Order ID 53563633773 Type Essay Writer Level Masters Style APA Sources/References 4 Perfect Number of Pages To Order 5-10 Pages Description/Paper Instructions
Week 5 – Final Paper
Final Paper Part III: An Ethnography of a Religious Event
In your textbook, Eller (2013, p.7) notes that, “Anthropology does not approach religion to falsify it nor to verify it nor even to judge it. Anthropology is not the seminary, intending to indoctrinate the student into any one particular religion. It is not apologetics, attempting to prove or justify some religion; neither is it an exercise in debunking any or all religion.”
Keep this perspective in mind while conducting your observations and writing your paper. The purpose of this assignment is not to defend/debunk or judge any particular religious practice. Your goal is to understand the religious event from the perspective of those who practice it, while still acknowledging your role as an outside observer with imperfect knowledge of their perspective. Demonstrate a culturally relativistic perspective throughout the paper.
For this paper, you will complete an ethnography of a religious event. This will consist of two parts: 1) an initial observation of the event and 2) a follow up which can consist of further observations, interviews, or a visit to a related site. Any follow up interviews/observations should be conducted based on your initial observations, instructor feedback, or questions that arose when you conducted library research on the topic.
Make sure you adhere to the Statement on Ethics (Links to an external site.) of the American Anthropological Association while conducting your field work, and inform the community that you observe of your intention. You must obtain permission beforehand to observe them. Do not directly involve vulnerable groups such as minors, disabled, or other groups that may require special ethical considerations. While you can observe a ritual involving minors such as baptism, given the consent of parents, you should not interview minors or otherwise engage with them.
Try to choose an event that is outside of your usual religious tradition (e.g., do not go to the church service you regularly attend unless there is no other viable option).
Appropriate sites include (but are not limited to):
- Baptism ritual
- Dharma talk at a Buddhist center or temple
- Marriage ritual (of any faith). Make sure to primarily elaborate on the rituals at the event.
- Puja at a Hindu temple
- Rasta reasoning session
- Religious service (of any faith)
- A religious rite of passage (involving community)
Note: If you are unable to attend a specific site, you may use the following alternative sites for your ethnography.
- An online chat group dedicated to a particular religion or faith.
- An online religious talk or service.
- Second Life Buddha Center (Links to an external site.) (http://www.thebuddhacenter.org/calendar/schedule-b-c/)
This should be used only in special circumstances, and you must have the permission of your instructor in advance to do so.
Your Final Paper will consist of your interwoven observations, analysis, and academic research. Your paper will include your observations from the event, quotations and paraphrasing of the interviews you conducted, and quotations and paraphrasing from the scholarly sources to support your analysis.
In your Final Paper, you must
- Address ethical considerations related to your research and examine how you upheld the Statement on Ethics (Links to an external site.) of the American Anthropological Association while conducting your field work.
- Incorporate instructor feedback provided on Parts I and II of the research paper.
- Describe your observations of the ritual and include answers to the following questions
- Where did you conduct your observation? When was it conducted? Whom did you interview? Who attended the event? Make note of gender, ethnicity, class, age, and economic status (where possible).
- How do people act before, during, and after the ritual? Observe special movements or gestures. Observe the environment (setting, art, and other objects around). Ask about any special language used in prayer or chanting.
- Is there a particular religious official? Who is in charge? If there is someone “in charge” of the event, how is this manifested? Does this person act or dress differently from the rest of the people at the event?
- What is the flow of the event? Do people participate individually or en masse? What is the expressed purpose of the event?
- Describe your follow-up observations/interviews. How did this expand upon your understanding from your initial observations?
- Conduct library research: Your completed reference list should have at least five scholarly sources in addition to the textbook. Cite your references in the body of your paper and include a reference list in APA style.
- Utilize your library research, and include answers to the following questions:
- To what extent are the religious practices of the people representative of their religion? What branch or sect of faith do the practices represent?
- Do the practices of the people differ from the principles and tenets of their religious doctrine?
