Oct. 12, 1992

No. 003   SEARCHES FOR CULTURE
Distributed as part of the Red Feather Institute RADICAL PEDAGOGY Series. The Red Feather Institute, 8085 Essex, Weidman, Michigan, 48893.

Cost:  10 pts Generic pts. each.  Payoff:   10 Quality Points each.
Limit: 20 people may 'buy' this assignment.

ETHNOMETHODOLOGical SEARCHES FOR CULTURE          
PRICE = 10 Pts each.

               Choose any ONE of the assignments below,
               write it up and return it by 22 Sept.  

  Ethnomethodology uses simple field research tactics in order
to reveal COMPONENTs of a culture.  These tactics are used since
people tend to take their own culture as NATURAL thus not 'see' it
as a social construction.  Organize your report into SIX
paragraphs reporting:

     a) what you did each OF FIVE times, and
    	how people responded each of FIVE times, 
     b)   how it connects to a blue letter concept or a theory in
          the text or lecture.  

     Try to keep it to 1 page, typed, single spaced.  Spelling,
Grammar, creativity counts.  Make it easy for your mentor to read
and understand so s/he can give you all the credit your deserve.

A.  SPACE BUBBLEz.  Your text notes that the amount of space required
by people for personal comfort varies across societies and thus is 
culturally determined.  Sociobiology says that territoriality is 
innate.  Check it out.  Does space requirements change as sociology 
changes.  Be creative!  Look at the territorial requirements of 
people in different situations.  Does territoriality vary with social
status?  ...age? ...gender?  power relations?  

Study five individuals.  What do they do to define their space bubble?  
Do they use body, voice, architecture or lines to delineate their 
space?  What can you say about the two different theories of spacing?

B.  BODY TALK.  Body talk is supposed to confirm and validate voiced 
talk.  Sometimes voice says one thing and body says another.  In this
exercise, do three things: 

1) over dramatize what you are saying with hands or face but keep 
your voice flat.  

2) make your body say exactly the opposite of what your voice is 
saying.  

3).  Use some part of your body to say something which is not 
ordinarily used to define a situation or to communicate an idea 
(elbows, feet, nose, behind, hips or such).  

Report your findings and tie it in with the lecture on the
construction of social reality with symbol sets.

C.  SYMBOLS, JOY AND SHAME.  Your text says that most words have a 
positive or negative emotional content which preshapes your response 
to what another is saying since symbols are supposed to arouse the 
same feelings, thoughts and action in the hearer that they do in the 
user of the words. [see the insert on Pro-life and Pro-choice]  

For example, when someone uses a word with negative [or positive] 
emotional content, react as if you assumed that it carried the 
opposite emotional charge.  Be creative and do something to check 
out the social power lurking within everyday words.  Do this five 
times.

D. ETHNOCENTRISM    Most Americans have been taught that our culture 
sits at the peak of social evolution. People take the American way of
life as given.  

In light conversation with two or more others around the campus
or with your folks, casually mention that our culture ranks 42nd 
in terms of quality of life variables; that we have the most crime 
and the least social justice of the developed nations; that our 
infant mortality rate is higher than that of, say, Cuba; that 
capitalism helps the rich more than workers or some other 'factoid' 
that has some truth value.  Report your findings, including your 
own feelings.  Do this in five (5) different encounters.

E.  FEMINIST SOCIOLOGY   Most Americans, men and women, assume gender 
roles and patriarchy as a given.  Men and women who do gender 
relations differently are subject to a wide variety of sanctions.  

Your assignment, should you care to take it, is to do gender a bit 
differently for a while.  Do be subtle and fairly unobtrusive...if
you are 'male' ask or allow a woman to open the door for you.  If 
you are doing 'female,' hold a door open for a male and watch his 
reaction.  If you are male, make it clear that you expect her to 
pay; if you are female make it clear that you will pay for his meal
this time.  Wear something that is usually used to connote another
gender.  Mention to a group of two or more others that other 
societies have 3, 4, 5 or more genders and note their reply.  

Only females are supposed to decorate their bodies in our culture. 

Put bright red fingernail polish on one hand.  Do some such exercise 
least five (5) times and report your findings.  Tie them into the
social construction of reality hypothesis.

F. TALK LINES.  Goffman says that a talk-line is used to establish 
'co-presence' and thus create a social reality.  The talk-line is 
usually about 16 to 24 inches long in our society.  You can play 
around with this to see how far you can stretch the talk line.  

Or you get a co-conspirator to talk with you in a fairly narrow
hall and watch what people do to avoid breaking your talk line.  
Or your can interfere with another's talk line
and note their movements to repair it. Do this five times.

G. FACE RIGHTS.  The human face plays an important part in the 
construction of social realities.  It can be used to generate over 
100,000 bits of information.  You can check out the importance of 
face, facing, and face rights in the construction of social reality 
with any number of little ethnomethodological ploys.  You might keep 
your face absolutely blank in a conversation.  You might turn your 
face 5, 10, 15 and then 20o away from whomever you are speaking.  
You might paint a third eye on your forehead and look at your 
conversation partner with that eye instead of your own.  

Try five such little face erasures and report your findings.