First Set of Fieldnotes

After a good few weeks of preparing I was finally able to get out and begin the exploration into my fieldsite and culture... sort of. The first time I went to begin my adventure I found the mosque to have absolutely no one around it at all! I had believed I went right before one of the daily prayer times, but maybe it was due to Columbus Day that no one was there? Regardless it turned out that the front door was open so I was able to do a bit of exploration and learn a great deal about the culture just from interacting with the environment! I'm going to go ahead and answer a couple of reflective questions about my first set of fieldnotes and my first foray into the culture.

What surprised me?
Well, right off the bat the first surprise was that there was nobody there! I wouldn't have expected Columbus Day to interfere with the daily prayer, but maybe it was just due to the Imam of the mosque being away on a pilgrimage for a bit. Nevertheless the answering machine indicated the daily prayer times, so I had assumed that they would still be held. Apart from the solitude I ended up with, I was surprised by a great multitude of things, mainly among them was the type of community that the mosque ended up being. In Rhode Island where I'm from, the catholic faith is in the majority. Even though I've never attended a service or been to a church around here myself, I'm well informed that many churches turn into almost community centers of commerce. I've heard from friends and family about many notices, bulletins, and advertisements; usually near the church entrances, that serve to promote local businesses and the like. I'm unsure of why I expected a mosque to be any different. It was likely just because of how Islam in my mind was a much more foreign and almost pure religion. I pictured places of worship unfettered by restaurant ads and listings for karate classes, but I found the exact opposite! In this way it seems that this mosque serves as a center of community as well, and the same type of community at that! Juxtaposed with this very modern and capitalistic concept, was the other surprising fact of gender segregated prayer rooms. I had known from prior research that Islam usually stresses that men and women should pray in separate areas, out of sight from one another. Despite this I had also learned that mosques in the United States were usually much more lax with many traditions in order to meld with the rest of American society. This was not the case in this mosque, there was a separate prayer area upstairs for women, and it was very likely that they were not allowed into the men's area for normal prayer, nor were men allowed into the women's area, but this is unconfirmed as of yet.

What intrigued me?
The two things above gave me a combined sense of surprise and intrigue, generally things that surprise me will also intrigue me, and visa versa. When trying to think of something that just intrigued me, my unwillingness to venture into certain areas would definitely take the cake. I should preface this by reminding readers that I don't believe in any sort of omnipotent God. Despite this fact I found myself thinking that it would be disrespectful to explore the upstairs, as that is a space for women. When I caught myself thinking this I was a bit stumped. I asked myself who I would be disrespecting... as I was completely alone. It made me realize that I placed a value of power and almost sentience on the sacredness of the building and tenants of Islam, despite not believing in them myself. My friends usually joke I'm a horrible atheist when I begin talking like this, and this experience made me wonder if there was truth to their joking!


What disturbed me?
So far I didn't find anything that has disturbed me, due to my unique upbringing I've seen my share of crazy things, and it will usually take a great deal to even phase me in the slightest. Though if one could substitute confusion for being disturbed, the fact that no one was there would fit the bill. As of my writing this I still don't understand why no one was around in the hour that I was there. The parking lot was only used for cars turning around to get on the other side of the road as the prayer time came and went. I spent a great deal of time wondering the reason behind this and was worried that I'd be out of luck. Luckily due to a keen eye and an analytical state brought on by near-starvation, I was able to learn a lot just from being alone in the space.

All in all my first set of fieldnotes were a very interesting foray into the culture, specifically the idea that I was able to explore the space without any sort of human interference or assistance, and see what I could glean from my own knowledge. I'm eagerly awaiting finally making contact with the people of the culture in my next set of fieldnotes, and will be updating within the next week with my results!