Background: The purpose of this assignment is to explore, compare, and contrast the symbolic meaning of chocolate exchange in two American ritual contexts. You will conduct interviews. Next, you will code these interviews using a thematic analysis approach. You will then draw on these coded data to respond to four questions about the symbolic significance of chocolate exchanges on Halloween and Valentine’s Day in the United States.
Instructions:
- For this exercise, you will need to conduct 3 interviews. If you choose to interview someone in your household, you may do the interview in person. If you choose to interview people outside of your household, please conduct the interview via Phone, Zoom, Skype, FaceTime, etc. You may select anyone to interview over the age of 18 (no children), so long as they have participated in a celebration of the American holidays Halloween and Valentine’s Day. Each interview should take about 15 minutes. Do not interview a classmate. In the past, students that participated both as interviewers and interviewees started reproducing the same data and that defeats the goal of this assignment, which is to code themes that emerge from the interviews.
- Ask each person to tell you about two holidays, Halloween and Valentine’s Day (download questions here):Be sure to take detailed notes during each interview. When you get home, type up your interviews/notes. You will use these notes for the next step of this assignment
- First, ask: “Please describe the way Halloween is celebrated in the United States.” Be sure to probe by asking, “Can you tell me how someone might get chocolate on Halloween? Who gives it to them? What happens if they don’t give it? What are people expected to give in return for the chocolate? Must giver and receiver know each other already? Does the exchange alter how they relate? ” if the respondent does not mention these issues.
- Second, ask: “Please describe the way Valentine’s Day is celebrated in the United States.” Be sure to probe by asking, “Can you tell me how someone might get chocolate on Valentine’s Day? Who gives it to them? What happens if they don’t give it? What are people expected to give in return for the chocolate? Must giver and receiver know each other already? Does the exchange alter how they relate?” if the respondent does not mention these issues.
- Type up the answers in complete sentences from the three interviews (they must be typed up before going to #4)
- Download and fill in the assignment sheet You will paste your three interviews into the form, code them, and answer questions based on your analysis. Turn in the completed assignment sheet.
- Code your interviews for the following themes:
- exchange (e.g., giving or receiving),
- social relationships (e.g., strangers, neighbors, girlfriends), and
- social significance (e.g., meaning assigned to exchange, such as greedy, generous, or loving).
- To “code” these interviews you should use your word processer’s highlighter to highlight the text green (for exchange), blue (for social relationships), and yellow (for social significance) each time the respondent talks about one of these themes; you can use highlight + colored font if they discuss more than one theme at the same time. You will turn in your highlighted notes as part of this assignment.
- See an example of coded text here
Check out the FAQs document. The FAQs contain additional information and answers to student questions. Close attention to information in the FAQs will help you do well on the assignment.
ASB 102: Exchange of Chocolate Assignment Questions forHalloween and Valentine’s Day
1. Please describe the way Halloween is celebrated in the United States.
▪ Can you tell me how someone might get chocolate on Halloween?
▪ Who gives it to them?
▪ What happens if they don’t give it?
▪ What are people expected to give in return for the chocolate?
▪ Must giver and receiver know each other already? Does the exchange alter how they relate to each other?
2. Please describe the way Valentine’s Day is celebrated in the United States.
▪ Can you tell me how someone might get chocolate on Valentine’s Day?
▪ Who gives it to them?
▪ What happens if they don’t give it?
▪ What are people expected to give in return for the chocolate?
▪ Must giver and receiver know each other already? Does the exchange alter how they relate to each other?
ASB 102: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
Remember to save file as your: LastnameFirstname_Exchange of Chocolate
Exchange of Chocolate
Name:
Instructions: Download, fill-in, and turn in this form. You must maintain this document’s 1-inch margins, single-spacing, and 12pt font. Answer questions in complete sentences.
Interview Data
Instructions: Copy and paste your interviews into this document,code them (use highlighting), then answer the questions.
