Questionnaire. Need a little help for my thesis on B Man...

TwisterTine · Post by **TwisterTine** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 9:46 am

Dear People out there!
I study Cultural Anthropology and I am writing my master’s thesis on Burning Man with reference to ritual, New Religious Movements and Counterculture. In order to avoid turning the Burning Man experience into something dry and theoretical I have created a questionnaire which I would like to have as many people as possible to answer. So here are 13 questions to which getting answers would be of great help. Please feel free to write as much - or as little - as you want to. You can e-mail answers to: [email protected]

Thanks a lot! :D

1) Nom de playa (if you have one):

2) In which years have you been to Burning Man?

3) Did you stay

a) a few days
b) the whole week
c) for longer than a week

4) In which ways did/do you participate and in which ways do you think people should participate?

5) Has Burning Man had an impact on your life in the “real world”?
If yes, in which ways has it affected your life?

6) Which role do drugs play for your Burning Man experience?

7) Do you attend Burning Man meetings throughout the year?

8) In which ways do you prepare yourself before going to BMan?

9) What does Burning Man personally mean to you?

10) What does the Man represent to you?

11) Which significance has the Burning of the Man to you?

12) Do you feel that Burning Man has changed over the years?
If yes in which ways?

13) Age:
Sex:
Place of residence:

Chai Guy · Post by **Chai Guy** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 10:11 am

In order to avoid turning the Burning Man experience into something dry and theoretical

OOPS, too late!

Is this what's passing for higher education these days? Doomed, we're doomed I tell you.

Lassen Forge · Post by **Lassen Forge** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 12:00 pm

Oh God, do I dare???

* * * * *

1) Nom de playa (if you have one): OK... I nom de playa... George. All hail George.

2) In which years have you been to Burning Man? Those in which I have gone. Not like the years in which I haven't.

3) Did you stay

a) a few days
b) the whole week
c) for longer than a week

Yes.

4) In which ways did/do you participate and in which ways do you think people should participate? I do all kinds of cool shit to participate in things I participate in, and I think others should all join in in assisting my efforts to participate.

5) Has Burning Man had an impact on your life in the “real world”?
If yes, in which ways has it affected your life? Yes. I spend way too much time doing ePlaya stuff. Like this.

6) Which role do drugs play for your Burning Man experience? I get drugs thru the dusts and its makeses me a dustballs. The role could be leading lady. So... call me Dusty!

7) Do you attend Burning Man meetings throughout the year? I attend many meetings. Some attended by men. All should be burned.

8) In which ways do you prepare yourself before going to BMan? A few good stiff drinks. Always helps for the long drive. Sometimes I pee first.

9) What does Burning Man personally mean to you? I don't know - I talk to him and he doesn't say much back, other than snap, crackle, and pop. Maybe it's part of a cereal.

10) What does the Man represent to you? Law & Order. Authority. Getting busted (see #6 above). Sirens and lightbars. Handcuffs. Jails. And Donuts.

11) Which significance has the Burning of the Man to you? Which significance? Oh, I see, like Wicca. Burning times and whatnot. Not fun. Yes?

12) Do you feel that Burning Man has changed over the years?
If yes in which ways? Yes. It was held on a beach. That was near a big patch of water. Now it's in the desert. Not much water there. Big change.

13) Age: Age of reason. Kinda getting personal there.
Sex: Sometimes frequently. Kinda getting *really* personal there!
Place of residence: At my home.

* * * * * *

Trying to moisten the dry and impersonal...
BBS

robotland · Post by **robotland** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 12:03 pm

How about throwin' us your thesis statement, before we do all this work for you? (Oops- I mean, "gift you with our data.")

...and I'd BETTER not look up from burning my Dinty Moore to see you scribbling on a clipboard!

MissNev · Post by **MissNev** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 12:05 pm

BBS, you rock!

Lassen Forge · Post by **Lassen Forge** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 12:05 pm

OK... I apologize...

Other than writing Jotsmas Carols, I see something like this and can't but help play with it. Kind of like expensive electronic devices. Anyway, I hope no one was offended with my cheap attempt at humor. And other impersonal stuff.

Hugs,
BBS

TwisterTine · Post by **TwisterTine** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 1:25 pm

Thanks for your help, BBS! I think I'll dedicate a whole chapter to the deep insights you've given me!

