ANTHROPOLOGY 101 FINAL PAPER

As shown throughout this paper, anthropology provides us with several tools that can be

used to overcome ethnocentrism. In approaching cultures from a perspective of cultural

relativism, we gain an understanding of the reasoning behind different cultural practices while

striving not to impose our own judgments or opinions. In taking an etic perspective on your own

culture, it is possible to gain an outsider’s view on practices that are deeply ingrained in our

enculturation, practices that often seem “normal” and “right” when compared to other cultures.

In examining higher education in America from an etic perspective, it is possible to see the

strengths and weaknesses specific to the American educational system, and it allows us to

question and critically examine this system based on the similarities and differences that exist

between our own and other educational systems. Similarly, taking an emic perspective on anti-

school culture among boys in Sweden helps us to see how cultural context and cultural narratives

affect education. Examining the problems found in other educational systems can help us to

better understand the cultural narratives, stereotypes, and underlying assumptions that operate in

our own educational system, and help us to see how our problems are both similar and different

to those found in other cultures. Taking an etic perspective on your own culture and an emic

perspective on another culture allows you to flip your viewpoint in order to counteract deeply

held beliefs about what is “normal” and what is “other.”

The following is an example of a conclusion for this paper. You can use

this as a model to help you write your own conclusion, but you cannot

use this exact conclusion.

Helpful Tip: Use the conclusion to reiterate the major concepts and

topics that were first brought up in the introduction and then covered in

body of the paper. Provide a brief, self-reflexive analysis. Make sure all

parts of the paper are connected.