The papers which I have assigned on a native culture and religion should conform to the following criteria:
Each student or group of students ( no more than three in a group) should select a particular native culture to study. This native culture must be agreed to by the professor. It would be advisable that the culture be chosen as early as possible (mid-February might be a good target date). Students might consult this linked site for some possibilities.
A paper of approximately fifteen pages (double spaced) on the culture and religion of the group will be presented to the professor in class on Wednesday, April 25 and Thursday, April 26, 2001.
A preliminary report of each student's individual progress will be sent to the professor via e-mail by 11:59:59 p.m. on Tuesday, April 3 and Wednesday, April 4, 2001. This will be a progress report on where the student is in his or her research and can include problems and difficulties that the student has come up against. The project will be graded and will also enable the professor to give further help to students who might be running into problems in their work.
The paper should
include some discussion of the following areas:
-- the location and physical circumstances of the native culture.
-- the structure of the native culture (kinship systems, leadership, political
organization, etc.).
-- the religious dimensions of the tribe's existence (rituals, beliefs, myths, practices,
etc.).
-- the situation of the tribe in the "modern" world including their interactions
with more complex societies and their own views of the modern world if this
can be discovered.
Your preliminary report (due on April 3 and 4) will consist in the following:
What have you done so far? What books, web sites, and so forth have you consulted to this point?
What have you discovered relating to the topics outlined above to this point?
What problems have you run into? What don't you understand or what confuses you? This is where I can be most helpful to you in my response to your report.
What do you plan to do next? What areas that you have not covered are you going to cover? How do you plan to do this?
If time and space
permit, the professor would appreciate the student's or students'
views on the culture being discussed.
The paper will
assist the students in their preparation of their final examinations
since their native group will be a subject of discussion on this exam.
Students should
feel free to consult with the instructor on bibliography, methods,
or points of difficulty.
Work on the paper
should begin immediately since it might take some time to
decipher a culture different than one's own and present the results in an
organized fashion. Also April 3 and 4 are not as far off as it might seem.
Students are
strongly encouraged to make use of the Writing Center at the
beginning of the process of thinking through their paper topics.
The grade for the
project will be given to all of the students on the project. If
there are more than one of you, help each other out.
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Page last updated on December 20, 2000