Anthro250

ASSIGNMENTS 2021
GENERAL INFORMATION ON ASSIGNMENTS
Deadlines:
1. Topic Summary & Essay Question (40%) 4 pm, Thurs, 1st April
2. Essay (based on Topic Summary) (40%) 4 pm, Thurs, 6th May
3. In-Class Test (20%) 11 am – 1 pm, Mon., 31st May

Late Coursework Must Be Submitted By 10.00 am Friday 11th June,

irrespective of circumstances. See your course outline for options if you
cannot meet this deadline.
Extensions & Late Work
Extensions must be sought from Christine by email.
Topic Summary & Essay: Extensions will be granted for genuine emergencies supported
by appropriately evidenced medical practitioners’ or counsellors’ recommendations, etc.
Requests without evidence: I am happy to negotiate an extended deadline, without
evidence, if you approach me at least 7 days before the deadline
Computer problems, including lost or stolen memory sticks, PCs or laptops are not
grounds for extensions—save all draft work onto your university computer space.
Assignment Three (Test). There are no extensions. There will be no make-up test. There
is no plussage.
Check your timetable. If you will be unable to attend the test, you should un-enrol
from the course or be willing to lose 20% of your grade. (There is no DNC grade for this
course, so you could still pass.)
If you find yourself unexpectedly unable to attend the test, or if you feel that
hardship has impaired your performance, see university aegrotat and late deletion
procedures (links in your course outline)
Late work without pre-approved extensions will be penalized at a rate of 1 mark (i.e., 1%
of your final grade) for every late day or part thereof, including over weekends.
Late work, including that with an extension, will be marked at our convenience, may
be held over for marking with the following assignment and may be graded without
comment.
Presentation Requirements
1. Follow the formatting requirements outlined in the Anthropology Essay Writing Guide.
2. Use in-text referencing, not footnote/endnote style. There is one model in the Essay
Writing Guide. I don’t mind if you use an alternative in-text version such as Harvard or
APA.
3. Spell-check and proof-read your work.
Up to 5 marks/assignment will be deducted for presentation issues. This can add up to
15% of your final grade. There is no need to panic, but you need to follow the major

1
 requirements re margins, line spacing, in-text-referencing and required referencing
information. If you do not understand the Essay Writing Guide and its requirements, you
need to take an essay writing and or referencing course with SLC.
Submitting Your Coursework
• Assignments One & Two should be submitted via Canvas Turnitin.
• Use the course coversheet (250 Coversheet 2021.docx) and complete all required fields.
You can find this under the “Files” link on Canvas
• Keep back-up copies of all coursework. Make sure your Turnitin uploads are successful
and in the right place. Lost materials are not grounds for late submission, irrespective of
how they are lost.
Sources for Your Assignments
Your coursework must be based on scholarly sources. The quality and validity of scholarly
work cannot be guaranteed, but at least it has been reviewed by experts in the field. Use of non-
scholarly sources will lose marks, irrespective of how well you use them.
In selecting your sources:
• They are to be (social, cultural) anthropological.
• They are to be relevant.
• They should not be obsolete. The most recent work is not necessarily the best, but a fair
amount of older work has been surpassed and some of it discredited. By and large, check
with me before using materials more than 10 – 15 years old.
• Wikipedia and other wikis are banned. Blogs are not scholarly sources. The vast
majority of www pages are not scholarly sources; newspapers and magazines are not
scholarly. Do not use them.
• GoogleScholar (http://scholar.google.co.nz/) is a valuable research tool. (NB: it is not the
same thing as Google). You need to be careful, but can often find worthwhile materials.
• The Library monograph collections and databases
(http://www.library.auckland.ac.nz/databases/) hold excellent resources.
• It is more efficient for you to use journal articles. Key journals include: Journal of the Royal
Anthropological Institute (JRAI); Religion Compass; American Ethnologist, Current Anthropology,
Ethos, Social Anthropology, The Australian Journal of Anthropology (TAJA). These are all available
electronically through the University library. There are many other good sociocultural
anthropology journals, including many articles on religion, so with a little time and care
with your keyword searches, you should be able to find suitable sources)
• GoogleBooks (http://books.google.co.nz/) and other open-source books on the web are
of very mixed value. Use them cautiously.

