Family Research

I would have to say that my grandpa is the closest person in our family to being famous. He has passed away, but at every family get together he is always mentioned and stories are told of him. One cool thing that he told me was he used to be Sheriff for Delaware County. He was actually sheriff when the current Delaware County Jail was first opened. He told me that as a joke he was the first person to be locked into a jail cell. I cannot remember how many years he was sheriff, but he had enough stories that made it sound like he was sheriff for 50 years. Now he was sheriff quite a bit years ago, so things back then were different than now days. Back then, if he arrested a man that had a weapon, he could keep the weapon, unless it was used in a crime. So there he had three gun vaults filled with guns. He could tell me a story with each weapon. Sometimes the stories were exaggerated a bit, but it always left me with thinking that my grandpa was almost Superman. I also remember watching Walker Texas Ranger with my grandpa, and he would always say that Walker was one tough son-of-a-bitch. He would else tell me that everything Walker would do to criminals, he too did that to a criminal.

Week 10 Postin Brody Carter

I am going to start arranging my mini-ethnography by thematic. I think this is the best way because my paper has about three different themes: hunting as conservation method, anti-hunting groups, and interviews with hunters. I plan to begin with talking about my interest in deer hunting, and my view on hunting. I will then talk about hunting as a conservation method. I am going to start this section of my paper by defining some terms that people may not know. This will give the informant knowledge about hunter’s perspective on conservation and some statistics. The next section would be anti-hunting groups. This will have an interview from a non-hunters stand point. After reading this section, the reader will have information from two different stand points. The last section will be interviews with hunters. This will end the piece that may leave the readers thinking. I think this will be the best way because it will keep the important topics together, rather than scrambled all over. The reader will have an easy time in the transfer from topic to topic.

Cultural Glossary Brody Carter

1. Harvest- to kill a wild animal.
2. Rut- whitetail deer mating season (November).
3. Muzzleloader- a firearm that you load blackpowder and bullet through the barrel.
4. Blind- something on the ground to hide or cover up a hunter hunting on the ground.
5. Stand- a metal platform hung on a tree for a hunter to hunt out of in a tree.
6. Scoreable- a large enough whitetail buck that's rack is measured by height and mass.
7. Spike- a small buck with two antlers sticking straight up.
8. Button buck- a small buck that has antlers that are less than three inches tall.
9. __ point buck- to determine how many points a buck is, count the number of serperate antlers that are at least three inches tall.

Pg. 306 Questions

1. One visit to my field site, I interviewed the owner, Rob Garrison, of the archery shop. I was sitting across the counter of him in a high bar stool. He was sitting across from me in a bar stool with the cash register in front of him and a little to the left. Country music was playing on the radio, but it was not too loud because the music doesn’t want to disturb the shooters. While he was talking to me every so often he would grab a plastic cup to spit into it. Whenever he talked about a tip or a secret he would always lean over to me, within a foot, and talk real quietly.
2. The meaning of the recorded words are the answers to my mini ethnography. I am getting other people’s opinions on deer hunting. When I talked to Rob he brought up a lot of points that I had never thought of about deer hunting. He also said that when he lived back in West Virginia, the typical deer hunter was what everyone thinks of as a hunter, redneck, beer drinking, tobacco user, poor, and smells.
3. The way my informant talked was that he really loved to talk about deer hunting. When talking about previous hunts he was always talking louder and was very enthusiastic, but he was always serious too. He takes deer hunting serious so when he would maybe tell me a hint or other information he would talk softer and only to me so no one else could hear him. He would pause for a couple of seconds in the story for me to stop and think about what is going to happen. It would sometimes build up a suspense

Week 9 Posting Brody Carter

The hardest thing for me so far has been the interviews. I have interviewed three people so far. I have asked all of them as to what stereotypes they think of when they think of a deer hunter. They all have seemed to start off with redneck, but then go off subject. They end up usually talking about Animal Rights Activist. They don’t like to stay on the topic of stereotypes. The easiest thing has been finding research. First, I thought this was going to be the hardest, but after the library day it has become very easy. I have found a lot of material talking about conservation methods from the hunter’s and animal rights activists stand points. The blog has helped me to stay on task with the project. Every week I have to write in the blog therefore every week I continually have to do further research or interviews over my topic. The blog helps me not just put it off until the last minute. I continue to work on my project every week which will make me better prepared for the final project. It will help me because all of my ideas are organized. This will be very helpful when I am searching for materials in chronological order.

Developing A Research Question

1. Why will my readers care about the issue? My readers will care about the issue because they may be tired of hear about the typical stereotypes on deer hunters. They may possibly be a deer hunter themselves, and want to read facts about the benefits of deer hunting. They may also want to read about some of the stereotypes being busted from research.
2. What will my readers want or need to know about the issue? My readers will maybe want to know that there are people that totally agree with hunting they maybe do not hunt themselves. Readers may want to know what people are doing to trying to stop deer hunting or encourage deer hunting. Also they need to know that starving people are being fed by deer hunters, and that they could also participate in this by donating their deer to a food bank.
3. What do my readers already know about the issue? Almost all deer hunters know about animal rights activist who are trying to put a stop in hunting. My readers know that millions of deer are being killed every year in the sport of hunting.
4. What do I want my readers to learn about the issue? I want my readers to learn about the conservation effect of deer hunting. I want readers to know specific reason as to why deer hunting is the major population control on deer. I also want them to know how they too could help starving people by donating venison (deer meat) to the hungry.
5. If I am trying to persuade my readers of something, how easily will they be persuaded? I think that it would be easily to persuade some people, and then on the other hand almost impossible to persuade people. People are either for hunting or not for hunting. The people that may agree with it, but don’t participate maybe easier to persuade than someone who is strongly against hunting.

Week 8 Posting Brody Carter

The main theme that I am seeing in my mini-ethnography is that hunting is a sport of conservation not killing. It seems like everything I find to support the sport of hunting is how it is a practice of conservation. I have found a lot of articles about deer hunting, and that if no one hunted the wild game population would be out of control. I think that in my member’s community they know they are help with conservation, but I don’t think that is the main purpose people hunt. It may be the main reason, but it seems like everyone knows they are helping with conservation, but they do not say they hunt just for that reason. I have yet to hear anyone from my community to say something about conservation.
My place in my subculture is that I am a member of it, and I have never felt more of a member than I do know. It is definitely different because I have become to know why more people hunt that I have ever known. When I talk to people about hunting before this class I would ask what they had harvested that year or previous years. Now that I am working on this project I have asked a lot of different questions that I would have normally not asked. These questions have made me have more appreciation towards other people’s view of hunting.