Community Observation

COMMUNITY CULTURAL OBSERVATION

Become familiar with a community place, location, organization, familiar or unfamiliar to you. Reflect on what you believe community to be. Tell the story of this community from your perspective, Seek to imagine and reflect on other points of view as well.

These past few years, I have become really close with the Lobo Men's Basketball Team fan community on social media and in person. This is a type of community that is not often talked about, because most times it is not necessarily seen as being a community. To me, community means a group of people who share a same interest or passion and come together to celebrate that interest or passion among each other. I have known many of these fans for years, and meet up with a lot of them on game days. We met via social media (Twitter) and connected because of one common interest: Lobo Men's Basketball. There are many of us all over the country, but we communicate via messaging on twitter.

Procedure

Select one of these perspectives, and consider how you might gather information to understand the community’s culture from each perspective. Also include questions and perspectives of your own.

(a) Anthropologist: In what ways do people participate in religious, the arts, entertainment, ethnic, or other social activities or organizations?

Lobo basketball enthusiasts participate in social activities on game days. If there is a game, members of this community meet up outside of The Pit Arena and barbecue together, drink, and generally have a great time before the game starts, usually around 7 pm. When it is game time, Lobo basketball enthusiasts take their seats, and communicate with one another via Twitter, where the other members of the community are taking part in conversations regarding the game being played. It takes a lot of multitasking skill to be a part of this community, as you are talking to your members through many different means of conversation. Many members live out of New Mexico as well, so it is important to keep them updated with the score and some basketball play-by-plays if the game is not televised. Although Lobo men's basketball enthusiasts love the specific team and sport, they are supporters of all things UNM and Lobo. They are simply fans of anything having to do with the University of New Mexico, and they show their support with donations to the school's organizations, being a spectator at sports, and sporting their teams online with pride.