Exam 1, Indians of North America

ANTH E-320, Fall 2009

Your exam questions will appear here. To easy your worries, here is the first exam from last year. Who knows? Maybe some of the same questions will appear!

This exam is due Tuesday, October 13, 2009, by the start of the class hour (1:30 PM). Either e-mail it to me (preferred) or bring a hard copy to my office.

This is a take-home exam consisting of two parts, identification/significance questions and short essays worth 50 total points. On all the questions, including the short identifications, the best answers will use specific examples from your readings, the videos, and the online materials. Your task is to show me that you've read, listened to, seen and understood the materials. Answers that just use the lectures and PowerPoints for examples generally get lower scores. As you use an example, put the source for it in parentheses ( ) as in (Native North America, 45-46; In Whose Honor?; sports mascot powerpoint).

Identification and Significance

On the identification/significance items, answers should be approximately a paragraph long. Don't just define the term, but tell why it is important, key issues about it, and the like. Use specifics where possible as examples. See the example below:

Wannabe

A 'wanabee' is a non-Indian who so admires Indians and Indian ways that they "want-to-be" Indian. This irritates many "real" Indians because wannabes seem to think that they can take anything they want from Native American cultures and use these things in ways that may be totally out of context, as in the case of the New Age believers who incorporate Indian spiritual practices as shown in the White Shamans, Plastic Medicine Men video. They seem to think that Indian rituals are simple and that all Indians are alike, usually incorporating Plains Indian stereotypes.

Identify and give the significance of any five (5) of the following terms or concepts (4 points each; roughly 1 for identification, 2 for significance, 1 for example use; total 20 points). Do not answer more than five (5); if you do, only the first 5 will be graded:

culture area	social distance	sovereignty
*oral tradition*	institutional discrimination	squaw
*Chief Illiniwek*	Beringia (Bering Land Bridge)	Moundbuilder Myth

Essay Questions

Choose any two (2) of the following five (5) questions to answer.
Each will be worth 15 points (total: 30 points). Do not answer more than two (2). If you do, only the first 2 will be graded. Approximately 10 points will be for the logic of your answer and 5 for quality use of examples.
Be sure to answer all parts of the question in a unified essay (that is, don't answer each part of the question as a separate part; they are all related anyway so it should prove no problem).
If it suits you to alter a question slightly, feel free to do so if it makes a good point.
The best answers will use several (2-4) examples well.
Good examples use means that you explain the connection between the example and the point you are making. Don't just put down something like "This is like the video on White Shamans." Rather explain how the video is connected to your point.
Although there is no required minimum or maximum length, you should be able to answer the questions in a maximum of 2-3 pages each.
I am willing to read draft answers until the time the exam is to be turned in. I will quickly scan them and give you a brief critique that you can use to rewrite if you wish. Be aware that I only have so much time, so if I get lots of them at the last minute, giving critiques to all may be impossible. I'll do them on a first-come, first-served basis.

The Essay Questions

1. Blackfeet Indians sightseeing in New York City, 1913. They were in NYC to promote Glacier National Park. The McAlpine Hotel, from which they are viewing the city, claimed to be the "tallest hotel in the world." Why is the image at the right so disconcerting to most Americans?

2. What has been the role of anthropologists in creating images of Indians? What issues should researchers think about when they do research about Indians (hint: AISR appendix)? Realistically, can researchers really know anything about Indians? Why or why not?

3. 'New Agers' and other wannabes seem to have a low social distance regarding Indians. What is the problem with people "playing Indian?"

4. How do scientific views differ from those provided by oral tradition? What impact has the dominance of scientific views had on American Indians?

5. What does it mean to be Indian in contemporary America? (Please note that I am not asking what an Indian is or how it "feels" to be Indian! Rather, the question has to do with broader issues of social justice.) By the way, expect this same question to appear on the final.