Week 3 - Posting 3

Thus far for my paper, i have no yet interviewed or met with any informants. However, I have discussed possible informants with a member of the subculture that I am doing my fieldwork. Some of the potential questions that I plan on asking are:

- What is the best part about being involved in Delta Zeta?

- Do you have any regrets?

- Can you explain any of the rituals?

- Can you explain more about the Greek life?

- What is rush like? What is to be expected when someone is going into rush?

- What are some of the things that you can tell me about chapter?

- What are the academic requirements?

I feel that these questions are important for my research because they are all important things for people to know when thinking about going Greek or if they just want to be more informed about sorority life. 

When I attend my cultural site, I plan on taking notes on things that are going on around me. However, I am not yet certain of what the President of Delta Zeta will allow me to attend. I do plan and visiting my cultural site in the next week or two though. 

Research Plan - Class 1/27

The subculture that I am planning on doing is sororities. For my research, I will be interviewing the president of the Delta Zeta Chapter at Ball State and a few of the other members to get an inside view on sororities. I may also find myself interviewing a few of the members of the Chi Omega chapter. I am planning on conducting around five or six interviews with the various different people. 

I am still needing to contact the president of the "DZ's" to find an appropriate time to conduct the interview. After I converse with the person in authority, they will let me know what events for the sorority I am allowed to be present at. This is because some of the events that go on may only be allowed to happen within the sorority. I am planning on going to the library in the next week or two to gather some text-based research to begin my research on looking into the sororities. 

QUESTIONS:

i. People should be interested in this subculture because they may be interested in joining a sorority herself. In a males perspective, they may want to know what goes on in sororities. Another reason someone may want to know about his is so they can put rumors or biases that they have about the culture and see what really goes on.

ii. why do you feel your subculture is important?

iii. What do you want outsiders to know about the subculture?

Class: Jan 20

Subculture: Catholic

- data sources

- internet

- interviews with people of authority in the church

ex: priest, deacons, brothers, sisters, bishops, pope, cardinals, etc.

- the Bible

- Religious brochures

Things that I may see when I conduct my research about my subculture are likely to include things that are found within the Catholic Church. These things may include a cross, pews for the parishioners to sit in, a baptismal font, and the Hymn books that contain the prayers that are sung throughout the Mass. Like the church i attend back home in Fort Wayne, the church that I may attend to carry out my research for this paper may be decorated with beautiful artwork portraying pictures of religious events and people like the stations of the cross and the Virgin Mary. Some other things that I may find when I am doing my research will be the Vestments that the priests and deacons wear during the Mass and what each color represents for the liturgical year. 

When searching on the internet for things that are connected to that Roman Catholic faith, i may find things that i disagree with that may be sufficient to add to my research. This is because being Catholic myself, I have come to notice that people seem to like to form their own opinions pertaining to this certain religion. Some of these may be that Catholics tend to be alcoholics and another may be that Catholics are more "snobby" and "stuck up" than people of other religions. I think that these could be additions to my paper because it shows that just like other religions, there is always going to be someone that disagrees with it.

While preforming my research on Roman Catholics, I am confident that I will not have any tribulations with finding good concrete information to provide a great deal of knowledge to an outsider who is uninformed about this remarkable faith.

Pg. 15 Box 2

Everyone one has something that they preform everyday without thinking twice about. There are certain ways that people preform these activities that may seem completely foreign to someone in another culture. One of the activities that i preform everyday that may seem unusual to someone from another culture is the way that i blow dry hair. First, i apply hair products to only the roots of my hair and then i begin drying it the heat setting on high. My bangs are blow dried first so that they will lay the way that i want them too. Then i blow dry the left side of my hair using a round hair brush and then move on the the right side. After that, i flip my hair upside and point the blow drier towards the bottom layer of my hair. Something that may seem weird to an outsider about this process would be the feeling of astonishment for a tool that can electronically dry hair with heat instead of allowing it to dry naturally with just the air. In countries that are not as technically advanced as the United States. They may find it strange that there is technology that can be used for such a simple activity and they may find it unnecessary that there needs to be a tool to do it when the air can accomplish the same thing on its own.