Explanations and guidelines for your first paper: Anth2600B
(I will assume that everybody reads this. Consequently, failing to follow the guidelines
regarding concrete aspects of the paper, such as the very last items in this text, will
automatically lead to a loss of marks.)
This course, being a second year course, aims at developing/improving your writing and
research ability in social scientific discourse. I have chosen to ask you to write on "the
body" although we did not have any direct readings on this issue. In this way:

I hope that you will feel free to choose a topic which interests you.

You will be able to establish the framework yourself and experience what it
entails to be interested in a topic, find out more about it and narrow down the
scope.

And, finally, you will read and digest the relevant materials in order to make a
structured presentation of a topic. This means that you can elaborate on the
current debates, present various theoretical discussions of the particular topic and
contrast the various points of view. This is mainly a research (survey) paper, but
you can take a position while presenting the arguments. In this respect, it is a
research paper which allows you to position yourself.
Since we did not concentrate on the body during the course, I do not expect you to show
theoretical sophistication on the topics you are working on. However, having learned
about the basic theoretical frameworks for gender in anthropology, I expect you to be
able to approach a topic with the insights which you gained during this course. This
means, for example, that if you would like to write on "beauty ideals" you should be able
to treat "beauty" in its social and cultural context; you should be able to show awareness
of the historical specificity of these issues as well as the historical specificity of the
studies which concentrate on them. In the same vein, the number of social scientific
studies which were published on "anorexia" prior to the 70s may tell us that recognition
of this condition as an illness and research on this subject mutually impacted one another
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etc. This should lead you to search for books and articles which look at beauty in its
social and cultural context.
The online library catalogue has a section called "journal indexes". Here you will find
anthropological abstracts, sociological abstracts and the ISI web (under this you will find
the Social Science citation index). These are the most relevant search tools for us.
Yet walking between the library shelves and browsing inside the pages of books and
journal articles which may be indirectly relevant to the issues in which you are interested
can also lead you to other very directly related resources. During your search you may be
tempted by another topic instead of your original idea. There are other indirect sources
available which are worth, trying such as an anthropology 4th year course on the body.
There may be a textbook in the bookstore which one can look through, or perhaps a
course outline on the web or on the instructor's door which could inspire you.
It is expected that you find out about the main areas and direction of research on that
particular topic. For example, if you are looking at female circumcision you should be
able to find out about the split between anthropologists on this topic as well as the
complexity of the issue. It is not only a matter of "it is their culture, this is what they do"
– who defines the cultural rules, who imposes these cultural practices, who accepts
infliction of such a procedure on their body and for which reasons are all very relevant
questions that one can ask; what is more, there is considerable controversy surrounding
these matters. Most of the topics concerning the body have political implications. We
may be inclined to support one or the other point of view. However, this does not prevent
us from putting systematic effort into understanding why and how social and cultural
phenomena occur: you may personally be against breast implants, but you should be able
to make sense of the cultural processes which make such practices desirable for some
people and you should be able to address a reader who would like to know more about
the way in which such a topic is treated in anthropology or in the social sciences in
general. For example, do many authors look at breast implants as the new tools of female
exploitation? What kind of social, cultural and economic mechanisms are used to explain
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the widespread use of such operations? Do the capitalist market and the commodification
of various parts of human practice (including our bodies) in our era have anything to do
with such practices? Are breast implants – or any plastic surgery for that matter – seen as
a sign of external control of the body, or of increasing individual control over one's own
body by the authors who write on these issues? You can be daring and evaluate the way
in which a topic is treated by various authors.
Writing:
First of all, I suggest you make a backup copy of your paper on diskette while you are
working on it. Ask your computer to save automatically every five minutes or so. It is no
fun to lose hours or even days of work; although this may sound rather obvious, many
people do lose work this way, and it is a real pity to drop marks because of such bad luck.
I am NOT going to accept electronic versions of your papers. Each paper has to be
submitted as a printed copy.
Content:
Make sure that you have a clear beginning – an introduction – where you explain what
your paper is about and what your aims are, etc. Try to explain and justify your choices
concerning your focus. Then proceed to the discussion; at the end, in your conclusion,
summarize briefly what your main points were.
Make sections to help the reader see where you are going.
Define problems, even though you do not have to answer all of them.
Introduce the reader to various sides of your topic by showing your awareness of them;
you can then indicate which aspects you have chosen to concentrate on. You cannot
cover everything. Make connections and follow up on some of them systematically.
Define the areas which needs elaboration and problematization.
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If you are using concepts explain what you mean by them, but make sure that you do not
destroy the flow of the writing by giving a mechanical description of a concept in the
middle of a discussion; the text should glide while showing your understanding. This is
an important indication of knowledge, yet it is a delicate balance to strike. It is not
usually necessary to explain what you mean by unambiguous concepts such as
"ethnocentrism", but if you use concepts such as "power", "gender", "sexuality",
"resistance" etc. you should explain whose definition you are following or what you
mean by them – given that there is no general consensus about the definition of these
concepts. For example, in the Thaiss article it would be improper for Thaiss not to
