In Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman argues that the "the medium is the metaphor." He seems to suggest that the means through which information is conveyed shapes what can be said, what counts as valid, and how we perceive the world around us. In the study of cultural difference, is it possible to argue that the "the method is the metaphor"? Do the questions one asks, the means one uses to determine the answers, and one's own sense of the world shape the results of anthropological study? How? With what consequences?

This assignment asks you to address these questions in an essay of 5-7 pages by critically examining the methods, findings, and arguments of TWO authors whom we have read. You may choose your authors from the following: Evans-Pritchard, Postman/Miller, Lutz and Collins, Mead/Freeman. Please note that authors separated by a slash count as just one example. You may discuss one or both of those authors, but, either way, you would need to cover one additional author.

In framing your discussion, pay particular attention to such issues asresearch methodology, analytical frameworks, hypotheses, underlying assumptions, and evidence -- these will help you to critique each author's approach, enable comparison between the two, and help you to develop a thesisstatement which explains how your critical analysis of the twoauthors allows you to address the question. While your essay should focus primarily on two authors,feel free to refer to other relevant readings.

TEXT REFERENCES
These (including references to personal communications) are placed in the body of the text, not as notes. For each quotation or statement specific enough to need a reference, place the citation in parentheses (author's name, year of publication of work quoted or referred to, page(s) cited), thus: (Doe 1968) or (Rowe 1893:115-119).

NOTES
All notes follow the text as endnotes, beginning on a new page, and are restricted to material that cannot be included in the text. Notes are numbered consecutively throughout the text by superscript numerals.

REFERENCES CITED
Do not include any publication not cited in the text. References Cited must begin on a new page, and all entries must be double-spaced, listed alphabetically by last name of senior author, and chronologically for two or more titles by the same author(s). The typed layout should conform to the printed layout as follows:

Driver, Harold E.

1956 An Integration of Functional, Evolutionary, and Historical Theory by Means of Correlations. Bloomington: Indiana University Publication in Anthropology and Linguistics, Memoir 12.

1966 Geographical-Historical versus Psycho-Functional Explanations of Kin Avoidances. Current Anthropology 7:131-182.

Miller, George A.

1954 Psycholinguistics. In Handbook of Social Psychology II. Gardner Lindey, ed. Pp. 693-708. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

Thibault, John W., and Harold H. Kelley

1959 The Social Psychology of Groups. New York: John Wiley.

 

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