Cultural anthropology: Becoming a minority of one

Going to church in a different culture -- Feeling like a foreigner

Field trip: Becoming a fish out of water

This assignment is designed to send you on a cross-cultural field trip where you become a minority of one. The worship part is not the central issue. The central objective of this assignment is to find yourself as a minority in a situation where you feel out of place and where you may be uncertain what is expected of you.

In your one to two-page report, don't tell me how you discovered people can worship in any culture. In fact, don't focus on the worship event itself.

I'm looking for what you felt. I want you to process whatever uncomfortable moments you felt. What took you out of your comfort zone? You may tell me that you did discover that God speaks more than one language.

Do not report on an experience you had months or years ago before this course began. It must be an experience you have had since starting this Cultural Anthropology course.

Possibilities

• Go to a church in language you do not speak (Spanish or Korean, for instance)
• Go to a church whose members have a different skin color than you (multi-racial churches do not count).
  • Addresses and phones in Oklahoma City for Hindu temple, Islamic mosques, Jewish synagogues and others [ see listing ]
  • Those for whom visiting an all-black church would be a cross-cultural experience can find three to four pages of church advertisements in the print edition of The Black Chronicle, Oklahoma's weekly African-American newspaper.

Sample student reports

• Actual student report

    -- Howard Culbertson

Cultural Anthropology course resources:    Cultural Bingo icebreakers     Bwanda Fusa game    Cultural Anthropology case studies    Christianity and culture    Course home page    Culture shock    Ethnocentrism and monoculturalism    Exam study guides   Iceberg and concentric circles models of culture    Light bulb illustration: What do you see?     Missions and culture    My own culture shock     PowerPoint presentations used in class     Reading report   Reentry: Coming home    Research paper topic suggestions