Unit 2 Summative Assesment
By: Brianna McArdle
Section 1 -- Analysis
Humans Migrate because there are push and pull factors that influence a person's decision to migrate to another place. There are many different push and pull factors that can even force a person to migrate, this is called forced migration. Different types of pushes include war, safety, disease, political leader, weather, climate, natural disasters, economy, personal finances, cultural differences, environment, or even not belonging/fitting in. Different types of pulls include job opportunities, education, geography, physical features, family, sports, culture, leisure, recreation, and activities. Forced migration can include most examples from the pushes of migration but are not limited to human trafficking, drug problems, and terrorism. Human trafficking is connected to most forced migration such as terrorism, drug market, the diamond industry, and even child/sexual labor. In class we saw a video about how the US was playing a major role in drug problems by providing money to the Mexican government to patrol the drug problem but they are also providing weapons which is killing many innocent people including over 1000 children. As you can see its an entire web of a problem that is intertwined with human trafficking.
Humans create cultural mosaics by literally being themselves and living because they affect the people around them and the people around them affect that person. by being the person you are, you are expressing your personality and your uniqueness. In class, we made our own personal "Coat of Arms" and it had to include your whole background it was who you are on a piece of paper. You had to express the entirety of you on this Coat of Arms including your personality, traditions, quotes you agree with, traits, origin/ethnicity/race, what you treasure, etc. Basically, a cultural mosaic is created from your life such as events, experiences, everything that's shaped who you are today.
Humans balance the forces of cooperation and conflict among different social groups because they have to be managed, and if not, they would be out of control. For example, in class we played the Bullets and Ballots game which had different social groups displaying the cooperation and conflict between them. It was a direct example of this claim because some social groups made war between them while others agreed and made treaties. So the cooperation and conflict between these different social groups kind of happens automatically, and the results can be peaceful or a total disaster. When social groups cooperate, there is a peacefulness between them and they are agreeing which is sort of an alliance. On the other hand, when social groups have a conflict, there is mass chaos such as riots, protesting, offensiveness, and even death if it involves terrorism.
In the future, I believe that human migration will always be evident in the world due to the constant push and pull factors that have an effect on people, due to these trends, I believe that the human migration will have an influx as the population is growing in the upcoming generations. I believe that the creation of cultural mosaics in the future will also be flourishing as the population of the world expands because a cultural mosaic is made by a person since a person is literally a cultural mosaic in their own way which means that the increase in people on Earth will increase the number of cultural mosaics in the world and in the future. I also believe that the different social groups are intertwined with their endless cycle of conflict and cooperation so in the future, I think that they will constantly be agreeing, disagreeing, combining, and separating. There fore, the social groups in the future will copy the patterns of conflict and cooperation seen in today's social groups.
Section 2 -- Application
Humans Migrate when there are things that drive them away from a place or attract them to a place. For example, humans that live in the city may not like to live in the open country because they are used to city living and humans that live in the country may not like the city because they are used to country living. Humans can migrate using all sorts of transportation methods. For example, if you wanted to move between continents, a boat or plane may be the best option. If you wanted to move to a closer place, a car, bus, or train may be a better/cheaper option for you. Humans migrate because of their own preferences or even because they fear for their safety or they could have been forced to migrate. Some people actually don't have the option to migrate to a certain place or even at all. For example, in North Korea, there is a dictatorship that does not let their citizens migrate anywhere outside of that country. Also, in the USA, about a year ago, you were not aloud to travel to Cuba because the USA had an embargo on Cuba's trade. In just one year the US lifted the embargo and passenger airplanes are aloud to fly there and travelers can now visit Cuba. This example shows the evolution of migration and some flaws with it as well.
Humans create cultural mosaics just by carrying out their daily schedule and being involved with certain activities. For example, if a person were to map out what they do every day, you would see what type of person they are such as their hobbies, maybe what they like to eat, and even their ethnicity just by this one piece of information. A cultural mosaic can be many different things depending on how you interpret it. For example, a cultural mosaic could be a person themselves, some of their belongings, a quilt, a schedule, even their home can tell you what kind of person they are. They could be someone who likes Asian food because they always go to a certain restaurant. They could also have a car that they drive to work which could tell you if they have expensive taste or are efficient by using a Hybrid car. Humans create cultural mosaics because they need to be their own person and not just a boring human that just copies someone else for all of their life. They need to have a personal definition that makes them unique to who they are, and that's what a cultural mosaic really is. A cultural mosaic is sort of like the bar code on a human, there's not one that is the same. Even a fingerprint is a cultural mosaic because it can display scars that you have and it is never duplicated, it shows who you are.
Humans balance the forces of cooperation and conflict among different social groups when either side starts to get overwhelming. For example, when Russia and Cuba sort of made an alliance in the Cold War when there was a missile base in Havana, the countries teamed up on the US. The US took action by putting an embargo on Cuba which shows conflict between the countries. Action is taken all around the world when either side is cooperating or conflicting constantly this is happening between social groups, countries, states, and maybe even families or governments. Another example of conflict between social groups would be the two political parties that are constantly disagreeing with the opinions of the opposite party but they have to deal with each other because they are part of the government and have to control and contain their enthusiasm. An example of cooperation between social groups would be how the two political parties have to combine their opinions in congress to pass bills into law and create a balance between their every input on a topic in the government and at the Capital Building.
