Keeping It Real

Cultural representations can be holistically and authentically real at times I believe. It all depends on the eye of the observer and their viewpoint on the culture. For example in the first reading in class, Nacirema, points very clearly to the fact that our own culture could seem very odd, irrational, and ritualistic to an outsider. But aren't we all outsiders to everyone else? Don't we see ourselves as "normal" and everyone else as "abnormal"? I think it is human nature more than ethnocentrism. My daily rituals would seem very irrational to another man of my age in different circumstances. That's where the saying comes from that you don't really know a person until you walk a mile in their shoes.

In the film, Keeping It Real, we see people paying to have real experiences outside of what is considered the norm. Perhaps, as more of our everyday reality is experienced through