Interview 1
[paste coded text here]
Interview 2
[paste coded text here]
Interview 3
[paste coded text here]
Short Answer Analysis
Instructions: Use your coded interview data to provide short answers to each of the following questions. Use complete sentences to answer the questions.
1) Exchange: Your interviews should contain information on who exchanges, what is exchanged, and when, where, and how it is exchanged. In terms of the act of exchanging chocolate, as well as the social context of the holiday:
List two similarities you found about exchange among the two different holidays:
1.
2.
List two differences you found about exchange among the two different holidays:
1.
2.
2) Social Significance: Giving and receiving chocolate on Halloween and Valentine’s Day have various social meanings.
Name one similarity in the social significance of exchanging sweets on these holidays:
1.
Name one difference in the social significance of exchanging sweets on these holidays:
1.
3) Social Relationships: What role does the exchange of sweets play in making or managing social relationships in the United States? Answer in 3-5 sentences.
[Begin text here]
4) Citing information from the lectures and/or readings to inform your opinion, what do these exchanges tell you about the American values? Answer in 4-6 sentences.
[Begin text here]
Coding Key
Exchange (giving or receiving)
Social Relationships (strangers, neighbors, significant others)
Social Significance (meaning assigned to exchange)
Please note – in order to code a phrase for both exchange and social relationships, highlight in green and change the font color to blue. Ex: This is coded for exchange and social relationships.
Sample Text
Do you give presents? On what occasions? What do you give?
In the US, there are as many traditions as there are regions of each city and state – many from other countries. I live in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and my husband is from Guatemala. My American friends often get together and have ‘pot luck’ meals, where each family is responsible for bringing a dish. One of my friends from the office is becoming a US Citizen next week, so I am hosting the party. I will provide the main meal – meat cooked on the barbeque, and the guests are to bring a dish and whatever soda or alcoholic beverages they would like. When we get together with my husband’s friends, the host family provides the entire meal. Sometimes we bring a present, but we get together so often we don’t do presents every time.
We give presents at birthdays, Mother’s & Father’s day, weddings, graduations, christenings. In my family the present really depends on the situation of the person. I don’t know my one brother and his wife so well, so I try to find some type of fun food from a gourmet shop. I do this for my sister and her husband, too. My other brother I give things he can use for his house or personal. My mother we all give flowers frequently. She has so many things and nowhere to put them, and loves the flowers, and chocolates, too. My son and his wife I often give money, with a suggestion for its use – and they get the final decision. The grand children I give book club and National Geographic magazine subscriptions, and they love getting the new reading material each month. I give toys at Christmas and birthdays (they are still very small) but have begun to pass on some of my jewelry and jewelry cases to my granddaughter,who loves to dress up. Sometimes we give gift cards – but try to give them for special restaurants or stores the person would not normally take the time or money to go to themselves. That way it’s special, but they get a choice.
We give lots of jewelry to the women in our family – New Mexico has many Native American artist who work in silver and turquoise. We give lots of tools to the men – everyone works on their homes doing improvements and always likes the new gadgets.
Many of my husband’s friends from Guatemala or Mexico have girls who celebrate their 15th birthdays with a special ‘Quincinera’ ceremony at the church and a party that’s almost like a wedding reception, with special dancing by her friends, couples who have dressed in matching outfits, as her attendants. We give some jewelry, perfume or special cosmetics to signify that she is becoming a woman.
For weddings I was given a unique present, and try to pass this on to everyone I can. Take the wedding invitation, tear the edges a little and singe them with a candle flame. Curl the invitation, then dip it in melted clear wax and quickly wrap it around a large candle, holding it firm until the wax cools a little, then roll then entire candle in the pan of melted wax a couple of times, and cool. Sometimes the edges need a little help keeping close to the big candle. Then give a nice candle holder and some little tiny candles with instructions to burn the candle a little, then use the little candles so it can be kept forever. Then they have their wedding invitation on a candle to display.
When we travel, we bring back little gifts for close friends and family. For my mother, we bring back magnets that she keeps for her collection on the refrigerator!