Problem
I. Explain what "cultural relativism" means and how it differs from other forms of relativism. Then, compare ways cultural relativism was employed in the fieldwork experiences of Monaghan and Just among the Donggo, Sterk among Atlanta and NYC prostitutes, and McIntosh among the Giriana.
II. Monaghan and Just write of the perils of the "ethnographic present" as a writing style. Similarly, I argued in my lecture on culture that using the term "culture" to refer to groups of people can make it harder to see change over time. Discuss what Monaghan and Just mean by the "ethnographic present" and then analyze the ways that two of the following readings address this problem: Sterk, "Tripping and Tripping"; McIntosh, "Maxwell's Demons"; Lee, "Eating Christmas in the Kalahari"; Bourgois and Schonberg, "Intimate Apartheid."
III. One way to interpret the misunderstanding described in Richard Lee's "Eating Christmas in the Kalahari" is that Lee may have understood it terms of a different form of reciprocity than the !Kung did. Following the model of reciprocity as described in the "Economics" chapter of Perspectives and the "Gifts" lecture as well as Marcel Mauss' analysis of the ways obligation is structures into gifts, discuss how this might be so.
IV. Choose one of the high school stories from the hegemony discussion activity and use it to describe the way hegemony and habitus are at work in it. Your answer should make it clear that you understand both concepts. If you wish, you can also use a story one of your own that wasn't shared.