LISTENING TO EACH OTHER: QUOTE CARDS

Peter Wogan
Introduction
In the anthropological tradition of staying alert to what others say, this strategy attempts to get
students to listen well in the classroom. The basic idea is to have students stay on the look-out
for memorable things said in class mostly by classmates, but also the instructor, readings,
and/or videos and then write the quotes down on 3x5 index cards. At the end of every month
or so, the cards become the basis for a review session: students read out their individual Quote
Cards, and the other students try to remember the classroom discussion in which the quote
occurred and who said the quote.
Quote Cards have a number of benefits: they reveal what is making the greatest impact on the
class as a whole and individual students; they reward active listening; they create class bonding
through collective memory of peak moments; they celebrate individual students who say
interesting things; they solidify oral memory and create a compressed, written archive of the
class; and theyre fun.
The Quote Card strategy works in any anthropology class with any subject matter, but works best
in discussion-based classes with 25 or fewer students. The strategy takes about 15 minutes of
class time and 10 minutes of homework time, if you skip the review session; adding the review
session in a class of 20 to 25 students, it takes about one hour of class time and 10 minutes of
homework time.
Initial Instructions to the Students

Hand out the student directions that appear in Appendix A: Quote Card Directions. Have
the students read the directions, preferably in class, so you can answer any questions.

At this time, give each student two blank index cards.

Tell them to be on the lookout for memorable quotes from now on. Announce the date
on which the Quote Cards will be due. Perhaps the best date is the end of a teaching unit,
a natural moment for review. Or set the date about three weeks or a month away, when
enough quotes will have accumulated to make the review sufficiently challenging.

Remind them periodically (once every week or two) to continue jotting down good
quotes as they occur every day in class, not to wait until the last minute.

Reviewing Quote Cards in Class

On the designated day, ask the students to bring their Quote Cards to class. Have each
student, one at a time, read out his/her Quote Card with the quote from a classmate,
emphasizing that the student should only read the quote, nothing more.

Ask the rest of the students to raise their hands if they think they know who said the
quote and/or the class discussion in which the quote occurred. Remind them that though
not everyone will remember every quote, they now have an opportunity to show how
closely theyve been listening to classmates for the past few weeks.

Select students to answer the question. Sometimes it takes a few tries, as some students
can only remember bits and pieces, while others chime in with their own memory of what
was said, when, why, and by whom.

After every student has reviewed his/her Quote Card from a classmate, and if time allows
and youre so inclined, review the quotes from other sources (instructor, videos,
readings).

Collect the Quote Cards, and save them forever. Type up (or have your work-study
student type up) the full list of quotes on the cards, and send that list/document out to the
class email list, for the students own archival purposes.

Elaboration on the Review Session

Funny, enlightening surprises often occur in the review session, as students sometimes dont
even remember that theyd made the comment that now appears on another students Quote
Card, or they at least didnt realize until the review session that their comments had such an
impact on students on the other side of the room. These moments are gratifying to the student
who made the original quote, and wonderful evidence to the whole class that you never know
exactly how youre affecting others and the class dynamic.
When certain students remember almost every quote and others cant remember half of them,
both you and the class see that people are not equally good at tracking the discussion and paying
attention. This should raise the bar, motivating some students to take classmates comments
more to heart.
Theres almost a sense of re-discovery as some of the more obscure quotes get unearthed.
When the students present different versions of the original quote or can only remember selected
parts, they experience the fragmented, perspectival nature of individual memory, as well as the
social nature of collective memory as they then come up with an agreed-upon version.
You should present classmate quotes first, even to the exclusion of your quotes. First, students
will already be inclined to take many more notes on what you say than what classmates say, so
reviewing the classmate quotes first (or exclusively) sends a message about the overlooked value

of classmates comments. Second, I think its a bit unseemly to hear yourself quoted by
consecutive students. Of course its logical that you, as the instructor, should figure somewhere
in their memories of the class, and teachers are people, too, and all thatbut hearing all those
quotes in a row just doesnt feel right. The clincher is that class time often simply runs out after
review of the classmate Quote Cards. So if you focus on the classmate quotes, you can then, in
the last couple of minutes, allow a few volunteers to read out quotes from you or other sources.
In any case, all the quotes get put into the typed archive that the students get.
Ways to Reduce Class Time for the Review Session. The simplest solution is to eliminate the
review session altogether. Just collect the cards, then give the students new index cards, to record
more quotes for the next cycle. The students will still get the benefit of listening to each other
and writing down quotes on the cards; and by reading the cards, you will benefit from seeing
which things made the greatest impressions on the class as a whole and individual students. A
compromise is to just review one or two cards as a full class, and then let students review the
cards in small groups (5 to 15 minutes, 2 to 4 students per group).
Extra Mile: Waking Life Movie Clip. If you want to go even further, you can show the short
clip of The Holy Moment, from director Richard Linklaters 2001 movie, Waking Life (use
scene selection to find The Holy Moment scene, which is about 4 minutes long). Ask how
this admittedly wild, philosophical dialogue relates to the class, and see if anyone notices the
similarity between the one mans description of framing in film (on screen, we see a line where
the mans fingers trace a box) and framing in the Quote Cards (the way the index cards set the
quotes off in space, just as a ritual sets life off in space and time).

APPENDIX A: QUOTE CARD DIRECTIONS

The Basic Idea: Record Classroom Quotes
On each 3x5 card, write down a particularly memorable and interesting statement from class, i.e.,
something said by a classmate, one of our readings or videos, or even me. This quotation should
be something striking something that made you think, something worth remembering.
Reasons for Making These Cards

To Reward Listening. The Quote Cards reward and encourage active listening, which is
the basis for an effective classroom dynamic.

To Review Class Highlights. Through the cards, we will celebrate highlights or peak
moments in the class. These moments will become the basis for a review session at the
end of each unit, when individual students will read out their quotes and everyone else
will try to recall who said them and exactly what we were discussing in class when they
were said.

To Create a Class Archive. By remembering these quotes, you will create memory
anchors that later bring to mind complex issues covered in class, like those jokes and
anecdotes you remember years after other details have faded.

What the Card Should Look Like

(Front Side)
Your name
The striking quotation (If you cant remember the exact quote, just paraphrase.)
Source (Write "Source:" and then the name of the person who made the statement that you found
so striking.)
(Back Side)
Briefly describe 1) the larger point being discussed in class (or the reading or video) when this
quote was made, and 2) the reason you were struck by this quote.
Quote Sources
You're only required to hand in two cards at the end of each unit: one with a classmate quote
(from class discussion or small-group work), and one with a quote from a non-classmate source
(class readings, videos, or my comments in class).(This is just the minimum. You can hand in
more than two cards if you like.)
Look for Quotes Every Day, Hand Cards in Later
These cards will be collected at the end of each unit. However, you should not wait until the last
day of the unit to record your quotes. Rather, every day in class you should be on the look-out
for good quotes. When you hear something interesting, jot it down in your notebook; then, when
the Quote Cards are due at the end of the unit, you'll have many good quotes to choose from.
Grading
The cards dont get graded per se, but they give you a chance to show how well you listen to
others, which is an important part of class participation. You get to show how much youve been
listening not just through your own Quote Cards, but also through the class-wide review of all
Quote Cards at the end of each unit.

COMMERCIAL FILMS (MOVIES) AS EFFECTIVE INSTRUCTIONAL

AIDS IN ANTHROPOLOGY AND BEYOND
Lorenzo Covarrubias
Introduction
Documentaries are so biased was a statement I once overheard from a student exiting one of
my cultural anthropology classes. I had probably sensed that before the feeling that a number
of students held that view but I had seen it as an inevitable commentary from young minds in
need of further exposure and set it aside. However, as I prepared for yet another term of
anthropology teaching, that short phrase regarding the objectivity/subjectivity of documentary
films gave me a new, and at that time, a daring idea.
What ifI thought, I could find films that could somehow substitute, accompany, or
complement documentaries. Or better yet, what if I could find commercial films that I could
integrate into our readings and weekly themes instead of documentaries? I had seen enough films
to begin to sort out a list and I decided on two to begin my student-induced proposition. They
were Quest for Fire and Kripendorfs Tribe, and so my unapologetic use of commercial,
Hollywood-type films, began in anthropology courses and beyond. The goal of the first film is to
show that language/ communication and ethnic/cultural/human diversity existed well and long
before our time. The goal of the second film is to show the role, and pressure I may add, of
traditional cultural anthropology to discover something new and current, and the mistakes that go
along with it.
Commercial films, or their use, is a teaching strategy and should not seek to demean or lessen
documentaries. Further, these films should be chosen carefully (as carefully as one selects a
documentary) and I found that they work best when integrated into the course as a visual
chapter or better yet when linked to an existing chapter or course reading. They are also an
integral part of the course, and should not be used only when there isnt anything better for that
day. In other words, they are not stand-ins for another sort of activity or a surprise. We all
remember that as anthropology undergraduate students, we could tell that when the instructor
wasnt somehow ready to give a particular lecture, he/she would magically produce a
documentary film for our benefit. The list of films should appear in the course syllabus and be
treated as any other important activity for the course.
What has worked best for me is a diametrically opposed approach to viewing documentaries. I
reached this point as a result of several years of showing films, observing the students and
getting their comments, and trying to find the best way or balance for showing commercial films
in a classroom. The best setting I found to show commercial films was as if my students were
watching them in a movie theater! I came to this conclusion slowly. At first I made the mistake
of treating films as documentaries, and though they did have the same objective, in reality
commercial films and documentaries are vastly different, and should be viewed as such.

How To Use Commercial Films

What follows is a strategy on how you can use commercial films in your classrooms. They
obviously can be used in any size class. There are commercial films on a myriad of
anthropological topics (see below), including race, war, gender, prehistory, language, etc. You
can use one or as many as fit your course, from four-field introductory anthropology to
specialized courses.
Expect to be surprised when you describe how the class is to view these films. First tell students
that they must not be late, because unlike lecture or discussion sessions, to maximize time the
movies start exactly on the hour! After the first movie, they realize it is true. When the class time
is not enough to view the entire film, you can end it there, have students view the rest on their
own, or show the missing part at the next class session. Then, tell them that they must view the
movie as closely as if they were watching it at their local movie theater, and particularly not to
take notes! Yes, my experience has been that it works best when students turn the classroom into
a movie house. Turning students loose may go against our nurturing and instructor-knows-best
sensibility, but it works. So, tell them they may talk to each other during the film, bring snacks to
the show, and even bring guestsin a word, enjoy. And, dont we all remember just about
everything when we go to the movies and just watch and enjoy? Be sure to stay and watch
everything you show.
But, the question isdo they learn as well? The answer is, so far, a resounding yes. I once
showed Mississippi Burning (in the place of a volume of Eyes on the Prize) and was astounded
by the discussion that followed (usually at another class session), oral comments, and written
answers to questions. I was even shocked, and somewhat regretful, that students had better
answers to questions of social construction and non-viability of race than if I had shown a
documentary of such. Again, it may go against the grain, but in the current and appropriate
settings of outcome-based and student-centered education, we must take the plunge. Yes, the
fictional Hollywood approach can be to our students more believable at times. In fact, Im still
waiting for the first commercial movies are so biased student comment. Im not sure if this is
good or bad, though.
Class and student activities derived from viewing the films vary. In some cases students can
combine information from the movie and the reading of a chapter, for example, to do a short
essay on a selected topic. Make sure, though, that the exercise doesnt just turn into a comparison
of how the film and the chapter present the topic at hand. For exam purposes, you may give the
students the option of answering a question either based on the film or a reading. However, one
class activity that is recommended is one where there is group engagement. For this, divide the
class into groups of 3 to 5 and give each group two or three written discussion questions. These
guiding questions do not have to be mind transforming all the time! For example, one of the best
class discussions I can remember was the result of the little question of What does the blond girl
represent? (from the film, Our Daily Bread). Be prepared to give anthropological perspectives
on gender, capitalism, socialism, sexuality, Marxism and the like! You should, of course, study
the films well before you show them, just as you would research a book or article. For example,
knowing that Our Daily Bread was at some point censored in the United States really puts into
perspective why you have selected to show it.

I dont believe there is only one correct way to show movies. Yet, I do believe that it is correct to
show them. When I first began, I was concerned and too conscious. What would my colleagues
think and say about it? And, how could I make sure that students wouldnt think that I was
skipping my responsibility or was light teaching? I have now shown countless commercial films
and continuously update my list and knowledge of them. And the good thing is that they keep
coming, year after year. Thus, it is a visual library that comes to us, instead of our coming to it.
The following is an incipient list for those wishing to begin, or formalize and existing one.
FILMS

CHAPTERS OR THEMES

Amistad
Apocalypto
Ballad of Gregorio Cortez
Birth of a Nation
Born in East L.A.
Boys Dont Cry
Full Metal Jacket
Glory
Grapes of Wrath
Kripendorfs Tribe
Last of the Mohicans
Milagro Beanfield War
Our Daily Bread
Mission, The
Mississippi Burning
Quest For Fire
Robe, The
Tigerland

Slavery, Conflict, Race, Ethnicity

Religion, The State, Pre-Columbian New World
Power, Race/Ethnicity, Language
Racism, Political Organization, Race/Ethnicity
Border, Migration, Race/Ethnicity
Gender, Sexuality, Adolescence
War, Vietnam, Conflict, Rites of Passage
Political Organization, Conflict, Race/Ethnicity
Social Organization, Family, Migration
Primitive Cultures, Traditional Anthropology
North American Indians, Colonization, Power
Methods, Race/Ethnicity, Local Histories
Social Organization, Ideology, Symbolism
Religion, South America, Native Americans
Race, Ethnicity, Conflict, South
Human Diversity, Language and Culture
Religion, Native North America, Conquest
Vietnam, Conflict, Age Groups

This list is not exhaustive and it is recommended that you tailor your own list of preferred or
favorite movies. The trick is to prepare students naturally and ideally to have them like and enjoy
the movie. It is not just what you show, but how you present and integrate it that matters most.
And, do not be discouraged if one movie is a success in one group, but not in another. Be
dynamic and flexible as well and keep tabs. The Last of the Mohicans has mesmerized students
so far and Birth of a Nation has been a bit of a struggle. Yet, both have similar nuggets of
wisdom and similar anthropological value. A final point is to be careful with student recommendations or requests. Remember, the movies selected are part of your course design.
It is wise to be dynamic and flexible regarding where to find the desired films. Your own
university library is the first place to start, and for your purposes it may be the best. Their
collections usually include films (in VHS or DVD formats) that more modern commercial
outlets no longer carry. Public libraries are also very handy with the added benefit that if one of
the needed films is found at another branch, it can easily be sent to the one you frequent more.
Your local grocery or departmental stores are also good venues to look around because stores
that are not necessarily video/dvd stores are a surprisingly good source (and cheaper too). And,
of course, the traditional and well-stocked Blockbusters, Hollywood Videos, vending machines

such as Redbox, and the like are the places to go once you know what youre looking for or just
wish to browse at leisure. The key is not to feel overwhelmed, and to be patient as you discern
which films are appropriate for your needs.

USING TED TALKS IN ANTHROPOLOGY COURSES

Bruce M. Rowe
Some people label the current period of time as the Age of Information. Indeed we sometimes
feel we are bombarded with new and valuable information from numerous media twenty-four
hours a day. Some of the information that we are exposed to as instructors might also benefit our
students in particular classes. The problem is that there is so much information out there and you
can only ask your students to do a limited amount of outside reading or watching (videos), so
choosing the best materials is a challenge. And, if you use too many audio and visual materials in
your classes, then you might not be spending enough time covering the basics that provide the
tools to understand the audio/visual materials that you are presenting in class or are assigning as
outside work.
I have started using a series of talks in my courses that are available through several platforms.
They are called Ted Talks. Most of the talks, and there are 100s of them, are about 20 minutes
long. Ted is an acronym for Technology, Entertainment, Design. The talks have been given at an
annual conference simply called TED for the last 18 years. The conference has been held in
Monterey, California for those 18 years but will be held in Long Beach, California in 2009.
If you explore the list of Ted Talks (http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/tags), you will find only
about six talks listed under anthropology. However, many of the other headings such as culture,
communication, primates, biology, biosphere, development, education, genetics, geology,
evolution, language, science, society, and war are just as usable in anthropology classes.There
are also lectures listed under geographical location (Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, etc.), under
various religions, and behaviors (dance, music, art, play, politics, economics, etc.).
The talks feature well known people in numerous fields. Some of the anthropologists or people
in related fields that have given Ted Talks are Jane Goodall, Spencer Wells, Wade Davis, Jared
Diamond, Helen Fisher, Louise Leakey, Steven Pinker, and Sue Savage-Rumbaugh.These talks
are appropriate for four-field introductory classes or any sub-field introductory class; they work
well in any size class. Many other talks, given by people in a variety of fields, are also relevant to
many specialized anthropology courses such as comparative religion, medical anthropology,
ancient civilizations, human genetics, etc.
You can integrate some of these videos into your lectures. Or, you can assign students to watch
some of them at home and to do written reports on them.
Ted Talks are available through the Ted website, the Miro open source television system, iTunes,
Adobe Media Player, and YouTube. As an example of using Ted Talks in one class (a cultural
anthropology class), you might use the following four talks; you can show them in class or have
students view them at home and report on them in class.

Wade Davis: "Cultures at the Far Edge of the World" at

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/wade_davis_on_endangered_cultures

Jared Diamond: "Why Societies Collapse" at

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jared_diamond_on_why_societies_collapse.html

Jane Goodall: "What Separates Us from the Apes?" at

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jane_goodall_on_what_separates_us_from_the_apes
.html

Sir Ken Robinson: "Do Schools Kill Creativity?" at

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

Subsequent to the assignment, you can have the class use the subject matter as a basis for class
discussions.
Many of the talks deal with topics that are controversial either to the general public or within the
academic community. Examples of controversial subjects would include Dan Dennett' talk
entitled: "A Secular, Scientific Rebuttal to Rick Warren" or Richard Dawkinss talk on militant
atheism. Other talks are more subtly controversial such as Sue Savage-Rumbaugh's claim that a
bonobo (Kanzi) can write. Going into some detail, linguists would agree that what Kanzi is
doing, as shown in video clips that are used in Savage-Rumbaugh's talk, is very interesting and
cognitively advanced. Most would not call it writing. Writing is usually defined as stringing
together symbols that represent some aspect of speech in a linear way according to the rules of a
grammar. In the video, the bonobo is using chalk to draw individual lexigrams on the floor.The
video could be used to discuss a number of things including what it is to be human and the
differences and similarities between humans and apes. On another level, there could be a
discussion of the validity of generalizations and conclusions about behaviors, such as SavageRumbaughs conclusion that Kanzi is writing.
All of the talks that I have seen are thought provoking and could form the corpus for the
discussion of anthropological concepts.
There are so many audio and visual materials available today, so why use or recommend Ted
Talks? The mantra of the TED conference is "ideas worth spreading." All of the talks I have seen
have lived up to that slogan. They present important ideas and insights delivered in an often
dramatic way as, for example, when neuroscientist Jill Bolte Taylor in her talk "Powerful Stroke
of Insight" describes in detail what happened to her when she had a stroke. As a neuroscientist
she found her stoke a learning experience and it gave her insights into brain hemispheric
specialization and human thought that perhaps could not have been gained in other ways. Many
of the talks include superb visual images. For example, Sue Savage-Rumbaugh's talk includes a
wonderful computer simulation of bipedal walking of a bonobo, chimpanzee, australopithecine,
and a modern human. Also, unlike commercial videos, speakers say what they want to say
uncensored. So, speakers such as Dan Dennett, Richard Dawkins, and Jared Diamond do not pull
any punches. All of the talks were originally given before an audience made up primarily of
scholars, business people, politicians, and artists. Yet, most speakers seem to realize that their
talks will be viewed on video by millions of people and each presents his or her talk in ways
understandable and inspiring to a general audience.

10

For many reasons, the talks seem to be addictive to many students and instructors. I have
received emails from other instructors saying something like "did you see this one?" And, I had
a student come to me recently to show me a list of about 10 of the videos that he had watched
over the weekend. I recommend these talks because they are concise, entertaining, introduce
students to some of the most productive contemporary thinkers and researchers, and are full of
cutting edge ideas and often controversial concepts.

11

FIRST DAY DEMOGRAPHICS

Karen Dalke
The following activity is beneficial to begin the first day of class in large anthropology classes,
but could be used with any size group and in any class: introductory four field, introductory any
subfield, or even advanced anthropology classes. After you initially introduce yourself, begin
class by asking students to form groups of about 6 to 8 students. The goal of the exercise is to
begin to create and maintain a positive learning environment that will last the term by finding out
some demographic information about individuals in the class that then add up to a group
demographic. Start by either using a PowerPoint slide with the following directions or by writing
the directions on the front board:

Introduce yourself to the others in your group.

Choose someone to record answers to the following questions:

Is everyone from the same area? or from different cities? states? countries?

What is the range of ages for your group?

Are there topics you find difficult to discuss? Why?

After about l0 minutes, pick someone to report the findings to the class.

There are a variety of reasons for doing this activity early on in the term. First, students expect
that you will only go over the syllabus that first day and they expect to get out of class early. By
doing this activity, you can immediately capture their interest since the activity is not the typical
first-day approach to a typical lecture section. Second, you will have gathered demographic
information on individuals and the collective group that you can subsequently use to direct your
teaching. If the class is comprised of a particular cohort or regional area, you can use examples
that fit that demographic. Third, you can show students that they can talk in front of a group and
that they must be actively engaged in order to learn. Finally, this activity introduces students to
each other. This is often taken for granted. Many students engage with others primarily via text
messaging or email. This activity provides an opportunity to communicate face-to-face.
Also during this activity you can play music that reflects a particular social message (e.g. I use
Razorlight America, Katari Sonqoswan). Music is universal and acts as a way to introduce
different cultures. The use of music also allows students to talk more freely and not in a painfully
quiet environment. Once the groups have completed the activity, have them come back together
and share the information on each group. In essence, you will have had a preliminary discussion
on populations and demographics. After everyone has shared their group information, you can
lead them into a discussion of the music choice and the associated culture from which it came.
I have found that structuring the class in this manner on the first day and maintaining it over the
rest of the term enhances participation considerably. The music creates a relaxed environment.
12

You will find that students begin to make music suggestions based on the material covered
during a particular week. For some, answering a question or providing a comment is still difficult
in a large group. However, many have commented on class assessment forms that, They never
knew what was going to happen! It is just like life.

13

THE USE OF ESSAYS: DEVELOPING CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS

OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM TO PROMOTE A
LONG-TERM UNDERSTANDING OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL
TERMINOLOGY
Jessica Einhorn
Often when we think about teaching anthropology, we envision it as something that solely takes
place in the classroom. As teachers we know we have x number of weeks and x amount of
time to cover a variety of topics and to expose students with a variety of interests to
anthropology. And we know that the majority of students will not be going into the field and
often have no idea about what anthropology is when they enter our classroom. Understanding a
discipline involves learning terminology and adopting it into our speech. Straight memorization
of terms will not stick with the majority of our students on a long term basis unless they make it
part of their lives and give it context. Our goal as teachers should be to involve our students in
active learning in which they are engaged and to encourage them to apply the ideas and methods
of anthropology to their own lives. We should be the train tracks on which they discover for
themselves the world around them by using an anthropological lens. If ten years after our course
they are able to remember their experiences and personal growth in our class, we can have more
of an impact on the population, making people aware of their own ethnocentrism, stereotypes,
and prejudices.
In this strategy, I describe six essays that will directly get students involved in anthropology.
Each creates experiences through essay assignments that promote critical thinking skills and an
understanding of anthropology in their own communities. You can assign essays as appropriate
in your classes. The amount of time they take averages about two hours outside the classroom
plus writing time. Materials are minimal, as they involve traveling in the community or watching
a film. Each of these essays can vary in length, but a short reflective essay consisting of around
three to four pages seems to work well. The time invested in the classroom is minimal. Since
each involves individual behavior on the part of individual students, the size of the class is not a
factor. These essays can be used to introduce new vocabulary, reinforce topics introduced in
class, and to promote discussion. Student instructions for each essay appear in Appendix A. On
the day that the essay is turned in, you can lead a discussion that connects class to the assignment
to reinforce the learning experience. Possible discussion prompts can include: How does this
assignment relate to class and your readings? How did the assignment challenge your
ethnocentrism? What did you learn from this assignment? How did the assignment challenge
you? How did the experience relate to readings assigned in this course?
Essay 1Culture Shock and Unwritten Rules (Cultural Anthropology)
At the community college level, I have taught homeless students and affluent students side by
side. Many have traveled out of their community and some have not. Because of this, it can be
difficult to explain the concept of culture shock to someone who has not had the luxury of
traveling out of the county, state, or country, or to someone who has traveled but never left the
hotel. This essay also can be used to discuss the ideas of unwritten rules of society and how
bound to culture we are, which in turn creates our own ethnocentric tendencies.
14

Classes: Intro to Cultural Anthropology

Aims to Teach: concepts of ethnocentrism, cultural relativism, culture, unwritten rules, written
rules, culture shock, herd mentality, acculturation.
Possible Prompts for Discussion: What did this exercise teach you about anthropology? What did
this exercise make you more aware of? Why do you think the majority of the class was
uncomfortable with this exercise? How does this exercise relate to the concepts of innovation
and change, and deviant behavior?
Essay 2On Religion (Cultural Anthropology)
Even though many of us live in locations that are very diverse religiously, we rarely challenge
our own ethnocentrism by going to a place of worship that we may pass everyday. This
assignment gives students the opportunity to seek out a place in their own neighborhood where
they have never been, experience another subculture, take field notes, observe a ritual, and
challenge their own ethnocentrism.
Classes: Intro to Cultural Anthropology, Intro to Magic, Witchcraft and Religion, World
Religion, Intro to Fieldwork in Cultural Anthropology.
Aims to Teach: similarities and differences between religions, comparative approach, formal and
informal interview techniques, symbolism, and ritual.
Possible Prompts for Discussion: How was your ethnocentrism challenged during this exercise?
Was it difficult to record the event scientifically and be a cultural relativist? What functions does
religion meet for the individual? What are the similarities and differences the class has observed
in the services that you attended?
Essay 3The Zoo (Physical Anthropology)
Students rarely have the opportunity when they are in our classes to go into the wild and
observe primates. A zoo is much more easily found, and can be used in a discussion of
primatology, changing habitats, and to discuss taxonomy. Many intro to physical classes and labs
go to the zoo. This assignment can be used as a supplement to the field trip or given as a separate
assignment.
Classes: Intro to Physical Anthropology Lab or Lecture, Intro to Primatology
Aims to Teach: similarities and differences between natural and zoo habitats, comparative
method, observation techniques used by primatologists, modes of locomotion.
Possible Prompts for Discussion: How were the observations of your classmates at the zoo
similar? What accounts for these similarities?

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Essay 4Penguins and Evolution (Physical Anthropology)

Often students come from religious backgrounds but still enroll in physical anthropology
courses. I find it much easier to teach the ideas of evolution through first having them discover
how the terms of our class relate to other animals and then diving into how evolution relates to
humans. Once they have thought about the concepts and terms applied to other species it is much
easier to bring humans into the picture and students see that we are animals too and are not all
that different from other animals. Also, through watching visual media and thinking about how
the terms relate to the film, critical thinking skills are exercised. It is often easy for students to
memorize what a term means for an exam, but it can be much more difficult to apply the
concepts of a film to class vocabulary. In the film March of the Penguins, evolution is not
mentioned very often, yet to the evolutionist it is all about evolution and not just a corny love
story.
Classes: Intro to Physical Anthropology, Primatology, Evolution
Aims To Teach: Ability to apply basic evolutionary related vocabulary to the animal kingdom,
such as evolution, adaptation, DNA, mutations, and gene flow.
Possible Prompts for Discussion: How did the film illustrate concepts youve learned about in
class? How are humans similar and different compared to penguins? (This is a good time in
which to discuss the concept of bio-cultural evolution). What is anthropomorphic about making
this a love story and how does this relate to human ethnocentrism?
Essay 5Archaeology and Garbage (Archaeology)
Archaeology is the study of the past through material remains. Students often cant relate to what
this means, or even phantom the idea of how much we can learn from someones trash. This
essay will open their eyes to how much we can construct of a persons life way based on trash.
Through this exercise students will start to think about what archaeologist can learn about culture
through everyday garbage.
Classes: Intro to Archaeology, Archaeology Method and Theory, Intro to Physical Anthropology
(when discussing dating methods section)
Aims to Teach: material and non-material culture, law of superposition, technology, rate of
decomposition, analysis).
Possible Prompts for Discussion: How is the process of going through garbage similar to the
process archaeologists go through when analyzing a site? What did you learn from the garbage
about the person whom it belonged to that wasnt discussed during the preliminary interview?
What complications and limits must archaeologists deal with when trying to understand the past
through material remains? What does this exercise have to do with archaeology, specifically
dating archaeological remains, reconstructing past environments, determining how people made
their living, how societies were organized, and what they believe?

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Essay 6Artifact Research Essay (Archaeology)

There are hundreds of artifacts archaeologists cannot identify. The knowledge of what the
artifact was used for is now lost or not within the knowledge of the modern community.
Photographs can be produced from lab collections or downloaded from the web of examples of
these yet identifiable artifacts. Give each student a different artifact photograph. The key to this
assignment is to not tell your students that the artifacts function is unknown until the day the
assignment is due. Once the essays are collected, a discussion can be led about the frustrations in
archaeology in interpreting artifacts, as well as how much archaeologists can induce based on
their own cultural assumptions, knowledge of archaeology, and use of the scientific method.
Classes: Intro to Archaeology, Intro to Method and Theory in Archaeology
Aims to Teach: that knowledge of a culture can be lost through time and that some objects uses
through time can be lost, the scientific method, the importance of context (if all you have is an
artifact and no context, so much information is lost).
Possible Prompts for Discussion: How did you conclude what your artifact is and what it was
used for? How is archaeology similar to a jigsaw puzzle with pieces missing? How does
experimental archaeology help archaeologists figure out the functions of artifacts?

APPENDIX A: INSTRUCTIONS FOR STUDENTS

Essay 1Culture Shock and Unwritten Rules
Come up with an exercise that breaks unwritten rules in your society (with the idea that it is not
against the law and it does not harm anyone), carry it out, and then write about other peoples
reactions to the violation. Address also how it made you feel to carry out the act, such as your
own comfort or discomfort with the exercise. In your essay, you should also be able to critically
convey what these reactions and feelings say about the deeply embedded, common
understandings that lie at the root of social life. Also explain how the essay relates to class, using
class vocabulary such as ethnocentrism and culture shock. As possible examples of breaking a
rule, you could eat food with your hands that should be eaten with a fork and knife, or dress up
in a prom dress and go to a fast food restaurant, or wear different shoes on each foot and walk
around school for an hour. I am encouraging you to be as creative as possible.
Essay 2Essay On Religion
Attend a worship service as an anthropological observer involving a faith from another world
religion other than your own. For example, if youre a Catholic this is a form of Christianity
so you must go to a religion outside of Christianity. You cannot attend a Baptist Church for
example. Pay close attention to how the people interact before, during, and after the service; the
emphasis of the sermon; special clothes worn by the members and the one(s) leading the service;
the role of food and music in the event; symbols displayed in the place of worship; rituals
performed; and other activities that take place. Write a short summary of what was observed,

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what you believe the symbols and rituals mean, and the impact the service had on the people
attending. Staple your field notes to the end of the paper. Also, make sure that you include a
photograph of yourself in front of where you attended and any literature that was handed out at
the service. Going with someone else in the class in encouraged.
Essay 3On the Zoo
Go to the zoo and observe a single primate species for half an hour. Take field notes observing
the primates behavior using in-class vocabulary such as brachiation and arboreal
quadrupedalism. Then write a paper using the comparative method in anthropology to discuss
how behavior of primates in the zoo differs from that in the wild. Why do you think the
observations are so different? What drives primate behavior? Be specific in your references to
the primate species you observed. Use at least three anthropology sources for this paper. Staple
your zoo ticket to your paper.
Essay 4Penguins and Evolution
Watch March of the Penguins directed by Luc Jacquet. How does this movie relate to terms
found in your textbook, such as evolution, adaptation, DNA, mutations, and gene flow? Do not
summarize the film. Instead use as many in-class vocabulary words accurately as you can in your
discussion of the film.
Essay 5Archaeology and Garbage
Archaeologists use the scientific method to reconstruct human behavior from trash. For example,
William Rathje applied archaeological methods to the analysis of modern American society
through its garbage. For this essay, interview someone about his or her life. Ask several
questions, thinking about culture and vocabulary from this class, such as real and ideal culture,
material and nonmaterial culture, artifacts and ecofacts. Try and get a sense of the persons daily
behavior through the interview questions. Then ask to look through his or her garbage. What did
you find out? Did you learn anything about this person that you hadnt in the interview? Did how
the informant explained his or her lifeway match what was discovered in the trash? Did anything
not match your expectations based on what you learned about the informant during the
interview? How does this exercise relate to in-class discussions, lecture, and the readings?
Essay 6Artifact Research
Everyone in the class has received a different photo of an artifact. The goal of this essay is to
research and write as much as you can about what you think the artifact is, and what you believe
it was used for. Base your writing on artifacts found at different sites, and your own cultural
knowledge. Be specific in your references, naming at least three specific sites you used on which
to base your conclusions.

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THE ARTIFACT GAME: A WARM-UP EXERCISE FOR

ARCHAEOLOGY
Lynne Miller
This activity is great for the first day of class in an introduction to archaeology class or in that
first archaeology/prehistory class in four-field anthropology, to get the students talking to one
another and thinking a bit. It works well for a group of 20 to 30, and it can usually be completed
in about 30 minutes. Divide the class into small groups (as many groups as time allows) and give
each group an artifact. My collection includes things like a simple stone tool, a mock Venus
figurine (also made of stone), a wooden darning egg (goodness knows theyve never seen one of
those before), a few snail shells, several US coins, a pair of plastic dice, an earring made of bone
and carved into the shape of a monkey, a hand-blown glass bottle, a piece of Guatemalan fabric
with bird designs, a small and enigmatic ceramic pot used in Japanese calligraphy, and so on. I
often also include a hominid pelvic bone and a piece of jawbone with the molars intact.
Have the students work in their small groups to address the following topics. After theyve had
some time to brainstorm, have a representative from each group present the information to the
rest of the class.

Describe the artifact. It is important for students to learn to make careful observations
before drawing conclusions, and so ask them to describe the object as if the rest of the
class couldnt see it. They cant say, Its a pair of dice. Instead, they have to say;
These are two white cubes, about one inch on a side, made of plastic, with black spots
on each side. It is surprisingly hard for them to describe the object without naming it.

Propose one or more hypotheses about what it is, or how it could have been used.
Now students begin to use their knowledge and their imaginations. Some draw upon what
they have learned in previous classes (This could be an Oldowan tool) or they begin
to think more creatively (It could be an incense holder, or a whistle, or a pendant).

Suggest other things this artifact might tell us about the culture that left it. Here,
students begin to speculate about how artifacts can lead to larger conclusions. For
example, the majority of US coins have pictures of men on them, which probably
indicates something about that culture. A Venus figurine sends a different message, but
what do you make of the fact that it is missing hands, feet, and a head? There is a
dramatic difference between a culture that is producing handmade stone tools compared
with one mass-producing metal screwdrivers. Shells found far from their source suggest
patterns of migration or trade. If you include things like bones or molars, then ask them to
suggest things that such fossils can tell about the species that left them, such as patterns
of locomotion or diet.

If you want to push them, or to continue the activity on a later day, have them propose
test predictions for each of their hypotheses. That is, if they have hypothesized that the
monkey design indicated that monkeys formed an important element of the diet, then
what additional material might they expect to find if they were to go back and excavate in
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a subsequent field season? This notion of excavating, developing hypotheses and

predictions, and then continuing to excavate to test those ideas is an important part of the
scientific process that they need to understand, and this exercise encourages them to
wrestle with it.
After each group has presented (normally about three to five minutes per group), be sure to offer
a few words of commentary. This is an opportunity to get them engaged in the course material,
and to praise their ideas, which gives them confidence to participate in future discussions. For
example, you can point out that the vast majority of hominid prehistory is represented in tools of
stone, bone, and shell, and that metal and ceramics are very recent introductions. Or, in the
context of a stone tool, you might mention how difficult it can be to tell the difference between
an artifact and a geofact, and discuss how one could tell the difference (e.g., by edge wear). Or
you could suggest the importance of obsidian to the city of Teotihuacan, or mummification to the
ancient Egyptians. In this way, you are previewing important moments of the class and exciting
their curiosity, which is a great way to begin the term.
The artifacts can also reappear in the context of preservation. With an array of materials spread
out before the class (stone, bone, metal, glass, fabric, seeds, rope, etc.) or by bringing the same
materials back at the appropriate time during the term, discuss what types of materials are well
preserved and under what conditions, what forces might break down each type of material, and
how different types of materials can be reconstructed. This allows you to introduce taphonomy,
palynology, etc., and to have a great discussion about what you are and are not likely to find at a
given site. Thus they begin to consider more critically the fossil and artifact record and the
conclusions we can draw from these data.

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COMPARING ARCHAEOLOGICAL SAMPLING STRATEGIES IN AN

INTRODUCTORY CLASSROOM
Jane Eva Baxter
Introduction
The concept of sampling is critical in archaeological research. Although many people do not
consider it an important issue to address in introductory courses for non-majors, sampling is a
way of linking archaeological research to other areas of knowledge that students possess when
entering the classroom. Most students are exposed to sampling in math and science classes,
engage with sampling through public opinion polls, and base important decisions on samples
such as choosing courses through the popular rate my professor website. Understanding
sampling also helps students appreciate the basis for most archaeological interpretations; it is
often a revelation for students to consider that archaeological sites are not excavated in their
entirety prior to an archaeologist making interpretations about life in the past.
This exercise is a useful way to demonstrate the importance of sampling in archaeology
specifically and as a way of drawing conclusions about the world generally. It offers students the
ability to compare the results of varying sampling strategies and to immediately experience the
relationship between sampling strategies and information available for interpretation. The
exercise can be used in an introductory archaeology class as well as an early activity in the
archaeology/prehistory segment of four-field introductory anthropology courses.
The Exercise: A How to Guide
I used to teach sampling by creating three-dimensional sites out of potting soil, kitty litter, and
miniature artifacts bought from craft stores. I would create identical sites in a series of clear
Rubbermaid tubs, and then grid the boxes with unit string. This relatively well known type of
exercise was fun and effective, but also messy and virtually non-portable. The following exercise
is a two-dimensional version of three-dimensional site boxes and while it loses some of the
authenticity of digging in the dirt and the ability to incorporate three-dimensional discussions
of stratigraphy, it addresses the problems of mess and portability. This adaptation also allows for
the same basic exploration of sampling strategies and resulting evidence, and also reinforces
other concepts such as the idea of an archaeological culture and the process of following a
research design. (See Appendix A that establishes the focus.)
The exercise is best run with small groups of students (four to five per group) and can
accommodate classes of nearly any size, although you will need a minimum of three groups. The
exercise requires about an hour of pre-classroom preparation, but can be executed easily in class
with no special modifications to the classroom. The exercise takes any where from 30 to 45
minutes, depending on the length of discussion.
Step l: Exercise Set Up
For the exercise, you will need:

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small snack-sized baggies

large bags of plain M&M candies, peanut M&M candies, and Skittles candies (or other
similar loose candies)
several magic markers
four grocery bags or other easily assessable and portable containers
an exercise handout and accompanying grid for each student (see Appendix A and B)

Before class, you will need to draw an archaeological site or region for testing that has a series of
clearly delineated ecological zones (see Appendix B). There should be three larger ecological
zones (such as grasslands, forest, and low scrub landscapes in the appendix) and a smaller area to
serve as an interaction zone (the boulder field in the example). I also create units that yield no
artifacts or are not able to be excavated (such as those in the lakes). You will need to place a grid
over the area and label the grid. It is generally easiest to create the grid first as a table in a word
processing program and then draw the site over the gridlines. Print out one copy for each student.
You will also need to prepare a series of baggies with small amounts of candy. One set of
baggies should contain plain M&Ms, another set should contain Peanut M&Ms, and another the
Skittles. A final set of baggies should contain a few of each type of candy. These baggies should
be created to correspond to the different zones on the grid, and the number of bags you prepare
should be proportionate to the area each zone covers on your map and the number of groups you
will have.
These two preparations set up a scenario where each ecological zone on the map corresponds to a
particular archaeological culture represented by its signature artifact type. The small
interaction zone contains artifacts from all three groups and represents a zone where these
different cultures met and interacted. Once the grid and baggies are created, place each type of
baggie in its own grocery bag or other container and label each larger container with the grid
squares that delineate the corresponding ecological zone on the map.
Step 2: Creating a Context
I contextualize this exercise by giving students a PowerPoint presentation that develops the three
dominant forms of archaeological sampling: intuitive or non-probabilistic, simple random, and
systematic sampling. I discuss the basic underlying principles, their pros and cons, and give
some examples of how these forms of sampling are executed in a familiar context (like opinion
polls) and in archaeological cases.
Step 3: Introduce the Exercise
Introduce this exercise by handing out and reviewing the handout (see Appendix A) and
emphasize the purpose of the exercise. Then explain how each of the introduced sampling
strategies can be carried out in the context of the exercise. Non-probabilistic sampling would
involve a visual inspection of the landscape on the map in conjunction with the research
questions to determine which units to sample. Simple random sampling would be carried out by
labeling a series of paper scraps with each grid number, and units would be selected by drawing

22

the correct number of units out of a hat or bag. Systematic sampling would require a group to
come up with a pattern that spaced units regularly to evenly cover the map area.
Step 4: Run the Exercise
Place students in groups of 4 to 5 people. Assign each group a different sampling strategy. If you
have more than three groups, it is OK to have multiple groups executing the same strategy. Place
the containers containing the candy artifacts at the front of the room. Tell students to:

decide as a group how they will select their units for sampling relative to the assigned
strategy;
carry out their sampling strategy appropriately;
have two representatives come to the front of the room to pull the bags of artifacts their
sampling strategy recovered;
have the students who come to the front of the room pull an artifact bag for each unit they
selected (that can be excavated). They can use the magic markers to label each baggie
with the corresponding grid square;
ask the group to use the map, their research questions, and the artifacts they recovered to
answer the following questions:
how many archaeological cultures are present in your sample area?
how can you identify an archaeological culture in this exercise?
is there any relationship between the location of these cultural groups and the
surrounding environment?
is there any evidence of interaction among the cultural groups?

