Understanding Reciprocity. Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Although I was late for class, I was able to catch the jist of a very important conversation and lesson for that matter. Ashley was talking about the different things that we will face in the field, especially when it comes to culture and how we will react with individuals in their own societies.

I think about this often, because my biggest concern is to be able to build good relationships with the people I come in contact with and I am hoping to make friends with all that I become close to. I often think about how I might offend someone, so I try to be thoughtful and careful with my word choice and what I say to my friends, just as practice before I enter the field.

I liked that we learned about the boundaries that the culture will have and how it is my responsibility to respect those boundaries, since I am the "guest" in the field. Something that was brought up was the concept of leaving "no trace", and I thought that was interesting because we as students, will have to maintain our reputation. There have been many students before us and many after us, and it is my responsibility to make sure that I enter the field with a good and respectful attitude. With leaving "no trace", I think that's a difficult concept to grasp because no matter how hard we try to leave no trace and not to disrupt the culture, our mere presence is already causing some sort of change. However, I think that it is important to leave a positive trace. I think that it is good not to go into a culture and society and say "I am going to leave a positive trace and grace them with my presence", obviously this would be ridiculous. But I think that it would be great to enter the community with a positive outlook and think about how them as people who are just like me, just different, and who deserve my respect and love.

I thought that the different levels of reciprocities that Ashley shared were really interesting and they were also complex in their own way. For example, balanced reciprocity is the ideal! But I have a hard time with it because I tend to sometimes give more than needed, without giving others the chance to give back. When I am in the field, I want to make sure that I discern how balanced to be. The negative reciprocity is basically what I struggle with since I am willing to give instead of letting others equally give. Finally there was generalized reciprocity, which in all honesty I didn't really understand, but I feel like the whole concept of reciprocity is a very significant one when it comes to building and keeping relationships in the field and with the many with whom I will associate. I think I will get more of a feel for it once I am there.