. In this essay, we will if designer babies would be a proper fit for the current society. Literature review There has been a lot of studies that have been done on designer babies, with many perceiving designer babies for the better and the well being of the society and the family while on the other hand, there are a few articles who have noted the cons of designer babies by focusing on the moral and the ethical aspects which would involve not only the parents and the people involved in the process but also the baby itself. As no particular stand is being taken here, this study incorporates the views of both the sides of the debate. Also, as this study deals with changing views on parenthood and family pattern along with technology and its effect on the process of reproduction, this study will analyze the articles written by authors who have a background in sociology as well as authors who have a background in bioethics and stem cell research. As we have seen earlier in this essay, we have taken a small section on families and intimate relationships in Anthony Giddens book, Sociology 6th edition, to analyze the changing relationship patterns and the family structure. This study will also be challenging Durkheim's theory of functionalism, as he values the importance of a stable family, as it could be seen as a necessary building block for the proper functioning of the society. But with the introduction of designer babies, the relationship between the parents and the designer baby, and the relationship between the parents and a normal baby might be different. This could threaten Durkheim's idea of a ‘stable’ family and thus could harm the society in the future. This essay will also be analyzing the texts of various authors such as Julian Savulescu, who is a bioethicist and is in favor of the introduction of designer babies, including a culmination of texts from various journal such as ‘ The Scientific American’. Also, as this is a cross-cultural study, and opinions on career-inclined women having children were also included in the questionnaire, information on maternity leave in China and Italy has also been taken. In addition to these articles, this study will also include a critical analysis of two Hollywood movies- Gattaca ( 1997) and Hannah ( 2011). The inclusion of these two movies is due to their plot, which sets in a futuristic society where designer babies are being used and are being preferred over normal babies. The proper relation between these movies and the theme of this paper will be mentioned in the findings. Even though a lot of studies have been done on designer babies, very few have focused on the socialization of the designer babies. As this study is focused on the latter part, it is different from the rest of the studies that have been conducted. Methodology The current study adopts a qualitative approach in order to understand the cross-cultural perception of parenthood with reference to designer babies. As the study was qualitative, the respondents were chosen by non-probability sampling methods such as the snowball sampling method. Some of the respondents were mutual friends of the author. A total of 6 people were interviewed- 3 men and 3 women. An even number of respondents of each gender was taken in order to avoid gender bias. Of the three women who were interviewed- two of them belonged to BA 2nd year and the other one belonged to MA 1ST year. In the case of men- one was from BA 2ND year and two were from MA 2ND year. The reason for this differentiation was to understand if age played a factor in perceiving and understanding the questions in the current context. The interviews were conducted over the space of two days and each of the interviews was done in an empty classroom in order to avoid any bias or influence. As this is a cross-cultural study, two of the women were from foreign countries- one was from Thailand and the other was from Italy. Another reason for choosing a respondent from Italy was that designer baby is a western concept and the designer baby was developed and the advancement in that field is happening primarily in western countries. The rest of the respondents were from all over the country. The other female respondent was from Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu). The other three male respondents were from Chennai ( Tamil Nadu), Kakinada (Andhra Pradesh), and Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh) respectively. Thus this study has incorporated many different cultures. Information was taken from the respondents through an in-depth interview. The interview was a semi-structured interview with both open-ended and close-ended questions. The major themes of the questionnaire are as follows: Part 1- ( Socio-demographic facts)- focuses on the demographic information of the respondents Part 2- ( Parenting)- focuses on the change in parenting styles over the past few decades Part 3- ( Technology, morality and designer babies)- focuses on the technological aspect and also the moral and ethical values involved in the process of designing babies Part 4 - ( society and designer babies)- focuses on the impact that designer babies will have on the society It should be noted that a consent form was signed prior to the start of the interview by each of the respondents and one copy of the form was given to them. The respondents were also given a chocolate at the end of the interview as a reward for participating in the study. After all the interviews were taken, the deductive method was used to analyze the major findings in this study. Key findings Change in parenting styles There have been many studies that show that the overall parenting structure has changed worldwide over the past few decades. ( Giddens 2009, p. 337) As we will be using the above