While students are working on the exercise, you need to do three things:

draw the grid (no need to place the underlying landscape) onto the board;
observe the class to see which groups are doing the best job executing the strategies you
gave them;
monitor the bags at the front of the room in the event there are any questions from those
selecting the baggies.

Step 5: Discussion and Results Presentation

Once the groups have wound down their individual discussions, draw them back to the front of
the classroom. Ask each group to share their answers for each question with the class. Keep track
of the varying answers on the board. It is highly unlikely, particularly if you keep the interaction
zone small, that all groups will be able to answer all of these questions completely or accurately.
Once you have this record, showing that groups answered questions differently, tie the discussion back into sampling.
Using the grid, ask one group that used each sampling strategy to explain their sampling process
to the class. Select the groups you felt did the best job executing their assigned sampling
strategies. Record which units they selected on the grid: N for nonprobabilistic, R for simple
random, and S for systematic. Ask if other groups who used the same sampling strategy used the
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same or different methods or had different results. Often, if you have multiple groups that
executed the simple random method, one will have a clear cluster pattern in the units and that can
be particularly instructive.
You can then turn the class discussion to more general questions using the collected class
evidence, the research questions in the handout, and the information from the preceding PowerPoint or lecture. Some useful questions to ask are:

Can you summarize the relationship between different sampling strategies and the
recovery of archaeological materials in the context of an archaeological research design?
Given the question posed in the exercise, which sampling technique do you feel is the
best choice?
Does understanding archaeological sampling make you think differently about claims that
archaeologists make? Why or why not?
APPENDIX A: ARCHAEOLOGICAL SAMPLING EXERCISE HANDOUT

Purpose: the purpose of this exercise is to simulate the relationship between unit sampling and
the recovery of archaeological material. You will be able to compare the results of different
sampling strategies with your classmates.
Dear Mr. or Ms. Undergrad:
Congratulations! You have been awarded the I.M. Megarich Memorial Grant for
Archaeological Research. This prestige award provides a total of $12,000 to be used for
preliminary test excavations in the former British Colony of Exoticisle, a small island in the
chain known as the Imbus Isles. The chair of the selection committee, Dr. J.M. Deadwood, was
very impressed with your proposed research design and wishes you the very best of luck with
your field season.
Your proposal to the Foundation stated that you would conduct archaeological test
excavations in the northwest corner of Exoticisle Island, an area with productive ecological
resources conducive to long term human habitation. You stated in your proposal that you wanted
to identify the different archaeological cultures that can be found on the island and that you
suspected that there was a relationship between cultural areas and different ecological zones.
Your fieldwork will be the first field research ever undertaken in the area, and it is well designed
to test the areas archaeological potential and produce results to guide further research. Your
research design calls for the use of a sampling strategy to test the archaeological potential of the
area. Good luck for the success of your fieldwork.
Sincerely,
Dr. Ima Smattathanu
Your fieldwork: Your test area (survey universe) has been gridded to guide your testing. You
must use this grid appropriately in accordance with the sampling strategy you proposed in your
research design. It will cost $2,000 for each grid unit you excavate. Keep records of your

24

methods and results as necessary while excavating. As you work, please try to answer the
following research question:

how many archaeological cultures are present in your sample area?

how can you identify an archaeological culture in this exercise?

is there any relationship between the location of these cultural groups and the surrounding
environment?

is there any evidence of interaction among the cultural groups?

At the end of your field season, you must share your results with your colleagues, who will
evaluate the effectiveness of your sampling strategy.

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APPENDIX B: SAMPLE GRID BOX

26

THE END GAME: TEACHING THE COLLAPSE OF COMPLEX

SOCIETIES
James L. Fitzsimmons
Introductory area courses, as well as more generalized courses in world prehistory, bring with
them their own set of pedagogical challenges, not least of which are the numerous terms and
ideas that students must learn before they are able to engage in serious discussions. Often lacking
basic background information about a given culture, students are usually required to learn a
summary of the major events and circumstances of prehistory before proceeding to more indepth (often thematic) analyses. In the first third of my course on Mesoamerican archaeology, I
follow initial lectures with a game section designed to teach my students terms as well as to
provide them with an early understanding of Mesoamerican prehistory. The exercise is designed
to illustrate the types of activities that contributed to stability and instability during the Classic
Period (250-850 AD), based upon what we know about ancient Maya city-states. The exercise,
termed the End Game, is appropriate for small introductory courses as well as sections of large
world prehistory classes, and although it is written with the ancient Maya in mind, the game
mechanics could easily be adapted for many different complex societies. The total number of
students in the exercise should be between 12 and 30, with no less than 2 people per group. The
End Game takes approximately 45 minutes, and should be followed by discussion at the end or
in the following class.
There are a number of reasons for doing an activity like this early on in a course. First, the
exercise enables the students to quickly internalize many of the concepts that will feature
prominently in the lectures and discussions to come. Second, by taking on the various roles of
the people and places involved, the students begin to see ancient peoples less as textbook,
historical entities and more as dynamic players in a cultural landscape. Third, the game
changes the overall tone of the course as well as the method of interaction among the students.
Although this is less of an issue in lectures, for courses with discussion sections or laboratory
sections, getting the students to participate as well as work with one another early in the term can
be key to the success of a course. Finally, the exercise -- by getting students to start thinking
about what we do and do not know from a first-hand perspective -- encourages students to
think critically about the course material early on and prevents them from lending too much
weight to a single interpretation of the past.
The exercise obviously involves both you as the instructor and your students. Rather than
repeating much of the instructions, I suggest you cut and paste appropriate sections as
instructions to students and disseminate them a week before starting the game.
The Scenario
The year is 798 AD. The sun is beginning to set on the ancient Maya, but there is still some life
left in the institution of kuhul ajaw and in the Classic Maya economy of the Central Peten. You
are living in one of two mid-sized, ancient Maya kingdoms (Ixkun and Ucanal) that are

27

nominally vassals of the ruler of Mutal (Tikal), Nuun Ujol Kinich. Unfortunately for the ruler
of Mutal, his vassals are both ambitious and sworn enemies.
The collapse of Cahal Pech, a site to your north on the Mopan River, combined with the fact that
Nuun Ujol Kinich is preoccupied with a newly resurgent enemy, Waka (El Peru), has presented
the lords of Ixkun and Ucanal with an opportunity. Cahal Pech was heavily engaged in the
import of El Chayal obsidian and food (wild game, chocolate) from inland sources as well as the
export of salt and marine shell to points further downriver, and its collapse has created a power
vacuum that each lord wishes to fill. Control of this trade will enable either Ixkun or Ucanal to
finally break with Mutal.
You are worried, however, because one of the other great powers of the Maya lowlands, Ox
Witik (Caracol), is paying close attention to this situation. Its new king, Kinich Joy Kawiil, is
the most powerful and aggressive ruler of Ox Witik that you can remember. He is looking to
expand westwards, and control of this trade route would help him solidify his power. You are
worried that he might attack and defeat Ixkun and Ucanal if these cities become too weak. Who
knows what will happen if this comes to pass?
Game Set-Up and the Rules of Engagement
The game is played by six factions, all of whom are living under variable conditions at Ixkun or
Ucanal. The factions are composed of two (2) kuhul ajaw holy lord(s) or rulers, two (2) sajal
noble subordinate(s), and two (2) peasants. There are three parts to each site, each of which is
home to one of these factions. To start, draw the city center of Ixkun as a single circle on the left
side of your board, labeling it as Ixkun. Connect Ixkun by a line to the right to another
circle, labeled Ixkun Elites. Continue to draw a single line of circles to the right with areas
labeled Cay, Baah, Ucanal Elites, and finally Ucanal. You should now have one line,
punctuated by circles, proceeding from the city center of Ixkun on the left all the way to the city
center of Ucanal on the right.
Warfare in the exercise is represented by conflicts between War Parties (WP). A WP can be of
any size, and is represented by a triangle inscribed with a numerical value, or Size. To start,
draw a WP (Size 2, or WP2) beneath the city center of Ixkun. Do the same for Ucanal. These
War Parties represent warriors under the command of the rulers of Ixkun and Ucanal. Now draw
another War Party (Size 1, or WP1) beneath each of the Elite circles; they represent warriors
under the command of the sajals of Ixkun and Ucanal. Rulers and sajals can always levy more
warriors for their respective WP, although this takes time. No WP can move by itself and it is
always assumed that its commander moves with it.
In the event of a battle, larger numbers always win, with each side deducting one size from their
armies. Combined WPs involving rulers and their sajals are allowed, but be sure to keep track of
their respective sizes if/when they split up again. If there is a numerical tie in a battle
(occasionally, this happens), you should flip a coin. Whatever the outcome, the loser must retreat
to a friendly circle or, in the event of a hit-and-run raid (see Actions, below), may stay in the
same circle so long as it is not occupied by the victor. Failure to do so results in the total
destruction of the losing WP and the capture of its leader. For the purposes of the exercise, it is

28

assumed that a combined WP protects its leaders above all else. Note: players may not retreat
past the victorious war party and as such can only move deeper into friendly territory (e.g., in the
direction of their city center).
Example: The ruler of Ucanal, with a War Party of Size 3 (WP3), moves from
Baah to Cay. The sajal of Ixkun, who has a War Party of Size 2 (WP2) in
that circle, loses the engagement. The ruler decides to stay in Cay and hence
forces the sajal to retreat to Ixkun Elites. The ruler now has WP2 while the
sajal has WP1.
Protracted warfare has ramifications for the fate of the game. If both sides become too weak, Ox
Witik attacks and the game is over. It will attack if: (1) four or more circles are sacked and
burned (see Actions, below); (2) both rulers are killed; (3) one ruler and both sajals are killed; or
(4) both sajals successfully revolt and form new polities of their own (see Actions, below). As
long as one site remains strong, however, Kinich Joy Kawiil will stay out of the fray.
The Players
In addition to disseminating the entire scenario and rules to the students ahead of time and giving
them about a week to read over the directions, assign students to the various roles in advance.
Ask them -- as a newly formed group -- to try to flesh out their characters in the week before the
exercise is undertaken. Divide up the class by 6 and assign each student one of the 6 roles. For
example, in a class of 30, 5 will take the role of Player 1, 5 will take the role of Player 2, etc.
They must act as a single individual. Ask them to think about the types of activities the players
engage in, the kinds of goods traded or given as tribute, etc. Ideally, they should meet with one
another at some point during the week, before or after class, or otherwise communicate with one
another about the characters as well as their plans to destroy their rivals. As this is hard to
enforce, alternatively, you might have each student bring a list of the basic motivations of their
character to the exercise or post such motivations online. Feel free to have fun with this: the
more details the students bring into this (and the more they have talked with one another about
their characters), the richer the game.
Player 1. You are Baak Kan (Bone Serpent), Kuhul ajaw of Ixkun (and immediate family), an
ambitious vassal of the ruler of Mutal and enemy of Kahk Pakal. You start in the circle labeled
Ixkun with WP2.
Player 2. You are Kahk Pakal (Fiery Shield), Kuhul ajaw of Ucanal (and immediate family),
an ambitious vassal of the ruler of Mutal and enemy of Baak Kan. You start in the circle labeled
Ixkun with WP2.
Player 3. You are Kinich Yohl Ahk (Sun-Faced Heart of Turtle), sajal of Ixkun (and family).
You are responsible for overseeing tribute to Baak Kan, an annual sum equivalent to 4000 cacao
beans; you receive approximately ten percent of this for your labors each year. You know that
Player 4 receives an amount of tribute double to your own. You start in the circle labeled Ixkun
Elites with WP1.

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Player 4. You are Chak Butz Kan (Red Smoke Serpent), sajal of Ucanal. You are responsible
for overseeing tribute to Kahk Pakal, an annual sum equivalent to 8000 cacao beans; you
receive approximately ten percent of this for your labors each year. You know that Player 3
receives half the amount of tribute you do. You start in the circle labeled Ucanal Elites with
WP1.
Player 5. You are the leader of Cay (Fish) lineage, the most powerful family in your village on
the outskirts of Ixkun. You provide bundles of tribute equivalent to 4000 cacao beans per year to
Kinich Yohl Ahk, and know that Player 6 pays double to the sajal of Ucanal. You start in the
circle labeled Cay.
Player 6. You are the leader of Baah (Agouti) lineage, the most powerful family in your village
on the outskirts of Ucanal. You provide bundles of tribute equivalent to 8000 cacao beans per
year to Chak Butz Kan, and know that Player 5 pays half of what you do to the sajal of Ixkun.
You start in the circle labeled Baah.
Turns
The exercise consists of six rounds, with approximately six minutes of group discussion per
round. Students should spend approximately three to four minutes deciding what they want to do
and a couple of minutes implementing them. If each group is larger than three or four, you might
require a little more time, but be sure to enforce a strict time limit between turns whatever is
decided. Likewise, you should use a talking stick or similar convention to allow the students
(and you) to keep track of whose turn it is and to ensure that groups do not talk over one another.
You could use a timer with the rule being that nothing can be accomplished after a given groups
time has run out.
Each player has one opportunity to go first, with the order for the rounds being: Round 1 (Player
1), Round 2 (Player 2), etc. Players follow one another in numerical order; in this way, the first
player to act in the current round is the last to act in the subsequent round.
Example: It is Round 4. Player 3, Kinich Yohl Ahk, seizes
the opportunity to attack the sajal of Ucanal. Player 3
finishes his turn, and is followed by Players 4 to 6 and 1 to 2.
Unfortunately, Player 3 will now be the last to act in
Round 4, which begins with actions by the sajal of Ucanal,
Player 4. Perhaps that attack will result in bloody retribution
During a given Round, each Player is allowed to perform one of 13 different actions. They are
fleshed out below: (1) Levy Warriors; (2) Movement and/or Attack; (3) Build Fortifications; (4)
Loot and Pillage; (5) Form a Marriage Alliance; (6) Communicate in Private; (7) Peasant Revolt;
(8) Put Down Peasant Revolt; (9) Sajal Revolt; (10) Put Down Sajal Revolt; (11) Negotiate
Trade Deal; (12) Throw a Feast; and (13) Weapons of the Weak (e.g., a set of actions undertaken
as per James C. Scott, a political scientist who coined weapons of the weak to describe the
ways in which peasants or those without formal power can resist domination). Some of these
Actions preclude others, while there are a number of activities available only to certain groups.

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Prestige and Winning the Game

During the exercise at least some of the players will gain or lose Prestige Points, or points
representing political, economic, or military victories. There is no maximum or minimum to the
Prestige Points one can gain or lose, and negative values are certainly possible. The only way to
gain or lose prestige is by taking one of the 13 actions listed below. The instructor should keep a
tally on the board for each of the players. The group with the most Prestige Points by the end of
the game wins. Note: in the somewhat unlikely event that a player is actually eliminated between
turns 1 through 5, that player becomes a refugee and can join any group of equal or lesser social
status; such an action provides one Prestige Point for the group that they join.
Description of the Actions
Actions are the heart and soul of this exercise, and although players are bound by the rules of the
actions, there is some room for imaginative solutions to problems. Please feel free to make the
descriptions of these actions as general or specific as you wish for the students, keeping in mind
that the more general the description the greater the chance for students to be creative. For
example, when the students wish to perform Action 13, you might ask them specifically what
they are doing.
As noted above, each player must perform one Action per turn, and cannot skip an Action under
any circumstances. Sajals and peasants must always follow the orders of their superiors,
who can order them to do anything, thus freeing up an Action for themselves this Round.
The only exception to this rule is if the sajal or peasant chooses to revolt! Superiors, in turn,
must abide by the Round order, so they cannot ask an inferior to do something when that inferior
party has already acted (they cannot ask for a technically impossible Action). Likewise, rulers
and sajals may not order subordinates to do things in future Rounds. They can agree to
coordinate future events, of course, but neither party is actually bound to carry out said Action.
The actions consist of:
1. Levy Warriors (available to kuhul ajaw or sajal only). You may levy an unlimited number
of warriors from Elite circles or your city-center, but you can only levy peasant warriors once.
Each time you levy warriors, you raise your WP number by one. It takes one action to raise your
WP by one point. The sajal or kuhul ajaw levying warriors must be present with his/her WP in
that circle.
2. Movement and/or Attack (available to kuhul ajaw or sajal only). You may move your WP
between adjacent areas. It costs half an Action Point to move to another circle. You may use the
other half to either attack the same turn or move between circles again. You may not end your
turn in a circle occupied by enemy warriors, so you must defeat them and cause their retreat or
move away. Combined forces (e.g., the WP3 of a kuhul ajaw and the WP2 of a sajal, or a WP5
force total) can move and attack together, but both players must use up their action points
together. For example, it would cost half an action point from both Player 1 and Player 3 to move
one circle.

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A successful battle on Elite or city-center circles always results in some elite captives, and
always results in each of the victorious participants gaining two Prestige Points. You may also
attack a vacant circle with the same results. Attacking peasant circles never results in Prestige
Points.
3. Build Fortifications (ordering this is available to kuhul ajaw or sajal only; can only be built
by peasants). Limitless earthworks and ditches can be built in your city-center or Elite circle;
they cannot be built in peasant villages. Each Round spent building fortifications adds one
immobile WP1, for the purposes of battle, to a given circle. Assuming that the peasants are not
in Revolt (7), the only Actions possible to them while building fortifications are Communicate in
Private (6) and Weapons of the Weak (13). War parties do not need to be in a circle for
fortifications to be built.
4. Loot and Pillage (available to kuhul ajaw or sajal only). This option may only be exercised
if a WP started its turn in enemy territory and there is no viable opposition in the circle.
Alternatively, this option can be used by a friendly kuhul ajaw or sajal to punish rebellious or
problematic players. The player may exercise one of three options: burn the largest temple or
palace in the area; take (extra) captives; or burn the agricultural fields and houses of the peasant
village. The first two options give the player(s) in the circle two Prestige Points. The third option
provides no Prestige Points for the offending player, but makes it impossible for the enemy city
to Levy Troops (1) from that circle or Build Fortifications (3) for the rest of the game. Peasants
in the circle also lose two Prestige Points from this action, as they must spend time rebuilding
their homes.
5. Form a Marriage Alliance. The individual offering the alliance sends a bride to the other
party. If accepted, the alliance guarantees two turns of peace between the parties (e.g., it
prevents revolts of any kind). When an alliance is between a social inferior and a superior, the
socially inferior player gains one Prestige Point. If it is between the kuhul ajaws, then the
recipient gains one Prestige Point. Marriages between peasant players are allowed, and the bride
may carry private communication to the recipient group, but no Prestige is earned either way.
Donors never gain Prestige, regardless of their social station. Whether or not the marriage
alliance is accepted, the action is spent.
6. Communicate in Private. This should be done outside the classroom or in an area of the
room where other groups cannot hear what is going on. Elites, whether they are rulers or sajals,
cannot violate the territory of a rival unless they have a WP in that territory. Peasants can
communicate with any player except Players 1 and 2. You may communicate anything you wish,
but you cannot finalize any economic activities (see Action 11). Both groups should send
delegations to communicate and may only spend 2-3 minutes in negotiations, after which point
they must return to their respective groups.
7. Peasant Revolt (available to peasants only). Peasant revolts are usually unsuccessful and
always take two Rounds to play out. There are only two ways for the revolt to be a success: a
rival WP manages to be in the circle at the end of the second Round of revolt; or the friendly
ruler or sajal chooses not to take Action 8 during the revolt. A successful revolt provides two
Prestige Points for the peasant player. An unsuccessful revolt results in the execution of the

32

lineage leader; for the purposes of the game the player becomes a refugee (see Prestige Points
and Winning the Game, above). Peasants may not take any other Actions during the Rounds in
which they are revolting.
8. Put Down Peasant Revolt (available to kuhul ajaw or sajal only). When a revolt happens,
the sajal or kuhul ajaw should quell it. Although revolts take two Rounds to play out, taking
Action 8 during either Round is sufficient to put down the revolt. If you are unable or unwilling
to put down the revolt, both the sajal and kuhul ajaw lose two Prestige Points. You may not
reconquer peasants, once they are lost, to recover Prestige Points.
9. Sajal Revolt (available to sajal only). Sajal revolts are usually unsuccessful and always take
two Rounds to play out. There are only two ways for the revolt to be a success: you are somehow
able to keep the WP of your kuhul ajaw out of your Elite circle for the duration of the revolt;
or the kuhul ajaw chooses not to take Action 10 during the revolt. Otherwise, the revolt fails and
the sajal is executed. That player becomes a refugee for the purposes of the game (see Prestige
Points and Winning the Game, above).
Successful revolts, in turn, can result in two very different relationships: you revolt against your
kuhul ajaw and create your own (small) city-state, gaining three Prestige Points; you revolt
against your kuhul ajaw and switch allegiances to the opposing kuhul ajaw, gaining one
Prestige Point. Note: if you want to switch allegiances, you must declare this at the time of revolt
and allow the opposing kuhul ajaw to decide if he/she wants a new vassal. If so, that kuhul
ajaw must help you for at least two turns.
10. Put Down Sajal Revolt (available to kuhul ajaw only). Provided that your WP is of
sufficient strength and that you are able as well as willing to return to the Elite circle at some
point over the next two Rounds, Action 10 is always successful. You lose three Prestige Points if
you are unable or unwilling to put down the revolt. You may recover these lost points, however,
if you reconquer or otherwise regain this territory during the duration of the exercise (e.g., if you
have a WP in that circle at the end of the game or the sajal switches again).
11. Negotiate Trade Deal. Like Action 6, this should be done outside the classroom or in an
area of the room where other groups cannot hear what is going on. Anyone can participate in a
trade deal, although rulers may not speak with peasants. Both parties are bound to respect the
economic arrangements agreed upon at that moment. As in Action 6, the groups should send
delegations to communicate and may only spend 2 to 3 minutes in negotiations, after which point
they must return to their respective groups to relay what has been agreed upon. This is not a twoway street, however, and the ultimate authority is the kuhul ajaw, so social inferiors must
ultimately provide whatever their superiors ask for. Unless, of course, they choose to revolt.
Peasants who improve their situation gain one Prestige Point for every deal in their favor.
Depending upon the deal, the kuhul ajaw, sajal, or both may gain a Prestige Point for every deal
in their favor; discretion on this is left to you.
12. Throw a Feast. Involving public dance, blood sacrifice, feasting, and other behavior, this
option involves inviting another group to your circle. The players do not actually travel to these

33

different circles for military purposes, so in the event of an attack the player is automatically
assumed to be back with his or her own WP and its respective circle.
Feasting guarantees peace and good relations between the parties for two turns (e.g., neither side
can attack or perform Actions 7, 9, or 13). It ensures that both participating players gain one
Prestige Point, assuming that the invitation is accepted. You may only invite social equals or
inferiors by one level (so rulers may not invite peasant leaders). Equals do not have to accept the
invitation, while inferiors may not refuse an invitation unless they are willing to revolt. Whether
or not the invitation to feast is accepted, your Action is spent. Note: if peasants invite one
another, they may still take Actions 7 and 13, although if they participated in a sajal feast they
are prohibited from doing so.
13. Weapons of the Weak (available to peasants only). You may cause Action 1 (regardless of
whether the warriors are from the elite or peasant circles) or Action 3 to take one Round longer
than necessary. You cannot declare Weapons of the Weak if you are the first to act this Round, if
you participated in a feast with a social superior, or if your agricultural fields and homes were
burned last Round. Actually managing to slow down the authorities gains you one Prestige Point;
you gain one point for every time you work the system.
Overall Themes and Variations
As noted above, I typically run this exercise early in the course, so that students can refer back to
it when they are doing readings or participating in other activities. The keys to the success of this
exercise are organization (e.g., keeping track of time and turns) and ensuring that the students
have had enough time before class to prepare for the End Game. Beyond simply being fun
and a popular reference point for the students, this exercise forces them to think about the
relationships between different social groups and the factors that can bind together and tear
apart complex societies. It identifies the plight of peasants in such societies and serves as an
innocuous way to introduce concepts like weapons of the weak, competitive feasting,
patrilocality, and other discipline- and area-specific terms. At the same time, you can use this
exercise to highlight what we know and what we do not know about socioeconomic and political
systems, such as the precise nature of ancient Maya economic behavior. You might use the class
after this exercise to solidify these concepts before moving onward to more detailed
archaeological discussion.

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THE CANDY GENE POOL

Lori Barkley
Students often get lost when the processes of evolution are discussed in class because they
cannot visualize what is happening. The following exercise can be used to demonstrate the
processes of mutation, natural selection, gene flow, and genetic drift. Fun-sized candy bars
and/or other wrapped candy are used to symbolize the phenotypic diversity of populations and to
engage kinetic learners in the processes by which evolutionary change can happen in a
population. Students respond well to this hands-on exercise stating they better understand the
evolutionary processes because they can visualize what is happening.
The exercise can be used in a four-field introductory anthropology course or in a
bioanthropology course. The exercise takes from 15 to 50 minutes, depending on class size and
the number of activities you use. It works best in medium sized classes, but with some changes
in directions, could be used in larger classes.
Preparation and Supplies
Purchase a wide selection of wrapped candy a minimum of 5 clearly different types. Any
candy can be used: Hershey kisses or chocolate balls wrapped in various colors work well, or
fun-sized bars, wrapped hard candy, etc. It is best to use only wrapped candy since it will be
passed around during the exercise. Note: check with students for any life-threatening allergies
prior to purchasing the candy (e.g., peanuts).
Prepare bags of candy (populations) in advance. For each student group (2 to 6 students per
group) the initial population would include 3 visibly different kinds of candy and 3 or 4 of
each type. You will have at least 2 types of candy left over to use later in the exercise. In total
and eventually, each group will receive 3 or 4 of each of the 5 types.
Other objects, such as beads, could be used instead of candy and stored from year to year, but I
have found that students are motivated by candy and the possibility of an edible reward at the
end of the exercise.
The Exercise
The exercise reinforces learning about the evolutionary processes of genetic mutation, natural
selection, gene flow, and genetic drift, so be sure the material has been introduced in a lecture
format before the exercise begins. The exercise works best when the instructor and students seize
the teachable moments presented during the exercise. Real life examples add to the learning by
citing from fieldwork, simple observations, or application of course content. After the exercise
begins, students can ask questions about what happens, and why, when they move the candy
around. So pick 1 or 2 scenarios that fit with your research and/or imagination and then go from
there! The natural selection exercise can easily stand alone and offers a number of possibilities to
demonstrate evolutionary principles.

35

What Students Do
Divide the class into small groups. The smaller the group the more opportunity there is for
learning, interaction, and creativity; 2 to 6 students per group works well, but this can be
increased depending on your candy budget and class size. Give each group a candy
population. Tell students the candy represents the phenotypic variation (expressed alleles) in
their population (bag). The remaining 2 types of candy are distributed by you during the genetic
mutation exercise that is the first step in the exercises below.
Be sure there is enough room for each group to work independently, sorting and counting their
candy populations. Part of a table top or desk tops separated by empty desks works fine.
Put the following chart on the front board, or use something similar so that students can connect
what they are doing with the macro-evolutionary processes on the chart. You will have discussed
the processes and expected variations within and between populations previously in lecture.
Depending on how much time has passed since the introduction of these ideas, a brief review
may be necessary to explain the processes that affect variation within and between
populations. Tell the students that they are now going to demonstrate and explain these processes
using their candy population.
Evolutionary Process
between Populations

Variation within the

Population

Variations

genetic mutation

increases

increases

gene flow

increases

decreases

genetic drift

decreases

increases

natural selection

increases/decreases

increases/decreases

Genetic Mutation
Have each group appoint a recorder and have the recorder write down the phenotypic variation
of the groups (candy) population. How many different phenotypes (candies) are expressed and
how many individuals of each phenotype are represented in that population? Now, you distribute
2 more candies only one of the remaining 2 types of candy to each group as a genetic
mutation to be introduced to their population. Explain the principle of genetic mutation as the
ultimate source of change and demonstrate that these new candies represent new traits entering
their population. Is there more variation expressed within their population now? Yes, it seems
simple, but the students need to start relating to the candy as phenotypes within a population, so
be sure the recorder notes the increase in variation.
Next, ask each group of students to sort their population (candy) according to phenotype. For
example, all the Mars bars and M & Ms are in 1 population, the remaining candy creates another

36

population. Students should now have 2 populations (1 population with 2 to 3 kinds of candy, the
other population consisting of the remaining candy).
Distribute the last remaining kind of reserved candy to each group that will be yet another
genetic mutation added to only one of their (candy) populations. Again, have the recorder write
the amount of phenotypic variation within each population as well as between them,
demonstrating how the variation within the 1 group increased, the other remained the same, but
there is still greater variation between the 2 populations if a mutation occurs in only 1 of them.
Gene Flow
Be sure the recorder has noted how many types of candy and how many of each there are in the 2
populations. (If students dont keep a record, they can easily get confused as to what their
populations looked like prior to migrations it is important for them to keep on track!) Then ask
them to pick 1 or 2 candy phenotypes to flow from one of their populations to the other,
leaving some of each phenotype behind in the original population. For example, 2 of the Mars
bars from population X flow through out-migration, to population Y where no Mars bars
existed prior. Some of the Kit-Kats from population Y would flow to population X. Some
Mars bars should be left behind in population X and some Kit-Kats should be left behind in
population Y to maintain the existing variation within the original population.
Next ask them to compare the phenotypic variation within their population prior to the outmigration and in-migration of the candy (alleles). What happened to the variation within each
population and between the 2 populations? What increased and what decreased? There should be
more variation within their 2 populations and less variation between them.
Genetic Drift
This exercise follows well after gene flow as the candy populations are already exhibiting greater
variation than prior to gene flow. Ask the students to note the variation within each population
and between the 2 populations. Then ask them to cast out some of their candy, perhaps those
they like best, to foster a potentially new super-species of candy, creating 3 populations of candy.
They physically make a third pile. Now ask them to note the variation within the 2 original
populations, the population that has been cast out, and the variation between the original
populations and the castaways. There should be less variation within the populations and more
variation between them.

This can easily be linked to natural selection as well to show how these evolutionary
processes are inter-related. Of course the selection they have made is not random as it is
in nature; however, it can be used to demonstrate that similar processes operate in
nature. The birds eat the insects they find most appealing; the ones that survive are the
ones that dont get eaten and thus are the fittest, and probably not as tasty nor as easily
caught. Alternatively, the candy outcasts may have many reasons for being cast-out.

37

The founder effect and genetic bottleneck can also be demonstrated this way by asking
the students what the population would look like after 2 or 3 generations if no new
variation (alleles) is introduced.

Natural Selection
Here is an opportunity to demonstrate how many factors can influence the selection process (and
the point at which candy can be eaten). Again, the recorder should note the variation within and
between their populations before and after natural selection.
Instruct the students to eat the candy they like, or give away what they dont like (directional and
stabilizing selection can be demonstrated here as well). If they eat all of the candy they like, they
will be left with a population that will survive and demonstrate fitness only because they have
selected from it what they like and will now leave the rest alone (the unsavory selections will
remain). If they choose to give away what they dont like to another group, they will still be left
with a tasty population. Thus natural selection works both for and against certain traits: it is the
environment and changes within it that can be the determining factor.
Only at the end of the exercise when the candy will no longer be needed, direct students to select
the candy they like from their population and eat it. Then instruct all of the groups of students
to physically move from their candy population to another groups candy population and eat
their favorite candy from that other groups population; what is left? Again, this can be used to
demonstrate that fitness isnt necessarily the best in all situations, but rather the best suited to the
current environment. When the selective pressures change (i.e., students) so does the
environment (the students are the selective agents in the environment) and what may have been
very successful in one environment (survived being eaten by the original group of students) may
be a detriment in another environment (as another group of students takes over the
environment).
Below are three other possibilities to continue demonstration of natural selection:

If students have eaten or given away all but 1 or 2 types of candy, then a natural disaster
could kill all of the population with a certain phenotype (allele). If they have limited
diversity left within their population, then it is susceptible to extinction. You could use
this scenario to demonstrate what would happen if there were only 1 of a particular candy
(phenotype and allele) left in the population after the disaster (e.g., 3 Hershey Kisses, but
only 1 Mars bar). Homozygous, heterozygous, and recessive traits can also be explored
this way. For example, if the allele to exhibit a Mars bar phenotype is recessive, is there
the possibility of a homozygous offspring if only 1 of the population remains? Ask the
students if there will ever be another Mars bar in the population? Why/not? What if their
group was able to capture or entice a Mars bar from another group, then what are the
possibilities?).

You could identify a specific disease and a trait (candy) that would be selected against in
the natural disaster. Thus student strategy could have resulted in the extinction of the

38

entire population. You could then compare this to a group that left more genetic variation
(different kinds of candy) in their population. You could also demonstrate the difference
between numbers in a population and its viability based on genetic variation within the
gene pool. At the level of the class (gene pool), the same factors can be examined and
you could ask the following questions: how much variation is left in all of the candy in
the class (gene pool)? Is there enough variation for gene flow to once again increase the
genetic diversity of specific populations? Has the gene pool been limited as a result and
what could be the consequences of this? Has the disaster left some populations relatively
intact that could result in gene flow to less genetically diverse populations? What if all
the individuals in the most genetically diverse population were to be killed by the
disaster? Are there any recessive alleles that will likely be unexpressed? For example, if
only 1 Mars bar is left could a homozygous Mars trait be expressed, or does it represent
the end of the Mars bar as we know it in the candy gene pool? If theyve already started
eating the candy, be prepared for some pretty lively scenarios to explain!

Have all of the students combine all of the candy populations into one population. Now
what has happened to the variation? Is there more variation within the gene pool
now? Again this can be used to demonstrate the relationship between absolute numbers
of a gene pool and genetic variation within it.

This strategy provides many opportunities for kinetic/experiential learning and reinforcing of
course concepts. On a final note, this exercise works best when tailored to the interests of both
the students and instructors. The use of real world examples that are relevant to the course and
the students are infinite in possibility and provide opportunities to integrate stories from the field
and tailor examples to students interest. Play with the candy a bit in advance to get used to the
candy allelesallelesaallelesalleles and then improvise!

39

WHATS SO SPECIAL ABOUT HOMO ERECTUS?: TEACHING HUMAN

ORIGINS TO A YOUNG AUDIENCE
Louise Tokarsky-Unda
Introduction
I teach college credit introductory anthropology courses to a young audience. Whether the
students are freshmen in college or advanced placement in high school, instructors face the
challenge of making material understandable, meaningful, and interesting to their audience.
Inviting students to become part of the lesson accomplishes this.
The subject of human origins may seem remote to younger students, part of a distant, irrelevant
past made palatable by Hollywood. Once students realize that dinosaurs and cavemen never
coexisted, they lose enthusiasm. Luckily, human origins has the potential to capture young
students imaginations.
The following is an example that will involve students in an activity focusing on human
evolution. By changing the presentation topic it can be adapted to suit a variety of subjects (e.g.,
history, cultural anthropology, archaeology, world cultures).
Bringing the past to life
Young students have marvelous imaginations, which most enjoy using. But they need to be
interested in the material before they are willing to imagine, process, and remember it.
Presenting a list of information about Homo erectus, for example, is unlikely to capture their
attention. But asking them to become Homo erectus provides a way for them to use lecture
information, while exercising their imaginations.
Most paleoanthropologists attribute the first controlled use of fire to Homo erectus (McKee et al.
2005). Assuming this is true, ask students to determine how Homo erectus could have made and
transported fire. This exercise works best with a small class (less than 20) and requires Internet
access, PowerPoint, and at least one computer savvy student per group. Allow 10 to 15 minutes
for instruction and discussion, 1 hour for online research and creation of PowerPoint (optional -it may be done outside of class), and 7 minutes for each group to present.
Organize students in groups of three to four and distribute photocopies of Appendix A.
Each groups task is to create a PowerPoint presentation that includes:
a description of the fire-making method most likely used by H. erectu;s
the type of evidence that would support the use of this method;
why H. erectus would have used this method;
how H. erectus would have used the fire.
To begin, each group researches fire-starting methods. The Internet is handy for this. As they
encounter new methods on the web, they ask each other questions: Was there any flint in the
40

areas where Homo erectus lived? Was there a lot of wood? They enthusiastically look up the
answers to each others questions, but they need to be reminded that the earths climate and
environment was different from what it is today.
Groups become competitive: they want to keep their fire making method a secret from other
groups, as they are certain theirs is better. They tend to whisper, and imagine themselves in
Homo erectus predicament: I would have made the fire THIS way because
Once groups have completed their PowerPoints, it is time for them to present the information
(plan on 5-7 minutes/group). Most will do so with gusto; each group is proud of their ability to
solve the fire mystery. Fire-making methods presented by past students have included:

rubbing twigs;
sawing wood with dried vines (friction);
transporting embers from naturally occurring fires (lightning, forest fire, lava flow);
flint and steel;
bow drill;
hand drill.

Some groups will figure out that Homo erectus could have used more than one method. As each
group presents information, groups with different methods challenge them: How could they use
flint and steel when there was no steel back then? One creative student explained that two
pieces of pyrite could have been struck together to create sparks! These challenges can serve as
points for discussion.
By the time presentations are done, students have imagined themselves living as a group of H.
erectus, trying to make fire. They eagerly insist that the class should try the fire-starting
techniques, but this violates school fire codes. Some have tried at home (with parental
supervision) and reported their findings to the class (pyrite does make sparks!).
As a follow up activity, students work in groups of three to four to create a group presentation
using the handout 1 Million B.P. (see Appendix A). Each group is assigned to a different
environment: grassland, tropical forest, desert, northern woodlands. The presentation may take
any form. Past presentations have included: formal teaching, performing a skit, rapping, creating
large-scale drawings, and mini-musicals. Students enjoy integrating knowledge in order to
creatively answer questions. Throughout this process they share and compare information with
each other. By the time they finish, all of them remember that controlled use of fire is widely
attributed to Homo erectus, they know the regions where Homo erectus lived, and they can
describe the million-year-old environment of those regions.
Reference Cited
McKee, Jeffrey, Frank Poirier, and W. Scott McGraw
2005 Understanding Human Evolution, 5th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall.

41

APPENDIX A: 1 MILLION YEARS BP

Background
You are a group of Homo erectus, living 1 million years before the present time. In order to
adapt to your environment, you have developed a special set of behaviors, traditions and beliefs.
Directions
Research the environment assigned to your group. Determine what the plants, animals, and
climate would have been like 1million years ago.
Create a short presentation (5-7 minutes) about your Homo erectus group, in which you address
the following (with regards to your environment):

What would you use for shelter, food, tools, and clothing? Remember to consider the
materials available to Homo erectus in your particular environment.

How might your environment influence your social structure and belief systems?

Given that modern Homo sapiens attribute supernatural qualities to natural phenomena,
do you think your Homo erectus group would have done the same? If so, what shapes and
characteristics might your supernatural beings assume?

Be prepared to participate in class discussion.

42

HUMAN VARIATION: DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYIS1

Patricia C. Rice
Modern humans vary even within fairly homogenous appearing populations. To bring this idea
home to students, what follows is an in-class exercise that takes three class sessions: in the first
session, students gather data on themselves as if they were a native population, in the second
session, they play the role of professional bioanthropologists turning raw and individual data into
meaningful group data, and on the third day, you can use the group data to investigate the degree
of variability in one small group of modern humans.
The exercise works in small to medium sized classes; individual students can be assigned a
single trait, or several can work as a team on each trait. Although the exercise was devised for
classes in introductory biological anthropology, it can be used in four-field introductory courses
as well.
Announce at the beginning of the term that during these three sessions that students will be a
population of say 50 individuals living on an isolated island, so they are each a giver of data, and
a professional visiting biological anthropologist who has permission to collect data. Give the
population a name just for reference purposes. I suggest that you require attendance on these
days.
Preparation
Decide which variable human traits you wish your students to collect data on and subsequently
analyze (see Appendix A for equipment needs); prepare a list of them (see below) and assign
traits (See Appendix B for Data Sheets and analysis instructions). If you choose to do all 24
variable traits and have 24 students, then obviously one student equals one trait; if you have 48
students, then there can be two students working as a team per trait. Or you may choose to do
only 10 traits. Each student must give individual data.
The Potential Traits: human variable traits come in two forms: simple Mendelian traits (or
monofactorial or discrete variation traits) caused by one gene with but two (or in the case of
ABO three) alleles, one dominant and one recessive, and with little or no environmental effect;
and continuous traits (or multifactorial) caused by a usually unknown number of genes and with
a considerable environmental effect.
Simple Mendelian Traits (M traits) At last count, the human genome contained 15,991
simple Mendelian traits; most are rare and cause abnormalities and often early death such as
from hemophilia, cystic fibrosis, and sickle cell anemia. The following 12 benign traits with
their dominant and recessive symbols can be used: ABO, PTC tasting (Tt), Mid digital Hair
(Mm), Darwins Point (Dd); Tented Fingers (Ll), Hitchhikers Thumb (Hh), Tongue Roll (Rr),
Ear Lobe Attachment (Ee), Short Index Finger (Ff), Hair Whorl Direction (Ww), Number of
Wrist Tendons (Xx), and Color Blindness (Cc). (Note that some symbols are traditional in the
literature; others have been randomly assigned.)

