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Observation

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Submitted By NarwhalJacks
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Observation In this paper, I am to describe and discuss my observations of the people at the mall. I was going to observe the people at the medical place I go to with my Grandmother but I was not feeling well on Wednesday so my Aunt went with her. I did not know what I had, if I was getting a cold or if it was just allergies. Better safe than sorry. Since I did not go to the metical place I was going to observe my neighborhood, there is usually quite a few people out but this time there was not a lot so since I was feeling better on Friday, my sister and I went to the mall. We went to a store call JCPenney. This was Friday late afternoon. After that I asked if we could grab a snack and sit and observe people for this paper. Before I go into the details of the observation, I want to talk about culture. According to the texbook, it defines culture as “ideas and behaviors that are learned and transmitted. Nongenetic means of adaptation (Park,2014,pg12). With that being said, you can find all kinds of culture if you look hard enough and closely. I have noticed that different races have different cultures. But in my observation I did notices that one thing stayed the same. The respect of the elderly. It is good to see that in every culture they teach the respect of their elders. Also I noticed that this generation of younger children have to be told to say excuse me, thank you and please. All the races were about the same

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with the no manners. I am not sure if it just here or if it is everywhere. I did notices that some of the children were running off and not listening to their mothers. With that it seemed to be every race doing that as well. Culture has changed in the past few years. To me it does not seem to have changed for the better. The only thing that seems to be the same is the respect for the elderly. Now for the observation of the people in the mall. The mall here is not as big as most malls, but it is a good sized mall. A lot of clothing stores in the mall.The place where the mall is located is is mostly middle class. There were mostly middle class people there.At the mall there were a lot of people there. Mothers there with their children getting ready for back to school. Our schools start here on Monday 18th. Our mall here in Fort Smith Arkansas is called Central Mall. It is a big building with a lot of stores. There are four pathways ,a food court and a open middle where, when Christmas comes, that is where Santa goes so all the children can tell him what they want and take pictures. JCPenney was having a back to school sale and had a coupon so my sister and went shopping. After that we got a snack and sat on a bench so I could do my observing. By this time it was around FIve o’clock. I am sure it is like this everywhere but Five o'clock gets a little crazy.Traffic is bad and people getting off work. Where we sat, I had a great view of the front doors, some other stores,and a restaurant that was a few feet away. Since five o’clock is a busy time of day and it was the mall it was pretty loud and noisy. Children screaming, people walking and talking. I am guessing that most of the people were just getting off work and wanted to eat and get some shopping done before heading home. The lighting where we were sitting was great. There is a giant glass ceiling and the light from the sun was adding to

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the light that the lights in the mall were giving. They did not even need the lights on because the sun was out and there was excellent lighting. The next thing that I observed was that by the benches, there were three sets of two benches each, there was a trash can by each and a few plants. I wish I knew what they were. Ferns probably.Also where we sat it was an open area with a picture booth and soda medicines in front of us. There were also some Kiosks in the middle of the isles. There was a cell phone kiosk and one that was selling toys and another one that had jewelry. There were a few people at the cell phone kiosk but not that many people at the other ones. The temperature in the mall was cool but was starting to get warm because of all the people and the doors opening a lot. There were a few different smells at the place I was sitting. The restaurant is a mexican restaurant so there was that smell. Plus there is a store called Abercrombie and Fitch that always smells like cologne. There were also when some people walked by us, we could also smell there perfume and cologne as well. The vibe and energy in there was, to me they are different, but the vibe seemed to be rushed.I know that most people just like to go to the store and get what they need and then leave.But I guess since it was Friday and the last weekend for back to school it seemed to be extra rushed. Everyone out at the same time trying to get things before they are gone. The energy was good. There were a lot of nice people. There were also rude people too. I know that everywhere you go there are the nice people and the rude people. What can you do. In the observation, I noticed a lot of mothers with children. Being that school starts this Monday here they were getting the odds and end. They

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were manly buying clothing. In our mall there is not really a place to get school supplies. Also with it being the weekend there were quite a few teenages there. The teenages were just hanging out. There were a few grops of teenages through the area where I was sitting. Mostly the groups consisted of female teens ranging from the ages of 16­18. The groups of teens did not really stay in one place for too long. When they started to walk to another spot I noticed that they were all talking and some were even texting. I seems that this day in age everyone has a cell phone. I don’t have a cell phone. I also noticed in the observation some middle aged and elderly woman power walking in the mall. I know that they use to do that in the mornings but I did not know that they did that in the afternoons to early evenings. There was four of them together. Making there way around the mall. That is a great place to walk because here in Arkansas it is hot right now and the mall is air conditioned. I guess as long as the mall is opened you can power walk and exercise anytime. All in all the mall is a great place to observe the different races, cultures and people in general. There were a lot of different races there. Mostly white and hispanic. Mostly a mixture of races. It was the start of the weekend so it was a busy time. I have found that around five o’clock is a great time to people watch because it is a time when people are getting off work and want to eat or shop before going home. I also learned that this day in age the younger generation with their manners seems to be lacking but the respect for the older generation is still there. It was an eye opening experience and I learned a lot.I never would have thought to just sit and watch people and think to myself why there doing what

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they're doing. I enjoy people watching but after taking this class, I will now watch people with a better understanding of why they do what they do. NOTES: TIme of day­It was on a Friday afternoon/early evening Lighting­Good. ceiling glass sun shining Furniture­ benches Plants­Fern looking Sounds­noisy. lots of people Temperature­cool but getting warm because of the people and the front doors opening Smell­Mexican food and cologne Vibe/energy­ Vibe­rushed Energy­good. Lots of nice people There were a lot of people there. Back to school weekend. There were more women there with children. Mixed races. The class of people seemed to be middle. Where the mall is more middle class. The ages ranged from infants to elderly. There were all ages there. What the people were mostly doing was shopping and hanging out.

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Reference Park, M. (2013). Introducing anthropology: An integrated

approach, 6th Edition. New York: McGraw­Hill. .

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