Cultures in Contact

ANT 326L (30410) Spring, 2008
Samuel M. Wilson

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Assignments

  1. Activities - 25% There will be 12 activities you must carry out. They are listed at the bottom of this page. In most cases you have to read, watch, or visit something and write a brief account or analysis of it. We will not count the two lowest scores, so a total of 10 exercises will contribute to your final grade. Sometimes the activities correspond to what we are doing in class and sometimes they do not.

  2. Two midterm exams and one final exam; each exam is worth 25%. The exams only cover one-third of the course each. The final exam is held during the scheduled final exam period, but it is not comprehensive. It only covers the last third of the course.

Activities -- The following activities are due on the Tuesday of the week they are assigned. Some of them are still changing and developing, so check back on the web site before carrying out the activity.
  • Activity 1 -- Cajun and Metis music and culture -- Listen to this NPR piece on the music and culture of the Metis -- listen to the story here. Then explore this site and read about Cajun music and culture. Please listen to all you want, but especially some of the songs under "The 1920s and the 1930s". Also, read pps. 450-452 from the Nabokov book. If you want more information on Cajun history, look here. If you don't have access to a computer that is capable of playing mp3s, you can carry out this activity in the archaeology lab in EPS 2.136, or in one of the other computer labs on campus. What is there in this music that suggests that it reflects the combination or intersection of two cultures? What similarities can you hear between Metis music and Cajun music. Write this up in a 1/2 page, single spaced, or so and hand it in next Tuesday.
  • Activity 2 -- 1492: AN ONGOING VOYAGE, an exhibit by the Library of Congress.
    Please read through the Exhibit 1492: An Ongoing Voyage, produced by the Library of Congress. You can find it in the Library of Congress's version or on a Sunsite mirror.

    Although I am familiar with the topics covered in this exhibition, I still found things that were new and surprising. Please explore the site and write about 1/2 page on an some aspect that you found interesting and had not known of before. Also, could you comment on the idea of "inventing America" -- what is that and why would people do it? Please don't just give what the site says, but think about who is writing and who their audience was and think about the range of possible motives they might have had.

  • Activity 3 -- Audio report on the Red Lake Chippewa of Minnesota and the new welfare reform laws.

    Listen to the following report from the September 8th, 1998 edition of National Public Radio's "All Things Considered". It concerns the way in which the Red Lake Chippewa of Minnesota are dealing with new welfare reform laws that will force major changes in the economic and cultural life on the reservation. The report deals with some of the modern stereotypes and myths many people hold about Native Americans (such as their attunement to the environment or the success of casino gambling) while highlighting the concerns of a group unsure how change will affect their community.

    Write a short essay (approximately 1/2 page, single spaced) on this topic. Include observations on how some of the problems the Red Lake community faces have deep historical background and how modern myths and stereotypes affect these people.

    Click HERE to listen to the first portion of the report (approximate running time 12:30).
    Click HERE for the second portion of the report (approximate running time 8:00).

  • Activity 4 Exploring American Identity
    • Listen to Who is an Indian -- and Racial identity in America and comment on the issues raised in both pieces. Do you feel cultural identity is becoming more important or less important for people in the US over the last 40 years?

  • Activity 5 -- Selected readings from "Rome Reborn: The Vatican Library and Renaissance. Culture" homepage.
    • The exhibit "ROME REBORN: THE VATICAN LIBRARY & RENAISSANCE CULTURE" was put on by the Library of Congress in 1993.  It included material from both the Library of Congress and the Vatican Library.http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/vatican.exhibit/exhibit/Main_Hall.html
    • Please browse through the site, reading what interests you most.  I would like you to read the section "About the Exhibition" and also read the section on Ptolemy's geography, under mathematics. http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/vatican.exhibit/exhibit/d-mathematics/Mathematics.html
      Answer the following questions: 1) When was Ptolemy's Geography written?  (note: you can always make use of reference material, like an Encyclopedia to get more information). 2) When did it become widely available to European scholars? 3) What impact did it have?
    • Another interesting section of the exhibit deals with Rome's dealings with the Far East ("How Rome went to China").  Please read through this section carefully (and also "The Jesuits in China") and answer these questions:  4) why was Rome so interested in China, and 5) Why were the Chinese elite willing to entertain the Jesuits?  What were they interested in getting in return?
    • Please limit your typed answers on a single page.

