Discussion: Skin Color and Family
Answer each question in approximately 1 paragraph.
REVIEW: In the reading “Doing Fieldwork” (assigned in Week 3), you learned about “thick description” (Geertz 1973), which describes a specific type of writing that explains not only the behavior or cultural event but also the context and interpretations that infer the internal logic of a cultural practice and/or behavior and/or why the behaviors are meaningful to them. This week, please observe one event or one happening and write detailed field notes. This can be done looking out your window, in your home, at your workplace, and/or in a public space such as a park (maintaining social distancing). Just OBSERVE closely and take notes for 5-10 minutes. Include your field notes here. Make some attempt to interpret or explain the behavior you observed. NOTE: This could be as simple as watching people take their dogs out in a local park, observing meal preparation or other household duties in your own home, observing your child in “school” via Zoom, observing behavior on your commute to work if you are on public transportation and can take notes, etc.
APPLY: Consider your own family structure and/or different family structures you have been part of (currently or as a child). Who was in the household? What type of household is this (extended or nuclear)? Would you describe the family structure as patriolocal. patrilineal, matrilocal, and/or matrilineal? What do gender roles look like in the household (who does what)?
ANALYZE: Read the chapter on Race and Ethnicity and watch the TED Talk “Skin Color is an Illusion.” How is skin color indicative of evolution and migration? Use racial formation, reification, or social construction to describe how race has become more than evidence of adaptation. Feel free to bring in contemporary events.
word limit:720