I’ve been fascinated with sociology ever since I took my first class at OU and had my former cop professor relate theories to his days on the strip fighting crime. Sociology is a science and I will defend that as fervently as any other social science nerd, but it’s also basically a way to get your degree in people watching. I was like a professional before I ever went to school.
My newest sociological obsession is looking at subcultures. I love to know what makes these little subgroups different from the rest of society. How do you enter the group? How does a person gain prestige in the group? (That one’s my favorite.) What traditions and symbols exist that make the group unique?
In the past week I assisted in shearing alpacas, attended a flea market and almost attended a cat show (sorry Picou). That cat show really would have been tremendous in terms of watching how people interact and behave. The flea market and alpaca farm were pretty rich with cultural quirks, though. And really, I am sure I participated in more subgroups that I just don’t notice because I am officially part of them.
So this idea I have rolling around in my head is to do some sort of recurring feature – and it could really just be a blog – where I enter another culture for as period of time and then write about it. My less developed idea was to perform other people’s jobs for a day and write about it as a column for some paper or something. But to be honest, the subculture thing is a little more fascinating to me.
Thoughts?
