Observation Reports
During the first half of the course, the Worship Report describes your observations and interviews among participants at a local worship site. During the second half of the course, the Food Culture Report describes your observations and the stories of those who sell you food from a local farm, and your experience of sharing that food with others or eating it in solitude. These reports also relate your observations to those documented in related course readings. You write for a peer (vs. a specialist) who is unfamiliar with the topic, since half a dozen student observation reports will be assigned as readings for application exercises in Units 2 & 4 and for the final TRA.
IMPORTANT: for the Worship Report, you must observe formal worship at one of the times listed under Local Sites, not simply visit the site and talk to people. Although you may at other times have interesting informal interactions with community members there, it will be difficult to tell what they normally do when outsiders are not present based exclusively on such interactions. There is more flexibility in your choice of farmer's market or farm stand for the Food Culture report, although you should *choose a location that is within 100 miles of your home.*
Intended Audience:
Think of your audience for these observation report as a discerning peer who is keenly interested in food-related practices (religious and secular) and the related experiences of the sacred, but who has not studied such practices in an academic context. This person is curious about
A. how people engage the sacred through food-related practice, and what those people experience inwardly as they practice.
B. what people think about and feel about the sacred before, during & after such practice, and how such thoughts and feelings influence their practice; and
C. what you thought about & felt as an observer of such practice, and how what you observed compares to others' observations documented in published sources.
The Worship Visit and Food Culture Worksheets (WVW/FCW) guide you in generating a list of questions to answer when you observe food-related practices. You will then use the material generated by your responses on these worksheets to create a more cohesive, 5 page narrative or visual presentations intended for the above reader. This audience is not theoretical: half a dozen student observation reports will be assigned as readings for application exercises in Units 2 & 4 and for the final TRA.