TwisterTine · Post by **TwisterTine** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 2:18 pm

Ok, then: So there are scholars (Jeremy Hockett and Sarah Pike for example) who are claiming that in this age of reflexive modernity our understanding of and our relation towards religion is changing. That apart from the institutionalized places for making spiritual and life-changing experiences, bonding with people and finding meaning, there are more and more so called secular "churches" who provide the same things for people who are not happy with traditional church but still miss some of these things in their lives that the church traditionally used to provide. We are not becoming more secular and less religious but we are "making sacred spaces" elsewhere. Burning Man has been conceptualized as a "New Religious Movement" (not in a classical sense, obviously) and as a place where people are making meaningful experiences. What I am doing basically is putting all these theories together. (I still don't really know what my opinion on this will be in the end but I was hoping to get some help from you. If this bores you, that's ok. I won't be offended. Just pass on to the next topic.)
By the way: Maybe this is something really good I'm missing out on, but I am German and I have no idea what a Dinty Moore is...
Tine

Isotopia · Post by **Isotopia** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 2:24 pm

Burning Man has been conceptualized as a "New Religious Movement" (not in a classical sense, obviously)...

Usually by folks who've either never been to the event or who seek to compartmentlize and distill it from a personal frame of reference. A good number of press accounts do this as well even though Larry Harvey argues the point vociferously.

Kinetic IV · Post by **Kinetic IV** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 2:30 pm

http://www.burningman.com/press/myths.html

blyslv · Post by **blyslv** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 2:54 pm

TT,

You might want to consider how some of the folx here feel about being put under a microscope, even one that might be as well intentioned as yours. I know what BM is to me. I don't care that much what some academic (publish or perish? puh-leeze sometimes silence is golden) is tryng to theorize.

Here's an idea. Go to the playa. Observe. Play. Prticipate. Then form a threory and write a thesis.

blyslv · Post by **blyslv** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 2:55 pm

TT,

You might want to consider how some of the folx here feel about being put under a microscope, even one that might be as well intentioned as yours. I know what BM is to me. I don't care that much what some academic (publish or perish? puh-leeze sometimes silence is golden) is tryng to theorize.

Here's an idea. Go to the playa. Observe. Play. Prticipate. Then form a threory and write a thesis.

Dinty Moore is a crack whore. Just kidding, it's cheap meat in a can.

stuart · Post by **stuart** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 5:54 pm

it's important to first define religion.

I am fond of 'means to a higher transformation'.

In that context it is easy to see how BM might be classified.

Chai Guy · Post by **Chai Guy** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 6:37 pm

Twister,

I'm going to let you in on a little secret, it's not something we usually share with the "new people" but since you live so far away, I don't want to waste any more of your time.

ready....

get closer....

a little closer.....

IT'S A FUCKING CAMPING TRIP!!!

helitack · Post by **helitack** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 7:49 pm

Camping?

robbidobbs · Post by **robbidobbs** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 11:27 pm

Dear Newbie to the ePlaya,

I have a degree in Social Science. That and $1.50 won't get me a cup of coffee. Recommendation: get a job as a bartender (...better booze).

"New Religious Movements and Counterculture"
None of the above.

"In order to avoid turning the Burning Man experience into something dry and theoretical..."
...try going first, find some nifty absynthe, get laid, set your clothes accidentally on fire and watch the sun come up. Not necessarily in that order.

You want a cheap way to get your thesis written? Hook up with the Dept of Statistics Camp. I think they still exist. Fuckin crazy-ass social scientists that get off on writing all kinds of questionaires during the Event.

BTW: we don't appreciate crossposting.

TwisterTine · Post by **TwisterTine** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 12:06 am

I've been there and the people who wrote about it have been there many times. Hockett 7, Doherty who wrote "This is Burning Man" 9 years. We may differ on this, but I don't know what's so bad about writing about it. Harvey said in 1994: "We take people to the threshold of religion. Our aim is to induce immediate experience that is beyond the odd, beyond the strange, and beyond the weird. […] It contemplates a realm of profoundly irrational experience. I think that kind of experience is the fountainhead for all religions."
And Gary Snyder sais: “What is any religion? A little ritual, a little superstition, and some magic. It's not a strictly spiritual affair; it has psychological roles to fulfill." BM is a little ritual (yes, it is more than a camping trip to some!). It fulfills psychological roles (for those to whom this is more than a camping trip).
I already am a bartender, thanks.

Janka · Post by **Janka** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 12:55 am

In my opinion, writing and research can be your way of participating and sharing, provided the writer/researcher approaches it from a beneficial and inclusive point of view of the whole community. Research and art, or science and art, or participating and research, are not the polar opposites many people tend to take them as.

Then again, I am a scientist, so I am heavily biased in this.

I find the questionnaire too difficult to answer rigth away while at work. I might get back to you.[/i]

TwisterTine · Post by **TwisterTine** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 1:44 am

Danke!