43

Continuous Variation Traits (C traits) Continuous (or multifactorial or complex) traits

are not caused by a single gene but likely by an unknown number of genes; in addition, most
have considerable environmental effects. For accuracy purposes, all measurements should be
done in metric. The following 12 continuous traits can be used: stature, sitting height (yielding
Cormic Index), cephalic index, nasal index, nasal profile, finger prints, hair color, eye color, hair
form, eye form, and body hair amount. The heritability estimate for stature is .6; for
fingerprints it is .9 out of a possible 1.0 genetic input.
Using the suggested format in Appendix B, prepare a Data Sheet for each chosen trait giving one
line for each individual native by ID number; cut and tape the collection and analysis
instructions for each chosen trait as found in Appendix C on the back of the appropriate Data
Sheet. Photocopy as many M Trait Instructions for Calculating Frequencies as chosen M traits
(Appendix D) and tape after analysis instructions. Draw pictures as appropriate: nasal profiles,
epicanthic folds, hyperdexterity, ear lobes, finger print types, hair form, Darwins Point. Give out
ID numbers the day before data are to be collected and instruct students to only give and collect
data using that number. (Keep a copy with you during Data Collection day for reference.)
It is assumed that the following terms and concepts have already been covered in class; normally
this is done in previous sections, either on human genetics or on causes of evolution: genes,
alleles, phenotype, genotype, gene frequency, morphology, dominant, recessive, Law of
Independent Assortment, mutations, selection, gene flow, genetic drift.
Day 1: Data Collection (50 minutes)
Go to class early and tape the prepared Data Sheets on something solid: walls, desks, tables.
Place equipment at the proper data collecting station. Scatter a dozen pens or pencils near the
Data Sheets. Write the traits on the board as well as each students identification number.
Start the class by telling students to go to their individual trait station. Have them quickly read
the instructions for collecting data on their trait. Be sure that students take data only by the
identification numbers to keep data as anonymous as possible. Then tell them to begin collecting
and giving data: if there are teams of two students for each trait, suggest that one team member
stand by the Data Sheet and collect data while students revolve around the room, and the other
team member revolve giving his or her traits to other data collectors; then when about half of
the data are collected, the team members change roles. Tell students to write only what they
observe on the Data Sheets at this stage. Your job is just to see that things keep moving along.
To make sure all data are given and collected, tell the class that when they believe they have both
given data on each trait and taken data from each native, they should cross off their numbers.
Once all data have been collected and students have left, collect the sheets and go over them
before the next class period. Make sure each Data Sheet entry is filled in properly with
morphological trait observation (i.e., yes, no, 1.6m etc.)
Day 2: Turning Raw, Individual Data Into Meaningful Group Data (50 minutes)
Ask students to bring a calculator or you bring 3 or 4 to class. Take the equipment used the

44

previous data collection day and have students collect data as quickly as possible on any missing
natives. Announce that data collection is closed and dramatically write N=50 (or whatever) on
the board.
Begin data analysis by asking students to read the previously prepared instructions for their
assigned trait. For M traits, students will calculate phenotype, genotype, and allele frequencies.
For C traits, students will find individual instructions on how they can turn the raw data into
group data. Once each individual or team has finished the analysis, they should bring the
calculations to you to be checked. You can make a book (see below) by giving each student/team
a half sheet of paper and having them write their results turning them in before they leave. Be
sure to check for accuracy and make corrections as needed before proceeding. Photocopy and
make a small book for each student. Keep the two kinds of variable traits together. Or, you can
put the data on line and have students bring their printout to class.
Day 3: Looking at Data (50 minutes)
One advantage of making a Data Book is that you can draw pictures of some of the traits on
appropriate pages before photocopying, such as hyperdexterity of thumbs or free hanging vs.
attached ears. In class, make sure each student has a Data Book or printout.
Go over each trait, but obviously spend less time on subsequent traits. You can reiterate what
genes, alleles, dominance, recessiveness, range, averages mean as you look at each trait. If you
do Cormic Index, have the shortest female and the tallest male stand at the front of the room and
then sit together on a table and have the class look at their standing vs. sitting height. Invariably,
the short female gets taller when she sits next to the male because males generally carry more
of their height in their legs than females. Have the hyperdexterous students show their
hitchhikers thumb or others show their hairy fingers. You can comment on human variability by
populations: which populations have the highest amount of A blood; are the tallest; or have the
most arches in fingerprints, etc.
In these three sessions, students have collected real data on an existing human population; they
have turned their raw data into meaningful data; you have explained the context of the data
relative to human variability.
In a subsequent class, you can choose to use the analysis of the data and generate fictitious data
for five previous generations, using that data to explain aspects of population genetics,
microevolution, the four modes of evolutionary change as seen by patterns of data, and even
use the data to discuss race.
Note: to save space, Appendices 1,2,3 are not on separate pages. Cut and use as needed.

APPENDIX A: EQUIPMENT NEEDS BY TRAIT (M Traits and C Traits)

ABO Blood: although kits can be purchased to take blood type, it is easier to just ask students if
they know their blood type or have them make one up.

45

PTC tasting: borrow strips from biology department or purchase PTC tasting strips from Lab
Aids. You can cut the strips into 4 each; make control strips using plain paper.
Short Index Finger. Using a piece of cardboard slightly larger than a palm, draw the outline of
one of your hands, with fingers slightly spread. Tape a small piece of cardboard at the end of the
ring finger so natives will bump the end of that finger against the barrier.
Color Blindness: borrow book from library, borrow from your local optometrist, or make color
photocopies of 3 or 4 examples and staple them together.3
Mid Digital Hair, Darwins Point, Tented Fingers, Hitchhikers Thumb, Tongue Roll,
Short Earlobe Attachment, Hair Whorl Direction, and Number of Wrist Tendons: just
observation.
Height/stature; Sitting Height: use masking tape and mark off cm to 2m for stature and 1 m for
sitting height and tape onto wall. Provide ruler for measuring from head to wall marker and
chair.
Cormic Index: tape the standing and sitting height Data Sheets to the wall so the student in
charge of the trait can copy data from each sheet.
Cephalic Index: borrow a spreading caliper from your biology department. Or purchase from a
scientific equipment company.
Nasal Index: borrow a sliding caliper. See above.
Nasal Profile: draw pictures on the Data Sheet showing the 3 stereotyped profiles: convex,
straight, concave.
Fingerprints: draw pictures of each type of fingerprint on the Data Sheet: arch, loop, whorl. And
inkpad.
Eye Form: draw a picture on the Data Sheet showing the stereotyped eye forms: inner
epicanthic, middle/full fold, none.
Body Hair Amount: do not do observation! Just have student ask.
Hair Color: Eye Color; Hair Form: just observation, in designated stages from darkest to
lightest in hair color and eye color and from most curled to straight for natural hair form.

APPENDIX B: DATA SHEET AND INSTRUCTIONS FOR DATA ANALYSIS

Name of collector/s ________________
Trait____________________________
Instructions: Collect data by observation (or asking questions), not by genetic symbols.
Data collection and analysis instructions for your trait are on reverse.
46

ID #

Males

1 _________________________________
2 _________________________________
3__________________________________

ID #

Females

27 ______________________________
28 ______________________________
29

etc.

APPENDIX C: INSTRUCTIONS FOR COLLECTING/ANALYZING DATA

(Instructor: Cut and paste the instructions for only the trait assigned to each student/team to each
Data Sheet, Appendix 2. Photocopy and add M and C (Appendix 4) instructions as appropriate
for each trait used.) (M) = Mendelian Trait; (C) = Continuous Trait
MENDELIAN TRAITS (M)
ABO (M) Every human has a blood type: A, B, or O. Data collection: ask native what his or
her blood type is. Write A, B, or O. Data analysis: follow directions for ABO.
PTC (M) Data collection: ask each native what he or she tastes on each of two strips. Give
the plain paper strip first. Write Yes if person tastes the chemical or No if not. Data analysis: T
(tasting) is dominant; t (non tasting) is recessive.
Mid-digital Hair Presence (M) Data collection: look for hair on the mid digits of fingers. Write
Present or Absent. Data analysis: M (presence) is dominant; m (absence) is recessive.
Darwins Point (M) Data collection: look at inner ridge of ears for a triangular bump about
1/3 of the way down ear. Write Present or Absent. Data analysis: D (absence) is dominant; d
(present) is recessive.
Finger Tenting (M) Data collection: ask each native to intertwine his or her two hands in a
tent with one thumb over the other. Write Left if left thumb is over right and Right if right thumb
is over left. Data analysis: L (right over left) is dominant; l (left over right) is recessive.
Hitchhikers Thumb (or hyperdexterity) (M) Data collection: ask native to bend his or her
thumb backward and write Yes or No. Data analysis: H (absent) is dominant; h (present) is
recessive.
Tongue Roll Ability (M) Data collection: ask native to roll his or her tongue from each side
to the middle. Write Yes or No. Data analysis: R (can roll) is dominant; r (cannot roll) is
recessive.
Ear Lobe Attachment (M) Data collection: look at each natives ear lobes and write
Attached or Free. Data analysis: E (free hanging) is dominant; e (attached) is recessive.

47

Short Index Finger (M) Data collection: using the cardboard palm provided, have native
place palm down flat, matching thumb and little finger to the cardboard palm. Write Yes if index
finger is shorter than ring finger; write No if same length. Data analysis: F (has short index
finger) is dominant; f (does not have short index finger) is recessive.
Hair Whorl Direction (M) Data collection: check the crown of the head of each native for
direction of hair whorl and write Clockwise or Counterclockwise. Data analysis: W (clockwise)
is dominant; w (counterclockwise) is recessive.
Wrist Tendons (M) Data collection: ask each native to bend his or her hand over his or her
wrist, turning it so you can see if there are two or three tendons. Write 2 or 3. Data analysis: X
(two tendons) is dominant; x (three tendons) is recessive.
Color Blindness (M) Data collection: using the color blindness chart, see if each native can
see color. Write Yes (can see color) or No (cannot see color). Data analysis: C not color blind is
dominant; c (color blind) is recessive.
Stature (height) (C) Data collection: tell each student to stand up straight and measure height
in metric. Data analysis: keep males and females separate and do average for each plus average
for group. Note min-max range for each.
Sitting Height (C) Data collection: tell each student to sit up straight and measure sitting height
in metric. Data analysis: separate males and females and do average for each plus average for
group. Note min-max range for each.
Cormic Index (C) (ratio between stature and sitting height). Data collection: copy both stature
and sitting height from Data Sheets. Data analysis: divide sitting height by stature. Do averages
for males and females separately plus group average.
Cephalic Index (C) (ratio between the head length and width). Data collection: measure longest
part of natives head between eyes and back of head keeping caliper even; measure widest part
of natives head, keeping calipers even. Data analysis: divide width by length. Do average for
population and note min-max ranges.
Nasal Index (C) (ratio between the nose length and width). Data collection: measure length of
nose from between eyes to bottom of nose and width between nostrils. Data analysis: divide
width by length. Do average for population and note min-max ranges.
Nasal Profile (C). Data collection: the three stereotyped nasal profiles and write convex,
straight, or concave on Data Sheet. Data analysis: using code for convex (1), straight (2), and
concave (3), calculate % for each; calculate a population average by multiplying the number of
natives in each category by the code number and dividing by total population number.
Finger Prints (C). Data collection: with inkpad and paper, roll fingers to get prints. Data
analysis: count how many arches, whorls, and loops for this population and calculate % of each
for the total.
48

Hair Color; Eye Color, and Hair Form (C). Data collection: ask each native if his or her
hair, eye, or hair form is natural. If not, ask what is and note the natural form. Data Analysis:
use 5-color scale of DD (5), D (4), M (3), L (2), LL (1) for color traits and pepper corn (5), frizzy
(4), curly (3) wavy (2) and straight (1) for hair form. Count how many fall into each category and
do % of each. Do average for population by multiplying the number of natives in each
category by the code number and dividing by the total population number.
Eye Form and Body Hair Amount (C). Data collection: observe eyelids and write inner,
middle; ask if native has more, same, or less body hair than others in same sex/age category.
Data analysis: use 3 form scale of inner (3), middle (2), none (1) for eye form and more (3),
same (2), or less (1) for body hair amount. Count how many fall into each category and do % of
each. Do average for population by multiplying the number of natives in each category by the
code number and dividing by the total population number.
-----------------------------------------(Instructor: photocopy as many M Trait Instructions as you chose to assign, and the Blood typing
analysis, if assigned.)
APPENDIX D: M Trait Instructions for Calculating Phenotype, Estimated Genotype, and
Estimated Allele Frequencies (except for Blood Typing)
Note that frequency calculations are highly simplified. They do not use the HardyWeinberg symbols (p and q) because they are not needed in this exercise.
Using the N (total number in the population), calculate frequencies for your trait. The example
on the left is for PTC tasting, a M trait. See how each frequency is calculated by reading
instructions and checking example; then fill in your data in the right column and do the
calculations.
Phenotype frequencies (how many taste versus not taste)
Example
Instructions
Fill in your data
Tasters
N=30 = .60
Count pheno category and
Dominant N=
calculate
%
types
in
each
Non-tasters N=20 = .40
Recessive N=

Allele frequencies (how many dominant and how many recessive alleles)
Example
Instructions
Fill in your data
T = .37
Recessive is the square root Dominant = .__
of recessive phenotype
frequency. Dominant is
t = .63
Recessive = .__
what is left from 1.0.

49

= .__
= .__

Genotype frequencies (how many individuals fall into the three categories of homozygous
dominant, heterozygous dominant, homozygous recessive)
Example
Instructions
Fill in your data
Recessive is known from
TT = .14
Homozygous dom = .__
phenotype. To calculate
homozygous dominant,
square frequency of
Tt = .47
Heterozygous dom = .__
dominant allele. To
calculate heterozygous
dominant, add the two
tt = .40
Homozygous recessive = .__
numbers and subtract
from 1.0.

AOB Blood Type: there are 3 alleles, A and B are codominant, O is recessive.
Calculate phenotype frequencies by counting A, B, AB, and O as given by natives:
A = . B = . AB = . O = .
Calculate estimated allele frequencies using symbols:
A=p, B=q, O=r
Do r first: r =
frequency of O
p= 1 - frequency of B & O
q = 1 - frequency of A & O

O=r=.
A=p=.
B=q=.

Calculate estimated genotype frequencies using symbols:

AA = p 2 = . BB = q2 = . AB = 2 pq= . AO = 2 pr = . BO = 2 qr = . OO = r2 = .
---------------------------------FOOTNOTES
1

The exercise is taken from a much longer version of the exercise that includes instructions on
using the data to explain population genetics, microevolution, and race. See Teaching Human
Variation: Issues, Trends, and Challenges, G. Strkalj, ed. 2009 Hauppauge NY: Nova Science
Publishers.

Go through recent issues of American Journal of Physical Anthropology or use one of the
reports in Further Reading.

I. Shiharas Tests for Color Defining is the standard. But there is one color photo in R. Lewis
(2007) Human Genetics, 8th ed. New York: McGraw Hill and a different one in E.J. and A. P.

50

Menge (1999) Basic Human Genetics, 2nd ed. Sunderland MA: Sinauer Associates.
Further reading:
Ferrell, R. et al. (1978) The Blacks of Panama: Their Genetic Diversity as Assessed by Fifteen
Inherited Biochemical Systems. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 48: 269-276.
Gajdusek, D.C. et al. (1978) Genetic Differentiation Among Populations in Western New
Guinea. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 48: 47-64.
Gokcumen, O. et al. (2008) Genetic Variation in the Enigmatic Altai Kazakhs of South Central
Russia: Insights Into Turkic Population History. American Journal of Physical Anthropology
136: 278-293.
Zhou, R. et al. (2008) Origin and Evolution of Two Yugur Sub-clans in Northwest China: A
Case Study in Paternal Genetic Landscape. Annals of Human Biology 35 (4) March-April: 198211.

51

ZOO TEACHING STRATEGY

Barbara J. King
Accredited zoological parks are stuffed full of learning opportunities for undergraduate students
enrolled in introductory Biological Anthropology or Primate Behavior courses. Often, instructors
set only two goals for class field trips to the zoo. Students are asked, first, to observe the
taxonomic array of non-human primates so that they may match up textbook descriptions of
prosimians, monkeys, and apes with flesh-and-blood, grooming, aggressing, and brachiating
creatures, and second, to try their hand at data-sampling, so that they can derive a quantitative
report of some aspect of whats going on in a selected social group or two.
I outline here a teaching strategy that includes, but expands beyond, these two goals. This
strategy encourages students to capture more fully the subtleties of primate behavior and to
understand something about how knowledge in primatology (and in the zoo world) is produced
and disseminated. A shift in learning comes about when students are asked also to carry out
qualitative sampling; to compare the results they get from quantitative versus qualitative
sampling methods; and to reflect on aspects of public outreach and animal care in the zoo in
which they find themselves.
The following sections discuss how to guide students in carrying out these five activities. Lets
begin, however, with how to prepare the class for the zoo field trip: I would go so far as to say
that a days preparation makes or breaks this entire teaching strategy! Everything that happens at
the zoo flows from the in-class preparation.
In-Class Preparation
Choose the optimal time in the term for the field trip, preferably after the students have been
introduced to each of the major taxonomic groups of primates and their social structures, but
before the mid-way point in the course. Devote one full class day before the field trip to two
specific exercises: practice of data-sampling methods, and a discussion of what to look for at the
zoo. Students should come to this class having read an article (Altmann 1974) and portions of a
book (King 2004).
Bring to class a five-minute segment of a videotape or DVD of monkeys or apes in action. Select
a clip that involves a relatively straightforward behavioral sequence involving, say, a grooming
bout, mother-infant interaction, or a threat-submission behavioral event that involves only two or
three animals. Explain to the students that you will watch the clip together a minimum of three
times.
The first time, simply play the clip and have students take ad libitum data. That is, ask them to
watch the unfolding behaviors and record in words whatever catches their eye. Immediately
afterwards, ask them what they observed. (Students will have noticed different things.) Then ask
what difficulties they found when carrying out the task. (There will be many!)

52

The second time, select one focal animal and ask students to carry out focal-animal sampling
(Altmann 1974), so that they tally by category all social behaviors initiated and received by that
single animal. It can be helpful to circulate an example of a well-organized focal-animal check
sheet in advance of this exercise, and to refer to a peer-reviewed article or two that uses focalanimal sampling: its a highly popular and well-used method that appears in the majority of
primate behavioral studies. Adapt the same two questions for discussion in the aftermath of this
second viewing. (Students will again have noticed different things, will even have counted up a
different number of, say, threats, and will certainly offer a list of challenging aspects to
completing this task!)
The third time, instruct the students to look for co-regulation between two pre-selected primates,
that is, within a single dyad (King 2004). In looking for co-regulation, rather than writing down
anything that catches the eye, or tallying up how many times animal X grooms animal Y, tell
students to look for and record descriptions of fluid coordination and adjustment of action
between the two social partners -- and/or its absence. To do this you may have to repeat a
viewing (which would be viewing number four). The idea here is to go beyond a simple
counting of behaviors, and a simple linear view of monkeys and apes as initiators and
receivers. Instead, the mind is opened to understand that highly social primates at times create
meaning in the moment and quite flexibly as they come together in social situations. I write more
about this below (and see King 2004 for full explanation).
Round out this third viewing with the by-now-familiar questions to the students. Also, ask the
students to reflect on the fact that different sampling methodologies produce very different kinds
of data pictures about a single behavioral event.
Complete the class by reviewing with students the specific non-human primates available to
observe at the zoo that will host the field trip. Do African apes, Asian apes, Old World monkeys,
New World monkeys, and prosimians all reside there? Ask students to reflect on their previous
experiences as visitors to that zoo or other zoos. Were the enclosures for primates spacious?
Were any primates housed singly? Were enrichment objects or activities available? Did zoo
visitors have an opportunity to learn about the species and individuals before them via posted
plaques, research demonstrations by scientists, informal chats with zoo docents, or displays at
some kind of education center?
You should plan on about four hours at the zoo in addition to the time spent in travel. Students
should bring along notebook paper attached to a clipboard, a digital watch, and pencils. If
possible, some of the students should bring a video camera. (At my College, video cameras may
be signed out for short periods from the library, for educational projects.)
Observing An Array of Primates (45 minutes)
During the initial 45 minutes on site, tour the zoos primates as a class; the emphasis now should
be on observing and discussing, with only ad libitum data recorded. Point out differences in
anatomy and locomotion across primate taxonomic groups; spend a good while at a single
enclosure where the primates are active, in order to narrate as events unfold in terms of play,
grooming, aggression, and so on.

53

Remind the students that their observations are to occur on two levels: first, about what the
primates are doing, and second, about how the zoo itself is set up for animal care and knowledge
sharing. Ask the students to think back on the questions raised in class discussion about animal
enclosures and enrichment, opportunities for visitors learning and so on; they should notice
these aspects as they tour the zoo.
At the end of this period, organize the students into pairs or small subgroups. Try to ensure that
each team includes at least one student with a video camera. Each team should choose two
primate species to focus on; be sure that these species are not housed at opposite ends of a large
zoo, and as importantly, that they reflect taxonomic variation. Thus each team should select one
monkey and one ape species; or one prosimian and one ape species; or one prosimian and one
monkey species.
Quantitative Sampling (60 minutes)
Student teams begin the second hour by taking two focal-animal samples, 10 minutes in length,
on Species #1. Members of each team concentrate on the same focal animal and agree on any
behavioral limitations to the sampling (for example, only social behavior is sampled, or only
affiliative and not aggressive social behavior is sampled), but students are to take data
individually. At the end of each sample, the students compare their findings.
During the second half of this second hour, have them repeat the above, working now on Species
#2. Your job during this hour is to float among the teams, helping to identify male monkeys
from females and play behaviors from aggressive behaviors, and discussing differences and
similarities across the two species observed.
At the end of this hour, assemble the teams all together and refresh them! That is, announce a
twenty-minute food/drink interval. Make the serious point that in the field, observer fatigue is a
real issue; scientists schedule rest breaks for themselves in order to boost the reliability of their
observations.
Next, reassemble the students into teams and send them back to either their Species #1 or
Species #2, allowing the student teams to make the choice. (Note: About two-and-a-half hours
have by now elapsed, with one-and-a-half hours remaining in the field trip.)
Qualitative Sampling (60 minutes)
For the next hour, students should look for mutual adjustment and co-regulation (or their
absence) in the species they choose to observe. The unit of analysis is now shifted from counting
up behaviors within a category -- writing down whenever A grooms B or B threatens A -- to the
quality of behaviors within a full unfolding social event.
Lets say a student team is observing mother-infant behavior among lowland gorillas. In the
focal-animal sampling method, zeroing in on one infant, a common data result for a 10-minute
sample might be: 3 nursing attempts by the infant; 1 successful nursing bout for 2 minutes 15
seconds; 2 gestures by the mother to push the infant away from the breast. With qualitative

54

sampling the result might be in part: The infant pulls gently and repeatedly on the mothers
nipple. As the infant makes the second tug, the mother pushes him away with her right hand. The
infant scampers away but runs back within 10 seconds. He reaches for the mothers nipple but as
his hands reaches out she pushes him away more roughly. This time he stays away on his own
for over 1 minute. Even as he is moving back towards his mother, this time, she opens her arms
so that her breasts are available to him and he moves in and begins to suckle. When she adjusts
her body he moves fluidly with her.
It should be stressed that qualitative sampling is not equivalent to ad libitum sampling. In the
latter, free notes are taken without regard to any particular focus. With qualitative sampling and a
focus on co-regulation, the whole behavioral event unfolding between the social partners is key;
the eye is trained to note the quality of behaviors and the degree of mutual adjustment and coregulation.
To learn how to look for mutual adjustment and co-regulation, even within a single dyad, takes
practice; even seasoned primatologists prefer to take data from videotape. After the first half
hour of sampling on paper, encourage the students to film the dyad in question for another half
hour. Either one student can be appointed as filmmaker or alternatively, students may share the
camera and film small segments in turn.
At the end of this hour, reunite all the teams where everyone can sit down in a quiet area of the
zoo.
Comparative Analysis (30 minutes)
Begin the concluding 30 minutes (or longer, if time permits) by guiding students in a discussion
of what they learned about the primate species observed via both the qualitative and the
quantitative sampling methods. Ask if students noticed or came to understand different aspects of
the species behavioral repertoire and cognitive or communicative capabilities, depending on the
method used.
Assign the students homework to be completed within a week or so, based on the focal-animal
and co-regulation data collected on their species. The students will 1) turn the focal-animal
sampling tallies, per behavioral category, into raw frequencies and percentages of overall social
time budget (or whatever analysis is applicable to the specific decisions made during the
sampling); 2) watch and re-watch a 5-minute segment of the videotape (made available to all on
the team) in order to provide a qualitative analysis of mutual adjustment and co-regulation and 3)
write a few paragraphs about specific ways in which the methodology utilized affected their
understandings of the animals they watched.
Zoo Outreach and Animal Care
Conclude the exercise with a discussion of the students observations on, and opinions about, the
zoos animal care and public outreach. Encourage a diversity of views. Dont be surprised to
hear things like The gorillas look bored and they didnt do anything when we watched them.
Such a comment offers an opportunity to discuss a wide range of topics: the tendency for

55

students to expect the task of the primatologist to be endlessly exciting, based on the highlyedited film clips of monkeys and apes they see on the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet; or
considering that not doing anything sometimes may be a misleading conclusion, because a lot
of primate behavior occurs through subtleties like shifts in body movement or eye gaze; and
realizing that a captive environment might indeed reduce animals activity levels and suggesting
what might be done about that.
It is helpful to contextualize the pros and cons of zoo situations by discussing the pressures that
primates face in the wild, which range from habitat destruction to infectious disease to the
incredible stresses of poaching and the bush meat trade (www.bushmeat.org) Return them to the
wild! plans are well-meant and sometimes do work, but need to be considered in a realistic
framework.
Students often enjoy preparing, orally or on paper, a mock proposal to the zoo director outlining
ways in which the publics understanding of primate behavior might be increased at that
particular zoo: Better graphics? Interaction with zoo docents who can explain which animals are
related to which other animals, and offer social histories of the groups? Posted information about
the bush meat trade and how even an act as simple as recycling ones cell phones can help
conservation of great apes in Africa?
Final Note
Much can be accomplished with undergraduates in four hours at a good accredited zoo. The
multi-faceted teaching strategy outlined here increases the students appreciation for the
complexity of primate behavior itself, and also for the discipline of primatology. With an eye to
co-regulation, students begin to see that nonhuman primates, like humans though in different
ways and to different degrees, come together socially to create behavior through mutual
awareness rather than merely taking turns initiating or receiving behaviors. The zoo trip provides
a rich platform from which to discuss continuities and discontinuities in the evolution of primate
communication and culture (de Waal 2001).
Please send feedback on this strategy, or on adaptations made to it, to bjking@wm.edu
References Cited
Altmann, J. 1974. Observational study of behavior: Sampling methods. Behavior 48: 227-265.
King, B. J. 2004. The Dynamic Dance: Nonvocal Communication in African Apes. Cambridge
MA: Harvard University Press.
DeWaal, F. B. M. 2001 The Ape and the Sushi Master: Cultural Reflections of a Primatologist.
New York: Basic Books.
Websites related to the study of captive apes
http://www.greatapetrust.org/
http://www.emory.edu/LIVING LINKS/

56

USING STAR TREK TO EXPLORE HUMAN ORIGINS MODELS AND

HUMAN VARIATION
Daryl G. Frazetti
Introduction
How many species are there in the human lineage? How and when did anatomically modern
humans emerge? How should modern humans be classified, or should they? What is race?
These are all questions usually discussed and debated in introductory level physical/biological
anthropology courses. There are no easy answers to any of them and controversial ideas abound.
Students need to learn that there is considerable controversy and many gray areas in
bioanthropology and they need to learn how to critically examine all sides of the issues without
bias in order to formulate their own thoughts and come to their own conclusions in a scientific
manner.
Most students who enroll in introductory bioanthropology courses do so in order to fill a general
education requirement in the sciences. Some will be, or will become anthropology majors, but
most will not. Either way, the majority of students begins the course with much apprehension
about science in general and are not used to being in an introductory level course that covers so
many controversial topics. In order to help ease students into the course and better prepare them
for the subject matter to come, I find it helpful to maintain a think outside the box approach
throughout the course. I also feel it is important to begin discussing human variability very early
so it can be used to discuss both our human past and present: models of emerging anatomically
modern humans for the former and the concept of race for the latter.
I have found it useful to tie these topics to a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode: The
Chase.* Use of this episode encourages students to relax, open their minds, and think outside the
box. It also creates a fun atmosphere, one in which students actually enjoy discussing
controversial topics. What follows are instructions on how to use the Star Trek episode to get
students to think about human variability, past and present.
But first, a bit of digression about using science fiction as a teaching strategy. Through science
fiction, controversial topics or those that are complex such as human evolution and race can be
discussed in ways that break down barriers and allow a more open exchange of ideas that can in
turn lead to a better understanding of the subject matter. Science fiction is a reaction to
contemporary society and a mirror into humanity because it tells tales of the past, present, and
potential future outcomes of various paths humans may choose over time. It also provokes
thought about the rise and diversification of the human species and allows students to predict
how futuristic humans might appear under various conditions.
Specifically, Star Trek has dealt with an array of issues that are common in introductory
anthropology classes: it has focused on different cultures and languages in other worlds, it has
dealt with the rise and diversification of humans and human-like species (hominoids), and
numerous episodes focused on human evolution and the concept of race. This exercise focuses
on the use of Star Trek to help students understand the biological side of what it is to be human.

57

Most students are already familiar with aspects of Star Trek because it became a large part of
popular culture. The Chase episode is an ideal episode to select for use in this strategy because
it is concerned with the utilization of DNA evidence to track the origins of several humanoid
groups. Its storyline focuses on the common root ancestry of these groups and highlights their
similarities despite their physical differences. It mentions different evolutionary paths due to
different planetary environments. Showing this episode in class with discussion before and after
allows you to effectively discuss three topics: human variation, the emergence of anatomically
modern humans, and race.
The study of human variation in the past, including hominid variation in general, the genus
Homo in particular, and models that attempt to explain the rise of anatomically modern humans
usually occurs about half way through the term. This large topic is usually followed by a focus
on human variation in modern humans. Use of Star Trek fits this timing since it deals with
human variability in both the past and present.
The exercise works best in a class of fewer than 40 students just because of the discussion
segments. As outlined, it takes two class periods, or the equivalent. Because the strategy attempts
to get students to think for themselves, I believe it is best to keep text reading and more than
introductory lecture materials until after the viewing and discussion. It is best to have students
enter into discussions on the topics as open-minded as possible and prior reading or in-depth
lectures at this point can create possible bias.
Day 1: Preview
Ask students what they know about such groups as Vulcans, Romulans, Klingons, Cardassians,
and Humans. In case they are too young to have seen Star Trek, explain that they are all groups
in that television series. You can show images from the Internet or from other sources to show
what these groups looked like. Ask students if they think they are all the same species and to
explain their responses. Ask them to examine physical features of individual groups and predict
what sorts of environments or diets they may be best suited to and why. Then ask if they think
these groups could interbreed, again explaining their responses. If it was not brought up before,
tell students there are many examples in the Star Trek universe of interbreeding. For example,
Spock is half Human and half Vulcan, BElanna Torres is half Klingon and half Human. These
are just two of the more commonly known characters. BEllana is a great example since she
mates with a Human and gives birth successfully in one episode. Ask students what this says
about varied humanoids in the Star Trek universe. Does this mean they are all the same species?
What alternative explanations can be offered? This allows you to discuss the nature of species.
Now turn to human evolution, using brief models of the evolution of Homo erectus and the
evolution of anatomically modern humans. Briefly outline the two major hypotheses concerning
Homo erectus: was it a single, geographically diverse species or many, one per continent? Then
briefly outline the two major hypotheses concerning the evolution of anatomically modern
humans: Out of Africa-2 with no interbreeding with archaic forms of Homo sapiens or
Multiregionalism with gene flow keeping the populations to a single, wide-spread species. Keep
these models brief for now, but by mentioning them, students will hopefully keep them in mind
while viewing the episode. Then ask them what they think of the future of human evolution. Will

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humans go out into space and inhabit new worlds and become new species? Or is this simply a
matter of adaptation via culture and biology to new environments? Will humans simply adapt
and change to better fit new worlds?
Now turn to modern human variability and ask students to define race and ethnicity so the
terms are not confused. These terms need to be understood prior to seeing the Star Trek episode
since many of the terms are used in it.
Day 2: The Chase
At the start of the second day of the exercise, provide a handout of questions that will be the
basis for discussion after the viewing. (The questions are Appendix A and can be photocopied
for distribution.)
Show the episode. (It runs 45 minutes)
Discuss the episode, keeping in mind its relevance to known human variability (rather than
fictionalized as in the episode). Ask students the questions in Appendix 1. The following are
brief answers to those questions:
1. In Star Trek, the term race is used to indicate a different culture and planet of origin.
Ask if this is how scientists use the term today.
2. In Star Trek, the term species is used to indicate any life form not of a humanoid nature.
Ask if this is how scientists use the term today.
3. The term humanoid is used to refer to any life form that displays features similar in
form to humans. Ask if this is how scientists use the term today.
4. The episode implies that all humanoids have originated in a similar manner and that their
evolutionary paths have allowed them to adapt in very specific ways to their different
worlds.
5. The episode suggests the group that claims to have seeded the universe with genetic
materials could be equated to Homo erectus, evolving first in Africa, then leaving Africa
and traveling around the Old World, adapting to different and isolated regions. Later
hominids dispersed from Africa and diversified, evolving into the different groups they
became in different worlds. This is very similar to the Multiregional model for the
emergence of anatomically modern humans. At this point, you will need to mention the
other major model of emerging anatomically modern humans, the Out of Africa-2 (or
Recent African Origin) model.
You can also comment on other, less extreme, hypotheses about the emergence of
anatomically modern humans at this time.

59

6. The episode implies that all humans or humanoids are the same species, that they are all
of the same genetic materials, and are related to one another. This could be interpreted
and presented to debunk a biological basis for racial classification and the idea that there
may be separate species or subspecies of humans.
Following the discussion about the episode, you can assign a short written assignment. You can
assign each student one of the last three discussion questions and ask him or her to relate the
episode to the question asked. This further enhances comprehension of concepts.
Conclusion
In introductory bioanthropology courses, some desirable learning outcomes might include the
understanding of the relationship between biology, culture, and the environment; models that
explain the human evolutionary story; how adaptations provide insight into human variation; and
what that variation means to humans as a species with respect to biology and the concept of
race. At the end of the course, students should be able to address questions such as: What are
humans? What is the human evolutionary story? Are humans still evolving? What is the future of
human evolution? The Chase episode addresses all of these learning outcomes and helps
students think about and answer these questions.
*Star Trek: The Next Generation. Episode 246, April 1993. The Chase. Paramount Pictures.
Google Amazon and see what is available for the single episode or the 6th season.

APPENDIX A: DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR THE CHASE

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

How is the term race used in the episode?

How is the term species used?
What might the term humanoid imply?
What might this episode tell us about the adaptive process and variability?
How might this episode relate to current explanations for the emergence of anatomically
modern humans?
6. What might this episode tell us about the biological basis of race?

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USING EXPERIMENTAL HISTORY OF SCIENCE IN TEACHING

BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
Goran trkalj
Introduction
The value of history in science education has been debated for years (e.g., Debru, 1997; Allchin,
2002), but it appears that most working scientists and science educators now accept that history
of science matters. The history of science, if introduced using a topical approach and presented
in a creative way, has the potential of providing insight into how science functions in particular
disciplines, and particularly within its broader social context. This is as true of biological
anthropology as of any other biological discipline. What follows is a strategy for teaching
students about the mistakes of certain scientists in the past (often noticeable only with the benefit
of historical hindsight) and the lessons we can learn from them both intellectually and ethically.
The study of human variation (particularly race) has been one of the most contentious fields of
research in anthropology since the beginning of the discipline. Because of the complexity of the
phenomena studied, and the social implications of the research, the field has been surrounded by
controversy and misunderstandings. Most of the past and present debates revolve around the
concept of race a concept that for a lengthy period of time played a key role in describing
and attempting to understand human biological variation.
The history of science, in its experimental form, can be used to teach about human variation and
race. After a short background that includes the research of a Russian biochemist, E. O.
Manoiloff (also spelled Manoilov) who conducted anthropological research in the 1920s, I will
explore an in-class experiment that duplicates his historical method as well as the same
experiment done with modern technology. Because the experiment involves certain equipment
and invasively drawn blood (from in-class volunteers), it is probably appropriate only for classes
in biological anthropology, both introductory and advanced, where the topic of human variation
is discussed. It works best in medium sized classes, though with some change in the instructions,
it could be used in larger classes. As given below, the exercise takes three class periods: one to
set it up, one where students do the experiment, and one to discuss their findings.
Background
The history of science abounds in different methodologies and approaches (Kragh, 1987). One of
the ways in which certain historical topics may be efficiently studied and taught is through using
experiments as done in the past. This approach is based on the assumption that past experiments
can be studied by the help of a (modern) reproduction of them (Kragh, 1987: 160). Repeating
the historical experiment alone, however, will be of negligible benefit if the original theoretical
framework as well as the social context within which science was practised is not taken into
account.
One of the important lessons of looking at experiments in the past is that they often reveal biases
on the part of the experimenter, intentional or not. As a modern example, tell your students of a

61

recent case of likely unintentional bias by focusing on the (in)famous case of Morton/Gould. In
1839, 1844, and 1849, Samuel George Morton published three highly influential studies on the
cranial capacity of different races. Stephen Jay Gould (1978, 1981) claimed Morton was
racially biased and had made numerous mistakes in both measurement and interpretation. A
reanalyis of both Morton and Gould suggested that Goulds research contained errors that may
have been due to his own bias (Michael 1988; Brace 2005).
The race concept, now generally abandoned by a large majority of American and western
European biological anthropologists, dominated the study of human variation for centuries
(Lieberman et al., 2004). Within this framework a large number of studies were generated, and
as a result, racial science at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century
was transformed into a real classification mania that hid more than it revealed about the nature of
human biological variation. Typologically based racial science came to an end only with the
scientific and social changes in the second part of the twentieth century, such as the emergence
of population thinking in biology and general social frustration with the effects of racial policies
after the Second World War.
Before getting to the in-class experiment, students need a bit of social background into the
historical nature of race studies, particularly in the early 20th century, as well as background on
science in general at that time. I have used the E. O. Manoiloffs experiments for the in-class
experiments, and have used his cultural milieu as the background for his science. In the
beginning of the twentieth century, racial seriology (part of human genetics) was used by
Manoiloff to classify human races. Today, with the benefit of historical hindsight, we perceive
his research as bordering on the ridiculous if not insane.
Manoiloff seemed to be impressed with the possibility of using ABO blood typing to establish
racial boundaries. Blood, pregnant with symbolic meaning (Marks 1995), appeared to many early
twentieth century scientists as a substance that contained a code that would unlock the secrets of
life, thus fulfilling a role nowadays afforded by DNA (cf. Nelkin and Lindee 1995). Manoiloff
wanted to go even further in utilizing blood in classification. He postulated the existence of
something correspondingly specific of race in the blood of different races of mankind
(Manoiloff 1927: 16).
By a trial and error method using different chemical reagents, Manoiloff went in search of the
racial ingredient. Although he could not explain what this racial ingredient was, he claimed
that he managed to discover the ingredients that, when applied to blood, would detect that
ingredient by coloring blood differently. Manoiloffs formula for detecting racial ingredients
by the color of blood is given in Appendix A. You should read it now and borrow or order the
equipment for the experiment; also photocopy the appendix for student use. You could make up
the entire formula for the class, but part of the lessons learned in this activity is for students to
follow the same procedure as Manoiloff.
Manoiloff used this alchemical recipe to distinguish between two races, namely Russian and
Jewish, apparently the two he wished to distinguish between. He only used individuals who
could be certain of their ancestry, as determined by their knowledge of at least three truly
Russian or Jewish ancestors from both maternal and paternal sides. After adding the formula to

62

an individuals blood, Manoiloff claimed that Jewish blood turned blue or blue-green, as the
distinct color of cresyl violet disappeared entirely or almost completely (Manoiloff 1927: 18);
he claimed this did not happen in Russian blood, as the cresyl violet remained partly insoluble.
As a result, Russian blood stayed blue-red in color. Based on this, Manoiloff claimed that he
could establish with 91.7% accuracy the identity of the individuals race.
Manoiloff and his collaborators subsequently successfully applied the method to other groups,
showing a virtual rainbow of racial blood colors, i.e. Estonians and Latvians (reddishbrownish), Poles (reddish-greenish), Koreans (reddish-violet), Kirghis (bluish-greenish), etc.
(Poliakowa 1927).
It is easy to dismiss this research with the benefit of historical hindsight, but in the 1920s the
study was generally accepted with very little scepticism over its methodology or results. The fact
that it was published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, then and now one of the
most respected journals in the field, says a lot. Earnest Hooton, in his 1931 classic Up from the
Ape, was one of the first anthropologists to openly raise doubts concerning Manoiloffs research.
The reason for Hootons scepticism was that Manoiloff was distinguishing between ethnic
groups, not biological races. Hooten emphasized it is inconceivable that all nationalities,
which are principally linguistic and political groups, should be racially and physiologically
distinct (Hooton 1931: 410). Others reported they could not successfully repeat the experiments.
The In-Class Activity
Manoiloffs research, an extreme example of the old racial science, provides an opportunity to
learn from the mistakes of earlier generations of scholars (Marks 1995: 3). In this activity,
students will duplicate what he did and how he did it and then do the same experiment using
modern technology, comparing the results. Since student volunteers will be donating blood, be
sure to go through your departments Human Subjects process.
Needed equipment can be gotten from your biology or chemistry department or purchased from a
scientific equipment house. For a class of 30, youd need:
3 Pasteur pipettes
3 micropipettes
6 glass stirrers
The chemical reagents:
1% alcoholic solution of methyl-blue (prepare 200 ml)
1% alcoholic solution of cresyl-violet (200 ml)
0.5% solution of silver nitrate (200 ml)
40% solution of hydrochloric acid (200 ml)
1% aqueous solution of potassium permanganate (200 ml)
sodium chloride (physiological solution) (1 liter)

63

The activity should ideally be carried out over three class sessions.
The first session should focus on a history of the concept of race, particularly during the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. You can use one of the following books as background
information: George Stockings Race, Culture, and Evolution: Essays in the History of
Anthropology (1968), Jonathan Markss Human Biodiversity: Genes, Race and History (1995) or
C. Loring Braces Race is a Four-Letter Word (2005). Photocopy and distribute Manoiloffs
original 1927 paper. If your library no longer has 1927 journals on its shelves, InterLibraryLoan
should be helpful. You can focus the discussion on the following questions: What is race
typology and what are its main characteristics? What is racial serology? How is Manoiloffs
research situated within a racial paradigm? What is race, how was it understood at the beginning
of the twentieth century and how is it understood today? Are the human groups that were
analyzed by Manoiloff biological races (according to past/present definition)? How does
typology differ from a population approach?
In session two, begin the in-class activity. Previous to this session, find an appropriate person
who can properly take the blood samples from student volunteers. Ask your students if any one
has taken blood samples. If not, ask members of your biology department to help you locate
someone who will come to class and properly take the samples. Blood should be drawn from a
minimum of 12 volunteers (two 5 ml samples from each) and be preserved in different, labeled,
test tubes. Ideally, these should be taken from individuals belonging to populations assumed to
be different races (e.g. Caucasian, Mongoloid, and Negroid). If this is not possible (due
to similar ancestry of the volunteers), different nationalities/ethnic groups should be recruited (as
Manoiloff did). Label the tubes by a preorganized system, noting in code which volunteers
donated the blood in each tube and which method will be used in processing it, such as A
Manoiloff; A Modern (for person A); B Manoiloff; B Modern (for person B), etc. Only you
should keep a record of the donors identity. The study should be blind students undertaking
later blood analysis must not know the identity of the subjects from whom the samples were
taken.
Divide the class into 6 groups; there can be up to 5 in each group. In a class of 30, there would be
6 groups of 5 each. Adjust for your class size. Each group will be analysing one tube of blood;
half will use Manoiloffs method and half will use the Modern method. You can refer to the
groups as the Manoiloff groups and the Modern groups.
Give each of the three Manoiloff groups a Pasteur pipette: have each group appoint its own
drop taker. To obtain drops (as suggested in Manoiloffs formula) scientists of the 1920s
generally used the Pasteur pipette, but using the pipette (even for an experienced person) means
that the volume of the drop is rather arbitrary. Give each of the Modern group a micropipette and
have each group appoint its own drop taker. Have the reagents ready and labelled; have
students use the formula in Appendix A adding the reagents into the test tubes as instructed.
After the reagents have been added and stirred, have each group make a color estimation of its
test tube using simple observation. They can use words like bluish-green, reddish-green etc.
as Manoiloff did. They may disagree and should remember the disagreement, but they must
come to a single conclusion as to color and write it on the chalkboard.

