What contrasting points of view can you find in this culture in terms of how people from this society view themselves?

Your first research project for this class will be about the main theoretical approaches that we have discussed in class:

Psychological Approach
Historical Particularism and Culture Contact.
Cultural Materialism and Cultural Ecology
Sociobiology / Behavioral ecology
Postmodern Critique
Your task is to apply these theoretical concepts to a society or culture area of your choice; i.e. a nation, a chiefdom, a tribe, or a region that has clear cultural cohesion.

Please follow the steps outlined below in writing your research paper.

Step 1:
Create a title that relates to the topic that you are researching.

Write an introduction that clarifies the parameters of your research. Briefly introduce the culture you researched and the purpose of the investigation.

Step 2:
Answer these five questions in your research:

How does adolescence in this culture compare with adolescence in our culture? (If you prefer, you can choose a different lifestage or identity, e.g. childhood, motherhood, gender. Stick with just one psychological topic for this part of the research, though.)
How has culture contact influenced the development of this culture?
How has the available resource base influenced its development?
How adaptive are the strategies used by this culture? (You may not find optimization models for your society / culture area, but once you have looked at their resources you may be able to formulate conclusions about how effective their use of resources is.)
What contrasting points of view can you find in this culture in terms of how people from this society view themselves?
Remember to present your material in an organized manner. Feel free to include tables or images as supporting evidence. Remember to provide references for all the information that you present in your paper and use in-text citations.

Step 3:
Share your conclusions and / or summarize your research.

Not counting the references page, you should turn in about 2000 words of text. Whichever citation style you use, be sure to use in-text citations as well. If you are unsure about how to cite sources in a research paper, our friends at the Center for Academic Success will be able to help you.

Please turn in your research as a pdf or word document or paste your research into Canvas. Maximum number of points: 50.

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