Problem
By this point in the semester, we've usually run into a discussion of morals and values at least once or twice, but what are they really? From an anthropological perspective we're dealing primarily with norms, which are limits on our behavior. Cultures are always changing, so those limits change as well. What was once acceptable becomes unacceptable and vice versa. Even in the relatively short history of the U.S. we've seen a lot of changes in values. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Andrew Jackson are often considered great men in our culture, but all of them owned other human beings, a practice we now find morally reprehensible. What does that say about them? What does it say about us? (Is it okay to say "well it was accepted in those times?") What are the forces behind changes in values? Do the values change or does the culture? Can you think of a value that's changed recently? (Same sex marriage? Okay, that was easy, how about another one?) What changed that gave us a new sense of our values? How does the culture or the value change? Is it a straightforward process?
Another question that arises for me is that every generation in every culture sees the older generation as somehow better than the current one, that somehow things have slipped and that young people have no values. Why do you think this is? Is this really true or is it a social recognition that values have changed and people are uncertain about what the changes mean? (My grandmother used to lament that nobody dressed nice anymore, especially at church, yet she was also part of a generation that made sure schools, buses, and even drinking fountains were strictly segregated by race. What will my grandchildren shake their heads at me for? And I at them?)