64

Before discussing student color findings, discuss the findings of the recent research project that
used the identical Manoiloff method (Naidoo et al. 2007). The Naidoo team found that blood will
show different colors but not as vividly as Manoiloff described. However, the modern team
found that there is no pattern to the colors, as differences are individual only and they do not
exist as groups. When the same technique was applied with the modern instruments, Naidoo and
his team found there are still minor individual color differences, but again, there are no
differences between populations.
Now have students put their color observations on the front chalkboard using the same code as
on the test tubes, i.e., A Manoiloff; A Modern, etc. Compare and discuss their findings for
each pair of tubes. Then, taking the experiment one step further, have students add extra drops of
the 4th and 5th reagents to their test tubes. Tell your students that Manoiloff advised that if the
original formula did not provide satisfactory coloration, additional drops of the fourth
(hydrochloric acid) and fifth (potassium permanganate) reagents should be added. In his
experiments, this enabled the different colorations of blood. Your students will find that if a
different number of drops are added to the same specimen, results will vary dramatically; the
undefined volume of the drop, together with the addition of extra drops, opens the doors of
arbitrariness that leads the coloration of blood to any desired result.
The third and final session can focus on class findings. The racial identity of the volunteers
can now be revealed. You can start with the question: where did Manoiloffs rainbow colors
come from? You can ask some of the questions and issues raised in the first session in light of
student results. Students will hopefully conclude that fraud (conscious or unconscious) must
have been at the bottom of the method because Manoiloff or the technicians doing the work must
have known the racial identity of their subjects beforehand. Students will also hopefully
suggest that the reason for the observed wide range of individual differences using the Manoiloff
procedure is also found because of the arbitrary size of the drop. Some comparison between past
and present science can also be made. If these and other questions or themes are not brought up
by students, you can lead the discussion by asking the questions.
Conclusions
The activity described above will help students understand some historical aspects of the
paradigm of racialism and racial typology. It will also introduce a healthy dose of scientific
scepticism, especially toward the power of the experimental method and measuring techniques.
Through the activity students should also learn to develop a historical distance and ability to not
judge past research according to the standards of present day science.
References
Allchin, D. 2002. Scientific myth-conceptions. Science Education, 787: 329-351.
Brace, C.L. 2005. Race is a Four-Letter Word. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Debru, C. 1997. On the usefulness of the history of science for science education. Notes
Records of the Royal Society of London, 51: 291-307.
Gould, S.J. 1978. Mortons ranking of races by cranial capacity. Science, 200: 503-509.
Gould, S.J. 1981, The Mismeasure of Man. New York and London: W.W. Norton.

65

and

Kragh, H. 1987. An Introduction to the Historiography of Science. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press.
Lieberman, L., Kaszycka, K.A., Fuentes, A.J.M., Yablonski, L., Kirk, R.C., trkalj, G., Wang,
Q., Sun, L. 2004. The race concept in five regions: variations without consensus.
Collegium Antropologicum, 28: 907-921.
Marks, J. 1995. Human Biodiversity: Genes, Race, and History. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.
Manoiloff, E.O. 1927. Discernment of human races by blood: particularly of Russians
from
Jews. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 10: 11-21.
Manoilov, E.O. 1929. Chemical reaction of blood for definition of sex in man and
animals, and dioecious plants, American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 13: 29-68.
Michael, J. 1988. A new look at Mortons craniological research. Current Anthropology
29:
349-354.
Morton, S.G. 1839. Crania Americana: Or, a Comparative View of the Skulls of
Various Aboriginal Nations of North and South America. Philadelphia: J.
Dobson.
Morton, S.G. 1844. Crania Aegyptiaca: Or, Observations on Egyptian Ethnography
Derived from Anatomy, History, and the Monuments. Philadelphia: John
Pennington.
Morton, S.G. 1849. Observations on the size of the brain in various races and families
of man. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences Philadelphia 4:221224.
Naidoo N.P., trkalj, G., Daly, T.J.M. 2007. The alchemy of human variation: race,
ethnicity and Manoiloffs blood reaction. Anthropological Review 70: 37-43.
Nelkin, D. and Linde, M.S. 1995. The DNA Mystique: The Gene as a Cultural Icon.
New
York: W.H. Freeman.
Poliakowa, A.T. 1927. Manoiloffs race reaction and its application to the determination of
paternity. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 10: 23-29.
Stocking, G.W.Jr. 1968. Race, Culture, and Evolution: Essays in the History of Anthropology.
New York: Free Press

APPENDIX A
The reagents used by Manoiloff were:

1% alcoholic solution of methyl-blue (Grbler)

1% alcoholic solution of cresyl-violet (Grbler) (Nissl Stain)
0.5% solution of silver nitrate
40% solution of hydrochloric acid (#4)
1% aqueous solution of potassium permanganate (#5). They were applied to blood using
his formula:
add to 3 cc. of unheated emulsion of red blood corpuscles (3 to 5 per cent) or directly
to the coagulum of blood three to four times as much (in volume) sodium chloride
(physiological solution) and mix with a glass stick so as to obtain a rather thick
emulsion.

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The initial step was the addition of 12 ml of physiological solution (phosphate buffered saline) to
the coagulum of blood. The reagents were then added in the following order. Add:

1 drop of the first reagent, shake

5 drops of second reagent, shake again
3 drops of third reagent, shake
1 drop of fourth reagent
3 to 5 drops of the fifth reagent (Manoiloff 1927 :18).

However, Manoiloff noted that in order to get better coloration it was sometimes necessary to
add not one, but two or three drops of the fourth reagent in which the same was applied
to reagent five, whereby it may be necessary to add not three, but from five to eight, and
sometimes even more, drops of potassium permanganate (Manoiloff 1927:18).
This addition proved to be one of the keys to understanding Manoiloffs apparent success.

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TEACHING EVOLUTION
Mark Nathan Cohen
Introduction
The main problems in teaching evolution relate to matters needing attention before you ever get
to talk about evolution per se as a topic. Unless you teach at an elite private institution where
students are well prepared in science, you are likely to face a student audience skeptical about
evolution, ignorant of the idea, blinded to it by the teachings of faith, and/or embedded in
particular cultures and communities that reject its teaching. Many students have never been
taught to consider what science is, let alone been exposed to fair evaluation of the theory of
evolution. Many have been taught that religious faith and the teaching of evolution are
incompatible that teaching evolution destroys faith. These problems must be addressed before
you can teach the content of evolution, and they must be addressed openly in a non-judgmental
way with room for exploration and student input.
Addressing the problems cant be done in an authoritarian presentation. In fact one of the
critiques of science is that, as often taught, it presents itself (inappropriately) as truth, assumes
its own obvious superiority as a way of thinking, and unfairly denigrates other approaches to
significant understanding. I believe that faith is necessary, too, and deserves respect. Students
need to know that science need not be pursued at the expense of faith, and need not challenge
most faiths. Most major faiths including Catholicism, most Judaism, most Protestantism, and
even many Evangelical Christians agree.
Teaching Evolution
In order to address both faith and science, begin your bioanthropology course or that particular
section of four-field introductory anthropology by making a number of points. Covering these
points will take about one class period of 60 to 75 minutes, depending on discussion, but it will
set the stage for subsequent teaching about evolution and is probably more important than
conveying all of the details of evolution.
Point 1: emphasize that science and faith are of equal importance, but each offers
different perspectives, different ways of knowing, and different but equal values. In order to
obtain the greatest rewards from each, the two must be kept separate. Faith is enormously
important in most of our lives and its value should be taught, but in any science course, certain
scientific principles must be pursued; faith is not one of them. Point out that because this is a
science class, it will follow scientific approaches to information. You can further point out the
difference between science and creationism/ faith and the attempts by some to disguise the latter
as science as so-called scientific creationism or Intelligent Design (ID). Point out that the
real issue is the understanding of science as a process and its workings, and that scientific
creationism violates those aims. Adding creationism to science classes confuses students about
what science is and how it operates.

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Point 2: make it clear to your students that they need not accept the findings of evolution,
but they need to understand why almost all scientists do believe in it. Students must understand
the methods, evidence, and patterns of thought that lead scientists to this conclusion.
Understanding what science is, is more important than understanding the details of evolution.
Point 3: now is the time to convey what science is. This is often presented badly by
scientists themselves and when this happens, it can easily confuse the issue. Creationists, too,
can wear white coats, use test tubes, be chemists, biologists, and geologists, have Ph.Ds and
even follow scientific method. Start this part of teaching evolution by suggesting that there are
only two actual defining facts of science:
First, science is a (relatively) open market of competing ideas about the natural world in which
individuals vie to have their ideas accepted in an ongoing peer-evaluated process; this process is
rather like a game of king of the mountain that never ends, because new scientific challenges
never end. It is competitive, not monolithic. Some old perspectives are eventually rejected; new
and hopefully better understandings are honed by the competition. In a system like this, scientists
never arrive at truth. Rather, and hopefully, scientists get better and better approximations of
the natural world. In any science class, you should teach the state of knowledge about a
particular topic as it stands at the time, how that state of knowledge has been reached, and that it
is not the same as truth. You should emphasize that you are teaching the current state of
knowledge, not truth, so that students will appreciate that knowledge changes, rather than have
them lose faith in the whole system when truths prove fragile.
Be specific: a scientific theory, like Darwinian evolution, enters the marketplace as a mere
theory, is buffeted and challenged, changed from time to time, and could perhaps eventually be
abandoned. But that theory gains strength and credibility as it is questioned, challenged,
buffeted, and modified. Having survived all challenges for more than 150 years, Darwinian
evolution is as close to truth as we have gotten (so far) in explaining the natural world.
Creationist arguments fail the test in the scientific marketplace because they cannot survive the
challenges and buffeting. Then creationists attempt to put forward their arguments as if they
were science anyway, when in reality, they are not, but are defended only by political or
religious fiat.
Second, science by definition is uniformitarian. This principle states that the world works by
known or knowable major principles that can be relied on and must be relied on in order to
understand the natural world. Darwins evolutionary theory is nothing more than the best
uniformitarian theory about the changed and changing forms of life. There are things about the
natural world that are not yet known or understood, of course, but no things, like miracles or
magic, are inherently beyond natural understanding. Since creationism and intelligent design
defy this principle, whatever else they are, by definition, they are not science. In this context,
you might want to use examples of uniformitarian reasoning that students use all the time, such
as their ability to predict how long a trip will take, with exceptions explainable by natural events
such as stopping for lunch and without recourse to magic or miracles. Point out that all of their
ability to solve problems is based on uniformitarian reasoning and the reliability of prediction
from experience. Also use examples such as Noahs Ark to explain why they cannot be real from

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a scientific point of view because they violate so many established principles of uniformitarian
knowledge such as established laws of physics.
Point 4: despite arguments about free speech and fairness or balanced treatment,
creationism or ID cannot not be taught in science classes any more than bad grammar can be
taught in English classes or that 2+2=5 can be taught in math classes. The license to teach
science requires that teachers teach the scientific principles as discerned in the marketplace at the
present time, not any teachers preferred version.
Point 5: you want your students to learn as much as possible about evolution through a
process of exploration rather than through a presentation of fact or truth. Some of what we think
we know is controversial and scientists even disagree about which pieces are most controversial.
Tell your students that what you will be discussing in class is the latest ideas about evolution, but
that they are not immutable. This means that your students, rather than being mere absorbers of
todays knowledge, truth, or fact, will be expected to be active participants in evaluating
ideas and will look for better ways to explain the natural world, and they should feel empowered
to do so. (My intro freshmen have twice pointed out questions or problems in interpretation that
neither I nor specialists in the particular field have ever thought about.) Although you will have
to present much of evolutionary theory in class because most students are simply ignorant of it, it
is important for you to keep the classroom free flowing enough to allow them to throw in ideas
and challenges, and for those ideas and challenges to be received politely* with open minds and
discussed, but never dismissed out of hand. Try to build from student input in class and treat
them with respect. You can sometimes offer rebuttal in the spirit of debate or suggest that some
discussion should continue at another time.
(* I actually begin the term by presenting a contract of mutual etiquette. I will never
talk down or diss them if they present an idea that I know is wrong or even foolish. They in
turn will not wander in and out of class, walk in front of me when I am talking, talk and giggle to
each other in class, etc. It works.)
Point 6: it is also important to understand where resistance to evolution lies. One of the
reasons why some fundamentalist groups resist evolution is that it challenges Biblical literalism
and is seen by some as totally negating the Bible and faith. Point out that while science does
challenge literalism, it does not challenge most faiths or even the Bible as an important guide to
faith and action.
Another reason is that students are not taught what science really is. Science is too often taught
as facts, not process, and dry presentation replaces exciting inquiry. As one scholar has put it, the
way science is sometimes taught is analogous to taking people to an enormous feast of varied
foods, and feeding them only the menu.
A third reason why some faith-based groups resist evolution is because scientists sometimes
claim more territory than is deserved. Historically, when science has overstepped its bounds (as
in Social Darwinism and evolutionary psychology), the backlash has been severe.
Finally, uniformitarianism can be scary, and that fear underlies a good deal of the rejection of
evolution. Uniformitarianism implies that there are no miraculous solutions to problems in the
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world, that human beings are not special over all other animals, and that human success is not
guaranteed. Uniformitarianism implies that God will not find a way at least without human help,
and that means that thought and effort, i.e., science, rather than just easier and simpler faith must
go into finding solutions. Falling back on faith alone is easier and feels safer to many people, and
some people in authority like to emphasize these points to maintain loyalty to the status quo.
Postscript
I have found that a great deal of tension was removed from my introductory evolution classroom
once I began discussions such as those above. I think that it is important to emphasize the
separate but equal model of science and faith. I suspect that the less science tries to intrude on
faith, the more respect those of faith can give to science. I also provide plenty of out-of-class
time for those who are still troubled. One-on-one discussions often further facilitate
understanding and eliminate doubts that students may harbor about teachers. Respect for the
teacher and trust go a long way toward generating thoughtful student analysis.
Finally, I recommend a book Darwin and the Bible recently edited and published by a colleague,
Richard Robbins, and me (Pearson 2009) that contains chapters by scientists, historians of
science, several evangelicals, analysts of the meaning and value of faith, a high school teacher
trying to teach evolution, and a college freshman student coming from a literalist family and
exposed to evolution for the first time.

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SLURPEE, SILLY PUTTY AND THE LEGO KILLER:

THE ANATOMY OF A CRIME SCENE
Keith P. Jacobi
Introduction
Crime-scene tape is used to prevent individuals who are not supposed to be part of the recovery
team from accessing and disturbing the evidence at a crime scene. However, crime-scene tape
always attracts a crowd. Once you put up the crime-scene tape for your class, you will attract not
only your students but other on-lookers as well.
This exercise is designed for a number of anthropology courses such as introductory
bioanthropology or a laboratory methods segment of that course, applied anthropology, or
forensic anthropology courses. The class exercise also could fit into a course that is geared
toward attracting students to anthropology, such as an interim or special course in an Honors
program or Learning Community. This one exercise allows you to discuss with your class:
forensic osteology, dental anthropology, pathology, dermatoglyphics, anthropometry, DNA
analysis, and blood typing in addition to basic cultural and psychological information about
people.
The crime-scene exercise can take up to half an hour to set up, or longer depending on how
elaborately you decorate the scene. You will need to have a room that is not occupied right
before your class. The ideal class size is up to 20 individuals but can be stretched to 30 in a large
classroom. Crime scenes are better studied with the fewest number of people disturbing it. But if
you have a larger class, you can discuss the pitfalls and potential errors that your students make
as they gather evidence. The actual class and gathering of the crime-scene evidence can be
completed in a 50-minute class, and discussion of the anthropological contributions to crimescene investigation would fill another 50-minute class, with the time allotted for each evidence
topic being up to you. If you only have a total of 50 minutes and are pressed for time, when an
individual student finds evidence, you can stop the gathering and discuss it on the spot.
The sorting of the evidence depends on the number of plastic bags you want to use. A green
sorting of evidence would put multiple items in one bag with the caution to the class that this
would never be done in the real world. Everything should be bagged separately.
And once you have discussed the evidence with your class, the students will invariably be
approached by outsiders, other university students, and friends wanting to know about the crime
scene. Their standard line should be: We dont discuss evidence from an ongoing investigation.
Youll need to take the class.
To pull this off you have to have some prep time and you have to have the materials in place by
the time the students get to class. In your previous class tell students that some of them will be
crawling on their hands and knees. This will inform the women in the class not to wear skirts etc.
If a student appears wearing a skirt, have another role set up so she can participate.

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Materials
The following materials are what I use in the crime scene investigation exercise. You do not
have to use all of the materials mentioned:

a classroom, free space near entrance of the room to deposit bookbags (a space preferably
in a line at the back of room so the class can proceed from there to the front of the room
toward a blackboard). If your entrance is elsewhere, you can make adjustments;
Crime Scene tape (can be caution tape or masking tape with crime scene written on it in
black magic marker);
a wadded up piece of notebook paper;
a few bags or baggies (for gathering evidence where appropriate);
pieces of paper that have numbers written on them to mark the different pieces of
evidence;
Silly Putty (two eggs);
three Legos or three Duplo blocks (these are bigger and work better);
a rusty key; dirt or rust pieces (find something rusty and shave off rust and put in baggie
for use);
human finger nail clippings and arm hair or head hair;
a couple of strands of long hair;
a couple of dead bugs (real, fake or a picture);
chair;
blackboard or piece of paper that you can write a message on;
packet of sugar; packet of Sweet and Low;
bullet or picture of a bullet (small);
pair of worn tennis shoes; a piece of paper with a footprint on it; another shoe (can be
gym shoe with different sole pattern on it);
some type of clothing item;
magnifying glasses (two or three);
a Slurpee cup with straw;
a battery;
a childs action figure (I sometimes use a number of these) hanging from the blackboard
or a light fixture with twine;
three human teeth or pictures of three separate teeth (one a picture of an enamel worn
molar tooth, another of a childs tooth, the last could be another molar tooth that is
unworn for comparison or perhaps use an animal tooth).

Try to have enough evidence so that a good number of students will find something even if it is
evidence that doesnt mean much. Because it is a crime scene, all evidence has to be collected.
Before Class
Start planting your evidence at the front of the room, at the blackboard and work your way to the
entrance to the room (assuming your entrance is at the back). On the blackboard write bizarre
taunts to the class such as Youll never get me you dimwits and I blow my nose at you. If

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you write several phrases, then use different styles of writing. Make some of the words or
phrases slanted forward, some slanted backward, some printed etc. Students should pick up on
the fact that multiple people (personalities) might be involved in the crime scene because of the
different writing styles. Draw arrows pointing to the chalk tray under the chalkboard.
Place three different colored Legos or Duplo blocks on the chalk tray. Place them upside
down with holes facing up. In each block place a tooth with a root of the tooth inserted in the
hole (or place a rolled up photocopy of a tooth).
Place the dermatoglyphic evidence (fingerprints) around the room. Put your thumbprint on a
flattened out piece of Silly Putty or use ink from inkpad. If you cant see the characteristics of
your fingerprint (ridges), get a fingerprint from someone you know who prints well. You can put
multiple fingerprints around the room. Some fingerprints may match; others may not.
Tape a rusty key under a table or chair with a tiny bit of rust or dirt directly beneath it on the
floor. This forces students to look at all items in the classroom and at all levels of vision (floor,
knee level, eye level, and ceiling).
Place a pair of shoes somewhere in the room. They can be a matched set or two shoes from
different pairs. Place a shoeprint on a piece of paper.
An option and a somewhat controversial addition to the crime scene involves simulating drugs.
Take a packet of sugar and dump some on a table. Take a packet of Sweet and Low and form
it into a line so it looks like drugs. Students will collect the evidence and see the difference
between the two substances.
For students to understand the importance of DNA and hair and fiber analysis, plant the
following evidence: place fingernail clippings and hair strands on a wood chair in the middle of
the room (you could put them on a piece of paper on the chair to make the clippings and hair
more visible) and spell out I DID IT with the items. Fingernail clippings will work by
themselves.
Place a Slurpee cup with a straw (can be empty) somewhere in the room.
Put one or more items of clothing in the room
Distribute your fake or real bugs somewhere in the room.
Place small Xeroxed pictures of one or two different types of bullets in the room.
Hang up action figures or anything visually bright or odd from the ceiling or walls using
materials that will not pull off paint or damage anything. This will give the room a creepy
feeling.
After you have planted all of the evidence for the students, turn the lights off and leave the door
slightly ajar (two or three inches). Place the wadded up piece of notebook paper with the word

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BOOM written on it against the inside of the door out of sight of the three inch opening. Then
place crime scene tape diagonally across the door. Your class may begin with a BOOM.
The Crime Scene Activity
Tell students the session before the crime scene activity to meet you at the class entrance at the
regular time. They will see the crime scene tape and the fact that the room beyond is dark and
the door is slightly open. Ask them what they should do approaching a crime scene investigation.
How cautiously should they approach the scene? What kinds of tools and supplies might they
need? They will indicate gloves, bags, markers, ultraviolet lights etc. Tell them they will not be
using gloves, bags or markers for this activity. Let them know that all evidence found usually is
bagged up separately but for the purpose of clean up, they can place it all in the bags you have
present. Some student will likely come up with the idea of using their cell phone to take pictures
of the evidence.
Once the students have entered the room, have them create a line just inside the door in the free
space where they put their bookbags (again, this assumes the entrance is in the back; adjust
according to your classrooms dictates). The students should be in a line across the back of the
room facing the blackboard or front of the room from where you lecture. Each student is
responsible for the column of space from where they are to the wall at the front of the room.
There may be obstacles in the way that they may have to climb under or over. The desks, chairs,
and tables create a landscape within the crime scene forcing the students to examine beyond the
floor. They need to search from the floor to the ceiling for evidence. Let the gathering begin.
Discussion
After all of the evidence is collected, it must be sorted and then analyzed.
Teeth: Discussion topics involve whether the teeth are human or animal, whether they are adult
versus juvenile, whether they are older adult versus young adult by looking at dental wear,
whether they are healthy or display caries, enamel disruption (hypoplasia), and whether there is
staining or discoloration. Do the teeth exhibit uncommon genetic dental traits? You can discuss
the fact that if an entire skeleton was in the room what types of information could be learned
from the bones (sex, age at death, stature, ethnicity, genetic traits, cultural modifications, trauma
-- violent inflicted, accidental, occupational -- and pathology).
Fingerprints: Topics to discuss with students include basic patterns of fingerprints (plain arch,
tented arch, radial and ulnar loop, double loop, whorl), minutiae, triradius, and ridge count.
Discuss that fingerprints have a hereditary basis and individuals with an abnormal genetic makeup can have altered fingerprint traits. Fingerprint patterns also are used to show biological
similarities between populations and help determine evolutionary relationships. You can discuss
new techniques used to detect fingerprints.
Shoes: Shoes can offer information as to the size of a person, status (shoe make and expense),
manner of walking, and pathology. Differential tread wear can indicate that someone was
compensating in his or her manner of walking perhaps due to a chronic injury. One shoe with

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heavier wear might indicate that a person shuffled or dragged his or her foot. In addition, shoes
may have soil on them that indicates an environment that the owner may have traveled through.
Shoes such as sneakers have very distinct tread patterns that can help identify year of make. If
you place more than one gym shoe type in the room students can see the different treads.
Students can measure the shoe with a tape measure.
Hair, fibers, fingernails: Discussion can center around the psychology of this act, but more
importantly that the clippings and hair could be gathered to attempt to extract DNA. How might
DNA samples be collected, subsequently extracted from the hair or fingernail clipping in the lab,
and what might the extracted DNA tell us? The DNA might be from the victim, the murderer, or
someone else. Not only can the hair and fingernail clippings be analyzed for DNA but it can be
analyzed for ethnicity, drug use, exposure to pollutants, diet, pathology, and with hair, whether
or not an individual used dyes, bleach, hair straighteners, shampoo, and hair oil. Hair also traps
parasites, pollen, and soil.
Slurpee: Discussion about the Slurpee should center around not only DNA typing and
presence of aberrant genetic DNA, but the possible things residual saliva could tell us about an
individual including the presence of toxins, prescription and illicit drugs, viral and bacterial
infections, and blood typing (ABO and secretor status).
Clothing: Any fibers or items of clothing that you plant can lead to discussion involving shape,
color, and type of fiber. Cotton, linen, and wool fibers have distinctive recognizable shapes and
investigators hope to find unusual fibers because that information is more likely to tie a suspect
to a victim or a scene. The article of clothing can provide information on sex, age, status, wealth,
or ethnicity of the individual. Was the item machine made and store bought or hand-made? Is the
clothing outdated as to fashion?
Bugs: Forensic entomologists collect insects in order to help determine the time of death,
manner of death, and whether a corpse was moved. Different types of flies can be found in
different regions, habitats, and seasons of the year. You can discuss the importance of maggots
(fly larva) in the decomposition of a body.
Bullets: Discussion should center on the appearance of gunshot wounds as seen by forensic
anthropologists in skeletal remains. Not only will some of the students know the type of bullet it
is but they will probably discuss the forensic aspects of ballistics including rifling characteristics.

76

NACIREMA AND AH-HA MOMENT

Peter Wogan
Introduction
Do you remember how you felt when you first realized who the Nacirema really are? What
follows is a set of strategies that will give each of your students a chance to have that same ahha moment. These strategies are based on Horace Miners famous 1956 essay, Body Ritual
Among the Nacirema. The basic idea is to create ah-ha moments by turning Miners essay
into a guessing game. The instructor reads Miners essay out loud in class and the students have
to guess what culture Miners essays refers to; then the students write and read their own
Nacirema paragraphs about some aspect of American culture and everyone tries to guess what
these paragraphs refer to. Not only do these exercises create suspense and laughter, but they
impart lessons about insider and outsider perspectives and the value of studying American
culture.
Figuring out which culture Miners essay refers to might not sound like a tough guessing game to
fellow anthropologists, who are so thoroughly familiar with Miners essay, but, in my
experience, students do, in fact, find this to be a tough guessing game. During the eight years in
which Ive done this exercise, no student has figured out that Nacirema = America before
hearing the 4th paragraph of the essay, and many still dont get it well into the 2nd page. In fact, a
colleague told me that she gave this essay to her dentist, and even he, the Holy Mouth Man
himself, didnt realize after reading it that the essay was about America! Surely there are still
students out there who will find this essay mystifying, which is the perfect set-up for the eventual
ah-ha moment. Instructors themselves also stand to be surprised and enlightened by the students
own Nacirema pieces.
Appropriate classes for this exercise include any course, at any level, that includes study of
American culture, such as at the beginning of the culture segment of a four-field introductory
course or an introductory cultural anthropology course. Class size is of some importance when it
is time for students to read their own Nacirema pieces out loud in class.
Class time required for the entire exercise is about 90 minutes. Just the reading of Nacirema
(either Miners or the students) can be done in about 20 minutes.
Reading Nacirema (15 minutes)
In order to work as a guessing game, you have to make sure that the students dont know
beforehand that Miners essay is about American culture. The joke doesnt work without this setup, so you have to do the following:

Make sure the syllabus for this day does not mention American culture.

When making photocopies of Miners essay (one for each student), white out any
material that clarifies that America is the focus of the essay.

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I recommend using one of the essay versions available on the internet, especially the one
cited in the References below. Cut or white out everything up until the 5th paragraph,
which begins The fundamental belief. This way you will have eliminated the giveaways in earlier paragraphs (mention of North American location, 2nd paragraph, and
highly developed market economy, 3rd paragraph). If you start with the 5th paragraph
on the web version cited below (i.e., starting with The fundamental belief), you
wont need to do any more tinkering or whiting out.
(If you do use the original Miner essay, be sure to also white out the sentence that says
According to Nacirema mythology, their nation was originated by a culture hero,
Notgnihsaw.)

You should be able to reduce the whole essay to one double-sided copy.

When youre in class and ready to begin, say something like the following: Were going
to read a short piece now about a very interesting culture, and I just want to see if you can
figure out which culture it is. Some of you might have even read this essay for another
class; if so, please, do not say the name of the culture, so everyone else will have a
chance to keep thinking about it. Others might have heard about this culture on TV or in
the news, but dont worry: if you dont know the culture, thats fine. So as we read this,
please raise your hand when you think you know which culture is being analyzed.

Now give all students in the room a copy of the Nacirema essay. Then read the essay out
loud, paragraph by paragraph.

When the first hands go up, ask if those students are pretty sure they know the culture.
When the students start smiling, you can always tell they have figured it out. Still, if you
want to give them some confirmation and further pique other students curiosity, ask
them to jot down their guesses in their notebooks, then walk over and silently inspect
their written answers, saying to the whole class, OK, good, some of you have heard of
this culture, but lets keep reading, to give others a chance to guess.

Keep reading. When about a third or half the class has raised their hands and the giggles
are rising, ask those in the know to shout out the name of the culture. Once they say
America, the rest of the class will experience a sense of vertigo, and you will almost
hear the synapses going off as the meaning of what theyve just been reading suddenly
clicks into place (Nacirema = America spelled backwards, far away = right here, etc.).

Discussion of Nacirema (20 minutes)

Here are some things to discuss at this point:

What does the holy mouth man represent? The hog bristles?

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Is this one of those jokes that has a deeper meaning? For example, what about when
Miner says They also believe that a strong relationship exists between oral and moral
characteristics? You can discuss why boyfriends and girlfriends will generally not share
toothbrushes, yet they will kiss and thereby exchange germs; explore how this behavior,
which is irrational and contradictory from the point of view of germ theory, can be
explained by American cultural notions: tooth brushing as a ritual that delineates personal
space, the mouth as moral self, etc.

Give them another famous riddle: Whats the last thing a fish discovers? (Answer:
water.) Compare water to culture, as something ubiquitous, something you dont usually
have to think about. Present such thinking as an anthropological challenge. Stress the
second half of the promise of anthropology: To make the strange familiar and the
familiar strange.

If theres time, finish reading Body Ritual Among the Nacirema, or have them do that
before the next class.

Students Create Their Own Nacirema Piece (15 minutes)

Now its time to have the students to write up their own Nacirema-style descriptions of some
aspect -- any aspect -- of American culture. This can take time, especially since the students
often get absorbed in this creative challenge, so there are two options: a) Have the students write
their mini-Naciremas for the next class, or b) Let them write their mini-Naciremas on the spot,
during the next 10 to 15 minutes in class. Either way, the writing directions are the same, and
they can be found in Appendix A: Nacirema Writing.
If you have them write about American rituals, be sure to stipulate that they be unusual, hidden
rituals like showering, not standards like birthdays and Halloween so that classmates will have a
harder time guessing their referent.
Students Read Their Own Nacirema Piece (40 minutes)
(This part can be the most fun of all.)
Have students read their Nacirema paragraph out loud, one at a time, and stress that they
shouldnt reveal what their piece is describing.
After the paragraph has been read, have the rest of the students guess what the writer was
describing. Its often hard to guess the writers focus due to the paragraphs abstract language,
brevity, and unpredictable choice of topic. But no matter how many students guess the writers
focus, you cant go wrong. Even if only a few students guess the writers intended meaning, the
rest of the students will be positioned for a sudden ah-ha moment when they hear the answer.
And sometimes the wrong guesses are just as interesting and plausible as what the writer
intended. In any case, there should be lots of laughs and surprises. (If you want to hear more
thoughts about humor, surprise, anthropology, and teaching, see Wogan (2006)).

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After each revealed answer, praise some element of the students writing: an insight, an apt
comparison, a good image or turn of phrase (e.g. Zebra Man for basketball referee, an
authority figure who is, for some reason, made to look ridiculous). Students will also often throw
in follow-up comments, and discussion of some particularly complicated insights may ensue.
If you do not have enough time to have the entire class read Nacirema paragraphs, consider one
of these options: a) only review one or two Naciremas as a whole class, then have students do the
guessing game in small groups (about 5 to 15 minutes, 2 to 4 students per group); b) assign the
Nacirema writing as homework, collect the homework in the next class, and only read out a few
samples in that class period or the next one; c) have only volunteers read out their paragraphs,
based on the amount of time you have.
Wrapping Up
At the end, sum up and segue to your upcoming classes. Explain that they have all just learned,
through direct experience (the best way to get at this), a few important anthropological lessons:

American culture can be interesting, worthy of analysis;

insider and outsider perspectives are both valuable, and their boundaries can get blurry;
the best analyses contain flashes of insight like Nacirema, but they also require deeper,
more systematic research. You need both insight and research, so the rest of this unit will
now go into more depth on X (fieldwork, some aspect of American culture, etc.), while
also honoring flashes of insight. Warn them about students and researchers who assume
that if they just check out 30 books from the library or spend months living in another
culture, they are, ipso facto, good scholars and their work is done. The truth is that some
Nacirema paragraphs contain more insight than a 50-page senior thesis, if not a whole
book.

References Cited
Miner, H. 1956 Body Ritual Among the Nacirema. American Anthropologist 58: 503-507.
Available at http://spot.pcc.edu/~rwolf/miner.html
Wogan, P. 2006 Audience Reception and Ethnographic Film: Laughing at First Contact,
Visual Anthropology Review 22: 14-33.

APPENDIX A: NACIREMA WRITING DIRECTIONS

1) Write about any aspect of American culture (e.g. any ritual, sport, belief, or practice).
2) Make the piece only 1 paragraph in length. (If it were longer, we wouldnt have time to read it
out in class.) Type it up with standard font and margins.
3) Write in the language style of Body Ritual Among the Nacirema (scientific jargon, big
words describing an ostensibly exotic culture).

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4) Make it hard for the rest of the class to guess what youre describing.
5) Include some insight into this aspect of American culture, a novel way of looking at this
cultural phenomenon. (If youre writing during class, you may not have enough time to fully
meet this challenge; just start with #1 through 4, and see if you can do # 5 as well.)

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ECONOMIC MONOPOLY
Pete Brown
We get to play Monopoly, way cool, students tell me, but why do you have to change the
rules? Students often think the economy is something unique unto itself, driven by an invisible
hand, and separate from the rules and norms that govern other aspects of culture. This exercise
forces students to confront the limited applicability of this way of thinking and to see economic
activity as a dynamic interaction among individuals and a cultural hand, so to speak. By using
a regular Monopoly game, it takes what students believe they know and puts it to use in
promoting a more critical perspective and causing them to question basic assumptions about the
economy.
This exercise is best suited for small and medium size classes in general introductory
anthropology, cultural anthropology, or economic anthropology/globalization. It could be readily
and interestingly adapted to any area studies course. Requirements are simple: one monopoly
game per four students. Fewer than four players does not produce a pace suitable to a 50 to 90
minute class. I simply ask volunteers to bring games from home. There never seems to be a
shortage. It is not necessary to make any changes to the board, however renaming can add
another level of interest.
Below I describe four different kinds of economies (capitalist, collective, developing, tribal).
You could just use any two kinds, but I have found the more varieties the better.
The exercise has two stages. In stage one, get the various economies (all but the Global
Economy) started and let the students play for about thirty minutes. If you have a class of 16
students, each foursome plays a different Monopoly board and is assigned one of the four
economic types; if you have a class of 32, there will be two sets of each type of economies. It is
important to let them fully explore the ramifications of their economic options. (I touch on
some of the most likely developments below. However, one of the reasons I like this exercise is
that students often come up with novel approaches that will alter the outcomes in interesting
ways.) Give each group its instructions separately. Part of the learning takes place when later
they interact with other groups. In stage two, what I call globalization, all the rules change and
students can interact with other game boards (see below).
The Capitalist Economy. This is the standard game of monopoly. Tell the students using this
economy to follow the written rules and begin.
This board will develop slowly at first then more rapidly as resources accumulate. Usually this
board demonstrates considerable wealth along with strongly developing inequalities. Some gain
while others lose. The point for discussion is that the rules of this board provide considerable
wealth but channel it away from some players toward others depending on luck, skill, etc. Ask
the players of this board why person X is poor while person Y is wealthy.

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The Collective. This version of the Monopoly game is based on a communist ideal. Most wealth
and resources are not individually owned, but rather controlled by the collective. The game
begins shortly after the revolution.
Rules: to begin, collective members receive $300 individually and an additional $200
goes into the collective from their efforts. This represents the initial expropriation. The
collectives money can be placed in the middle of the board (like free parking money) or you can
provide a separate bowl. Members receive fifty dollars each time they pass GO. Properties,
upgrades (e.g., houses), and all other costs and benefits (e.g., rent, luxury tax, etc.) are one-half
normal value. Properties can be purchased when any member lands on an unowned property. The
property then becomes part of the collective, and subject to collective management. Note: this
means an actual monopoly can be achieved when the collective controls the relevant
properties. Rent is paid when a player lands on a property. One-half the sum is lost to upkeep
(goes into the bank) and one-half goes into the collectives operating funds.
Variants: benefits from Chance or Community Chest can go to the collective or you can
sow some discord by allowing individuals to retain the money. Go to jail is renamed go to the
gulag; the player looses one-half of his or her personal wealth (it goes into the collective) and
remains at the gulag for three turns. During this time they also lose any voice in the collective.
The rules of the collective encourage students to develop their board (otherwise the money just
sits there), but you may need to encourage this ideology. Tell them that they are living validation
of the revolution.
This board will usually develop faster than the capitalist board. The point for discussion is that
the rules of collective ownership, the pooling of resources, even if they are fewer individually,
leads to more resources for more development. It also forces students to confront the values
governing their economic decisions. And it raises the issue of the persuasiveness of individual
collective members. Ask students how they were able to build so quickly.
The Developing Economy. Economies in the developing world operate under different
conditions. For individuals, options are often quite limited. Many exist in a state of poverty,
lacking resources, especially capital. And although local goods are relatively inexpensive,
imported items are proportionately quite expensive especially compared to the low value of
exports.
Rules: to express this in the game, players start with one property (non-utility) and one
hundred dollars. Incoming monies are only ten percent of general monopoly rules, e.g. $20 for
passing GO. Expenses are less, but still costly: 50% of general monopoly rules. I treat Chance
and Community Chest at 50% also and suggest they reflect fluctuations in the market. I
sometimes capriciously change the rules informing them of new IMF (international monetary
fund) structural adjustment policies or a drop in commodity prices.
Variant: I change a couple of Chance (advance to nearest railroad/utility) and a couple of
Community Chest cards (sale of stock and grand opening opera) to say they have begun to
cultivate an illegal commodity (coca or opium poppies). This means they double their money for

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passing GO, but any double means they were caught and sent to jail where they will remain until
they can come up with $100.
Players will fairly quickly become frustrated with the lack of opportunity, the lack of
development, which, of course, is exactly the point for discussion. Ask students why they
cannot get ahead.
The Tribal Economy. This is an economy isolated and protected from the world. There is no
ownership, only usufruct. Economic activity is driven by local cultural imperatives. There is
very little money in the economy. The two key pieces of this local cultural economy are
polygamy and hosting feasts.
Rules: players are married; each has one spouse (you should decide on polygyny or
polyandry). Exogamy is the norm. Players begin on GO and receive five dollars per adult ($10
total) and one house to start. The house is theirs. They build it; it moves with them. On a players
turn they move to a new area and place their house there. If they stop on a land-style property
(and place their house there) they have the option of staying there for up to 5 turns harvesting
local resources ($1 per adult/day). (Note: you might consider changing the value, and what is
harvested, by color and location of the property.) On passing GO players receive $5 per adult.
The other property styles are treated differently. Landing on a utility or railroad means they used
that service. They must pay 50% of the normal cost or go to jail. After one turn an Agent of the
Government will come and get them released and explain what they did wrong (thats your job).
Chance and Community Chest are special. Community Chest means the government has taken
an interest and is either taxing the tribe or providing some special benefit. Chance, if positive,
represents a beneficent NGO. If negative, it represents a regional rebel or drug lords demands.
These are full value.
Polygamy: to obtain a second (or third) spouse one must pay spouse wealth in the tune
of one hundred dollars for the second, two hundred for a third (etc. but see prestige below). The
spouse brings the benefits of an additional adult. That also means a second house that moves
around the board. I treat the second house as one roll of the dice with the second house landing
on a nearby land.
Hosting: if a player lands on a property where someone else has built a house its party
time. The house owner must prepare a feast. Feasts are quite costly. Minimal expectations are
only met by paying 50% of your total wealth. To gain prestige one has to spend all ones money.
This gains one great prestige (a prestige token pennies are easiest to use for this). Prestige is
largely non-monetary, but parents are more likely to view a marriage to a prestigious person
favorably (spouse costs are reduced by 50%). The guest receives a parting gift (10% of the
money spent). If for some reason a player cannot host a feast it is a great shame and the player
must go into hiding and lose three turns.
In general there is a norm of sharing. Players can beg money from other players. Reciprocity
is expected. But since there are no sanctions, no laws, there is nothing to enforce repayment. The
point for discussion is that players economic activity is directed to specific culturally

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determined goals. Ask students why they are working so hard to obtain a second spouse or why
they squander wealth on prestige.
Globalization
Of course the world does not consist of isolated economies. We live in a global world. What
happens in one part of the world affects others. People and capital migrate for a variety of
reasons and purposes. To bring this point home, after about 30 minutes you should announce
worldwide improvements in telecommunications and transport, i.e. the infrastructure of
globalization is now in place. For timing, balance the frustration of the developing board with the
development of the capitalist and tribal boards.
.
Globalization means players can view other boards (walk around when it is not their turn).
Players can even travel to other places. The cost of such a trip is $500 (roundtrip) and can be
done at the time a player passes GO. This means they take their token and place it on another
board. They have access to all their money. They then participate in that game to the extent
allowed by the players and rules of that board. Allow some flexibility but in general:

the developing world cannot restrict participation; individual players can buy, sell, rent,
negotiate, etc. (If they try to block outside involvement, impose IMF sanctions or send in
the secret police);
the collective can block or restrict actions of visitors in any manner they choose;
the tribe cannot block movement, but must decide how to interact; it is up to them to
decide individually or collectively.

