Doing Ethnology: A Cross-Cultural Comparison Project
Choose two different groups of people written about in articles from Spradley and McCurdy's Conformity and Conflict (12th edition). Find additional information about the groups you choose using the UMUC online library or in-person library research to find articles in scholarly journals or books. You may NOT cite websites or encyclopedias (including Wikipedia) as sources. You should ONLY consult them to find authors who have published in scholarly journals on your topic or to begin to understand your topic.
Compare the groups' beliefs and practices (ideas and behaviors) regarding at least one domain of culture. Kinship systems, marital customs, political organization, economy, main modes of subsistence, magico-religious beliefs and practices, social change, residence patterns, family structure and organization, modes of social control, health- or illness-related beliefs and behaviors, effects of modernization or globalization, and many others are possible topics.
Discuss what you learned from your comparison that may be universal among all human populations, true of only some populations, or peculiar only to one or the other of the groups you studied.
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What do I have to do? English is my second language. Can you explain to me clearly?
First paragraph:
1. Choose two different groups of people discussed in the book.
2. Find more information about these two groups. You must use the UMUC online library or research at the UMUC library. Do not use other online sources.
Second paragraph:
3. Compare the two groups' beliefs and practices in at least one topic. You can choose any of the topics listed in this paragraph. For instance, kinship means families -- so you could compare what makes up a family in each of these cultures. Is it just mother, father, and children? Does it include aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, etc.?
Third paragraph
4. Which ideas and practices of your two groups are common to everyone? For instance, all cultures consider a mother and her children a family. Do the cultures you've studied believe a family is much more than that?
If you post the names of the two groups you want to study and the beliefs and practices you're writing about, we'll be glad to help you understand more about your assignment.
In this assignment, you need to choose two different groups of people that are discussed in the book "Conformity and Conflict" by Spradley and McCurdy (12th edition). These groups can be from any culture or region. Next, you need to find additional information about these two groups, but you should only use the UMUC online library or conduct research at the UMUC library.
Once you have gathered information about these two groups, you will then compare their beliefs and practices in at least one domain of culture. The book provides several topics you can choose from, such as kinship systems, marital customs, political organization, economy, main modes of subsistence, magico-religious beliefs and practices, social change, residence patterns, family structure and organization, modes of social control, health- or illness-related beliefs and behaviors, and effects of modernization or globalization.
For example, you can compare the kinship systems of these two groups. You can explore how families are defined in each culture and whether the familial relationships extend beyond the immediate nuclear family.
In the third paragraph, you need to discuss what you have learned from the comparison and determine if there are any beliefs or practices that are universal among all human populations, true of only some populations, or unique to one of the groups you studied. For instance, you can consider if the belief in a mother and her children as a family is universal or if the cultures you studied have a broader definition of family.
If you provide the names of the two groups you have chosen and the specific beliefs and practices you are comparing, we can help you further understand your assignment.
To summarize the instructions in simpler terms:
1. Choose two distinct groups of people from the book "Conformity and Conflict" by Spradley and McCurdy.
2. Use the UMUC online library or the physical library to find additional information about these two groups.
3. Compare the beliefs and practices of the two groups in at least one area of culture (e.g., kinship systems, marital customs, economy, etc.).
4. Discuss what you have learned from the comparison and determine whether the findings are universal, applicable to only some populations, or unique to one of the groups.
Please provide the names of the two groups you have selected, as well as the specific beliefs and practices you are examining. We can then assist you further in understanding your assignment.