i202 Fall 2010 School of Information, UC Berkeley

This blog entry is an example of cultural categorization systems and how embodied language and culture can cause conflicts.

My extended family owns rice noodle factories in San Francisco that serve many of the Asian restaurants.  For the past year they have been having to deal with a new law that has put their noodle factories in jeopardy.   The reasons for this conflict stem from cultural categorization issues. 

Most of us have heard of service dogs — but what about service horses, chimpanzees, or parrots? Should they be treated the same way under the Americans with Disabilities Act that more "typical" or "expected" service animals are? Or should there be different categories within the designation of "service animal" to determine which companions are allowed in which public places? That's the subject of this December 31, 2008 New York Times Magazine story.