Captain's Log: An Alien's 7-Day Encounter

Author's Note: This assignment was my final assignment paper for my Anthropology class. The scenario was this: an "alien" Cultural Anthropologist from another galaxy has landed on earth and chosen me as the subject of a fieldwork study he/she/it has been sent here to do. As an anthropologist, what types of things about my life would this visitor be interested in. Without knowing and using all the reasons we have for the things we do, how would our lives be described by this visitor? I decided to do my account from the alien's perspective (and somewhat tongue in cheek).

Captain’s Log

Arrival (Sunday evening): I arrived at the agreed upon remote location. My subject was waiting for me in a land vehicle of some sort. Subject is a female adult, somewhat pale skinned (what they call “Caucasian”) with brown hair. It never ceases to amaze me how these humans can be so unique from one another. In all the earth subjects I’ve studied, not one of them has looked anything like another one with the exception of the twins I studied several years ago. Even then, they had subtle differences in their looks. And their behavior was definitely different!

The subject walked up to me and held out her hand. Since this was the first time I had ever studied someone of her particular culture, it took me a few seconds to realize what she was doing (thank goodness I’ve done some background reading before coming here). Feeling somewhat embarrassed, I held out my hand and shook hers. She didn’t seem to mind though, as she gave me a smile and said, “Welcome. My name is Donna”. I would have told her my name, but I don’t think humans can make that noise with their vocal cords. 

We then walked to her “car”. I had never seen a vehicle of this nature before. In all the other cultures I’ve studied, we always walked to our destination. I must have looked somewhat apprehensive, because she ensured me that it was a safe and quicker way to travel. As we got inside the vehicle, she instructed me to fasten my seatbelt and we were off! The car is not as fast as my spaceship, but considering we were driving on land and there were many more things to hit, needless to say I was more than a little bit unnerved.

 It’s going to be an interesting seven earth days.

Day 1 (Monday): I am awakened by the sound of an alarm clock. For some reason we are to get out of bed before the sun rises (4:30am). It is Monday - second day of the week. I asked Donna why her society considers Sunday the first day of the week (it’s on all their calendars), yet Monday is also considered the first day of the week. She said that although technically Sunday is the first day of the week in her culture, most people unconsciously consider Monday the first day because that’s the beginning of the “work” week. As a matter of fact, in at least one other country including Russia, Monday is considered the first day of the week. Apparently all of this has something to do with common religious practices. According to the Bible (my subject is a “Christian”), the Sabbath occurs on the last day of the week. Yet according to her calendar, Saturday is the last day of the week. After questioning my subject further, we came to the conclusion that it is more of a Christian and Jewish tradition that the Sunday Sabbath day came into being. Since my subject’s religion stems from the Jewish faith, many of their traditions and practices are similar if not alike. I find it interesting that aspects of religion blend in with the secular culture of her world, even though she says not everybody in her culture share the same religion. In most cultures, there is a standard religion. But her culture is a mixture of Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, and even atheists and agnostics – to name a few. Yet aspects of religion flow with everyday life.

Since my subject had to get ready for work, we decided to discuss her religious culture later in the week. I am looking forward to attending church with her. This subject of religion could prove to be the most interesting part of my stay here.

We arrived at her workplace, and I must say it was very interesting. On her job, men and women work together side by side to see a common goal. In the other earth societies I have studied, the men and women each have clear-cut responsibilities. But in Donna’s culture, responsibilities are intermingled in a way I have never seen before. My subject herself is not married, even though most of her peers are married and have children. She represents somewhat of a minority in her culture (single, never married) yet she integrates into society quite well, she assures me. Perhaps the next few days will tell….

Day 2 (Tuesday): The alarm again wakes me at 4:30am. Since the buzzing noise of the alarm yesterday was too much for my “alien” eardrums, she decided to change the alarm to wake me to the sound of music on the radio. This “radio” is a fantastic piece of technology, and only seems to be present in her type of culture. Since she had to get ready again (humans sure do deteriorate throughout the night), I decided to spend some time turning the radio dial.

