Essay Assignment: Cultural Anthropology
Overview:
Cultural Anthropology invites you to understand the world through the eyes of other people, often those whose way of life may differ from your own. It encourages an empathetic approach that attempts to understand others within their own cultural contexts. This quarter you are reading several rich accounts of cultural experiences, featuring various ethnic communities in the United States. Between the World and Me is the first of these. You are encouraged to avoid ethnocentric approaches and adopt culturally relative perspectives that treat the perspectives of others as valid on their own terms.
Your essays provide you with an opportunity to demonstrate your engagement with and reflection upon the assigned course materials. You will be evaluated on the breadth and depth of your engagement with the book, other assigned reading, lecture material, discussions, and other experiences in the class.
Relevant Objectives:
1. Describe and discuss the significance of relationships between language, human cultural systems, and social power dynamics and/or imbalances (eg: racism, endangered bodies).
2. Identify the role of culture in human lives and societies.
3. Incorporate ethnocentrism and cultural relativism into your essay.
4. Recognize and describe at least two key features of human cultures and society: adaptation, family structure, religion, politics, traditions, gender roles, etc.
5. Identify ways that cultural anthropological research methods, knowledge, and skills can be applied to the solution of contemporary world problems.
Guidelines:
Use a word-processor to type a double-spaced essay of approximately 1,000 words or four pages. Quality essays should be at least three pages and no more than five pages in length. The essay should engage the relevant book and lectures in its analysis. It may also draw from class discussions and other activities. The essay should include an introductory paragraph in which a thesis or central argument is presented, a body of several paragraphs that support and develop that thesis with detailed examples from course materials, and a conclusion that summarizes the key argument and the support offered.
Essay #1 should be written in the form of a letter to your (actual/imaginary/future) adolescent child (of whichever gender you choose). The letter should express a thesis about your experience reading Ta-Nehisi Coates' Between the World and Me in your Cultural Anthropology class at Edmonds CC. It should include at least three direct quotes, examples, and paraphrases from the book and lecture materials.
Format your assignment according to the following formatting requirements:
1. The answer should be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides.
2. The response also include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student's name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
3. Also Include a reference page. The Citations and references should follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.