C. Get the stories.

1. Find out more about the nature and character of these communities by moving from facts to stories. Once you get to know people, ask about some of their own stories in relation to this community. A portrait needs more than facts. It requires people and the story as told from their perspective. One might ask:

• This temple must have been a big project What is the story of your own involvement? What was it like the day the temple was dedicated? What kind of ceremony was it? How did you feel that day?
• What was it like when you first moved to Denver? Was finding a mosque a top priority? What were the problems for you and your family in settling down here?
• Are there particular times you felt misunderstood by people unfamiliar with Hinduism here? Do you feel accepted by your neighbors here in Phoenix? What are the major difficulties you experience here?
• Are there particular stories of connections made and bridges built between people of different religions here? What do you like most about the religious environment of the U.S.?
• What are the special concerns your children have? What concerns do you have about your children? What do you suppose this community will be like by the time your children are grown?
• How different is this temple or mosque from the ones you knew in India, Pakistan? In what ways is it different? Are there some religious practices that are just impossible here in the U.S.?
• What adjustments or adaptations has the religious community had to make here in America? What are the biggest adjustments you yourself have had to make?
• What do you think is the role of this temple, mosque, in the life of the community? At what times in daily life is it most important?
• What life cycle rites or observances are most important to you and how are they done? What role does the temple, mosque, etc. have during these times?

2. Getting people to speak about their own experience requires a certain amount of trust and confidence. Be yourself. Introduce yourself. Talk about the Pluralism Project and your summer work. Be simple and straightforward about who you are and why you are there.

You will learn a lot informally over coffee or tea in the soal hail of the temple or mosque. :150 will want to fix some times for conversations that might more properly called interviews. You are the best judge of how much you will be able to ask. Take notes. At least key phrases and words that will allow you to reconsruct the conversation after you leave. Depending on the situation, you might well ask to use a tape recorder, which frees you for a more spontaneous encounter. For many people, taping is not intrusive and both of you will forget about the tape recorder after the first minute. A few people may be apprehensive about taping.

E. Methodology.

This summer Brigit McCallum has prepared a set of readings of reflections on the nature of fieldwork and qualitative interviewing. Spend some time reading these pieces before you go, and bring the Project notebook along with you.

1. Look at bulletin boards for notices of activites. Collect pamphlets, schedules, publications. If they cost money, keep a receipt and the project will reimburse you. Use your judgement, but do not miss the ocasion to collect and purchase whatever is related to our work. The humble pamphlet or flyer is an extremely important document for researcher in popular and as yet undocumented religious life. If you do not come home with half a suitcase full of pamphlets, I will be disappointed.

2. Talk to as wide a range of people as possible. Do not get all your information from leaders or priests, but meet participants, lay people, young and old, women and men.

3. You will find your own style and way of questioning by trial and error. There is no one correct method, but you should care that your questions don't imply or include a particular answer. For example, ask, "Why did you have trouble getting a zoning variance?" rather than "Did you have trouble getting a zoning variance because the neighbors were concerned about traffic?"

4. Set aside some time as soon as you leave the temple or mosque to write as full and extensive an account as you can of your visit, recording what you saw, what impressed you, what puzzled you, and what you learned. Be as descriptive as your boldest prose will stretch. The more extensive your daily digest of field notes, the easier it will be to write up a final report.

5. Take photographs if you have a camera. Slides are most verstile, so take at least some slides. We will buy the film and processing for those photos that pertain to the Project. Keep receipts. If you photograph each temple or mosque, each meditation center or gurudwara, just once from the outside, we will have quite a collection. Don't be deterred by the fact that many of the buildings may be plain and uninteresting from the outside. A mosque in a former one story office building is also important. If you take any interior photographs, which would also be wonderful, be certain to ask first if it is acceptable.