All sorts of melodies greeted me, ranging from soothing classical to something akin to a tribal beat similar to the one I heard in my last trip here (I later found out that this was called “Rap”). There were even stations in which all they did was talk. Some of these “talk” stations gave news, weather, events and such, and still others did nothing but tell senseless jokes and ramble endlessly about absolutely nothing important whatsoever. As my subject emerged from her room, I asked her why anyone would want to listen to something that held no informational value to them. She said it was called “entertainment”. I will have to study this phenomenon further as well, because this seems to be somewhat unique to her culture.

I hope seven days is going to be enough….

Day 3 (Wednesday): My subject tells me this is “hump day”. “What in the galaxy is hump day?” I asked her incredulously. She only laughed and said, “It means it’s the middle of the week.” Here we go with those confusing calendar days again. I decided to drop the subject.

Today I decided to stay home and study her animals. She has two of them, called “cats”. I figured that if this human is so interesting, her “pets” should be even more so (at least I thought). After sitting with them for three hours, all I seen them do was eat, sleep (mostly sleep), and use what my subject calls the “litter box”. I wished I had gone to work with Donna, because this part of my observation didn’t go very well. I do find it remarkable, however, that in her society people keep animals simply for pleasure and not for work. In most earth societies, the animals help with the labor. In this culture, the people take care of them as if they are human children. Perhaps this falls under the “entertainment” genre she was telling me about yesterday.

Bored with the animals, I decided to look around the house. After looking in her refrigerator, I realized that almost all of the foods contained there (if not all of them) were processed. I hadn’t noticed it before, but there was no garden in her yard. Every bit of food she had was grown by someone else. Interesting.

I heard something outside, so I went to the window to take a look. Her next-door neighbor decided to mow his yard. I suppose he has to do this because he has no cattle or goats to eat the grass and therefore it grows unmercifully. It’s an interesting machine – I had never seen a machine that slices grass before. He seems to be enjoying himself. I wonder why he’s not working like my subject.

Day 4 (Thursday): My subject is in a better mood this evening. We had a pretty hectic day at work, but everyone in the office seemed to be in good spirits. I asked Donna why everyone’s moods seem to be getting lighter by the day, and she said it’s because the weekend is coming up. Remembering how confusing the weekdays made me, I decided not to ask her to explain further. I’m on the second half of my stay, and there’s so much more I want to learn before I leave without spending too much time on the significance of the days of the week. I did notice that her culture has a lot of catch phrases for things, however: humpday, TGIF (she said she would explain this one to me tomorrow), clear as mud, etc.

We went to mid-week Bible study this evening. The pastor spoke very eloquently. He is of her same culture, yet he is from another country. He is a Palestinian that was born in Israel but fled out of the country several decades back when the Jews took back their homeland. His background as a Palestinian should by all that is commonplace make him Muslim, yet he is a Christian. I find it interesting that this Christian faith accepts members of all races, nationalities, colors, backgrounds, etc. In the congregation I saw European Americans, African Americans, Jamaicans, Jewish Americans, Chinese, and even a couple from India. Yet they all share a common faith that is not based on their place of birth or nationality. Despite their differences, they still call themselves a “family”. When I asked Donna about this, she told me that they are part of the household of “faith”. Apparently this faith is what holds them together, even to the point that they call themselves “brothers and sisters”, although they have no physical bloodline in common.

Day 5 (Friday): TGIF – Thank God (or Goodness, depending on who you ask) it’s Friday. Apparently Donna’s culture holds Friday in great esteem. As I went to work with Donna today, I noticed she dressed somewhat differently than she had earlier in the week. She told me it’s “Casual Friday” at her workplace. Apparently this is a somewhat recent phenomenon in her culture and is catching on fast. She seems to like it. She wanted to know if I wanted to wear something similar, but I told her that I prefer to wear my spacesuit over civilian wear.

As we traveled to her home today, I noticed many more vehicles on the road than in the previous days. She assured me it’s because it’s the last day of the workweek, and people are leaving work early and setting out to enjoy their two days off. I noticed a lot of boats being pulled, as well as three wheeled vehicles. Must be a form of recreation, or entertainment.