statement as a theory to use the deductive method, the respondents were asked if they could notice a shift in parenting styles by comparing their generation with the older generation. Following are me of the quotes by some of the respondents- Yeah, I think it has changed like now parents start having babies later. If I take the example of my mom, she already had me when she was my age, but now a lot of people they plan to have kids in their thirties. ( female respondent 1, aged 24, the location of her home- Italy) Do I think that the perception of parenting has changed? For me, no. In my family, no, I don’t think so. Even in my society, nothing has changed ( female respondent 2, aged 30, the location of her home – Thailand) I mean obviously, it has changed, in the sense that, how as and when we get exposed to more opportunities which we didn’t have previously. I think that the perceptions of the way the parents wanted their children to grow have also changed as they are more liberal and open-minded. ( male respondent 1, aged 19, the location of their his home- Chennai) Yes, it has changed. It might have changed in terms of how family itself is constituted because it is a general notion that there were previously joint families. if there was any work that individual of the family had then it would be related to the family. But now as the opportunities have become so vast that your child might just want to go somewhere else because that work could be more rewarding. So I think this is why nuclear families have come about. ( male respondent 2, aged 24, the location of his home- Andhra Pradesh) As we can see from the first two quotations, there are differences that need special attention. From the perspective of the first respondent, she has clearly stated that the perceptions of parenthood have changed, while for the second respondent, nothing has changed. A lot can be understood from their social context. Societies in Italy are a lot different from societies in Thailand, as societies in the west are more developed as compared to those in the east. Development should not be understood only in terms of technology, but also in terms of having more liberal ideas about society. Thus we can see the effect of liberal movements such as the feminist movement in Italy, where more and more women are working, as compared to Thailand, where a more oppressive society still exists. One must also realize that most societies in the west are more predominant towards the idea of individualism while most societies in the east are more inclined towards family, culture, and traditions. This could be another reason why there is pressure on people to start a family in eastern societies while in the west, people are more liberal and thus are willing to start a family later on in their lives. Even though our society is more close-minded than those of the west, that does not mean progress has not been made. This has been made clear by the second male respondent as has pointed out that the general trend of a joint family system has changed and has paved the way for nuclear families. This change in family pattern can also bring with itself changes in ideas. This goes with what the first male respondent was saying as parents are becoming more liberal in their views. With this, we can say that with more and more having liberal views, these views will pass on to their children. Thus we can say by analyzing the responses that the parental style has changed in many of the societies. The reason why this is categorized as the first finding was to connect it with the overall theme of the paper, as designer babies can be considered as a radical change, and so we wanted to understand how these liberal or non- liberal views would affect in perceiving and then later on accepting or rejecting the idea of designer babies being incorporated into the society. The sibling relationship between a designer baby and a natural baby There have been a few studies which show that sometimes parents design babies in order to take their bone marrow or blood to treat their terminally ill child ( Sheldon and Wilkinson 2004) In these cases, the designer baby is also known as the savior sibling. In order to understand how this would affect the relationship between the two siblings, the respondents were asked their opinion. The following are their responses on the subject matter- I think the brother will feel a big responsibility because he will feel that I am here to save my elder brother’s life, especially when they are children and don’t exactly understand what is going on. It might get a little complicated but it is not a negative thing. ( female respondent 1, aged 24, single child) I think there will be a lot of pressure on the elder sibling to take care of his sibling, because he has gotten something out of his younger brother, without his consent also. I don’t know, I think there will be a lot of guilt. If it was me I would definitely feel a lot of guilt because of the realization that my brother was created just so that we could get a part out of him to save myself ( female respondent 3, aged 20, 2 younger siblings) I think it will bring them closer if not anything in a way because family is also seen in a way where they help you in your thick and thin times and there are some difficulties in life where if there are one group of people whom you can count on, it’s your family ( male respondent 1, aged 19, has 2 elder siblings including a twin brother) I don’t really know if the parents would be able to love this designer baby as much as their own child because they got their designer baby in the first place to sort of cure their own child. Just the fact that you have a new member in your family because of a particular purpose, or you got that baby for an end, is