World Cultures Via the Internet: Analysis Essay

Goal:

For this assignment, you will describe and analyze how a non-Western culture is presented on the Internet.

You have the option to choose any contemporary non-Western culture (that is, non-European and non-Euro-American), but there is also a list at the end that you can choose from.

Requirements:

Your essay should be 1000-1200 words (around 3-5 pages double-spaced). You will submit your essay through a TurnItIn link.

You will need to include a bibliography and in-text citations for all outside information. In Anthropology, we use APA formatting (American Psychological Association); if you are unfamiliar with it, the Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue has an excellent website that covers the information in a very easy-to-use manner: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/

You will also need to address the following questions in your analysis:

• What culture are you investigating?

• Where is it located?

• What is their main source of food economy (i.e. are they hunter-gatherers, pastoralists, or agriculturalists?)

• What are some key aspects and features of this culture? What language do they speak (and is it indigenous or not)? What are the basic demographics? What are their religious beliefs and practices? Is there anything markedly different from most Western societies that might appear strange at first?

• Where were you able to find your information?

• What search engines/terms did you use?

• What were the primary websites you consulted? (You should have AT LEAST 3, but 6-8 is better!)

• How easy was it to find the information you needed?

• What is the quality of information available on the internet about this culture?

• How many websites or articles did you find on this culture?

• Who created the websites? Was it people of the culture themselves, or an outsider writing about them?

• Can you believe the information on them? Why or why not? (This is where you need to be critical of what you read!)

Possible Non-Western Cultures

• Any Native American/First Nations tribe or culture

• Any indigenous Central/South American culture

• Any Australian Aboriginal culture (try to find an individual culture, rather than the overall category of "Aborigine")

• Any indigenous African culture (NOT Euro-African like white South Africans, white Zimbabweans, etc)

• Any Pacific Islander (Melanesia, Micronesia, Polynesia) culture

• Any indigenous Asian culture (although try to stay away from Russian and other European-like cultures)

Specific Examples of Non-Western Cultures

• Tongan
• Palauan
• Guamanian
• Maori
• Fijan
• Samoan
• Bedouin
• Harari
• Kurds
• Inuit
• Taino
• Carib
• Turcomans
• Assyrians
• Hutu
• Tutsi
• Tuva
• !Kung Bushmen
• Aka
• Khasis
• Jaintias
• Tibetan.