What if a Martian anthropologist, named Marvin, decided to do fieldwork in your town. Marvin knows very little about the people in your town and finds it all so very fascinating and exotic. Marvin decides to do fieldwork on Christmas in your town. What would Marvin see and what would he be told? What kind of sense would he make about people in your town during Christmas?
Marvin might ask:
Why do people give gifts? Why do you wrap the gift? Why so much red during this time? What are all the lights for? What's the significance of the pine tree? Why is there a star or an angel on the top of the tree? What is Santa Claus? How many elves does he have? Does he feed all of them? Where do they live? Do they receive compensation for their work? Do the elves have families? Why the south pole? Why reindeer? Why eight? How come the leader has a red nose? How does Santa know who's been "naughty or nice"? Is there a criteria for naughty and nice? Is Santa omniscient? What does the coal represent? Why stockings? Why milk and cookies? What's nutmeg? Why do you drink it? How does Santa Claus travel all over the world in one night? Why a sleigh? Why do people dress up like Santa Claus and swing a bell? What is that box in front of him for? What is charity? Why do you give charity? What does it all represent? How does Santa Claus structure the functioning of your society? Is Santa real? What's the purpose of celebrating Christmas? What social need does it fulfil?
What is the etymology of 'Christmas'? Oh, what's Jesus? What's God? How do you know Jesus was born on this day? Do you celebrate the anniversary of Mary and Joseph? What's the relationship between Jesus and Santa Claus? If it's Jesus' birthday, why do you receive and give gifts (according to birthday customs the guests don't receive gifts but give them to the birthday person)? Why do you open gifts on this particular day? What is Christmas dinner? Why ham? Why cranberry sauce? Does the family only get together on this day? Why do you like Christmas? Why do some people dislike Christmas? What kinds of emotions do you feel during Christmas? Why are some people so stressed out by Christmas? Why does this happen in your town? Why...
*Marvin is very curious
No comments:
Post a Comment