Social Scalpel Examples

The social scalpel according to Zerubavel “Helps us carve discrete mental slices out of reality” (Zerubavel 1991:27). The Social Scalpel also involves language. Language “allows us to detach mental entitles from their surroundings and assign them fixed, decontextualized meanings, it also enables us to transform experimental continuum into discontinuous categories” (Zerubavel 1991:29). Another example from the article of the social scalpel is the process of learning. In this example, it is dealing with the concept of a burger. Adding cheese to a hamburger makes it a cheeseburger, but adding lettuce to a hamburger does not make it a lettuce burger. It is still a hamburger (Zerubavel 1991:28). From this example, it is learning what gives a person or object its identity. In the hamburger example, it is the kind of meat and not the condiments that give the burger its identity (Zerubavel 1991:28).

Splitting is the division or separation of people, objects, and ideas that do not fit into the category. Lumping and splitting are exhibited in the reading of Fear from Falling by Peggy Orenstein. An example of lumping in this article which is simple is that the article discusses about the students at Weston school and the concept of a sex. Another example is what all males at Weston get taught when it comes to sexual education. Also, what all the females at Weston get taught when it comes to sexual education. When it comes to all the males being taught about sexual education, the instruction talk about their feelings about sex (pleasure), climax, and masturbation. The males are group into this category to enjoy sex. When it comes to the females at Weston being taught about sexual education, they are taught to avoid sex and to avoid the feelings and desires about sex. The females are mostly taught about their Anatomy and Physiology of their bodies. They are also taught how a female is supposed to