Zerubavel Flashcards
How does Zerubavel view boundaries?
Boundaries are socially constructed markings that delineate a whole swath of differences depending on which side you look at. A few feet away from a state or national border on either side can mean whole new cultures, laws, and politics, yet, these are ultimately socially constructed lines.
There are more abstract boundaries of space, such as clothing. The clothes we wear can indicate the kinds of social spaces that we seek to occupy. i.e. changing from business shoes to slippers at the end of the day.
How does Zerubavel view identity?
Our bodies become boundaries separating our selves from the external world. There are also symbolic ways that we mark our identities, such as through religion and place.
We place our symbolic selves into these boundaries and with it become attached to particular sites of meaning.
What are rigid and fuzzy minds?
Zerubavel
In rigid minds, boundaries are strictly adhered to and unmoving and unchanging. Gatekeeping via strictly adhered to dress, actions, and rituals within a
particular group to hostility toward other groups whom the rigid group perceives a threat to their identity and their boundary.
The fuzzy mind, on the other hand, is characterized by an extreme lack of boundaries and a bounded understanding of the world. Zerubavel uses the example of an infant who has yet to be socialized into these boundaries and therefore exists in an “ocean” rather than bounded space. The fuzzy mind also exists when we relinqiush the rigid hold we have over our selves and blend into the world around us, like in joining a choir where the individual identity fades and gives way a collective conscious engaged in the same activity that is not individually oriented.
What is the flexible mind?
“Flexibility need not entail giving up structure altogether. It does imply, however,
dynamic, elastic mental structures. Such structures would allow us to break away from the mental cages in which we so often lock ourselves, yet still avoid chaos. With them, we can be creative as well as secure,”
