What Place Relates to Cultural Performance - Essay Example

?HOW DOES PLACE RELATE TO CULTURAL PERFORMANCE? Introduction There is a correlation between a given place and the behavior exhibitedby the inhabitants. The current social phenomena in a particular place will determine their behavior. The main assumption though is that the biological and personality factors have no role in controlling how people behave in particular environment. This is however a wrong impression based on the fact that despite the environment, people will manifest different responses to social phenomena. Cultural geography is an imperative discipline in understanding the relationship between the behaviors exhibited by a given group of people, with the place they occupy. The cultural geography enables the researchers to predict why a specific group of people exhibit a particular behavior. Specific places have specific groups of people who may have similar or different behaviors which are consistent and enduring. Through cultural performance, one is able to appreciate the behavior of a specific group in their everyday life. One pertinent issue before the classification of any behavior is that what is observed has to be consistent over a period of time. This will avoid biasness and subjectivity when reporting about a particular group of people. Having conducted a fieldwork study in a bus, different patterns from the population were established. Majority of the people in the bus were students, who displayed different values, and norms. Individualism, lack of concern for others, and lack of interaction were the main issues that were recorded from the fieldwork study. There was also a discrepancy between the way the older generation and the young behaved. While the older generations seemed to like interacting with others through communication, majority of the young adults in the bus perceived this as interfering with their privacy. With most of them glued to their phones, and listening to music, interpersonal communication was hindered. The following discussion will also focus on the report of the fieldwork conducted on the homeless population in a particular street. Methodology used For the purpose of this fieldwork study, the observation method was used. The behavior observed was recorded in a form. This was done for a number of days in order to ensure consistency in values, beliefs and norms before making a conclusion about the population of study. The place The place for the study was the bus, and also in the street. I choose this place owing to the fact it was more convenient to me since I used this means of transport almost daily. Further, I saw the same people almost every day. For this reason, it was possible to study the consistency of the behaviors manifested by the population I was dealing with. The bus was also the best way to have unbiased sample owing to the fact that any person in my neighborhood used this means of transportation. The results would therefore be imperative in making an inference about the rest of the population. At this site, my main subjects of study were passengers, who included the students, drivers, and a few working class individuals. The fieldwork was also conducted in the street where the main focus was the homeless population. In this second setting, there were the old, children and young adults. The performances This refers to the act of studying the behavior of a specific group of people in their day-to-day activities1. The main reason is to establish the values, norms and beliefs of the people from the manifested behavior2. For the purpose of this study, these performances were to be studied from the passengers and the homeless population. As indicated before, the ease of reaching these people almost on the daily basis prompted me to choose them. One of the main aims of the fieldwork is to be able to be able to describe the behavior of the subjects. It is also vital to highlight the reason making a specific group of people behave the way they do. The following discussion seeks to establish the values, norms and beliefs that were observed in each group in the study. The passengers As stated before, majority of the passengers were students on their way to school. This was noted by the way they were revising their works in the bus, and alighting near the institutions of learning. In addition to this, being a student, I noted that I walked with some of them to school. Some of the passengers may have been headed to work. The main characteristic of the people in the bus, especially the students was how they choose to sit. They were in pairs but majority of them choose to stay with their friends. This was defined by the way they were talking to each other. This kind of interaction was deep showing that some of them knew each other well. On the other hand though, there were those who seemed to mind their own businesses. Despite the fact that they were also in pairs, they rarely spoke to each other. This was a demonstration that they may have been strangers. However, one common behavior amongst the students especially in the evening was their love for their phones. Majority of them had smartphones that they used for chatting with either their friends or their family members. Others had headphones that they used to listen to music. This kind of behavior made majority of the students to avoid any personal communication throughout the journey to and from school. It was a demonstration that they did not want to be disturbed. Depending on the age differences of the people in the bus, there was a discrepancy in interpersonal communication. This was demonstrated by the fact that those in middle adulthood appeared to be more talkative. One of them who seemed to be in early 40s tried to engage the female driver in communication only to be discouraged by the response. He then decided to initiate communication with some of the students only to be discouraged by the look in their eyes. The students perceived this as an intrusion to their privacy, and personal space. With the earphones in their ears, they were not ready to entertain such strangers. In addition to that, the drivers also exhibited different set of behaviors. While the male driver appeared friendly by even waving goodbye to students, the female driver was unfriendly and indifference. He did not care about the rest of the passengers, and even whether she was punctual or not. The behavior was more or less similar in the street, where the homeless population was studied. This population included the old, middle aged and children. One main characteristic were that majority of them lived close