Ethnography
Field Observations &
Notebook
Haley Burns
Cultural Anthropology
Professor Melissa Schaefer
2/23/2011
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Introduction
A subculture is a group whose members and others think of their way of life as
different in some significant way from that of other people in the larger society. The
subculture that I chose to study was how people of the Mormon religion spend their
Sundays. I was able to observe many things, most of which were unbeknownst to me when
I started my Ethnography. My first observation was that the people of the Mormon religion
don’t refer to themselves or to their church as Mormon; the correct name of their church is
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. This discovery was an important first
observation because it prevented me from disrespecting anyone that I came in contact
with. It also was my personal indication that if I had misunderstood the name of these
people maybe they’re misunderstood all together.
My observations over the last month and a half included the similarities of all the
church buildings both inside and out, the importance behind some of the customs, the
consistency of its organization, the modesty of its congregation, and geographically why it
thrives locally. I am from central Indiana where there is no dominant religion; recently
moving to Utah I became curious as to why the Mormonism is the predominant religion.
Throughout working on this project I went back and forth between whether religion in
general is a culture or subculture and came to the conclusion that it meets the criteria for
both. In my opinion not just any old religion can be considered a subculture but a religion
such as Mormonism qualifies. People of the Mormon faith and those outside of the Mormon
faith think of it as significantly different because it is significantly different. Most believe
and would be right to say that this religion stretches some concepts and has dealt with a lot
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of controversy but what makes it different is its ability to remain whole in a society that’s so
set on tearing it apart.
Field Research Methods
During my research I stuck with a few similar research methods, participant
observation, interviewing, and a variation of cross cultural comparing. Although only five
hours of observing were required I spent probably three times that around the LDS
community, by attending the church services and a few activities only helped me grasp the
base of participant observation, because of this I asked my roommate if she would help me
understand more of the subcultures details. Talking with her helped me to feel more a part
of the religion and not so much like an outsider just doing research. Even though I didn’t
record any of what my roommate Lindsay said (she asked me not to) I still consider it an
interview. I also got to talk semi-in-depth with two missionaries during one of the church
meetings I attended. During my research I feel as though I found myself thinking in the way
of cross cultural comparisons. I grew up a Presbyterian in a city/state that did not have a
predominant religion which allowed me to get to know some details about different
religions; this helped me to determine whether what I was observing about the Mormon
religion on Sundays was noteworthy or observation worthy. I have always been good as
keeping an open mind, so experiencing culture shock wasn’t an issue for me. During the
process of getting to know details and reasons behind customs I found myself intrigued,
questioning past inferences, and feeling humbled.
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Description of Cultural Activities
When describing the physical aspects of the Sunday formal procedure there is one
thing that sticks out above all the rest and that is the extreme similarity in the church
buildings. Living in Utah I drive by many LDS church buildings, prior to this project I had
made a mental note that the churches all had obvious similarities like they were brown and
had a steeple. After my second field observation I realized the outsides weren’t just
extremely similar on the outside, they were near identical on the inside as well. This
intrigued me because I’d never really thought about what the insides looked like. Inside the
church buildings were probably 20 classrooms, pews in the main room, very moderate
appliances and fixtures; nothing too fancy. Going along with the church buildings having a
consistent layout the services that I attended were also consistent in the way they were run
or conducted, especially the first hour of service which is known as the sacrament meeting.
The operation of this first hour was almost identical no matter which ward you chose to
attend or building you chose to go to. The environment is quiet and respectful. Everyone is
dressed in dress clothes; the men in nice dress pants with a button down shirt and tie, the
women are either in a dress or skirt and sweaters. Prelude music is being played as you
walk into the sacrament meeting and as people arrive they are doing the best they can to be
reverential including the younger children. The actual goings-on such as the opening and
closing prayer, the partaking of the sacrament, song choice etc that occur during this sacred
meeting are all conducted the exact same way as in an LDS church building across town.
The modesty in apparel and the consistencies in which the sacrament meeting on Sundays
is conducted were crucial observations in my researching of this subculture.
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There are no specific demographics in the Mormon religion but in my research I did
find that there are two different classifications of wards, one that’s referred to as a “singles”
ward and the other as a “home” ward. Singles wards consist of single adults, they have to be
graduated from high school and they are normally between the ages of 18-30. Home wards
are established families with children, empty nesters, and the elderly; these range from all
ages.
