1. Describe how local communities react to global forces influencing and mingling with local cultures. Support your description with an example from the class.
2. Describe how local communities react to global forces influencing and mingling with local cultures. Support your description with an example.
3. The process of becoming "male" or "female" occurs during childhood and youth. Provide two specific examples of ways that parents start this process by "doing gender." Provide two specific examples of ways that participating in sports reflects personality traits (e.g., gentleness vs. competitiveness) commonly associated with women and men in the United States. Provide specific examples from the text of ways that the behaviors are reinforced. How is this tied to the constructions of masculinity inherent in the "fag discourse" in U.S. high schools? Why does it benefit girls to act masculine?
4. In White Wedding: Romancing Heterosexuality in Popular Culture (2008), sociologist Chrys Ingraham asserts that brides are not born, but rather made. Identify some examples of the enculturation process. Discuss the implications of the romanticized ideal of weddings. How do these ideals differ from the reality of the "white wedding" as they intersect with gender, class, and racial inequalities?
5. The concepts of "ethnicity," "nation-state," "nationality," and "nationalism" are closely related and have serious impacts on countries in the world today. In a brief essay, discuss the situation in Iraq with regard to nation, nation-state, ethnicity, and nationality, and provide examples to support your points.