Prior to globalization you will most likely see:

the capitalist board showing development and inequalities;

the collective should be highly developed;
the developing world players will be totally frustrated and accomplishing little;
the tribe will be caught up in local goals.

In-Class Discussion
Prior to globalization, you will most likely see:
the capitalist board showing development and inequalities;
the collective should be highly developed;
the developing world players will be totally frustrated and accomplishing little
the tribe will be caught up in local goals.
One option for discussion is to have students from each board, prior to globalization, offer brief
summaries of their economic development. Ask students the why questions (see above). Utilize a
comparative perspective. Point out the dramatic differences in economic options and incentives.
Point out the dramatic differences in economic options and incentives. Emphasize that these
differences are not the result of human nature or a universal economy, but the result of rules
governing economic behavior.
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With globalization, I often see the capitalist board take over the developing world; the collective
block interaction on their board, but not travel; the tribe is highly variable (and creative). Ask
students for an explanation. How did globalization affect the development of their board? How
did it affect options and incentives? The dominance of the capitalist board reflects what scholars
variously call global hegemony, McDonaldization, homogenization, westernization, and other
terms that reflect domination by the west. Continuing diversity is usually attributed to cultural
resistance, a need for the west to maintain a separate sphere, or a combination of both. Discuss
the inevitability of westernization. From the students (albeit artificial) experience of Monopoly,
what fosters westernization and what fosters resistance? There is usually enough of a mix of the
various boards to allow discussion of both domination and resistance.

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TEACHING ETHICS IN INTRODUCTORY ANTHROPOLOGY COURSES

Amanda Paskey and Anastasia Panagakos
Anthropology is a discipline that is not without its own ethical dilemmas that arise during
fieldwork. Many anthropology instructors ask students to complete some sort of fieldwork, often
participatory observation, in their introductory courses. How many of us, however, ask students
to evaluate their own ethical dilemmas encountered during their own fieldwork? We realized that
we were missing a perfect teaching moment by not asking our students to think about ethics in
their own lives and fieldwork activities. We knew ethics were an important part of anthropology.
In fact, it is so important to us, we included it as one of our student learning outcomes for our
department. We realized that we were doing a poor job at including it in our courses and decided
to rectify the problem for our cultural anthropology course by modifying existing assignments to
include ethics. While this specific strategy focuses on teaching ethics in an introductory cultural
anthropology course, it can be modified to teach ethics in any of the sub disciplines. We have
used this method to teach Archaeology ethics as well. This activity works best when using the
equivalent of 90 minutes of class time, and can work in any sized course.
Early in the term, after reviewing anthropologys aims, goals, and history, you can begin to
uncover for your students how anthropologists complete their studies, largely focusing on
fieldwork techniques and methods. In the lecture immediately preceding the activity, discuss the
AAAs Principle of Professional Responsibility and what our collective responsibilities are to
our study populations and discipline. Discuss examples of ethical dilemmas in anthropology,
such as Napoleon Chagnon and The Darkness in El Dorado debate and Margaret Meads
research in Samoa. Then, review the forms that participants in research projects are usually asked
to sign, such as the Subject Bill of Rights and Consent Forms.
The Activity
During the next class session, ask the students to complete a group activity on ethical dilemmas
in anthropology using the handout in Appendix A. This is aimed at helping them understand how
anthropologists struggle to make decisions in the field and how they wrestle with often times
conflicting outcomes. Provide students with ethical dilemmas, and then working together as
groups of no more than 6, ask them to discuss the scenario in light of what they have learned in
the previous class sessions.
A number of ethical dilemma case studies are available from the American Anthropological
Association webpage (http://www.aaanet.org/committees/ethics/ch3.htm). (See Appendix B for a
sample dilemma case study from the AAA.) The various cases concern: protecting anonymity for
the people studied, receiving stolen gifts as a sign of acceptance, a professor stealing research
data from a student, the use of falsified research, domestic violence, and many other scenarios.
Assign a scenario to each group. On the Appendix form, have them identify the conflict they are
to analyze and what likely course of action the anthropologist should take. Ask them to think
about the various consequences for each solution they propose. Once groups have had sufficient
time to discuss the scenario and come up with an action plan (about 30 minutes), engage the
entire class in a group discussion about the various ethical dilemmas and the possible solutions

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created by individual groups. During this discussion, remind students of the Principle of
Professional Responsibility, as well as the subjects rights. You need to continually remind your
students that our subjects are human beings who need to be considered when making decisions
concerning ethical matters in anthropological research.
A nice bonus when using the cases available on the AAA website, is that along with the cases,
the actual resolution to the dilemma is available. After your students discuss their strategy for
handling the particular case, you can show them what the anthropologist who was really in this
situation did and why he or she chose that particular solution. This continues the discussion,
especially if students disagree with what the researcher chose to do.
Additional Exercises
Try to keep ethics and the importance of protecting study populations at the forefront of your
class topics. In cultural anthropology classes, for example, students can be assigned one or two
fieldwork projects, one a participant observation assignment, and the other an interview
assignment. In both assignments, you can ask students to evaluate their role in the research, as
well as their actions and discuss the implications on the final project. Remind your students that
not telling the subject that they are being studied presents an ethical challenge. Also remind your
students that observing a minor without parental consent represents an ethical challenge. And
observing a scene in which the student is a member such as a Catholic observing a Catholic
mass -- or observing an event that the student is adamantly opposed to present ethical dilemmas.
The group and class discussions that follow tend to be quite engaging and students do grasp a
real sense of ethical concerns in anthropology.
This assignment format and incorporating ethics into an activity can be easily adapted to
Archaeology classes. You should spend one class session introducing students to the SAAs
Code of Ethics and discuss the numerous ethical dilemmas in archaeology (including looting,
museums accepting forgeries or purchasing objects of questionable past, selling artifacts on
eBay, etc). You can photocopy a packet of articles for each student garnered from local
newspapers, and online sources concerning recent ethics cases. In the following class session,
you can break the class into groups and give each group an ethical dilemma to discuss. A good
source
is
Ethic
Bowl
Cases
on
the
SAA
websitehttp://www.saa.org/AbouttheSociety/AnnualMeeing/SAAEthicsBowlCases/tabid/194/Default.as
px. As a group, students discuss the issue at hand, and possible solutions, as well as
consequences for their actions. As the term progresses, students are asked to think about ethics in
light of early archaeological discoveries, as well as the future of the discipline, and the likely
challenges archaeologists will face.
Conclusion
The goal of the strategy is to demonstrate that anthropologists, no matter what they study, will
likely face some sort of dilemma that will challenge their own personal resolve and moral code,
and that their decisions could impact not only their research but the lives of countless others. One
aim is to foster in students a more general attitude of constructive critique when they encounter

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research in other disciplines as well and to be aware of the inherent issues faced by all
researchers.
APPENDIX A: ETHICAL DILEMMAS IN ANTHROPOLOGY
All anthropologists face ethical dilemmas during field research. While most ethical dilemmas are
minor in nature some can have serious implications for both the researcher and study population.
Regardless of severity however, all dilemmas impact the relationship of the anthropologist and
the study population and can influence the type of data collected. In this assignment you will
read about one ethical dilemma and discuss the most satisfying course of action to it in your
group and then in class in general. After this activity you will have the following skills:

Understand the various types of ethical dilemmas that affect anthropology.

Create solutions to ethical dilemmas and understand the consequences of one solution
over another.
Build awareness of how ethical dilemmas may impact your own participant observation
or interviewing research.

You will be assigned an ethical dilemma: Case Study _______________. Read the materials,
discuss it in your group and answer the following questions:
1. What are the main ethical dilemmas of this case study?

2. Why or how did the ethical dilemma present itself?

3. What is the most likely course of action for the anthropologist?

4. Is there more than one solution to this dilemma? If so, what will be the consequences of each
solution for both the anthropologist and the subject?

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APPENDIX B: EXAMPLE OF SCENARIO FROM AAA

http://www.aaanet.org/committees/ethics/ch3.htm
CASE 7. The Runaway Wife
A reader wrote:
"I experienced the following dilemma during fieldwork several years ago and never reached a
satisfactory resolution to the problem in my own mind. One evening a woman in tears came to
my home in a rural Mexican village to ask if I would be driving into town the following
morning. When I said yes, she asked if she could have a ride in order to run away from home.
Her husband was an abusive alcoholic whose beatings were becoming more violent. Recently, in
his rage, he had not only injured her but had destroyed all of her clothes. She said that her inlaws, with whom the couple and their three children lived, offered her no support or protection.
She feared that if she tried to leave on the bus, she would be spotted and forcibly removed by her
husband or one of his relatives. Despite his alcoholism, her husband was very influential in
community affairs while she herself had no relatives living in the community.
"The woman was so frightened during our meeting that night that at the sound of a knock on the
door, she scurried to hide.
"I wanted to help her but I also feared that the months of work I had devoted to developing
relationships in the community would be jeopardized if not destroyed by doing so. I knew the
woman only slightly and I really couldn't judge what the community's reactions would be were I
to help. Her mother-in-law, whom I considered a friend, considered her daughter sloppy,
insolent, and lazy. Moreover, male domestic authority was usually unquestioned in the
community and wife beating not unusual; what happened within a household's walls were the
concern of its members alone.

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MYTH OR LEGEND: YOU DECIDE!

Margaret A. Karnyski
People around the world are exposed to art in many forms on a daily basis. One art form, verbal
art, has a long history in many cultures, frequently being at the core of belief systems about
topics such as the origin of humanity. Lecturing about verbal art is necessary when covering the
topic of The Arts in cultural anthropology classes. It is best understood through the examination
of examples of verbal art, as well as consideration of when, how, and why verbal art comes to be.
This exercise combines in-class lecturing with a small group activity in which students analyze
examples of verbal art (myths and legends) and come to understand why this art form is so
important in many cultures.
This lesson takes approximately 45 to 60 minutes. Lecturing on the topic takes about 15 minutes,
the group activity takes about 15 minutes, and a follow-up takes about l0 minutes. The exercise
is appropriate for The Arts section of a 4-field introductory anthropology course, a full course in
cultural anthropology, an anthropology of art course, or in any cultural course where The Arts
are an important part of examining and understanding a groups culture. It is best done in small
to medium sized classes because of the nature of the group activity. I use PowerPoint in my
classes to point out the main concepts of my lecture and to give instructions; the use of
PowerPoint will be followed here. If you use slides or no visuals during this part of the course,
you can still modify what follows and have your students do the small group activity.
Procedures
The Lecture. To set the stage for verbal art, you will want to discuss, in general, what art is, why
anthropologists study art, and the functions of various types of art within cultures. This may
include visual as well as verbal art and music. You may use PowerPoint, slides of photos, or
other audio/visual resources to show examples of art forms. During the lecture portion, you may
want to ask students for examples of types of art and how people create, display, and assign
meaning to different art forms. Follow up with a question concerning the role of each art form in
any society. Once you have laid the foundation for The Arts in general, you will then want to
spend some time on the verbal arts (e.g. myths, legends, tales, folklore), what they are, and why
they are found in many cultures around the world. Ask students for examples of verbal art from
their own cultures, whether they are old or more contemporary.
Prior to the class meeting, prepare handouts with examples of myths and legends that can be
from anywhere around the world. Examples of myths and legends may be obtained from the
Internet or from books available at your library. Or, you may use the 4 examples in the
Appendix. If you write your own examples, keep them relatively short. Choose two examples
each of both myths and legends (four examples total) for your handouts. Each small group will
determine whether each of the four examples is either a myth or a legend. For ease in conducting
the exercise, and in consideration of time, all groups will analyze the same two myths and two
legends. After the small group exercise is completed, the students will come back together as a
class and share their groups decisions on the examples they have analyzed.

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I love a good story and believe most other people do as well. With this in mind, I begin the small
group activity by reading a portion of a very exciting or intriguing myth or legend to the class.
The idea is to create a cliff hanger -- to get students interested and excited about the activity, to
prompt thinking, and to create anticipation for the conclusion of the myth or legend that I will
read to them when we have completed the small group activity and are ready to end class for the
day.
(Note: it is best if the students have already read about The Arts in their text.)
Small Group Activity: Myth or Legend: You Decide!

Prepare handouts ahead of time that outline the exercise and provide examples of myths
and legends (See Appendix). Have the students form groups of 6. There can be as many
groups as you need, but they should not have more than 6 members to be effective.

Once the students are in their small groups and the handouts with examples of myths and
legends have been distributed, have each group designate a recorder who will take notes
of the group decisions, and a reporter who will present the group decisions to the rest of
the class. Ask the group members to read their examples, then discuss and determine
whether each example is a myth or a legend and why. You will have previously covered
the characteristics of myths and legends in your lecture so students will know which
characteristics are specific to myths and which are specific to legends. You may want to
write the characteristics of myths and legends on the board or put up a PowerPoint slide
for easy reference while students are completing the activity.

Instruct the students to begin the myth or legend activity. You should circulate around the
room, observing the groups in their role playing, keeping them on task, and answering
any questions. Allow this activity to continue for 10 to 15 minutes so the groups may
analyze each of the four myth/legend examples.

After the time allotment has passed, instruct the students to stop the activity and bring
them back together as a class.

Closure. Have each group share their determination of myth or legend for each of their four
examples. You may also have the entire class discuss how they felt about the experience. Since
all groups will have examples of the same myths and legends, talk about how each particular
myth or legend may have come to be, its purpose within the culture where it is found, and how it
may guide peoples behavior. You may opt to close the class by assigning a short paper in which
students share a particular myth or legend they are familiar with from their own culture that they
find interesting and why.
Assessment/Evaluation
I have my students write and turn in a short paper on a myth or legend from their own culture
that appeals to them. This is an opportunity for students to focus on their own experiences within
their culture and see how myths ands/or legends may play an important part in cultural aspects

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such as national identity, religious beliefs, or group world views. Students will be instructed to
keep the role of the anthropologist in mind while writing the paper. This encourages students to
apply some of the concepts of anthropological studies of various art forms to various beliefs and
behaviors throughout the world today.
Conclusion
This exercise should familiarize students with ways that societies throughout the world come to
understand how humanity came into existence, how cultural practices guide peoples behavior,
and how migration of people throughout the world may be traced via the analysis of various
myths and legends. This exercise may also help students to understand the concept of cultural
relativism, the origin of religious beliefs, and the role of culture in determining and guiding
individual and group behavior.
Myths and Legends Key
Example #1: Maori myth about the moon.
Example #2: Native American Sahaptin/Salishan Tribes Myth about the Columbian River.
Example #3: American Legend about Jesse James.
Example #4: American Legend Army of the Dead, retold by S.E.Schlosser.
Resources For Examples of Myths and Legends
American Folklore: http://www.americanfolklore.net/myths-legends.html
Bennett, Gillian 2005. Bodies: Sex, Violence, Disease, and Death in Contemporary Legend.
Jackson: University of Mississippi Press.
Ellis, Peter Berresford 2002. Celtic Myths and Legends. Running Press.
How American Myths are Made: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14098729/site/newsweek/
Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth video recording, Vols. 1 - 6.
Mesoamerica Myths & Folklore: http://ias.berkeley.edu/orias/Mesoli.htm
Myths About the Moon:
http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/mythology/planets/Earth/moon.html
Tucker, Elizabeth 2005. Campus Legends: A Handbook. Westport CT: Greenwood Press.
Urban Legends: http://urbanlegends.about.com/

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APPENDIX A: EXAMPLES OF MYTHS AND LEGENDS AND SMALL GROUP

INSTRUCTIONS MYTH OR LEGEND: YOU DECIDE!
Instructions
Within your group, designate a recorder and a reporter. As a group, discuss the examples below.
The recorder will write down your groups decision and justification about the example. The
reporter will speak for your group when we regroup as a class for a discussion of each groups
decisions. Using the criteria outlined on the PowerPoint slide, decide whether this is a myth or a
legend, and outline why.
Example #1
Rona was the daughter of the sea god Tangaroa. She was the Tide Controller. One night she was
carrying a bucket with stream water back home to her children, when the path became dark. The
Moon slipped behind the clouds making it impossible to see anything. As Rona was walking, she
hit her foot against a root that was sticking out of the ground. She was so upset that she couldn't
see the root, she made some unkind remarks about the Moon. The Moon heard her remarks and
put a curse on the Maori people. The Moon grabbed Rona and her water bucket. Many people
today see a woman with a bucket in the Moon. It is said that when Rona upsets her bucket, it
rains. This Maori story symbolizes the influence of the Moon on the rain and on the waters of the
Earth, and especially on the tides.
Example #2
One day, Coyote was walking along. The sun was shining brightly, and Coyote felt very hot." I
would like a cloud," Coyote said. So a cloud came and made some shade for Coyote. Coyote was
not satisfied. "I would like more clouds," he said. More clouds came along, and the sky began to
look very stormy. But Coyote was still hot. "How about some rain," said Coyote. The clouds
began to sprinkle rain on Coyote. "More rain," Coyote demanded. The rain became a downpour.
"I would like a creek to put my feet in," said Coyote. So a creek sprang up beside him, and
Coyote walked in it to cool off his feet. "It should be deeper," said Coyote. The creek became a
huge, swirling river. Coyote was swept over and over by the water. Finally, nearly drowned,
Coyote was thrown up on the bank far away. When he woke up, the buzzards were watching
him, trying to decide if he was dead. "I'm not dead," Coyote told them, and they flew away. That
is how the Columbia River began.
Example #3
One day, as Jesse James and his gang were riding through Missouri, they saw a farmhouse and
stopped to ask for something to eat. A widow lived there with three small children. She didn't
have much in the house, but shared with them what she had.
It was while they were eating lunch that Jesse James noticed that something was bothering this
generous widow. He questioned her about it, and she broke down and told him her story. The
mortgage was due on the house that very day, and since her husband had died, she did not have

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the money to pay it. Her landlord was not a generous man, and was sure to put her children and
herself out on the street.
"How much money do you need to pay the mortgage?" Jesse asked the widow. "Fifteen hundred
dollars," the widow sobbed. Jesse James took out his money bag, counted out $1500 dollars and
presented it to the widow. "I can't take this," she protested, but Jesse James insisted she use the
money to pay off the mortgage. "Just make sure you get a receipt," he warned her, and she
promised that she would. Then he got a description of the man, and left with his gang. Jesse
James and his gang waited in the woods near the house until the man had collected his money
from the widow. Then they rode out onto the road and stole their money back from the landlord.
Example 4
A laundress, newly moved to Charleston following the Civil War, found herself awakened at the
stroke of twelve each night by the rumble of heavy wheels passing in the street. But she lived on
a dead end street, and had no explanation for the noise. Her husband would not allow her to look
out the window when she heard the sounds, telling her to leave well enough alone. Finally, she
asked the woman who washed at the tub next to her if she knew what the noise was all about.
The woman said: What you are hearing is the Army of the Dead. They are Confederate soldiers
who died in hospital without knowing that the war was over. Each night, they rise from their
graves and go reinforce Lee in Virginia to strengthen the weakened Southern forces.
The next night, the laundress slipped out of bed to watch the Army of the Dead pass. She stood
spell-bound by the window as a gray fog rolled past. Within the fog, she could see the shapes of
horses, and could hear gruff human voices and the rumble of canons being dragged through the
street, followed by the sound of marching feet. Foot soldiers, horsemen, ambulances, wagons,
and canons passed before her eyes, all shrouded in gray. After what seemed like hours, she
heard a far off bugle blast, and then silence.
When the laundress came out of her daze, she found one of her arms was paralyzed. She has
never done a full days washing since.

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OPENING UP MIC NIGHT: USING KARAOKE TO TEACH GENDER

Andrea Freidus and Linda Whiteford
Gender? What does that mean exactly? How many are there? Are they all the same? Do they
vary by religion, geography, history, and how do they come to be? It is difficult for students to
deconstruct, analyze, or even to get inside the idea that gender, sexuality, and even sex are
cultural constructions and not biological realities. Even more challenging for many of them is to
recognize that we each are active participants in the construction of gender. In this chapter we
present an exercise that allows students to consciously witness and participate in gendered
performances that either reinforce or challenge dominant gender binaries. It is appropriate for
any class in cultural anthropology, from introductory to advanced levels, but size of class is a
factor (see below).
Karaoke is a common bar game in which people sing along with pre-recorded music while others
provide the audience. It is a game where shy people suddenly are transformed into stars, bashful
people demonstrate a flare for the outrageous, and everyone can become someone else. It also
provides a provocative space whereby individuals regularly challenge, reinforce and/or
neutralize gender roles. Through the space of performance and song, participants are afforded an
opportunity to explore various gendered dimensions. Participants challenge the dominant gender
paradigm by bending gender and singing songs or performing in ways that are counter to
accepted gender norms. Other participants use the karaoke space to reinforce their masculinity or
femininity through song choice, body movement, and gesturing. The goal of this exercise is to
encourage students to both observe and participate in a karaoke experience whereby they
consciously explore how other performers embody gender and how they themselves embody
gender. Finally, they are asked to perform karaoke in a way that challenges the dominant gender
paradigm through cross-gender performances. This experience allows students to experience
what it is like to deviate from socially prescribed gender roles, and hopefully, sympathize with
those individuals who regularly challenge dominant cultural paradigms.
This class exercise is most effective in an actual karaoke bar with a small group of 8 to 15
students. Since most of us teach classes that have more than 15 students, you can divide the class
number by 15 and post sign-up slots to accommodate all. Or you can make the karaoke
experience an extra credit project. The exercise can be done in as little as two hours, but some
students enjoy the experience so much that they can spend hours doing karaoke. We suggest
choosing a karaoke night experience that is not in a bar, but in a local restaurant where there is
no alcohol and minors can participate.
If you are unable to take the class to an actual karaoke night then you can download You Tube
karaoke video clips. There is a wide variety of performances available online that students can
critique in the classroom.
Note: an in-class demonstration using downloaded YouTube video clips can be seen and
analyzed by all. Actual participation in the karaoke night, while encouraged, must be voluntary
on the part of each student.

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Preparation: In Class (mini) Exercise

In a mini-exercise to introduce students to the idea of embodied gender and prepare them for a
karaoke night excursion, two students one male and one female are brought to the front of the
classroom. They are both asked to sit in a chair as if they were at home watching television. They
are then asked to sit in a more formal manner as if they were waiting in a secretarys office to be
called into an interview. The class is instructed to note what they perceive as masculine or
feminine about each participant. They then are encouraged to take note of posture, dress, eye
contact, etc. A check list might be developed by the students as they observe. In our experience,
the male student occupies a much bigger space than the female student. He is also more relaxed
and open in his body language. This mini-exercise is done to demonstrate some of the basic
principles in Marilyns Fryes piece on sexism in which she shows the ways in which we mark
our gender in multiple and often redundant ways, including through dress, accessories, posture,
language, and personal grooming.
Karaoke Night Exercise
Explain to the students that there are three components to the karaoke/gender exercise. The first
component is simple observation. The second component is participation in which the student is
allowed to choose any song to perform either alone or in a group. In the final component,
students are asked to perform a cross-gendered song. Each component includes a list of questions
(included below) to guide the students through the exercise. Provide the list of questions
beforehand so that students know what to be looking for throughout the exercise.
Three Elements: Observation, Participation, Cross-Gender Experience
(1) Observation: Tell students to take field notes during the karaoke exercise. The following
list of questions is meant to direct them to making critical observations including basic
descriptions of the setting, participants, emcee, song selections, individual vs. group
performances, and the gendered nature of performances. They are encouraged to give a
more in-depth analysis focused on gender that includes descriptions of dress, gesture, eye
contact, levels of confidence, seriousness of performance, and audience responses and
interactions. Have them consider these questions:

What are the non-verbal clues expressed by participants that mark their gender?

In what ways do you feel participants reinforce their gender, challenge their gender,
and/or neutralize their gender?

What gendered patterns do you notice in song selection?

What patterns do you notice in audience responses to participants? Is there a gendered

dimension to these responses?

What observations can you make about individuals who challenged dominant gender
paradigms in the space of karaoke? Were they successful? What determined success?

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(2) Participation (song of own choosing): In this component of the exercise students
participate in karaoke and are given the freedom to perform any song under any
circumstances they desire. Many students choose to sing in a group the first time because
they are nervous. This is ok, but single performances are preferable and should be
encouraged. Students are then asked to recount the exercise including an analysis of how
gender was relevant to their experience. Have them consider these questions:

Why did you choose the song you did?

On stage, what made you feel uncomfortable?

What seemed the most natural to you?

Whom did you make eye contact with? Whom did you focus your attention on
throughout the experience? Why?

How did you feel the audience responded to your performance? What role do you think
gender played in their response?

Were you conscious of your gender during the experience? Explain

(3) Participation (cross-gender experience): In this final component the students are
instructed to perform a cross-gender song. Many students will find this assignment
difficult. It is common for students, especially males, to perform these songs in jest
making exaggerated gestures and toying with vocals. This is ok. For these students,
during their reflection on the performance, have them discuss why they think they
reverted to humor along with a more general analysis of their experience. It is also
productive to encourage some students to try and perform these songs seriously. Again,
have them provide an in-depth analysis of the experience. Have them consider these
questions (also ask the same questions from component 2):

What differences did you notice between the two songs you selected?

Did you notice a difference in audience reaction to the two songs you sang?

What was most difficult about performing this song?

What was easiest about performing this song?

What surprised you about the experience?

Final Write-up
Have the students then write a one-page reflection piece that draws on all three elements of the
experience, and include a discussion of participant observation. The paper should include the
following elements:
98

Students should focus on the ways in which participants reinforce, challenge, or

neutralize sexuality in the space of karaoke.

Students should then expand on their reflection to include a discussion of sex marking
(via gesture, clothing, language, etc.) and the implications of embodying gender as a
means of buying into and reinforcing the dominant male-female gender binaries.

Students should be directed into a broader discussion of sexism and discrimination that
result from dominant gender ideologies that traditionally subordinate women. Again,
Fryes piece on sexism and Butlers work on performative acts and gender are nice
articles that can bridge a discussion about karaoke into a wider context.

Finally, ask the students how they felt about the exercise and the utility of both
participating in and observing karaoke night as a means of understanding how we
embody gender.

This exercise is designed to assist students in multiple ways. It allows students a general
introduction to the methodological skills of participant observation central to anthropological
inquiry. Students are encouraged to consciously explore the ways in which they are active
participants in either reinforcing or challenging the male-female gender dichotomy. Finally,
through this experience they are better able to understand how difficult it is to deviate from
proscribed norms, and they may become more sensitized and supportive of those individuals who
regularly challenge dominant gender ideology.
Note: This exercise is inspired by Rob Drews Karaoke Nights: An Ethnographic Rhapsody
(Altamira Press 2001).
References
Butler, J., 1988 Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in
Phenomenology and Feminist Theory, Theatre Journal 40(4): 519-531.
Frye, M., 1983 Sexism. In The Politics of Reality: Essays in Feminist Theory, Freedom,
CA: The Crossing Press, 17-40.

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IS CULTURAL EVOLUTIONISM ETHNOCENTRIC? HANDS-ON

INTRODUCTION TO GUTTMAN SCALING
Robert Bates Graber
One technique used effectively by modern cultural evolutionists such as Robert Carneiro (2003:
157-159) and Peter Peregrine (Peregrine, Ember, and Ember 2004) is called Guttman scaling
(named for Louis Guttman, the sociologist who formalized it). While instructors of methodology
courses may wish to introduce the technique for its own sake, instructors of introductory level
courses may well find it useful, as presented here, in connection with the topics of cultural
evolutionism, ethnocentrism, and cultural relativism.
Constructing a Scalogram
Begin by passing out copies of Appendix A: Material for Making a Cultural-Evolutionary
Scalogram. Instruct the students to use the twenty facts to fill in the first grid with pluses and
minuses. Each fact will allow them to enter one symbol either a plus or a minus in one
particular space in that grid. Urge them to work together if they wish, since this is a non-graded
exercise. When they have finished (in ten or fifteen minutes), challenge them to complete the
second grid by rearranging the five cultures and four cultural features such that the pluses and
minuses form triangular arrangements diagonally opposite each other. Appendix B shows this
kind of arrangement; you can write out the pattern on the chalkboard, without the labels, to
convey the idea. Encourage students by telling them that if they can do this, they will have
produced a perfect Guttman scalogram.
When they have finished, inform (or remind) the students that the writings of classical 19th
century evolutionists (e.g., Herbert Spencer, Edward Tylor, and Lewis Henry Morgan), when
judged by todays standards, at times sound rather ethnocentric. Inform them that for this reason,
some anthropologists have come to feel that all attempts to rank cultures, and therefore cultural
evolutionism itself, are to be denounced as inherently ethnocentric. Such anthropologists would
insist that the second grid implies that the Inca are higher than, and thus superior to, say the
Yahgan -- that we have created a kind of arrogant and misleading ladder of progress on which
our own culture would stand even higher than that of the Inca.
Call students attention to the fact that the pluses and minuses in their grids refer merely to
presence and absence, not to good and bad. (If you can elicit this from a class member by
asking innocently, Good and bad is what all those pluses and minuses mean, right?, so
much the better. Be careful though; simply pointing out yourself that they mean present and
absent is better pedagogy than a drawn-out fishing expedition trying to extract the desired
answer from the class.) Therefore, if someone unreflectively assumes that food production,
political unification, monumental architecture, and writing systems are unmixed blessings and
marks of superiority, that person has injected ethnocentrism into the analysis; the ethnocentrism
lies not in the scaling of cultures or in cultural evolutionism, but in the mindset of the beholder.
(Writing systems perhaps are especially likely to elicit ethnocentric approval on our part, since
our own cultural context renders illiteracy an undesirable personal trait.)

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Mini-Lecture: A Different Scalogram

Announce to the students that you will now demonstrate the neutrality of the scaling technique
and the cultural-evolutionary perspective. Using your preferred method of visual presentation, be
it blackboard or computer or something between, show students Figure 1. It uses the four main
cultural types (and stages) elaborated by Gerhard Lenski in the textbook Human Societies
(Lenski and Nolan 2005). Point out that as we go from hunting-gathering to small-scale food
production (horticulture -- essentially gardening), to large-scale unmechanized food production
(agriculture), to industrialization, we see that many cultural features we tend to consider good
have been lost. Thus, small-scale societies feature face-to-face communities (bands and villages)
that control their own affairs in which everyone has input into important decisions; low
population densities with relatively little tendency to deplete their environments; and the absence
of serious global ecological impacts such as ozone destruction and climate change.
Here, then, is a scalogram that shows not the piling up, but rather the stripping away of good
features. Ask your students if they think anyone would find this scalogram ethnocentric. Tell
them that it lends itself instead to what has been aptly termed reverse ethnocentrism: not our
ways are good, their ways are bad, but our ways are bad, their ways are good. Yet this
scalogram is no less cultural-evolutionary than the scalogram they produced, for it too is
concerned with describing long-term change in human culture. Because scaling and cultural
evolutionism can be manipulated as easily in a reverse-ethnocentric direction as in an
ethnocentric one, is it clear that they themselves are inherently neither one. Like science as a
whole, they are tools tools that can be wielded ill or well, foolishly, or wisely.
Discussion
We all have moral convictions, and they are important to us. But while we are thinking
anthropologically, our goal is to describe and explain cultural phenomena; for this purpose, it is
helpful to try our best to place even indeed especially! our most cherished moral convictions
in temporary suspension. This is because feelings of condemnation or disgust tend to interfere
with clear thinking. It is this effort to suspend judgmentalism, and not the notion that culture
makes all customs equally good, that is the heart of cultural relativism.
Devote remaining class time to discussion or lecture about the subjects of ethnocentrism, cultural
relativism, or cultural evolutionism. Consider these definitions:
Cultural evolutionism: an anthropological perspective seeking to describe and explain longterm change in socially acquired ways of life (cultures).
Ethnocentrism: the assumption that ones own culture is superior, and that other cultures are
inferior to the degree that they differ from ones own.
Reverse ethnocentrism: the assumption that ones own culture is inferior and that other cultures
are superior to the degree that they differ from ones own.

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Cultural relativism: the assumption that no culture is superior to any other; adopted by
anthropologists to counteract ethnocentric tendencies detrimental to their work.
If students have been exposed to definitions different from these in lectures or readings, consider
this an opportunity to compare and contrast!
References
Carneiro, Robert L.
2003 Evolutionism in Cultural Anthropology: A Critical History. Boulder, CO: Westview.
Lenski, Gerhard and Patrick Nolan
2005 Human Societies: An Introduction to Macrosociology. 10th ed. Boulder, CO: Paradigm
Publishers.
Peregrine, Peter. N., Carol Ember, and Melvin Ember
2004 Universal Patterns in Cultural Evolution: An Empirical Analysis Using Guttman Scaling.
American Anthropologist 106: 145149.

APPENDIX A: MATERIAL FOR MAKING A CULTURAL EVOLUTIONARY

SCALOGRAM
Near Cuzco, Peru is a great fortress, built by the Inca, of red granite blocks.
The Yahgan of Tierra del Fuego hunted and gathered their food.
Natchez villages were unified under a chief they called the Great Sun.
The Yanomamo had no writing, and had number words only for one and two.
The Inca were excellent calculators, but also were without writing.
The Natchez grew corns, beans, and squash.
Each Yahgan band was politically autonomous (self-governing).
The plantain was the staple crop of the Yanomamo.
The Inca were a unique civilization in that their staple (the potato) was not a grain.
Though they entered into brief alliances, Yanomamo villages were independent.
The Yahgan were without writing.
Though Natchez earthen mounds are visible today, they left no monumental architecture.
The basis of Mayan life was maize (corn).
The Natchez, who inhabited what is now southwestern Mississippi, were without writing.
In the Yucatan today can be seen steep, soaring stone pyramids built by the Maya.
Mayan communities were unified into large, competing city states.
The Yanomamo lived in large but impermanent circular structures called shabanos.
The Yahgan built only simple, temporary shelters.
The Mayans wrote thousands of books; all but three were burned by the Spanish.
The Inca had a virtual empire unifying some six million people over a huge area.

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Monumental
architecture
Food
production
Writing
System
Political
unification
Yanomamo

Maya

Natchez

Yaghan

Inca

APPENDIX B: CULTURAL-EVOLUTIONARY SCALOGRAM SHOWING SOME

GOOD THINGS LOST
Local
autonomy

Low population
Density

Ecospheric
Security

Huntinggathering

Horticultural

Agricultural

Industrial

Note: The four types/stages are from Human Societies: An Introduction to Macrosociology
(Lenski and Nolan 2005).

103

WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS? STUDYING IMAGES ON THE

COVERS OF INTRODUCTORY CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY TEXTS
Joyce D. Hammond
Introduction
Although we live in a media-saturated environment, many scholars point out the irony of how
pervasive media illiteracy is in our society. Visual images, in particular, are often not considered
significant for study, even though their presence in television, movies, books, billboards,
newspapers, cell phones, and computer screens inundate our lives. As rich communication
conduits, visual images provide students with an opportunity to explore a significant part of
expressive culture and to consider how they are impacted by visual culture. This exercise
provides a lesson on analyzing images as cultural constructions using techniques of semiotic,
content, and discourse analysis in combination with student reactions to what they find displayed
on the covers of introductory cultural anthropology textbooks.
Preparing for the Exercise
This exercise may be used in introductory anthropology classes, as well as in upper division
cultural courses. Students who have taken several anthropology classes will be able to contribute
more insights into messages about cultural anthropology that are or are not conveyed/received to
students just beginning to learn about cultural anthropology. This exercise can be done in one or
two class sessions depending on whether students are asked to locate images and/or do some of
the analysis as homework or not. The exercise works best in small to medium sized classes
because of the amount of in-class discussion. It could be modified for larger classes.
If you are asking students to find the six images of introductory cultural anthropology text covers
that will be used for all of the parts of this exercise, tell them to look for images by going to
Google Images, Alta Vistas Images, or Yahoo Images and typing in the search terms Cultural
Anthropology and prominent text authors last names: Kottak, Miller, Lenkeit, Haviland, Ember
and Ember, Lavenda and Schultz, Peoples and Bailey, or Heider. Alternatively, text cover
images can be found at the web sites of the major publishers: McGraw-Hill, Thomson and
Wadsworth, and Prentice Hall/Pearson. Many of the images can be enlarged on a monitor for
ease of study or placed within a PowerPoint slide and enlarged. If you plan to have students
conduct their research on the six images during class time, they will need to print out the six
images to bring to class.
If you plan to provide the six images for the students to analyze in class, prepare PowerPoint
slides with two or three images per slide so that the images are easily seen when projected. If the
class is an introductory cultural anthropology class in which you require a text with a cover
image, include it as one of the six.
Even if you ask students to find the six images for study, prepare two PowerPoint slides ahead of
time with two different images to use during the classroom practice with semiotic analysis.
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Afterwards, students will use the six other images for their semiotic analysis. For practice, I
suggest that you use the cover image of one of the older editions of Kottaks Mirror for
Humanity (this will allow students to use the image from the current edition for their own work)
and the image on the cover of Omohundros 2008 Thinking Like an Anthropologist. All of the
Mirror for Humanity images show non-Westerners engaged in some activity; the subjects are
always reflected in a body of water. The image on Thinking Like an Anthropologist shows two
young men in profile from the neck up who are pressing noses. One has brown skin and a full
facial tattoo and the other has white skin.
The Exercise
After eliciting discussion from students about the proliferation of images in our society and
introducing them to the concept of images as cultural constructs, tell students that they will be
analyzing images from the covers of six introductory cultural anthropology textbooks (including
their class textbook if they are using such a text). The research methods will be those of semiotic,
content, and discourse analysis. Point out that the analytical techniques can be used whenever
they look at images inside or on the covers of textbooks, as well as in many other contexts in
which images appear. Explain that this exercise considers the images on the covers of
introductory anthropology texts because, presumably, the images are meant to convey
something to students who are learning about cultural anthropology for the first time. What
messages are being sent and received?
Tell students:

the whole class will first practice semiotic analysis on two examples before analyzing six
other text cover images;

you will introduce them to content analysis and give them a chance to experiment with
that method on the six cover images;

you will explain discourse analysis and lead them in a brainstorming session on ways it
might be applied to analyzing the images;

you will draw out their thoughts about the messages the text cover images may be
sending and students may be receiving about cultural anthropology.

Semiotic Analysis
In introducing semiotic analysis to students, you will need to explain that in semiotics, signs are
understood to be composed of signifiers (that which transmits meaning) and the signified (the
meaning itself). Explain that individual elements in an image can work as signs and that the
image as a whole is a sign with various smaller internal signs building up a total meaning. Point
out that signs can be physical appearances, gender, geographical elements, colors, camera angles,
objects, people, settings, and even camera angles.

