reading response three

Prompt: How do Casassa and Dudley enact what you learned about ethnography in Chapter 10? What are some effective ways that they describe the culture they are studying? Cite examples. What evidence do the authors provide for their interpretations of the culture they are studying ? Give specifics. What kinds of specific research can you do to provide similar evidence for your own potential topic? Why?

As a student who works three years as an employee in a coffee shop named Hopkinton Gourmet, Andrea Casassa, writer of "The Coffee Shop," encounters and is motivated by the special culture of this coffee shop in this period of experience. Such coffee shop has its own culture because the coffee goers, perhaps they do not know each other, share the same interest in coffee and gathers at this small coffee shop. Although she is not a member of this coffee cultural, she has access to it since she serves these coffee goers. She gradually reveals this new and unfamiliar world –Hopkinton Gourmet–to me by using a very innovative essay structure; she breaks down her working hours in different times like 6:00 A.M., 7:00 A.M...in excerpt one, and at different times she has different customers. Her ethnography subject is this group of different customers such as Dennis, Paul, Martha, Jack, etc, who appears at this coffee shop "day after day, week after week," and "creates a sense of family"(P B35). In order to keep the way these people naturally do, she doesn't tell these coffee goers what she is thinking in her mind during her "research". Her way of research is watching these people and making contacts with them. She watches carefully and closely to her customer; such as Dennis, for example, she portrays Dennis' appearance as "About 5 foot 6, Dennis stands just a bit taller than me. Gray hair encircles his small ears, and his chin always tilts upward a little, making it seem that he is smelling the air around him"(P B33). She also makes contacts with customers when they order their food before the counter. When she see Martha in the crowd waiting for her order, she prepares the food for her in advance, and Martha approves of her by rising her "blond bushy eyebrows"(P B33). When she see little Jack, she takes special care of him by "cut[ting] up sesame seed bagles into bite–sized pieces"(P B34). In return for her thoughtfulness, Jack places a handful of quarters into her tip jar. In excerpt two: "REGULARS", she uses a different approach of research as she invites Dennis to join her at a table and interviews him, she asks questions such as "why he comes to the Gourmet"(P B35), "about the service at the shop," and "this atmosphere differs from a Starbucks or Dunkin' Donuts and Dennis." and his answer to the last question, "'it's not the building, but the coffee and the people' that make him return everyday"(P B36), perfectly express this coffeehouse's distinct warm and friendly culture. Till then, I fully understand "Each community needs a coffee shop, not only for the obvious reasons like caffeine addiction but also for sanity"(P B31). 

Compare to the coffee shop culture in the first essay, the head shop culture is much further away form my life. But after reading Mathew Dudley's essay, I come to know a lot about this culture. The controlling idea of this essay is the sale of products related to marijuana such as three-inch pipe, hemp rolling papers, and hemp body care products in head shops. Head shop‘s diverse goers such as high–school or college–aged kids, people who have the desire to show political and economic support for both hemp products and for marijuana, and vegetarian naturalists form a special culture group. As a flaneur in his heart, he researches The Hempest, a typical hand shop on Newbury Street in Boston, Massachusetts. Different form Cassasa who only uses primary research method, Dedley combines primary research method with secondary research method. For example, he uses resources from "New York: Rolling Stone" and "New York: Viking"(P B40), to name a few, when he gives background knowledge on the history of the grow and spread of the head shop industry. When showing readers the appealing layout of the Hempest, layout represents partly of the culture of the head shop of course, he gives many specific describes, which are based on his careful observation, such as "The smells of sandalwood and lavender waft from the constantly smoldering incense stands, calming the nerves, pleasing the spirit and perhaps covering up any unpleasant smells," and "[t]he clerks are always very polite, and never force a purchase"(P B42), which makes me want to experience shopping in this store. 

Dudley's essay seems more like a research essay, while  Casassas is more personal. I will use interviews as primary resources, but I will also search the internet and databases for resources as I did for my second essay in this ethnography essay.