Essay Instructions: I. Four take-home examinations (100 points each). Follow the style guide on this syllabus. Present your arguments
consistently and logically. Support points with material presented in class and in assigned readings. Use crisp,
unambiguous sentences and thoughtfully organized answers. Each question may be no longer than eight pages.
Note: page counts do not include the title page and references cited.
Make a copy of all papers that you turn in for your own files.
Double space essays using one inch margins and a standard font.
Papers must have the following elements:
A title page that includes the name of the paper, the student's name, and the date submitted
The body of the paper
A references cited section (check syllabus for citation style)
******this will be broken down into 4 essays (6 pages for each one) pick one of the questions and write 6 pages for each question.
1st essay (6 pages
McGhee&Warms Ch 2,3,4,5,7,8
Historical Foundations of Anthropology
Essays:
1.Explain and document through your assigned readings how the methods of the19th century evolutionists (comparative method, organic analogies, psychic unity, racial determinism) to explain the development of marriage and family, political organization, and religion. Explain how Marx’ ideas are similar to and different from other 19th century theorists.
2.What did Durkheim mean by a social fact? Explain mechanical and organic solidarity. Collective consciousness? Explain Mauss’ notion of gift giving. What distinctive contributions did Weber make to social theory?
****essay 2 (6 pages):*****
McGhee&Warms Ch 9, 11,12,13,15,17
Early 20th Century Anthropology
Essays:
1. Part II of your text introduces you to Boas and his students. Using particular articles, explain the commonalities of historical particularism. How do Radin and Kroeber illustrate the extremes of the Boasian school? How did Whorf, Benedict and Mead link the individual to his/her culture?
2. What is British social anthropology? In what ways did British social anthropology contribute to the method and theory of anthropology? Be specific.
******essay 3 (6 pages)*****
McGhee&Warms Ch 18,21,22,23,24,26,28,29
Mid-Century Anthropology
Essays:
1.What caused some anthropologists in the 1940s to return to evolutionary approaches? How were their ideas similar to and different from those of the 19th century evolutionists? Explain cultural ecology and cultural materialism. What are the strengths of these approaches? What are the problems with cultural materialism and cultural ecology? Be specific and tie your arguments into assigned articles.
2. Structuralism and cognitive anthropology both claim that culture is a mental structure and to be understood through language. Structuralists tried to determine the universal structures of human thought, while cognitive anthropologists tried to describe cognitive paradigms unique to individuals and groups. Explain.
****essay 4 (6 pages)*******
M&W Ch 31,32, 33,35,37,38,40,41
Late 20th Century and Beyond
Essays:
1.What is sociobiology/evolutionary psychology/behavioral ecology? Why did some reviewers of your text strongly suggest that sociobiology shouldn’t get space in the McGee/Warms text? What are some of the fundamental differences between sociobiology and feminist anthropology? Are the two perspectives inevitably in conflict? Why? Do sociobiology’s evolutionary explanations of male promiscuity, rape, altruism, and costly signaling make sense to you? Explain.
2. Mary Douglas, Clifford Geertz, and Victor Turner looked at anthropology not as a science but as a way to understand how people construct their realities. How have symbolic/interpretive anthropologists and postmodernists challenged our classic ethnographies, fieldwork methods, and the ways that anthropologists conceptualize “culture”? Why are globalization, power, and agency such important concepts today? On what grounds does D’Andrade object to postmodernism? Where do you see anthropology headed?
-----------------
SOME ISSUES TO CONSIDER
Ethics and Political Action. Can anthropology establish appropriate ethical codes for human research? Should anthropologists primarily serve as advocates for the people they collaborate with? Should anthropologists take stronger (or no) stands on human rights? What is “cultural relativity” and what are its ethical implications? Should anthropologists work to change practices such as female circumcision, gender inequality, or cultural practices that spread infections or diseases such as AIDS? How can anthropologists try to make certain that their scholarship does not injure the people they work with? Should ethnographies be “sanitized” to mask illegal or potentially damaging behavior? Are research questions ultimately determined by funding agencies or the desires of journal editors and publishing companies? Are there questions that anthropologists should not explore (e.g., race and intelligence)?
Culture Concept. What is a “culture” or “Culture”? Can we distinguish boundaries between cultures? If so, how? Whose “culture” is the anthropologist representing? How do we represent intra-cultural variability? Do non-human animals have culture? To what extent do we have “agency,” or the ability to control our own destiny? Are we mostly puppets of our culture? Are there ways in which cultures are relatively static or, if not, what causes cultures to change?
Emics or Etics. Should anthropologists try to “get into the heads” of others and try to understand the world through the eyes of others? This is sometimes called the emic approach to understanding culture. Or should we develop testable hypotheses (etics) based on the categories of western science (e.g., population density, infant mortality rates, etc.). In other words, should we focus on what people think or what they do?
