eth·nog·ra·phy
[eth-nog-ruh-fee]
noun
a branch of anthropology dealing with the scientific description of individual cultures.
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Clear as mud, right? It's basically a close-up, scientific and objective study of people groups and their lifestyles in order to document and hopefully explain their way of life. So what does this have to do with an English 1101 course? That's what I've been anxiously wondering all semester!
Leading up to this assignment, we have been discussing the meaning of literacy, and its involvement in our day to day lives. When I think of literacy, the first things that flood to my mind are the impossible literacy tests to disenfranchise blacks during Reconstruction Era and the strikingly low literacy rates in some third world countries. Following to these two examples, literacy to me always meant knowing how to read and write. But as we questioned this definition most of us agreed with, Lacy encouraged us to broaden our definition. Eventually, literacy became defined as simply as this: "things that communicate or represent other things."
Now to the project. Our trio was assigned to venture around UNC Charlotte in search of objects which could be perceived as forms of literacy. To relate back to what an ethnography is, this project could be seen as a study of the culture on our campus with a focus on literacy. A true ethnography though? Ehh...That's quite a stretch.
But nevertheless, our group met up early Tuesday morning at the Belk Tower to do a project virtually devoid of guidelines. I really enjoyed spending a class period walking around campus and taking the time to get to know the weird quirks around it. For example, we explored an old blacksmith shop, walked through the trails in the woods, found the grave of the founder of UNCC and the echo circle in the middle of campus. (Super cool side fact! The echo circle is not simply an echo, but an amplification of your voice. As the sound waves reflect off the brick building, exactly in phase with those traveling toward, they constructively interfere, increasing the amplitude of the waves, and thereby making it sound louder!)
On our wonderful adventure, we first noted the Belk Tower, which is allegedly supposed to be a pen with a jar of ink. Considering it's one of the tallest structures on campus, it could be taken to represent the power of the written word, and inferably, the spoken word as well. This is interesting to consider when we remember that this spot has a reputation for being where people often use their freedom of speech.
As we continued, we also recognized symbols as an object with an intent meaning recognized by everyone. Things like a picture of a man in a wheelchair painted in blue on the floors of parking decks or the image of a lit ciragrette with a red slash through it are understood by all. Certainly these are literate objects, warning to their viewers, "Don't smoke here!" or "Park somewhere else!"
In my previous post, I brought up how clothing could be literate, which is definitely an example that would fit under this category. Objects like rings could send messages like, "Married, Keep your distance!" or perhaps give mixed messages, like if a purity ring was confused with simple jewelry. The type of clothes we wear sends messages too. Professional attire shouts out, "I deserve your respect," while sweatpants might casually say, "Hey, I'm jus' chillin'." Sorority logos, religious symbols and hairstyles all can say things too.
This angle has really convicted me, because often times I just wear what's been given to me over the years without too much consideration. This project has made me stop to really consider what messages my clothes are throwing out there and what messages I want to be throwing out there. Especially since I am representing Someone.
So what are you saying...
when you aren't using words?
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Pictures to come! Waiting to get them from a friend.
Hi Lydia,
ReplyDeleteI liked how in the beginning you had the definition of Ethnography and the pronunciation of it. It gave me insight to what the book definition of ethnography was (although the definition itself sounds complex). I also liked your statement "while sweatpants might casually say, "Hey, I'm jus' chillin'." (that made me laugh, because it was random to me). I also had one last question: Why did you pick this topic or subtopic just wondering?
Well, I honestly wanted to write about the literacy of nature...like how we can read the clouds to tell what the weather will be, or how DNA is like the instruction manual for our body... but that wasn't an option, so I decided to volunteer for the "objects" group. And that was purely for simplicity sake, so that Lacy wouldn't have to deal with dividing up other groups more than she had to. :) I would have been happy with anything really.
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