anthropology

  Anthropology  

Ethnographic  Reportage       You’ll  likely  find  this  assignment  enjoyable.     You’ll  report  on  some  rite-­‐of-­‐passage  ceremonies  or  celebrations  that  are  part  of  the   society  in  which  you  were  enculturated  (examples  from  U.S.  society:  religious  rites   like  Bar  Mitzvah,  Bat  Mitzvah,  or  Christian  Confirmation;  secular-­‐religious  rites  like   weddings;  non-­‐religious  rites  like  high  school  graduation  or  college  graduation;  and   unofficial   rites,   such   as   having   one’s   first   legal   alcoholic   beverage   on   one’s   21st   birthday;  etc.).  You’ll  write  about  this  as  an  anthropologist  might.     There   is  an  easily-­‐found  anthropological   journal  article   that  you  can  use  as  your   general  guide  for  structuring  your  report:    

Miner,   Horace   1956   “Body   Ritual   Among   the   Nacirema”.   In   American   Anthropologist  volume  58,  number  3  (June  1956).    

    This  article  is  easily  found  online  because  it  was  actually  a  prank  that  Miner  played   on  the  anthropological  community.  He  wrote  up  the  “Nacirema”  as  if  they  were  a   traditional  people,  when  in  fact  he  was  reporting  on  Americans  (“nacirema”  spelled   backwards).  Several  key  terms  were  also  spelled  backwards  in  the  article,  to  make  it   harder   for  readers   to   figure  out   that  he  was   joking.  Basically,  Miner  was  writing   about  how  overwrought  Americans  are  enculturated   to  be  about  bodily  hygiene,   about  how  they  smell,  how  their  breath  smells,  taking  medications  of  all  kinds,  etc.   —For  humorous  effect,  he  describes  routine  daily  rituals  like  applying  deodorant  as   if  they’re  solemn,  deeply  meaningful  religious  rituals  (because,  in  a  sense,  they  are— the  perceived  importance  of  not  smelling  “bad”  has  become  deeply  ingrained).     I  refer  you  to  the  article  because  it  makes  a  good  model  for  you  to  follow  in  your   reportage.  The  joke  ‘worked’  because  Miner  uses  good  classic  form  for  a  scholarly   anthropological  journal  article.  And  because  he  does  real  reportage,  on  aspects  that   an  anthropologist  would  focus  on  when  observing  social/cultural  phenomena  like   rituals.  —And  also,  you  might  enjoy  reading  it.               (NOTE:  I  do  not  intend  for  you  to  joke  about  whatever  rite-­of-­passage  you  write  about  for  this  assignment).    

  • Keep  the  tone  scholarly,  clinical,  and  anthropological.     • Miner   spends   the   first   couple   of   paragraphs   placing   the   Nacirema  

geographically,  etc.  —You  need  not  include  anything  about  that  for  whichever   culture  you  write  about.    

• You’ll   be   graded   primarily   on   the   acuity   of   your   anthropological   lenses—in   ‘seeing’,  and  in  explaining  (in  the  manner  of  Miner)  what  you  see.    

• Minimum  length:  300  words,  but  there  is  no  maximum.     • Submit   your   completed   assignment   as   an   attachment   to   an   email   to   me  

(preferably  as  a  Word  doc).     • Deadline:   one   week   from   the   date   on   which   this   email   is   sent   (at   11:30   PM  

Eastern).