As a proud Tswana woman, I look at and explore our endogenous culture and heritage that we practice as the Tswana ethnic group which can be found unfamiliar in other ethnic groups. The first endogenous practice would be our leadership structure, as Tswana people we are governed by a king who took the reign from inheritance or lineage and becomes responsible for making decisions for the betterment of the village or community but he does not make this decision alone he has to appoint a "Lekgotla" which is a royal council that assists and advice the king with any decision he takes regarding the betterment of the village or of that of the community. The king cannot make decisions alone without consulting these people and they come to a certain agreement afterward regarding that decision before the king can act on it. 

The second endogenous thing will be the tradition that revolves around the funeral of a loved one. When a close family member such as a mother or father dies certain practices are followed regarding the passing as a tradition, which is before the burial the person closest to the deceased has to sit on a mattress for the duration of the funeral and after the family, they cut off their hair and are required to wear black clothes as a sign of mourning and will be given a certain period where they will take them off in a ceremony context to honor the late

This may be unfamiliar to other ethnic groups, but it is endogenous to the Tswana people and has been practiced for years as it holds the heritage and culture of the Batswana people.

Networks that I encounter in my everyday life would firstly be my family both distant and immediate. My family does not only offer the exchange of material support but also emotional support and social support in my everyday life as I interact mostly with them. As I elaborate further material exchange in my family occurs when my parents or any family member buys me something or offers financial support which afterward is followed by emotional support which is the network exchange, I cherish the most as it is a foundation of one's life in this network exchange because family is a primary source and we are able to exchange emotional support, comfort, empathy and reassurance to one other. Social support is when I maintain connections with my distant family, and they also keep in contact with me where we plan family outings, gatherings, and celebrations which help us to engage with one another and exchange words of wisdom, our success and support to one another 

In my everyday life another Network exchange I encounter has to be the place I spend most of my time at which is my student accommodation, in my accommodation I share this certain network exchange with such as skills exchange as we don't know or do things the same, we are able to exchange knowledges amongst each other and teach each other certain things because we are in a diverse environment. I also come across the resource sharing network as because we live in the same setting, we are forced to share certain things such as the microwave, Fridge and stove this allows me to save money as a student because I'm not forced to buy anything if I can learn to share with my fellow housemates, the last exchange of network would be Safety and security as student we make sure that we look out for each other's safety as we live in the same accommodation this networks makes us be aware of our environment and safety as housemates  

I was woken up around 07:00 am in the morning by the smell of freshly baked muffins hitting my nostrils and that was an alarm enough for me to get out of bed and kick the covers off. Immediately when my feet hit the cold tiles the cold sensation that went through my body was enough assurance to me that I'm really awake now and not dreaming. I followed the smell of the muffin to the kitchen has my eyes were still adjusting to the lighting in the room and I found one of my housemates baking, the smell in the kitchen was enough to wear of all the grogginess. It was mouthwatering to the point that if I opened it saliva would drooling out of my mouth, I asked if I could have some and I was shouted I even thought my ears were falling off to go do my morning routine before touching those muffins I ran like a lightning bolt to the bathroom. 

I went and did my morning routine as fast as I could possibly manage so that I could run back to the kitchen before the morning traffic began. I went back to the kitchen and got served two humongous muffins that looked that they could eat me instead and a hot cup of coffee while busy enjoying my captivating breakfast it started not to taste nice anymore as at the back of my mind, I remembered that I had an unfinished assignment that was due, so I wrapped up breakfast.

I went and took my laptop to begin my fight with the monster that had awaited me and luckily after a few hours I conquered, I felt so sticky for sitting in one place for long and the hot temperature that penetrated my room didn't help much and I noticed how I had missed lunch those muffins must have filled me up. I went to take a well-deserved shower immediately when the hot water from the shower hit my skin I felt so alive and rejuvenated after I got into my sleepwear and went to start on dinner but when I was busy scrolling through my phone those pop up ads that usually show when you have internet connectivity showed up and I something could my eye from burger the was a special on a meal I liked and I thought this was my lucky day to be eating nice food I went to the online app to order. The service delivery is nice as my food only took about 15 minutes to arrive, I had my dinner and jumped on my bed preparing for tomorrow, another day.

There is these two words that I have encountered so many times but because I did not know the depth of them I did not understand the weight that they carried up until I did this module Social Anthropology. Stereotype and stigma best describe the ideologies that society has put in place may be beliefs or ideas about a particular group of people or person which often untrue and sometimes partially true 

The danger of a single story by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie best describes these words and how language in can manipulated to construct identities and representation of people or society as if you have a single sided story you already have made up a conclusion in your mind about that particular story. As we see the concept of "otherness" displayed in Body and Ritual Among Necirema (1965) By Miner where Necirema's practiced rituals, routines and relegates that were other or different from what society had put in place as "norms" it was then that Necirema's were criticized and stigmatized because of lack or poor understanding of their society

These two authors best describes what I have encountered, I myself have put stereotypes and stigmatization about some of the things happening in society in today's world in place mostly in gender stereotypes more like "Men should be strong ,independent and the primary breadwinner" because that is the stereotype that we grew up nurtured with it is more like a "brainwash" a working man is seen as a man amongst men and an unemployed man is seen as lazy with no direction in life and I think I have learnt that my assumptions of otherness are not mostly true because their only about the single side of the story I was given.