My Reflection on Shutz's Theory on Stranger, I chose Muslim Religion on Wearing head gear - Essay Example

Therefore, on Monday 20th of October, I went direct to their office which was next to the Mosque. I contacted all the group members and sent each other questions for the research through email address. Apparently, one member of the group turned up. Due to ethics, I went with the Research Assignment letter and showed the man who was in-charge of us in order to gain access to the premises. He gave us the permission to photograph the Mosque and accompanied us inside the mosque. He took us all-round, told us that we could ask him any questions that we wanted, and if I managed to get a woman for research, that was fine.

He also showed me the side of the woman section where men were not allowed to enter because it was the standard guidelines of the religious building. We also had to remove our shoes off as we entered the mosque. In this case, we were totally strangers as per the concept of stranger given by Alfred Schutz. When a person has cultural differences and comes to live with the people of some culture, he is a stranger because he had a different world where he was brought up. For example, if a person goes to live with an alien, the person is stranger for the alien because of difference of lifestyles (Schutz).

As cited in (Dillon, 2014), the stranger is someone who has a set of habits different to those of the host or dominant cultural group. As such strangers invariably challenge the ways they encounter in their new environment, the Muslim women who wear the head gear are seen different from others. Muslim women go to the mosque for prayers and wear their head gear when they go outside the environment but when they are at home they do not to wear them. The stranger, therefore, Schutz argues, basically questions all of the things all of the everyday ways of doing things, that are taken for granted by the in-group (Community in which he or she seeks acceptance); their ways are