Ethnography continued...

I realized with thanksgiving just passed, that it is a good example of different cultures and the ethnographic method. This Thanksgiving i went to my boy friends familys house to spend our Thanksgiving. Even before we went i knew that it was going to be a much different experiance than my own familys thanksgiving. One of the first thing that i noticed was that he has a much bigger family/family gathering than my family does. He had around 20 to 25 of his immediate family there. At my familys we usually have aroung 8 to 12 people. Before eating dinner everyone helped out and all of the kids(cousins) played games. Everyone beought a dish and helped put the finish meal together. At my family house the "host" family (who evers house it is) does all of the cooking and cleaning usually, and we rotate who's house it is at every holiday. I tried to follow my boy friends lead and just do whatever he was doing. During dinner everyone kind of just had small conversations with whom ever they were near and then when done got up and just started helping clean up. At my familys usually the conversation is with everyone, probably because there is not as many people, and we have to ask to be excused when we are through with our dinner. After experiancing both very different family thanksgivings, i really like the way that things were done with his family and never really thought of it being very different for other familys, because that is what my cultural backround of it was. I think that it is cool that many people celebrate the same holiday in so many differt ways, because of the way that they were brought up doing it, their culture.