Description
Answer one question from each reading. Be sure to indicate which question you are answering.
Please answer ONE of the following questions on Marvin Harris’s “Life Without Chiefs”:
1.To the extent that political leadership exists in foraging societies, it is exercised by “headmen” (informal leaders). How does Harris describe headmen, the extent of their power, and how they exercise it? Among the Eskimo (Inuit)? The !Kung? The Mehinachu?
2.How could nonconformists, malcontents, and freeloaders be controlled in foraging societies?
Big Man. Describe the progression of activities carried out in a Siuai man’s efforts to become a mumi. Assuming a man succeeds, what will he face for his lifetime? What does mumihood NOT confer on such a man?
3.Big Man to Chief. What characteristics of resources increase the chance for the transition of Big Man to Chief? Describe the transition as outlined by Harris. How was the status eventually viewed? What had the Big Man become?
4.Among the Cherokee, the council of chiefs had a paramount chief who controlled redistribution. Who donated to the chief’s granaries? What were the functions of the granaries? Who had access to them? What did they have to acknowledge? How did the chiefs’ lifestyle set them apart from the commoners? What other kinds of communal activities did commoners engage in under the direction of chiefs? What did chiefdoms eventually evolve into?
Please answer ONE of the following questions on Axel Weingrod’s “Dry Bones” :
1.The author writes “nations require symbols of power, past glories and awe that can overcome the roars of discord and contention which periodically appear to threaten their existence.” What does this mean? Can you give an example of such a symbol from your own nation?
2.How does the author say struggles between archaeologists and religious groups over bones reflect political struggles?
3.What are some of the aspects of the struggles over the political meanings of bones that the author says are unique to Israel?
4.What are some examples of the political meanings or uses of bones outside of Israel?
After reading William O. Beeman’s “Anthropology and the Myths of American Foreign Policy” please answer ONE of the following questions:
1.The “binary” myth that Beeman argues the state department has dates from the Cold War. Do you think American politicians think in non-binary ways now, or have they just changed the names of the bad guys?
2.Is the belief system described by Beeman limited to the U.S. state department, or does it extend to other levels of society? That is, do these myths express more general American ways of looking at the world?
3.If Beeman is right, why would the U.S. or Iran adhere to a “system of belief” that is actively detrimental to their interests? Why would officials in both countries continue to view the world through ethnocentric lenses even when things don’t come out the way they want them to?
4.What do you think of Beeman’s call for anthropology to be a policy science? Do you think his recommendations would have any real effect? Why or why not?