Anthropology

Anthropology 1120 Assignment 1: Critical Reading Exercise
Value: 10% of final grade

DUE DATE:
Section A: MONDAY OCTOBER 21 in your tutorial
Section B: WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 23 in your tutorial
You must also upload your assignment to Turnitin via the course Moodle website by the beginning of the lecture on the due date.
(more instructions will be provided in tutorials)

How does it work?
You must write a 3-4 page critical summary of 1 (one) of the following required reading articles from weeks 1-6:
Miner, Horace. “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema”
Geertz, Clifford. “Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight.”
Rylko-Bauer, Barbra, Merrill Singer and John Van Willigan. “Reclaiming Applied Anthropology: Its Past Present and Future.”
Murray, David. Bajan Queens, Nebulous Scenes: Sexual Diversity in Barbados
Clark, Kim. “Ecuadorian Indians, The Nation and Class in Historical Perspective: Rethinking a New Social Movement.”

When are they due?
See above. LATE ASSIGNMENTS WILL BE PENALIZED. READ THE “ASSIGNMENTS: GENERAL INFORMATION” DOCUMENT ON THE COURSE WEBSITE FOR A MORE DETAILED EXPLANATION ABOUT LATE PENALTIES.

What should you learn from this exercise?
The point of the exercise is twofold: to give you practice in reading assigned material critically and for specific content; to help generate possible questions or issues that can be raised and discussed in class.
The mark assigned to this exercise reflects your ability to grasp the main issues of the article both as an independent piece and as it specifically relates to course topics. The mark also takes into account your ability to get to the point quickly.

How to Complete the Critical Reading Exercise:
This should give you an idea of what we are looking for in the critical reading exercise. If you have any further questions, feel free to ask your Teaching Assistant or the Course Director.

1. Overall Thesis/Main Point of the article (40-50% of total content)
In this section

Citations: see the AAA Simplified Citation and Reference Guidelines in the “Assignments: General Information” document for how to cite specific ideas and phrases from the course resources you consult. Title and References are not required for this assignment Tips on what to do and what not to do: Some of these articles may have summary abstracts at the beginning of the article; most articles will have introductory and concluding paragraphs that summarize the main points. These are very useful for focusing your attention on the main points of the article. But, do not copy or paraphrase these summaries. You should be critically reviewing these readings in your own words. We will deduct marks if I find that you are simply copying lines out of the articles. It is not necessary to detail every point that is made in the article. Your summary should provide an overall assessment of the specific details of larger points. For example, if the author makes a point and then elaborates on that point by providing several examples, it is not necessary to detail all the examples – just mention the main point. Similarly, if an author considers a series of points as part of her larger argument, you should list the points, but not necessarily the specific details accompanying each point. Some articles have a lot of ethnographic detail. Do not try to summarize these details. Instead, try to figure out how this discussion of aspects of culture and society are being used to make a larger point. Be sure that you do your own work. Please do not copy your work from another student. Work that is obviously paraphrased or copied (both the original and the copy) will be given a zero. See the “Assignments: General Information” document for further details on plagiarism.