Assignment #1 Questions

Portfolio #1
Answers to Questions:

1. I think that participation in my fieldwork was crucial for gaining the depth I found in my experience in San Bernardino Juvenile Hall. Especially in this unique environment, my participation directly effects how the class will unfold and what information will be shared. I found that the inmates give you only as much as you give them, if you are reserved and afraid to give them 100% of your devotion they pick up on it and return the same energy back to you. I think that participating helps assimilate yourself into the environment your studying, instead of being an outside observer you become one of them, actively participating in the same events they are.
By participating I was able to compare their stories versus mine, and provide that comparison for them as well. This class is for both our and their learning, by participating I allow them to learn from my experiences as well. It allows for them to gain a perspective they might not be so familiar with.

2. Having a key informant added perspective to my understanding. Jennifer Tilton has been working in Juvenile Halls for years, and having her break it down really helped in my understanding of what exactly I was observing. She helped me go from seeing this as a personal experience to analyzing the power schemes and social institutions directing our incarcerated youth. Having a key informant allowed for a critique of my behavior as well. Jen and I talked about my role as a mentor/participant/volunteer. This is important because it gets me to analyze why I act a certain way during our sessions and what are the results of that.

3. First of all, I think that a questionnaire would be met with horrible results in the population that I was working within. Most of these young women have only seen questionnaires like this in school, and most of them had horrible experiences with school. When an impersonal, formatted, question-answer questionnaire is seen by these girls, most of them would pretty much blow it off. As I stated in my notes, most of these young ladies used personal stories to illustrate their points, this isn't very possible with a questionnaire, it doesn't provide an open environment where they feel they can tell these personal experiences. By involving myself in the activities, I gained perspective on my position within the social institutions I'm studying, this also is not possible with a questionnaire.

4. A questionnaire would be great for gathering statistics within these groups. By gathering written data, you could be able to see how many people have the same feelings on certain subjects. This could be formatted into statistics about how incarcerated youth think about whatever the questionnaire is asking. It's also a more efficient way of gathering information. In a participant-observation, there are a lot of tangents and often times we stray from the topic at hand, a questionnaire makes sure you're answering questions they think are important. Honestly, I think those are the only upsides to a questionnaire, all-in-all I find them very misleading and don't capture the true beliefs of the individuals represented.

Introduction

Whats Good?

My name is Bergen Milam, born in San Antonio, Texas, but Chicago raised. I'm a 5 foot 11 inch vegetarian that loves Tabasco hot sauce and idolizes the Simpsons. I don't think I'd be able to stay sane for long without my stereo, and I have a passionate love for Hip-Hop in particular. Coupling my love with Hip-Hop is my past time as a painter, I've been painting graffiti for the past 6 years and have been painting canvas for the last 3. I decided to take Intro to Cultural Anthropology because I am a Race and Ethnic Studies major and feel that these things correlate very well. I've always been a "people watcher" and by that I mean I've always had a blast watching how people interact in certain environments, which probably sparked my interest in Anthropology (I also love Seinfeld).

I really enjoy the class so far, I think it's really increased my capability of analyzing the social structures that have been haunting my life since I first became aware of them my senior year in High School. It's very humbling to learn that everything we think is normal isn't considered such everywhere. Anthropology reinforces my beliefs relating to race and gender, both being social constructs, governing nearly every aspect of our lives. I'm very excited to see how this class changes my life.