The burning question: What were humans like back then? More specifically, what were our cultural minds like back then?
Something I want to focus on that intrigues me is how our past human behavior compares to the current norms or cultural ideas we possess today. Of course, I also hope to discover why these ideas were present. For instance, I want to break beyond the known ideas such as propaganda against Japanese-Americans during WWII, for this idea is already known and obvious.
I do not mean to undermine the value of the thoughts of those who were pro-internment camps and such, and each person who is pro-internment should be entitled to it because of the situations.
Instead, I hope to find the small quirks of college life. What was it like to date? Did the man always offer his coat to the girl? Were fraternities and sororities popular back then? The list of questions goes on and on. Unfortunately as of right now, I do not have any idea how to narrow it down.
If I cannot pick a definite topic, I may get lost in my research not knowing how or when to conclude.
Researching, for me, has accelerated. I would dread the thought of having to read books or online articles to know what happened historically, but I could read to learn how people act all over the world. Us humans are interesting beings who create order out of chaos. I also see our societies as every growing and thus, the amount of research I can do is probably close to infinite.
Here’s the problem. After reading an article by Katherine E. Tirabassi, Journeying Into The Archives: Exploring The Pragmatics Of Archival Research, I found one daunting situation I don’t want to fall into.
Tirabassi’s article conveys that there are four key principles to research:
- Principle of Selectivity
- Principle of Cross-Referencing
- Principle of Categorization
- Principle of Closure
The primary principle I find quite interesting is of closure. I never thought of when or even how I finish researching. I never even bothered to ask, “is there an end?” Each wonderful tangent I may find could lead to more fruitful endings. But those same tangents could also lead to dead ends, waste my time and energy, and slowly persuade me to believe my research is getting no where. I also find that if I were to continue to research, I could end up not publishing any work, only to find that the relevance of the topic I am researching is out-dated.
Basically, because of my investment and love for our cultural beliefs. I can see how I may become lost in the infinite pool of past cultural artifacts. I could find stories and articles that give precious memories and fuel me to discover more about whatever their context is.
I never stopped to think that researching cultural items could be so endless. There are so many diverse topics to focus on and I for one, may try to take on too many or dive too deeply into one.
The plan now: have the discipline to have some shallower parts in my research, but allocate the appropriate time for the deeper subjects I find.