Social and Cultural Theory—Final Analysis Assignment, Autumn 2021b

 Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "Assignments"

On this date on Round and Square's History 

xxx

[a] Society RF

This is the last assignment for the Social and Cultural Theory course. Students have written a wide variety of papers, and engaged the study of social and cultural theory from several angles. Their task in this assignment is to explain something in detail...and to use "theory."

Social and Cultural Theory 

Anthropology 206

"Final Analysis" Assignment

Using Theory and Explaining Stuff

[b] Explaining RF

The Shorthand Version

1. Choose something that interests you.

2. Explain how it works (and explain the "world" around it).

3. Use theory. 

4. Show how it helps to understand the subject more deeply.

3,000 words, minimum. Preferably 3,000-5,000 words with extensive details of how that "world" works (think of Loïc Wacquant's Body and Soul and Howard Becker's various works.

Due by the end of the term (actual date TBA).

Please send a .pdf copy to me through email.

[c] Culture RF

Possible Format A—Two Parts

1. Choose something that interests you, and that you think might make for an interesting analysis. Over the years, topics have included scuba training, EMT training, doughnut-making, coffee shop barista activities, the inner-workings of athletic teams, swimming the 50 Freestyle, and so forth.

2. In Part One, explain "the world" around that topic in detail, using “thick description” techniques (reread Geertz's essay on "thick description" in Anthropology in Theory). Think especially of the analysis in Loïc Wacquant's Body and Soul.

3. In Part Two, add a theoretical “appendix” discussing how the reader might deepen her understanding with theoretical perspectives. 

4. Show how your analysis helps to understand the subject more deeply.

Possible Format B—Integration of Materials

1. Choose something that interests you (see "Format A" for examples).

2. Explain "the world" around that topic in detail, using “thick description” techniques and integrating theoretical perspectives as you proceed. 

3. Add a succinct conclusion that explicitly… 

4. …shows how your theoretical perspective helps to understand the subject more deeply.

Possible Format C—New Vistas

1. Masterfully blend all elements together in a striking narrative form (previously unimagined) that will be anthologized in theory readers and read by students like you for generations. What if you knew you were writing a classic?

You have examples of anthropologists "using theory" while "explaining stuff" in many of your books this term. Perhaps the most useful ones for this assignment will be Body and Soul and Howard Becker's What About Mozart...? The key to this assignment is to use theory to explain how something works. Now read that again:

The key to this assignment is to use theory 

to explain how something works.

Loïc Wacqant's Body and Soul does this extraordinarily well, and any dozen or so pages of that book can be taken as a model for what I want you to do in this assignment. As you know, you will be thinking about this assignment from the very beginning of this course, and will be refining your explanation all semester long (on multiple quizzes and throughout the final month of the course).

Summary 

1. Choose something that interests you.
2. Explain "the world" around that topic in detail.

3. Use “theory.” 

4. Explain why it—the explanation (the "ethnographic detail") and the theory—matters.

Sorry—it’s really that straightforward.

We’ll discuss strategies in class thoughout the term. This is a serious assignment, and is meant to make you reflect upon your approach to social and cultural theory. It only seems “glib” and lighthearted. I could write ten pages of detail for the assignment, but this is really all you need...without clutter.

DO NOT take this assignment lightly. 
It is, by far, the most important assignment of the entire term. 
A great job can save a big part of the term; a mediocre one can hurt your grade a great deal (as I have been saying all term long).

Hard copy due in my office (MI 206) by 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, December 9.

Feel free to also send a .pdf file, as well,  just to be sure that there are no mixups.

[d] Pathways RF

"Final Analysis" Assignment (Autumn 2018)

Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "Assignments"

On this date on Round and Square's History 

22 November 2014—China's Lunar Calendar 2014 11-22

22 November 2013—China's Lunar Calendar 2013 11-22

22 November 2012—Displays of Authenticity: Thanksgiving

22 November 2011—Fieldnotes From History: Opinion

[a] Society RF

This is the last assignment for the Social and Cultural Theory course. Students have written a wide variety of papers, and engaged the study of social and cultural theory from several angles. Their task in this assignment is to explain something in detail...and to use "theory."

Social and Cultural Theory 

Anthropology 206

"Final Analysis" Assignment

Using Theory and Explaining Stuff

[b] Explaining RF

The Shorthand Version

1. Choose something that interests you.

2. Explain how it works (and the "world" around it).

3. Use theory. 

4. Show how it helps to understand the subject more deeply.

3,000 words (absolute minimum). Preferably 3,000-5,000 words with extensive details of how that "world" works (think of Loïc Wacquant's Body and Soul).