- Examine your role as a researcher. What role does reflexivity, as described by Wagner on p. 18-19 of the textbook, play in your research? While the majority of the paper should focus on your observations and scholarly research, it is also important to acknowledge how your own beliefs (or lack of beliefs) affect your analysis. While you should aim for a neutral, nonjudgmental tone throughout the paper, you should also take into account that you cannot simply turn your own beliefs on or off at will.
- Incorporate the six stages of fieldwork described by Wagner in Chapter 1 of your textbook, “The Study of Religion in American Society”
- Gaining entree
- Did you notice any conflict between your responsibility to those you studied and your goal to collect the data you needed for your research? If so, how did you resolve this?
- Experiencing culture shock
- How did you feel trying to fit in and understand something unfamiliar?
- How did you navigate misunderstandings or your own preconceived notions?
- How did you distinguish empirical observations from your own judgments and feelings?
- Establishing rapport
- How did you negotiate personal distance/closeness with the people involved in your research?
- How did you balance participation and observation? How did this affect your research?
- Were you able to gain an understanding of the event in both emic and etic terms?
- Ever-increasing understanding
- How did your follow-up research increase your understanding?
- What else would you like to understand or do you not fully understand yet?
- Leaving the field
- Will you see people you worked with again?
- What will your relationship with them be?
- Analyzing and interpreting
- What patterns did you find in your notes? Did this differ from your impressions during your initial observations?
- Did you notice any issues with loyalty or conflicting interests in writing your paper?
Writing the Final Paper
The Final Paper
- Must be eight to 10 double-spaced pages in length (excluding the title and reference pages), and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
- Must include a title page with the following text in the center of the page:
- Title of paper
- Student’s name
- Course name and number
- Instructor’s name
- Date submitted
- Must compose an introductory paragraph that has a succinct thesis statement at the end. The introduction should set up your topic, giving a preview and summarizing the analysis you will present in the body of the paper. The thesis statement is the last sentence of the introduction and states what you will argue in the paper or what will be the main point structuring your paper.
- Must have well-structured body paragraphs with clear transitions from one topic to the next. Incorporate in-text citations from your scholarly sources to support your analysis throughout the paper.
- Must end with a concluding paragraph that reaffirms your thesis. Remember not to present new information or analysis here. Summarize and tie together your main points for the reader.
- Must include a reference page with at least five scholarly sources in addition to the textbook (at least six sources total). Make sure all references have been cited in the body of the paper and vice versa. For information regarding APA samples and tutorials, visit the Ashford Writing Center (Links to an external site.)
Carefully review the Grading Rubric (Links to an external site.)for the criteria that will be used to evaluate your assignment.
Waypoint Assignment Submission
The assignments in this course will be submitted to Waypoint. Please refer to the instructions below to submit your assignment.
- Click on the Assignment Submission button below. The Waypoint “Student Dashboard” will open in a new browser window.
- Browse for your assignment.
- Click Upload.
- Confirm that your assignment was successfully submitted by viewing the appropriate week’s assignment tab in Waypoint.
For more detailed instructions, refer to the Waypoint Tutorial (Links to an external site.).
