A key theme of our readings thus far has been the interaction between materiality and meaning in shaping social and cultural formations. In particular, we have considered several theorists' approaches to how cultures and social structures transform, and the role of the complementary or contradictory interaction between the world of objects and the world of ideas (materiality and meaning), or the relationship between economic value versus abstract values, in effecting or being affected by that transformation.

In this 5-7 page essay, you are asked to explore the issue of materiality, meaning, and sociocultural transformation by addressing critically how TWO authors whom we have read from TWO different weeks would respond to the following questions: Are human beings primarily shapers of the material world and its transformation, or are they primarily shaped by it? What role do individual perspectives and collective ideas play in this relationship? What specific dynamics and processes are involved?

In framing your discussion, pay particular attention to such issues as definitions, analytical frameworks, underlying assumptions, and evidence -- these will help you to critique each author's approach, to compare the two, and to develop a thesis statement which explains how your critical analysis of the two authors points to a better way of answering the question.

Since this is a short essay, you should choose two authors who can easily be placed in dialogue with each other. Use this dialogue to formulate your own argument in answer to the question and be sure to include a clear, interesting thesis statement in your opening paragraph. 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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