RJ 17

October 27, 2009 haleymull

Analysis Memo: The CWOW was a huge success in my eyes. I attended three events total and learned many new things along the way. I didn’t think a week in writing could be so interesting, but this week sparked some interest in English for me, and it gave me motivation for my ethnographic project. I was surprised by the number of people in attendance. In all our sessions, I observed it was our class there, and only a few other students/staff. I guess this activity wasn’t as popular as other activities or maybe not well publicized, but I thought there would be a lot more people there. I was also surprised there was food there, but I loved having snacks to munch on throughout the presentations. I am very grateful for the speakers taking time out of their busy schedules to come talk to us and teach us about writing. I was intrigued by the presentation of Don’t Be Silent, as well as the PhD students. I thought the documentary was awesome and would have taken so much time to compile all the information he had, along with English subtitles. Luca himself was intriguing. His accent was awesome and he was so full of knowledge on the subject matter. He would pause a lot in his talking to think of an English word that would match the Italian one, and that was disturbing. I was intrigued by the interest of the students and the questions that they asked. I thought many of them were insightful and lead to the revelation of new material. I was disturbed by the squeaky chairs in the PhD presentation, but I thought the man who read his paper about all his sufferings (eating disorder, not social) was SO awesome. That was probably my favorite presentation all week. He had beautiful words intertwined to make a sad story. Being up there and telling us first hand would have taken a lot of courage, and I truly admire him. He was great. I also enjoyed the talks about religion and literacy, since this goes with my topic. I went to mass and Bible study Wednesday (10.21.09). We got served pizza and cookies – so spoiled! At mass there were 20 people, a minor let down from last week’s 23. I was shocked by the pumpkin decorations on the altar; they usually don’t have decorations in church. I was also intrigued by the lighting again, and it was the same on Sunday mass. The lights all go in a circle in the ceiling, and they are all pointed toward the altar. For this reason, if you sit in the back of the church like I usually do, you are sitting in somewhat darkness. I thought this was interesting because as you proceed up pews, you get closer to Jesus and the light. (Maybe I should start working my way up pews!) Ten CSO members were at Bible study, and it was such a success. We not only open our Bibles and got familiar with the readings for the next Sunday’s mass, we shared personal stories and learned more about God through Dr. Joe and his classes studying to become a deacon. I was intrigued by a connection Veronica made. She told us that at the Consecration when the priest puts a drop of water into the wine (blood of Christ) that resembles humanity; it is like we are becoming one with God. We can unite all our sufferings with his an offer them up. I thought this was really awesome, and now when this part takes place in the mass, I remember what she said. We had handouts with the reading numbers on them. This facilitated finding the readings. Just like Yancey said, technology can make things so much easier. A lot of this Bible study was about mercy and forgiveness, as well as confession. Most non-Catholics I have talked to (before interviews) don’t agree with confession. They wonder why you have to verbally say all your sins when you can just pray to God by yourself and have them forgiven. I think Confession is wonderful and holds you more accountable for your sins. If you knew you had to confess to doing something, I think it could potentially stop you from doing it. I should look more into the thoughts on confession, as I see patterns within society of disagreement. I was disturbed, but somewhat in a good way, by the final question we talked about at Bible study. What is it that doesn’t make you feel great? Maybe it is this that makes us see the Lord the way he wants us to see him. For instance, put it all in God’s hands and offer your sufferings to God. It may just be that our sufferings bring us closer to Him. He can provide us with consolation and love. He is amazing.  

Chapter 7 is all about researching archives (collections of documents and artifacts). The internet allows us to connect with archives and artifacts we never would have been able to many years ago without actually going to see them. Artifacts are useful to study because they are examples of tradition (rituals, behaviors, language, beliefs, culture in general). Archives are also important because they “strengthen your fieldwork through triangulation” (meaning they back up your data). When encountering archival material, the first step is to organize it. There is no right or wrong way to do this, it just must be done. It is important to know what the time period was. Diachronically means according to many points over a length of time and synchronically means according to events, environmental features, or artifacts or items that exist at one period of time. Ethnohistory is a study of the development of cultures. Electronic archives can be easier to research.

Box 31: The keyword I typed in was “Catholic discrimination.” I found many, many results, 3,790,000 to be exact. The first hyperlink took me to a website called Catholic online (catholic.org). It was a blog post of a deacon telling a story of him and his son that lead into discrimination of their religion. This story probably isn’t a good source for my research. The next website was the definition of “Anti-Catholicism” from Wikipedia. Instead of overlooking this source, I went to the bottom of the page and clicked on their sources, most of which usually provide valuable information. Most of the sources were books not found online, but The New Anti-Catholicism: The Last Acceptable Prejudice is a book that was hyperlinked and took me to a page about the book. It seems to be about Catholic bigotry, especially within the United States. I feel like this book may boost my knowledge and help my study. The third website was helium.com where anyone could write their thoughts on Catholic bashing: the accepted discrimination. Fourteen people replied to this. Some of them were interesting; some of them were out of control. I wouldn’t use these in my studies – I am focusing on Commerce, TX. But I may be able to parallel views I receive throughout interviews with views like these. The fourth was a lawsuit on Catholic discrimination. This may be interesting to look into- how far has this discrimination gone? All the way to the court system? Is it that serious?  The fifth item was a newsweek.washingtonpost.com where “Catholics are influenced by the bishops,” making it sound like bishops just tend to their “OWN agendas.” I thought the search was interesting. If I wanted to delve deeper and find out more specific information, I would change my keyword. For example, I could do Catholic discrimination in Texas; Catholic discrimination AND Texas; Catholic population in Texas; Catholic background in Texas. Any of these searches would yield different and wonderful results that can be potentially helpful to my research project. I plan to use some sort of internet archive or artifact or simple information to provide information for my ethnography.

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