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ENC 1101: Taboo Topics Project Home
Contributors: Alan Green, Kristen King, Megan Weber
Overview:
Most cultures have their own personal nuances, ticks, or practices which set them apart. These cultural traits create differences, and in some cases, misunderstandings. Through investigation of other cultures, a new perspective arises; what before seemed alien and different can make sense and even become beautiful. This project asks students to investigate a practice or habit termed “taboo” by outside cultures, presenting the topic from a cultural perspective. Students will look to the origin of the taboo, understanding the history of the practice. The end goal is to understand how modern advancements and globalization have affected the taboo, either altering the practice or understanding why it remains the same. Students should link a culture to a practice, connecting personal interaction with community ideology as a whole.
Assignment:
Write a 1,000 to 1,500 word investigation of the ways different cultural practices are effected by modern advancements. Students will examine the historical and cultural practices of this "taboo" and develop an analysis that evaluates the existence/ evolution of the ideology.
Outcomes:
Historical Perspectives:
Students should identify and trace how taboos have (and continue) to evolve over time across cultural barriers. How, in turn, is identity created/shaped by the issues of taboos? In considering the larger picture, students can review how the taboo(s) effect social aspects, particularly morality and ethics. Students can consider the origins of taboo (see Captain James Cook, Tonga tribe, Fiji) as well as modern perspectives on taboo (see Pinker, Freud, Wundt). Possible topics include religion, etiquette, faux pas, social stigmas, food and drink, gender constructions, public personas, or political 'hot topics.'Students will identify and incorporate different kinds of primary and secondary source material to explain a cultural practice that may be considered taboo. This material might come in the form of statistics, interviews, books, or journal articles. Students will construct an argument based on evidence, plentiful citation, and originality. They will consider historical and cultural perspectives to explain the traditional value of a particular cultural practice.
If your taboo is... you can use historical context by... and you can use this kind of evidence:
Cross dressing looking into the origins, where it first Plays, especially Shakespeare and Byron;
became accepted, popular locations research statistics on the growing trend
The Holocaust researching Nazi and citizen positions; USF Visual History archive; information from
including survivor/perpetrator stories; concentration camps; statistics held by German
how the event began and evolved archives compared to world archives
Abortion understanding both pro-life and pro- Social statistics on trends (either increases or
choice positions; historical use of decreases); court cases and state laws related
abortion to abortion; interviews
Video Links:
National Geographic
The Philosopher's Magazine
"How Taboo Are You" Game
Research Resources:
Global Migration, Social Change, and Cultural Transformation by Emory Elliott, Jasmine Payne, and Patricia Ploesch
The Nature of Culture by A.L. Kroeber
Taboo subjects: race, sex, and psychoanalysis by Gwen Bergner, Minnesota UP:2005
Sample Student Texts:
(There are currently no sample student texts for this project.)
Most cultures have their own personal nuances, ticks, or practices which set them apart. These cultural traits create differences, and in some cases, misunderstandings. Through investigation of other cultures, a new perspective arises; what before seemed alien and different can make sense and even become beautiful. This project asks students to investigate a practice or habit termed “taboo” by outside cultures, presenting the topic from a cultural perspective. Students will look to the origin of the taboo, understanding the history of the practice. The end goal is to understand how modern advancements and globalization have affected the taboo, either altering the practice or understanding why it remains the same. Students should link a culture to a practice, connecting personal interaction with community ideology as a whole.
| "How do texts shape individuals and communities?" In each option for project 2,students analyze the ring of texts and voices that constantly bombard them with messages. This carries two implications for thoughtful living: |
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Assignment:
Write a 1,000 to 1,500 word investigation of the ways different cultural practices are effected by modern advancements. Students will examine the historical and cultural practices of this "taboo" and develop an analysis that evaluates the existence/ evolution of the ideology.
Outcomes:
- Students will use rhetorical analysis to describe how and why "taboo" practices exist.
- Students will connect history to modernity, understanding how the past and present shape cultural practices.
- Students will describe how individuals participate in the "taboo" and how an individual can effect the community as a whole.
- Students will learn to use academic sources to compose an argument about the "taboo" practice.
- Students will learn to evaluate a culture outside their own, providing an honest, unbiased argument.
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of the writing process, including invention, narrowing a topic, drafting, editing and revision strategies that include peer review and receiving feedback from their instructor.
Historical Perspectives:
Students should identify and trace how taboos have (and continue) to evolve over time across cultural barriers. How, in turn, is identity created/shaped by the issues of taboos? In considering the larger picture, students can review how the taboo(s) effect social aspects, particularly morality and ethics. Students can consider the origins of taboo (see Captain James Cook, Tonga tribe, Fiji) as well as modern perspectives on taboo (see Pinker, Freud, Wundt). Possible topics include religion, etiquette, faux pas, social stigmas, food and drink, gender constructions, public personas, or political 'hot topics.'Students will identify and incorporate different kinds of primary and secondary source material to explain a cultural practice that may be considered taboo. This material might come in the form of statistics, interviews, books, or journal articles. Students will construct an argument based on evidence, plentiful citation, and originality. They will consider historical and cultural perspectives to explain the traditional value of a particular cultural practice.
If your taboo is... you can use historical context by... and you can use this kind of evidence:
Cross dressing looking into the origins, where it first Plays, especially Shakespeare and Byron;
became accepted, popular locations research statistics on the growing trend
The Holocaust researching Nazi and citizen positions; USF Visual History archive; information from
including survivor/perpetrator stories; concentration camps; statistics held by German
how the event began and evolved archives compared to world archives
Abortion understanding both pro-life and pro- Social statistics on trends (either increases or
choice positions; historical use of decreases); court cases and state laws related
abortion to abortion; interviews
Video Links:
National Geographic
Websites:
"How Taboo Are You" Game
Research Resources:
Global Migration, Social Change, and Cultural Transformation by Emory Elliott, Jasmine Payne, and Patricia Ploesch
The Nature of Culture by A.L. Kroeber
| "Seriation, burial, taboo, and the self" in the Journal of anthropological research :2002 -447 Encyclopedia of Taboos by Lynn Holden/ Oxford:2000 Dinner with a cannibal: the complete history of mankind's oldest taboo by Carole A. Travis-Henikoff/ Santa Monica Press:2008 Taboo in Advertising by Elsa Freitas/ John Benjamins Pub. Co.: 2008 Forbidden Words: Taboo and the Censoring of Language by Keith Allan, Cambridge UP: 2006 Inbreeding, incest, and the incest taboo: the state of knowledge at the turn of the century by Arthur Wolf and William Durham (2005) |
Taboo subjects: race, sex, and psychoanalysis by Gwen Bergner, Minnesota UP:2005
Sample Student Texts:
(There are currently no sample student texts for this project.)
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MegsWeber |
Latest page update: made by MegsWeber
, Nov 21 2008, 10:52 AM EST
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