to each other. They made their shelters closer together. A sense of solidary was also observed where majority of this population worked together and ready to protect each other from any threats, including sharing food. However, it was also observed that there were also some of them who liked to live away from the rest. They made their temporary shelters a few meters from the rest, and seemed to be autonomous in everything that they did. They did not share their food with anyone, and did not expect to get any assistance. Despite this though, all the homeless people would come together like brothers to fight for their rights especially when they were threatened by the local authority. Explanation of the behaviors From the bus, my initial conclusion was that most of the passengers were individualistic. This is one of the main characteristics defining the culture of the American population. This conclusion was made out of the consistent behavior where majority of the passengers did not show any concern for others. They appeared indifference and did little to know the person seated next to them. The situation was even worse when anyone tried to speak to them. They were nonresponsive and wondered why the ‘strangers’ were talking to them in the first place. While this may be explained as an antisocial behavior, it can be explained by a number of reasons. Firstly, the smartphones (technology in general) has played a significant role in reducing interpersonal communications. The phones have their replaced the face-to-face communication, though this does not mean that such people do not interact. Those using the social media such as facebook and twitter for instance take that opportunity to talk with their friends, or family members. It therefore does not mean that just because the students appear indifference in the bus they do not have friends, or do not interact with others. Secondly, majority of the American people are suspicious of strangers. They cannot just initial communication with the people with whom they have not established a past history. This is especially the people born in the age where America has fallen victim of terror attacks. This may explain why majority of the young people in the bus did not care about the person seated next to them especially if they were strangers. Thirdly, this kind of setting was in an urban place. In most cases, the urban areas have enough resources meaning that people rarely share. The interaction is therefore minimal, unlike in the rural areas where people appear to be in solidarity. They have to share the limited resources, and demonstrate their care for each other. For this reason, it is the environments that make the people behave in a particular way, and not necessarily their genes. Similarly, the situation in the street can be explained in a similar manner. The solidarity appears owing to the fact that people need each other depending on the environment they are exposed to. There are limited resources among this group of people. For instance, food is not enough to feed each and every member. This means that people need to share the little that they have. The family members have to live close to each other. This was especially owing to the fact that some homeless people were old and sick. They needed people to look after them and feed them. Faced with the challenges of harassment from some members of the public including the local authority, this group of people needed to demonstrate their unity. There were those who also lived far away from the rest of the population. These were mostly those who considered themselves different from the rest in terms of their skin color and age. However, this did not mean that they did not appreciate the rest of the people. They knew that their survival depended entirely on each other. From above analysis and the fieldwork results, it is apparent that the environment shapes the behaviors of the people. In determines their values, norms and beliefs3. It is therefore possible that a certain behavior manifested in a particular place will change in another different environment. Argument against place and behavior In the above two scenarios, the main assumption has been that the place determines the behavior of the people. This however fails to recognize the role played by genes in bringing about personal differences. Just because an environment is harsh does not necessarily mean that people have to be harsh in order to adapt. Other factors such as age difference and personality will also dictate how people are likely to behave. For this reason, it is the interaction between the environment and personality that determine the behavior exhibited by the people. In conclusion, cultural geography is imperative in understanding the relationship between specific people’s behavior with the place they occupy. Environment influences the way people think, and behave. Through recording the behavior of specific group of people in specific places, it is possible to appreciate their behaviors, and why they do so. In the fieldwork conducted in the bus, it was established that majority of the passengers were young people, headed to school. These people exhibited a unique behavior different from that of the older generation. One of the outstanding behaviors was individualism which was supported by the need to respect each other’s personal space. With the earphones in their ears, most of the students demonstrated that they did not entertain any form of communication with the rest of the people. Only a handful of the people in the bus would communicate with each other. One of the drivers was also indifference, and would get annoyed by people trying to communicate to her. In the street, most of the homeless people appeared to be friendlier to each other. They would share the little they had, and lived in solidarity. This kind of interaction demonstrated the interdependence between these groups of people. They relied on each other for various issues including security. On the other hand though, some of them did not seem to care about the rest. They made their shelters a distance from the rest, demonstrating that they did not entertain the rest. Apart from just focusing on the relationship between the culture and the place, cultural geography makes it possible to predict why people behave the way they do. Bibliography Geertz, Clifford. Available light: Anthropological Reflections on Philosophical Topics. Princeton: Princeton University Press p. 8-9. 2001 Goffman, E. The presentation of self in everyday life. Doubleday. 1957 Massey, D. (1994) Space, place and gender. Cambridge, UK. 1994 Read More