Anth 3520

Anth 3520, 2005 PRELIMINARY INFO for Research Assignment

Total worth: 40% of course grade

Schedule

due Mar 6: Preliminary paper outline (400 words) and bibliography (5 good sources with a brief — couple of sentences — description for each, explaining the information that each source contains). 10%.

due Mar 27: Paper, 2000 words, 20%. Requirements: Formal essay, using at least 6 scholarly sources, of which 2 may be course readings. Proofread carefully. The usual citation rules apply.

due Mar 27: Poster presentation (as part of class poster party), 10%. Requirements: On a standard sized piece of bristol board, present the key points of your paper. Include your name, the title, your list of references. Use large font, and illustrations where possible. Proofread carefully. The usual citation rules apply.

For you to do now

Consider the topic that you would like to work on. You may already have one in mind, in which case I encourage you to make an appointment to talk to me about it ASAP, or come to my office hours. Otherwise, you could develop a topic from the following suggestions. Note! It is very much in your best interest to check in with me about your topic – that way I can help ensure that your paper will be a good one. Extended office hours: Friday Feb 10^th, 11-3, and Tuesday Nov 14, 11-3, Vari 2029.

A discussion of a thing — any object. Elements you could include: biography (life of a thing from creation to disposal and/or its afterlife); changes in its design over time; its design and use, materials and manufacture, conception and consumption, and its social actions. Draw from the Dant book for theoretical perspectives.

Topics in the afterlife of objects: disposal, reuse, recycling, resurfacing (look through Rubbish to get ideas).

Topics in the archaeology of the contemporary past — discuss cases of studying recent human behaviour through archaeological techniques (look through the Arch of the Contemporary Past book), or questions about what should count as cultural heritage (e.g. should Cold War sites or the Berlin Wall be preserved memorialized?)

see below for additional notes on topics.

Anth 3520, 2006 FULL DETAILS for Major Assignment Social Lives of Places and Things, K. Denning Total worth: 40% of course grade

Due Mar 6: Preliminary paper outline (400 words) and bibliography (5 good sources), 10%

Your outline (400 words) may be in paragraph or point form. Specify what your topic is, and what, specifically, you intend to discuss. Your bibliography should include at least five sources which you intend to use in your paper. These sources should be scholarly, i.e. academic books or journal articles. WWW resources may be acceptable, but you should be very selective in choosing websites, and they are not a substitute for scholarly sources. (Online journal articles are different from ordinary websites.) Your final paper should be written on essentially the same topic that you describe in your outline. Provide a brief description of each source (a couple of lines).

Due Mar 27: Paper, 2000 words, 20%

Requirements: Formal essay, using at least 6 scholarly sources, of which 2 may be course readings. (i.e., you must have at least 4 scholarly sources in addition to course readings. You may use more than two course readings, but must have 4 additional scholarly sources.) Proofread carefully. The usual citation rules apply. The paper is due in class on Monday Mar 27. After that time, there will be a late penalty of 5% per day, including weekends.

Topic: Remember that your topic should be within the area of “Social Lives of Places and Things”. (Check the course outline, the books on reserve, and the website, for ideas.) You are advised to check your topic with me.

Marking criteria: thoughtfulness and clarity of expression, fairness of argument, accurate representation of information, originality of approach, readability, judicious use of resources. Use the Anthropology citation system (Author:Date), and cite correctly.

Tips: Provide a brief background to the issue you're examining — why is it important?

Explain the issue’s relevance to the themes of this course.

Make a clear statement of your thesis idea, and support it carefully with concrete information and logical argument.

Revise your work, and proofread thoroughly.

Correct sentence structure and grammar, careful and complete citation and referencing, accurate spelling, punctuation, and word choice, etc., are essential.

State your thesis clearly and give an overview of your paper in your introduction.

Note: If you are unsure of how to use any part of our library’s resources, e.g. not sure how to find journal articles, etc., please speak with a librarian ASAP.

Due Mar 27: Poster presentation (as part of class poster party), 10%

Requirements: On a standard sized piece of bristol board (about 55 x 70 cm), present the key points of your paper. Include your name, the title, and your list of references. Use large font (16 point minimum), and illustrations where possible. Proofread carefully. Cite your sources. (But you may use footnotes if you like.)

Content guidelines: Introduce your topic carefully – indicate what your poster is about, and why it’s important. Use an outline to show the ‘map’ of your paper. Break it down into sections. Keep jargon to a minimum / explain specialized terms. Do not try to cover too much — focus on the most important points.

Poster Party Day: Your attendance is important on this day. Be ready to discuss your own poster with your classmates, and be ready to look at other people’s posters and engage them in conversation, too. This will count for your participation grade.

We will divide the class into three groups, and operate according to this schedule:

11:30-12:00 Everyone arrives, sets up their own posters, circulates around to see others

12:00 – 12:30 Members of Group 1 stand with their posters while Groups 2 and 3 circulate

12:30 – 1:00 Members of Group 2 stand with their posters while Groups 1 and 3 circulate

1:00 – 1:30 Members of Group 3 stand with their posters while Groups 1 and 2 circulate

Thinking about topics?

There is a lot available on archaeology of the contemporary past, especially on the material culture of war.

See the books on reserve for this course for examples of the archaeology of recent wars. ( http://www.library.yorku.ca/ccm/jsp/homepage.jsp, click on Course Reserve, enter Denning, choose 3520 )

Keywords for general exploration

Example:

York Library – Catalogue - Keyword - General –

“Shopping” or “Retail” yields many sources, but n.b. don’t write a business paper on “how to retail”

“material culture” also yields many sources

Examples:

York Library - EResources - Find Articles by Subject - General & Multidisciplinary - Expanded Academic ASAP

input:

"shoe AND history"

"shoes AND history"

OR, for example:

"cemetery AND biodegradable"

"embalming AND environment"

"telephone AND invention"

"robot AND history"

---------

Further topics... tons out there...

the watch

development of a new material, e.g. history of latex or plastic

history of money (i.e. coins)

invention of zippers or velcro

second-hand clothes or "used clothing industry"

the evolution of the book (from tablets to scrolls to bound books)

the teddy bear or the stuffed toy, or the doll

industrial archaeology

medieval relics

specially constructed landscapes... like zoos or theme parks (e.g. Disney)

Or browse through the Journal of Material Culture for ideas. (from York: http://scholarsportal.info/cgi-bin/sciserv.pl?collection=journals&journal=13591835) And the Journal of Social Archaeology has some appropriate sources.

IN GENERAL: Feel free to use Web searches to find newspaper articles, or use Wikipedia to find some basic information, but remember that these do not count as scholarly sources. They do have their uses, however: e.g., they can help you figure out what keywords to use when searching databases; or Wikipedia, for example, may have some bibliography suggestions that you can then look up in the library.

Try alternate spellings and phrasings. (e.g. "artifact" and "artefact")

Some very fun links here: http://www.iupui.edu/~anthpm/links.html