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Peoples of the World

ANTH 220  -  Fall 2016

Course Learning Activities and Grading Points

 

Course Learning Activities: Your grade will be based upon successfully completing the following learning endeavors. A total of 200 points can be obtained through these three activities.

  1. You will take three (3) examinations.   These exams are short answer and essay, covering in-class lectures, films and assigned PDF, HTLM and textbook readings (Huckleberries and two case-studies).  In response to the exam questions, you are to make specific references (to illustrate your responses) to the videos shown in class, to the Bash Baaaliíchiwé textbook, and to the two case-study textbooks (see below) you have elected to read during this course.  The second and third exams are not comprehensive, but cover only the assigned topics of that section of the course.  Exams must be taken at their assigned times and dates.  In the event of a documented emergency, a make-up essay exam must be take within one week of returning to class. You must notify the instructor prior to an absence from an exam date (by phone or e-mail, or in person).  To review materials prior to exams, see the individual "lecture outlines" on the web (see URL addresses below) and the Study Guide.  The dates for the exams are listed on the "Topic, Assignments, and Dates."

    Grading criteria:

     

  2. You will write two (2) participatory-interpretative papers.  

    a. Select any two of these four ethnographies: Keith Basso's The Cibecue Apache, Robert Brenneman's As Strong as the Mountains: A Kurdish Cultural Journey, Katherine Dettwyler's Dancing Skeletons: Life and Death in West Africa, or Bruce Knauft's The Gebusi: Lives Transformed in a Rainforest World.

  3. Engage and read these two case-studies with each weekly course topic.  Besides being used in response to your exam questions, these two case-study ethnographies will form the bases of your two participatory-interpretive papers. Consider partnering with one or two others, and doing "group papers.

    b. Then select two content topics that are of interest to you as identified and presented on the schedule and discussed in class.  For example, you might select a subject under the topic of "The Social Fabric," such as "what defines a family?" or "what is a rich man?"  As we cover various topics in class, you should be reading the corresponding assigned readings from your selected case-studies - Basso, Brenneman, Dettwyler or Knauft.  You are to thus develop two different topics, one from each based upon materials presented in the two different ethnographies, for each of the two papers.

    c.  Given the topics you have selected and the corresponding readings in the textbooks and materials presented in class, create an imaginary setting or event, a story-line text narrative, with invented characters, including yourself as one of them, e.g., a segment of a marriage ceremony, a ritual, a day in the life of a family, or a subsistence activity.   The story-line seeks to convey the meaning and significance of the topics in question.  This is an exercise in "creative non-fiction" writing, the storyline and characters are fictional, while the ethnographic details and overall perspective (Apache, Kurd, Bambara, Gebusi) are factual and authentic.  Try to represent the specific event in time and space that is reflects the larger social and cultural context in question.  With as much detail as possible, describe the rich texture of that setting, e.g., who, what, where, when, etc.  Pay attention to the "little things," as well as the "big picture."  But don't attempt to a too board and general.  The detail of a cultural text often reveals what is most meaningful.  The story text should be presented in first person prose, chronicling the event or a scene as if you were a participant in that setting.  Critically, attempt to develop your story text from the perspective of Apache, Kurd, Bambara, or Gebusi villagers.   And in attempting to provide the rich detail and context for your particular topic, you will need to read and appreciate the entire ethnography, incorporating cultural traits and attributes from other social, kinship, economic, political, and religious contexts, to provide the "perspective" and rich contextual detail needed to successfully write this story text.

    d.  After your have completed your story text, do some "Huckleberrying" and interpretation.  You are to interpret the symbolic meanings and significances of the story text narrative, providing a short interpretative narrative, e.g., discussing the ritual symbolism and stages of the rite of passage identified in the marriage ceremony.   Use the "interpretative" approach as presented in Bash Baaaliíchiwé.  To interpret is not to summarize, but to identify the key symbols of the story text, and to articulate and reference the underlying "bones," "teachings" and assumptions of that particular text.  The interpretation should focus on the meaning and significance, and/or the role and function of the text.  An interpretation should always seek to represent the perspective of the participants being described and avoid being ethnocentric. There can be no "correct" or "incorrect" interpretation of a text.  But a landscape (text) can be thoroughly traveled (interpreted) by a properly outfitted explorer (utilizing the interpreting techniques in Bash Baaaliíchiwé) or it may be tersely traveled by a poorly equipped adventurer.

    e. And finally, provide a short "reflection" on what you have learned and gained from this project.  Consider the meaning of the particular story you wrote relative to your own  cultural orientation, your own story.  To reflect is to seriously contemplate and consider the assumptions, i.e., "bones" and "teachings" of a particular story text relative to and compared with your own assumptions.  How are your own cultural assumptions similar and different from those of the narrative story you just wrote about?   Explore and discuss your own cultural  assumptions.  By juxtaposing that which is distinct along side that which is as hand, though often veiled, the contours of the territory of one's own story are revealed more clearly.

    f.  Submit a brief proposal of your two projects, identifying topics, storylines, and key characters.  Submit it on time in November.  See "Topics, Assignments and Dates."

    Length, Style and Dues Dates: 

    Review Paper:  If you would like the instructor to review and offer comments (not grade) one of your papers, before submitting the final papers, you can turn one of them in as early as immediately following Fall Recess.  See "Topics, Assignments and Dates."   The instructor will return the paper with comments within one week, if not sooner, of submitting a review paper.

    Grading criteria:

     

  4. Attendance.  Come to class prepared, with questions on the assigned topic for the session and be ready to discuss that topic when called upon by the instructor.  Volunteer your own insights on the readings and topics at hand, and ask questions.  Participate.  Class attendance will be not be formally taken, though attendance is expected.  Repeated absences will lower your grade. The materials presented during class lectures and through the films are essential for successful completion of this course, and its exams and papers.  

    Repeated absences (including being late to class) will render you as a "rock,"  . . . . .  and rocks don't get good grades!   And there are many ways to accumulate rocks.  Loading your pockets with rocks only slows your progress toward the course's pilgrimage destination.   Shouldering too many rocks will prevent you from even reaching that destination.   

    Reflective Writes:  In addition, you will be periodically asked  to respond in writing to a specific question posed by the instructor on a given assigned reading or class topic.  These responses will ask you to reflect on the significance and meaning of a specific passage or idea conveyed in the reading or presentation.  The reflective writes will be a timed exercise, lasting no more than ten minutesTo reflect is not to summarize, but to seriously contemplate and consider the cultural meanings, assumptions and implications of a specific text, i.e., a textbook reading, a guest speaker, or a video.  Your goal is two-fold.  1. Seek to articulate your own cultural perspective, as well as, 2. seek to understand what you consider to be the cultural and religious perspective of those represented in the encountered text, be they from the Apache, Kurd, Bambara, or Gebusi villagers, for example.  By juxtaposing that which is distinct along side that which is at hand, though often veiled, the contours of one's own cultural territory are more clearly revealed.

    Grading criteria:


Grading and Point Distribution: Your final grade will be based upon the total points earned from the three exams (30 points each, for a total of 90 points), two participatory-interpretative papers (35 points each, for a total of 70 points), and reflective writes and class participation (for a total 40 points), for a possible 200 points for the semester's work.  In cases of boarder-line decisions, class attendance will be taken into consideration.  The following scale will determine your grade: 180-200 (90%-100%) = A, 160-179 (80%-89%) = B, 140-159 (70%-79%) = C, 120-139 (60%-69%) = D

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