World Village

What I Learned in Cultural Anthropology Today

If the Earth's population could be shrunk to a village of 100 people, the community would be composed of:

• 57 Asians
• 21 Europeans
• 14 People from the Western Hemisphere (North and South)
• 8 from Africa
• 51 Females, 49 Males
• 70 Non-White Peoples, 30 White Peoples
• 70 Non-Christians, 30 Christians
• 50% of the wealth would be in the hands of 8 citizens of the United States
• 80 would live in sub-standard housing
• 70 would be illiterate
• 50 would be malnourished
• 1 would be near death, 1 would be near birth
• Only 1 would be college educated

How does this make you feel? I know how this makes me feel: very small, and yet larger than life.

I get to be from the North-Western hemisphere, female, white, wealthy, (assuming because I'm "wealthy") live in a decent home, have food, read, write, and be college educated.

I represent 1% of that community; one out of 100.

Wow.

Consider the wealth part alone... 50% of the entire communities wealth only in 8 people? Only one of us is college educated? Only 30 literate? How did Americans get this way, and at what cost? I'm not ungrateful, and I know that social, political, and biological stratisfication makes certain truths uninevitable - but to this degree? Hm. Makes you think.

What do you think?