Culture & Humanity
EXAM 2: ANTH 152 LCC Wai`anae Moku: Fall 2020
III. Essay (60 points): Imagine the following scenario.
• Context: A space alien, Tyzog, has landed in a rural Tennessee community of
the U.S. Mainland. He notes to you the following about human beings in thiscommunity. Girls and boys seem to “officially” turn into men and women only following a ritual Tyzog learns is called “high school graduation”. Tyzog notesthat young human women and men in the community always marry their high school sweethearts and both young men and women only begin to have sexual relations in the context of marriage to their high school sweethearts (of the opposite sex). The young women look forward to serving their husbands as housewives and mothers, and having their husbands take care of them, but avoidseeking professions themselves as they feel “naturally less able” then their men atproviding for their families and becoming professionals.
• Question: Tyzog then asks you, an expert anthropologist, if the gender/kinship/marriage norms of this community are universal for all human beings (all humans do it the same way)? Using knowledge you have learned about cultural anthropology, explain to the space alien whether he has or has not noted universal features of all human development of personhood and subjectivity based upon his field studies of this rural American community, or norms that are more culturally specific. To answer Tyzog you want to describe
different cultural worlds you have learned about to support orchallenge Tyzog’s understanding of human norms of personhood and subjectivity. Please explain to Tyzog as much as you can to help him better understand the development and key features of gender in the human species.
o Inwritingyouressayintroduceconceptsandissueswithspecificreferences to course materials that show how your research is based on ideas, principles, methods you learned in class.
▪ Example: “To fully understand humanity, Tyzog should learn aboutother peoples and places. In the case of the Moso in the bookLeaving Mother Lake we learned “X, Y, Z”. In the case of Thailand,we learned in the Chapter from At Home and in the Field called“Prostitutes, Menstrual Blood, Minor Wives, and Feeding the Ducks” that women “A, B, C”.
o The book on the Moso must be referenced to earn a high grade; which of the other materials you reference is otherwise at your discretion.
o It is not advisable to bring up every concept and reading we discussed. Chose a set that links a few issues you understood best and organize your essay around that set of material. You are trying to show me you understand (a) the methods and (b) key concepts/principles, issues cultural anthropologists apply to learn about culture; and (c) how particular case studies illuminated these methods and concepts/principles/issues.
o Organize the essay with an introductory paragraph with a thesis statement, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. It can read as a “letter” to Tyzog.