final ethnography pt 2

2
8/20/2019 Final Ethnography Pt 2 http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/final-ethnography-pt-2 1/2 Since the Tyson’s mall was located in Northern Virginia and we observed a huge variety of people from this region, many of their behaviors were also varied, but they all seemed to conform to certain behaviors that were similar. Most of the people that we observed during our experience were at the mall to either buy merchandie, or to socialie. !e divided these type of people into those two groups" we classi#ed those who intended to buy merchandise, or seemed as if they intended to buy merchandise as $roup %, and we classi#ed those who intended to &ust be at the mall to socialie, or seemed to be at the mall simply to socialie as $roup '. (ne of the #rst things we noticed was that $roup % vastly outnumbered $roup ', showing that in this culture, the individual was given preference over the community most of the time. $roup %, similar to the entire population of the mall, was composed of people of a great mixture of gender, race, and age. % large number of the people in $roup % traveled and shopped with their families, but there were some who chose to shop by themselves )observed *+ times. The people in $roup % also did not pay attention to people outside of their family. They only communications with -outside members of the mall were when they ac/nowledged co0 wor/ers or other ac1uaintances )observed twice, or when they participated in our observations, in which we let a small boy wander by himself in the mall with our number written on his arms. !ith regard to

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Page 1: Final Ethnography Pt 2

8/20/2019 Final Ethnography Pt 2

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/final-ethnography-pt-2 1/2

Since the Tyson’s mall was located in Northern Virginia and we

observed a huge variety of people from this region, many of their

behaviors were also varied, but they all seemed to conform to certain

behaviors that were similar. Most of the people that we observed

during our experience were at the mall to either buy merchandie, or

to socialie. !e divided these type of people into those two groups" we

classi#ed those who intended to buy merchandise, or seemed as if

they intended to buy merchandise as $roup %, and we classi#ed those

who intended to &ust be at the mall to socialie, or seemed to be at the

mall simply to socialie as $roup '. (ne of the #rst things we noticed

was that $roup % vastly outnumbered $roup ', showing that in this

culture, the individual was given preference over the community most

of the time.

$roup %, similar to the entire population of the mall, was

composed of people of a great mixture of gender, race, and age. %

large number of the people in $roup % traveled and shopped with their

families, but there were some who chose to shop by themselves

)observed *+ times. The people in $roup % also did not pay attention

to people outside of their family. They only communications with

-outside members of the mall were when they ac/nowledged co0

wor/ers or other ac1uaintances )observed twice, or when they

participated in our observations, in which we let a small boy wander by

himself in the mall with our number written on his arms. !ith regard to

Page 2: Final Ethnography Pt 2

8/20/2019 Final Ethnography Pt 2

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/final-ethnography-pt-2 2/2

this child abandonment, half of the people in $roup % paid notice to

the small boy )pointing him out and around *23 of the people called

the number on his hand. This demonstrated that the people in $roup %

showed some concern to the well being of young children in their

community, especially those who were abandoned.

 There was a very di4erent dynamic in $roup '. Most of the

members of $roup ' were adolescents who were either 5aucasian or

%frican %merican. The members of $roup ' did not seem to travel with

their families, but rather as individuals in a subgroup of four to seven

people. The members of $roup ' fre1uently tal/ed with the other

people in their subgroup, often in vulgar language if the group was

made up of mostly males, but interestingly they almost never

communicated with other members of the mall. %s part of our

observations in which we -abandoned a small boy in the middle of the

mall, we noted that very few member of $roup ' showed any concern

towards the abandoned boy and absolutely no one in $roup ' chose to

help the little boy #nd us, his guardians.

(ur observations of $roup % and $roup ' show how the -mall

society operates. Those of $roup %, prioritied shopping in the mall,

and those in $roup ', prioritied socialiing in the mall participated in

many di4erent behaviors and too/ radically di4erent approaches to the

ob&ective of our observations.