Virtual Ethnography 101: Birthplace

Last summer I asked my college students in Anthropology 1, aside from learning anthropological concepts and theories inside the classroom - to explore places, experience cultural happenings, and then apply their learning through writing ethnographic accounts using the method of participation-observation.

I am posting in my blog with the writer's consent selected ethnography penned creatively by my students to contribute to the emerging sub-discipline of anthropology called 'Virtual Ethnography'.

Basically, virtually ethnography is also referred to as Webnography. We cannot deny the fact that with increasing use of technology and the Internet, there is now a demand for online spaces on various ethnographic accounts.

Ethnography By Llenel de Castro

Night slowly replaced dusk as body wrapped tightly from head to toe in yellow cloth was being pushed on a gurney to the morgue. Following the gurney was an old man, head bent, wearing tattered shorts and a cap, carrying an x-ray envelope and some other personal belongings.

Death in a hospital is unlike death anywhere because it’s an everyday thing. Once a bed is vacated, a new patient comes in to fight his own battle. Life goes on. Life not only ends, but begins in the hospital as well. As I went into the obstetrics section, all of the staff echoed the same sentiment – this is not the best way to see someone give birth. I was in the country’s prime hospital, one where all the best doctors are. And like all other prime institutions in this country, where all those with doctorates from all around the world work, the hospital lacked funding.

Overcrowded is understatement. There were beds along the corridor. Some women were sitting on mattresses on the floor. The women were draped with off-white cloths, some already with blood splattered on and the men from 300 shouting, “this is Sparta!” come to mind. Mosquitoes were also abundant and they feasted on me as I sat waiting in the corner of the nursery. Of course, they feasted on the babies as well.

I spent a total of over three hours waiting. Three hours of observing how life in the hospital is without the perfect haircuts of the characters in Grey’s Anatomy or the pristine coats of the specialists in House.

Although it was a slow Saturday night with almost no one giving birth, the place was still abuzz. In one corner, a boy, probably the son of a staff member was going through one of the most important rites of passage in his life. In the other room, someone’s life changed from being a lady to a mother. Interns and residents walked around asking one another what they would like to have delivered for lunch, hours after the rest of the country have eaten dinner while others raced to finish paperwork so that they could go home. Scattered all over the place were mothers breastfeeding, trying to enjoy the first few hours of being a mother, while their families waited on benches or flattened cardboard boxes on the floor outside.

While everyone moved about, the babies minded their won business. They were after all new players in the game of life. They lay there in their little cribs adjusting to the new environment. Some pooped, others cried. Some cried while pooping, while others slept through everything.

I went to the hospital hoping to see a baby come out of the womb. Like some experiments, however, I did not get my expected result. After more than three hours of waiting, I retired my cause. Saturday night isn’t a popular night for giving birth. However, with three hours worth of data, I did not go home empty handed.
I was able to watch as the people fulfilled the different roles in their life cycles. The babies were just beginning. The young boy being circumcised was on his way to becoming an adult. The mothers have already fulfilled their role of passing on their genetic material. The doctors and nurses were working to bring food to the table. And the life of the person whose body was wrapped in yellow cloth had just ended.

It’s amazing to see how culture and the scientific study of biology mix in the life cycle. While some view the life cycle as the development of the individual from an embryo to a fully formed adult, others may see it as a series of rites, such as circumcision, baptism and marriage, that one has to go through to be considered an adult in society. It’s amazing how the babies are born full of innocence and in the process on enculturation learns the ways of the world.

While our life cycle may be summarized in term from womb to tomb, our lives aren’t as limited. Life is not simply a beginning and an end. Life is a journey, a story and a testament of the human race. Each point of the journey, each plot twist and every single event, working in an unimaginably complex way to enhance the human experience and ultimately, to begin the life cycle anew.

(Photo Image from http://www.google.com.ph/imgres?imgurl=http://blisstree.com/geneticsandhealth/files/2009/01/cmsphoto017565-hospital-nursery.jpg&imgrefurl=http://blisstree.com/feel/first-designer-baby-born-free-of-breast-cancer-genetic-risk/&usg=__Z_h8-Pc_rSmuKsRTXY_RgIYW8vU=&h=330&w=500&sz=61&hl=tl&start=0&sig2=vQ2lG05XNjdLKTUS3N9j_A&zoom=1&tbnid=brRsOUK24MCh-M:&tbnh=155&tbnw=211&ei=h0kVTsSaGM-cmQWG0pwW&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dphoto%2Bof%2Bbaby%2Bborn%2Bin%2Bhospital%26hl%3Dtl%26sa%3DX%26biw%3D1280%26bih%3D807%26tbm%3Disch%26prmd%3Divns&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=972&vpy=99&dur=952&hovh=163&hovw=231&tx=185&ty=111&page=1&ndsp=22&ved=1t:429,r:4,s:0)