Due by 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, December 18, 2017.

Paper copy in my office (MI 206) unless otherwise arranged.

[c] Culture RF

Possible Format A—Appendix

1. Choose something that interests you, and that you think might make for an interesting analysis. Over the years, topics have included scuba training, EMT training, doughnut-making, coffee shop barista activities, the inner-workings of athletic teams, and so forth.

2. Explain "the world" around that topic in detail, using “thick description” techniques (reread Geertz's essay in Anthropology in Theory). Think especially of the analysis in Loïc Wacquant's Body and Soul.

3. Add a theoretical “appendix” discussing how the reader might deepen her understanding with theoretical perspectives. 

4. Show how it helps to understand the subject more deeply.

Possible Format B—Integration

1. Choose something that interests you (see "Format A" for examples).

2. Explain "the world" around that topic in detail, using “thick description” techniques and integrating theoretical perspectives as you proceed. 

3. Add a succinct conclusion that explicitly… 

4. …shows how your theoretical perspective helps to understand the subject more deeply.

Possible Format C—New Vistas

1. Masterfully blend all elements together in a striking narrative form (previously unimagined) that will be anthologized in theory readers and read by students like you for generations. What if you knew you were writing a classic?

You have examples of anthropologists "using theory" while "explaining stuff" in many of your books this term. Perhaps the most useful ones for this assignment will be Body and Soul and Howard Beckery's What About Mozart...? The key to this assignment is to use theory to explain how something works. Loïc Wacqant's Body and Soul does this extraordinarily well, and any dozen or so pages of that book can be taken as a model for what I want you to do in this assignment.

Summary 

1. Choose something that interests you.
2. Explain "the world" around that topic in detail.

3. Use “theory.” 

4. Explain why it—the explanation (the "ethnographic detail") and the theory—matters.

Sorry—it’s really that straightforward.

We’ll discuss strategies in class, but this is a serious assignment, and is meant to make you reflect upon your approach to social and cultural theory. It only seems “glib” and lighthearted. I could write ten pages of detail for the assignment, but this is really all you need...without clutter.

DO NOT take this assignment lightly. 
It is, by far, the most important assignment of the entire term. 
A great job can save a big part of the term; a mediocre one can hurt more than you want (as I have been saying all term long).

Due in my office by 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, December 18, 2018

(the last "moment" of finals week).

[d] Pathways RF

Writing From Sources I (Autumn 2017)

Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "Assignments"

***  *** 

On this date in Round and Square History
7 February 2015—China's Lunar Calendar: 2015 02-07
7 February 2014—China's Lunar Calendar: 2014 02-07
7 February 2013—French Bulldog Puppy: Madame Bovary
7 February 2013—China's Lunar Calendar 2013 02-07
7 February 2012—The Emperor's Teacher: Talking Points (b)

[a] Meiji RF

Japan, East Asia, and the Pacific World

History 210

Final Paper Assignment

Writing From Primary and Secondary Sources 

This assignment is broken into three posts. 
Click below for the others (all are part of the assignment; don't skip any of them).

Sources 1               Sources 2               Sources 3

Read the following assignment carefully and reflect for a few moments upon what historians really do when writing about the past—blending the sources and their analyses into readable and intelligent essay form (we have been discussing examples of this work in class all semester long). Then, using the knowledge you have gained through reading your assignments, choose twelve to fifteen documents that revolve around a general theme that interests you, and which you would like to pursue further. Once you have chosen your topic and sources, please e-mail this information to me (see below). The deadline for this preliminary work is Sunday, December 10, but I encourage you to send it earlier. Finally, write a medium-length (3,000-word) essay from these sources. The paper is due in my office by the last day of finals, December 19 at 5:00 p.m.

[b] Source RF

As you write your historical source analysis, imagine that you are writing for intelligent people who know little about Japan, and that your task is to convey an honest, interesting picture of some aspect of Japanese social, cultural, political, or intellectual life during the periods we have studied (imagine a New York Review of Books audience). 

It might help to think of this as an extended reflection on approximately a dozen different sources, in which you write confidently and intelligently about your understanding of the themes in the documents. Your main focus is the documents, and you are encouraged to quote from them. You should use the knowledge you have gained from general reading and lectures to set the historical context, but you will be judged mostly on your ability to grasp themes in and between the documents you have chosen. Your balance of primary and secondary sources should be about somewhere between two-thirds primary and one-third secondary (at the most) to half-and-half.