Tonight Donna decided to introduce me to a particular form of entertainment called “movies”. I must say, I can now see why her culture likes entertainment. I laughed, I cried, I actually became angry when the bad witch tried to kill Dorothy with her flying monkeys (Donna assures me no such creature actually exists on her planet - to which I am thankful). Who would have thought that an imaginative story could captivate my emotions in such a way. Exhilarating!! I must bring some of this technology back with me to my planet.

Day 6 (Saturday): Today is “fun” day. Since Donna was paid on Friday, she decided that we should have “girls day out”. I don’t know what that means (another catch phrase, I’m sure), but I decided to go along, hoping that the fact I’m actually neither male or female in biological makeup doesn’t make a difference.

We decided to go shopping. I find it interesting that although the store is divided in “male” and “female” sections, much of the women’s clothing looks similar in appearance to the men’s clothing. I also found it interesting that some women were shopping for clothing in the men’s section itself. What I found even more interesting was that this phenomenon seemed to be somewhat lopsided. In other words, I didn’t see any men shopping for women’s clothing (at least not for themselves). When I asked Donna about this, she giggled and told me that although it’s more rare for a man to wear women’s attire, it in fact does happen. However, the women seem to be more open about it. I wonder why that is.

We then decided to go for a bite to eat at Red Lobster. Considering the only “live” animals I had seen thus far were in Donna’s house and were not to be consumed as food, I found it somewhat shocking to see a rather large water tank in the lobby of the restaurant. In this tank were several lobsters that had been caught and bound. Apparently, people can choose which lobster they want to eat and it is killed and served for them. Although this is not a practice I’m unfamiliar with (considering the other earth cultures I have studied), I found it rather interesting that this particular type of behavior was occurring here. I asked Donna if she was going to order lobster, but apparently she is not very favorable to the practice. She told me she prefers to see her food dead upon first glance, although she did tell me that she likes to go fishing from time to time (which I thought somewhat contradictory, but I’m an Anthropologist and it’s not my place to judge).

Day 7 (Sunday): The Sabbath, or first day of the week. We had a great time in church today. Donna tells me that God rested on the seventh day, so we are not planning on working today. I wonder what the Saturday was for? Anyway, she informed me that it’s not so much a commandment in the Christian faith, but in the Jewish faith it was traditionally always considered against God’s commandment to work on the Sabbath. She says this created some friction between the Jews and Jesus Christ when he walked this earth approximately 2,000 years ago. Interesting, since once again her religion seems to stem from Judaism. She told me that although Christianity stems from Judaism, it is not the same in that the Jews do not recognize Jesus Christ as the Messiah. Apparently this accounts for many of the differences between the two religions. But she assures me she still loves the Jewish people (and people of all other faiths), even though they may not see eye to eye on theological matters.

I was introduced to some of her friends (“church family” she calls them) this afternoon when we shared lunch together. This time we didn’t go to Red Lobster, but Ruby Tuesday. There was what they call a “buffet” there. It looked similar another earth society I had studied (in South America I believe), in which food was laid out for people to take in order to bring prestige to the leader of the community. Donna assures me, however, that this is different in that Ruby Tuesday is not trying to gain prestige or become a “Big Man” from the event. Someone at the table thought we said “Big Mac” and proceeded to tell me that you couldn’t get that here, to which Donna corrected them. There was much laughter at the table. It seems to be a very important part of Donna’s culture to get together with friends and family. I would say it is particularly important for those who are not living with family. This society is very independence oriented, even to the point that their nation’s founding fathers cited the “Declaration of Independence”. It seems to be one of the backbones of their culture, and something they take pride in.

Departure: I must say it has been an extremely eye-opening experience for me. I wish I had another seven days to spend, but alas my tenure here is up. I was told by High Command to not “overstay my welcome”, because these creatures tend to change dramatically when you do so and not for the better. Upon leaving, I remembered to reach out my hand to shake my subject’s, but again she surprised me by giving me a hug. This is a common sign among her culture that you are more than just an acquaintance, but a friend. I may have even saw a slight glimmer of moisture in her eye – a sign for emotion that has somewhat eluded me because it is used in a wide range of emotions ranging from sadness to anger to happiness. Or it could have just been allergies.

 Captain’s Log Finished