problematic for the entire family. When we talk about the relationship between the siblings, I really really hope that this happens at a young age so that they don’t know that one was designed and one is not. Even if the designer baby gets to know that they designed him in the first place to cure their child, so how will he look at his parents. He may start feeling self-hatred ( male respondent 3, aged 24, single child) We can see from the responses above that there are mixed reviews on the sibling relationship. Thus we can see that for some the elder sibling should feel guilty and should feel responsible for their younger sibling, while on the other hand, some feel that the younger sibling should feel responsible for saving the life of his elder sibling. Here there is a conflict of moral issues. Both male respondent 1 and male respondent 3 talk about family and the views of the parents respectively. Even if we look at this case through the perspective of the designer child, there will conflicting report. On the one hand, parents designing a baby to save their child’s life could be interpreted as “ the parents are willing to conceive another child to protect the first suggests that they are highly committed to the well-being of their children and that they will value the second child for its own sake as well.” ( Sheldon and Wilkinson 2004, p.536) On the other hand, the child may suffer from psychological harm, considering the fact that she was brought into this world, not for himself/ herself, but to be used as a means to save someone else. As previously mentioned in the literature review, the movie Gattaca ( 1997) has been watched and a critical analysis has been done. The movie has a futuristic setting, where designer babies have more or less become a common thing. The protagonist, Vincent, is a naturally born child, or as they are referred to in the movie- an ‘invalid’. He then gets a younger brother, Anton, who is a designer baby. He is much smarter and taller than Vincent and is more loved by their parents. Due to this, Vincent has always been envious of his younger brother and is always in competition with him. Also, due to a lack of support, while chasing his dreams, Vincent chose to abandon his home, as he was an invalid and was told not dream high. There is also a class divide between those who have been specifically designed and those who are invalid ( naturally born). Thus even in a Hollywood movie, designer babies have been portrayed as leading to a dystopian world where designer babies are being preferred and are given more priority by the society, which includes parents. Even though the debate against designer babies and savior siblings is more or less similar, there is still a stark difference between them. The cause for a savior sibling is for it to save an existing child’s life. But the exact same cannot be said for a designer baby as they are only chosen for superficial reasons, such as determining the gender of the baby, the height or even the color of the eyes. Also, there have been a few studies regarding the welfare of the child ( Sheldon and Wilkinson 2004) There are moral aspects involved around the future of the savior sibling, as there could be cases where after the tissue is taken from the savior sibling that is needed for saving the existing child, it is discarded as there is no more use for it. The effect of designer babies on career inclined women. With society becoming more and more liberal by breaking social stereotypes and gender roles, more and more women are entering the workplace. So we can see that a lot of women are putting their careers ahead of starting a family. With designer babies being a lot more cooperative and requiring a lot less attention, the respondents were asked whether career inclined women would prefer designer babies over normal babies. The following are their responses- If you think that you need to focus on your job, then why have a baby at all. That is because life has to follow this process and the beauty of life is that you are born and you need to grow up. There won’t be a point in raising the baby, because the baby is already raised ( female respondent 1, aged 24, home – Italy ) When you say women don’t have time for baby and giving birth and stuff, then maybe we can change the law that for pregnant women they can have left for a long time because, in China, it is maybe like 1 month or 2 months. The side effect of this is that then the employer does not want to give work to women. ( female respondent 2, aged 30, home- Thailand) Yeah, I think, designer babies on a large scale can change the way society works. For example, there are sociologists that say that the family structure is what revolves and what makes them the society, and if these babies can change the way the family works in a more efficient way, then the society would a be more efficient and a more productive one ( male respondent 1, aged 19, home- Chennai) One very important aspect that is related to working woman and childbirth is maternity leave. There is no one standard maternity leave and the duration of the leave ranges from country to country. After analyzing the maternity leave in both China and Italy ( Saurel-Cubizolles, Romito, Escribà-Agüir, LeLong, Pons, Ancel 1999) ( Deng, He, Horrigan, Miao, Ning, Pang, Tevini, Wang, Warren 2012), we have found out that the social context plays a very important role in determining the maternity leave. As female respondent 2 mentioned, the maternity leave given to women is a lot less than what is given in western countries. This shows the existence of patriarchy in countries like China, where maternity leave is not given much consideration due to the fact that not many women are allowed to work. On the other hand, in countries like Italy, the