Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/anthropology/1662344-garbology
https://studentshare.org/anthropology/1662344-garbology.
Within the apartment, various norms have been adopted by all tenants with reference to the garbage disposal. At the end of each grounds lane, there is a huge bin where tenants are expected to dump their waste so that the truck can empty each night. Considering that garbology is an essential part of my education, I attempted to analyze the garbage in the bin one morning as part of my assignment.
I realized a bag that had been left outside the bin in a torn paper bag and was so sure it belonged to our recent neighbour. I took my gloves and a mask and another paper bag so that as I go through the waste, I will put it in a better paper and throw it in the main bin. When I started collecting the scattered trash, I came across so many different items that caught my eyes. There were wastes from fruits, plastic yoghourt bottles, cereal boxes, top-loading sheet protectors, inkjet print transparencies, old magazines and a book.
The top-loading sheet protectors had been disposed of in large volumes. I concluded that there are people who live in the house and work inside the house too. The sheets had been stuck to each other and seemed to be no longer usable. The protectors were along with filing a file with the name of a company called HSBC that made me conclude that in the house there lived a banker, and his name was Mr McDonald. The Jet ink transparencies had cartoon characters drawn on them. This made me conclude that there is one of the family members that are in the creative field and is involved in coming up with comics or probably works for the media that requires cartoons.
One of the transparencies had with it the name Jack. In addition, the cartoon that was drawn was one in a recent blog that talks about teenagers on a website for teens. This communicated that in the house there is a teenager who is creative and concentrates on drawing cartoons. The old magazines seemed to be women-oriented. This communicates that there is the existence of women in the house who are focused on fashion. Another magazine contains information on home remedies of how to fix acne problems.
This showed that there is a female teenager in the house with acne problems. The book had the main themes focus on pregnancy. It is based on the home care a woman should observe in the nine months of pregnancy. This shows that there is a lady in the house who is a mother, and the husband works at HBSC. After all these discoveries, I became more comfortable going into their house to highlight to them that the trash should be thrown into the bin. My intention was not to talk about the trash, but this was a strategy to confirm if my findings were true.
After ringing the bell, a teenage girl opened the door and welcomed me. I realized she had the acne problem I had diagnosed, and it felt good to have been right. I also realized a bunch of transparencies on a table further from the door with a boy sitting around them with patches of ink scribbled in his hands. I greeted the woman who was in the house and realized a family portrait on the wall that had the logo of the HSBC bank. The family seems to be well off, and it felt good that through the use of the garbage I was able to conclude who our neighbours were.
Read More