Anthropology generally entails studying man and humanity as a whole while paying close attention to the evolution of man. Anthropologists dig up data which they employ in analyzing the nature of human beings from their evolution to date. Moreover, the study entails social, biological, archaeological and linguistic aspects of the human race. Anthropologists today are collecting data through on looking for activities in a specific area hence come up with information about the culture and the nature of people in that area depending on the observations. Through simple on looking, the culture of a place and the people surrounding the area is easily established by the anthropologists (Marett, 1912).
A visit to a high school parking area in the local area gave an insight of the daily arrival culture of the students and teachers in that school by taking time to observe them during their arrival to school. The school is located in a town hence most students are early to school for about thirty minutes before the lessons begin. The culture of the students during arrival hours to school is crucial to anthropology in that it gives a clear indication of the character of the students in that school in terms of the time most students have always arrived in school and the social status of the students who have studied in that school over the years.
The parking area is right in front of the main school door where the students can easily hear the bell ring. The parking lot is quite large hence this is an indication that the school has a large capacity of students. The school front is quite welcoming with flowers surrounding the stoned building as well as the parking lot is partitioned by flower gardens into sections. The area is large enough to accommodate many vehicles both personal and public that pass nearby to drop off students. The arrival time of most students is at 7:30 AM. The parking area is filled with personal vehicles both old and classy cars as well as personal bicycles and motorbikes. Another group of students is seen arriving through public buses which pass right in front of the school.
The parking area is also observed to have the school bus which is quite early than the rest the students who use their means to go to school. The buses are three and they are observed to drop off the young students probably the juniors who have not attained their driving license. However, some students are seen to arrive in groups in one personal car where one of them drives as others are dropped off by their parents or rather guardians. The parking area is rather noisy at that particular time when students arrive to school. The noisiest students are the ones who arrive in their own personal vehicles and they seem to have their allocated area to pack their cars.
The people around the parking area are definitely students and few are teachers who are seen arriving and immediately enter the main door after parking their cars. The students are high school students who seem to be teenagers especially due to their size and character. The school is amazingly a white dominated school despite the fact some students are black or Spanish. Very few students are Chinese or Korean following their known physical appearance. The school is a mixed institution with both boys and girls and their numbers seem to be equal. The diversity in race is probably due to the fact that the school is located in a town around all the nearby local areas (Stocking, 1968).
The students are of diverse class in relation to social status following their means of arrival to school. The students THAT use public transport for obvious reasons seem to come from an area below middle class in terms of their lifestyle. An observation on how they dress is another indication of their low or poor class. The students who arrive by bus cannot be easily determined as rich poor or of the middle class since most are young and appear to be juniors in the school. The rich dominate from the observation as they arrive with flashy and modest cars as well as their way of dressing seem to be from the high end shops. The class of most students is determined as most are rich or above middle class in accordance to their lifestyle.
The activities that take place within the first thirty minutes of arrival include students talking and laughing while others sit alone waiting for the bell to ring so as to enter the school door. The students engage in chats as others start shows of their own such as fights. The rich students seem to have cliques as on arrival some of their friends crowd their cars and engage in hearty conversations. The majority of the students are in cliques and after arrival each student seems to have their specific area to wait with their friends. Students in the high school behave like the rest of the schools during arrival. After the bell rings, all students dash into the main door leaving the parking lot empty.
After a quiet time observing the students and the activities at the parking lot, it is evident that cultural relativity appears with the study of the students daily customs (Winthrop, 1991). The rich act like the rich while the middle class behave just like where they come from. Socializing among the students is within groups of class. All students understand each other based on their origins and their lifestyle. The gender concept is also an observed factor among the students. Clique of friends were of the same sex though they still socialized with the other gender. All aspects of students and their culture on arrival to school were greatly highlighted in the parking area they resume to their respective classes.
In conclusion, the main theme observed in the field activity is that students from high school level always hang out depending on class as well as age. The seniors and juniors rarely interact due to the small difference in age. The school is diverse in terms of having all the races and being a mixed school. The idea of class difference heightens due to the behavior of students of intimidating each other, a factor that brings about superiority complex among the rich children and those from middle class. This is a common factor that has dominated in high schools over the years and most probably in the early centuries the custom was similar hence was passed on to all generations.
