Artifact 4: Personal Adornment

I took over an hour today to people watch. At first I was concerned that it would be weird but then I realized that most all of us do this on a regular basis unknowingly. At the Market of Choice I was able to find a few people to analyze and try to speculate what their beliefs were. The first person I saw was actually sitting in a dining booth in front of me and looked almost bored. He was wearing a pretty worn out jacket, had dreads, and was had a smartphone in his hands. If he wasn’t texting someone I would have considered this man being homeless, because of the tattered clothing and hairstyle. I think he could have had or is having a rougher life just because people don’t usually dress in such clothing unless they had to. I feel Eugene does have more people who dress in this way so he could have just been wearing a look. From his appearance I would assume he probably has done drugs or at least smoked cigarettes. He didn’t seem angry but again rather bored so he could also have been waiting for someone. I feel he probably wasn’t religious but I never like to assume that towards people. I think he was a nice person who has been through some rough times.

The next person who I analyzed was a woman who was about  50 years old. Based on the location of Market of choice I assumed that she had enough money to shop here because she was buying groceries to eat. She was an average looking woman with nice clothing. She had a nice blue shirt on tucked into a light tan skirt that went to her feet. Based on this outfit I assumed that she was most likely on the modest side and probably had a respectful and genuine personality. I feel as if she had a family and could have been religious based on the necklace she was wearing. I couldn’t tell what it was but it was a small beaded necklace with a figure on the bottom. She also had a shorter hair cut which for me makes me already feel more comfortable towards her. This could be because of some family members of mine who also have short hair but she looked friendly none the less. I think she has a successful career and a family based on how nice her purse was also. She easily could be a teacher or child care manager based on how she smiled.

The third person was someone sitting outside with his dog. He was more than likely homeless and I could watch him from the inside window of Market of Choice. This man had much worse clothing the first man I described. He didn’t have a sign which I would usually expect. But it looked as if he was just sitting there for much of the day pondering what he wanted to do next. His clothing was all browns and tans except for his black scuffed boots. He looked content and at ease from his facial expressions. I couldn’t tell what is hair looked like because it was tucked inside of his beanie but his shortened facial hair was a darker brown. He looked tan which would bring me to assume he has been exposed to sunlight often which also makes me feel he is still homeless. He had a nose piercing and but had surprisingly white teeth. I know Eugene has a pretty diverse crowd and I would put him in the younger homeless group. I feel like he might travel a lot because his backpack looked pretty well organized with straps and bags. None the less he seem like he would have had family issues or possibly never had a family but he seemed composed and sane which can be uncommon for homeless people. He didnt have a dirty face but I feel like he could have done drugs before. He was a man on his own but I think he was okay with it because he didn’t look concerned. he’s still able to feed his dog so hopefully he will be off of the streets soon.

Reflection:

I like how this specific assignment required me to assess my own personal views about clothing adornment by spectating individuals. I used the pictures in this page to illustrate how there are many different options for clothing or adornments to express one’s values. It also required me to analyzing what they were wearing and then asses what I thought these adornments reflected in their life. This action I think shows how this project helped me accomplish the course objectives of evaluating adornment, personally defining it, and relating beliefs about these evaluations. I specifically showed this when I inferred the religious background of a mother I saw in the Market of Choice grocery store. Because she was wearing a necklace and was dressed in a very respectable manner I came to believe that she was a Christian mom who was shopping for her family.

In the opposite effect I assumed a man who appeared homeless to be non religious and this was hard because I did not have much exposure to homeless people so I made this assumption blindly. I realized from this project that personal adornment and evaluating others is strictly based off of ones own values and past exposure to people with different adornment styles. I believe I was able to also complete the object of analyzing beliefs on subjects across different cultures  because I analyzed a wide variety of individuals that dressed very differently and made me assume very different beliefs about their lifestyles. The homeless looking man is a good example because when I noticed that he had a cell phone I immediately started having different assumptions about him based off of my previous knowledge about people who own cell phones.

IN THE FUTURE:

I am interested to see how the tools of analyzing personal adornment and relating the the analysis to values and beliefs will help me later in life. I think it will help me to look at different cultures more appropriately by accepting that different adornment styles bring forth different expressed beliefs in individuals. I think this concept will make me think about how other people assess me and my adornment choices and this will possibly affect how I dress in the future. As of right now I dress in a comfortable way that I think shows that I have some slight original style but I am curious to see if this will change.