Page 147 - Essencials of Sociology

120 CHAPTER 4 Social Structure and Social Interaction
All of us have background
assumptions, deeply ingrained
assumptions of how the world
operates. What different background
assumptions do you think are
operating here? If the annual “No
Pants! Subway Ride” gains popularity,
will background assumptions for this
day change?
bewilderment, even indignation and anger. In one
exercise, Garfinkel asked students to act as though
they were boarders in their own homes. They
addressed their parents as “Mr.” and “Mrs.,” asked
permission to use the bathroom, sat stiffly, were
courteous, and spoke only when spoken to. As you
can imagine, the other family members didn’t know
what to make of their behavior:
They vigorously sought to make the strange actions intel-
ligible and to restore the situation to normal appear-
ances. Reports (by the students) were filled with accounts
of astonishment, bewilderment, shock, anxiety, embar-
rassment, and anger, and with charges by various fam-
ily members that the student was mean, inconsiderate,
selfish, nasty, or impolite. Family members demanded
explanations: What’s the matter? What’s gotten into you?
. . . Are you sick? . . . Are you out of your mind or are you
just stupid? (Garfinkel 1967)
In another exercise, Garfinkel asked students to take words and phrases literally.
When one student asked his girlfriend what she meant when she said that she had a flat
tire, she said:
What do you mean, “What do you mean?” A flat tire is a flat tire. That is what I meant.
Nothing special. What a crazy question!
Another conversation went like this:
ACQUAINTANCE: How are you?
STUDENT: How am I in regard to what? My health, my finances, my schoolwork,
my peace of mind, my … ?
ACQUAINTANCE: (red in the face): Look! I was just trying to be polite. Frankly, I don’t
give a damn how you are.
Students can be highly creative when they are asked to break background assump-
tions. The young children of one of my students were surprised one morning when
they came down for breakfast to find a sheet spread on the living room floor. On it
were dishes, silverware, lit candles—and bowls of ice cream. They, too, wondered
what was going on, but they dug eagerly into the ice cream before their mother could
change her mind.
This is a risky assignment to give students, because breaking some background
assumptions can make people suspicious. When a colleague of mine gave this assign-
ment, a couple of his students began to wash dollar bills in a laundromat. By the time
they put the bills in the dryer, the police had arrived.
In Sum: Ethnomethodologists explore background assumptions, the taken-for-granted
ideas about the world that underlie our behavior. Most of these assumptions, or basic rules
of social life, are unstated. We learn them as we learn our culture, and it is risky to violate
them. Deeply embedded in our minds, they give us basic directions for living everyday life.
The Social Construction of Reality
On a visit to Morocco, in northern Africa, I decided to buy a watermelon. When I in-
dicated to the street vendor that the knife he was going to use to cut the watermelon was
dirty (encrusted with filth would be more apt), he was very obliging. He immediately bent
down and began to swish the knife in a puddle on the street. I shuddered as I looked at the
passing burros that were urinating and defecating as they went by. Quickly, I indicated by
gesture that I preferred my melon uncut after all.