Intro to Anthro TA

Greetings Students! For those of you who have yet to meet me, my name is Sabrina and I will be one of your teaching assistants for this course. I look forward to meeting you in our discussion sections on Thursdays. Please remember to practice classroom etiquette on and offline.

[beartasabrina]

Biography of a Chocolate Bar

To return to our opening story, consider writing a biography of a chocolate bar? Buy one and put it on your desk. What are the ingredients? Where do they come from? Start with cocoa, the primary ingredient, and Côte d’Ivoire, which produces more than 40% of the worlds cocoa. Ask yourself the following questions:

What are the working and living conditions of the people who produce the cocoa?

How is it produced? Are child laborers involved?

How do the producers get the cocoa to the market?

How are prices set?

Which international corporations dominate the chocolate trade?Who regulates it?

How is chocolate marketed?

Where did you buy it?

How much profit does a store owner make on a bar of chocolate?

Are there hidden cost that are not included in the price you paid? Consider under payment of labor; environmental impact; government subsidies that are direct (to the company) and indirect (infrastructure such as roads, ports, bridges, and water systems) ; and the health care costs created by harvesting transporting processing or eating the food? How are these costs obscured?

Due Sun 11/18 @ 11:59 pm

[thesociologywiz-blog]

UPDATE: due Sun. April 28, 2019 @ 11:59PM

[beartasabrina]

Social Class & Inequality

Find a news story that illustrates either Marx, Weber, or Bourdieu’s theory of social class. Post a link to the story and do a brief write up (multiple paragraphs) that explains how the story illustrates social class using the selected theorist’s concepts.

***Be sure to focus on social class, not race! Race may play a role, but I want you to focus on social class primarily.

Due Sun 11/11 @ 11:59 pm

[thesociologywiz-blog]

UPDATE: Due Sun 4/21 @ 11:59PM

[beartasabrina]

Student Updates

Students in my discussion sections please read the following announcements and respond accordingly.

Please send me a message if you have not received any grades since midterms as it means I do not have your tumblr info.

On Friday, I will be completing your starfish reports. It will mention your updated fieldwork, attendance, and class work grade. If you have any excuse notes or concerns, please submit via email by Thursday night.

There were 7 really great ethnicity and nationalism concept maps, so I awarded bonus points to each of these individuals. Please check your tumblr messages to see if you are one of these people.

[thesociologywiz-blog]

Extra Credit Assigment

Students that attended the preliminary today are to write a ONE page response detailing their experience.

This will count toward your final grade at the end of the semester.

This is due in addition to your fieldwork assignment for this week.

Have a good weekend!

[beartasabrina]

Kinship & Family

Using the key below, construct a kinship diagram for your (extended) family showing AT LEAST 10 relationships. Analyze your diagram, and explain what is present and what is missing.

Chapter 10 Quiz & Fieldwork Due Sun 4/14 @ 11:59 pm

[beartasabrina]

Ethnicity & Nationalism

Your fieldwork assignment this week will be to create a concept map based on one of the following narratives from chapter 7:

Constructing Indian identity in the US (p. 243)

Mobilizing Ethnic Differences In Rwanda (p. 245)

Remaking Identity: Hutu Refugees In Tanzania (p. 247)

Orchestrating Ethinc Conflict in the Former Yugoslavia (p. 248)

Native Americans and the Ethni-Corporation (p. 250)

Bafokeng Inc in South Africa (p. 252)

Globalization and Transnational Citizenship in Eritrea (p. 256)

Guerrillas, Spirit Mediums, and Nationalism in Zimbabwe (p. 259)

Sports and National Identity In Argentina (p. 264)

Your concept maps must feature at LEAST 10 concepts. Reminder: concept maps are incomplete without linking words.

Fieldwork & Quiz Due Sun 3/31 @ 11:59 pm

[beartasabrina]

Good morning

A gentle reminder that your midterm will be administered in room 452. We will begin shortly.

[beartasabrina]

The Human Family Tree

[beartasabrina]

Cultural Adaptation

Reflect on the cultural adaptation examples given in class on Tuesday. Consider how cultural innovations such as glasses and braces affect our biological evolution a species. Follow the directions below for full points.