Gabilicious · Post by **Gabilicious** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 8:53 am

One (or more) written out of Berkeley a few yrs. back (thesis/religion). Attainable off the internet (read it, interesting).
Better not to repeat and be orgininal. Will forward ?air
Good luck!

Will · Post by **Will** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 11:37 am

I suggest you read this article to the end.
http://www.pifmagazine.com/2000/09/c_burningman3.php3

You could even try to get in touch with David Best.

I don't know about using it for religion. I just want to go and blow off some steam that's accumulated for a number of years.

Badger · Post by **Badger** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 1:30 pm

I'm amazed often enough at the number of folks who drift in here with the purpose of doing research, a study, a paper etc. When challenged on it said issue some folks tend to get pretty defensive and suggest that such research is a right that should not be questioned. I'd argue differently. Below are links to a series of MANDATED requirements which ALL university personnel are required to abide by.

http://www.stanford.edu/dept/undergrad/ ... jects.html

http://humansubjects.stanford.edu/nonme ... vType.html

http://www.stanford.edu/dept/DoR/rph/7-7.html

What my employer (Stanford University) says quite specifically is that ANY time you put together a study (medical or nonmedical) involving human subjects you are required to submit a proposal that is evaluated. Part of the evaluation process involves the research giving assurances that when human subjects are involved that notification MUST be made to those subjects.

To date I've yet to see a single poster provide links to such submissions re. 'studying Burning Man.'

Personally I absolutely refuse to provide any information to people asking for questionairs to be filled out. I might consider changing my opinion if the information noted above were provided but as mentioned I've yet to see any follow through.

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 1:38 pm

Not to knock Stanford, because they are doing the right thing, but the truth is that they learned the hard way.
And then there's what Harvard did to Ted Kaczinsky...

dragonfly Jafe · Post by **dragonfly Jafe** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 2:40 pm

Wow, you are getting a Master's degree, and you are basing it on 13 questions from a survey? They must hand those things out to anyone these days!

Why don't you show up and do research in-situ?....the only way to do it IMHO. I had to sit in a lab for months (sometimes until midnight) gathering my data....

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 2:42 pm

Heck, some people get degrees based on made up data. Sure saves time...

dragonfly Jafe · Post by **dragonfly Jafe** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 2:45 pm

Now if you do show up, there are some pretty interesting research topics....take for instance the Gerlachian Dust Pervert (thanks to Robotland for first identifying the species), an all too common sub-species in BRC. One could spend countless hours (and dollars) studying their behaviour, attempted mating patterns, and nest making.

And there are many, many, other sub-species that would be worth studying, some of which have yet to be revealed to the annals of scientific review. You could be famous!

blyslv · Post by **blyslv** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 3:00 pm

There's also the consideration that people on this board who self-select to answer the questionaire are hardly representsative of the 35,000 people who go to the playa.

So if you are working on a study of miscreants who spend their time on a BM BBS, you're in the right place. But that begs the question: Why?!?!?

Bob · Post by **Bob** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 3:39 pm

Hooking up with the org people (media/web team, I guess) who've been doing surveys the last few years might help you and them at the same time -- eg offer to help take the general survey, and ask subjects if they'd be willing to participate in your own survey in addition to that. Might supply some basic background to flesh out your own survey, and gearing it toward a multiple-choice form in line with the org survey might make it easier both for submitting & interpreting.

dragonfly Jafe · Post by **dragonfly Jafe** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 3:53 pm

blyslv wrote:...So if you are working on a study of miscreants who spend their time on a BM BBS, you're in the right place....

I'll bet there is a Government grant in there some where...just got to look up the big words and put them in the right order...

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 4:05 pm

Hm. I think I'll write a thesis of my own...

1) Nom de guerre (if you are not a guerrilla you are assumed to be a gorilla):

2) In which years have you had an embarassing and buring itch?

3) Did it stay

a) a few days
b) the whole week
c) for longer than a week
d) permanently

4) In which ways did/ help to bring in on?

5) Has gravity had an impact on your life in the “real world”?
If yes, in which ways has it affected your life?

6) How many times a day do you check the Gerlach webcam?

7) What lubes your plumbing the most when you see?
a) DPW on the water tower?
b) A semi filled with wall board?
c) A semi filled with beef cows?
d) Someone at the picnic table?
e) Someone walking towards Bruno's

8) In which ways do you prepare yourself before going to bed?

9) What does Burning Man mean to the neighbor you have a feud with?

10) How well does your agent represent you?

11) Which significance has mange to you?

12) Do you feel that evolution has changed over the years?
If yes in which ways?

13) Age:
Gender:
Type of Shade Structure: