Part One
Topic, Thesis Statement, and Materials

In the opening pages of their text, Avery et al. 1989:3) claim that “the exercise of writing an essay provides the student with the best and most prolonged opportunity to think deeply and precisely into a subject; it also provides the professor with evidence of the student’s ability to think.”

The design of this course is based on the assumptions that (1) you have already taken courses in cultural anthropology, including at least one course in a “culture area” such as Arctic ethnology; and (2) either as a result of taking that course or on the basis of some other life experience, you have developed a serious interest in some particular problem or issue arising within some defined “culture area” of the world. The tasks that have been set for you are intended to accomplish two things: to give you a framework for “thinking deeply and precisely” about this issue or problem; and to enable you to produce a number of items that will provide the course professor with a basis for determining how clearly you have thought through both the problems that you have set for yourself, and those that have been set for you.