Anthropological Essay: Summarizing and Assessing an Article

A short essay will involve summarizing an article from an anthropological journal and assessing how its ap- proach expresses aspects of the anthropological perspective.

First, the essay will be to succinctly provide the general overview and con- clusions of the article, demonstrating your understanding of its contents. It is best to select an article con- cerning ethnographic analysis of a culture or an ethnological cross-comparative analysis of cultures (as op- posed to a piece restricted to methodological concerns, for example).

Second, the next aim will be to show how the article is anthropological in perspective, connecting the detailed contents of the article to the broader approach in anthropology, whether involving cross-cultural comparison, holism, or cultural relativism. Other articles may highlight ethnocentrism regarding certain issues. Articles may be ethnographic (concerning one culture) or ethnological (concerning multiple cultures in comparison).

Lastly, proper citation format will need to be followed. A common anthropological format is American An- tiquity (see related handout). Provide the full bibliographic information in proper citation format, and use proper referencing in the body of your essay as well. It is only necessary to summarize the one article, but if you also reference related articles for context, then provide full bibliographic format as well.

The essay should be about 3 - 4 pages, double-spaced, with at least 1-inch margins all around. Allow for the bulk of the essay to concern the summary and the last page or so to your assessment of how the article exhibits an anthropological perspective.

(1) Essay organization;

(2) Discussion of article content;

(3) Analysis of article for its an- thropological perspective (or not);

(4) Editing and grammar; and

(5) Proper citation format.