ASSIGNMENT MATERIAL
OVERVIEW
Often when one reads the word “culture,” structures and institutions
come to mind. However, culture is also the rituals, stories, and objects
that a group of people connected by region, family, or shared intellectual
inheritance enact with each other and teach to their children. The
institutions of culture are not the concern of the humanities. Instead,
humanities is the study of cultures’ creative expression and contemplates
metaphor, experience, and meaning. The humanities deals with concepts
such as good and evil, morality, feelings, and perceptions. It includes
religion, mythology, literature, storytelling, art, and philosophy. It is the
study of human-meaning-making. All subjects that struggle with human
meaning and human expressions of thought, emotion, and morality are a
part of the humanities. Within these subjects are specific academic
languages and practices. This can range from a literary or film analysis to
postmodern theory or gender theory analysis. These practices are meant
to draw out a deeper understanding of human expression, to clarify the
depth of the work, to provide a critique of the work, or to relate it to a
longer range of works.
Insider/Outsider
Within anthropology, a discipline placed within humanities and social
science, there is language used to describe research perspectives taken
while observing a culture either as an insider or as an outsider. These
technical terms are called emic and etic. Emic refers to looking at a
subject from inside a group. Etic refers to looking at a subject from
outside the group. Circles of people are connected by shared elements
of culture or subculture. This is best understood if you imagine cultures
like a city and subcultures like cohesive neighborhoods within the city.
Each neighborhood participates in the city, but it is clearly its own little
world when you are there. As you approach each neighborhood, you
may be an observer of the neighborhood, you may be from there, or you
may currently live there. Your relationship to a subculture makes you an
insider (emic) or an outsider (etic).
Whether you are looking from inside or outside a group affects the way
you experience, study, and write about that community. It is the
difference between an undergraduate student taking an academic
religious studies class about a particular religious text, versus a divinity
school or rabbinic school student studying that same text. The
perspective from inside a tradition is very different from the perspective
from outside. Both are valid, and both have elements that bring insight.
The current trend in anthropology and other humanities disciplines is to
take both inside and outside perspectives into account and attempt to
address the whole subject. One of the best ways to do this is with an
awareness of diversity.
In many ways this lens is what our diversity class is all about, an
understanding of cultural communities and the endless jostling of power
dynamics, fusions, co-optations, and cultural transmissions that occur
amongst people who are within any given identifiable group. The
identification of many groups at the external or organizational layers of
diversity are cultural constructions. The groups that are defined through
cultural omission of awareness, ability, or access often are outsiders,
different from normative expectation within the layers of internal
diversity. Humans associated with these groups struggle because their
culture has either not accounted for their existence, has not valued their
existence, or worse, has made their existence a reason to exclude or
harm them.
When looking at the diversity within cultures of the world, this notion of
insider and outsider reveals beliefs, assumptions, and values about the
paradigms of cultures of power. In the past, when subcultures were
defined and deconstructed by the official culture in any given era,
speaking of a culture as an outsider was often considered an element of
presenting an authoritative voice. Currently the preference among
researchers is to acknowledge the inside voice. This means looking at the
variety of languages and nuances within subcultures, taking into account
the various concerns and paradoxes that come with multi-vocal
assessments of culture.
When looking at a culture from the inside, nuances of cultural reporting
need to be considered. There are gatekeepers, people who hold, or
believe they hold, authority over a cultural experience and do not want
new people to enter without being vetted for the values of the
community. Gatekeepers exist for most new cultures. Currently, there is
also greater awareness of and investment in identifying places of
unacceptable cultural appropriation. Cultural appropriation is the use
of a cultural item, concept, or creative expression by a group or
individual not from that culture, without acknowledging, respecting, or
exploring the proper use of the element being used.
Unlike in the past, current trends in research consider the insider, who
holds authentic awareness, to be the authority of a subculture topic.
Consulting insiders helps scholars to better understand the correct
language and codes of conduct, as well as the issues affecting a
particular community. It is also becoming more common to design
diverse research teams that include scholars from the communities being
studied.
As we look at diversity through a humanities lens, it is a good idea to
think about the relationship between what a community feels like from
inside and what it looks like from outside. We started this overview with
a quote from S. E. Hinton’s novel The Outsiders, a book that explores the
tensions across socioeconomic class in the mid-20th century. In terms of
exploring and understanding diversity, storytelling—in forms such as
short stories, novels, memoirs, comic books, movies, or TV shows—offers
powerful ways to learn about and view experiences from people who are
different from ourselves. These ways of learning from another person
offer internal subjective insight that illuminates our awareness of culture
and brings us opportunities for empathy. Knowing where you stand in
relationship to a population will help you understand how to analyze an
experience. In this module you will participate in a discussion in which
you will look at a cultural expression of your choosing as an insider and
an outsider and discuss these concepts with your peers. You will also
review the resources to learn how understanding belonging affects
awareness of cultural expression.
References
Hinton, S. E. (1997). The outsiders. Puffin Books.
DIVERSITY PEERS RESPONSE
PLEASE USE THE MATERIAL PROVIDED AND ADD A REFERENCE
PLEASE CREATE FOUR SUBSTANTIAL PARAGRAPHS FOR EACH PEER AND ADD REFERENCES.
For your response posts, address the following:
1. Discuss your insider/outsider relationship to the cultural
expression your peer has shared.
Remember, this assignment is graded on the quality of your initial post
and at least two response posts to your classmates. If you refer to any
sources, be sure to include attribution (or citation) to the resource.
