Part 2: Engage the Supplemental Readings
The second section consists of writing prompts that ask you to engage with readings from Unit 2. You should write an answer of at least 100 words in response to each prompt. Each question is worth 1 point.
Q2.1. Respond to the following prompt:
In Week 4, we learned from our textbook that ideologies are systems of “ideas designed to reinforce the right of powerholders to rule.” Ideologies do this by justifying the power and prestige of those who dominate society, normalizing the cultural values of those who dominate society, and training everyone to judge their own lives by comparing themselves to lifestyles of those who dominate society.
Think about what you learned in the article “How Austerity Unravels Social Ties,” by Christian Laheij. In your own words, explain the ideologies that informal austerity policies in Mozambique.
Q2.2. Respond to the following prompt
In the podcast episode “Emotional Currency,” the anthropologist Bill Maurer says the following [beginning at about 6:40 in the episode]:
“If I give you this big shell thing, then that implies for us, but also for everyone around us that, we have a bond. We have a relationship that will essentially allow us to have a Alow of goods between each other and between our families for the rest of our lives, essentially. So it’s not so much that I’m giving you this shell so that you give me some pigs. It’s I’m giving you this shell so as to say, hey, someday I’m going to need some pigs. Some other day, I might need your help in the Aield. Some other day, you might need me to help you out with something. This shell kind of marks that relationship. It signiAies to everyone around us that we have these ties of enduring obligation and responsibility.”
Maurer connects this example to Marcel Mauss, whose theory of gift giving we learned about in Week 5. In your own words, how does this example Mauss’s theory?
Q2.3. Respond to the following prompt
In the article “What Industrial Societies Get Wrong About Childhood,” anthropologist Karen L. Kramer discusses three cultural groups:
• the Pumé of Venezuela, who are hunter-gatherers
• the Maya of southern Mexico, who are subsistence farmers
• the Tsimane of Bolivia, who are horticulturalists
Based on what you learned about subsistence systems from the Week 4 lectures, how would you expect each of these groups to organize their communities?
Part 3: Apply Course Concepts
The Ainal section also consists of writing prompts that ask you to apply course concepts to examples drawn from your own experience. You should write an answer of at least 100 words in response to each prompt. Each question is worth 0.5 points.
Q3.1 Apply concepts from the course to the world:
In a matrilineal kinship system, the child of your father’s sister would be an acceptable marriage partner. However, in a bilateral kinship system, that person would be forbidden as a marriage partner. In your own words, explain why.
Q3.2 Apply concepts from the course to the world:
In your own words, describe how the “American Dream” reAlects widespread cultural beliefs about social hierarchy in U.S. society.
Q3.3 Apply concepts from the course to the world:
In your own words, describe an example of social capital and/or cultural capital that you or someone you know has needed to develop in order to get ahead in the workplace.
Q3.4 Apply concepts from the course to the world:
As our textbook tells us, “Redistribution is the accumulation of goods or labor by a particular person or institution for the purpose of dispersal at a later date. Redistribution is found in all societies.” Identify and describe a system of redistribution in our society.