Choose an Article + Assignment

For this assignment, choose an anthropological article that discusses activism in a specific context and answer questions about it. 

STEP 1: READ

Choose one of the following articles to read: 

• “#Ferguson: Digital Protest, Hashtag Ethnography, and the Racial Politics of Social Media in the United States” by Yarimar Bonilla and Jonathan Rosa.

  • • • This is an anthropological article in which the authors discuss the role of online communication and social media to protest police brutality and misrepresentation of people of color in the U.S. 

• “If We Didn’t Have Water”: Black Women’s Struggle for Urban Land Rights in Brazil" by Keisha-Khan Y. Perry. 

  • • • This is an anthropological article in which the author discusses connections between environmental activism in Brazil and Afro-Brazilian religious traditions. 

STEP 2: Answer Questions

Write answers to the questions for the article you chose. 

For "#Ferguson" by Bonilla and Rosa:

1. According to the authors, Twitter a non-place or a virtual world or something else?
2. Do social media distort or reflect reality?
3. Analyze the images that were circulated in the wake of #Ferguson. How were black bodies represented, and what did participation in specific postings reveal about those who posted?
4. Does "all that is tweeted melt into the air"? 

For "If We Didn't Have Water" by Perry: 

1. What does the sea represent in African religious traditions and environmental politics in Gamboa de Baixo?
2. What are terreiros? Why are they important for black women in Gamboa de Baixo?
3. What does the author mean by saying that "black women's religious matters are political matters"? 
4. How is the environmental justice movement raced, classed, and gendered? Why are women of color at the forefront of the environmental justice movement? 

STEP 3: Submit your Answers

Submit your answers by clicking the blue, "Take The Survey" button below and copying your answers into the box in the "survey." Although I am using the survey feature for this, it is not a quiz. This is just an assignment. Do your best, but I'm not grading you on getting the right answer; you will be graded based on your sincere attempt to answer the questions and showing that you have read watched the lecture and read the article, even if you didn't understand all of it.

Please get in touch if you have any issues submitting your answers. 

STEP 4: Check Answers

After you submit your answers, click on Attempt 1 in the Attempt History. You should be able to see information (correct answers) from me for each question. This information is meant to help you affirm that you were on the right track in understanding what the article was saying and the anthropological perspective or, if not, fill gaps in your understanding. You will only be able to see the answers once, so take any notes that you want to. 

Please let me know if you have any problems viewing the answers.