  • Activity 6: Please listen to this NPR segment on the opening of the National Museum of the American Indian. This took place on the Mall in Washington, D.C. in September 2004. Also check out the web site for the NMAI. While there was some controversy concerning the museum, the opening was seen as a significant event by many Indian people. Of the small group of Native Americans interviewed, what sentiments can you identify that seem to be held by everyone? Now take a look at a few of the articles published that week in September from Indian Country Today, a widely read newspaper dealing with Native American Issues. You can read Indian Country Today here. What range of sentiments do you see expressed, and compared with the NPR piece, what do you learn from all this?
  • Activity 7 -- Worlds of Difference: Haida Bones, parts I and II. Listen to this two-part piece on the repatriation of Native American skeletal remains.

    Please listen to these two audio segments and comment on the issue of the repatriation and reburial of Native American skeletal remains. There is a great deal on the web under topics such as "repatriation" and "reburial". There is also a debate published in Archaeology Magazine linked here.
  • Activity 8 -- Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings
  • Activity 9 -- Explore the Africans in America web site and answer questions about slavery, Native Americans and westward expansion.
    • The television series "Africans in America" recently aired on PBS. The experience of slavery and African-Americans was not simply a singular experience between whites and slaves. For this assignment, explore the series's companion web page, especially the section concerning westward expansion. Answer the following questions in two to three complete sentences each.
      1. Why was Philadelphia different from most US cities between 1776 and 1865?
      2. What does the Declaration of Independence have to say about slavery?
      3. Briefly, what was the compromise of 1850 and what was it's impact of subsequent events?
      5. What role did slavery play in the settlement of Texas under Mexican rule and how did it affect the region after 1846 and Texas's attempts to gain statehood?
      6. What was the "weeping time" and in that context, what rationale did Sidney George Fisher offer for the continuation of the institution of slavery?

  • Activity 10 -- The Indian Child Welfare Act
  • Activity 11 -- There is U.S. Census Bureau Information on Native American populations here. Please read through this information, especially that under the first 5 headings. In particular, please provide answers to the following questions:
    • What are the five largest tribes?
    • What percentage of Native Americans live in poverty, and what percentage of all Americans live in poverty?
    • Of the Native American Tribes for which specific information is available, which tribe has the highest percentage of people living in poverty and which the lowest?
    • Please tell me about one other interesting or surprising piece of data you found on this site.

  • Activity 12 -- Listen to the Terry Gross interview with journalist Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele dealing with Native American-run casinos. How do you see the balance of positive and negative results of Native Americans gaming? Please note some of the plusses and minuses, and say what your opinion might be if you were a member of a tribe that was considering making a deal with a casino company.

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other possibilities

  • Seeking Ancestry in DNA Ties Uncovered by Tests
  • Activity XX - AILLA is a digital archive of recordings and texts in and about the indigenous languages of Latin America. - http://www.ailla.org/site/welcome.html
  • Activity ## read and comment on creek treaties - http://www.cviog.uga.edu/Projects/gainfo/crtreaty.htm
  • Activity XX - Kennewick Man -- http://www.saa.org/publications/saabulletin/14-5/saa5.html
    search: http://www.saa.org/Search/index.asp / http://www.saa.org/publications/amantiq/aqabstracts/aq66-4/owsley.html
    asatru.. http://www.runestone.org/kmfileafa.html
    http://archaeology.about.com/library/excav/blkennewick.htm?terms=kennewick%2Bman
  • http://www.al-bab.com/arab/history.htm
  • Racial identity in America
  • From Generation to Generation - Survival and Maintenance of Canada's Aboriginal Languages
  • Go to the National Museum of the American Indian's NMAI Radio page and listen to the piece called "Coyote Bites Back: Indian Humor". Can you identify any dimensions of Native American humor that are unique to that genre? What are some of the main themes in the jokes and things discussed in the piece?
  • NMAI - Listen to "We are still here" dealing with the opening of the National Museum of the American Indian.

 

wilson
anthro
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1/08