Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Culture Of Skydiving, Steven Wade

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

ABSTRACT

The culture of skydiving is made up of a community of individuals who regularly jump at a given drop zone. This culture places a high value on individual achievement, self-reliance, and adherence to routine, and it promotes a strong sense of community among its members. The relationships formed between skydivers through the common experience of skydiving go beyond the activity itself. Skydive Kentucky in Elizabethtown supports its community through several unique rites of passage as an individual gradually becomes a member of the group. This drop zone also hosts cookouts and card games for its regular members. Throughout this …

The Transformation Of A Shire: Local Negotiation In The Society For Creative Anachronism, Suzanne Barber

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

In this thesis, I am examining how a small branch of the Society for Creative Anachronism, Loch an Fhraoich, whose values and identity center around camaraderie and narrative and aesthetic coherence, attempts to balance these two often contradictory principles. To better illustrate the negotiations taking place, I have used ethnographic fieldwork to focus on the areas of material culture, ethno-kinetics, persona, knowledge, and events. These areas are tightly interwoven, and almost never operate independently, but the exercise of isolating them is useful in seeing the complexities of choices that members must make to navigate the social world of the Society …