Defining and Experiencing the Humanities Essay

I am currently having trouble defining humanities in my own words after reading week one’s overview. Unfortunately after reading this week’s readings and watching the assigned videos, I am still unclear as to what humanities really is. The week one overview while well written was merely a string of questions and what ifs, that honestly left me with even more questions than I started with. Is this an art appreciation class, a literature class, maybe history? Could it possibly be all these things and more? I am still not sure but I am very certain I look forward to finding out. My selection of a cultural event that I have attended (and participated in) is the War for Empire event at Ft. Dobbs in Statesville, NC. This event is the largest event at Ft. Dobbs each year. During this event there are several encampments that showcase different aspects of life on the North Carolina frontier during the mid-18th century. There are Cherokee and Catawba encampments that demonstrate music, dance, and other forms of art such as finger weaving. The native interpreters also discuss clothing, food, and social norms associated with their people. There are also many Anglo (European) encampments which demonstrate things such as period cooking, beer crafting, tailoring, and furniture and once there was even a cobbler (awesome). Other sights to be seen are weapons and tactics demonstrations, the clothing and equipment used by the common soldiers, laborers and farmers of the North Carolina frontier during the Seven Years War.