Help needed from you guys re: a topic for my Anthro paper

[Lion_Lop_Lover]

Hey guys

(hugs) all… you guys have been my life saver these last few months, honest to god.

I’m doing much better, due to the meds and trying to move on in life. I even took a very bold step and got slightly drunk for the first time and went to a bar for the first time and had FUN with my friends! Got some attention from a guy, too So that was nice! But it was a great evening, the hangover on Saturday was so unexpected…>.< Not fun...

ANYWAY, so I am doing better…slowly but surely…

Anyway, I’m drawing a complete blank on my Anthropology paper, which needs to be 10 pages, have 10 references, and is due on April 8… which I just realized is like, 8 days away. So I’m kind of freaking out and I don’t know what to do.

The only information on the paper our teacher has said is that “it should expand on class material.” * rolls eyes*. Right. So, the class is Anthropology of Gender, and we’ve basically spent the term having to listen to our Nazi Feminist prof diss guys, despite this being anthro of GENDER, not WOMEN.

So…I had wanted to do a paper on males, but I have no idea where to even start. Anthropology is so…bizarre to me…I’m not sure if you guys can help, but…any budding anthropologists out there?

I did go in and meet with the prof, and she was ridiculously unhelpful…>_>

[babybunsmum]

oooh how frustrating to have such broad directives.  i’m afraid i have nothing at all to help out with on this topic.  i even had to google “Anthropology” to know what it meant

i wouldn’t doubt that some one on bb has more insight.  hopefully you find some inspriation or direction soon!   good luck

[JK]

I took Anthropology in college and loved it!  I even heard Margaret Mead speak once. If you google “anthropology topics” I am sure you will find tons of ideas!  Good luck. (How about “Men & Commitment Phobias?”  ha ha)

[apanda]

hmm a lot of the linguistics classes I took were in the Anth department, including Language and Gender. You could do something about the differences between men’s and women’s language, there is a TON of research on that. My midterm and final for that class were conversation analysises which you probably are a little short on time for, but there’s a lot of research from Robin Lakhoff about the existence of “women’s language” which girls are conditioned to use at a young age and whichboth reflects and reinforces the “marginality and powerlessness of women”. She kind of makes me want to barf but sounds right up your prof’s ally. Also there is a great big book of articles we read called Language and Gender: A Reader by Jennifer Coates who also does a lot of research on that stuff. If a library near you has that book then getting 10 sources would be a snap cuz there are like a ton in there. Good luck I know a thing or too about deadlines sneaking up on you so if you need any more help lemme know

[MimzMum]

It’s really too bad that your Prof is so narrow minded. If you didn’t have to get a good grade out of her, I’d suggest giving her a copy of one of Dr. Laura’s books…lolz.
Hmmm…I like the male/female language idea. Believe me, after 20 years of marriage, I’m STILL trying to figure out just what the hubby means by, “”Nah, that’s okay, I can manage.” (i.e. Male Code for: Won’t you do this for me so I don’t have to?”) XD

[Gravehearted]

I’ve found that most anthropology and gender classes focus on feminist topics. I hope you’re able to figure out an interesting topic that you’ll enjoy learning more about.

[Lion_Lop_Lover]

The language and gender would certainly be interesting…maybe I should send her an email and see what she thinks.
Have any of you seen the work of Jay Matternes? He’s a National Geographic used artist, he has a website if you just google his name; anyway, he has a “knack” as our prof put it for making women very sexualized in his drawings of early hominids, and making men look buff and strong. My prof really hates him.
So I wanted to do a paper exploring something about…I don’t know. Like…blargh. This is so frustrating. I just don’t know how to make 10 pages worth of something I’m not really sure of…

[RabbitPam]

Ok, I have a crazy week ahead of me, and would you believe that I woke up thinking of topics for your paper? LOL You guys are saving my sanity right now I swear.

That said, how about the different gender roles and how they’ve changed in religions? Narrow it down to a focus group like, say, Judaism (I’m Jewish) and Hinduism, and how gender roles have changed in the US over the course of the last 150 years, and how that compares to gender roles in the Middle East/Europe (or just pick a country and stick with population of that country) and what changes were there. I’m thinking of headlines about women still being oppressed, wearing veils, etc. Whereas in the US we went from Orthodox Judaism (women in the balconies in synagogues, home duties, etc.) to Reformed Judaism (women eventually allowed to become rabbis, previously unheard of for 5000 years.)

OOO! That makes me think of how religious laws lay out one criteria for gender roles, but political societies can change that to create new laws in their own interests. Like focus on the changes in Iraq (I think. OK geography is really my weak point) from more pure practices of Hinduism (not Buddhism, right?) to those awful newer laws forbidding most everything that was introduced by a fairly recent regime in the last 50 years before the war. (No music, no dancing, really strange stuff that isn’t in the religion at all.) Some group had come in and used rules supposedly based in religion to actually dis-empower and suppress women, as well as find excuses to persecute men. I’m not entirely sure what country it was in, but it twisted the foundations of good religious practices for it’s own power. I believe it was actually prior to Saddham H. but not certain.

Finally, one more idea:
Effects of war on changes in gender roles. Or, effects of WWII on gender roles. That’s pretty easy to find, since it’s the women going to work era, with Rosie the Riveter as the symbol of the workers then, and the effects on men returning from the war only to find their jobs being filled by women. Kind of a more modern anthropology. OK, enough blah blah blah from me! Good luck with it LL.

[JK]

Rabbitpam you just crack me up.  I randomly thought about topics too. You need to get a rabbit girl!  You’d be a great mom!!!!!

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

LOL sounds like you’ve got lots of topics!! Let me know what you pick and I could help find some papers for you, I have access to U of A libraries and tonnes of online ejournals, so I can send you whole journal articles over the web!

[Lion_Lop_Lover]

Oh neat ideas everyone!

Kokanee – that would be so cool… UNB has its own thingy for articles but most of them aren’t available online.
What can you find for “Wealth and Power Distributions” in different cultures?

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Let me see what I can do!

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Ok, I emailed you one article that won’t come up as a PDF let me know if you can access it!

[RabbitPam]

knowltons,
LOL!!! YOu’re so right. I need a bunny BAD.
I just can’t move one in with my parents next month. They’re letting me stay with them until I get this job to go full time or do something else.
I had a really tough day, work went well but it was non-stop hard, and I didn’t calm down until I got on line here. I don’t know why, but you all are just a soothing bunny balm. Thanks.

[Lion_Lop_Lover]

I agree, this place is a definite soothe arena!

[Author]

Messages