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It is important to clarify that meanings are constructed and are not fixed, even though there is
usually a dominant reading that is what most people will associate with a sign, often the same as
what the producers of the sign intend. For a simple example, draw the conventional shape of a
heart on the board. Students will agree that in our society the sign (with the shape as the signifier
and the signified as the meaning) commonly refers to love, is often colored red or pink, and is
used, for example, on Valentines cards. You should also, however, point out that depending on
its context, a heart might signify bravery (purple heart) or health (healthy heart).
Explain that before the class begins identifying signs in the text cover image that you are about
to show them, that they will first need to create a diegesis (the sum of the denotative meanings of
the image) a straightforward description, without judgments or interpretations of what they
see. Explain that a diegesis helps them to take into account all the elements of an image the
way it was constructed as well as its contents. Caution them not to enter into speculative remarks
or conjecture about connotative meanings as they perform this first task.
Show one of the two images you have prepared (e.g. a Mirror for Humanity cover image) and
ask students to provide a diegesis. Encourage them to make observations about the construction
of the image (e.g. people appear at the top of the image and they are photographed from a low
angle) as well as the subject contents. Ask students to describe everything that they see,
including whether the image is a photograph or a drawing, the size of the figures within the
image, the apparent ages of the people, peoples positions vis-a-vis one another, their clothing,
their activities, the distance they appear to be from the viewer, the predominant colors, etc. At
the end of this part of the exercise, ascertain whether everyone in the class agrees with the
denotative description. There is likely to be general agreement about the neutral description.
Next ask students to talk about the elements of the image as connotative signs. For example, ask
them if an image that is a photograph rather than a drawing is more likely to be regarded as
depicting something true or real. If you are showing a Kottak Mirror for Humanity image,
ask students if seeing the peoples reflections in the water seems tied to the meaning of the
books title. Is the image understood by any student as a kind of mirror for the students? When
looking at Omohundros text cover image (as the second practice image), ask students what a
brown face and a white face literally facing each other conveys for them. Encourage students to
relate any thoughts they have about the images elements that strike them as symbolic. For
example, if children are depicted could they be understood as representing innocence, people
who are incompletely socialized, the future of a group of people? Tell them to pay attention to
such aspects of peoples bodies as age, gender, and perceived race. How do the poses, facial
expressions, and gazes of the people in the image affect them as viewers? How are objects,
locality, and activities in an image perceived in terms of connotations? Why do the students think
that a publisher, in consultation with an author, chose a given image to put on the cover of an
introductory text?
Different students will probably offer various ideas about the image as a whole or elements
within it. Encourage free expression and point out that their interpretations may parallel that of
students who actually use the book, especially since many texts dont provide any cover image
information or place it in an appendix. Explain that it is unlikely that everyone will agree on all
the meanings of an images signs since signs are not fixed and interpretations are often shaped by

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peoples different experiences, expectations, and beliefs. You might also point out that one of the
inherent strengths and/or weaknesses of images, depending on ones perspective, is the way in
which people may ascribe different interpretations. Later, when discussing discourse analysis,
you can also point out how interpretations may depend heavily on those discourses with which
people are most familiar, regardless of whether they agree or disagree with the discourse. For
example, a popular discourse about the exotic other often describes people as mysterious,
dangerous, or alluring, and entrapped in a non-changing, traditional way of life.
Explain that if a majority of viewers agree in their interpretations (as your class might), that the
interpretation may be considered that groups dominant reading of an image. Also point out that
sometimes dominant readings coincide with the intentions of producers, but sometimes they
dont. Producers of images may or may not have one reading in mind that they hope viewers use.
Using the other image you have selected for class practice, ask students to again provide a
diegesis and then an analysis of connotations for the signs.
After the semiotic practice session, ask students to use their semiotic skills on the six other text
cover images that you or they provide. You could ask them to work in pairs in class; you could
ask for written analyses; you could limit the analysis to two out of the six images.
Content Analysis
Tell students that they will next be using content analysis techniques in order to detect any
possible patterns emerging in the six selected text cover images. Explain that although they will
not be conducting a full-blown content analysis that requires a larger number of images, the
principles of how they could conduct such a study will be the same. Students will engage in a
kind of trial run with only six images, but their research may reveal emergent trends in text
cover images that could be explored in a larger study.
It is useful to point out to students that content analysis has much in common with diegesis
because it is based on identifying an images elements. Aspects of image content and
construction are identified and recorded. This results in a systematic accounting of elements that
allows researchers to tabulate elements frequency of occurrence. In content analysis, each
category identified for coding should be unique and non-overlapping to other categories.
Furthermore, several coders are often used in order to alleviate personal biases in categorizing.
Begin by asking students to create a grid of seven vertical columns on a piece of paper. Across
the top, have them label the farthest left column with the word Features. In the six columns to the
right, have them label each column with a textbook authors last name. Tell students to use the
far left column to list prominent features they find in the first image they examine. For example,
one feature might be ethnic clothing. In the first column to the right, they should make a check
mark next to the feature. The next step for students is to identify other discrete features and to
write those down in the Features column. When they have a list of five to ten features (or more if
they wish), ask them to examine the other five images and to check off features that occur in
those images. They may add features to their left hand column as they go along.

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When they have filled out the grid, ask students to describe any emergent patterns for the six
images (e.g. five out of six of the images include children; all of the images have at least five or
six colors; in more than half of the images, the people are smiling out at the viewer). Students are
likely to find emergent trends such as the following: most images show people of color; there are
more females than males; people are more often shown in rural or non-urban settings.
If students are studying cover images they found on the Internet, they might compare notes with
a classmate using some of the same or different images. Get students to speculate on reasons that
certain image trends may exist. What doesnt show up in the images? Their answers will easily
lead to the third part of this exercise.
Discourse Analysis
Discourse analysis expands students understanding of influences shaping the creation and
selection of images, as well as the interpretation of images. For a simplified way of explaining
discourse analysis, tell the students that a discourse provides a particular view on a subject and is
composed of all the ways that certain groups in a society articulate their beliefs, ideas, and views
about a subject. As examples, you might talk about the opposing discourses surrounding
abortion, the discourse about education prevalent at your institution, or the discourse of fans
about celebrity figures. In addition to writings and spoken messages, discourse may be
articulated through images, music and performances of various kinds. Ask students to name
some different discourses that they think exist in our society (e.g. medical discourse, military
discourse, feminine beauty discourse) and to name institutions that may help to perpetuate
certain discourses.
Ask students what discourses they think should be considered when thinking about images on the
covers of introductory cultural anthropology texts. Remind them of all the vehicles of
discourseU-Tube clips, magazine articles, speeches, advertising, and so forth that may
influence various relevant discourses. To get them started, you might suggest they explore
aspects of the discourse that shapes what their friends and family members understand about the
discipline of anthropology, or you might lead them in a discussion about the characterization of
anthropologists in movies. Are these the discourses that seem to shape text image selections or
are other discourses more likely to inform choices? You might ask, Do the text cover images
remind you of images used for other purposes? Students may suggest travel advertising or
National Geographic kinds of images.
Hopefully, students will think of societal discourses about cultural difference, race, and even
tourism that may shape producers and viewers ideas about the text images. Ask students to
return to the emergent trends from their content analysis to speculate what emergent patterns
might reveal in terms of discourses.
An important photographer and publisher discourse that shapes image creation and selection for
anthropology texts is that of what makes a good picture. Since publishers purchase most
images from large photo stock companies, the marketing concerns of publishers and freelance
photographers shape the creation and selection of images, something that many students may not
have considered.

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Wrapping it up
Review the three research approaches used and engage students in identifying what each
approach can yield, their individual strengths and weaknesses, and how the different research
strategies do or dont lend themselves to being combined.
Finally, ask students what their general impressions are of the messages that introductory cultural
anthropology students might take from the cover images. Based on their own knowledge of
cultural anthropology, do they think these are well-supported messages? What messages are not
being conveyed or received? Are some subjects missing? Do they think other kinds of images are
needed? What is the image they think works best as part of an introduction to cultural
anthropology? What kind of image would they create?
Resources
You may wish to consult the following books for more information on the analytic approaches
used in this exercise:
Gillian Rose 2007 Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to the Interpretation of Visual
Methods.
Theo van Leeuwen and Carey Jewitt 2001 Handbook of Visual Analysis
Jane Stokes 2003 How to do Media and Cultural Studies
Michael S. Ball and Gregory W. H. Smith 1992 Analyzing Visual Data (Qualitative Research
Methods).
Note: A group of anthropology students and I engaged in an extensive study of introductory
cultural anthropology text cover images using the research methods used in this exercise, in
addition to interviews, questionnaires, and focus groups. Our findings can be found in
Interrogating Cultural Anthropology Text Covers: Intended Messages, Received Meanings by
Joyce D. Hammond, Jeff Brummel, Cristina Buckingham, Dani Dolan, Lauren Irish, Elissa
Menzel, and Charles Noard. The article will be published in Visual Anthropology Review in
Spring 2009.

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USING WIKIS IN ANTHROPOLOGY COURSES1

Mark Moritz
Wikis have great potential for pedagogical use in higher education. According to Wikipedia, the
world largest wiki site, a wiki is a type of website that allows users to add, remove, or otherwise
edit and change most content very quickly and easily. Wikipedia is the most well known wiki,
but there are many others, such as the Encyclopedia of Earth, which is edited by a community of
scholars (www.eoearth.org). The participatory nature of wikis makes them very suitable for
collaborative work.
I started integrating wikis into my undergraduate courses in the 2007 autumn term. I had never
used a wiki in a course, but I imagined that it could further my teaching goals and engage
students more actively. By integrating a wiki into my course I was hoping to improve students
critical literacy of Internet and scholarly materials, writing and editing skills, and awareness of
the complex responsibilities and ethical concerns anthropologists face when writing about other
people.
I thought that a wiki would be particularly well suited to achieve these goals for several reasons:

It is public and students are therefore more invested because their work is visible to not
just the instructor but also anyone who visits the wiki, including the people students write
about.
It is a collective effort in which an important part of learning is to discuss and work with
others.
It is a work in process and is continuously changing, is never finished, and thus can
always be improved.
It is democratic, collective and cumulative, as is the production of scientific knowledge.
It is open and allows students to be creative and make contributions in different forms
and formats, to actively engage with and author course material according to their skills
and interests.

Developing the Wiki

There are multiple ways to integrate wikis in courses. Here, I outline the steps I went through in
my hunter-gatherer course. Suggested variations on using wikis in other anthropology classes,
with alternative time frames appear at the end of the strategy.
My goal was to create a wiki that was a hybrid between Wikipedia (created and edited by
potentially everyone) and the Encyclopedia of Earth (created and edited by members who are
researchers). The intended audience was anthropology majors at universities in the US and
abroad. The course was built around Robert Kellys book The Foraging Spectrum (2007) and
John Marshalls film Death by Myth (2002), and focused on the goal of scientifically studying
the diversity of forager societies without recreating myths. I wanted students to gain a deeper
understanding of the course material by synthesizing scientific research and ethnographic

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descriptions of forager societies for the wiki, while avoiding stereotypical descriptions of all
forager societies as being some version of the Ju/hoansi.
I designed three assignments for the wiki. In the first assignment, I had students individually
write an annotated bibliography of a forager group and then as a group, write an entry for the
wiki about foragers in a particular region. In the second assignment, I had students individually
write a critical review of a research article on a topic discussed in class (e.g., optimal foraging
theory) and then as a group, write an entry on that topic for the wiki. The groups consisted on
average of five students. In the third assignment, students made ten contributions to the wiki in
addition to the other two assignments, such as through creating pages on topics not covered in
class, adding audiovisual materials, reorganizing pages, or editing other students contributions.
The final result after ten weeks of classes was a rich anthropological wiki with a diversity of
materials and perspectives. It integrated humanistic, scientific, and activist approaches to the
study of forager societies, covered different theoretical perspectives, examined a wide range of
diverse populations, and included discussions of scientific debates.
Going Public
On the last day of class I evaluated how beneficial integrating a wiki into the course was, using
three measures. First, each student submitted a two-page reflection on his or her wiki
contributions (keeping in mind the course goals and the nature of wiki technology). Second, a
professional evaluator conducted a formal evaluation using focus groups. And third, I led a class
discussion centered on three questions: should we make the wiki public; if so, should we allow
others to edit the wiki; and should I use the wiki were I to teach the class in the future.
In the discussion a number of important points came up. Students were proud of their work.
Although the wiki was password protected during the term, they had already shown it to friends
and family and were eager to make the it publicly accessible. Students also displayed ownership
of the wiki and did not want everyone to be able to edit the wiki if it were to become public,
although one student argued that the people we wrote about should be able to edit the sections in
which they were represented. I proposed a system in which interested people applied for
membership and were screened by an administrator (me), which students approved. Students also
approved my request to build on the wiki in future classes but wanted to be assured that their
original product continued to exist. Wikis have a history function, which shows all the changes
to the wiki and allows members to revert to older versions of a particular page, which means that
wiki content is never lost. At the end of the discussion, one student noted that we and visitors of
the wiki still need to be critical of the information on our wiki because experts did not closely
scrutinize information, thus displaying a critical stance toward Internet resources.
Lessons Learned
Using wikidot, neither my students nor I experienced a steep learning curve, though several
commented that they were initially intimidated by wiki technology. Wikidot is but one of many
wikis available. I chose wikidot because it was free, easy, and pretty (www.wikidot.com).

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The workload of keeping track of students contributions was also less than I expected (or
feared). The history function was useful for tracking individual contributions, while the
discussion associated with each page helped me track student learning and spot problems in
group work. Unlike other group projects, I could tell exactly what each student contributed. The
focus groups showed that the group work problems were minor compared to other courses, but
also that virtual collaboration needed to be complemented with face-to-face interaction in class
(more than the half hour each session I had allotted during the term).
I learned a number of lessons from my experiments with wikis in this and other courses:

Make the wiki the focus.

Use individual assignments that prepare students for collaborative work on the wiki.
Use groups and make them at least five students in size.
Combine virtual collaboration on the wiki with face-to-face interaction in class.
Structure the work on the wiki with deadlines.
Pay attention to educating students about plagiarism and copyright rules (as the stakes are
higher on public web sites).

Although the wiki experiment made this class special in a number of ways, wikis are not the
panacea for improving student participation. Overall, however, I was happy with the results of
the integration of the wiki in my course. Student feedback suggests that with careful course
design using wikis as educational tools affords a more active and participatory form of learning
that leads to greater engagement with course material and, potentially, deeper learning.
Other Uses of Wikis in Anthropology Courses
There are many other ways that wikis can be integrated in anthropology courses, including
introductory courses. Wikis are particularly useful for assignments in which groups have to
discuss and produce something. What follows are two examples that can be done over one or two
class sessions:
1) Students could be asked to write a glossary of anthropological terms or write a study guide
that prepares them for midterm or final exams. This strategy would build on what many students
are already doing in informal study groups, but has the potential of improving the quality of the
study guides because of public scrutiny by all students. You could ask each student to add one
new term and edit two others. This resource can then also be used and improved in subsequent
courses.
2) Groups of students could be asked to improve an anthropology entry on Wikipedia. For
example, the page dedicated to the Bushmen (http://en.wikipedia.ort/wik/Bushmen) describes the
San erroneously as one of the oldest, if not the oldest, peoples in the world, thus perpetuating
the myth of foragers as ancient people. The strategy could be divided into three parts: evaluation
of the existing page; changes to the page; and a report with reflections on the changes made. This
strategy can be used for any anthropological topic or readings.

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Groups can also be asked to expand anthropological stubs on Wikipedia, which are articles
containing only a few sentences of text, which is too short to provide encyclopedic coverage of a
subject; for example the page dedicated to fieldwork is http://en.wikipedia.org/wik/Field_work.
The possibilities are endless. Keep in mind the strengths of wikis when you design your activity;
they afford collaboration, they can be easily edited by anyone, and they are public. Of course, it
depends on the instructor how public they will be; access can be limited to only the students
enrolled in the class.

Footnote
1

A previous version of this work was published in Anthropology News volume 49 (3), 2008.
This is reprinted with the permission of the American Anthropological Association.

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TRACKING SCRIPTS: MOTHERS LITTLE HELPER AND THE

VALUE OF OLD ANTHROPOLOGY
Michael Oldani
What a drag it is getting old
Kids are different today,
I hear every mother say
Mother needs something today to calm her down
And though shes not really ill
Theres a little yellow pill
She goes running for the shelter of a mothers little helper
And it helps her on her way, gets her through her busy day
Doctor please, some more of these
From Mothers Little Helper Rolling Stones (Jagger and Richard) Hot Rocks Album, 1972.

Not enough people kept in mind the suicides that were

averted and the marriages that were saved.
Leo Sternback, chemist, who created Valium, responding to his critics (from Schleis 2005).

Background
Most of the college students anthropology instructors encounter today are part of a demographic
that cultural commentators have labeled generation Rx (Critser 2005; see also A&E Home
Video: Generation Rx: Reading, Writing, and Ritalin 2000). In short, this is a generation of
people increasingly reliant on prescription drugs to manage their overall healthcare needs and the
moods and affective disorders of daily life. In particular, this label applies to many students in
the realm of psychiatric medication or psychotropics. Informal classroom polls will
demonstrate that many students either know of a family member or friend who has been on, or
has taken psychotropic medication; or they themselves have been prescribed a drug in the past,
or are currently on these prescription drugs (e.g., Prozac, Lexapro, Ritalin, Risperidol, etc.).
Target Course(s) and Topics
This exercise is ideally suited for introductory cultural anthropology courses and/or introduction

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to medical anthropology courses. The immediate goal is to use the students ethnographic
expertise as part of generation Rx to engage in anthropological critique. Specifically, topics and
themes include: feminist anthropology; modern family life and its intersection with vulnerable
populations (e.g., children, women, minority groups, etc.); reading culture as a text; critique of
pharmaceutical (over) prescribing, and mental health care during the pharmaceutical era.
Logistics/Schedule
This exercise requires students to read one classic article in feminist anthropology; one short
article on-line from Time Magazine; engage with web-posted pharmaceutical advertising and/or
handouts; view 1+ film streaming on-line @ Frontline via PBS.org and NYTIMES.com. You
can expect to spend 45 minutes to 1 hour 15 minutes lecturing on topic(s); overseeing discussion;
and/or playing short video clips to stimulate student interest and exchange. You should require
students to hand in a short reaction paper on the topic, either structured or unstructured (see
below). The exercise will present numerous opportunities for testing, both multiple choice/true
and false, and in particular, short answer/essay writing. Expect to spend 2 to 3 hours in
preparation the first time you do the exercise
The Exercise
Assign the following two articles and ask students to read both thoroughly before class:
1) A. Ripleys (2001) Retalin: Moms Little Helper:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,999209,00.html
2) S. Ortners (1974) Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture?
Tell students to read the Ripley article first. It is a very short read, available online and
chronicles the use of Ritalin in families by both boys and their mothers to treat Attention
Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The leading theory is that women were undiagnosed
as children and now with jobs, dinner, and children to worry about, they feel overwhelmed
and life has become frantic. The key question is lifestyle (i.e., American culture) or
dysfunction (i.e., a genetic/biological disorder). This article highlights the dysfunction (i.e.,
AHD runs in families) and chronicles a mom and son starting Ritalin on the same day.
This article should pique their interest. Then ask them to find a connection with the longer,
Ortner article. (I often tell students to read this article backwards, starting with the Conclusion
and the intermediacy section (see below). A classic article in feminist anthropology, Ortners
(1974) Female is to Male as Nature is to Culture theorizes that the category of woman is
universally devalued across all cultures because of its association with the category of nature.
This position remains a provocative entry point for many students who have never engaged with
classic feminist theory. However, the article, although grounded in ethnographic examples, does
deal in abstraction and theory and will require you to prompt students further by
outlining/lecturing key parts of Ortners critique.

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Ortners article may be considered old anthropology by some and it was not without
criticism (see Ortner 1996 for self-critique). Yet, the article introduces students to several
hallmarks of (medical) anthropological study. Ask students to think about the article in the
following ways:

Universals versus particulars

Nature versus culture
How the biological functions of the female/male body create powerful cultural
perceptions and categories, For example, giving birth to and nursing children has
naturalized the category of women in powerful ways. Specific roles (and jobs outside
the home) in various cultures for women continue to be linked to the domestic space
nursing, elementary school teaching, etc.
How a womans mind (psyche) has historically been seen as closer to nature than a
mans. Here, Ortner uses Freuds theory of identification and students can engage in early
theorizing concerning identity formation in young girls and boys.
The key point of Ortners article that is most relevant today is outlined in the section
The Implications of Intermediacy (pp 83-87). In this section Ortner rightly predicts that
in the future women will have to grapple with managing both the domestic space (i.e.,
home life) and the public space (i.e., working outside the home). This will be stressful
and cause problems.

During class or through other exchanges such as email, ask your students to think about what
factors in American culture (e.g., psychiatric practices, pharmaceutical advertising, consumer
demand, old/new gender norms, etc.) lead to the prescribing of psychotropic medication for
women for disorders that are perceived and promoted as biological (e.g., genetic, in their
bodies, abnormal neurotransmitters, etc.). And in particular, ask students to think about why this
biological discourse of mental health overshadows how modern life, family dynamics, and
gender/work roles may continue to subjugate women and cause mental distress mental illness.
Then show advertising from Big Pharma (culled from the Internet or lay magazines that
demonstrate how powerful the culture script (i.e., narratives) of encouraging women to medicate
themselves has become. Students tend to get the dual nature of the scripts and their synergy: drug
prescriptions + cultural scripts/narratives = increased prescribing of psychiatric medication.
One
image
from
googleimage.com
(http://www.futureofthebook.org/itinplace/wpcontent/archives/zoloft.jpg) is a Zoloft graphic comic advertisement that shows how a woman
can orchestrate a Zoloft prescription; namely by asking her doctor for the prescription by brand
name in person, after Internet research (see Oldana 2008 for detailed analysis of this script). In
this ad, the key phrase is: Zoloft was helping me at work and at home.
Now ask students to grapple with big questions, such as: What does the long history of using
psychotropic medication in the U.S. say about womens liberation? Why are women the face
of mental health disorders and pharmaceutical advertising? This is proven by surfing the net
during class and entering various Pharma websites lexapro.com; paxilcr.com; cymbalta.com,
abilify.com, etc. where women dominate the imagery.

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Finally, remind students to think about the boy in the Time Magazine article children remain
a large and growing market for pharmaceutical products. Time permitting, ask students to watch
and/or show clips in class of PBS Frontline videos streaming at
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/view/. Two documentaries show how children are
increasingly prescribed psychotropic medication at alarming rages; see Medicating Children
for ADHD case studies and The Medicated Child for pediatric bipolar case studies. Another
link is the New York Times series on The Troubled Child, which complicates the issue of
children on medication further and in good ways. There is a series of articles and short videos of
families grappling with mental illness and medication:
http://www.nytimes.com/ref/health/troubled-children.html?scp=1&sq=troubled%20child&st=cse
The end goal/result is that students will hopefully be seeing generation Rx in a new and critical
light and having the pharmaceutical era take on new meaning in terms of how markets are
created through established and imbalanced cultural scripts.
Reaction Paper and/or Short Answer Questions
After the in-class activity, you can ask students to critically reflect on larger questions and/or the
interrelatedness of these topics:

How does Big Pharma profit from particular notions of what womanhood has become in
the U.S.?
How are drug scripts and cultural scripts synergistic?
How does this topic let one read culture as a text? (See Geertz 1973, Chapters 1 and
15).
What are some of the current consequences of women being responsible for managing
the happy home, maintaining family harmony (See Martin 1987 for seminal
discussion and Oldani 2009 for am outline of pharmaceutical families the
phamily.)
Discuss generation Rx and vulnerable populations.
How can old anthropology inform new ethnographies of pharmaceutical prescribing?

Note: Essentially, during the (post) blockbuster era of pharmaceutical prescribing, we all are part
of generation Rx. I would encourage you to personalize this topic with your own experiences as
well as with other cases of non-psychotropic medications and with ethnographic examples
outside the U.S. For example, see Whitmarsh (2008) for an important ethnography of asthma,
pharmaceuticals, and family life in Barbados; also see Biehl 2007 for pharmaceutical treatment
issues of HIV/AIDS in a Brazilian context.
References and Background Reading
Biehl, J. 2007 Will to Live: Aids Therapies and the Politics of Survival. Princeton NJ: Princeton
University Press.
Critser, G. 2005 Generation Rx: How Prescription Drugs are Altering American Lives, Minds,
and Bodies. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.
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Geertz, Clifford 1973 The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays. NY: BasicBooks, pp. 332; 412-454.
Martin, Emily 1987 The Woman in the Body: A Cultural Analysis of Reproduction. Milton
Keynes UK: Open University Press.
Oldani, M. 2009 Uncanny Scripts: Pharmaceutical Emplotment in the Aboriginal Context.
Transcultural Psychiatry 46 (1): 131-156.
2008 Deadly Embrace: Psychoactive Medication, Psychiatry, and the Pharmaceutical
Industry. In Killer Commodities: Public Health and the Corporate Production of Harm. Merrill
Singer and Hans Baer, eds. Altamira Press 283-310.
Ortner, S. 1996 Making Gender: The Politics and Erotics of Culture. Boston: Beacon Press.
1974 Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture? In Women, Culture, and Society,
Michelle Zimbalist Rosaldo and Louise Lamphere, eds. Stanford CA: Stanford University Press:
66-86.
Whitmarsh, I. 2008 Biomedical Ambiguity: Race, Asthma, and the Contested Meaning of Genetic
Research in the Caribbean. Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press.

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DEMONSTRATING BALANCED RECIPROCITY AND FAIRNESS

Alexander H. Bolyanatz
Introduction
The use of experimental games is relatively new in anthropology, and there are, naturally,
significant challenges to the creation of research protocols that can be used cross-culturally. But
as more researchers use them, and as cultural anthropology shifts from a twentieth century
paradigm (in which differences between people were most salient) to a twenty-first century
approach that importantly attends to similarities, such games will become less and less alien to
most anthropologists.
The centerpiece of this teaching strategy is an experimental game called the Strategy Method
Ultimatum Game, or SMUG. I will outline how to use SMUG and suggest how you can use it to
stimulate classroom discussions.
SMUG is best used as a way to discuss the inadequacies of economic maximization theories and
as a means to demonstrate to students that people around the world behave similarly, even in
economies that are not grounded in cash. It also shows how key concepts such as fairness,
balanced reciprocity, and costly punishment apply in economic systems around the world. The
activity based on these kinds of economic questions will work well in four-field introductory
anthropology, cultural anthropology, or of course economic anthropology.
Normally, when experimental games are used in field research, subjects use real money that they
actually end up with. In order for this game to be successful in the classroom, you need to
continually remind students that they are to make decisions as if real money were involved.
SMUG works best if there are more than twenty students. There is no maximum number if the
discussion can be held on a subsequent day. If the discussion is held in the immediate aftermath
of the exercise (which works best), then the ceiling should be around 60 students. The time
needed for discussion can vary, but it would be difficult to conduct this exercise and have a good
discussion in less than 25 minutes. The activity itself for 40 students takes about 12 minutes, but
you may want to give yourself a few extra minutes the first time you try it.
Strategy Method Ultimatum Game (SMUG)
Read the Appendix materials for an understanding of the game, and so you know what students
will be doing. Break the class into two groups: those who will be referred to as Player 1 and
those who will be Player 2. Physically separate the players and have Players 1 go outside into the
hall (tell them they will need something to write with and nothing else). Segregating the groups
allows for instructions and Q-&-A to be done separately. Tell the students that the separation is
not intended to hide anything but, instead, to facilitate the clear communication of their roles in
the activity.

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Once the class has been split, and half of them are outside, distribute the Appendix forms to the
appropriate groups, reminding students that they are being asked to make decisions as if real
money were involved.
Players 1 have the easier task: they only need to make one decision -- how much each will offer.
(The relative ease of this less time-consuming task is the reason for this group leaving the room;
the other group has more work.) Remind them that they are to make decisions as if real money
were involved, and since there should be no contamination of results, tell them that each person
must make her or his own decision independently. Tell them to circle the amount they are
offering.
Players 2 have eleven decisions to make. For each amount on their form, each must make a yesor-no decision. In essence, they have to say to themselves, Would I accept an offer of $0, yes or
no? Then Would I accept an offer of $10, yes or no? and so on. Students should circle the
amounts they would accept. Again, remind students that they are to make decisions as if real
money were involved. Also tell them that nothing will be assumed. For example, if they circle
only $50 but intend that to mean $50 and above, it will be taken as meaning that they would
accept $50 only and no other amount.
As the forms indicate, each student will be paired up with another. Ask students (whether Player
1 or 2) to put a small identifying mark on the reverse of their forms.
Once each group has completed the forms, have one student from each group collect the forms
and have Players 1 retake their seats. Then, compile the results on the front board. Use a format
that looks something like this:
Player 1 Offers (N =
$0:
$10:
$20:
$30:
$40:
$50:

)
$60:
$70:
$80:
$90:
$100:

Player 2 Accepts (N = )
$0:
$60:
$10:
$70:
$20:
$80:
$30:
$90:
$40:
$100:
$50:

Use tally marks to compile the results. Have the students who collected the forms read off the
results. (You should begin to hear murmurs of interest and comments about the results once you
being this process.) Player 1 offers are fast -- one number per form. Player 2 results take a bit
longer, but still can be done in well under ten seconds per form (depending on the student
reader). The example below assumes a class of 40 students (with 20 in each group), and the
hypothetical data presented are quite typical of the results you should get:
Player 1 Offers (N = 20)
$0: |
$60:
$10: ||
$70: |
$20: |
$80:
$30:
$90:

Player 2 Accepts (N = 20)

$0: |
$60: ||||| ||||| ||||| |||||
$10: |||
$70: ||||| ||||| ||||| |||||
$20: |||||
$80: ||||| ||||| ||||| ||||
$30: ||||| |||
$90: ||||| ||||| ||||| |||
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$40: ||
$50: ||||| ||||| |||

$100:

$40: ||||| ||||| ||||| |||

$50: ||||| ||||| ||||| |||||

$100: ||||| ||||| ||||| ||

Collect the forms. Tell students that you wish to discuss these results. Make it clear that
there is no need for anyone to disclose his or her decision(s) in the course of the discussion. You
should begin the discussion by making some preliminary points.
Points you might make about the Player 1 data include:

The one offer of $70 is an irregularity; this often happens in social science research, and
could represent a mistake (i.e., the person thought that she or he was keeping $70).
Alternatively, the offer of $70 may have been due to an anomalous decision-making
process: perhaps the person just got paid and was feeling generous. Either way, here is
where you can make some comments about the difficulty of ethnographic fieldwork.
(Note that the offer of $0 also probably indicates a lack of understanding of the game; a
Player 2 who is offered $0 gets the same outcome$0whether the offer is accepted or
rejected.)
The modal offer of 50% is found universally; this strongly suggests that the expectation
of fairness is found in all human populations.
Only two Players 1 assumed rationality on the part of their Player 2 partners. After all, a
purely rational Player 2 should be willing to take $10 (which is better than nothing). At
this point you might begin a discussion about the disadvantages of assuming rationality.

Points you might make about the Player 2 data include:

Only three Players 2 behaved perfectly rationally in the game, by accepting offers of $10.
The acceptance rate of 50% offers will not be beaten by the acceptance rate of any other
offers.
A few people reject offers of $100; this pattern is found cross-culturally, although the
degree to which ultra-high or hyperfair offers are rejected does vary widely across
societies.
Notice that only eight out of twenty students (40%) would take $30. (This dramatic break
usually happens at the $30 mark, although it is not impossible for it to occur at the $20 or
$40 mark. It is generally easy to find an amount of offered money that a strikingly high
percentage of students reject.) At this point, you might begin a discussion to answer the
question: Why would anyone reject (using the hypothetical data) $30?

You can let the discussion proceed as you wish. Ultimately, the point to be made is that more
than half of the class rejects $30 not because they wish to be without the $30, but because the
other person is keeping $70. Often, students will say that lower offers are not fair. This might
allow you to return later to fairness and the default expectation of balanced reciprocity. In
essence, Players 2 who reject offers of $30 are surrendering their claims to that amount in order
to punish the other person for attempting to hold onto $70.
This phenomenon is called altruistic or costly punishment, and seems to exist around the
world. By costly punishment, we mean that people at significant cost to themselves sanction
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behaviors that are in violation of some norm. In this case, the norm is balanced reciprocity; offers
that vary too far from a 50-50 split are far more likely to be punished. You can make the point in
class that costly punishment is a far better explanation for the in-class results than is economic
rationality. You can continue to note that costly punishment is not restricted to economics.
Deciding to confront a bully who cuts into a queue or a refusal to allow a friend to copy an
assignment are examples of costly punishment -- the bully unfairly gets the benefit of choice
seats without paying the cost of waiting in line; the friend unfairly gets the benefit of the good
grade without paying the cost of studying at some risk to oneself.
Finally, by the end of the discussion, students will usually tell you that there is no need for the
pairings to take place since there is no money involved. You can, however, offer to do it after
class, if you wish, in case a student wants to know what would have happened if real money
were involved. This is easily done by asking the student to find her or his form (using the
identifying mark) in the Player 1 or Player 2 stack. Then, pull a form at random from the other
stack and report to the student what would have happened.
It is worthwhile to note that in a cross-cultural comparison of costly punishment, there is a
correlation between altruism and costly punishment; they co-vary positively across societies
(Henrich 2006). A discussion of this does not require that students play the games involved in
that research since students can still get the idea of costly punishment from playing SMUG only.

Reference cited:
Henrich, J. et. al. 2006 Costly Punishment Across Human Societies. Science 213 (5781): 17671770.

APPENDIX A

Strategy Method Ultimatum Game (SMUG)

Player 1
The class will be divided into pairs. You will not know who the other person in your pair is, and
the other person will not know who you are. Each pair will receive $100. You are the person
responsible for handling the money. You can, however, divide up the money however you wish - you can give yourself as much as or little as you want.
The only consideration is that if the person that you are paired with doesnt like the way you
have divided up the money, then neither of you gets anything. So, you have to keep in mind that
the other person has to accept the way you divide up the money. You are offering an ultimatum - a one-time, take it or leave it offer.
Circle the amount below that you wish to give to the other person:

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$0
$10
$20
$30
$40
$50
$60
Strategy Method Ultimatum Game (SMUG)
Player 2

$70

$80

$90

$100

The class will be divided into pairs. You will not know who the other person in your pair is, and
the other person will not know who you are. Each pair will receive $100. The other person is
responsible for handling the money. That person can, however, divide up the money however he
or she wishes the person can give you as much as or little as she or he wants.
The only consideration is that if you dont like the way the person has divided up the money,
then neither of you gets anything. So, the other person has to keep in mind that you have to
accept the way the money is divided. You are being offered an ultimatum -- a one-time, take it or
leave it offer.
Circle the amount(s) below that you would accept from the other person:
$0

$10

$20

$30

$40

$50

$60

123

$70

$80

$90

$100

FRIENDS AND RELATIVES: USING INCEST TO MAKE KINSHIP

MEMORABLE
Robert Fletcher
Introduction: Uxori-what?
While kinship is one of the hallmarks of classic cultural anthropology, it can be quite difficult to
teach to undergraduates in an introductory class. Students eyes gaze over as they reel beneath a
deluge of esoteric terms (patrilateral cross-cousins, uxorilocal residence, etc.) whose relevance is
unclear; many simply tune out completely. Some of my colleagues have responded by
minimizing kinship in their curricula or eliminating the topic entirely. Yet I believe that the
subject remains important to our discipline as one of the central organizing principles in the lives
of many people around the world, and furthermore, that it can be made both memorable and
enjoyable for students with a little creative framing. Through much trial and error over the years,
I have developed a strategy for teaching kinship that seems to work quite well, as demonstrated
both by students attention level during class and their command of the material on essays and
exams. Although this strategy works best in small classes (under 30) that allow for substantial
interaction between instructor and students, it can work in larger classes as well with skilled
facilitation. I have found it effective in a wide range of settings, from rural community colleges
to large state universities to elite private liberal arts schools. It can be comfortably taught within
one 50-minute class period (but can be easily extended to fill two periods as well) and requires
minimal materials (described below). It all hinges on incest.
Friends and Relatives
Transgression of the incest taboo evokes strong visceral reactions in students that can be
harnessed to deepen their understanding of kinship principles. No, I am not suggesting that you
do anything that might threaten your future employment and status within society. Rather, I will
outline a teaching module that triggers students commitment to their understanding of incest so
that you can demonstrate to them how culturally specific patterns of kinship shape ones attitudes
concerning this issue. In addition to facilitating instruction of kinship principles per se, this
exercise contributes to a central purpose of an introductory cultural anthropology course or the
cultural component of a four-field introductory course: to explore the degree to which our
experience of ourselves and the world around us would be different if we grew up in another
context with dramatically different cultural patterns and norms, and thus, the extent to which
who we are and how we behave is context-specific and culturally-constructed.
As with all good instruction, in teaching kinship it is helpful to begin with an illustrative,
inductive active-learning exercise in order to contextualize and provide scaffolding for the
introduction of subsequent material. For this purpose, I suggest you begin by showing a scene
(Season 7, Disk 4, Episode 1, The One With Ross and Monicas Cousin; 17:20-19:12) from
the popular 90s US television sit-com Friends (Warner Bros. Television, 2001) that works
perfectly. (Most US students, even the young ones, know this show through the ubiquitous
reruns on many major channels.) Individual DVDs of this series can be rented or purchased
from many video stores. Or, if you cannot access this scene, construct a short in-class drama,

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having volunteers play the roles of Ross and his cousin by reading off the script you have
prepared from the text below (Appendix A).
In this scene in question, the main character, Ross, makes a pass at a female first cousin who has
come to stay with him prior to his sister Monicas wedding. As he moves to kiss her she retreats,
then yells angrily, What the hell are you doing? A hilarious inner monologue ensues in which
Ross searches desperately for an adequate explanation while his cousin stares indignantly at him.
Finally, he blurts, I havent had sex in a very long time, and she turns away in disgust.
For those of us raised in societies in which sex/mating between all first cousins is discouraged,
the scene is excruciating to watch, evoking strong feelings of embarrassment and revulsion.
(Ross himself expresses this attitude early in the scene when he thinks, Shes your cousin. If
she knew what was going on in your head shed think you were sick.). Such feelings can be
employed to illustrate the power of cultural conditioning and set the stage for discussing kinship.
After ending the film segment, solicit reactions from the students. Common responses pronounce
Rosss behavior disgusting, perverted, etc. When all such responses have been brought to the
table, redirect the discussion by asking why exactly Rosss behavior is so problematic.
Invariably, someone will eventually explain that mating between close relatives promotes
inbreeding, or, if they are more bio-savvy, that it allows maladaptive recessive genetic
characteristics to be expressed in offsprings phenotypes (if students dont offer this explanation
on their own, you can provide it as a common medical explanation for the dangers of
inbreeding).
At this point, explain that while mating between very close relatives (siblings, parents and
children) may indeed lead to the adverse consequences previously described, there is little
evidence that mating between more distantly-related kin including first cousins causes similar
issues (e.g., Bittles 2004). Point out that in many societies individuals we call first cousins are
considered appropriate, even ideal, marriage partners and that such unions were common in
many Western societies prior to the twentieth century. Mention that Darwin, who founded the
evolutionary theory that medically explains the incest taboo, married his first cousin. Solicit
students reactions to this information. Many will still claim that such behavior is nasty.
Explain that the fact that mating with certain relatives is considered appropriate in one context
and morally egregious in another demonstrates the power of culture to shape our attitudes and
perceptions, and that to understand why such differences in attitudes and perceptions exist
requires knowledge of how family patterns vary in societies around the world. You have now set
the stage for a productive discussion of kinship.
Family Matters
First, teach students how to draw a proper kinship diagram. Provide a visual illustration (via
PowerPoint, overhead, or chalkboard) and distribute worksheets containing several pre-printed
diagrams, drawn from your textbook, which students can use for their own work. Explain the
symbols used to indicate ego, male, female, marriage, siblinghood, etc., and ask students to label
these on their worksheets. Now introduce the specific terms used to describe each particular
relative (e.g., mothers sisters daughters son), emphasizing that it is important to use such

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specific terms rather than colloquial English labels (cousin, uncle, etc.) since such generic labels
obscure differences in how kin are categorized in different societies. This helps to foreshadow
the subsequent discussion of the relationship between kinship and appropriate marriage partners.
At this point, you should provide a brief active exercise or two in mapping kinship using the
principles just described to help students master them before moving on to new material. Vicki
Torsch (2006) outlines an excellent strategy using icons from American pop culture. Or, you can
ask students to map the convoluted family described in the classic American folk song Im My
Own Grandpa (written by Dwight Latham and Moe Jaffe, performed by Lonzo and Oscar in
1948) in which, as the title suggests, the narrator finds himself in the position of becoming his
own grandfather -- is effective as well. Text (and a kinship diagram!) for this song are available
online at: http://gean.wwco.com/grandpa/; various live performances are posted on YouTube as
well. Finally, in a third, more straightforward option, you can have students diagram their own
family trees. Or, if time allows, have them do all three activities.
Then it is time to introduce the standard kinship terminology. Begin with patterns of descent and
residence. Use discrimination to decide how many of the various possibilities you want to inflict
upon your students (i.e., do you really need to delve into the logic of avunculocal residence
here?)
Next, introduce students to the different kinship systems in the world, again using the visual
diagrams presented in any standard text. Rather than trying to teach all six major systems, the
intricacies of which few students will master, consider focusing on a couple of exemplary ones to
illustrate the central message that different systems categorize kin differently. In terms of
framing the issue of marriage between cousins around which this strategy revolves, a comparison
of the Eskimo and Iroquois systems is particularly effective. Present the central principles of
these two systems and highlight the key differences in how they categorize relatives. Relative to
the Eskimo, the Iroquois system:

distinguishes cross and parallel cousins;

lumps siblings and parallel cousins;
distinguishes fathers sisters and mothers sisters;
lumps mother and mothers sister;
distinguishes fathers brothers and mothers brothers;
lumps father and fathers brothers.

At this point students enculturated in the Eskimo system tend to be thoroughly confused, so you
might take a moment to emphasize the extent to which cultural patterns influence our very
perception, to the point that it is difficult to even conceptualize kinship categories that differ
from our own. Learning new kin terms, in other words, is learning to perceive the world
differently. Explain that while the Eskimo system tends to correlate with societies reckoning
bilateral descent, the Iroquois system correlates with unilineal descent groups. Point out that
within an Iroquois framework, the distinctions between relatives outlined above make sense in
that relatives all of whom are members of egos family in an Eskimo system are
distinguished between different descent groups in an Iroquois system and thus comprise different
families entirely.