6. The work that all of us will be engaged in for the Pluralism Project builds upon our academic work here at Harvard and yet challenges us to learn what we need to know, not only by reading, but by fieldwork. For almost everyone, this is ditficult at times. It means putting oneself in new situations, introducing oneself to strangers, being in the role of stranger in a community that is not one's own. It is immensely rewarding, but you will need from time to time to spend a day at home simply writing, reading, and reflectirng.

7. If there are situations in which you feel unsafe, take a friend along or don't go.

F. General Etiquette

1. In this project you are not just you. You are a representative of Harvard University and associated with a research project administered through the Committee on the Study of Religion and the Office of Sponsored Research. This means, in a word, be on your best behaviour. Identify yourself when you call or visit. If "I'm from Harvard University," seems a bit heavy handed or off-putting for the casual encounter, merely identifying yourself as a university student or as affiliated with a university research project is probably enough. If you sit down in a more or less formal situation to interview someone, however, you should give a full description of what the project is about. I am quite sure that desribing the Pluralism Project will itself elicit many responses from the people you speak with and that you will find it to be an advantage in opening doors.

2. Respect the atmosphere of ritual or worship. When you visit a community involved in worship, meditation, prayers, or festivities, don't take out pen and paper unless you have made quite certain that it would not be intrusive or rude. Use this as an occasion to sharpen your powers of sheer observation. If the atmosphere permits, making a few notes as you visit a place will permit you to reall more accurately when you sit down later to write field notes.

G. Get the big picture, the community picture.

1. Visit a hospital and speak with an administrator to find out about chaplaincy. Are there chaplains of many faiths affiliated with the hospital? How does the hospital deal with special needs of people of various faith communities in times of crisis? Special food needs, for instance, for Hindus or Muslims.

2. Visit a school principal or the school superintendent, even a school teacher. How is the religious diversity of the student body approached in the school system. Are various holidays discussed, with this being the opportunity for education?. Do teachers have some training in the religious traditions of the students they teach? Is religion excluded completely, or included? Has their been discussion of teaching about various religious traditions in the school system?

3. Visit city hall and speak with the mayor or someone in the mayor's office about the way in which the city has dealt with the new religious diversity of the population. Are there particular issues that have come up? Are there substantaal changes in the city's population make-up as reflected in the recent census? Are there multicultural projects or programs sponsored by the city?

4. Visit with the pastors of several churches. In what ways do relations with people of other faiths come up in the church context, either in terms of education or outreach?

5. Visit the council of churches and/or the association of synagogues. Is there a local chapter of the National Council of Christians and Jews? Is it increasingly concerned with wider interfaith issues? Is there a local interfaith association. Find out what is happening organizationally. -

III. PROJECT PROCEDURES

1. Arrange with Susan Shueeker and Nancy Colbert before you leave how you wish to be paid and when. It is essential that you leave a summer address with Susan.

2. You will be reimbursed for xeroxing, books, pamphlets, calendars, film and film processing. It is essential, however, that you carelully save all receipts in order to be reimbursed. Turn them in to Susan Shumaker, who will give them to Nancy Colbert for accounting.

3. Since there are so many short-term reserchers this summer, we have to find ways of keeping transportation costs under controL Transportation to and from the place of work will be allocated to (a) researchers working somewhere other than their "home" and b) rearchers working more than one month. If air travel is involved see Susan or Diana about arrangements. All of you will be reimbursed for local transportation within the realm of reason. If it is for gas, you must get and save receipts. If you get public transportation tickets, bus tickets, subway tickets, etc. find a way of documenting the expenditure through receipts. The Project is not able to rent cars for local work.

4. If there is an opportunity to visit a retreat center, go to a summer camp for kids, or participate in some other special event that costs something reasonable, keep track of expeditures as long as they are not extravagant. If you have a question, call us.