Student Conduct & Integrity

The University of Auckland will not tolerate cheating, or assisting others to cheat, and
views cheating in coursework as a serious academic offence. The work that a student
submits for grading must be the student’s own work, reflecting his or her learning. Where
work from other sources is used, it must be properly acknowledged and referenced. This
requirement also applies to sources on the world-wide web. A student’s assessed work

2
may be reviewed against electronic source material using computerised detection
mechanisms. Upon reasonable request, students may be required to provide an electronic
version of their work for computerised review.

3
 YOUR ASSIGNMENTS
Assignment One
Topic Description/Summary & Essay Question (40%) c.1500 words
(absolute min. 1200 words, absolute max. 2000 words)
Choose ONE of the following four topics:
Defining Religion
Religion & Symbolism
Morality
Syncretism or vernacularization
1. Drawing on course materials (textbook, course readings, relevant lectures, videos,
class discussions), write an overview of the topic as approached by anthropologists
including things like:
o How anthropologists define it; the kinds of things it includes
o Significant anthropological questions/issues
o How anthropologists approach it/alternative approaches
o Key works or authors in this field
o What anthropological generalizations can be made about that topic
o Significant debates
In other words, tell us what you know and what you understand about it. The
bullet points above are examples—no need to try and cover them all.
Your textbook is very significant to this component, but you should not just
summarize the relevant chapter/s.
2. In addition to using your textbook, select two articles or chapters from the course reading
list, other than the textbook. Use them to provide two, and only two, case studies to
illustrate your topic summary.
3. Develop an essay question for Assignment Two based on one or two aspects of your
topic summary. In other words, it will be more focused than the summary. (E.g., if your
topic was “Defining Religion”, your essay question might be something like “Is Political
Ritual a Form of Religion” or “Assessing Geertz’s Definition of Religion”. And so on, and
so on.
o If you wish, you can include a couple of potential sources for your essay for me to
quickly check for you.
Key marking criteria:
• Demonstrated anthropological understanding of a topic (Approx. 20%)
• Understanding the relevance of ethnographic examples to particular issues (Approx. 15%)
• Quality of essay question (Approx. 5%)
NB: These approximations are to give you a sense of weighting. I won’t formally break down your
grade this way.

4
 Assignment Two
Research Essay (40%)
Write an essay based on the topic you analyzed in Assignment One.
• Take account of my on your proposed Essay Question. I am happy to help you refine your
essay question up to two weeks before the essay is due.
o Be sure to include your essay question at the head of your essay.
• Do not substantially repeat material from Assignment One. This assignment should be an
effort to answer a conceptual, theoretical or methodological problem. Beyond what you
know and understand (Assignment One), this should show your thinking and informed
opinions.
• You must undertake library research to find three – five recent (within the last 20 years)
relevant anthropological articles or chapters that are not in your reading list. These should
significantly contribute to your essay. (You may use resources from Assignment One, but you
should not substantially depend on them). You may use any other course resources you find
useful.
Grading criteria:
• Quality of answer to essay question
• Response to feedback on Assignment One
• Informed, critical thought.
• Knowledge and understanding of relevant anthropological approaches
• Ability to choose materials that are relevant to the particular questions.
• An ability to use ethnographic materials to address specific issues and questions.

Assignment Three
In-Class Test (20%) 31st May
The test will include three essay questions from a list of four or five. The questions will be based
on material not covered in Assignments 1 & 2. Your answers are to be based on course
content—lectures, readings, videos and class discussions. You will not be able to use material
from Assignments One or Two. I recommend that you attend the Test Preparation class on the
Thursday before the test (i.e., in Week 11).