It is not necessary that everyone participate in the Sunday service but in a way
everyone in the congregation does. Meetings are made up of speakers and musical
performances from the congregation. Also during the Sunday school lessons everybody
interacts with the teacher of the lesson.
Some of the most important rituals that I witnessed during a normal Sunday for the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints were the taking of the sacrament, praying to
start and end every meeting, running the sacrament portion of the meeting in a specific
routine way, and making sure that there is nothing flawed in the ceremony of passing the
sacrament. When I say passing of the sacrament this ceremony consists of a group of
worthy young men that go to each pew passing around trays with both bread and water
signifying the body and blood of Christ. Cultural norms I discovered were the modesty in
everyone’s dress and unspoken reverence when walking into the church building.
During asking my roommate Lindsay some more detailed questions I also learned that LDS
members try to do the least amount of activity, they do this to try and keep their Sunday
holy. One of the days that I attended the Sacrament meeting portion of the church session I
ended up sitting with two missionaries, while sitting with them I got to observe how they
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interacted with some of the other members in the ward… kindness. . In listening to the
questions and responses they were confronted with just in the short time before the
meeting commenced they remained overly nice, humble, confident in their answers, and
more than willing to help in any way they could. I got a similar vibe from every LDS
member that I came into contact with. There was no specific gender or proxemic rules that
I observed over the last month. Having been a complete outsider prior to walking into my
first LDS church service, looking back I realize I shouldn’t have been as nervous as I was. I
wasn’t made to feel awkward or out of place by being there even if it was only for a project.
I am glad that I dressed appropriately and that I didn’t feel uncomfortable about asking
questions if I had them.
Conclusion
This culture satisfies a people religiously. It allows for a way and theory of thoughts
to continue in the future like it has for hundreds of years. The reason this group known as
the Mormons and their admirable Sunday rituals exist is because of a man named Joseph
Smith and the vision that he had of two personages telling him to create this religion. There
is much more to that story but what I found to be more important than how does this group
exist is, what is the reason they still exist and the reason they still exist is because they are
not ashamed of the differences that are present between them and other more accepted
religions. The effectiveness in the cultural practices of Mormons is the same as the
effectiveness of cultural practices in any other religion, if they believe the customs, rituals,
and behavior in which they are partaking and it is helping them to become a better
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individual and better in their culture than the effectiveness is immense. I don’t think you
can measure whether a cultures customs are effective or not, everyone has their own
version of success and what comes with it.
After observing for the five hours that were required I continued to attend services
and ask questions and came to find out that people of the Mormon faith live their faith, they
don’t just read it. Many people including I have judged books by their covers, this was one
of those instances for me; because of my “Ah ha” moment in realizing jumping to
skepticism isn’t the best path to take I’ve used this as an example in my life.
Areas for Future Research
I did return and not just to observe for an assignment. When I went back it was
because I had become interested and wanted to find out more. As I sat in the pew as an
individual not as a student I found myself focusing on questions I could ask and to whom I
should ask. I try my best to keep an open mind but sometimes fall short and because this
project forced me to do so I decided to continue to try and keep that open mind. The main
question I found myself asking was why? Cliché I know but during my time observing I
noticed many people experiencing different emotions and I’d like to know how and why
they felt them. I realize that my response to the question “what would you focus on if you
went back” is kind of vague but right now there are too many things I’d like to focus on to
pinpoint just one. This project helped open my eyes in more ways than one.
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Field Notebook
First Observation- January 23, 2011
I’m attending the Lindon 3rd ward, it is known as a home ward. Whether a ward is a
“home” ward or “singles” ward depicts if majority of its congregation is families or single
young adults. The Sacrament portion of the service starts at 9 am; I walked in about 8:45
because I didn’t want to be late. As I walked in I was handed an overview of the meeting
and how it was to be conducted. First thing I notice is the music being played by the
organist who sat up on the stage. There was no singing to the music it was just being played
while people found the way to their seats.
I was the only person sitting in the back row. I sat in the back row to make it easier
to sneak in and out and to observe what was going on in front of me. Everyone walking in
filled up the rows in front of me, families and friends seemed to be sitting together and the
straggling few that came in after the church had started sat in the remaining back rows.
Everyone had a very humble demeanor; only the families with little children were speaking
and even then they were trying their best not to be disruptive or loud.
