Anthropology 206
Take-home (quizzes 3 and 4 combined. 50 points total)
Sections 1 and 2 due in class Dec. 1.
Sections 3 and 4 due via email by Dec. 9.
Choose one set of questions to answer from each section. There are four sections.
Hegemony is the ability of the dominant class to project its own way of seeing the world so that those who are subordinated by it accept it as ‘common sense’ and ‘natural’. Common sense, suggests Geoffrey Nowell-Smith, is “the way a subordinate class lives it subordination.” Hegemony refers primarily to ideology.
Radical Critique (Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu) is probably the only means that people have of confronting hegemony. Radical critique involves taking apart or questioning common sense or the things that people believe are ‘natural’ and take for granted.
Section 1, economic anthropology continued. The more details, definitions, and comparisons, the more points you will receive. (12 points possible)
Section 1, The film Who’s Counting
1) What are examples of hegemony that New Zealand economist Marilyn Waring identifies? Discuss details of at least 3. What are examples in the film of confronting hegemony, or of radical critique? (Define these concepts in your narrative.)
2) What primarily gets counted as having value in international economic system rules? What does not get counted, or what is considered too complex to count? Who decides (or who decided) what gets counted? Why does it matter?
3) How are not only women affected by and defined by the current economic system, but how might indigenous people’s economic strategies be affected by the same? Give examples.
4) How might the way value is counted in an international economic system inhibit or even prevent certain kinds of creative solutions to environmental and economic crises? Give examples and details.
5) What are some creative ideas for re-examining how we count value and why or why not is re-thinking value a worthwhile endeavor?
Section 2, legal anthropology Answer all of the questions in set A, or set B. The more details, definitions, and comparisons, the more points you will receive. Sources include lectures, the book ‘Humanity’, the article the Kpelle Moot, the video Clash of Worlds. (12 points possible)
Set A
1) What is law from a Western perspective compared to the legal systems of many pre-contact indigenous peoples throughout the world? (lecture and text book ‘Humanity’)
2) Consider in some detail the influence of law as a justification for actions between culture groups in the context of the case study described in lecture about Tlingit peoples in Southeast Alaska (lecture) and the larger indigenous Alaskan population (film Clash of Worlds)? What often happens(ed) when a dominant legal system is imposed upon groups with differing legal codes? How does law become an agent of and justification for colonialism?
4) Discuss the Tlingit laws concerning taking others’ resources and the law of an eye for an eye. How did Westerners react to these laws? How were traditional Tlingit laws aspects of what Nobel Prize winner and political economist Elinor Ostrom describes as common local management features? (This set of features is identifiable in cultures that practice(d) sustainable environmental livelihood.)
5) What were some of the U.S.-imposed laws between 1900 to the present that affected Tlingit life positively or negatively? Explain how the laws influenced culture change and what culture change often meant for village, rural Tlingit peoples.
Set B
Compare the methods and goals of Tlingit circles, the Liberian Kpelle Moot, and the formal legal system of courts and prisons in the United States. Be specific in your comparisons. Use examples, ask yourself several levels of 'why' questions as you consider your answers. Use critical thinking skills.
1) Compare and contrast, in some detail, the processes of Tlingit circles, the Kpelle Moot, and the U.S. legal system.
2) Compare and contrast the essential purposes and goals of each of these ways of dealing with infractions and settling disputes.
3) Compare and contrast the essential outcomes of each of these ways of dealing with infractions and settling disputes.
4) How is Circle Peacemaking in Kake, Alaska a response to involuntary legal/culture change? (power point notes and videos on Circle Peacemaking)
5) According to justice researchers Albert Dzur and Susan Olson, what are some of the social processes that get lost in the official legal system because our justice is primarily performed for us by professionals such as lawyers and judges? (power point notes)
6) Address some of the issues discussed in class about the history of prison populations in the U.S. and the effectiveness of the current system in the short run compared with the long run, according to prison researchers.
