With the reality that Ghana is less than a month away (AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!) my mind is starting to reel about what it is actually going to be like. But mostly, right now, my mind is reeling about my proposal.
As I mentioned in my last entry, I switched back to my original project-- nationalism and dance. I've very excited about this switch and in rewriting my proposal, I can see the ideas maturing a lot. It is a really cool experience to go through... just when I think I've reached a deep level of the ideology backing my thesis, I discover a new journal article that sends me deeper into the chasm of anthropological theory. :) For instance, I've been reading up A LOT on dance ethnographies and the ideas pushing it forward into the front-lines of anthropological work. In one of the articles I read recently, the author posed the question of how dance even fits in with the normal studies of social movements and other things that anthropologists study. Here was his answer:
"Kealiinohomoku has talked about the "nonart"of dance. Hanna claims "that dance is linked to the life of a society by affecting cultural patterns, tension management, goal attainment, adaptation, and integration" (4, p. 96). Royce has investigated the social and political aspects of dance in plural societies (36) and dance as an indicator of social class and identity (35). Kaeppler has examined dance as an integral part of social structure (12) and as a surface manifestation of deep structure (13). Others have recognized the importance of dance in ritual, and studies
in progress on the ethnography of performance and on event analysis also
promise new insights." (Kaeppler 1978: 47).
There is SO much to be learned from dance... and I'm just scratching the surface with nationalism.
What do I need to be working on? I realized today that I really need to be thinking of questions that I want to be asking!! (cause I'm surely going to need more than 25!)
Showing posts with label dances. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dances. Show all posts
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
LEARNING JOURNAL #12
So, this past week has been very interesting. I got a chance to interview a Ghanaian for a methods practice, and tomorrow, I will be practicing participant observation (in case you were wondering, I'm going to the gym... so I can work out, and observe the people there). I thought that would be a fun place to go observe people.
From my interview, I realized that practicing will be sooooo important. But also, I realized how important it is to know exactly what you want to know. Because I had a general idea of what answers I wanted from.... we'll call her 'G'..... I was able to ask the right questions. This is such an important part of interviewing. After the interview was over however, I realized there were still so many things I wanted to know and ask her about. This is why I'm grateful that I'll be able to establish relationships with people in Wiamoase in order to ask them anytime, any question that I have.
The second most important thing I learned from the interview was that I need to get more narratives.... I should've had G simply talk more about dancing, give me examples, etc. Why would this be important? Well, number one, by her giving me examples I will have a better understanding of what kind of dances they do, in what settings do they do them in.... and by having her talk about dancing-- that is when her ideology will come out. By listening, some of the things she said stuck out to me and I remember thinking "oh! that is very interesting!" or "oh! did you hear that? she said ____ which means ______". I need to learn to listen more, and ask questions less.
Now to shift gears, above I posted a video of traditional Asante dancing. This dance I guess is called the ADOWA. I thought it would be good to get a sampling of what the dances look like that I'll be watching. Watching this dance, however, made me realize that I don't know any of the dances in Ghana, nor any of the traditional Asante dances. So, my next step in developing my project??? LEARN MORE ABOUT THE ACTUAL DANCES!!!!!!! (I'll let you know how it goes).
From my interview, I realized that practicing will be sooooo important. But also, I realized how important it is to know exactly what you want to know. Because I had a general idea of what answers I wanted from.... we'll call her 'G'..... I was able to ask the right questions. This is such an important part of interviewing. After the interview was over however, I realized there were still so many things I wanted to know and ask her about. This is why I'm grateful that I'll be able to establish relationships with people in Wiamoase in order to ask them anytime, any question that I have.
The second most important thing I learned from the interview was that I need to get more narratives.... I should've had G simply talk more about dancing, give me examples, etc. Why would this be important? Well, number one, by her giving me examples I will have a better understanding of what kind of dances they do, in what settings do they do them in.... and by having her talk about dancing-- that is when her ideology will come out. By listening, some of the things she said stuck out to me and I remember thinking "oh! that is very interesting!" or "oh! did you hear that? she said ____ which means ______". I need to learn to listen more, and ask questions less.
Now to shift gears, above I posted a video of traditional Asante dancing. This dance I guess is called the ADOWA. I thought it would be good to get a sampling of what the dances look like that I'll be watching. Watching this dance, however, made me realize that I don't know any of the dances in Ghana, nor any of the traditional Asante dances. So, my next step in developing my project??? LEARN MORE ABOUT THE ACTUAL DANCES!!!!!!! (I'll let you know how it goes).
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