indicate what he meant by "rhetoric", for Ortner "nature" and "culture", for Rosaldo
"domestic" and "public" etc. If such a concept is not a key component of your writing and
discussion, however, you can implicitly adopt a mainstream definition.
Choose a style of writing which you think functions best for you, then try to scrutinize it.
AVOID using colloquial and oral expressions ("…they were bitchy", "it was a neat
thing" etc.). Avoid sentences such as "Rosaldo, she argued that..". Use a person's surname
the first time, then you can use a pronoun later. For example, "Rosaldo argued that…"
followed subsequently by the phrase "She supported the idea that …".
Make sure that you use recognized and consistent writing, spelling, citation and
bibliography styles. Remember that a "bibliography" includes all the materials you have
read to be able to write that paper, whereas "references" is the list of the works which you
cited directly and referred to in the article. I would prefer to see a bibliography in order to
get a feeling of how your paper has taken its final shape.
Check MLA manuals for bibliography styles etc. I would not oppose other consistent
styles, but for the sake of communication I prefer a style in which you give a reference to
the author, year and page number (e.g. Ortner 1974: 24). The easiest way to decide on a
style if you do not want to spend lots of time on style manuals is to choose one source
(preferably a North American source in your case) and follow its format. Yet there are
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always some details of a style which may not appear in that text you are using as a guide.
For example, normally you use (") for citing. What do you do if there is a quotation
inside a quotation? (e.g. I write: The idea of "personal is political" is difficult to explain
to the students. You write: HD claims that "the idea of 'personal is political' is difficult to
explain to the students"). So you should make sure that you know the proper options.
The library surely has many manuals in the reference section, titles such as "manual for
the writers of papers" etc. If you are still unsure ask me. I much prefer that you ask me
rather than giving me an unprofessional-looking paper. I was very liberal with writingstyle mistakes, awkward use of language etc. for the in-class exam since it was a race
against time and nerves. This is a race against time too but with a much more generous
margin. This time I will be very strict with the exposition of the papers (spelling, clarity
etc.).
You can give a particular title to your paper as well as indicating what it is about. For
example: "War is menstruation envy: The female body and the politics of feminist
graffiti". Try to find an imaginative and relevant title for your paper, but if you cannot
find one which captures your topic you should simply formulate a phrase or sentence
which explains what it is about.
Please make a cover page for your paper where you write the title of the paper, the date
as well as your details: first name, surname, student ID number, major and the year.
I am not encouraging you to make any fancy covers, but if you do please make sure that
whatever you use (cartoons etc.) has a direct relevance to the content. Do not put
anything which gives a personal message from you unless it is directly relevant to the
content.
Make sure that you use quotation marks when you have direct citations from others
(indicating the page number); also, when you refer to somebody else's idea
(paraphrasing) and you know clearly from which source the idea or information comes,
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you should similarly refer to the work with page numbers. On the other hand, if you are
referring to a work in very general terms it is sufficient to indicate the author/year "if we
follow the idea of women being seen as closer to nature (Ortner 1994)…". These are very
important aspects of academic production. By referring to someone you acknowledge
their contribution at the same time as you indicate the way in which you interpret their
work. Such a process then gives rise to new discussions and opportunities for others to
elaborate on the way in which we present certain topics. Other people who read your text
may find the work and the ideas of one author whom you cite interesting and relevant for
their own research, and so they would like to find the reference in your writing which
will direct them to the right sources. Think how frustrating it would be if I wrote "Pine
argues that there was a double bias in anthropology before the 70s" (Pine 1999); you are
reading my text and want to understand what Pine means by "double bias", yet because I
did not give any page number you have to go through the entire article to find about the
"double bias". A proper scholarly work does not show such signs of unprofessional
attitude. The expectation that everybody will follow these rules is so established that
nobody will give you credit for following them, but if you do not follow them you will be
open to harsh criticism.
Intellectual property rights are a big issue nowadays. It is important to be careful in
these things. In addition – I feel embarrassed to say such a negative thing and am in no
way implying that any of you may be tempted – I should point out that internet engines
which track paper copying from the web are very effective. I have colleagues who
experienced a couple of very unfortunate cases; I would like to think that I may do such
checks only as a routine security measure, and not because there is any reason to suspect
anything. Hardly anybody is incredibly original, we all are citing, interpreting and
representing each others' work. Yet we develop new ideas gradually by following such a
route. Furthermore, it is self-defeating and counterproductive for scholars to rely on
others rather than on themselves for the elaboration of issues.
Please use double spacing and approx. 2 cm. left and right margins. Please use a 12
point font (for the main text) which is easy to read (Palatino, Times Roman, NewYork,
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Geneva etc. – not Gothic unless you are writing about witches!!!). Remember to put page
numbers. If you use footnotes I DO NOT prefer endnotes. Use white paper. Please write
down the word count EXCLUDING the bibliography at the end of your paper.
Length: Minimum length is 2000 words (10 percent less, i.e. 1800, will still be
accepted). The maximum length is 4000 words.
Here is my evaluation chart:
Each grade category spans a range of minimum and maximum scores.
unacceptable
Clear
and
well
poor
satisfactory good
excellent
organized
5
a
10
introduction
Demonstration
of
clear
understanding of the topic and its
relevance
Ability to summarize, compare
15
and sythesize others' arguments.
Contextualization
and
15
establishment of relevance to
gender perspectives
Argumentation
and
scholarly
15
Demonstration of relevant library
10
language
research
Clarity, typological aspects of
paper
(style,
consistency
15
of
citation etc.)
General integration/coherence of
15
the paper/originality
7
8