I brought a tape recorder with me but based on what I’d observed so far decided it
felt disrespectful to use it. A group of younger boys sat in the front right corner of the room
and were all dressed in white button down shirts and ties, I immediately got the feeling
they had an important duty of some kind. Unlike a lot of churches no choir got up in front
before everyone started singing out of the hymn book. Everyone sang; kids, adults, the
elderly, everyone on the stand. Although the leader of each individual ward is known as a
Bishop I’m surprised that he wasn’t the first to speak, his first counselor was. This man
looked at the Bishop for approval extremely frequently which shows me he respects him.
Like clockwork after the first counselor got done updating the congregation on new news
and activities everyone picked up their hymn books ready to sing the second song. During
the singing there were two boys also dressed in a white button down and tie in the front
right corner that were on the stage preparing something under a white cloth, after the song
ended the remaining boys in the right corner (in front of the stage) stood and collected
trays from the two boys on the stage and row by row began passing around these trays.
Everything and everyone went close to silent minus the few babies but even they seem to
know something special was going on. Everything the boys did was very uniform, they kept
straight faces and their hands crossed in front of their body the whole time. When the tray
got passed to me I realized it was bread that was ripped into pieces. There was a second
round of trays that was passed around in the same way as the bread but this time the tray
was full of mini cups of water. The boys gave every single person the opportunity to eat a
piece of bread and drink the water, including themselves. After everyone else had been
served the boys formed two lines and starting in the front they turned and offered the one
behind them the bread and water. As far as I could tell majority of the congregation partook
and every boy that was serving partook. I realized that the second song used the words
“remembrance”, “blood and body”, “praise”, and “sacrament”.
There were three speakers, one child and two adults. The topics were similar and
the speakers all made sure to voice that they were asked to speak on this topic, found this
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interesting. All the speakers expressed their gratitude for the gospel at the end of their
talks, when doing this they used the phrase “bear my testimony”. There was no clapping.
After the last talk which ended right at ten o’clock the first counselor wrapped up the
meeting by thanking the speakers and introducing the person that would give the prayer to
close the meeting. The meeting started with a prayer and ended with a prayer, they
referred to these prayers as invocation and benediction. This last hour I observed extreme
obedience and humility. Everybody was dressed in nice dress clothes the men in dress
pants, button down shirts with ties or suits; the women both young and old were dressed
modestly either in a dress or skirt and sweater. Even after the sacrament meeting ended
most of the congregation remained in the quiet manner they entered.
Second Observation- January 30, 2011
I attended the Orem 20th ward. This ward is a “singles” ward. I arrived at this
building right at nine o’clock so I could sit in the back without feeling awkward. First
observation I made was when I pulled into the parking lot/when I walked into the building,
this building was almost identical to the one I’d been at the week before. Walking in
everyone appeared under the age of thirty with the exception of the Bishop and his
counselors. . Some of the differences that I did note were the slight separation of the men
and women; girls sat by girls, boys sat by boys also prior to the start of the meeting there
was more chatter. But when the meeting did start everyone’s eyes fixated on the first
counselor to the Bishop who began updating the group of young adults on upcoming
happenings. He mentioned something called ward prayer a few times stating the time and
place, to my surprise it was held in the meeting house of my apartment complex and took
place every Sunday night at 9 o’clock. So far the layout as well as the handling of the
meeting seemed to be tremendously similar to that of the “home” ward. When the
sacrament portion of the meeting began the room became utterly silent; I didn’t realize
how much of a difference the presence of children makes. Because of there being no
children you could hear even the slightest movement in the room. Other than the complete
soundlessness the service continued to be conducted in the same order and behavior as the
Lindon 3rd ward. The hymn that was sung also revolved around the involvement of the
sacrament. Another noted difference was not as many took the bread and water that was
passed around as did in the ward with families. There were three speakers just as in the
Lindon ward who also all mentioned that they were asked to speak on their topic as well as
concluded their talks with “bearing their testimony”. After the last song was sung and the
prayer to close the meeting was said the young adults lingered and divided into male and
female groups looking like they were headed to meetings opposite each other. As the
meeting went on I realized that it was conducted with the same behaviors as the home
ward that I attended the week before, but the approach and topics of the talks were geared
more towards the young single adults in its audience.
