Sociological Perspective In The Movie 'The Gods Must Be Crazy'

Mansi Chaklasia
SOC 101-08
Ms. Patterson
November 11, 2011
The Sociological Perspective The sociological perspective is the special point of view in sociology that sees general patterns of society in the lives of particular people. The sociological perspective can be applied to virtually anything, ranging from art to a zombie. In movies and television shows such as, Smallville, Gandhi, and The Gods Must Be Crazy, the sociological perspective is displayed.
Smallville is a television show that is based in a small town in Kansas, called Smallville, which was greatly affected by a meteor shower years ago. The meteor rocks that fell during the meteor shower have the ability to transform an ordinary human being into an extraordinary superhuman.
The movie explores social stratification, class system, and caste system of the British Empire and India. Social stratification is a system by which a society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy. In the movie Gandhi, Gandhi was a lawyer who had abundant connections in Britain and India. He was born into a wealthy family, which helped him succeed and gain his connections. It was also the trait of society, and not just a reflection of individual differences, that made Gandhi a great leader. “The caste system had been a fascination of the British since their arrival in India” (Hobson), the narrator spoke while introducing the movie. There is tremendous difference between class system and caste system. Class system is social stratification based on both birth and individual achievement while caste system is based on ascription. In India, there are the wealthy, the middle-class, and the untouchables. From birth, the Indians were born into a particular class and typically they remain there from generation to generation. Many people in India do not experience social mobility, which is a change in position within the social hierarchy. However, in the movie, Gandhi was a unique individual who decided to move from a wealthy social standing into the lower class in order to understand the
It is a story of the journey of a Bushman, named Xi, to the end of the earth to get rid of a coco-cola bottle. The coco-cola bottle, that is supposedly a gift of the gods, is part of the material culture, or physical things, of the Bushman tribe. Before the bottle “fell down from heaven,” the Bushman’s nonmaterial culture was perfect. They were happy because the gods had provided them with everything they thought they needed, and no one in the tribe had unfulfilled wants. However, the coke bottle exposes the tribe to jealousy, envy, anger, hatred, and even violence. Since the bottle had caused the tribe unhappiness, Xi decided to throw it off the edge of the world. His search for the end of the world leads him to have a culture shock when he discovers the western civilization. Culture shock is a personal disorientation when experiencing an unfamiliar way of life. Xi especially experienced culture shock when he was sent to jail for shooting a goat with a tranquilizer arrow. He was oblivious to the concept of ownership; all he wanted was food. He was an alien in the environment of a prison cell. He did not understand what this place was or why he was being sent there. The industrialized culture was different from the bushman’s culture. The industrialized culture was fast paced, impersonal, and values material objects, as opposed to the Bushman’s culture. Xi grew up