ant370 midterm

Midterm questions: Write a 5-7 page essay in 12 point font, double-spaced, Times New Roman answering one of the following two questions. Support your argument with specific examples from the readings. Please make sure to answer all components of the question. Make sure you include your name, student number and course number in the header.

1. Several authors we have read this term examine and theorize the relationship between anthropology and colonialism. Compare and contrast earlier critiques of this relationship (e.g., Ahmed, Magubane, Asad, Trouillot) with more contemporary ones (e.g., BelisoDe Jess & Pierre, Simpson, Jobson, AlBulushi et al.). How do these authors conceptualize anthropologys relationship to colonialism and empire? What suggestions do these authors offer for transforming anthropology as a discipline? With a specific focus on a contemporary issue (one), what interventions or analyses might these suggestions and a transformed anthropology more broadly, offer?
2. Franz Boas is often celebrated for challenging biological racism and advancing cultural relativism. How do contemporary scholarsparticularly Audra Simpson, Eve Dunbar, Lila Abu-Lughod and Zora Neale Hurstoncritique the limits of Boasian antiracism? In your response, consider how these authors differ in their methods and modes of critique (e.g., ethnography, archival intervention, literary production, film, refusal, feminist critique). What alternative visions of anthropological practice do they propose, and how do these visions align with or challenge contemporary calls to decolonize the discipline? With a specific focus on a contemporary issue (one), assess which of these critiques you find most compelling and what they might offer?

If you would like feedback from your TA in addition to a grade, please indicate that on the top of your paper and you can set up a meeting with them.