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Incest Revisited
Once students grasp the key distinctions between the Eskimo and Iroquois kinship systems, the
foundation has been laid for a return to the issue of marriage between cousins. Point out that in
the Iroquois system there is no category that designates cousins as a whole, such that the very
concept is foreign to this system of organization. Emphasize that marriage between people called
first cousins tends to occur within societies practicing Iroquois kinship, then encourage
students to attempt to explain why this should be so (answer: because certain cousins are
considered members of egos family while others are not). Ask them to identify which cousins
would be egos possible partners in such a system (answer: cross-cousins, not parallel). Ask them
why parallel cousins would not be considered appropriate partners (answer: because they are
categorically equivalent to ones own siblings). Emphasize that in terms of this system it is not
really appropriate to say that people marry cousins per se since the concept is alien in this
context. Reiterate that while parallel cousins are akin to egos own siblings, cross-cousins are
considered members of another family entirely, unlike in an Eskimo system in which all
cousins are considered members of egos family equally. Thus, while it makes perfect sense
that all first cousins should be considered sexually off-limits within an Eskimo context (although
this is not necessary either), it is equally logical that cross-cousins as opposed to parallel cousins
should be considered eminently marriageable within an Iroquois system. The difference, while
arbitrary, is consistent with the logic characteristic of each context.
Conclusion
By this point students (should) have learned several things. First, you have exposed them to a
variety of kinship terms and principles in a contextualized manner that facilitates deep learning
and long-term retention. Second, you have shown them the connections and relationships
between various kinship dynamics (i.e., patrilineal descent, Iroquois kinship, and cross-cousin
marriage) so that their understanding of such dynamics does not remain disjointed and
piecemeal. Third, you have allowed them to deepen their appreciation of the different ways in
which peoples organize and relate with the world around them in general. Finally, you have
shown them and as a result, they have developed a personal, experiential understanding of how
such cultural differences influence the way we humans perceive and feel about other people and
the larger reality. Not too shabby for fifty minutes work.
References
Bittles, A.H. 2004 Incest, Inbreeding, and their Consequences. International Encyclopedia of the
Social & Behavioral Sciences 7254-7259.
Torsch, Vicki 2006 Teaching Kinship Diagrams Via American Pop Culture. In Strategies in
Teaching Anthropology, 4th edition, edited by P. Rice and D. McCurdy. Englewood Cliffs,
NJ: Prentice-Hall.

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APPENDIX A: FRIENDS SCENE TRANSCRIPT

Ross and cousin are seated side-by-side sipping wine and watching a movie.
Ross (interior monologue): Shes your cousin. Shes your cousin. If she knew what was going
on in your head shed think you were sick.
Brief Pause
Ross (interior monologue): Or would she? Lets back up for a second. She was the one who
suggested opening a bottle of wine. She was the one who turned down the lights. She was the
one who wanted to rent Logans Run, the sexiest movie ever.
Cousin reaches across Ross to grab a blanket and smiles at him.
Ross (interior monologue): Oh, I know that look. Forget it. I want it. She wants it. Im going in.
Ross looks at cousin. She looks back. They both smile. Ross lunges to kiss her. She pulls quickly
back in surprise.
Cousin: What the hell are you doing?
Cousin sits up and forces Ross back, staring at him intently.
Ross (interior monologue): Say something clever!
Silence.
Ross (interior monologue): Okay, doesnt have to be clever, just has to be words!
Silence.
Ross (interior monologue): Say some words!
Silence.
Ross (interior monologue): Any words will do!
Silence.
Ross (interior monologue): Oh my god, this is the longest that anyone has not talked, ever!
More silence.
Ross (interior monologue): There is nothing that you could say to make this worse so just say
something!

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Still more silence.

Ross: I-I havent had sex in a very long time.
Cousin turns away in disgust and leaves.
Ross (interior monologue): Yeah, you really shouldnt have said anything.
(Warner Bros. Television, 2001: Season 7, Disk 4, Episode 1; 17:20-19:12)

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KULA RING REVIEW SESSION

Eric Thompson
The purpose of this in-class exercise is to review course material and contents in preparation for
an exam. It is based on the principles of the Trobriand Kula Ring, with necklaces moving
clockwise and armbands moving counter-clockwise in a system of exchange. It can also be used
solely to discuss the Kula Ring as a system of exchange and circulation of goods and ideas.
The exercise, as written below, will take about 60 minutes. It is best used in a class of 20 to 30
students, though it can accommodate more if there is room in your classroom for groups to
congregate. Since the Kula Ring is traditionally taught in both four-field introductory
anthropology and introductory cultural anthropology classes, both a review for an exam and a
review of the Kula Ring can be done at the same time. The exercise can be modified to take a
shorter (or longer) time as appropriate. One suggestion for shortening the time required is to
assign students to bring a prepared exam question to class so that they do not have to spend time
in class thinking of one. Another suggestion is to shorten the time given for each exchange
particularly after the first or second round, once students are familiar with the procedures.
Preparation

Purchase enough necklaces and bracelets from your local Dollar Store so that each group
has one to exchange.

Divide the class into an even number of groups (up to 10 groups total; two to three in a
group).

Groups should be distributed in a circle around the room. Photocopy and pass out the
Necklace and Armband question sheets (see Appendix A and B). Every other group
in the circle should get a Necklace sheet; the others should get Armbands sheets.

Each group must come up with an exam question from the course materials to be tested
on in an upcoming exam. Give the students about 10 minutes to write out their question
(or the students can be assigned to bring a question to class). Be sure to tell students to
write a question in the style appropriate for your class.

Round 1 of the Kula

After the questions are prepared, have the Necklace groups move clockwise in the
circle to join the nearest Armband group.

The students now have 5 to 10 minutes to physically exchange their Necklaces and
Armbands (and information or a story about them). Adjust the time per question as
appropriate. The Necklace group reads out their question. The group with the Armband
answers the question, while the Necklace group writes down their answer in the first box
under the question. After five minutes, tell the students to Switch. The Armband group
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then reads their question, the Necklace group gives an answer, which the Armband group
writes down.

After ten minutes, the groups exchange their Necklaces and Armbands along with the
question papers accompanying the exchange items. The Necklace groups go back to
where they started.

Round 2 of the Kula

Repeat the steps above, but note that since the groups who wrote Necklaces now
physically have Armbands and vice versa, the groups that did not move in the last round
will move in this round. Repeat all the steps in round 1 until the students are back to their
original position.

Further Rounds of the Kula

Continue to repeat until the Necklaces and Armbands along with the questions have gone
all the way around (or earlier, depending on time available).

After all rounds are completed, have the students review the Necklaces and
Armbands question sheets they have in their possession. Call on groups to read the
questions, answers, and discuss them with the entire class.

Note: In this exercise, similar to the real Kula Ring, groups interact only with those on either
side of them. Groups on opposite sides of the room never interact directly. But they still interact
indirectly in a larger system of (information) exchange. The necklaces and armbands circulate all
the way around the room acquiring stories and value along the way.

APPENDIX A: NECKLACE QUESTION SHEET

NECKLACE # _____
QUESTION:
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

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ANSWER 1.

ANSWER 2.

ANSWER 3.

ANSWER 4.

ANSWER 5.

APPENDIX B: ARMBAND QUESTION SHEET

ARMBAND # _____
QUESTION:
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

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ANSWER 1.

ANSWER 2.

ANSWER 3.

ANSWER 4.

ANSWER 5.

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FROM SENSITIVITY TO INTELLIGENCE: A TEST OF CULTURAL

CONSTRUCTS
Richard Robbins
Everyone knows what intelligence is, but trying to define it and showing it is a cultural
construct and is biased, is more difficult. First, it is assumed that intelligence exists and that
people differ in the amount they have of it. Interestingly, few other cultures make these
assumptions. I use the following exercise in class to illustrate some of the fallacies of
intelligence testing. The activity begins with students devising a test of sensitivity. I do this
before I discuss how intelligence is constructed and students take the exercise seriously and
come up with interesting tests. Many tests can be devised relative to cultural constructs such
as sensitivity and intelligence and individuals can be assigned a position relative to the results
of those tests. Once students have devised and used their test on sensitivity, you can use what
has been learned to help them evaluate and see the bias in intelligence and intelligence testing.
If students were directly told to devise an intelligence test, the lessons of the cultural construct
would be lost. By devising and administering a sensitivity test, students will be properly
attuned to seeing similar biases in intelligence and intelligence testing.
After the students devise and give the sensitivity test, I ask them whether they know why I
asked them to do the exercise; sometimes someone will volunteer that it is to expose the
fallacies of intelligence testing, but, if not, I generally explain some of the problems of attribute
testing using some of the bulleted points that follow. The exercise works best in classes of 40 to
60 students in groups of 4 to 6 people, and takes approximately 45 minutes for students to
devise and administer the sensitivity test, followed by about 15 to 20 minutes for you to begin
discussing their findings with them and then applying the findings to intelligence and
intelligence testing.
The Sensitivity Test
Have groups of 4 to 6 people devise a test of sensitivity using the student instructions in
Appendix A. The instructions direct the students to devise a test that will assign the test-taker a
score that will represent his or her measure of sensitivity. Then ask one person in each group to
give the test that they designed to another group so that each person in the group has a
sensitivity score. By the end of the test, each person in the class (except the test-givers) will
be assigned a number purporting to assess the degree of their sensitivity to others.
After the Test
This is a surprisingly effective exercise. Initially I was surprised at how easily students were able
to actually devise the test, and how completely they accepted the basic premises of the exercise.

After students have completed the activity of administering the sensitivity test, suggest
that sensitivity is only one of a number of cultural constructs that lend themselves to such testing.
Suggest that in all of these cases, there are problems with measures of so-called innate
characteristics as well as cultural bias. Compare sensitivity testing to intelligence testing:
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Any test that purports to measure some cultural construct requires that the testers define
and know beforehand what they intend to measure and assume beforehand that significant
differences exist between persons. In the cases of sensitivity and intelligence, it means that
testers have to accept preconceptions of what they are (even if they dont exist), and design tests
that do indeed make clear distinctions among individuals (even though significant differences
may not exist).

The test must confirm the expectations of those who will use the test. In the case of
sensitivity testing, the test must rank people on the basis so-called sensitivity. In the case of
intelligence testing, the test must rank people in the same way that the teacher would
subjectively rank them; in the case of college entrance exams, the test results must match a
students academic performance. In effect, the tests must begin at some level with people who
have already been judged intelligent or sensitive, and must then select people as much like the
selected population as possible.

The test is situational. In the case of sensitivity testing, the situation is people living in
close proximity to each other for a prolonged amount of time. In the case of intelligence
testing, the situation in which the person must perform is the school setting. (In the exercise, the
situation is space travel.) There is only an assumption that school performance measures general
intelligence that can be extended to other settings (an assumption not borne out empirically).

The test is culturally biased. In the sensitivity exercise, students clearly use their own
experiences (roommate conflict, school situations) to devise test questions. When asked what a
southern migrant labor would make of the questions students devised to measure sensitivity,
they clearly saw the bias. In devising questions for intelligence tests, testers use their own upper
and middle-class culture. Would these questions be biased if given to a lower-class individual or
an Australian aborigine?

The exercise should illustrate that the concepts themselves (sensitivity to others and
intelligence) are culturally specific. Only a culture in which insensitivity (along with all the
psychodynamic paraphernalia that the idea generates) would find significance in the concept, as
only a culture that requires justification for hierarchical ranking consistent with a belief in
individuality and freedom of opportunity (all people are created equal) would find the concept
of intelligence necessary or intelligible.

APPENDIX A: INSTRUCTIONS FOR DEVISING A SENSITIVITY TEST

Devising measure of Sensitivity to Others (STO)
The National Space Settlement Agency (NSSA) has hired your research and consulting
company, Testers, Inc., to develop a test to determine a persons sensitivity to others. The test
will be used by NSSA as part of its national program for selecting candidates to participate in a
program of space settlement. Since space settlers will be required to spend many months and
years together in close quarters, NSSA has determined that settlers sensitivity to others is
critical for the success of its mission.
This is a pioneering effort, so you are free to approach the task in any way that you see fit.
There are, however, some guidelines.
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1) You must carefully define what constitutes sensitivity to others. This involves not only a
straightforward definition, but also a list of those behavioral or personality features that would
characterize a persons degree of sensitivity to others (STO).
2) You must devise a test that could be given to a person that would allow you to measure the
behavioral or personality features that characterize sensitivity as you have defined it.
3) The test needs to be simple to enable it to be graded by machines (e.g. multiple choice or true
false questions). Your test should contain no more than ten questions.
4) The test that you devise must allow the tester to clearly discriminate differences among
people in STO. That is, your questions must elicit a significant portion of wrong
answers. Obviously if everyone gets a question right or wrong, nothing is determined. NSSA
requires that each person tested be assigned an STO score.
5) You must suggest how to test the test. That is, how can you determine that it does effectively
measure the degree of a persons sensitivity to others?

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STRATIFIED MONOPOLY AND SOCIAL INEQUALITY

Deb Rotman and Mona Danner
Introduction
Social stratification and inequality is a frequent topic in anthropology, sociology, criminal
justice, and other disciplines. The board game Monopoly is an excellent vehicle for examining
these important issues. This original Parker Brothers version of the game, however, is not a true
reflection of social realities. Not everyone starts out in life with the same resources or receives
the same salary or has equal opportunities in society. Stratified Monopoly is a variation of the
original board game in which students take on roles that more accurately parallel the
complexities of class, gender, ethnicity, and life cycle.
We have used this game in a variety of course contexts:

In introductory-level courses to critically examine Social Darwinism;

In seminars on kinship and comparative social organization to view ways in which
socioeconomic classes and/or cultural groups use kinship and social networks to mediate
structural violence;
In archaeology courses to examine the emergence of states, stratified social organization,
and structural inequality;
In social stratification/social inequality courses to demonstrate the challenges to social
mobility and to interrogate the American Dream, the Horatio Alger myth and the
assumption that anyone can make it if they only work hard, among others. The game is
highly adaptable to any course where class is a topic, and many different versions of
this game exist (see the bibliography of this exercise).

This game is well suited for virtually any class size, including small seminars (14 students),
medium (46 students), and large (100+ students) sized lecture courses. You are limited by the
number of regular Monopoly game board sets you can get a hold of: seven students per board,
but you can always offer a bit of extra credit to encourage students to bring in games. The
activity is best suited to 75-minute class periods, but can be adapted to shorter 50-minute class
times as well. You will want students to play long enough that clear social stratification emerges
and that they have sufficient time to experience the implications for those differences.
How to Play Stratified Monopoly
First, decide which class you will be playing the game in; you may choose to preface the playing
of the game that makes the most sense for your particular course. You may wish to lecture
extensively on a topic in one class meeting and then play the game the next. Or you may decide
to only preface game play with a few comments at the beginning of class.
The actual game play for Stratified Monopoly proceeds exactly the same way for each context
since class is the theme and seeing inequality the ultimate goal. It is the discussion of what
happens that is tailored to meet specific learning goals. If you use the game to challenge Social

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Darwinism, your conversation might focus on how playing Monopoly the traditional way
perpetuates the ideals of Social Darwinism by asserting that everyone in American society is
operating on an even playing field. If you are discussing structural violence, you could discuss
the ways in which class, gender, ethnicity, age, life cycle, marital status, and other factors shape
lived experiences by the very real impediments they may represent. If you use the game to
illustrate social stratification, you might talk about the ways in which inequalities are codified
and reproduced. In all cases, Stratified Monopoly is used to examine our own contemporary
culture as well as related back to certain course materials.
Distribute Appendix A, a handout of Rules for Stratified Monopoly that identifies the different
roles for each player, up to seven people per game board. The game can be played with fewer
than seven players, but one person must be Male Lawyer A. Distribute the remaining students
across the social spectrum represented by the different roles. Have students read the instructions
and set up the game according to these rules. To begin the game, have students decide who will
play which role, who will go first, etc. as this is an important aspect of setting up the social
dynamics of play.
As students play the game, pay close attention to interactions, including how decisions are made
about who occupies which class position and even how class members appear to be acting and
feeling. Keep notes on your observations of student interactions during game play, such as
alliance building and accusations of cheating. Their conversations are often very illustrative of
the concepts you seek to emphasize through this activity.
For a 50-minute class period, have students play nearly the entire time slot. Leave a few minutes
at the end of class to give students instructions about processing their experience. Instruct them
to write about what they experienced, thought, and felt during the game to be shared during the
next class period. For a 75-minute class period, have students play for 55 to 60 minutes, leaving
15 to 20 minutes for discussion.
Conclude play by calling time and have students calculate their gross worth (cash on hand +
value of properties. (See Appendix B.) Have the students assess their relative social positions and
whether or not they were upwardly or downwardly mobile.
The second author often extends the game over two class periods, playing regular Monopoly
during the first period and passing out a modified version of Appendix B that doesnt identify
players rank or starting class. (One important observation is that nearly every student has played
Monopoly; first year international students are the exception but generally have played the game
by the end of their second year in the U.S.) Tell students they will play Monopoly again during
the second class period. Students usually come into that second class and set up the board for
regular Monopoly. At that point you can ask them if this is how it works in the U.S. Does
everyone start out equal? With that, you can pass out the rules for Stratified Monopoly.
As a class, explore what happened, how people felt, what they noticed about themselves and
others. Discuss how these experiences are related to social class position as well as shaped by
gender, ethnicity, and life cycle. Among the Lower Class, you may observe: suicide,
depression, and alienation, bankruptcy, lifetime incarceration in jail. Among the Upper Class,

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students may experience: noblesse oblige (the obligation of honorable, generous, and
responsible behavior associated with high rank or birth), ruthlessness and greed, laziness, and
protecting ones position, manipulation of the rules, bank embezzlement. In addition, you may
see class alliances form (especially between the Working and Middle Classes), class conflict, and
class warfare. Highlight the ways in which gender, ethnicity, presence or absence of children,
marital status, and other personal details shape experience and outcomes. Ask students what
happened and why as well as why feelings were different among people and classes. Invite
students to relate this experience to real life and to course readings and other activities. Sample
discussion questions follow:
Sample Discussion Questions (Depending on the context of the game)

What happened in general at your board?

How were various details (such as who would be what class, etc.) decided?
Did you feel the game was played fairly? Why or why not?
Did anything notable happen to you? What was your reaction to what happened?
How do Monopoly and Stratified Monopoly inform our understanding of stratified
societies?
How do Monopoly and Stratified Monopoly inform our understanding of the
archaeological record of stratified societies?
What forms of structural violence did you encounter during the game?
What strategies might different socioeconomic classes and/or cultural groups develop to
mediate structural violence?
How did class, gender, ethnicity, and life cycle shape the lived experiences of the
characters in the game?
How does Stratified Monopoly challenge Social Darwinism?
Did your original status in the game change? Were you upwardly or downwardly mobile?
Why or Why not?
Other thoughts? Comments?

Sample Follow-up Activities

Encourage students to explore the concepts you seek to emphasize through this exercise by
engaging them in small group discussion and/or writing an essay:
Small group discussions: Facilitate conversation on the above questions combining
students from different games. Have them share what occurred in their group as well as learn
what happened at others.
Short paper or in-class writing: Have students analyze their experiences, individually
and/or collectively. Have them compare/contrast playing Monopoly and Stratified Monopoly.
In both cases, challenge students to explore others experiences in addition to their own.

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APPENDIX A: RULES FOR STRATIFIED MONOPOLY

Players: Seven groups, representing four classes in US society, play the game. If fewer than
seven students play, distribute the roles across this spectrum. At each board:
7 players
MALE LAWYER (A): Unmarried, 44, of Anglo-European descent. No children,
1
one cat. A partner with his firm. Firmly upper upper class.
FEMALE LAWYER: Unmarried, 44, of Anglo-European descent. No children, one
dog. A partner with her firm. Her salary is 75% of that of her male partners with 1
equal time at the firm (the average gender gap for earnings in 2006). Upper class.
MALE LAWYER (B): Unmarried, 44, African-American. No children, two
goldfish. A partner with his firm. His salary is 73% of that of his male partners with 1
equal time at the firm (the average gap for earnings in 2004). Upper class.
DIVORCED FATHER: Unmarried man, 29, Latino. Ex-wife has custody of their
two kids (< age 5). Pays child support based on his income as a factory worker in
the amount of $1,300/year (average of child support paid in the United States). 1
Upon divorcing, the standard of living for men increases an average of 15%.
Solidly middle class.
RETIRED MAN: Widower, age 68, Asian-American. Was self-employed, owned a
heating and air conditioning business. Has no pension other than limited social 1
security. Has a paper route for a little extra spending money. Lower middle class.
DIVORCED MOTHER: Unmarried woman, 29, second generation immigrant from
Eastern Europe. Has custody of her two kids (< age 5). Receives $1,300/year in
child support (as 37% of single parents do; the other 63% receive no support). Also 1
works as a teacher. Upon divorcing, the standard of living for women decreases an
average of 27%. Working class.
RETIRED WOMAN: Widow, age 68, of Anglo-European descent. Was a stay-athome mom. Never worked outside the home. Her husband died last year. Now is a
greeter at a local Wal-mart to supplement her limited social security income (which 1
is calculated as half of what her husband would receive if he was still alive). Lower
class.
Order of Play: Turns are taken as follows: MALE LAWYER (A), then FEMALE LAWYER,
then MALE LAWYER (B), then DIVORCED FATHER, then RETIRED MAN, then
DIVORCED MOTHER, then RETIRED WOMAN.
Inheritance: Each group begins the game with the following amounts of money:

Male Lawyer (A) = $2,500

Female Lawyer and Male Lawyer (B) = $1,875
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Divorced Father = $1,000

Retired Man and Divorced Mother = $400
Retired Woman = $200

Salaries: Salaries are given each time a player passes go as follows:

Male Lawyer (A) = $500

Female Lawyer and Male Lawyer (B) = $375
Divorced Father = $200
Retired Man and Divorced Mother = $120
Retired Woman = $50

Purchase of Properties: Opportunities for buying properties on the board are as follows:

Male Lawyer (A): may buy any property on the board.

Female Lawyer and Male Lawyer (B): may buy any property except dark green and dark
blue properties.
Divorced Father: may buy purple, light blue, maroon and orange properties plus utilities
and railroads.
Retired Man and Divorced Mother: may buy purple, light blue, and maroon properties.
Retired Woman: may buy only purple and light blue properties

Income Tax: Anyone landing on the income tax square must pay $200 each time; there is no
option of paying 10%.
Go to Jail: Different rules apply for each class when being instructed to go to jail.

Male Lawyer (A): Immediately pay $50 and roll again. No time spent in jail.
Female Lawyer and Male Lawyer (B): upon receiving instructions to go to jail,
immediately roll the dice. If you receive an odd roll, go to jail, but you can roll again
immediately. If the second roll is greater than 7, then you are released. If less than 7, you
must remain in jail taking your regular turn until a number greater than 7 is rolled or pay
$50 for release.
Divorced Father: must go directly to jail. On the next or any following turn can pay $50
to get out or can remain until a number greater than 7 is rolled.
Retired Man and Divorced Mother: must go directly to jail. On the next or any following
turn can pay $50 to get out or remain there until doubles are rolled.
Retired Woman: must go directly to jail and remain there until doubles are rolled.

The Bank: The Male Lawyer (A) is the bank.

Additional Rules: It is against the rules to complain about the rules. The sentence is going to
jail; to be released, see "go to jail."
Any unclear rules will be clarified by the Male Lawyer (A) at his discretion.

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APPENDIX B: STRUCTURED MONOPOLY WORKSHEET

All students must complete one worksheet; you will need it for our classroom discussion. Turn it
in at the end of class to the instructor.
Gross Worth = Cash on hand + Value of properties. According to Monopoly, properties are
valued as follows: (1) All lots, utilities, railroads are valued at the price printed on the board. (2)
Any mortgaged property is valued at one-half the price printed on the board. (3) Houses are
valued at purchase price found on the property's deed card. (4) Hotels are valued at the hotel
purchase price found on the deed card plus the purchase price of the four houses required in
order to purchase a hotel. "Get Out of Jail Free" cards are valued at $50.
Beginning Players
Starting
Rank (1= Class (Inheritance)
highest)
Male Lawyer
($2,500)

Players Name

Gross
Worth

Lawyer

1
Female
($1,875)
2
Male Lawyer
($1,875)

Father

Man

Divorced
($400)

Mother

Retired
($200)

Woman

3
Divorced
($1,000)
4
Retired
($400)
5

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End Rank
(1=highest)

Additional Discussions About Using And Variations Of Monopoly In The Classroom Can Be
Found In:
Beeghley, Leonard
1983 Living Poorly in America. Praeger Publishing, New York.
1996 The Structure of Social Stratification in the United States, 2nd Edition. Allyn & Bacon,
Boston.
Coghlan, Catherine L. and Denise W. Huggins 2004 That's Not Fair!: A Simulation Exercise
in Social Stratification and Structural Inequality. Teaching Sociology 32(2): 177-187.
Ender, Morten G. (U.S. Military Academy) 2004 Modified Monopoly: Experiencing Social
Class Inequality. Academic Exchange Quarterly 8(2):249-253.
http://www.rapidintellect.com/AEQweb/mo2585l4.htm (retrieved 1/14/09).
Fisher, Edith M. 2008 USA Stratified Monopoly: A Simulation Game about Social Class
Stratification. Teaching Sociology 36(3):272-282.
Goudy, Phyllis-Marie, John Hawthorne, and Jeanne Nelson 1983 "Teaching Social Stratification
with Monopoly." Presented at the North Central Sociological Association meetings.
Huggins, Denise Walker and Catherine L. Coghlan 2004 "Social Stratification and Life Chances:
An Interactive Learning Strategy for Criminal Justice Classes. Journal of Criminal Justice
Education 15:413-428.
Jessup, Michael M. 2001 Sociopoly: Life on the Boardwalk. Teaching Sociology 29:102-109.
Leighton, Paul 2009 Pauls Justice Page: The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society.
http://www.paulsjusticepage.com/elite-deviance/monopoly.htm. (retrieved 1/14/09)
Waldner, Lisa K. and William J. Kinney 2004 Playing Monopoly as a Strategy for Teaching
Sociological Ideas on Class Inequality. Sociological Imagination 40(2):111-130.
Waldner-Haugrud, L. K. and Kinney, W. J. 2003 "Using Monopoly to Teach Social
Stratification and Inequality" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American
Sociological
Association,
Atlanta,
GA.
http://www.allacademic.com//meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/1/0/6/5/9/pages106595/p10659
5-1.php (retrieved 1/14/09).
Winders, Bill, Lisa Meyer and Kristin Marsh
Stratification Monopoly. Unpublished paper.

2003 The Rules of the Game: Playing

Acknowledgments
Jessica Collette, Department of Sociology at the University of Notre Dame, introduced me to this
game during a chance meeting in an elevator. Heather Van Wormer, Department of

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Anthropology at Grand Valley State University, offered great ideas on creating more complex
roles for students to play.

144

TEACHING AUTHENTICITY
Scott A. Lukas
The concept of authenticity is one of the more interesting topics that can be considered in a
cultural anthropology classroom. Because of its inherent connection to the subject of culture, I
have found that authenticity makes for an excellent analytical platform for classroom discussions
and exercises. This strategy includes three separate exercises; each focuses on the cultural
aspects of authenticity. You can use any combination of the three, but I recommend that you at
least include Part I as a foundation. If you choose to use all three, I recommend taking two class
periods; two of them can be completed in one class period.
Part I: Defining Authenticity
The first step is to present the class with an overview of the concept of authenticity. Because the
concept grafts onto culture very well, I recommend that you introduce these exercises in the
same week in which you cover the concept of culture (Lindholm 2008). Included in Appendix A
are some sample definitions of authentic and authenticity that you can use. As well, there are
references for some texts that deal with the concept of authenticity, including Ralph Lintons
famous One Hundred Percent American. If you like, you can ask your students to read any of
those selections. After you present the definitions of the term, briefly explain why cultural
anthropologists are interested in the issue of authenticity. You may wish to include points such as
the following:

Culture refers to the sum of material and immaterial things and ideas that can be applied
to a given people. In many ways, culture refers to a real that can be postulated to exist
in the world. Like culture, authenticity focuses on a real something that is authentic is
said to be genuine, real, and not a fake.

Especially in the era of consumer culture, more and more people have raised questions
about the authenticity of things ranging from a band lip-synching at a concert, to fake
memoirs and autobiographies, to counterfeit and knock-off consumer products like CDs,
wristwatches, and home electronics devices.

The issue of authenticity, like the issue of culture, is a complex one that entails in-depth
understandings of culture and the self. These three areas are only a sampling of the issues
that can be raised in this exercise. This exercise should take 15 minutes.

Part II: Small Groups

Following the step of defining authenticity, break your class into small groups, ranging from 3 to
7 students each. The purpose of this exercise is to generate impromptu student discussion on
what role authenticity plays in their lives. Ask your students to work on the following discussion
questions:

145

Can you think of something that you do that relates to authenticity? What makes it
authentic?
Have you ever visited another culture and thought that your experiences were authentic?
What made them so?
Have you ever eaten something or experienced something, such as a festival or cultural
event, that seemed authentic? What made it seem that way?
Conversely, have you ever eaten or experienced something that was the opposite -inauthentic? What characterized its lack of authenticity? Have one member of the group
act as a scribe, and after all of the questions have been answered, ask the group to
generate a list with two columns one labeled authentic, the other inauthentic. Ask
them to write as many keywords as possible to identify each of the two categories. This
exercise takes between 20 and 30 minutes.

Part III: Field Narratives

The concept of authenticity can also be used to teach the significance of participant observation
and other forms of fieldwork. This exercise involves students going out into the field and
collecting first-hand observations of a food, cultural tradition or event, hobby or lifestyle interest,
or object of material culture. The goal is to ask students to consider what makes something in
their culture authentic. You may assign the students to conduct individual fieldwork or ask them
to join groups ranging from 3 to 5 students. You can give them the following assignment: You
are a cultural anthropologist interested in the role that authenticity plays in U.S. culture. Your
task is to use fieldwork methods (including any combination of participant observation, surveys
and interviews) to determine how authenticity relates to one of the following cultural categories:
food; cultural tradition or event; hobby or lifestyle interest; an object of material culture. As you
undertake your fieldwork be sure to seek out informants who can give you feedback on what
makes the issue, thing, or event authentic and what would make that thing inauthentic. Collect all
of your data in a notebook and be prepared to provide a summary of your ethnographic findings
to the class. Appendix B gives this assignment as well.
To prepare your students for the ethnographic exercise, give them some tips, based on the
cultural category they chose for their fieldwork. They are listed in Appendix B.
The field narratives will generally take one hour to complete in the field. It may be a smart idea
to assign this exercise over a weekend to give your students more time to complete it. During the
next class, have your students share the fieldwork assignments with the class. When they present
their data to the class, let them know that any form of presentation is welcomed: poster board,
photography, audio and video recordings, etc. The presentations can be livelier with such use of
media and depending on the topic, you may also want students to bring in samples if possible.
For example, students in the class could taste authentic and inauthentic pizza or they could
admire a hand-made holiday ornament and contrast it with a mass-produced one. The exercise
may take between one and two hours, depending on the size of your class and the time limits that
you establish for each presentation.

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References
Anon. Fake Authenticity: An Introduction, Hermenaut,
http://www.hermenaut.com/a5.shtml
Guignon, Charles 2004 On Being Authentic. London: Routledge.
Lindholm, Charles 2008 Culture and Authenticity. London: Wiley-Blackwell.
Linton, Ralph 1936 One Hundred Percent American. From The Study of Man: An Introduction.
New York: D. Appleton-Century Company.
Pine, B. Joseph & James H. Gilmore 2007 Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want. Boston:
Harvard Business School Press.
Taylor, Charles 1992 The Ethics of Authenticity. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

APPENDIX A: DEFINITIONS OF AUTHENTICITY

Authentic, adjective (Merriam-Webster), http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/authentic
Etymology: Middle English autentik, from Anglo-French, from Late Latin authenticus, from
Greek authentikos, from authents perpetrator, master, from aut- + -hents (akin to Greek anyein
to accomplish, Sanskrit sanoti he gains)
Definitions: 1. (obsolete) authoritative; 2 a: worthy of acceptance or belief as conforming to or
based on fact; b: conforming to an original so as to reproduce essential features; c: made or done
the same way as an original; 3. not false or imitation: real , actual; 4a. of a church mode: ranging
upward from the keynote; b. of a cadence: progressing from the dominant chord to the tonic; 5:
true to one's own personality, spirit, or character.
Authenticity, noun (Oxford English Dictionary), http://www.oed.com
Definitions: The quality of being authentic, or entitled to acceptance, 1. as being authoritative or
duly authorized; 2. as being in accordance with fact, as being true in substance; 3. as being what
it professes in origin or authorship, as being genuine; genuineness; 4. as being real, actual;
reality.
APPENDIX B: TIPS FOR FRAMING YOUR FIELDWORK QUESTIONS
You are a cultural anthropologist interested in the role that authenticity plays in U.S. culture.
Your task is to use fieldwork methods (including any combination of participant observation,
surveys and interviews) to determine how authenticity relates to one of the following cultural
categories: food; cultural tradition or event; hobby or lifestyle interest; an object of material
culture. As you undertake your fieldwork be sure to seek out informants who can give you

147

feedback on what makes the issue, thing, or event authentic and what would make that thing
inauthentic. Collect all of your data in a notebook and be prepared to provide a summary of your
ethnographic findings to the class.
Food: Any type of food is appropriate, whether fast food, gourmet, coffee, or even home
cooking. You may decide to research authentic pizza, perhaps going to a chain pizza place and/or
a mom and pop establishment. Your field inquiries should be geared at the nuances of the
food, such as: How is it made? Where are the raw materials from? How long does it take to learn
how to make the item? How has making the dish changed over time and has that affected the
quality of the dish?
Cultural Tradition/Cultural Event: Depending on your local community, you may choose an
ethnic festival or holiday (Cinco de Mayo, for example), a local tradition (Hot August Nights, a
car festival in Reno, Nevada, for example), or a religious one (a Greek wedding, for example).
Again, your fieldwork should target what makes the cultural event or tradition unique, how it has
changed, and how people perceive the cultural tradition as it reflects their own identity.
Hobby/Lifestyle Interest: There are many hobbies or lifestyle interests that you can use to elicit
fieldwork on authenticity. One example would be interviewing a maker of fine cabinets. In the
interview you, the student ethnographer, could ask about the process of cabinet making and
perhaps how it contrasts with mass-produced cabinets (like those of the popular chain IKEA).
Other lifestyle topics depend on the demographics of your community, but possibilities include
skiing, quilting, parasailing, etc.
Object of Material Culture: A product can be any form of material culture a radio, oil
painting, model train, wicker basket, etc. Like a hobby/lifestyle topic, you should place your
field work emphasis on determining skill, history, tradition, techniques associated with the item,
but since it is a form of material culture, you should focus on the material conditions of the item:
how was it made, what materials were used, etc.

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LIKE A FISH IN WATER: HELPING STUDENTS IDENTIFY THE ROLE

OF CULTURE IN THEIR LIVES
Amy J. Hirshman
Introduction: Problem and Response
Teaching an introductory four-field anthropology or cultural anthropology course requires
dealing with the concept of culture. Thanks to multiculturalism, undergraduate students easily
understand that many cultures exist and they can readily identify certain cultural differences
among them, such as customs or clothing. However, it is more difficult for students to
understand that they, too, live by the rules of a particular culture and how strongly that culture
affects their everyday lives. We are taught to live such seemingly individualistic lives that it is
often hard to understand, like the proverbial fish in water, the ways in which cultural knowledge
and pressures affect even the most basic and mundane decisions we make.
A simple exercise I learned from the late Jerome Voss, a member of my graduate committee,
addresses this misperception. By asking students what do you do first thing in the morning? in
an open-ended fashion, you can provide them with patterned information that reveals the
immediacy and power of culture in their lives. I have successfully used this exercise in
introductory courses in four-field anthropology and cultural anthropology at a community
college, a four-year commuting college, and two large residential state universities, with classes
ranging from 13 to well over 200. The exercise requires approximately 10 minutes for collecting
the data and at least 30 minutes to discuss, though your discussion can last longer.
On the first day of class ask students to fill out a 3 x 5 or 4 x 6 note card to answer the following
question:
In a few sentences or a short list, tell me what you do when you first get up in the morning. Do
not give me your name, but do indicate if you are male or female.
The students may look at you funny, and indeed some students require a little prompting. Do not
guide their answers; instead simply reiterate that they are to provide a list or paragraph of the
things they do in the morning after they wake up. When the students are finished, collect the
cards so there is no way you can match responses to faces, and tell them you will share their
answers to the question at a later point in the course. Simply continue on with the first day of
class.
After class, collate the information in a table and type it up for presentation purposes. Collect all
information between actually getting out of bed (though many students use their snooze alarms,
something I tend to mention) and leaving the house/dorm room for class or work. The collating
portion can be a little time-consuming, especially for a large class, though with the help of your
grad assistant or advanced undergraduate student or two, a class of over 220 students can be
collated in a reasonable amount of time. A simplified, fictionalized example is provided in Table
1. Separate the information by male and female, and since an individual can provide more than
one response, the number of respondents, N, does not add up to 100% within each column, only

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across each row. A number of items will be mentioned only once; these can be easily listed at the
bottom of the table. At the appropriate time in your course, such as when you are first
introducing the culture concept, present the tabulated activities and frequencies to your students
so everyone can see the data. Note general behavioral trends as you go along. Have fun. Then as
a class, review the data looking for patterns in reported activities, expected behaviors versus
listed realities and activities that probably occur but are not mentioned (and why), and gendered
differences. You can also discuss how appropriate the data collection methods are, though you
may wish to hold that for a later date when you more closely consider fieldwork and data
collection.
Data and Class Discussion
The behaviors identified by the students will fall into patterns; point them out. Most students
write that they use the bathroom, shower or wash up, brush their teeth, and eat or at least drink
their breakfast, and get dressed. This morning ritual is culturally patterned behavior, and all
students engage in at least facets of this larger shared conduct in some manner none stands
aloof from the power of the expectations to conform to some patterned, culturally constituted
behavioral standard. Even how we are most comfortable going to the bathroom is culturally
constrained.
However, the results also indicate less than full participation in all activities. Explain that underrepresentation reinforces the unconsciousness and presumed naturalness of our cultural activities.
Many activities are so insignificant that we do not even notice. Often a student will identify a
few particular activities (such as using the toilet or taking a shower) and then write something to
effect of I get ready and leave for class. The implication is that there are still things to do, but
they assume anyone would simply know what getting ready is. Alternatively, in Table 1 only
43% of the students reported dressing. Such numbers are common, which students find
entertainingly ironic, as they actually all attend class clothed! While some students really do
attend class in their pajamas, the reporting for these activities is not representative of the reality.
After looking for broad cultural patterns, use under-representation to highlight ideal versus real
culture. We know what we should do (brush our teeth, eat breakfast, dress) yet we know we do
not often consciously think through those shoulds, let alone always follow them. As an
example, suggest that skipping breakfast does not in and of itself constitute a significant
flaunting of cultural rules. Yet newspapers run articles on how an adolescence pattern of
skipping breakfast can lead to adult obesity, an increasingly common but not an idealized state
within our culture. So, while you can gently have fun with your students about having or
skipping the most important meal of the day, you can also discuss how cultural rules are
interrelated and culture is an integrated whole. Of course, there is the discussion of whether
Mom is always right, and the role of family in teaching cultural rules.
You can continue to use under-representation of activities to indicate the power of culture to
constrain our ability to talk about tasks we all know we engage in, but are not necessarily free to
discuss. This is also indicated though the use of euphemisms, such as go to the bathroom
instead of to urinate. You will probably find that female students tend to use more euphemistic

150

language, while in contrast, male students tend to use coarser language (peeing versus using
the bathroom).
Another pattern that you can point out and discuss is the differential representation by sex. This
is partially structured by gender expectations and behaviors. Some activities within our
American cultural context are expected to differ: women tend to spend more time on makeup and
hair while men typically shave. However, women also report brushing their teeth or generally
washing up more often than male students. When the implications of this difference dawned on
one female student in a recent class, she responded with a very loud and very disgusted gross.
While this cracked up her classmates, she also learned a deeper, more experiential lesson than a
plain lecture could have provided.
You should read a note card or two when reporting your results. If you do so, take pains to
indicate that you do not know who wrote it and to thank them for their candor. While reading a
few cards can be entertaining, it is also instructive. The cards identify how the tabulated chart
does not really encompass all of the information given to you by the students in their responses.
For example, you lose how the order of activities varies from student to student. Depending on
the class, you can use this greater wealth of information to open up a discussion on various
research methods and what we can learn from each, or to discuss ethics (whats an IRB and was
IRB approval needed to collect this data? Can a researcher be too personal?), and how people
variably respond to being subjects of research (some students will take you seriously and some
will not; you will have to decide how to handle the variation in responses).
If time permits, and once you have done this exercise several times, you could show your current
students older aggregate data from another class or from another school. You will be able to
expand the discussion even further by comparing expectations and lifestyles between different
American sub-populations (which, depending on your student body, may be true of your
sample anyway, but that can make for a richer overall class discussion) and/or how cultural
behaviors change over time. If you have comparable or even observational data from another
cultural context, you might wish to describe that morning ritual to your students, and indicate
whether or how people went to the bathroom, washed up, or did other activities in order to
extend the conversation even further.
Conclusion
The exercise is simple to implement and students love to have their data presented and
discussed. This exercise leads to both humor and concentration on the course material. Students
appear genuinely surprised by what they collectively do and do not do in the morning. You will
learn something new about your students, too, as they explain to you what and why they engage
in certain activities. While students may still struggle with culture being something only other
people have, this exercise is a good starting point for growing both students realizations of their
possession of culture and their self-reflexivity in understanding the power of culture in their own
individual lives.

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Table 1: Sample tabulated student data

ACTIVITY
Go to bathroom
Brush teeth
Shower/wash
Hair
Makeup
Shave
Deodorant
Dress
Cook/eat/drink
Computer/messages
"Think"
"Get ready"
Interact with others
Clean/make bed
Exercise
Smoke

TOTAL
(N=200)
83
110
137
40
35
2
4
86
119
35
10
19
13
10
7
4

FEMALE
N (=120)
47
66
84
38
35
0
1
54
72
20
7
14
12
8
2
2

%
41
55
69
20
29
1
2
43
60
18
5
10
7
5
4
2

%
39
55
70
31
29
0
<1
45
60
16
6
12
10
7
2
2

MALE
N (=80)
36
44
53
2
0
2
3
32
47
15
3
5
1
2
5
2

One each:
Female: recover from previous night; blow nose; dance; turn off roommates alarm
Male: preen; lounge; grab clothes; listen to
music.

