Evol Essay Instructions
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Overview: No emotion dominates Nacirema culture more than evol (“love”). It is what motivates us,
angers us, gives us hope, strength, and reason to live. Yet it is also something that few of us truly
understand. This is where you come in. As a new anthropologist, it will be your job to decode the
strange language of “evol”, and explain to us how “evol” fits into Nacirema culture.
Instructions: In this assignment, you will:
1. Write your own 300-600 word description of love ("evol") among the Nacirema. We are talking
about “romantic” love in this essay.
2. Grade your own essay ("self-assessment”)
3. Revise your essay (if desired)
Write the essay as if you are an anthropologist from outside the United States. Look at the Horace Miner
article on the Nacirema again and imitate his style of writing.
One of your paragraphs must begin with the following sentence: "Using information from our
textbook and Mr. Parkinson, we find that the Nacirema fascination with evol can be understood by taking
a more holistic view of their culture, using the barrel model of culture to show how different aspects of
their culture are integrated." In your paper, you should be able to demonstrate exactly how evol is a
reflection of different aspects of Nacirema culture, using what you have learned in class and in your
readings.
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Grading:
Your Essay: 40 points
Self Assessment: 10 points
Here is a grading scale to help you out while you are writing (and grading) your evol paper.
The system will ask you to rate the essays you grade on a scale of 1-10.
40-36: Paper accomplished 3 things very well:
1. Describes love among Americans
2. Accurately identifies key features of American infrastructure, social structure, and superstructure.
3. Demonstrates how these 3 levels of culture are integrated in a way that *explains* why
Americans are so into "love".
35-30: Paper does 2 of the 3 tasks well. A paper in this range may identify the key features but fail to
demonstrate how they are connected. Or it may not correctly identify the 3 levels of culture. For example,
a paper that suggests that the market economy is a feature of the superstructure (which is incorrect) would
fall into this category.
29-20: Paper only does 1 of the 3 tasks well. A paper in this range might describe love, but may fail to
address the model of culture altogether. For example, the student might have left out the required sentence
that should lead them to discuss the various levels of culture.
19-0: Paper did not address the assignment. For example, the student did not understand that the
Nacirema is American spelled backwards and tried to compare Americans to an exotic tribe called “the
Nacirema."
Due: ____________________________
Tips for the Evol Essay
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1. Re-read Miner’s article. Pay attention to the way he writes the article and the perspective he has taken.
It is almost as if he were an anthropologist from Mars seeing American / Nacirema life for the first time.
Try to take this same perspective as you think about "evol" in America.
2. Brainstorm. Think of all the things you do in the name of evol (gnitad, sgniddew, & all the beauty
rituals). Run with the especially interesting stuff ... See how far you can take your topic. Think of real
examples from your life that illustrate what you are writing about.
3. Now try to take it a step deeper using our model of culture (infrastructure, social structure,
superstructure).
The infrastructure includes technology, economic system, and the subsistence pattern. For the Nacirema,
this includes massive industries, mass media, mass markets, industrialized/corporate agriculture, malls,
supermarkets, and big box stores. We live in relatively isolated homes in small families.
So how does evol fit into all this? Let’s look further at our model ...
... on to the social structure. The social structure includes family structure, social organization, and
political organization. For the Nacirema this includes a strong value on romantic love as the basis of
building a nuclear family that is mostly independent. (Our value system looks down on those who are
dependent on others.) We have considerable inequality in our society, but we value equality, particularly
equality of opportunity. We also value individualism, as embodied in our political system of democracy,
in which each individual has their own opinion and their own voice in the political process.
Now look at the superstructure. The superstructure includes our core cultural values, beliefs, ideas, and
ideologies. What are Nacirema core values? As we could see in the social structure, independence and
individualism are core values. These are connected to our infrastructure. Mass media and mass markets
give us tremendous choices, emphasizing our individuality and allow us to live independently. But this
leads to some contradictions. Our independence leaves us lonely, leaving our core value of connection
with others unfulfilled. Enter evol.
Now that you have a more complete picture of Nacirema culture (using the model of culture learned in
class), you can develop a more thorough understanding of “evol”