5. Let us know where you are staying throughout the time you are working on the Project.

6. Sign the University Reserch Prartices document before you go.

1. Space - Mariah

Describe the space in which the community gather. Describe the building, both outside and inside. In what kind of room does the community gather for worship, meditation; or prayer? What is distinctive about this space? What is its focal point or orientation? Is there the sense of a "center"? Many centers? Are there objects, images, or other indicators of the center? How is the room decorated, adorned, or made special in some way? Are there other community rooms besides that in which people gather for worship? What are they for? How are they used? What do they tell us about the community?

2. Time - Kerensa

When does the community gather? Daily? Many times a day? Weekly? Monthly? On which particular days? Are there particular times when most people come? Are there other times when a smaller community gathers or when individuals come? What is the calendar of this community? What are the most important festivals or holy days of the year in this community? What do the publications of the community - pamphlets, calendars, newsletters, schedules - tell us about its regular atttivities?

3. Ritual - Andrea

What does the community do when it gathers together? How would you describe the ritual life of the community? What are the patterns of ritual practice: singing, chanting, prayer, worship, processions, sermons, offerings, meditation, martial arts? What vestments or special garb are worn, if any? What prominent symbols are used? Who seems to take leadership roles in rituals? Are there particular ritual acts that mark entry into the sacred space? Are there particular ritual acts that indicate the sacredness of symbols or images? Are there particular ritual acts that seem to establish the bonding of the community? What seems to be the relation between the individual and community as ritually expressed? [How did you respond to the ritual? How did you feel as a "participant observer" here?]

4. Composition of Community - Mariah

Who comes? What is the make-up of those who participate in this center or community in terms of neighborhood, race, ethnic group, background, age? Is it relatively homogenous? Mixed? What is the range of diversity? How many people are there in this community? How many members? How many regular participants? How many occasional "festival" participants? Who actually participates? Who seem to be the principal actors? Are they priests? laypeople? teachers? What about the presence and role of children, if any? How would you describe the gathered community? Is it friendly? approachable? [Do you feel comfortable being there?]

5. Teachings or "Beliefs" - Martha

Is there a definite body of teaching or belief associated with this community? If so, what does the community "believe?" What are the principal tenets? Does it share a set of basic beliefs with other groups or with a larger movement? What elements in its teachings are most often emphasized? How important is the teaching or belief system to the community? Can you tell how wide a variance in beliefs is permitted? How are beliefs or teachings communicated in the ritual life of the community? If teachings or beliefs do not seem to be central, can you discern what it is that holds the community together? [What do you find most compelling, most inspiring, most alien in the teachings or beliefs as presented?]

6. Authoritative Texts or Teachers - Emily

What seems to constitute religious authority in this community? Are there particular writings, sacred or otherwise, that the community emphasizes and uses? Is there a functional canon? Do they take these writings or texts available on the premises? How are scriptures or other writings used in the context of community worship, daily practice, either personal or communal? Is there instruction in these scriptures or writings? Is there a "canon within the canon," that is a special part of the teaching or writing that seems even more authoritative? Did you have any particular resp6nse to the structure of authority in the community?]

7. History and Trajectory - Karla

What is the history of this particular community? When was it formed? By whom? Why? What is its relation to the broader religious tradition of which it is a part? With what strand of the tradition is it affiliated? Is it sectian or ecumenical? ethnic or international? Has the community written a history of itself? Are there ways in which the community celebrates or remembers its own history? Might there be significant differences between what people in the community say about its history and what outside historians, present or future, might say? What do the people in the movement say about its future? What are their immediate and long term goals and hopes? [What is your own assessment of the future of this community?]

8. Relation to Wider Community - Kerensa

Is there an articulated sense of the relation of this particular religious community to the urban, suburban, or rural area of which it is a part? Is there a program of outreach into the wider community? Are civic and social problems discussed? Are national and global problems discussed? Are they seen to be integrally related to the religious life of the community? Are there action programs in the community to address these problems? What is the relationship of this community to other religious communities in the area - especially to those of other traditions? Is there much consciousness of other faiths? How is it expressed? (What points of connection do you see between a religious community you already know or belong to and this one?)