Contrast Two San Cultural Anthropology

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Contrast Two San Cultural Anthropology

Nisa essay prompt

Shostak wanted to do more than provide ethnographic insight into San culture by doing life history interviews with San women.She wanted to create a comparative case study of the lives of women in egalitarian foraging bands with other kinds of social structures,particularly our own.In this essay I am having you compare and contrast two San cultural patterns around sexuality and male/female relationships with the same two from your own culture.

Remember to work with the text very closely.You can do a rough general sketch of our own culture but be specific when using Shostak’s book.Choose at least two quotes from the book with APA citations and include a bibliography.I have these points numbered separately but I want the final form to be a five paragraph essay. The key is to keep it tight and focused on the topic with specific examples.

  • Describe Kung San gender roles in one paragraph.Use the parts of the book that give an overview of San culture summarized from the ethnographic research done by others.The general idea is that men and women have nearly the same amount of control over the direction of their lives, access to material goods like food, and influence in the group,a very rare gender
  • Describe the gender roles in US society in one paragraph.Focus on social structure issues like access to power in government,money, work, and family.Try to mirror the same points as you did in the San paragraph above it.
  • Choose two topics to compare and contrast:
  • Conclusion – what is there to learn by doing this kind of ethnographic case study comparison?

situation in the world today.

childhood sexuality :in their culture its expected,here its deeply taboo

attitudes about girls first period and puberty

attitudes about ‘virginity’ and sexual experience/skill

marriage:how a spouse is chosen,the marriage ritual, the duties and roles of each spouse

childbirth, birth control, child spacing between pregnancies

care of babies, raising of children

sex outside of marriage, taking lovers, the meaning and role of sex in adult lives

sex talk and joking about sex between men and women:in their culture its usually friendly and enjoyed by both sexes,in ours its considered threatening and harassing

safety of women in their home and in public space