RUBRIC
QUALITY OF RESPONSE NO RESPONSE POOR / UNSATISFACTORY SATISFACTORY GOOD EXCELLENT Content (worth a maximum of 50% of the total points) Zero points: Student failed to submit the final paper. 20 points out of 50: The essay illustrates poor understanding of the relevant material by failing to address or incorrectly addressing the relevant content; failing to identify or inaccurately explaining/defining key concepts/ideas; ignoring or incorrectly explaining key points/claims and the reasoning behind them; and/or incorrectly or inappropriately using terminology; and elements of the response are lacking. 30 points out of 50: The essay illustrates a rudimentary understanding of the relevant material by mentioning but not full explaining the relevant content; identifying some of the key concepts/ideas though failing to fully or accurately explain many of them; using terminology, though sometimes inaccurately or inappropriately; and/or incorporating some key claims/points but failing to explain the reasoning behind them or doing so inaccurately. Elements of the required response may also be lacking. 40 points out of 50: The essay illustrates solid understanding of the relevant material by correctly addressing most of the relevant content; identifying and explaining most of the key concepts/ideas; using correct terminology; explaining the reasoning behind most of the key points/claims; and/or where necessary or useful, substantiating some points with accurate examples. The answer is complete. 50 points: The essay illustrates exemplary understanding of the relevant material by thoroughly and correctly addressing the relevant content; identifying and explaining all of the key concepts/ideas; using correct terminology explaining the reasoning behind key points/claims and substantiating, as necessary/useful, points with several accurate and illuminating examples. No aspects of the required answer are missing. Use of Sources (worth a maximum of 20% of the total points). Zero points: Student failed to include citations and/or references. Or the student failed to submit a final paper. 5 out 20 points: Sources are seldom cited to support statements and/or format of citations are not recognizable as APA 6th Edition format. There are major errors in the formation of the references and citations. And/or there is a major reliance on highly questionable. The Student fails to provide an adequate synthesis of research collected for the paper. 10 out 20 points: References to scholarly sources are occasionally given; many statements seem unsubstantiated. Frequent errors in APA 6th Edition format, leaving the reader confused about the source of the information. There are significant errors of the formation in the references and citations. And/or there is a significant use of highly questionable sources. 15 out 20 points: Credible Scholarly sources are used effectively support claims and are, for the most part, clear and fairly represented. APA 6th Edition is used with only a few minor errors. There are minor errors in reference and/or citations. And/or there is some use of questionable sources. 20 points: Credible scholarly sources are used to give compelling evidence to support claims and are clearly and fairly represented. APA 6th Edition format is used accurately and consistently. The student uses above the maximum required references in the development of the assignment. Grammar (worth maximum of 20% of total points) Zero points: Student failed to submit the final paper. 5 points out of 20: The paper does not communicate ideas/points clearly due to inappropriate use of terminology and vague language; thoughts and sentences are disjointed or incomprehensible; organization lacking; and/or numerous grammatical, spelling/punctuation errors 10 points out 20: The paper is often unclear and difficult to follow due to some inappropriate terminology and/or vague language; ideas may be fragmented, wandering and/or repetitive; poor organization; and/or some grammatical, spelling, punctuation errors 15 points out of 20: The paper is mostly clear as a result of appropriate use of terminology and minimal vagueness; no tangents and no repetition; fairly good organization; almost perfect grammar, spelling, punctuation, and word usage. 20 points: The paper is clear, concise, and a pleasure to read as a result of appropriate and precise use of terminology; total coherence of thoughts and presentation and logical organization; and the essay is error free. Structure of the Paper (worth 10% of total points) Zero points: Student failed to submit the final paper. 3 points out of 10: Student needs to develop better formatting skills. The paper omits significant structural elements required for and APA 6th edition paper. Formatting of the paper has major flaws. The paper does not conform to APA 6th edition requirements whatsoever. 5 points out of 10: Appearance of final paper demonstrates the student’s limited ability to format the paper. There are significant errors in formatting and/or the total omission of major components of an APA 6th edition paper. The can include the omission of the cover page, abstract, and page numbers. Additionally the page has major formatting issues with spacing or paragraph formation. Font size might not conform to size requirements. The student also significantly writes too large or too short of and paper 7 points out of 10: Research paper presents an above-average use of formatting skills. The paper has slight errors within the paper. This can include small errors or omissions with the cover page, abstract, page number, and headers. There could be also slight formatting issues with the document spacing or the font Additionally the paper might slightly exceed or undershoot the specific number of required written pages for the assignment. 10 points: Student provides a high-caliber, formatted paper. This includes an APA 6th edition cover page, abstract, page number, headers and is double spaced in 12’ Times Roman Font. Additionally the paper conforms to the specific number of required written pages and neither goes over or under the specified length of the paper. GET THIS PROJECT NOW BY CLICKING ON THIS LINK TO PLACE THE ORDER
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