Extra credit: Explain and define Michele Foucault’s use of the panopticon concept in regard to social life in the ‘modern’ world. Consider whether or not a panopticon culture affects your life and if so, how? If not, why not? Defend your answer with examples and logic. (Up to 5 possible points)
Sections 3 and 4 are due by midnight Dec. 9 via email.
Section 3, colonialism, neocolonialism and neoliberalism Answer all of the questions in set A, or set B or set C. The more details, definitions, and comparisons, the more points you will receive. (12 points possible)
Set A
1. What is colonialism and what was the extent of colonialism by the early part of the 20th century? (text book, lecture, film This Magnificent African Cake, articles Why Can’t People Feed Themselves and The Price of Progress.)
2. Describe examples of European attitudes and assumptions about themselves and African peoples. For example, what did Europeans tell themselves to justify colonialism?
3. Describe some of the methods that were used to acquire African lands, resources, and labor. For example, what was the purpose of instituting taxation?
4. How did colonialists maintain economic power over African workers, business owners, and government? Give specific examples.
5. Based on the handout given out in class, how was the health and welfare of African people affected for the most part by colonial enterprises?
6. Based on the handout describing culture change and the handout describing the effects on health for many Africans, what are typical pathologies that result from involuntary culture change? How, specifically, do they apply to many African circumstances?
Set B
As an introduction to post colonialism and neocolonialism consider some of the challenges that African leaders had to face in trying to organize new governments. (lecture, handout, text book, video about Uganda, George Ayittey video, articles Why Can’t People Feed Themselves and The Price of Progress.)
1) Has colonialism ended? Why or why not?
2) In some detail, what did Ghana's first president, Kwame Nkrumah describe as the problems he and his country faced in trying to build itself? Why? How did Nkrumah define neocolonialism?
3) Identify the influences of colonialism, post colonialism circumstances, and neo colonialism in the Uganda film example.
4) Why has independence from colonialism been such a difficult struggle for so many previously colonized cultures and countries? (lecture, text book, video Short History of Colonialism Uganda)
5) According to George Ayittey on Cheetahs Versus Hippos (video), how are the hippos linked to the colonial experience and how are the cheetahs linked more to traditional economic and political systems?
6) What did Ayittey say specifically about traditional economic and political systems in Africa in contrast to current conditions and colonial conditions? How did he say people could help Africa?
Set C (See lecture, videos, handouts)
1) In your post describe, IN SOME DETAIL, the circumstances for the Naso/Ngobe or the Mayans. Define neocolonialism and define neoliberalism according to the researchers quoted on your handout. What qualifies the Mayan or Naso/Ngobe circumstances as forms of neocolonialism and or neoliberalism?
2) Consider the Naso/Ngobe or the Mayan situation in the context of information in the articles The Price of Progress and Why Can’t People Feed Themselves. If we examine the situations through the points in the article, what might we expect for quality of life for indigenous peoples in these situations as a result of neoliberal economic progress through dam building and mining?
3) Lastly, consider the circumstances of the Ngobe/Naso people or the Mayans and the influences of involuntary culture change. What might you anticipate for people’s socio/cultural and family health and prosperity as a result of their circumstances? (See handout on culture change)
4) How would you incorporate Noam Chomsky’s discussion about Central America’s relationship with the U.S. into your essay? (video)
Section 4, Two Old Women. Answer all of the questions. The more details, definitions, and comparisons, the more points you will receive. Demonstrate that you actually read the book.(14 points possible)
First think about the Gwich'in legend that you read.
1) Describe in some detail what you learned in the book about hunting and gathering life on and around the Arctic circle, a very extreme environment.
2) What did you learn about what happens to people when they are hungry - physiologically and mentally? How were the Gwich'in aware of the dangers of hunger and what were some survival rules?
3) What did you learn about the ways Gwich'in peoples behaved toward their resources and each other, both in hard times and in better times?
4) The Gwich’in see this narrative as a teaching story. What are some of the ‘lessons’ that this story might be teaching?
5) What were some other details about the narrative that most interested you?
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