Ethnography Research of a Sub-Culture
Ethnography Research of a Sub-Culture
In the forgotten recesses of Camp Hovey, resides a small platoon of MP 's, standing in small groups in the battalion motor pool, it must be 9:30 in the morning and its must be Monday, Feb. 13th. Behind the large HUMMWV 's stands a small tight nit group of males, their ranks range in the e-4 to e-6 range, laughing together. This is the group that always stands away from the rest of the platoon, secluding themselves, forming a group within a group, or their own subculture. This group has the same similarities in the topics they discuss, usually it being the dysfunctions of the platoon, them main topic focusing on the platoon sergeant and second lieutenant. They all agree that the leadership that is being provided is insufficient and is the main reason that the platoon has reached this point of demotivation and the unwillingness to follow any orders given.
"I would never go down range with this platoon, we 'd all end up dead with this leadership."
"Wheres the platoon sergeant? in his office doing nothing as always, giving orders over the phone." These are just some of the topics discussed. The only differences between these few individuals are their rank, the ways that they believe would fix this dysfunctional platoon, last duty stations and deployments. Who should lead it? How we should really complete a task. How is this relevant to the task at hand? so on and so forth. Like any group with its own opinions that differ from the leaderships, word spreads. The obvious dysfunctional aspect becomes more apparent to those that are not apart of this subculture, more and more join in this group expressing their agreement with the topics, lower ranking decide to join when they discover that their opinion can finally be heard and agreed with. Based on the interactions with the group its easy to see who the leaders are with words and who the leaders are by example. The leader who spreads the word fills others head with
In the forgotten recesses of Camp Hovey, resides a small platoon of MP 's, standing in small groups in the battalion motor pool, it must be 9:30 in the morning and its must be Monday, Feb. 13th. Behind the large HUMMWV 's stands a small tight nit group of males, their ranks range in the e-4 to e-6 range, laughing together. This is the group that always stands away from the rest of the platoon, secluding themselves, forming a group within a group, or their own subculture. This group has the same similarities in the topics they discuss, usually it being the dysfunctions of the platoon, them main topic focusing on the platoon sergeant and second lieutenant. They all agree that the leadership that is being provided is insufficient and is the main reason that the platoon has reached this point of demotivation and the unwillingness to follow any orders given.
"I would never go down range with this platoon, we 'd all end up dead with this leadership."
"Wheres the platoon sergeant? in his office doing nothing as always, giving orders over the phone." These are just some of the topics discussed. The only differences between these few individuals are their rank, the ways that they believe would fix this dysfunctional platoon, last duty stations and deployments. Who should lead it? How we should really complete a task. How is this relevant to the task at hand? so on and so forth. Like any group with its own opinions that differ from the leaderships, word spreads. The obvious dysfunctional aspect becomes more apparent to those that are not apart of this subculture, more and more join in this group expressing their agreement with the topics, lower ranking decide to join when they discover that their opinion can finally be heard and agreed with. Based on the interactions with the group its easy to see who the leaders are with words and who the leaders are by example. The leader who spreads the word fills others head with