maternity leave is around 22 weeks, where a woman can use those 22 weeks before the child is born and also after the child is born. This shows how eastern countries like China and Thailand lack in encouraging women to enter the workplace, as compared to their western counterparts. In the case of male respondent 1, the fact that he has a positive attitude towards women having designer babies in order to focus on their work also stems from his background. This is because he is from Chennai ( Tamil Nadu), which is more of a matriarchal society instead of a patriarchal society. Therefore in that region, more women entering the workforce would be seen as women empowerment, and not be looked down at. Another point raised by female respondent 1 was that “ There won’t be a point in raising he baby, because the baby is already raised.” This response is very important because this challenges the idea of parenthood itself, as the term implies that as a parent, you have to raise the child and that you need to be responsible for the child. Another quote from male respondent 3 was that - “I would not go for designer babies because then the entire charm of it being your baby goes away. I mean, are you looking forward to having a new member in your family or are you looking forward to having a new product in your family? Do you want to be a parent or a product manager? (male respondent 3, aged 24, home- Madhya Pradesh) Thus we can see that the whole idea of being a parent is being substituted by them being referred to as a production manager and the designer baby as just a product. So, from the above quotation, we can understand that the entire process of becoming a parent has shifted from a baby being born and bought up naturally to a baby being designed by picking the traits wanted by the parents, and the baby being ‘made to order’ like any other product. ( Walker 2008, p.351) We started this study by giving a brief background on how the family pattern has changed over the last few decades from being a joint family system to a nuclear family, and then to recent trends such as live-in relationships and same-sex marriages. We also understood how the advancement of technology, our personal lives have become a lot less private and more dependent on technology. Our literature review consisted of a few academic articles to a couple of movies from Hollywood that fitted into the general theme of the study. The methodology used for this essay was a semi-structured interview and the number of people interviewed was 6, of different ethnic backgrounds. The interview contained various themes ranging from the respondent's socio-demographic information to the effect of designer babies on the society. After performing a micro-analysis on how designer babies would affect intimate relations such as that of parents and siblings, the study shows that the majority of the respondents would agree that designer babies will violate the privacy of the family and would also breach and question some moral and ethical values. This paper hopes to have contributed to the existing intellectual scholarship of sociology. BIBLIOGRAPHY- Deng, Ying and Jing He, Brenda Horrigan, Qingqing Miao, Susan Ning, Wesley Pang, Anna Tevini, Chang Wang, Adria Warren. 2012. “China”. The International Lawyer. 46: 517-535 Giddens. Anthony. 2009. Sociology 6th edition. New Delhi: Wiley India Pvt. Ltd Saurel-Cubizolles, Marie-Josèphe, and Patrizia Romito, Vicenta Escribà-Agüir, Nathalie Lelong, Rosa Mas Pons, Pierre-Yves Ancel. 1999. “Returning to Work after Childbirth in France, Italy, and Spain”. European Sociological Review. 15: 179-194 Sheldon, S and S. Wilkinson. 2004. “Should Selecting Saviour Siblings Be Banned?”. Journal of Medical Ethics. 30: 533-537 Walker. Mark. 2008. “ "Designer Babies" and Harm to Supernumerary Embryos”. American Philosophical Quarterly. 45: 349-364
The Death of the Author
‘The Death of the Author’ is an essay that was written by Roland Barthes in 1967, which is one of the most important texts in the discourse of post-structuralism. In his essay, Roland Barthes argues against the traditional custom of taking into consideration the intention of the author when interpreting a text. This essay will be an attempt to paraphrase the main themes that have been voiced in ‘The Death of the Author’. Barthes examines the relationship between the author and their text and claims that the biographical factors surrounding the author, such as his personality, his passions etc, should not be relevant when interpreting a text. In fact, he says that the author should dissociate from the text completely as it would only be possible then, for the text to create an identity of its own, and for it to flourish- Writing is that neutral, composite, oblique space where our subject slips away, the negative where all identity is lost, starting with the very identity of the body writing. ( page 142) He uses the example of a storyteller or a narrator, in relation to an author, and informs us on how the storyteller would only be commended on their performance and not their personal genius, the latter being the case for an author. Barthes claims that the ‘author’ was a relatively contemporary concept, which developed due to the oncoming of capitalist principles. Thus, the greater emphasis on the ‘individual’ aspect of the author can be credited to western influence. The metaphorical ‘death of the author’ occurs when the author starts to write the text, as that is the moment where he loses all control on how he intended his text to be read. It is now up to the reader to interpret it in their own way. Thus, with the removal of the author, the text is exempted from the context or the intention of the author and is granted independence. Due to this, there are not one, but many