By Leasah Jean-Francois
This summer serving as a lab intern, I was able to handle most of the materials that correlate to my capstone project. A large part of the daily task was data collection. I collected data on retrieved materials and the context in which they were found. I developed a processing and catalogue technique that helped me consolidate much of the data I retrieved. I also lived in a small Italian community, and this is where I collected much of my social data.
Initially, I planned to interview a lot more people than I did, and I had a more formal plan on how I would do it. In actuality, most of my interviews were small conversations where certain individuals shared their experiences with me. I planned to interview my program director in a quiet setting sitting down. I asked her while on the way to the lab if I could interview her later and instead of having a formal interview at a table she said “Why not here…..go ahead”. I ended up interviewing her in the car on the way to the lab. I took from that interaction that not all interviews have to be formal interactions for data collection. An interview can simply be a conversation about the things a person cares about, has knowledge of, or has experienced. My professor was extremely knowledgeable about the materials being excavated in the region and the religious spaces they ended up in. She knew many of the people in the town we lived in, and she was happy to share her knowledge.
I’ve always been a people watcher it’s my favorite pastime, so while some of my social data was collected through interviews most of it was purely observational. I visited and observed religious spaces and social behaviors. I recorded what I found in a diary, and this was most of my data collection. One observational experience that stood out to me was when three of my professors and I visited one of the local churches in the town we were excavating. The church was rarely opened apart from on Sundays for mass, and we all wanted to collect data on the columns that rested in the sanctuary. Two of the columns in the church originally came from the structure being excavated. There was a total of 8 columns found in structures outside of their original context. When we entered the church, it was dark and quite apart from one lady, and I assume her partner was praying the rosary. They were praying in Italian but because of my basic understanding of Italian and my knowledge of Catholicism, I was able to keep up. The acoustics in the space were very good so every sound we made carried. We made it a point to collect our data and observations of the columns as quickly and quietly as possible. We were in there for less than 10 minutes. In the time we were in there the two individuals never acknowledged our presence. I sat down for a bit and watched as they went back and forth so focused. The individuals fervently prayed the Rosary together out loud by memory.
That experience stuck with me because the rosary takes roughly 15-20 minutes to pray so to do it by heart first is impressive. The second thing that stood out to me was the fact that this was clearly a sacred experience for these people and we as scientists could have very well disturbed that, yet they did not let us. We made noises walked around the space measuring things but that never stopped them. I noticed this around various churches in Italy tourist or visiting members of the churches are simply ignored. They are not typically forbidden from a space they are just not acknowledged so as to not take away from the sacred experience of regular church goers.
I noticed in this experience and in so many others that I gain so much more from observational experiences than interviews. That might just be because I am more accustomed to observing behaviors rather than asking someone about them. When I observe I process the data mentality and then write down the data. With conversations I write down the answers or data and then I must go back and process what that all means. In relation to the community, I am researching co-constructed knowledge looks like knowledge gained through collaborations. I think my observational interactions as well as the interviews I held with members in the community created a sort of partnership. I receive new understanding and they are able to provide the larger world with education on the issues they face.
Church of San Marcellino in Monti in Chianti, Tuscany
Interior of the Church of San Marcellino in Monti in Chianti, Tuscany where to local town members pray the rosary.
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