Discuss The roles of power and social stratification - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages... These western influences impacted on Lia’s family in several ways; first of all, they became entangled in constant tugs of war with the American doctors who brushed of Hmong strong cultural beliefs as unreasonable and stupid. On the contrary, Lia’s family believed in the Hmong beliefs, and in it, was confused by the medicine administered by the doctors together with the Hmong rituals they were still holding onto. The other effect that Lia’s family encountered while on foreign soil was that by accepting the [new] western cultures. To them, the western cultures were overly rude and disrespectful as was seen in the medical settings. In the Hmong beliefs, a doctor could not undress a patient or use powerful drugs on them. These were, however allowed in America. Again, they did not understand the medical explanation for epilepsy as an effect to the brain; rather, they perceived of it as “exit” of one’s soul, which to them was caused by Lia’s sister banging the door to her little sister. These are some of the cultural challenges they encountered in America.
On the other hand, the statuses of the Hmong were also affected by their arrival to America. At the outset, they comprehended that they had plunged themselves into an excessively stratifying culture, and in the segregation that followed, they felt less welcome and enslaved in the west. This is because the westerners perceived on the Hmong as inferior and “contaminators” of their culture. As such, they looked upon them as mere aliens invading their land and went on to be rather harsh on them. The effect of this was the Hmong is acquiring lower levels of esteem while on foreign soil. On the other hand, they also deteriorated materially in that they did not find any worthy jobs to act as sources of life for them and had to compete with unemployed Americans in seeking for demeaning jobs. Their unemployment statuses were ...Download file to see next pagesRead More