interpretations to the same text- We know now that a text is not a line of words releasing a single 'theological' meaning (the 'message' of the Author-God) but a multi-dimensional space in which a variety of writings, none of them original, blend and clash. ( page 146) Barthes also uses an example of an abstract from Balzac’s story ‘Sarrasine’, in which there is a male protagonist who has mistaken a castrato as a woman. The character then commented on the apparent inherent qualities of a woman. Through this Barthes challenges us, being the reader, to determine whose voice is being portrayed here and in what context. It could be interpreted as being the voice of the character in the plot, or the voice of Balzac himself. Thus, the true meaning of the text does not reside in the author but resides in the reader and the language itself. Throughout the essay, he uses examples and works of other authors to support his argument of how a separation must be made between language and the author. He takes the work of Stephane Mallarme and states that he also saw the importance of detaching language from the author as he feels that the author, in many ways, restricts language from achieving its full potential- To give a text an Author is to impose a limit on that text, to furnish it with a final signified, to close the writing. ( page 147) Proust, on the other hand, uses the unorthodox method of “radical reversal”. Through this method, Proust manages to use his writings and his works to build a foundation for his future self, which is contrary to the commonality of previous authors who use their own lives as a foundation for their works. He also used surrealism as a method for the removal of the author. The engagement of surrealism with “automatic writing” or writing as quickly as possible, void of any meaning, which could be perceived as several people writing together, helped with the de-escalation of the predominant image of the author. Linguistics also played a part in the eradication of the prevalent author by explaining that the role of a dialogist is irrelevant in the entire practice of enunciation and that the entire process would still remain perfectly operational without the presence of an author Roland Barthes also attempts to form an alternative to the author by explaining the importance of modern scriptor. The influence of the author, in relation to his text/book, would be considered substantial. That is because when an author is trusted, he is not only seen as belonging to the history of the book, but he is also seen as the origin for the “nourishment” for the book. In contrast, a modern scriptor would exist not before or after the book, but would only be present during the writing of the text. As the modern scriptor would not exist prior to the writing of the text, he will not have any experiences and thus will be able to write a new work which would have the potential to be eternal and timeless. In conclusion, the focal point of this essay was to paraphrase the essay-‘The death of the author’ by Roland Barthes. His claim was that the intention or the context of the author should not be taken into consideration while attempting to decipher or interpret a text. He then perceives the metaphoric death of the author as emancipatory, as due to this the reader will be able to interpret the text in his own way and would not have to comply with the apparent intentions of the author. He also backed up his arguments by giving instances from the works of Mallarme and Proust. He also gave examples of how the surreal movement and linguistics also helped in the removal of the author. In the end, he offered an alternative to the author by stating how a modern scripture would be a much more appropriate mediator than an author. REFERENCES- Barthes, Roland. 1977. Image Music Texts. Fontana Press: London
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Chandryaan 2
India's Chandrayaan-2 towards making history The Indian Space Research Organization has already successfully entered Chandrayaan-2 into the lunar orbit. After this, ISRO will process the separation of lander 'Vikram' from Chandrayaan-2 orbiter today (2 September) which will be done between 12.45 AM to 1.45 PM today. Hollander 'Vikram' will reach the lunar surface between 1.30 am and 2.30 am on September 7. The country's second lunar mission Chandrayaan-2 entered the lunar orbit on 20 August. After separating from the lander 'Vikram' orbiter on 2 September, it will make a 'soft landing' in the South Pole region of the Moon on 7 September. By doing this, India will become the first country in the world to reach the South Pole region of the moon. Russia, America and China have reached the moon before India but they did not reach the moon in the South Pole region. After landing on the lunar surface of the moon, a rover named 'Pragyan' will come out from within it and on its 6 wheels, it will carry out scientific experiments on the lunar surface. The success of the 'Chandrayaan-2' mission will be a glorious moment for India as no country has reached the South Pole region of the moon. 'Chandrayaan-2' will land in the South Pole region of the Moon, where no country has yet been reached. This will help unravel the moon's unsolved secrets.
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What is Council of Minsters of State ? How do they function?
the Council of ministers of state are responsible for creating overlooking and revising policies on the matter of water storage agriculture land supplies and distribution of goods they are also responsible for maintaining peace within the public by having affairs between the state these are some of the responsibility that is given to the Council of Minsters apart from that they work very closely to Chief minister of the state