Field Work on the Catholic Church
Richard Gomez
Dr. Sydney Hart
Anthropology 202
Fieldwork Assignment 2 For this fieldwork assignment I decided to go to a Roman Catholic Church. I was raised Catholic and I went to a Catholic school from second grade to eighth grade so, I had background knowledge on the teaching of the church. I have taken field notes and came across some reoccurring tendencies. All of these reoccurring tendencies support my thesis, which is: one of the many values the Catholic Church holds importance to is having much respect for their God. Throughout this essay I will explain my findings and the correlation between them and my assumption that this particular church holds being respect to a high regard. One of behaviors that I saw kept coming up was the bowing of the head. Almost during every prayer and upon entering and leaving the church many of the members bow their heads. Later upon analyzing, and drawing from past experience, I remember the nuns showing us how to pray. They would tell us to make the sign of the cross and bow our heads. In deeper thinking of my attitudes about God and Jesus, I tried to find a link between bowing my head in church and how I felt. There is almost a sense of awe and guilt when you go to church. As Catholics, we believe that God sent his only son to earth for us. Jesus would then make the ultimate sacrifice, and die for our sins. Going to church is a kind of reminder of that act. Then it dawned on me the common use of the phrase, “Catholic guilt”, could actually have some sort of validity. Along with gestures, I notice a great deal of people would take a knee right before entering their pew. With this respect idea in mind, it seemed symbolic of how a knight would kneel before his king. This again, is out of respect for someone who is superior to you. It is out of respect for that ultimate sacrifice that Catholics bow their heads and out of respect that we knee before entering our pew. Also in my field notes, I have
Dr. Sydney Hart
Anthropology 202
Fieldwork Assignment 2 For this fieldwork assignment I decided to go to a Roman Catholic Church. I was raised Catholic and I went to a Catholic school from second grade to eighth grade so, I had background knowledge on the teaching of the church. I have taken field notes and came across some reoccurring tendencies. All of these reoccurring tendencies support my thesis, which is: one of the many values the Catholic Church holds importance to is having much respect for their God. Throughout this essay I will explain my findings and the correlation between them and my assumption that this particular church holds being respect to a high regard. One of behaviors that I saw kept coming up was the bowing of the head. Almost during every prayer and upon entering and leaving the church many of the members bow their heads. Later upon analyzing, and drawing from past experience, I remember the nuns showing us how to pray. They would tell us to make the sign of the cross and bow our heads. In deeper thinking of my attitudes about God and Jesus, I tried to find a link between bowing my head in church and how I felt. There is almost a sense of awe and guilt when you go to church. As Catholics, we believe that God sent his only son to earth for us. Jesus would then make the ultimate sacrifice, and die for our sins. Going to church is a kind of reminder of that act. Then it dawned on me the common use of the phrase, “Catholic guilt”, could actually have some sort of validity. Along with gestures, I notice a great deal of people would take a knee right before entering their pew. With this respect idea in mind, it seemed symbolic of how a knight would kneel before his king. This again, is out of respect for someone who is superior to you. It is out of respect for that ultimate sacrifice that Catholics bow their heads and out of respect that we knee before entering our pew. Also in my field notes, I have