Saturday, December 5, 2009
Response to Week 1 of Presentations
I found the first presentation groups very interesting in the way that they went about their ethnographies. First of all, the group that went to Howard University seemed to put a lot of their own personal ideas and experiences into the observations. For example, they dressed differently in order to not stand out, which may have skewed observations that they could have made if they just dressed normally. This also shows that they had preconcieved stereotypes about their subjects that, in my opinion, were far too general. It was surprising to me that in such a diverse group as theirs, that they would consider students at Howard to be much lazier and studious than students at American just because it is a historically black school. The other presentation with the Dav was also very interesting, because I felt that they actually did show a certain culture that is found there. It turns out that in their case, most of their stereotypes were actually true. The difference I think between the two presentations is that for the first one, none of the students had been to Howard before and had no idea what to expect, while most students at American have either been to, have friends that have been to, or at least heard of the Dav.
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I think the group from Howard actually did an excellent job, and I applaud them for their outright honesty in their preconceived notions and stereotypes that they brought into this process. Granted, they took a lot of heat for this during their presentations, but I refuse to believe that nobody else in the class could at least silently acknowledge what they were saying. Their presentation was in some way the best, because I seriously doubt that anybody questions whether or not there is a culture at Howard.
ReplyDelete-Dylan Parker
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ReplyDeleteI have to agree with Dylan on this. Their honesty about the stereotypes shows how little they really knew about students at Howard and how much they really learned. I do think it was wrong for them to "dress down", but they still ended up having a good presentation.
ReplyDeleteI think the main issue with the fact that they focused on the stereotypes wasn't the fact that they were wrong in having them but that they were a focus at all. An ethnography is an anthropological tool and process by which an anthropologists observes a cultural group to understand its organization and how it functions etc. while being aware of their own cultural bias but not letting their bias be the basis of their observation. It was excellent that the group was so honest in examining their bias but it might have led to a different kind of analysis had they not focused o greatly on their own stereotypes. Its seems as though their analysis was in a way formed around their stereotypes in an attempt to disprove them not to simply observe the culture as a whole. However i agree that it was very refreshing to have them be so frank and blunt with their bias. If they had more time to observe and do a real ethnography their honesty with themselves would allow them to have a better veiw of the culture.
ReplyDeleteLike I mentioned in my other posts, I don’t think it's possible to not let your personal experience affect your observations. I too, like the group that went to Howard, was wondering if I should dress differently when we went to Mass. I personally had no experience going to a Christian Mass and had no idea what to expect. I think my experience, being my lack of knowledge about this issue, would not really affect my judgment. When it comes to stereotyping, I think that the Howard group did a great job honestly addressing their preconceived ideas of the students. I do think it's important to not be biased in our observations. However, it is also hard to be 100 percent objective about things all the time because we will almost always have some previous thoughts about them. All in all, I think everyone did a great job addressing the issues related to their ethnographies.
ReplyDeleteThat's actually really interesting that you both brought up the issue of dress; I had more or less forgotten about the group including in their presentation how they "dressed down" for the observation process. I certainly can see how this would be taken as condescending or degrading, and how it may have offended some people. While I personally would not have employed this tactic, so to speak, it is their prerogative.
ReplyDelete-Dylan Parker
I dont disagree with you maryam it just in regards to anthropology it should not be the focus of the observation. all i was saying was that in a real ethnography it would be approached much differently. yet you have to be aware of you bias sure so they would have done a great job had they had the time to do a real one. Not that i dont think they did a good job anyway.
ReplyDeleteI wouldnt take it as degrading that they dressed a certain way its just that the extreme self consciousness and focus on the stereotypes and attempt to disprove them clearly led the ethnography. WHich was not a bad thing only a divergence form the purpose of a purely anthropological ethnography. Im not even sure that was the purpose here of this project and in doing so this group illustrated the difficulties in going to a very different culture and provided a fascinating presentation.