Anth319.L90 & L91 LAB

Hello everyone.

A few things: The Linguistics Fair will take place on March 18th, and there will be singers, dancers, costumes, food (!), etc.  It will be a great chance to practice with a camera, or cameras, and even do some informal interviewing. If anyone would like to take on the challenges of mini-fieldwork, let me know.

On another topic, I tried to send each of you an e-mail about research that has been done on your perspective topics. These are suggestions to get you “googling” the world of scholarship. I hope they help. If you didn’t receive an e-mail from me, please give me your “best” e-mail address on Tuesday.

Dr. Quinn

It’s fun for me to watch how the ideas are morphing and changing based on what you all are learning and experiencing.  Tomorrow (Thursday) in class I will present a few more options for those who are still struggling with project descriptions.

Dr. Quinn

posted by Paul

Instead of focusing just on musical performances themselves, I think I’m going to examine the audiences as well. I think it would be interesting to observe the dynamic between the music or musician and the type of audience and how they react to certain types of music.

*Byron*

I think instead of doing a hip-hop culture study, I talked with Dr. Quinn and it sounds like I might be able to do something with the Hearing Impaired and how they interact and how there spatial distances may be different. Still Tweaking, but I think that would be really interesting.

by Samantha

After discussing it with Dr. Quinn, I realized my project idea is too much for my limited resources, and instead I will work on a project that comes closer to home. Actually my project will be on a ritual within my home. By “making strange” I will study the ritual/custom of German “coffee and cake”, focusing on the role of the hostess (and her daughter/s).

by: Morgan

I would now like to change my project from dance therapy to the culinary arts, specifically lowcountry cuisine in Charleston. Explore why we have the unique and delicious specialties such as shrimp and grits, hoppin’ john, etc and why they are so important to the culture of Charleston. Some of the research could include attending the Food and Wine Festival, interview local chefs, and maybe take a cooking course in focused in lowcountry food.

Posted by: Michael

Ideally my project will consist of a comparative analysis of religious music in Charleston.  If possible I would like to include music from a variety of local religious centers including: Brith Sholom Beth Israel Synagogue, the Dharma Center of the Charleston Tibetan Society, the Central Mosque, and one of the many Christian churches. I’m not limiting myself to these and I am also open to ideas and suggestions if you know of any specific examples of religious music in Charleston.

By Suzanne

For the past couple of weeks I have been considering doing my research on the basketweavers in the Charleston area. I am a bit hesitant though, after hearing that they are not usually very receptive to college students who are interested in studying their work. I think it could still be a great project, but it just might be a little more challenging than other possible topics, based on the difficulty of talking with the people. I feel like its hard to think of another topic because if I’m not already familiar with one, how would I be able to come up with an idea to do it? I think I just need to spend some more time thinking about ideas and whether or not the basketweavers would be a practical project. A few minutes ago I got the idea to maybe do something with wine making, but I don’t even know if that is a popular hobby in this area or not. I guess we’ll see what develops in the next couple of days. I feel like I need to figure this out soon, though!

by Robyn

I was thinking about doing something concerning EMTs.  I am not really sure it is going to work out, but i am doing some research on it now.

by Gillian

I have considered a few possible project ideas thus far.  Two of my ideas both involve dance in the Charleston area; Contra dancing and the state dance of South Carolina, shag.  There is actually a night club for shag dancing in West Ashley so if I choose that as my topic, I’ll spend some time there interviewing regulars and participating myself.  I have also thought about working with the art galleries in the French Quarter.