Instructions

This assignment should conform to all the length, formatting, and other guidelines for writing assignments outlined in the syllabus (see the Formatting and Submission Guidelines in the Syllabus).

Ethnographic perspective as it relates to your own experience and research

Choose one question from the following list and answer it in light of the anthropological concepts and issues covered in class.

If you wish to modify or rework part of a question, contact me in advance to discuss your plans and to ensure that you are going in an acceptable direction.

Note: for full points you must respond to the questions in this assignment in light of the course material. Incorporate specific, cited references to the course material to support your statements and main points.  

Questions

1. The military question. Military organizations have always had their own rules.

Analyze a unit or other self- contained organization within the military.

How does that unit accomplish its goals?

What kind of internal culture does it have that allows it to both relate to the broader military organization and maintain its distinctiveness?

What roles do individuals assume within the group to facilitate its success and cohesion?

Your analysis must go deeper than the formal command structure and you must relate to anthropological concepts and issues covered in class.

Incorporate specific, cited references to the course material to support your statements and main points.

2. The living-in-another-culture question. One of the real challenges of living as an expatriate is handling all the details of daily life.

Discuss an experience of living in another culture by identifying one or more areas of daily life (e.g., shopping, going to school, paying bills) that you had to learn to navigate.

How did you go about learning the appropriate cultural rules?

Indicate what those rules are and how they differ from what you expected.

Relate your discussion to anthropological concepts and issues covered in class.

Incorporate specific, cited references to the course material to support your statements and main points.

3. The family question. People often say that family means everything to them and that they would do anything for a family member. This is demonstrably untrue. Like every cultural system, family is a finite system governed by rules and restrictions.

Analyze the statement: “What does family mean to you?”

What rules govern your interactions with your family?

Consider and describe the rules concerning:

Marriage

adding new family members

the meaning of various rule violations

just how far you or others would go to support family members

Relate your analysis to anthropological concepts and issues covered in class.

Incorporate specific, cited references to the course material to support your statements and main points.

4.   The language/communication problem question. Parents and teenagers, professors and students, managers and workers…the parties in each pair group can have complex problems communicating what they want and need.

Provide a specific example of a situation in which two people, or two groups of people, fail to communicate successfully.

Analyze why this may occur.

Is it about the words each party uses, the way the party uses them, or other, nonverbal communication cues?

What are the roots of communication failures between people?

Relate your analysis to anthropological concepts and issues covered in class.

Incorporate specific, cited references to the course material to support your statements and main points.

5.    The observation question. Choose a public setting to observe and analyze. You may choose a new setting or one that is familiar to you. Some suggestions are a store, hair salon or barber shop, restaurant, train or bus station, airport, church, or sports arena.

Observe your setting at least twice for at least an hour each time.

What is the physical setting like?

What is the social setting like?

Provide an analysis of the cultural rules that apply to the setting you observed.

Did anyone violate those rules?

If so, what were the results?

Relate your observation and analysis to anthropological concepts and issues covered in class.

Incorporate specific, cited references to the course material to support your statements and main points. 

This assignment will use Turnitin to assess academic integrity. Please refer to your syllabus for more details on how Turnitin will be used in this class.