PEER 1
Leticia
Hi class,
1. A subculture that I identify with is a basketball mom/sports parent. Something
unique about this group is the amount of time and money we endlessly put into
our children and their sports. Some of us even take it as far as not doing
anything for ourselves or our children other then sports.
2. An insider might experience this cultural expression would appreciate the time,
effort and money put into our children and their sports. From spending every
weekend in a hotel to spending every evening at practice. This a lot of times is
the norm for those of us who have a child or children playing at a competitive
level.
3. An outsider might experience this cultural expression as absurd or abnormal.
They may find 100 other things they could spend their money and time on or
even believe that children at that age should not play at such a competitive
level. Something that I have heard a lot from my friends’ during season is
“Why can’t he just not go to a game/practice?” or “Why do you always have to
go watch him play?”.
4. Adopting both insider and outsider perspectives inform my understanding of
the social impact of this cultural expression by allowing me to see that the way
that my family is involved in sports is not a “norm” for everyone, but it also
helps me to understand that a balance is not only important but necessary. I
strongly believe sports are important, they have helped my introvert son
become more social and they have allowed him to stay active. I also can
understand the other side of it, there has to be a break sometimes and there is
more things that are important other then sports.
PEER 2
Nick
Choose a subculture you identify with and select a cultural
element or experience that expresses something unique about
that group.
One subculture that I identify with would be football fans in America. Football is the
number one sport in America and during the fall it becomes a culture. An experience
that expresses something about this group would be we all gather around a TV, yell
and scream, laugh and cheer just about a simple football game. A lot of us let our
football team determine our moods during Fall. Another unique thing about th is
subculture is we are mostly only prevalent during the fall and winter, we tend to find
other interests when the season is over.
How might an insider experience this cultural expression?
An insider would love this cultural expression. They would definitely understand what
it means to be passionate sports fans and I think eventually they would join in the fun
by getting emotionally connected to the sport. The main thing is that they would have
seen this subculture before and therefore would be very comfortable in this setting. An
insider would understand that the NFL is the most popular sport in America and
consistently ends up in the most watched tv “episodes” during the fall. An insider
would understand how big football and its fans have gotten over the last 50 years.
How might an outsider experience this cultural expression?
An outsider would probably be pretty confused as to why there are a bunch of people
yelling at a TV. An outsider would say things like “It’s just a game” or “why do you
care so much”, which in true outsider fashion would just anger the subculture more.
An outsider would get bored of the game easily and not have any vested interest in
the game. An outsider would probably not think about that game much at al l after it
ended whereas someone in the subculture might let it ruin or make their Sunday.
How does adopting both insider and outsider perspectives
inform your understanding of the social impact of this cultural
expression?
By adopting both insider and outsider perspectives, my own perspective is shaped. I
think that it shows that not everyone cares about this specific subculture and that’s
totally fine. The outsider to my subculture most likely has their own subcultures that
they are a part of that I might find to be not my thing and I can respect that. I think it
shows that there are so many subcultures out there and It’s ok if you don’t fit in a lot of
them.
Another thought I had while answering this question is that if you took a die -hard NFL
fan and die-hard soccer fan from Europe, you would be able to draw so many
similarities between the 2. Even though they are from 2 completely different cultures,
they would both act very similarly when their favorite team is on. I think by having
different perspectives about my subculture, I am able to see how both people in it and
out of it feel about it. Which gives me a snapshot of how it is generally viewed in
society.
COURSE MATERIAL
Reading: Our Unconscious Biases and Insider-Outsider Group Roles in
Business opens in new window
This short essay explores how one can see and learn more about the
insider/outsider status within professional and cultural environments. In
particular, the author explores how we might think more clearly about
how we include or exclude people in our work. This essay will help you
participate in this week’s discussion.
• What examples can you think of where you have felt as an insider
or as an outsider?
• What other ways might you find a way to help people feel like they
belong?
Reading: A Juneteenth Dilemma opens in new window
This brief article describes how some Black Americans perceive the
establishment of Juneteenth as a national holiday. It provides an example
of insider/outsider and the importance of considering various
perspectives of a single event. This article will help you contribute to this
week’s activity and discussion.
• What were your assumptions or beliefs about Juneteenth before
reading this article?
• What are your thoughts about how various groups should
celebrate the holiday?
Video: What Is Cultural Appropriation? opens in new window (10:15)
This video does a deep dive into explaining cultural appropriations and
the challenges it represents throughout society. This video will help you
complete this week’s activity and discussion.
• What are examples of cultural appropriation that you discovered in
the video?
• What are other examples you can think of?
Video: Representation Matters: Diversity in Children’s Literature opens in
new window (11:05)
This video explores the role diversity should play in children’s literature,
so children are exposed to content that reflects them as individuals and
introduces them to others who do not look like them. This video will help
you complete this week’s activity and discussion.
• Why is it important to have literature reflect everyone in a culture?
• Are there examples within your culture and subcultures where
diverse representation is missing or limited? How does that affect
who feels like they belong?
Reading: A Storyteller Makes Ancient Native American Tales New
Again opens in new window
This essay explores how Native Americans use storytelling as a key part
of their culture, and how they are adapting their traditions to navigate
the complexities of the 21st century. This essay will help you participate
in this week’s activity and discussion.
• How is storytelling woven into many Native American tribal
cultures?
• How does this article change your understanding of what culture
is?

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