Third Observation- February 6, 2011
Today I went back to the Orem 20th ward. I wanted to see if two consecutive
Sundays in a row are conducted the same way. As I walked in instead of being handed the
overview pamphlet of how the meeting was to be, two men approached me and asked me if
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I was a member of the ward. I responded with no and they asked me to sit with them, so I
did. Instead of sitting in the back of the church I sat more towards the front on the right
hand side. The missionaries that had snagged me were confronted by quite a few kids
before the meeting had even begun. In listening to the questions and responses they
remained overly nice, humble, confident in their answers, and more than willing to help in
any way they could. Other than the fact that I was in a new seat and not sitting by myself
everything was pretty much the same as it was last week. There was small talk going on
beforehand, the congregation got quiet as the meeting began, the opening prayer was said
and the songs were sung including one being specifically for the sacrament part.
After the portion of the meeting devoted to the bread and water the Second
counselor to the Bishop stood up and expressed his strong feelings for the gospel, his
family, and some other things dear to his heart and then opened the meeting up for anyone
to come up and do the same. I was completely confused by the disturbance in the uniform
schedule and repetition that I had seen the weeks before. It threw me off but the change in
schedule didn’t seem to shock anyone else which peaked my interest the most. The
congregation was completely okay and understood exactly what was going on. After a few
people had gone up and communicated specific situations in their life and their
appreciation for their culture I saw a few women and one man cry. One after another,
including the missionaries I sat with went up to the pulpit expressing a statement of their
individual experiences with the church and with the gospel. The church was quiet for every
single person that had something to say. The intense love and respect that everyone in the
congregation had for each other was inspiring.
At about 10 o’clock am the Second counselor got up again and thanked everyone
that had “born their testimony” and introduced that person that would give the prayer to
close the meeting. The man that was suppose to say the closing prayer approached the
front slower than usual; I wasn’t sure if he just wasn’t in a hurry or was trying to mask
tears. After this meeting the missionaries asked me what I thought which I would have
found prodding if I hadn’t seen the warmth they had for others before the meeting had
started. I could tell they truly cared about my response. I explained to them about my
project and they answered a few questions that I had regarding the Mormon religion and
its culture. I was frustrated because if I knew I was going to get this opportunity I would
have brought with me a recorder. Their honesty, openness, and ability to answer questions
on the spot showed me they weren’t ashamed. My observations today helped me get over
an enormous hump in understanding this culture.
Fourth Observation- February 6, 2011
I attended the Orem 20th wards, ward prayer. As I walked up there were around 30
to 40 single adults gathered both inside and outside of the Chambery clubhouse. Everyone
was dressed in either their pajamas or lounging clothes. The clubhouse is approximately 2
minutes down the road from the church building. Most gathered in groups of both males
and females having conversations about normal topics for their age like weekend plans,
school, work, other church activities or vacations.
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Right about 9 o’clock the Bishop and his counselors; they also were wearing normal
everyday clothing. There was a boy that stood up on the couch and quieted the crowd so
they could begin. A few girls from the ward went around while the boy was welcoming
everyone passing out copies of a hymn. After he welcomed everyone they started to sing
the song which they were handed. Since there wasn’t a piano or organ anywhere around
everyone just sung together; doing their best to keep on beat. The song ended and a
woman stood up and gave an inspirational thought followed by reading a verse from the
bible; she finished the thought and verse and everybody started kneeling. After the crowd
was all down on their knees somebody offered a prayer asking for specific things such as
guidance, protection, and confidence for the upcoming week. As she finished everyone
stood up and started making their way over to the corner of the room where there had
been refreshments set up. I hung back in the corner watching as people either stayed and
chatted with their friends or left with their food.
Fifth Observation- February 20, 2011
I attended the Orem 20th ward’s Sunday school lesson which follows the sacrament
part of the meeting. The Sacrament meeting starts at 9 o’clock and directly after is the
Sunday school lesson. For this portion the men and women are together and stay in the
same room where the first hour is. I had assumed that since the Bishop and his counselors
are in charge of conducting the first hour they would be in charge of conducting the second
hour, I was wrong. A woman stood at the pulpit and described the focuses of the lesson and
then introduced a man that would go on to give the lesson. His lesson wasn’t just him
standing at the front of the church preaching, he used objects and examples and humor as a
part of his lesson as well. The group of young adult interacted with him by answering
questions and posing ideas. After he finished up his lesson by bearing his testimony, as it
seemed everything finished, he returned to his seat down in the pews with everyone else.
The same woman that started the lesson portion concluded the lesson portion. The
behavior of the kids and the manner in which the lesson was carried out was a little looser
but still the modesty remained throughout.