As we have discussed at length, engagement with both primary and secondary sources are important skills in historical analysis, and this assignment gives you an opportunity to work on them. Do not use exclusively primary or secondary sources. Have a healthy "mix" of them, perhaps with slightly more emphasis on the primary documents.

Just to get you thinking about possibilities, I have included some possible broad categories. Whatever you choose, you will need to refine the topic as you think about your paper. These categories are intentionally broad, in order to encourage you to choose freely from among a wide variety of readings in your course books and supporting material. Your actual topic will be more focused.

            * women, gender relations, family...

            * rebellion, social disorder, war, banditry, famine

            * poverty, peasants, agriculture, tenancy

            * outcasts, rebels, "barbarians"

            * family life, social organization

            * bureaucracy, taxation, land ownership, government work

            * intellectuals, examinations, ruling

            * religion, spirits, ancestors, ghosts, "heaven...."

            * myths, historical writing, and other narrative prose

[c] Heian rose RF

Remember that choosing appropriate sources is part of the assignment. Part of the skill I am looking for is the ability to choose appropriate sources. The better you know your readings, the better you will do when you choose from among your many class readings and outside readings.

Your paper should be between 3,000 and 3,500 words, or approximately ten to twelve pages. There is usually little to gain by exceeding 3,500 words. If you do, you are likely writing for reasons other than a good grade. If you “need” to write a longer paper (if you are compelled to write thirty pages about Tokugawa economics, for example) please feel free to do so. I will read every word, and comment accordingly. 3,500 well-written and well-argued words will put you in “95+” territory, though, so consider your other classes before using this assignment to begin your doctoral dissertation.

The real problem lies with “minimalism.” Please put enough time into your paper so that you write more than a handful of pages. Papers that under 2,500 words almost always lack development and serious analysis of the sources. I admire efficiency, but don’t assume that it courses through your authorial veins. Papa Hemingway might write a beautiful 1,783 word masterpiece called “The Aged Literatus and the Sea of Japan” or “Goodbye to Munitions.” You’re not Hemingway…yet. Write 3,000+ words.

You may consult any other books you deem necessary, but your work will be judged on your ability to write directly from the sources you have chosen. While it is acceptable to choose a source or two from beyond our course materials, my intention is for you to make the most of the detailed syllabus we have studied in this class.This assignment is meant to judge your ability to use primary and secondary sources. It is not meant to be the final word on the subject!

This assignment is broken into three posts. 
Click below for the others (all are part of the assignment; don't skip any of them).

Sources 1               Sources 2               Sources 3

[d] Sources RF

Social and Cultural Theory—Final Theoretical Essay 2015

Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "Assignments"

On this date on Round and Square's History 

22 November 2014—China's Lunar Calendar 2014 11-22

22 November 2013—China's Lunar Calendar 2013 11-22

22 November 2012—Displays of Authenticity: Thanksgiving

22 November 2011—Fieldnotes From History: Opinion

[a] Society RF

This is the last assignment for the Social and Cultural Theory course. Students have written a wide variety of papers, and engaged the study of social and cultural theory from several angles. Their task in this assignment is to explain something in detail...and to use "theory."

Social and Cultural Theory 

Anthropology 206

Final Paper 

Using Theory and Explaining Stuff

[b] Explaining RF

The Shorthand Version

1. Explain something. 

2. Use theory. 

3. Show how it helps to understand the subject more deeply.

3,000 words (minimum).

Due by 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Paper copy in my office (MI 111) unless otherwise arranged.

[c] Culture RF

Possible Format A—Appendix

1. Explain something in detail, using “thick description” techniques (reread Geertz).

2. Add a theoretical “appendix” discussing how the reader might deepen her understanding. 

3. Show how it helps to understand the subject more deeply.

Possible Format B—Integration

1. Explain something in detail, using “thick description” techniques and integrating theoretical perspectives as you proceed. 

2. Add a succinct conclusion that explicitly… 

3. …shows how your theoretical perspective helps to understand the subject more deeply.

Possible Format C—New Vistas

1. Masterfully blend all elements together in a striking narrative form (previously unimagined) that will be anthologized in theory readers and read by students like you for generations. What if you knew you were writing a classic?

Summary 

1. Explain something in detail. 

2. Use “theory.” 

3. Explain why it—the explanation and the theory—matters.

Sorry—it’s really that straightforward.

We’ll discuss strategies in class, but this is a serious assignment, and is meant to make you reflect upon your approach to social and cultural theory. It only seems “glib” and lighthearted. I could write ten pages of detail for the assignment, but this is really all you need...without clutter.

Due in my office by 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, December 15, 2015 

(the last "moment" of finals week).

[d] Pathways RF