152

%
44
55
66
2
0
2
4
40
59
19
3
6
1
2
5
2

DOBE JU/HOANSI KINSHIP AND MARRIAGE GAME

Eric Thompson
This exercise is designed for students to get a feel from the inside (i.e., an emic perspective) of
the Dobe Ju/hoansi kinship and marriage system as described in chapters 5 and 6 of Richard
Lees The Dobe Ju/Hoansi (3rd ed.) 2003 Belmont CA: Wadsworth Thompson. Students need to
have read these two chapters before participating in the activity.
In the exercise, each student takes on a role within a family as either a parent or a child of
marriageable age. The objective is for each family to find suitable marriage partners for the
children in the family.
The game can have up to 30 players (six members of five families). Ideally it would be good to
have at least 20 players, though it is probably feasible to conduct the game with as few as 15
(using five families with one parent and two children each). The activity takes about 45 minutes.
Equipment and Handouts

Kinship Charts (See Appendix A, 1-5). Each participant will receive one kinship chart;
up to six per family.

Childrens Notes Page (See Appendix B). One note page for each Child (up to 20 total).

Parents Notes Page (See Appendix C). One for each Parent (up to 10 total).

Solutions Page (See Appendix D). One or more for the instructor.

Write-up Page (See Appendix E). One for each student; optional.

Set-Up
Optimally, a large space should be cleared in the center of the classroom, with five clusters of six
chairs each in a circle around the center. Each cluster of chairs is one familys camp. The family
should sit together at the start of the game (while they are organizing who is who). The students
can use the open space to circulate during visiting season then return to their camps to discuss
marriage prospects with the family after the visiting season is finished.
Steps in the Game: Organization, Visiting Season, Talking with the Family, Marriage Proposals
It is useful to write the steps on a chalkboard for students reference. You can get students
attention by suggesting that given time there will be a Step 5: Marriage-by-Capture Ceremony,
as described by Lee (pp.80-81).

153

Step 1 (10 minutes): Organize the students into five families:

Family groups should assign a role (parent or child) to each group member.

One way to get the families organized is to assign the first five students who
show up to class to be the heads of families (a parent of either gender). That
student is then allowed to assign roles to all the other family members (their reward for
prompt attendance!).

It is important to have relative gender balance among children. Real gender of players
does not matter (males can be sisters/wives; females can be brothers/husbands).

Each family should ideally have a ratio of one parent to two children. If there are fewer
than the maximum number of students, I suggest assigning; 1 parent, 2 children, (1P:1C;
1P:2C; 2P:2C; 2P:3C; 2P:4C)

Step 2 (15 minutes): Visiting Season

Make sure that all the players have sorted out who they are and know the rules for whom they
can and cannot marry.

Each parent should specify which two children they will try to find a spouse for. (Father
takes two, Mother takes two).

Students go around the room, meet with others not in their family, and exchange
information.

Children should talk with other children (who would want to talk with adults boring!);
parents should talk with other parents about their children (since that is what all parents
do, right?).

Children are looking for a spouse for themselves; they should talk to other children about
whether that person is a possible match (not about brothers and sisters).

Parents can talk to other parents about all of each others children.

Parents and Children should write on their note sheets.

Be sure to keep track of the time. 15 minutes is about right. Remind students that they
are not allowed to collect any more information after visiting season is finished.

Step 3 (10 minutes): Talk with the Family

Have each family sit back down together. They should come up with one or two of the
best possible matches for each child.

154

After they have identified a good match for each child (about 5 minutes), give each group
the kinship charts for all five families (Appendix A 1-5). Have them double check the
matches to see if they have missed any avoidance relationships that would preclude the
marriage.

Step 4 (10 minutes): Marriage Proposals

Before the Marriage Proposals begin, announce two things: first, that being nonJu/hoansi yourself, figuring out the intricacies of the kinship and marriage system makes
your head hurt just as much as theirs (the students). But second, using the Solutions Chart
(Appendix D), you are going to assume the role of the Ju/hoansi ancestors the
//gangwasi (see Lee, Chapter 9) and serious misfortune will befall any family who
violates the kinship and marriage customs. So they must make their proposals with
caution!

Choose families at random (they can draw lots to see who goes first, second, third, etc.).
Remind them, it is important to have more than one possible match, since some eligible
partners may be taken by the time it is their turn. You can also point out here that
polygamy as well as lovers are both possible for Ju/hoansi; though not without their own
complications. (See Lee pp.82-84.)

Have the head of each family (one of the parents) announce which of their children is to
be proposed in marriage (have that child stand up). Then have the parent announce the
name and parents names of the child two whom they wish to have their daughter or son
marry (have that child stand up as well).

Check the Solution Chart (Appendix D) and either:

Announce that the //gangwasi have no objections (if the Solutions Chart says it is
ok). Ask if both families agree to the marriage. If they do, announce the couple married,
and start the ritual clapping. Or:
If the Solution Chart shows a problem, warn the families that they are on
the verge of violating a serious, incest taboo. Ask them to try to figure out why.

Repeat the marriage proposal step until every family has had a chance to marry off at
least one of their children.

Follow-Up Activities
If you conduct this activity in longer (1 hour 45 minute) class sessions, you can have the students
complete a 15 minute write up after the game, to reflect on kinship and marriage rules in their
own society. (See Appendix E for a sample write up form.) If you teach in an explicitly
multicultural setting, there will likely be a variety of perspectives of what students consider to be
their societies.

155

Follow the writing session with a discussion session. A few points of discussion can include:

Cross-cultural comparison: this is a central part of anthropological practices and in a

sense it is what you are implicitly asking students to do by comparing the kinship and
marriage rules of their own society to that of Ju/hoansi.

Cultural complexity: the Ju/hoansi kinship system is highly complex compared to that
experienced by most people in industrialized societies. In industrialized societies, other
institutions from states to universities have superseded the role that kinship (and to
some extent, marriage) plays in Ju/hoansi (as described by Lee) and many other
societies. Cultural complexity is a relative term and contra still powerful 19th century
evolutionary thinking, cultures do not evolve in unilinear fashion from more to less
complex. Some systems in industrial societies such as that for food production and
consumption are more complex socially (a larger number of exchanges take place); but
others such as the cultural kinship system may be much simpler.
APPENDIX A: KINSHIP CHARTS

FAMILY #1

Toma

Bo

N!uhka

Hwan//a

Chu!ko

Kashe

42

40

/Twi

/Twa

!Xam

16

18

20

22

Chu!ko

Kashe

N!uhka

Toma

N!ai

1. In your group, assign each individual to play one of the roles above. (Your own gender doesnt matter
males can play a female role and visa-versa). Circle who you are so you dont forget!!
2. Go around and talk to up to five other students from other groups. For each person, determine if you
have a joking or avoidance relationship with them.
3. If you are a child, determine if that person is a potential marriage partner.

156

4. If you are a parent, try to determine if the person is a potential marriage partner for any of your
children.
5. Return to your group after the exercise. Talk to your family about who you think would be a good
match for the children in the family. Write down all of the prospects.
Game Rules:
1. Parents may talk to other parents about all of their children.
2. Children may talk to other children only about their own marriage prospects (not about their brothers
and sisters).
Dobe Ju/hoansi Rules:
A girl may not marry a boy with her fathers name or her brothers name, and a boy in turn may not
marry someone with his mothers name or sisters name. Secondary prohibitions refer to anyone standing
in an avoidance kinship relation to ego, including the kin terms tsu (uncle), tsuma (nephew), //ga (aunt),
//gama (niece), tsin (younger sibling of opposite sex), and so on. (Lee p. 78).

FAMILY #2

!Xam

/Gau

N!uhka

/Twa

Hwan//a

!Xam

43

39

Toma

/Tasa

15

17

Hwan//a

N!uhka

18
Kashe

Kashe

N!ai

19
!Xam

1. In your group, assign each individual to play one of the roles above. (Your own gender doesnt matter
males can play a female role and visa-versa). Circle who you are so you dont forget!!
2. Go around and talk to up to five other students from other groups. For each person, determine if you
have a joking or avoidance relationship with them.
3. If you are a child, determine if that person is a potential marriage partner.
4. If you are a parent, try to determine if the person is a potential marriage partner for any of your
children.

157

5. Return to your group after the exercise. Talk to your family about who you think would be a good
match for the children in the family. Write down all of the prospects.
Game Rules:
1. Parents may talk to other parents about all of their children.
2. Children may talk to other children only about their own marriage prospects (not about their brothers
and sisters).
Dobe Ju/hoansi Rules:
A girl may not marry a boy with her fathers name or her brothers name, and a boy in turn may not
marry someone with his mothers name or sisters name. Secondary prohibitions refer to anyone standing
in an avoidance kinship relation to ego, including the kin terms tsu (uncle), tsuma (nephew), //ga (aunt),
//gama (niece), tsin (younger sibling of opposite sex), and so on. (Lee p. 78)

FAMILY #3

Kau

/Gau

//Kushe

N!uhka

/Twa

Kashe

40

35

/Ti!kay

Chu!ko

13

14

15

N!ai

Kau

/Twa

Toma

N!ai

16
//Kushe

1. In your group, assign each individual to play one of the roles above. (Your own gender doesnt matter
males can play a female role and visa-versa). Circle who you are so you dont forget!!
2. Go around and talk to up to five other students from other groups. For each person, determine if you
have a joking or avoidance relationship with them.
3. If you are a child, determine if that person is a potential marriage partner.
4. If you are a parent, try to determine if the person is a potential marriage partner for any of your
children.
5. Return to your group after the exercise. Talk to your family about who you think would be a good
match for the children in the family. Write down all of the prospects.

158

Game Rules:
1. Parents may talk to other parents about all of their children.
2. Children may talk to other children only about their own marriage prospects (not about their brothers
and sisters).
Dobe Ju/hoansi Rules:
A girl may not marry a boy with her fathers name or her brothers name, and a boy in turn may not
marry someone with his mothers name or sisters name. Secondary prohibitions refer to anyone standing
in an avoidance kinship relation to ego, including the kin terms tsu (uncle), tsuma (nephew), //ga (aunt),
//gama (niece), tsin (younger sibling of opposite sex), and so on. (Lee p.78)

FAMILY #4

/Gau

//Kushe

45
/Kan//a

/Tashe

41

!Xam

Ntisa

16

18

20

//Kushe

Toma

Chu!ko

//Koka

/Tashe

Toma

Di//kau

22
/Gau

1. In your group, assign each individual to play one of the roles above. (Your own gender doesnt matter
males can play a female role and visa-versa). Circle who you are so you dont forget!!
2. Go around and talk to up to five other students from other groups. For each person, determine if you
have a joking or avoidance relationship with them.
3. If you are a child, determine if that person is a potential marriage partner.
4. If you are a parent, try to determine if the person is a potential marriage partner for any of your
children.
5. Return to your group after the exercise. Talk to your family about who you think would be a good
match for the children in the family. Write down all of the prospects.
Game Rules:

159

1. Parents may talk to other parents about all of their children.

2. Children may talk to other children only about their own marriage prospects (not about their brothers
and sisters).
Dobe Ju/hoansi Rules:
A girl may not marry a boy with her fathers name or her brothers name, and a boy in turn may not
marry someone with his mothers name or sisters name. Secondary prohibitions refer to anyone standing
in an avoidance kinship relation to ego, including the kin terms tsu (uncle), tsuma (nephew), //ga (aunt),
//gama (niece), tsin (younger sibling of opposite sex), and so on. (Lee p.78)

FAMILY #5

/Twi

/Kan//a

N/ahka

N!uhka

13
/Tasa

/Ti!kay

40

35

/Gau

Hwan//a

15

16

/Ti!kay

/Twi

/Tasa

!Xam

//Koka

17
N/ahka

1. In your group, assign each individual to play one of the roles above. (Your own gender doesnt matter
males can play a female role and visa-versa). Circle who you are so you dont forget!!
2. Go around and talk to up to five other students from other groups. For each person, determine if you
have a joking or avoidance relationship with them.
3. If you are a child, determine if that person is a potential marriage partner.
4. If you are a parent, try to determine if the person is a potential marriage partner for any of your
children.
5. Return to your group after the exercise. Talk to your family about who you think would be a good
match for the children in the family. Write down all of the prospects.
Game Rules:

160

1. Parents may talk to other parents about all of their children.

2. Children may talk to other children only about their own marriage prospects (not about their brothers
and sisters).
Dobe Ju/hoansi Rules:
A girl may not marry a boy with her fathers name or her brothers name, and a boy in turn may not
marry someone with his mothers name or sisters name. Secondary prohibitions refer to anyone standing
in an avoidance kinship relation to ego, including the kin terms tsu (uncle), tsuma (nephew), //ga (aunt),
//gama (niece), tsin (younger sibling of opposite sex), and so on. (Lee p.78)

APPENDIX B: CHILDRENS NOTES PAGE

Children: Use this note page to write down information about other children you talk to.
Ju/hoansi Name: _______________
Relationship (check one):
Reasons:

Ju/hoansi Name: _______________

Relationship (check one):
Reasons:

Ju/hoansi Name: _______________

Relationship (check one):
Reasons:

Ju/hoansi Name: _______________

Relationship (check one):
Reasons:

Ju/hoansi Name: _______________

Relationship (check one):
Reasons:

Gender:

Age: _____

_____ Joking _____ Avoidance _____ Uncertain

Gender:

Age: _____

_____ Joking _____ Avoidance _____ Uncertain

Gender:

Age: _____

_____ Joking _____ Avoidance _____ Uncertain

Gender:

Age: _____

_____ Joking _____ Avoidance _____ Uncertain

Gender:

Age: _____

_____ Joking _____ Avoidance _____ Uncertain

161

Ju/hoansi Name: _______________

Relationship (check one):
Reasons:

Gender:

Age: _____

_____ Joking _____ Avoidance _____ Uncertain

APPENDIX C: PARENTS NOTE PAGE

My Childs Name: _______________

Gender:

Potential Partners:

Parents Names:

Yes

Reasons:

_______________

_______________

_____ _____ ________________________

_______________

_______________

_____ _____ ________________________

_______________

_______________

_____ _____ ________________________

_______________

_______________

_____ _____ ________________________

_______________

_______________

_____ _____ ________________________

_______________

_______________

_____ _____ ________________________

_______________

_______________

_____ _____ ________________________

_______________

_______________

_____ _____ ________________________

_______________

_______________

_____ _____ ________________________

_______________

_______________

_____ _____ ________________________

_______________

_______________

_____ _____ ________________________

_______________

_______________

_____ _____ ________________________

No

Age: _____

(Children of Opposite Sex)

My Childs Name: _______________

Gender:

Potential Partners:

Parents Names:

Yes

Reasons:

_______________

_______________

_____ _____ ________________________

_______________

_______________

_____ _____ ________________________

_______________

_______________

_____ _____ ________________________

_______________

_______________

_____ _____ ________________________

_______________

_______________

_____ _____ ________________________

_______________

_______________

_____ _____ ________________________

_______________

_______________

_____ _____ ________________________

No

Age: _____

(Children of Opposite Sex)

162

_______________

_______________

_____ _____ ________________________

_______________

_______________

_____ _____ ________________________

_______________

_______________

_____ _____ ________________________

_______________

_______________

_____ _____ ________________________

APPENDIX D: SOLUTIONS
Kinship Solution Table
Sons F1
F1
Daughters Kashe Toma
F1
Chu!ko
F1
N!uhka
F2
NO
NO
Hwan//a
(WU) (WF)
F2
NO
NO
N!uhka
(WU) (WF)
F3 N!ai
NO
NO
(HA) (WU)
F3 /Twa
NO
NO
(HM) (WU)
F3
OK
NO
//Kushe
(WU)
F4
OK
NO
//Kushe
(WU)
F5 /Tasa
OK
OK

F2
Kashe
NO
(WB)
NO
(HZ)

F2
!Xam
NO
(WU)
NO
(HZ)

F3
"Kau
NO
(HM)
NO
(HA)
OK
NO
(HA)

NO
(HA)
NO
(HA)
OK

NO
(HA)
NO
(HA)
OK

OK

OK

OK

F4
Toma
NO
(HA)
NO
(WB)
NO
(WF)
NO
(WF)
NO
(WU)
NO
(WU)
NO
(WU)

NO
(WB)
OK
OK

F4
/Tashe
NO
(HA)
OK

F4
/Gau
NO
(HA)
OK

OK

NO
(WU)
NO
(WU)
NO
(WU)
NO
(WU)
NO
(WU)

OK
OK
OK
OK

F5
F5
/Ti!kay /Twi
OK
NO
(WF)
NO
NO
(HA)
(HA)
NO
NO
(HM)
(HM)
NO
NO
(HA)
(HA)
NO
OK
(WF)
NO
OK
(WF)
NO
OK
(WF)
OK
OK

NO
OK
NO
(WU)
(WF)
F5
OK
OK
OK
NO
OK
OK
OK
NO
N/ahka
(WU)
(WF)
Key: W = Wife-to-be, H = Husband-to-be, M = Mother, F = Father, A = Aunt, U = Uncle, Z =
Sister, B = Brother
Explanation: The table indicates which marriages are possible (OK) and which violate marriage
and naming rules (NO). For those that violate the rules, one reason is given in parentheses. In
many cases, there are more than one rule violations.
Example 1: Hwan//a from Family 2 cannot marry Kashe from Family 1 because the Uncle of the
Wife-to-be (Hwan//a) is also named Kashe. Because Hwan//a has an avoidance relationship with
her uncle, she cannot marry a man with the same name.
Example 2: N!uhka from Family 2 cannot marry either /Ti!kay or /Twi from Family 5 because
they have an Aunt named N!uhka.

163

APPENDIX E: KINSHIP EXERCISE WRITE-UP

Name: ______________________________
Complete your answer to Questions 1 and 2 before the kinship exercise.
Leave Question 3 blank. You will have five minutes to write on it after the in-class exercise.

1. List cultural rules you personally are expected to follow regarding who you can marry.
Remember: Cultural rules may be explicit or implicit and more or less strongly enforced.

2. In a few sentences, compare the rules above to those of the Dobe Ju/hoansi.

3. Compare your experience in the exercise to finding a marriage partner in your own society?
Discuss both similarities and differences.

164

IMAGING AMERICA
Keith V. Bletzer
Have you ever wanted to build a monument? Ask your students to re-make the Statue of Liberty.
For this classroom exercise-activity, instruct students that their assignment is to re-design the
Statue of Liberty and re-make it as an image that would be constructed by first-generation
immigrants. As the teacher, you should bring to class that day several color highlight-markers,
some construction paper and pieces of cardboard, some yarn of different colors, and a few of
Libertys key symbols (book and torch are a good start). You may want to have a picture of the
Statue to project onto a screen by means of a transparency or interactive board; an image or
photograph that you can pin or thumbtack to the wall would work equally well.
This teaching strategy is aimed at students in introductory anthropology courses, preferably an
average size classroom, or in a topical course like Immigration and Development, or introductory
courses in Cultural Studies or American Studies, or specialty courses where the focus is cultural
or artistic representation. You could even do this for the breakout sessions of a large introductory
anthropology course, where teaching assistants take small sections of the class on a weekly basis.
Each section could be challenged to produce one project of the re-constructed Statue that would
be presented to the entire class the next time it meets; you could do a brief talk at that same class,
pulling together the main points of the activity.
The ideal time to allot for this activity-exercise is a full-class period, if the class is slated for 80
minutes or more. You should transition to the exercise rather quickly. An informal introduction
will suffice, since the activity is based on student engagement. You will need to move about the
classroom to find individuals or clusters of students who seem to have not grasped the idea as it
was initially presented. These can be nudged, one-on-one, into the activity. If class is over 80
minutes, you will have time for students to explain what they have done with a rationale of why,
and time for the wrap-up discussion (synthesis lecture) you will lead. For a class less than 80
minutes or even less than 60, you will need to shorten the exercise, by asking students to re-do
the major symbols or focus on a single portion of the activity; wrap-up also would be shorter.
The basis of the exercise is to have students think what it must be like for a new immigrant to the
United States who must cognitively process the many rules about democracy that are expressed
in everyday presentations of freedom (media news, historic pictures, etc), amidst all the symbols
and corresponding icons. This exercise asks students for a revision of the concept of the Statue
of Liberty, as seen through the eyes of first-generation immigrants. You may expand this to
include second generation, if this seems appropriate for your area of the country. The exercise is
based on the dual premises that students work well with visual representations, and that students
in general attend to subversive re-constructions of everyday phenomenon.
If you are teaching in a conservative community or on a campus where administrators may frown
on re-thinking principles of American democracy, you may wish to run this idea past a couple of
colleagues, and most definitely discuss it with the department chair. If presented with appropriate
background information that includes examples of how others have used these symbols, such as
those that represent democracy and those that specifically refer to the Statue of Liberty, and how

165

these have been re-thought and re-presented with symbolic embellishment in satire and in
irony on issues that once were contemporary, you will lessen the chances of offending anyone.
Procedures: Divide students into two or three groups or keep as a single group if the class is
small. You will need to set-up the exercise with a little background information on the original
idea of the Statue of Liberty, the context in which it was a gift from France (thus, based on
European-origin immigration), grounded in symbols of freedom and democracy appropriate for
that time, as well as identify symbols that are usually associated with the Statue (book, crown,
robe, torch, etc). You may add that a woman was chosen (Liberty was an early symbol in
European history), as a bearer of culture. She was depicted in a steadfast position of
welcoming and lighting the way. Choosing a woman for this role, rather than the image of a
man, adds an interesting angle and a challenging dimension to this exercise on re-construction
and cultural representation.
As the exercise proceeds, you may suggest concepts, such as the question of whether Libertys
robe covers her feet or whether portions of her feet are bare (as occurs in religious paintings);
whether her expression is one of hope or fatigue or some other emotion (therefore open to the
interpretation of the viewer); and whether her face makes the greater impact on the viewer or
objects for which she has become famous, such as crown and seven rays for the seven
continents/seas, or her book, or torch, or robe, or right arm uplifted. Her crown and robe may
carry cultural valence (what if her robe were cinched by a sash or rope similar to the robes worn
by boxers and martial arts experts, thus representing someone dressed and prepared to fight
within a set of rules that establish an idiom of fairness), in contrast to the objects (props) that
she visibly carries on her person. All these things are open to cultural interpretation and this is
the learning point of the teaching strategy. Students should be given an opportunity, once they
have re-constructed Lady Liberty, to discuss, however briefly, the rationale for their choices.
I would caution against introductions that show depictions of the Statue (like cartoons) that may
lead to spin-offs. Better to leave open a potential for students to contribute original ideas, rather
than generate an expected product. This exercise works with verbal instructions to facilitate the
creation of visual images. What you say to introduce the exercise should explain the process, not
provide examples. These can be inserted later as suggestions to students, such as, How might an
immigrant see that? or What if ? once students are engaged with the process.
If you choose, you may make this a long-term assignment. However, I think the learning that
takes place through the process of re-thinking is most poignant if the exercise is introduced the
same day it is performed, which forces immediate reactions from students, guided by instructor
suggestions. The exercise is one of bridging multiple concepts, based on the ideas of others, as it
develops concepts within the creative activity of group process. What might be absent in a sameday effort is access to objects for alternative symbols. This is countered by immediacy and
spontaneity of students hearing the assignment and responding to it at that moment. After all,
resource limitation is an experience we all have had. It is a foundation for the can-do of North
American ingenuity.
You may substitute icons that are closer-to-home in conducting this exercise, such as Golden
Gate Bridge in San Francisco (assignment: What symbols might go with the bridge?), Mount

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Rushmore in the Dakotas (assignment: Whose faces should appear on the monument, if it were
revised for this century? Should we add more faces?), or the Space Needle in Seattle
(assignment: What shape would the needle assume today to represent scientific progress to
benefit society?). You can use the icons of well-known posters, such as Rosy the Riveter with its
key symbols of upper arm, working-class overalls, and hair tied-up. Or you may consider an icon
or monument where students can re-think local versus global issues. I would caution against a
monument that represents a real person, as this could be considered slanderous (Rosy the Riveter
is a composite image; a cluster of faces appear on Rushmore rather than a single individual; and
neither the Golden Gate nor the Space Needle is a personage). I would further caution against
anything that makes this exercise a counterpart to the interactive sculpting that forms the basis of
group therapies.
Background Preparation: For background reading, I recommend the monograph on political
cartooning and the significant role that it has played in American history, Drawn to Extremes:
The Use and Abuse of Editorial Cartoons, written by Chris Lamb (2004; New York: Columbia
University Press), particularly the sections that discuss, with illustrations, the use of American
icons to make a point. The Statue of Liberty has been among the favorites since the early years
of cartooning.
For background to be included in your unit on cultural representation, or immigration or another
focus, a good selection would be a chapter of your choice from Covering Immigration: Popular
Images and the Politics of the Nation by Leo R. Chavez (2001; Berkeley: University of
California Press). This monograph focuses on U.S. / Mexico Borderlands, whereas the exerciseactivity on the Statue of Liberty considers an icon from another part of the country, where
immigrant groups are associated with the historic port of entry at Ellis Island. Another good
source is Ellis Island Interviews: In Their Own Words by Peter Morton Coan (1997; New York:
Checkmark Books) that provides a description of operations at Ellis Island (open from 1892 to
1954) coupled with life story materials from the Ellis Island Oral History Project, based on an
astounding N= 1,700 interviews, from which 114 narratives were selected for inclusion.
The region of the country where this exercise is used will determine the extent to which students
put into it an alternative view of the democratic principles on which our country (homeland) was
built. For an introduction, you may provide students with a copy of the caption placed at the base
of the Statue of Liberty, noting the famous portion often extracted (below, from the Internet):
Not the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land,
Here at our sea-washed, sunset-gates shall stand,
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name,
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glow world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp! cries she
With silent lips. Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free

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The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send those, the homeless, the tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door! Emma Lazarus, November 2, 1883
When you draw closure to the exercise-activity by having students explain their reasoning, you
might note how student ideas parallel those used by political cartoonists to depict sentiments at
turning points in U.S. history: Liberty with a tear-drop has been particularly popular. This image
was used more than once, for example, to draw attention and focus national sentiments after the
events of 9-11. You can also tell students the quotation at the base provides a springboard for a
revision of the invitation; one example is a cartoon drawn by Clay Bennett and published in the
Christian Science Monitor, 2002, which shows a painter adding to the Emma Lazarus plaque the
phrase, OFFER MAY VARY
Other Considerations: Many of us have had the experience of being asked by a community
group or the planners of a non-academic conference to present a talk or possibly a full workshop
on an aspect of anthropology, including topics such as cultural competency or an issue from
the national or local news. The style that we utilize in classroom teaching is seldom fit for such a
presentation. Speakers rely on stories and sometimes skits to make their main points to a public
that often is not well versed in anthropology, as compared to those who have taken anthropology
courses. This exercise would work well in providing a hands-on example of anthropology as
constructive process.
What students choose to revise should be grounded in imagination. Inevitably, their creativity
will show signs of an embedded-ness in a region of the country or locale and its own signature
forms of thinking on what constitutes democracy and human freedoms. Thats okay; it makes the
exercise understandable and approachable by students. The exercise is nice if classes you teach
draw students from other disciplines. Many of these disciplines make use of alternative teaching
modalities based on current challenge of preparing students for the job market. It becomes really
uplifting if your university, or college, draws students from several regions of the country.
At one popular theater workshop at a conference I attended, where this Statue of Liberty exercise
was the culminating activity, three symbols underwent major transformation. Liberty went from
a flat-footed stance (sturdy) to one foot on the back of another individual who lay face down on
the floor (democracy built on the backs of others); a liquor bottle was substituted for the torch
in her hand (pursuing the American dream leads to problem drinking), and something was
substituted for her book (I believe it was a newspaper to symbolize circulation of crucial
information that is necessary for survival: if done today, someone might place a cell phone in her
hand). Given that most participants in this workshop were raised in South Texas, it was easy for
them to stretch the meaning of the Statue of Liberty (Ellis Island is a place of other forms of
border crossing into the United States) and take liberty with these meanings of democracy to
represent a reality that was closer to their experience and narratives they may have often heard
repeated by family members.
As appropriate as this strategy is for the classroom, you may take the same exercise and return it
to its derivation as a training workshop activity outside the university. Try it with your students
first, however, to prepare yourself to make it flow effortlessly when you put it to work in a public

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setting. Either place, this exercise-activity is one grounded in the creative process of foundations
of our existence, at the point in time that it is performed.

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REVISITING THE KULA: UNDERSTANDING THE POLITICS OF

ECONOMIC NETWORKS
Laura C. Zanotti and Ismael Vaccaro
Introduction
Economic networks are a fundamental part of anthropological analysis. Societies use market
exchanges and non-market activities to regulate and distribute wealth within and across
communities. The idea of complicated non-capitalistic exchange networks and the differences
between formal and informal exchange often confuses students who are engaging these
anthropological concepts for the first time. Malinowksis description of the Kula ring in his
classic Argonauts of the Western Pacific remains a paradigmatic economic institution for
teaching students the complexities of economic networks and how those networks are linked to
politics, natural resource management, and magicoreligious traditions, among other arenas of
daily life. The exercise we present here is specifically designed to describe economic networks
and rationalities, their spatiality, and the politics involved in them.
The Kula ring contains several features, which makes it a perfect example of symbolizing certain
cultural values:

The Kula ring is a highly organized, public ceremonial exchange, thus it has specific
rules and regulations;
The Kula ring has a distinct spatial component to it that tightly regulates the circulation
of goods;
In practice, the Kula ring generates a vast network that links different villages together in
various permutations, thus rendering visible the different social geometries among
villages;
There is secondary, subsistence oriented, trading that goes along with the ceremonial
Kula ring trade, which highlights the uneven access to and acquisition of different natural
resources and desired goods;
Since a Kula participants status affects the number of his/her Kula partners, the concepts
of hierarchy, status, prestige, and wealth are introduced;
The Kula goods obtain a visible social life as they are owned by different Kula participants (Appadurai 1996).

The following in-class exercise helps students grasp the exchange process. This exercise is best
suited for a class size no bigger than 40 to 60 students and takes a full 50-minute period. The
exercise is good for an Introduction to Anthropology class but also has relevance for other
undergraduate anthropology courses that deal with economics, development, globalization, and
markets. Accordingly, we have designed this exercise as a pedagogical tool that uses a classroom
activity to critically and creatively engage students with difficult and seemingly old-fashioned
anthropological texts and materials.

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Preparation
Require students to read Chapter 3, Essentials of the Kula, in Malinowskis (1922) Argonauts
of the Pacific prior to class on the exercise day. You will also need to prepare the bags for the inclass exercise (see description below) prior to the class. Spend 10 to 15 minutes introducing
Malinowski and the Kula exchange to the students. In this lecture, give your own synthesis of the
Kula exchange, but make sure to highlight these important concepts:

The Kula ring takes place among various different villages and islands around New
Guinea, mainly the Trobriand Islands.

The Kula ring is a ceremonial exchange of two items: red shell necklaces (soulava) and
white shell bracelets (mwali).

These ceremonial items move in opposite directions to one another in a circular

formation around the islands. You may show Map V -- The Kula ring from Argonauts as
a handout, on PowerPoint, or an overhead in order to discuss the geography of the
exchange and the east-west motion of the goods.

The two ceremonial items are always in motion, and cannot be accumulated by the
traders.

Once Kula partnership is established, it is life-long.

The number of Kula partners of each participant is proportional to the Kula participants
status in a community. Thus the more elite status the Kula participant has, such as a chief,
the more Kula partners the participant has.

Secondary trading interchanges are part of the formal Kula exchange, where other
resources such as fish, timber, and other goods are exchanged along with the Kula items.

The traded ceremonial items carry with them stories of their past travels and owners. It is
the concept of vaygua.

The Kula is different from informal barter (gimwali).

In essence, the Kula is a network of relationships (92) and provides Kula participants
with relationships with allies in other distant, potentially political hostile areas.

After this brief introduction to the Kula ring, ask if the students have any immediate questions.
Once you have answered all remaining questions, explain the exercise.
The Exercise
Tell students that the purpose is to have them participate in a mock version of the Kula exchange
(See Appendix A instructions). Give out the Instructions (Appendix A). Tell the students that the
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goal of the activity is for them to better understand non-market economic exchanges and
exchange networks.
Part 1: The Bags. You need to prepare one bag per student prior to class. Each student will
receive a bag that contains:
(1) The Kula trading objects. In this exchange the two ceremonial items that circulate are Item
1 and Item 2. These items can be anything easily available through proxies (e.g. candies,
different colored pieces of paper, paper clips, pencils, pens, and so on). There just needs to be
enough items for all students in the class to receive a bag; the items need to be easily
distinguishable from one another. Each bag can have variable amounts of Item 1 and 2, but
receive no more than two items of each category. So, students can have two, one or no Items 1 or
2. This variability would increase the need to trade creatively. Finally the items should have
pieces of paper attached so the students can write their names and their number/letter
combination on the items. Accordingly, once the students receive their bags, instruct them to
write down their names and their number/letter combination on their Kula items. When students
receive any Kula items, they should add their names. These two items act as the symbolic drivers
of the interchange.
(2) Letters as Islands and Secondary Trading Items. Each student is also assigned a letter
(e.g. A, B, C) that corresponds to the island area that they belong to. Instructors should
randomly assign students islands/letters on each handout sheet. Each student with the same letter
will be given the same amount and composition of secondary items to trade. The secondary item
will be represented by either M&Ms or small pieces of colored paper. Fifteen of these secondary
items for each bag is an optimal amount. Only one color goes in each bag, which represents a
particular resource on a particular island. Since the Kula exchange is also about trading
difference resources, students will need to start trading their M&Ms for all other colors
(resources) but only when they are engaged in Kula trade with their assigned Kula trading
partners. The goal of each student, at the end of the exercise, is to have at least two M&M of
each color. This will ensure survival as it will represent a diversified resource base (see
Appendix A for suggestions on color/resource equivalences).
(3) Trading Partners. Also in each bag, each student will receive a list of numbers identifying
their possible trading partners. Each list is different. If you are not accustomed to writing out
random lists of numbers, several websites can do this, such as www.random.org. On one of these
websites, the value of the integers should be the range of the total number of students in the class
(e.g., 1-23) and the amount of numbers generated can be a length of your choosing. However,
you will need to generate small lists and long lists to differentiate powerful persons from
common persons. Students who have been assigned bags with longer lists of potential
economic partners are more powerful than other persons in the exchange.

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For example, in a class of 40, you might generate these lists:

Student 2B (15 potential trading partners):
35
20
39
1
17
8
20
19
26
35
39
18
40
7
4

Student 13C (5 potential trading partners):

21
15
5
27
31

Part 2: The Activity (25-30 minutes). Distribute the bags and the exercise instructions. Once
the bags are distributed randomly, prepare a map on the board that depicts the different
letters/islands, and their corresponding resources/M&Ms (See Figure 1 for an example).
In terms of student distribution in the classroom, there are two possibilities: a) a simplified
version in which all the students arrange themselves in a circle, either by standing or sitting (see
Figure 2) and b) a more complicated version in which the students remain in their regular seats
and the instructor distributes the bags on uneven clusters around the room, trying to distribute the
islands/letters in the same areas. This second option includes geography into the trading
decisions.
Identify the cardinal points of the classroom. This is important as each one of the two
commodities can circulate in only one direction (Item 1 is going West, Item 2 is going East). The
list of potential partners becomes immediately divided: those to whom the students will give
Item 1 and the students who will receive Item 2; and vice versa. Go over the instructions for the
exercise (see Appendix A). Make sure that each student finds his or her list of numbers to know
whom his/her trading partners are. Let students know that when the exercise starts they will need
to get up and find their trading partners but there might be times that they do not have a chance
to trade. This is okay. If they do start to trade, stress that the students are trading both the Kula
Items (Item 1 or 2 depending on the direction) and the M&Ms with their Kula trading partners.
Finally, instruct students to writing their names and assigned numbers/letters on all the Kula
objects they acquire. Tell students to write down their transactions in their notebooks as they do
them and tell them why they are doing it.
Once the terms of the exchange are clearly explained and the items distributed to the students,
the next step is the actual activity. Indicate that the exchange is formally open and is the
moderator of the exchange. Divide the game in turns in a sequence such as (1) Item 1 is traded
East; (2) Students return to their original seats; (3) Item 2 is traded West; (4) Students return to
their original seats, and so on. In each turn the students can trade with only one partner. If the
chosen partner does not have anything to trade at that turn, or there are no designated partners
available, the student loses the turn. Like in the Trobriand Islands, the centrality of the
individuals (social, with lots of partners; and geographical, by being at the center of the class
instead of the periphery) will necessarily result with some individuals accumulating items while
others will just get by. After all, the trade of symbolic commodities (Items 1 and 2, in this case)
is what allows for the emergence of social relationships that, in turn, will allow the trade of nonsumptuary commodities (the M&Ms: fruits, mud, timber, fish, and so on).

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Reflections
After the exercise (20 minutes) have students return to their seats with their bags in order to
reflect about their Kula experience. Select a small number of students to walk to the class
Kula map and draw the exchanges that they made, using their notes to write down the items
that were exchanged (See Figures 3, 4 and 5).
Figure three depicts a simplified version of the individual networks. A student draws on the map
lines connecting him or her to the individuals he or she has traded items 1 and 2 with. These
individuals, in their turn, can draw a different type of line connecting themselves to the people
they traded those items to. In this fashion, starting with one individual, we will be able to
spatially identify the direct networks he or she has created trading ceremonial objects, and the
secondary, indirect or extended networks he or she is involved with by looking, and the trades
made by his or her partners.
Figure four will result from connecting, in order and on the blackboards map, all the names that
appear on the pieces of paper attached to the ceremonial objects. The dots on this map represent
the students. Assign a number/letter to each dot on the map. Tell each student to use the
information that he or she has on the remaining Kula items in his or her bag to draw a line from
the first Kula owner to the last. This network will physically describe the social life of the
commodity.
Figure five uses the island (the letter) as a unit of analysis and asks all the members of each
island to map, as best as they can, whom they have directly traded with. This map will show how
resources are distributed and exchanged across island territories, as opposed to individual
acquisitions.
When the map is complete, ask students to reflect about their experience: What does the map
represent? What did they expect to happen and what actually happened? At the end were they
resource rich or resource poor? What affected the quality of the exchange? How did the rules and
regulations shape the exchange? What was frustrating about the exchange?
Conclusions
Individual political power, that translates in the number of potential partners, reflects on the
possibilities for trade and wealth acquisition. Geographical positionality will also have an impact
on trading possibilities and, consequently, power and subsistence possibilities.
The number of partners also will affect the possibilities of each individual to complete a suitable
subsistence portfolio. The students, in order to reach this equilibrium of secondary goods, would
have had to rely on two different strategies: a) engage in long travels in order to trade at the
source or b) remain in short and safer trading strategies waiting for the commodities to trickle
down to their area of the class, their island.
In this exercise we study three types of networks: 1) the networks of partners that each individual
has, which reflects the social centrality, economic possibilities and political power (Figure 3); 2)

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the network created around the circulation of the symbolically significant traded items, their
commodity chains (Figure 4); and 3) the regional dynamics of islands interactions (Figure 5).
You can end the class activity by having a communal candy feast and eat the ceremonial goods
that were so difficult to obtain.
References Cited:
Appadurai, A. 1996. Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization. Minneapolis,
Minn.: University of Minnesota Press.
Malinowski, Bronsilaw. 1984 [1922]. Argonauts of the Western Pacific. Long Grove, IL:
Waveland Press.
Figures 1,2,3,4,5

Figure 1: Example of Map

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Figure 2a and b: Two Examples of Class Organization

Figure 3: Individual Networks

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Figure 4: Commodity Networks

Figure 5: Island Trading Networks

APPENDIX A: KULA EXERCISE INSTRUCTIONS

Student Number/Letter __________
Kula Trading Exercise
The purpose of this exercise is to have you participate in a mock version of the Kula exchange. You will
receive a bag that contains:
The Kula trading objects (Item 1 and Item 2)
Secondary trading items (M&Ms)
A geographical homeland indicated by a letter (See above by student number/letter)
A list of potential trading partners.

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You will also need to have your notepad and a pen or pencil out.
Kula Trading Objects. Before the exercise starts please write your name on the papers attached to Item 1
and Item 2 and your student number/letter (see above). You will need to add your name and number/letter
to the list of names for each additional Item that you obtain in the exchange. For example if you receive
Item 1 from John Jacobs you will write your name and number/letter after his: 1. John Jacobs, 23A, 2.
Your Name here, Your number/letter here, before you exchange it again. You will write your name and
number/letter after his or her name and number/letter.
Geographical Homeland. The letter above indicates your geographical (island) homeland. See the map
on the board to locate where you are from.
Secondary Trading Items (M&Ms). Each M&M represents a different resource and you will have 15
M&Ms of a single color. You will want to diversify your resource base. So if you are from Island A,
which is rich in red M&Ms (that stand for palm fibers) you will want to find trading partners for other
islands to get other colored M&Ms. Your goal, at the end of the exercise, is to have at least two of each
color.
M&M resource chart: Red=Palm Fibers, Green=Timber, Yellow=Bananas, Brown=Fish, Blue=Sweet
potatoes, Orange=Mud.
Trading Partners. You will also receive a list of potential trading partners. The more partners you have
the more powerful you are.
Rules of the Game
The instructor will identify the directions in the room so you know what items you are trading and when.
Item 1 will be going East (Clockwise) and Item 2 (Counterclockwise). For example, if the instructor says
Trade Item 1, you will need to find a trading partner on the East side from your trading partner list.
You cannot trade with people from your same island (i.e. your same letter). You should try to acquire
different colored M&Ms while you are trading your Kula Items. It is okay if you cannot find a trading
partner during a turn. Just return to your seat and try again the next time.
Make sure to write your name on all your Kula Items before the game starts.
Make sure to write your name on newly acquired Kula Items during the game.
Make sure to write what and how many M&Ms you exchange with which island/letter each turn.

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