Task:
Broader goals and what markers will be looking for: Coming at the end of the course, this assessment is designed to ensure that you
(a) grasp what anthropology offers by way of bringing together people’s experience of illness and healing with broader social, cultural and historical forces at work in our lives by reading one whole book in order to get the sense of what an ‘ethnographic’ account looks like;
(b) display your understanding and ability to use the content of the course to a fresh context – so the more material from the course (concepts, discussions, approaches covered) you bring into the essay in an integrated way, the higher the marks.
Since the first essay was designed to cover the first five weeks, you can bring it in but we will be looking to see that you have understood subsequent weeks, so make sure you use what we have covered in weeks 6-11. Once you have chosen a case study, drawing from ethnographic (anthropological) sources, you will use your case study as a way to discuss larger questions, while remaining specific about context. You are expected to make an argument about how we might better understand or interpret a particular example of illness management under the conditions of Modernity and contemporary society or a particular example of healing practice, ritual, modality, etc in light of your research activity. This is a research essay. Therefore, you must incorporate appropriate academic literature and scholarly sources available on the topic that you wish to write about. Do not spend your entire paper summarising the case study – dig into your research and analyse the various arguments and positions within your sources to develop a structured and considered research essay.
Further, you are expected to apply a range of (at least two) the theoretical approaches/questions/concepts we have studied into your critical analysis – for example, panopticism, boundary situations, techniques of the body, ‘social roles’, symbolism, discipline – the best research essays will be those that can discuss independently researched sources in the context of the theoretical approaches taught in the unit. Case study Base on : Kendall, Laurel 1985 Shamans, Housewives and Other Restless Spirits. Women in Korean ritual life. Studies of the East Asian.
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