Learning Journal #15

FIRST OFF: I promise I did this on time, for some reason I'm having a hard time posting it. Some funky computer-languaged notice pops up everytime I hit "publish post".... Wish me luck this time about. Here it goes:

"I've spend every day reconfiguring my senses"..... This is a line from a musical The Last 5 Years and though it has nothing to do with Ghana or dance, or even anthropology.... it has been running through my mind whenever I think of my project. POR QUE??? Well, "porque" I think I finally have it figured out. If you have read my field development notes, the last entry would probably give you a little cause for worry because I was freaking out about my topic.

It's been the same cycle: I pick a topic; start doing research only to discover my topic has been fairly well covered (or it becomes quite obvious in the point I'm trying to make); I then decided to change the angle of my project and the cycle starts over again. I thought I had broken the cycle with this idea of national leaders using dance as a means of promoting nationalism. However, that is obvious, and rather easy to study (because it's more of a fact than a theory).

The theory comes into play when I look at how this idea is changing the culture and society of Ghana. THAT is what I need to be studying.... not the fact that dance was used but rather what this is doing to the very culture of Ghana. It seems to me that what made Ghana so beautiful (or any African country for that matter) was the diversity that existed; but with this new mentality, that diversity is fading among youngsters.... and they are blending more and more into a national, united culture.

The title of my project really should be something along the lines of:

"Consequences on Local Ethnicity of Using Dance as Nationalist Propaganda: A Study in Asante Region, Ghana"

Or perhaps,

"Effects of Using Dance as Nationalism Tool on Rural Ghana"

Now that I have that figured out, it changes my methods only a little bit, I still plan on conducting a survey, and using participant observation... but its figuring out what questions to ask. So what is next on the agenda? A trip to go see Jacob Hickman (my 442 professor) because he'll be able to give me some great ideas.

ps. I finally have some ideas about a faculty mentor. Wish me luck! (I won't tell you who until I know if she says yes or not)

pps. My theories on nationalism are slowly taking shape so look for them in the next post!