It has been said that man produces himself in no way that implies a kind of deviance against that traditional or moral of a solitary individual. An individual’s self-production is always, and of necessity, a social enterprise. Man together produces a human environment, with the totality of its socio-cultural and psychological formations. Social order is not part of the "nature of things," and it cannot be derived from the "laws of nature. " Nevertheless social order exists only as a product of human activity.
It is the result of past human activity and its existence in any given moment of time, it exists only and in so far as human activity continues to produce it. The Social Construction of Reality, Berger & Luckman suggests that all human activity is subject to habitualization. Any action that is repeated several times is thrown into a model, which can then be reproduced with an economy of effort and which, “ipso facto” is apprehended by its performer as that model. Berger & Luckman argue that habitualization also implies that the action in question may be performed again in the future in the same way and with the same economical effort.Habitualization carries with it, an important psychological gain that choices are limited to one. This frees the individual from the burden of "all those decisions," providing a psychological relief that has its basis in man's undirected instinctual structure.
Habitualization provides the orientation and the specialization of activity that is lacking in man's biological material, thus relieving the accumulation of tensions that result from undirected drives. Habitualization makes it unnecessary for each situation to be defined as a new, step-by-step process.A wide variety of situations may be considered under its predefinitions. The activity to be undertaken in these situations can then be anticipated.
Berger & Luckman argue that empirically, the most important part of the habitualization of human activity is co-extensive with the latter’s institutionalization. Institutionalization occurs when there is a reciprocal typification of habitualized actions by types of peoples. The typifications of habitualized actions that constitute institutions are always shared ones.They are available to all the members of the particular social group in question, and the institution itself typifies individual actors as well as individual actions. Reciprocal typifications of actions are built up in the course of a shared history; therefore they cannot be created instantly. Institutions always have a history, of which they are the products.
It is impossible to understand an institution adequately without an understanding of the historical process in which it was produced.Institutions also, by the very fact of their existence, control human conduct by setting up predefined patterns of conduct, which channel it in one direction as against the many other directions that would theoretically be possible. It is important to stress that this controlling character is inherent in institutionalization as such, prior to or apart from any mechanisms of sanctions specifically set up to support an institution. However, it is important to emphasize that the institutionalizing process of reciprocal typification would occur even if two individuals began to interact they would be responsible for having created this world.Both individuals remain capable of changing or abolishing it. Since these individuals themselves have shaped this world in the course of a shared biography, which they can remember, the world thus shaped appears fully transparent to them.
An institutional world, then, is experienced as an objective reality. It has a history that comes before the individual's birth and is not accessible to his biographical recollection. The institutions are there, external to the individual, persistent in his or hers reality, whether the individual likes it or not.It is important to keep in mind that the objectivity of the institutional world, however massive it may appear to the individual, is a humanly produced, constructed objectivity. Berger ;amp; Luckman emphasize that a child is born into the world of his parents and grandparents and he or she is unaware that this world is a human creation, that the definitions that are applied to him or her are a product of someone else’s reality.
According to the authors the reciprocal typifications of actions are built up during the course of shared history nd to understand the social reality of certain groups of people, one has to understand their history. In regards to Niezen essay the phenomena of cluster suicide in some indigenous communities can sometimes result from the elaboration of collective idea. The influence on individual behavior of shared ideas about acceptable or inevitable death resulting from a clear indication of the influence of social life on the motives and behavior of the individuals who committed suicide.The whole idea of self-destruction is most concentrated; the possibility is greatest that it is being influenced by shared ideas and values. However Berger ;amp; Luckman would argue that the social origins of suicide in the indigenous communities pays particular attention to their distinctive historical background, marked very often by the impacts of political domination, displacement and economic marginalization, can be seen as having ramifying effects on every aspect of their lives.Both Niezen and Berger ;amp; Luckman, use phenomenology to try and understand the situation of First Nations youth.
Unfortunately, the history with our government in regards to the behavior towards the indigenous is not something we could take pride in. Attitudes of racial and cultural superiority led to a suppression of indigenous culture and values. They have been impacted with the actions as Canada has weakened their identity by suppressing their language, culture, and spiritual practices.It has disaggregated, disrupted, limited or even destroyed by the dispossession of traditional territory, by the relocation of the indigenous peoples.
Acknowledgments must be made that the result of these actions was the erosion of the political, economic and social systems of indigenous people and nations (Hutchings). Significant variation in the historical experience of different regions, communities or extended families, particular traumas of collective displacement that can be seen to correlate consistently with the occurrence of suicide clusters as well.The collective traumas included being forced relocate, loss of subsistence in conjunction with large-scale resources extraction or the lasting effects of a particularly abusive residential school. Both Niezen and Berger ;amp; Luckman utilized phenomenology to understand the connections between personal troubles, a troubled historical legacy, and cultural discontinuity.
Phenomenology allows sociologist to promote an understanding of the relationship between states of individual consciousness and social life. Phenomenology provides ociologist with the skills needed to reveal how human awareness is implicated in the production of social action, social situations and social worlds. While social constructionism provides sociologist with meaning to why individuals behave the way they do. In the case of cluster suicide in the indigenous community, the Suicide phenomena may likely result from a socially constructed theory rather than cultural discontinuity or the need to belong. It just depends on the meanings that the individual utilizes to understand or interpret this phenomenon.
References Niezen, R,. 1993.Traditional helping systems and social services among the James Bay cree. James Bay: Cree Board of health and social services of James Bay.
Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann [1966] The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise its the Sociology of Knowledge. Garden City, New York: Anchor Books, pp. 51-55, 59-61.
Hutchings, C. Canada’s First Nations: A Legacy of Institutional Racism. Retrieved Oct 21, 2011, from http://www. tolerance. cz/courses/papers/hutchin.
htm Niezen, R, (1993). Suicide as a form of ownership: Causes and Consequences Cluster suicides in Aboriginal communities.