In the future, I think that the forces of the US will overcome the dictator of North Korea to allow migration between other countries and I think that the Cuban Embargo will be a thing of the past as it has already started to diminish. In the future, I believe that people will be able to tell what kind of a person anyone else is easier, by using cultural mosaics like their daily schedule to interpret their personality and other characteristics. I also think that social groups such as political parties will continue to make their differences clear but hopefully, they can collaborate with each other beyond Congress and the race for Presidency.
When the power shifts between different social groups, normally history repeats itself in a constant circle. Also, the roles can shift as the power does between different social groups. For example, in the real world, the Government of Russia was called the Soviet Union and they believed in Communism in the 1960's and an uproar of communist suspects supposedly fled o the USA. The USA decided to end communism by enforcing democracy for the Soviet Union which started the Cold War but in the end, the power shifted from the Soviet Union to the USA. The effects on power shifting can be negative or positive but in this case, it was positive because the Soviet Union became Russia and a Democratic society like the USA at the time. In other instances, there could be a negative impact on a social group or the social groups around them. For example, when the power shifted from the citizens of North Korea to the Dictator, all power was given to their cruel leader with a negative impact on the people. The country became Communist, the people were put into harsh conditions, and they told to worship their Dictator practically every day. So when the power shifted, it left a corrupt society for he citizens of North Korea who are being controlled like puppets by this one Dictator and his few "assistants".
Section 3 -- Transfer
My life connects to human migration because I have moved twice in my life, one from Woburn, Massachusetts to Danville, New Hampshire and the other from Danville, New Hampshire to East Hampstead, New Hampshire. For me, this was a forced migration on both moves because my parents were the ones to decide to move and that means that I didn't have a say in the decision. When we moved from Woburn to Danville, my parents wanted to move because there was better real estate available in New Hampshire and less taxes than Massachusetts. When we moved from Danville to East Hampstead, my parents wanted to move because there was a better educational system in Hampstead and I would be going to Pinkerton Academy instead of Timberlane. In both of theses moves, there were pull factors that made my parents want to move to their new destination. Also, there were push factors that affected them as well, because there was poor real estate and school systems in the place that we lived in at that time.
My life connects to humans creating cultural mosaics because I am living example of a cultural mosaic. I am a person who is selfless and positive, I'm Irish, Italian, German, and Swedish but I like to consider myself mostly Sweet-ish, and I would like to become a plastic surgeon for medical purposes not cosmetic purposes because I like to help people and make them feel better about their disabilities. All of these things and more have created my own personal coat of arms and a cultural mosaic of my life which include my traditions, hobbies, family, and personality.
My life connects to humans balancing the forces of cooperation and conflict among different social groups because I buy products from different companies that may be competing or they could be combining like how companies share space in an office building. These companies can be considered different social groups that compete for customers. Also, I have different social groups of friends that I hang out with at different times and I introduced them to each other and they sort of combined because some of them had already knew each other so the social groups were cooperating to become friends with each other. Those were two examples of social groups cooperating and conflicting and they each relate to my life but I also effect how social groups work with the fact that there is drama between other social groups that people tell me about and I can effect how that drama plays out by getting involved or just watching it all play out. Since I am a non-conflicting type of person, I never get involved because I know what is good for me as a friend and I would just let the drama play out without me in it.
In the future, I think that future conflicts may happen in my life between my friend groups because there is drama between other social groups now which will continue in the future. This may interfere with my friend groups which could cause them to split into even smaller social groups. Also, there may be some combining of social groups in the future because some people in my different social groups know people from other social groups and could bring them into our social group.
In the game of Bullets and Ballots, I was in the United States' social group. My group was made up of four people and none of us could be silenced or kidnapped. We had to have all four of our people sign a treaty for it to be put into affect. Our group's goal was to become alliances with all of the social groups, get our banana plantations back from the Guatemalan Government, and have a Democratic leader for Guatemala who is friendly with the USA not just in trade but also with all foreign relations. During the game, the people in my group had always agreed on every treaty that we made as a group and there was a unanimous vote for decisions. Power shifted from the Guatemalan Government to the Army and Wealthy when the Army and Wealthy took over and tried to make the governmental system, an Oligarchy which essentially threw all of Guatemala off even the US. What this did was ensure that the Army and Wealthy kept their power over the poor and kept their wealth and status on the class rating. After the Army and Wealthy made their claim, we(the USA) stepped in and took over to ensure that the Guatemalan Government would stay a Democracy, the banana plantations would be restored to the peasants and to us, and to ensure that the Army and Wealthy wouldn't create a corrupt, military based Oligarchy.
Power shifted when the USA took over and took away the Army and Wealthy's MSU's and money and spreed it to the rest of the social groups. This made the Army and Wealthy basically powerless because they had nothing. If the game was real life, then the Army and Wealthy would become the Guerrillas because they were basically outcasts and they don't like the government for banishing them so the roles and the power shifted between the different social groups in this game. When the power was spreed to the other social groups, they were all cooperating with each other and when the USA took over, the Army and Wealthy was conflicting with the US taking over.