STEP ONE: Throughout this book we will be exploring how anthropology’s holistic, cross-cultural, and comparative approach can help us think more deeply about other people and cultures and live more consciously in our global world. As humans, we take for granted many things about our lives and how the world works, whether it is our notions of race or the cheap cost of a chocolate or a can of Coke. But anthropologists often describe how doing fieldwork can make the familiar strange and the strange familiar.
For this essay, you will be asked to conduct an anthropological analysis of a familiar object. Your book provides a great example on page 30: take a can of Coke, for instance. Can you make this most familiar cultural object unfamiliar? What would an anthropologist want to know about that can of Coke? What can you learn about yourself, your culture, or globalization in general from that can of Coke? Your task is to explore how the social life of a can of Coke intersects with the lives of people in each stage of its production, distribution, and consumption. Remember, anthropology is about people: do not just discuss ingredients, history, or manufacturing processes. Spend 45 minutes researching the following questions on the Internet, and then use your answers to write a 2-3 page essay. You do not need to answer every question. Instead, focus your essay around the bulk of the data you’ve collected, weaving it together into a coherent short essay.
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What’s in it? Where in the world did the ingredients come from?
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What can you learn about the workers who produced it? What is their life like?
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What are some specific examples of places where Coke has had an impact on the local communities where it is produced? How has it affected these communities?
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You may want to explore one specific case study by researching Plachimada, India, and Coke. What is the relationship of the people in Plachimada to a can of Coke? Do they drink it? Do they work in the factory that makes it? How much has the Coca-Cola factory changed their lives? What actions did the people of Plachimada take to protest problems caused by the factory? Were they successful?
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What is the impact of the can of Coke on the community where it is consumed? What are the health impacts? The environmental impacts? Where does the waste end up — landfills, the ocean, recycled, repurposed?
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What do you pay for a twelve-ounce can? What are the real social costs of producing a can of Coke – in terms of water, power systems, sewage treatment, pollution, garbage disposal, and roads for transportation? Who pays for them?
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If you cannot find the information to answer some of these questions, reflect on what information is most readily available and what is hardest to find. What are the implications of your answer?
By exploring the complex social life of a can of Coke, you are applying a set of analytical tools that may help you look more carefully and consciously at other familiar elements of culture.
STEP TWO: AFTER you’ve written your draft, complete the Writer’s Checklist. It is available as a fillable document on our course website. Note that you will be expected to use this list as a self-check for every essay assignment, and you will be graded on your successful execution of each item.
STEP THREE: Write a one page, double-spaced, essay reflecting on your strengths and weaknesses by answering the following questions:
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After completing the Writer’s Checklist, what do you notice about your rough draft?
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What would you focus on revising if you needed to write a final draft?
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What do you see as your strengths as a writer?
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What is one thing you’d like to improve about your writing this semester?
STEP FOUR: Upload your essay draft, your completed Writer’s Checklist, and your reflection to HuskyCT by the deadline indicated on the syllabus.
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