GOOD NEWS! I HAVE A COURSE CONTRACT!!! YAY!!!! So, it's not with my faculty mentor (though I do know who I will use for that as well...) but it is with the wonderful KAREN JENSEN. She is a dance professor here at BYU who went to Ghana several years ago to teach dance to a deaf school in Mampong.
PS. Mampong is literally right next to Wiamoase so it seems like a perfect fit. She is going to help me know how to analyze the dances I see (what I should be looking for, methods I could use, etc). And the best part about it? She was excited too! :)
Now that I have that all figured out, I was able to do some more reading on nationalism. A really fascinating topic this is turning out to be. What I read this week (and more importantly, how it applies to my project) is about the history of nationalism... what factors cause this ideology to appear. One event Anderson pointed out was the Exploration Age of Europe. *cough, cough* also known as COLONIALISM *cough, cough* With this age of expansion came new ways of living... but also a superiority complex. With people to compare to, Europeans developed this idea of "ours" versus "theirs"; "ours is the better way". You can see how this started to create a division between territories (or countries).
Another thing that caused division was the solidity of borders. Before this time, most countries had very fluid boundaries, allowing easy access into the country. But then, kings gained more power, borders became less flexible, thus creating a stronger sense of nationality. I was pondering on Ghana and how before Europe came, there were simply ethnic groups and their lands, though the borders were pretty fluid, not well defined at all. But then, some people drew lines on a map saying "This is Ghana". Now, the people within those lines are attached to a country-- one country.
Anyhoo, that is what I learned this week... I'm really excited about the progress I am making in regards to national identity and trying to piece it into Ghana's history. By doing this, I will be able to gain a better understanding of what I will be looking for when I am there.
Corrine! Congrats on getting a super course contract set up! It sounds like the perfect fit for you! What kinds of things do you have to do for it? Man... I need to get working on my own contracts! Yikes!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations, so exciting! Having the dance faculty on board should round out your faculty resources nicely. Dance and Anthro are a great combination. By the way, I had wanted to connect you with Deborah who did Dance Ethnography last Sp/Su in India. Did I already do this and just don't remember? Let me know. You could also refer your faculty to the faculty she worked with for her to get a better idea of how this whole thing works.
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