Cultural Maneouvres- crouching, head-basket balancing..

Maybe in another life growing up in another country, I could have been one of those women, carrying baskets of food or my laundry on top of head..and walking along for a couple of kms. But it pains me abit just to look at those sheer loads that some of these women carry on their heads.

I've always wondered...some physical body movements...are culturally based ..movements we learned from babyhood onward in those countries. We most likely could do some of those physical movements if starting from a young age and if we saw everyone else around us doing the same movement/position.

I know for myself...there have been odd occasions where I've gotten bored and tired of standing at a bus stop. So, I crouch down, bend my knees and sit on my haunches, my bum not touching the ground, ..you know like what you see some people in Africa or Asia do, when they are vendors at a local market. It's actually comfortable. :) It's imitating my mother..who did do that position until she was into her 40's.

It maybe easier for me to do 'cause I'm short and small.. But in the end, maybe it's what we are taught and imitate movements of adults around us from babyhood.

I think it's what you learned. I knew a lady who returned from her first trip to Europe totally outraged about the seatless toilets. She could not sit on her haunches and demanded that i show her (i can do it) how to.

I have always felt ripped off because I can't hold baskets of eggs/jugs of water/ bundles of firewood on my head, especially after i read the article talking about how efficient it is in terms of energy output. You have to learn THAT as a child. I have seen older women doing it in Italy... so my great grandmothers could probably do it.

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Originally Posted by mimitabby

I think it's what you learned. I knew a lady who returned from her first trip to Europe totally outraged about the seatless toilets. She could not sit on her haunches and demanded that i show her (i can do it) how to.

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This is not on topic..but the opposite of the toilets with seats...people from rural areas in some developing countries aren't familiar with our toiletseats at all. In fact, they will stand onto the toilet seat astride and crouch down...to do their thing.

I confirm this when one of my cousin's children, who both just immigrated from China many years ago. The boy, at that time 6 yrs. old, was standing but crouched down on the toilet seat at my apartment bathroom, while his mama held his hand for him to balance. I was rather surprised to see this and quickly explained to them, about sitting down on toilet seat. I guess they stand around the open pit in the outhouse in rural China.

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Anyway, there must be a limit on the sheer weightload to carry stuff on top of head. But maybe it helps give a strong, straight posture..and back... :confused:

Some of these maneouvres just have to be culturally influenced. When my father was 75 yrs. awhile back, I saw him sitting on top of his legs underneath while he was looking for something underneath a piece of furniture. Now, dear father does not exercise so that movement had nothing to do with anything fitness-oriented. But it was a natural movement for him, for his body type. I don't think he realized what he was doing.

But I was even impressed to see it myself, something so ordinary in a family member yet not totally typical in North American culture/body movement.

As for this crouching positiion, I couldn't really find one quickly to illustrate, except for the black 'n white photo of a guy in this link:
http://kdriese.blogspot.com/2006/04/...or-horror.html

I think so much is culturally influenced, even down to our posture.

The toilet issue is so difficult. I work in a highly diverse area and there is a lot of conflict due to crouching, water bottles, and other things. I think there tends to be hostility because some things (ie crouching) don't mix so well with our culture unless you aim really really well.

Re the carrying things on your head, didn't anyone else have deportment lessons where you had to walk with a book on your head? Kinda sorta almost the same thing? Of course I'm not saying my etiquette lessons really worked....though it would be handy to carry groceries on my head as opposed to the backpack.

I think crouching for sitting is a wonderful thing. Imagine not relying on furniture? And I bet that stretches your quads too. As far as us (ie me) relying on crouching for sitting and other functions, ack! I would not adapt so well though it would probably be really good for me. Usually when I travel, I try to conform to whatever cultural norms exist where I go. Perhaps I will crouch some day but for sure, people in the U.S., will hear the creaking in my knees as I do :D

I love carrying stuff on my head. It's so much more comfortable than carrying things in my arms! I don't have the balance to just carry it "cold" though - I have to put a hand up for support. (I think when people in other cultures carry stuff on their head, they wrap a piece of cloth around their heads to create a larger platform, don't they?)

As far as squatting on my haunches - it's the flexibility in my Achilles that I lack. Since you're bent at the hips, you're not really stretching the quads. I'll do it, but generally I have to put one knee down and shift side to side.

Don't most American women crouch over public toilet seats? As far as aiming, that's kind of a pet peeve of mine, and not the way you'd think. Women have the physiological ability to pee standing up and aim accurately the same as men, it's just that our culture (and most world cultures) doesn't allow girls to learn to touch ourselves "down there" when we're of an age for toilet training. By the time I learned (in adulthood) that it's possible for me to pee standing up, I just don't have the patience to toilet train myself all over again - even in the shower where I won't have to clean up after my feeble attempts. I don't have kids, but it takes, what, months to a couple of years of every single urination for a little boy to learn to aim? I tried, I gave up. :o

Many moons ago, when I was in law school, there was a woman lawyer from India taking classes to get licensed here. I happened to be in an adjoining stall in the restroom. I looked down and noted that her feet were pointing in the opposite direction from mine. :confused:

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Originally Posted by OakLeaf

Women have the physiological ability to pee standing up and aim accurately the same as men, it's just that our culture (and most world cultures) doesn't allow girls to learn to touch ourselves "down there" when we're of an age for toilet training. By the time I learned (in adulthood) that it's possible for me to pee standing up, I just don't have the patience to toilet train myself all over again - even in the shower where I won't have to clean up after my feeble attempts. I don't have kids, but it takes, what, months to a couple of years of every single urination for a little boy to learn to aim? I tried, I gave up. :o

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I've never even considered it! I think I have something new to learn over summer vacation

Andrea, you have those quads built up well enough to hover. :)

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Originally Posted by SouthernBelle

I looked down and noted that her feet were pointing in the opposite direction from mine. :confused:

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I wanna can do that too.

talk about off topic!! :D:confused::eek::D

uh...to get this topic thread abit more on track (and I'm just as guilty for digressing...) :)

Other cultural-influenced movements..is really shaking your hips and abs fast when dancing..too bad I wasn't born and raised in the Carribbean islands for this.. :o I'm really stiff in my whole body when I dance...

As for good walking and sitting posture (if we can't walk around with stuff balanced on our heads), it seems to get rarer and rarer in each generation below us. Sitting at computers, wearing heavy knapsacks to school (which I don't recall much when I was kid), etc. When I was 13, there was actually a posture contest...and there was a posture queen. No guff. She sat behind me. And yes, she had elegant natural staight-back posture at that age...at 5'11". I went to school in Canada....:)

One thing that befuddled me when I did an Intrepid trip in The Philippines was..kids about 6 zooming up Mt Pinatubo with no worries of how to get across the rocks etc..

Why can't i be that agile? :rolleyes: :mad:

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Originally Posted by crazycanuck

One thing that befuddled me when I did an Intrepid trip in The Philippines was..kids about 6 zooming up Mt Pinatubo with no worries of how to get across the rocks etc..

Why can't i be that agile? :rolleyes: :mad:

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I didn't realize until I saw photos of people walking up and down the step-walls of those steep Aztec stone pyramid like temples, that the people living centuries ago, must have had a great sense of balance. :eek: Guess they learned it from childhood.