Objective Truth or Ethnographic Representation. To what degree can or should anthropologists try to discover objective truths about the world? How can we judge the quality of anthropological research? Does it matter how much time an ethnographer spends in the field or how the results of one study match up with prior scholarship?
Universals vs. Ethnographic Particulars. Should anthropologists be more concerned with trying to figure out the ways in which all societies and humans are the same, or should we be more interested in documenting the diverse behaviors of past and present peoples? What are the implications of our decisions? How does an anthropologist decide what to observe and what to write?
Idealism and Materialism. Are societies held together (or split apart) by symbols, values, and ideas? Do material or economic forces, including power and coercion, better explain how humans think and behave?
Cultural Evolution. What is cultural evolution? Do cultures evolve? Is there a direction to cultural evolution? Is cultural evolution like biological evolution? Why or why not? Does studying non-human primate behavior or applying Darwinian ideas such as natural selection help or hinder our attempts to explain gender differences and social networks?
Nature and Nurture. Is gender partially or entirely socially constructed? Are there universal differences between men and women? If so, what are they? If not, how do you account for gender variations cross-culturally? Can we explain near-universal taboos against mother-son incest by biology? Is adolescence always stressful? Are men everywhere more violent than women?
Kinship. Why has the study of kinship been of such special concern to anthropologists? Is kinship really hold the key for unlocking social structure? What is a “family”? How many individuals must practice polygamy before we call the society polygamous?
Globalization. Peoples whom anthropologists have represented as isolates are now segments of a world system marked by expansion, exchange, and domination. Should we revisit the way we have understood classic ethnographies?
------------------
BRIEF GUIDE TO REFERENCING
Body of the Text
Essays must contain direct references to the original articles. Do NOT draw citations from the introductions or explanatory footnotes by McGee and Warms. For example, if you are writing about historical particularism, your essay must contain references to specific passages from original articles, not McGee & Warms’ commentary.
Reference ideas and places where you have paraphrased an author. Only quote an author when absolutely necessary. For example, if your reading of Kroeber leads you to conclude that Kroeber believed in the value of Freudian psychology for interpreting cultural patterns, you might write something like "Kroeber believed that Freudian concepts were valuable in interpreting cultural patterns” (1912:121). In this case, you would be indicating that on page 121 of a publication written by Kroeber with a copyright date of 1912, you found something that illustrated your point. Do not include a direct quote longer than 20 words.
References (including references to personal communication) are placed in the body of the text. (Doe 1968:21). If you were to use a quote from Kroeber that you have found in Langness's The Study of Culture, the correct citation form would be (Kroeber, cited in Langness 1987:69).
When you cite essays published in Anthropological Theory, the proper form is (Author 2000 [original year]:page). For example, (Malinowski 2007 [1922]:165) would be a reference to something Malinowski wrote that appeared on page 165 of the McGee/Warms text.
Use phrases like "cited by" or "quoted by" when an author cites or quotes another author. For example, Clifford Geertz in "Notes on a Balinese Cockfight," uses extensive quotes from the literary critic Northrop Frye. If you wanted to use part of one of these long quotes taken from the McGee/Warms book, it would appear as (Frye, cited by Geertz 2000). The original date of Geertz’ work (1973) would appear in your References Cited section.
References Cited
Citation style for an article from Anthropological Theory:
Durkheim, Emile
2007 [orig. 1895] What is a Social Fact? In Anthropological Theory: An Introductory History, 3nd edition. R. Jon McGee and Richard L. Warms, eds. Pgs. 87-93. Mountain View (CA): Mayfield Press.
SHORT GUIDE TO WRITING A STRONG ESSAY
Your goal is to develop an argument. An argument consists of these components: (1) a claim, (2) reasoning to support that claim, (3) evidence to support the claim, (4) a conclusion about the claim.
Make a strong opening. Lure your reader.
Use active voice.
Write for the reader who is unfamiliar with your topic.
Support your argument with specific examples.
Identify the work(s) and author(s) under discussion
Reference quotations (Smith 1969:44).
Underline or italicize titles of books. Put quotation marks around “Article Titles.”
Make a point. Do not leave your reader confused or in “so what?” land. Explore the implications of your argument for anthropology, for everyday life, and themes in the course. Push your analysis.
Wrap up the end of your paper by tying it back to the starting point. This will confirm your thesis and remind the reader of what you aimed to address and show how far your argument has taken you.
Proofread your essay. Try having someone else read it aloud to you and listen to make sure your essay makes sense. Is your essay persuasive? Are any of the sentences awkward? Are your sentences grammatical?
There are faxes for this order.
