Ethnographic Essay: The Boston Common Park

Introduction
It is fascinating to observe social interactions in a large place. More importantly, analyzing how people interact on grounds of social stratification, power, wealth, prestige, ascribed status, and achieved status. Last weekend, I visited Boston Common Park to purposely observe how people are interacting with one another. I was equipped with a notebook to jot down some important observations in light of the aforementioned elements of social interaction. My interest was drawn towards a wedding being officiated at this venue with people coming from diverse backgrounds being present at the venue. This event provided the perfect scene for identifying various ethnographic phenomena.
Observation and Analysis
The Boston Common Park is a place where people come to visit and hold events. The number of people visiting this region is high and thus provides a wide range of ethnographic phenomena, which is worth exploring. My visit to the Boston Common Park over the weekend was colorful. A considerable section of the park was festooned with raiment’s and sets of flowers as part of wedding preparations. I was intrigued by the selection of the central location to host the event. Boston Common Park provides a rich mix of monuments and art designs that make such an event to be attractive. I made a choice to concentrate on this wedding since it provided a rich set of social interactions.
The wedding was between a Black man (Gregory) marrying a White lady (Kathrynne). By the time I arrived, guest to the wedding were starting to arrive in droves. I observed how they interacted with one another. I also took note of an estimated length of time spent interacting. More precisely, I was concerned about the form of interaction and the freedo...

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...rceived to have more wealth received special treatment in the weekend event I chose to attend, which is a clear indication of the disparities existing in terms of wealth distribution nationally and globally. The level of interaction for those present was based on perception of individual social status. People were more inclined to freely interact with individuals from a similar social status rather than a person from a different social status. While some had ascribed status, other presented achieved stratification status. However, the difference emerging from this scenario is that a small number of individuals are given opportunities to amass wealth within a short time while the rest linger in their glory. In return, the cultural response to this difference is to elevate those who have amassed wealth at the expense of those in middle and low-class income bracket.