Anthropology paper

Your first project had to do with comparisons and contrasts, and with notions of “belonging”.

Your assignment for this project is to (1) pick a people and their a culture (which can by anywhere on the map, anywhere between or mixing rural and urban, say) and (2) identify a problem, however defined, having to do with those people and some sort(s) of other-than-human animals with whom they somehow interact. (3) Find something debatable about it, show us why it is debatable, and present more than one side in a convincing way. You may also [4] if you like, make some judgment by way of overview or personal “take” on it.

What you choose a problem for debate might be any of various kinds, but it should have one sort of social and cultural dimension. It could be

conceptual: for instance definitional or linguistic (how to translate, define, or express or “frame” something – like by choosing which tongue’s term to use, or choosing among metaphors, for instance).

material (physical, chemical, biological, medical or health- or pollution/contamination-related) -- though this is not just a course in physical science, and there should be more to it than that.

social (who is and/or ought to be involved, how, and why?); since this is an anthropology course, try to include this in any project.

interspecial -- concerning two or more species

cultural or intercultural (what or who has influenced, influences, or might influence whom, and how and why?); since this is an anthropology course, try to include this in any project

psychological (cognitive, emotional, mixtures and moods – individual and/or social, or both)

temporal (past, present, future, or circular maybe?)

spatial (geographical; maybe micro to macro?)

practical or logistical (best way of planning or implementing something, or perhaps continuing or stopping something). This might mean political (concerned with power, influence, or authority), legal (regulatory, or enforcement-related), religious or spiritual (imaginings, feelings, and/or practices concerning something [power/s] or someone [being/s] uncontacted, mystical, transcendent…). It might be something economic (gift, exchange, loan, theft or plunder; accumulation and/or redistribution; production and/or consumption….) or maybe legal-economic and fiduciary (trust-based) or contractual. Or some mix of these, or something else you ask us in the group about in discussion and that we might think is a good idea. I’d like us to try some of ideas out, to determine what’s most debatable, interesting, and important.

imaginative (fictional, storied, stylized; maybe aesthetic; maybe tragic, comic, or even both? But try to include some reality too)

communicative and communicational (choices or mixtures of media, genres…)

moral and/or ethical (what’s the right or best thing to do, for whom/what, and can we intuit and/or reason why?)

My guess and hope is that most of your projects will have something cultural and social, something physical or practical, and something moral/ethical about them. Language is one way of combining these, but there are others.

Once you’ve presented and defended more than one point of view (maybe more than one person’s or party’s), each in the most persuasive and convincing way you can(!) -- you’ll be free if you like to choose between or combine them as you see fit, or to form and cast judgment of your own. One classic way is the dialectical: thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. But you might have more than two viewpoints to present (not too many, though; you’ve got a tight word limit. Three can be good, no? A triangle might work for a diagram?!).

You get the idea. Make us see and feel different perspectives or “takes”; stretch our empathy for different parties. Help the future planners, implementers, protesters, or other activists in the group to anticipate opposition and prepare for it, or to anticipate disagreement and find ways of handling or overcoming it. Help others understand something in more than one way. Challenge our understanding if you like, but expand it!

You’re welcome to carry out this project individually or in collaboration with one or more others. Maybe there’s a way, too, of coordinating and making your projects complement each other. (Best though not just one-side-per-person, in the preparation, since that would defeat the purpose of the assignment. Maybe there’s some other way of coordinating and making your projects complement each other.) Your project may include or touch upon information or ideas from elsewhere in our course, but try not just to repeat. Feel free to use methods and styles we’ve used already in our weekly assignments, including indented outlining, creating, and questioning. One option to consider for this project is trees of related questions, such as some of you have begun to draw in your weekly assignments. (And might those trees also bear fruit as answers for us – possibly of different kinds?)

Be sure to acknowledge your sources fairly with one of the standard referencing/bibliographic methods, as usual at BU.

This is the first time we’ve done it like this for this course – focusing on and emphasizing in each project the debatable, exploring divergent “takes,” and exploring possible resolution. I’m excited to see what you and the others come up with!