#samuelpfister

[gwanth1002]

Transnational Migration

Transnational migration is defined as regular movement of a person between two or more countries, resulting in a new cultural identity. Pictured above is a friend of mine (posted w/ permission) raised in Cairo, Egypt, and now studying economics at GW. Because of the nature of his parents’ work, he frequently travelled between the United States and Egypt. Attending an English-Speaking school in Cairo, he has long experienced Egyptian and American culture both in his travels and schooling. This has resulted in a cultural identity where he still strongly identifies with his Egyptian heritage but has also adopted and belongs to American culture especially in music and other performance culture. While his transnational migration was not out of economic necessity, nor forced back-and-forth migration, his identity as a dual-citizen has been shaped by his travel.

Institutional Migrants

While I don’t have a picture of the event, two weeks ago I attended an event with the new incoming University President, Thomas LeBlanc in which he talked about the community culture of GW. One of the topics he talked about was the feeling of isolation and failed full-integration of international students. One of the concerns raised by two international students was the lack of a program or initiatives which really looks to welcome and integrate international students. Major concerns over GW’s current program for international students included ‘international student-only’ events which seemed to further isolate international students from the greater student body, and that any sort of integration initiative felt forced, lackluster, and inadequate. On page 331, Miller discusses the difficulties of adjustment stress and mental health concerns for international students often because of the culture differences. Right here at GW, this is clearly a problem that many students in the international community are looking to address.

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Bilineal and Patrilineal Descents

My father’s grandfather moved to the United States from Germany sometime in the late 20th century. Decades later, little is known of the origins or ancestry of my fathers’ side of the family before immigration to the United States. In the 1960s, my grandfather was scouring a flea market and came upon the above pictured crest, and promptly bought it for $3 and painted “Pfister” across the banner. Or so that is the story that has been passed down in my family now for three generations. My grandfather passed the crest to my uncle (older than my father) who then passed it to my father, who gave it to me. In this way, my family name (and this crest with it) is passed down patrilinealy.

While my family seems to typically measure our descent bilineally, in that we don’t only measure descent as coming from the males in the family, there is definitely a strong sense of appreciation for the family name “Pfister” and its passage from generation to generation that was instilled in my father and uncle by my grandfather. Perhaps growing up a first generation American with little connection to extended family, my great-grandfather gave more important to the family name as one of the only things connecting his family to the family still in Germany. So its almost novel how a strong appreciation for a family name and giving weight to its ancestral importance resulted in a feaux family crest purchased at a flea market.

Nuclear & Extended Households

This weekend my parents visited for a day and at one point we got on to the topic of kinship when I was talking about my classes. I make note that the form of the household is a very fluid notion. Most of my life, I’ve lived in a nuclear household including my parents, and earlier in my life, my older sister. However, for a few months while I was in high school, my grandmother lived in our home making an extended household with three generations of the family under one roof. For a time, I lived at my uncle’s house, thus making his home an extended one through my presence. As family comes, goes, changes, and expands, households are often subject to change of state.

(right picture: mother and father)

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Pictured: Left Me Holding Rose last week when I went to visit her. Right: Her just this week getting excited to go out for a walk after day care!

I couldn’t help when reading this chapter but talk about one of the most important aspects of my life over the past 8 months: becoming an uncle. I wanted to discuss generally my personal connection to the ‘Birth, Infancy, and Childhood’ section of the reading.

Kinship / Birth

This past June my sister Laurie (29, married, schoolteacher, generally has life together) gave birth to a baby girl to be named Rose Bauman Palic. This was a huge family event for both sides of the family and my sister and brother-in-law asked that both sets of grandparents be present. Considering Brigitte Jordan’s (1983) study on birth practices, while births in the United States are to some degree impersonal, and small occasions, my sister on the other hand decided to include more of the family. I recall her complaining to me later about how upset she was after Rose was taken to the nursery and how little and infrequent time she actually got to spend with the newborn during the first few hours. The common practice of hospital births in Euro-North America is not a global norm. Some western countries have opted to utilize advanced technology and medicine to decrease infant mortality and improve health conditions around birth and pregnancy. However, this has to some degree come at a cultural cost; hospital births are often criticized for being impersonal and callous in the separation of infant and mother.

Bonding

It is interesting to consider the socio-economic conditions for bonding with newborn infants. The most obvious is employment and paid family leave especially for mothers. Most western countries have some sort of government regulated paid or maintained occupational leave of absence for mothers (and many for fathers) in order to focus on the difficult task of raising newborn children. While my brother-in-law could barely take a week off from work, my sister, a teacher, was able to take off the entire fall semester in order to raise Rose. For many working families, especially those that rely on multiple occupational incomes, or struggle to get by, it can be difficult or even impossible to take absence from work. Many families depend on the income. In other parts of the world outside of the same style social economy as the United States, child rearing, and taking care of infants after birth takes on an entirely new form. As Thomas describes in ‘The Old Way,’ raising a child is incredibly different because of the scarcity of resources. Thus, women and men must both actively contribute significantly more when raising children, until they can begin to sustain themselves.

[gwanth1002]

Generalized Reciprocity

As I sit here thinking of exactly what to write about, connecting last week’s readings with my everyday encounters, I can’t help but notice that consumption and exchange in our society is nearly inescapable. Immediately I recall a snapchat I took earlier this week while with my study group of 2 years. One of the above images is of my friend Cece holding a box of girl scout cookies I brought for the group to share. Almost every week for the past few years, we’ve gathered to study and in that time, have learned one anothers’ coffee orders, preferred 2am study snacks, and other small pick-me-ups to help one another get through the long, late hours in the library.

It’s not expected, nor are these small gifts ever requested. Over time, it has become common practice to just do these small things for one another with the understanding that there is no inequality in the group. There’s no leader, nor do we respect one individual more than any others because of the frequency of the ‘gifts’ they bring to study-time. The trust and mutuality we share means that no one is gifting with the intention of something personal to gain. They are simply a physical by-product of our social interaction, respect, and interpersonal relationship.

Modes of Consumption? Modes of Exchange.

Consumption and Exchange struck me again as I endured the devastatingly long line of GW package services. The number of boxes that go through that department on a daily basis shocks me. The way we consume goods is always changing, and in a society that embraces capitalism and consumeristic tendencies, we are always searching for the most innovative, and efficient ways of conducting exchange and consumption.

Just a quick look at the number of amazon boxes in package services is an indicator of our reliance on the internet and long distance platforms of purchasing goods. As students living in a city we have almost endless options for consumption, yet we still so heavily rely on our privileged ability to click-order something from thousands of miles away and have it brought literally to our feet.