Come up with your own example of how cultural adaptation has trumped natural selection.

Include a written response detailing how this has occurred and what the impact has been.

Attach a photo of the item along with the post.

Chap 5 Quiz & Fieldwork Due Sun 3/3 @ 11:59 pm

[beartasabrina]

Language and Gender in the Classroom

The classroom reflects larger cultural patterns according to which it may seem normal for males to talk more, leading to complicity by boys, girls, and the adults who teach them.This week, choose one meeting of a class in which there is a fair amount of student participation and pay careful, analytical attention to the connections between gender and language in the classroom.

Record how many men and women are in the class. Keep a tally of how many times men speak and how many times women speak. Who speaks more often?

Record the average of how long people speak. Record the average of the number of words they use. 

What are difference in body language and style of speaking between the men and women?

Is the instructor a man or woman? How do they encourage or discourage communication? Consider their body language and gaze.

Record the number of times the instructor calls on men versus women.

Does the instructor’s gender seem to influence the way they interact with the class? If so, how?

Fieldwork & Chapter 4 Quiz Due Sun 2/24 @ 11:59

[beartasabrina]

It’s Sunday...

Which means it’s time to get assignments turned in by midnight.

Mapping A Block Fieldwork

Chapter 3 Quiz

Also, if you would like to know your cumulative fieldwork grade, send me a message.

[beartasabrina]

Mapping A Block

Develop your ethnographic skills of observation and description by drawing a map of a block or public space in your community and writing a narrative description of what you find.

Complete the following steps for full points:

1. Select a location (indoor or outdoor) that has defined boundaries. Some examples include:

an intersection

park

campus quadrangle

shopping mall

student center

2. Spend an hour sitting and observing, taking careful field notes of your observations (infrastructure, people, sounds, smells, etc).

3. Create a map of the selected area, with symbols and a legend, to illustrate what you observed. 

4. Answer the following questions in paragraph format:

What location did you choose? What drew you to it? Describe what you found.

What did you notice in your observations that you’ve never noticed before?

What is absent that you might have expected to find?

Visit the same block or space at a different time of day or different day of the week. How do your observations vary?

Chp 3 Quiz & Fieldwork Due Sun 2/17 @ 11:59 pm

[beartasabrina]

By midnight you should:

Complete chapter 1 & 2 quiz on BB

Upload fieldwork 2 (Culture of Consumerism)

Upload your concept map class work and elements of culture class work

[thesociologywiz-blog]

Extra Credit Opportunity

If anyone is free from 5:30-8:30PM today, dm me!

[beartasabrina]

The Culture of Consumerism

Ask yourself what you need to have to feel like an average college student. Think about all the things you own. List your electronics (computer, smartphone, tablet, television, sound system) and your school supplies (books, notebooks, pens, calculator, backpack). Go through your closets and dressers to list what you find there: clothes for different seasons and special occasions, accessories (bags, hats, belts, and shoes), and grooming items and cosmetics. List your mode of transportation, household furnishings, appliances, and so on.

1. Take a picture of your habitus and upload it with your post.

2. Use the link below to view an example of how to complete this assignment. You may download the document and edit it with your personal information.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/17dBmZHrcch7OrkXoMW4K2aay2MD81IFu0nJN6h8EBuk/edit?usp=sharing

3. Attach a screenshot of your assignment to your post and write a paragraph reflecting on what you learned about yourself after completing this assignment.

Chp. 1, Chp. 2 Quiz, Fieldwork Due Sun 2/10 @ 11:59 p.m.

[beartasabrina]

Classwork Submission

Hey Guys!

If you haven’t done so already, make sure you upload your work on the topic of culture today. 

For clarification, you are posting EITHER the culture, subculture, or phenomenon for which you provided examples of cultural elements (i.e. Beliefs, Attitudes, Values, Knowledge, Artifacts, and Institutions).

[beartasabrina]

Fieldwork Submission

Please post your work on your page. Do NOT message or email them to me. Also, the deadline for submissions is at 11:59 pm on Sundays. I tend not to submit grades until the window for posting has closed. You do not have to alert me when the assignment is completed, it shows up on my timeline.