Anthropology IA Written Report/ Observation Assignment

Although most anthropological fieldwork is based on a more specific group of people, the basics of collecting and evaluating data lie within a specific place at a specific time. or e!ample, in the culture known as the "nited #tates of America, there is a specific place in #outh lorida known as #un $ife #tadium. As for the specific time, on #unday, October %&, '%(% at ()(% pm, there was a ma*or league baseball game. +he game pitted the lorida ,arlins against the -ittsburgh -irates. When I first reached #un $ife #tadium, I noticed the few amount of people on the parking lot. Although the parking lot was huge, few cars were on the lot. +his was both une!pected and surprising. I believed that the game would be overcrowded with people. As I walked across the parking lot, I found that there were people in the parking lot having barbecues. +he people were /ispanic although I cannot say which country they were specifically from. Of course, having been to football games myself previously, I found this detail not surprising. After entering the stadium itself with my ticket, I noticed, for the first time, the number of people that appeared to have /ispanic heritage. If I were to estimate the demographic percentage of the whole stadium, I would say about si!ty percent of the number of people there had /ispanic blood. At the same time, I noticed the range in the age of the people that were there. 0udging from appearance, most of the people there were in what would be called the baby boomer age. Of course, I reali1ed that baseball was a popular sport back in the (23%s and (24%s. After I reached my seat, the actual game began. 5uring the actual game, I noticed that most people were cheering for the ,arlins rather than the -irates. Of course, this might have

been because the ,arlins were in their home stadium. /owever, after looking at the players, I reali1ed that ethnicity might have been a part of the fans6 cheering. 7irtually most of the lorida ,arlins were filled with people of /ispanic heritage compared to the number of players with /ispanic8heritage in the -irates team. As a result, most of the game was heavily biased against the -irates including the actual stadium commentary. When the ,arlins did something good, then the audience and the stadium would cheer, but when the -irates did something good, the audience would not only stay 9uiet but they would actually yell out :;oo<= to the -irates. Another part of ma*or league baseball games were the little pri1e give offs that happened occasionally in the game. ,any people had sought after these items and did virtually anything that the screen told them to do. In one certain pri1e give off, the people asked the audience to do an :air guitar= and the person who did the best would be given a special pri1e. In the end, a senior lady earned the pri1e, but this was the intensity of the people to win something. -eople wanted to win something so badly that some people even brought their baseball gloves with them in order to catch something if a ball came towards their side. What is important here is not the fact these people brought these things, but the fact that these people were willing to do all of these things. Another detail I noticed in the audience was that the baseball stadium was filled with commercial ads whether or not they were related to baseball. In actuality, virtually no ads were baseball related. ,ost of these ads featured prominent companies that had endorsed or contributed in terms of financial matters. >ear the end of the game, as the outcome was evident, people started to leave the stadium to go to the party that took place after the game. +his baseball game was an interesting e!perience. Although I6ve been to one in the past, because I was too young back then, I did not remember it. I believe the ,arlins won

because they had the support of the audience and ultimately even the stadium. In conclusion, I think sports events are heavily influenced by which team gets the support.