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Overview
The final project for this course is divided into two different parts: Part I and Part II. This document covers everything required for Part I of the project, which will be the primary focus of the course through Module Six. For information on Part II, which you will submit in Module Seven, see the document titled Final Project Part II Guidelines and Rubric in the Assignment Guidelines and Rubrics folder of the course.
Part I of the final project is the creation of a
cultural ethics analysis report. This part of the project is divided into
two milestones, which will be submitted at various points throughout the course to scaffold learning and ensure quality final submissions. These milestones will be submitted in
Module Two and
Module Four. The final product will be submitted in
Module Six.
In this assignment, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following course outcomes:
· Apply models of ethical decision making for resolving anthropological issues in complex social environments
· Assess the ethical impact of biases on anthropological research and discoveries
· Analyze how ethical decision making in anthropology impacts individuals and groups in both the present and future
· Differentiate between western scientific methods and indigenous knowledge in cultural situations for their ethical application
Prompt
For this project, you will take on the role of the director of a cultural resource management (CRM) agency. Your agency has been tasked with doing a preliminary Phase 1 survey of a seemingly innocuous 50-acre tract of land in Mason Neck, Virginia. The state government wants to extend a four-lane highway through the 50-acre tract, connecting two prominent highways. The survey area you will be investigating is part farmland and part hardwood forest, some of which extends to a prominent bluff high above a major commercial river. Not much is known about the land before your agency investigates, but some preliminary research has led you to understand that the 50-acre property was recently sold to a privately funded university by a local family who owned the property for the previous five generations. You know that part of the surrounding area is home to nearby Native American groups, so you would not be completely surprised to find new archaeological artifacts or features. Previous information gathered by the state museum has generated a fairly impressive array of archaeological artifacts in its collection across the county. In fact, the 50-acre tract under investigation is roughly 20 miles away from a well-known tourist and archaeological site.
With this knowledge in play, your CRM agency not only discovers densities of stone tools and projectile points, but locates magnificent residential and burial mounds scattered atop the bluff. No looting seems to have occurred in the burial mounds, so you can assume there are ritual offerings, bodies, and rare cultural artifacts buried within the mounds. Beyond the bluff in the densely forested part of the 50-acre tract, you notice a barely recognizable, historical foundation of an old homestead. You are amazed that something like this was not already documented if it has any historical importance since most of the old farm houses in the area date to the early nineteenth century. Your team is then able to locate smaller, but identifiable outbuildings associated with the historical home. Since it is likely that historical contexts of this type date to a time when slavery existed, it is quite possible the house could open up a much-needed chapter in early African American slave history. Both prehistoric Native American contexts and early African American slave contexts located in this 50-acre tract surely means the find of your agency’s lifetime! There will be, however, undoubtedly a number of interested parties and complex ethical issues that must be dealt with after you report your findings.
Aside from your own ideas, you already know that the previous
landowners, the
private university, and the
state government are interested parties in this discovery, but you imagine there will be other potentially interested parties as well:
· Local Native American groups
· The larger nation of American indigenous peoples
· The publicly funded state museum
· The U.S. federal government
· The local townsfolk and community government
· UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization)
The types of research media and quality of scholarly sources used to analyze the situation will be critical to your final resolution where you will need to address who amongst the selected stakeholders “own” this discovery.
End of scenario
For this part of the summative assessment, you will need to select additional stakeholders from the bulleted list above, conduct research, and devise a resolution to the situation, taking into consideration ethics throughout. In Sections A-G, you will be conducting research on all of the stakeholders involved in order to inform the potential resolution you will propose in Section G regarding who should have ownership of the archaeological discovery.
Specifically, the following
critical elements must be addressed:
I.
Researching the Investment
In addition to the previous landowners, the private university, and the state government, you must select at least two more parties of stakeholders from the list above and research why they might be invested (culturally, politically, economically, personally, etc.) in the archaeological site(s).
A. Write a
brief statement as to why you decided to research the potential interests of the two stakeholders you selected rather than the others in the list. Eliminate some of your own biases and objectively decide who would likely be the most invested in this discovery.
B. Determine which parties would be
invested in which of the two sites and how this could affect your final resolution in the press conference. For example, UNESCO and the federal government might be more interested in controlling historical slave architecture, but the private university and state government see the Native American components to be more
valuable for future planning.
C.
Research: Perform a brief literature search (a minimum of two sources for each of the five parties: 1. the previous landowners; 2. the private university; 3. the state government; and two additional parties of your choosing) to further investigate the five stake-holding parties. Good sources will contain background information on the stakeholders, as well as relevant case study examples you can use to help justify your outcome.
i. Describe concerns you have with the ethical behaviors of each of the stakeholders based on your research. For example, during your investigation, you might find that your stakeholders have encountered something similar to the situation at hand, setting precedent for the resolution in your press conference.
D.
Biases: For each selected stakeholder, you will need to research
their history with similar archaeological finds to determine any potential biases. Determining these biases will aid you in informing your potential resolution.
i. Determine why the five stakeholder groups would want
ownership of the archaeological find due to their own personal or professional biases. In your response, think about how subjectivity may or may not impact an ethical outcome
ii. How might these biases of the five groups
impact the ultimate goal of the archaeological discovery? Provide specific examples to support your response.
E. Discuss the
similarities and differences with indigenous knowledge and Western scientific methods in researching why these parties would want ownership of the archaeological sites. Use cultural relativism to make a more thorough argument.
F. Select at least one living cultural group that is directly represented in the archaeological find. How can the
perspective of this group help to inform your resolution for the press conference?
G. Propose a potential
resolution as to which party or parties have ownership of the archaeological find based on the findings in your research and the previously selected perspectives. This resolution will then be communicated in your press conference. Ensure that your resolution takes into consideration all of the potential issues and will create an ethically sound solution that best fits all invested parties.
Milestones
Milestone One:
Researching Investments Into Archaeological Discoveries
In
Module Two, you will complete three initial tasks that will set you up for success on your final project.
First, you will select two parties from the bulleted list provided above. It is important to note that the two parties you select, along with the three assigned to you (the previous landowners, the private university, and the state government), will make up the five total parties you will focus on for the project.
Second, you will explain the reasons why you think the two parties you selected would be most interested in the recent archaeological discoveries.
Third, you will compose a description of invested parties that describes why each party (five in total) would be more interested in one of the two sites in the archaeological discovery. Your work should be 1–2 pages in length.
This
milestone will be graded with the Milestone One Rubric.
Milestone Two:
Projecting into the Future: Building an Ethical Case through Scholarly Sources
In
Module Four, you will complete two key tasks that build on your work in Milestone One.
First, you will create a literature review in which you will select two scholarly sources for each of your five invested parties. These scholarly materials will be used throughout the remaining sections of the final project to help guide your conclusions of the ethical dilemma.
Second, you will write a potential ethical behavior statement for each of the five parties. Your work should be 2–3 pages in length. This
milestone will be graded with the Milestone Two Rubric.
Final Project Part I Submission:
Cultural Ethics Analysis Report
In
Module Six, you will submit Part I of your final project. In a single document, compile all of your work from Milestones One and Two, inclusive of the incorporation of feedback from your instructor. Beyond compiling and organizing your work from Milestones One and Two, you will also include further analysis of biases and ethical behavior of your five invested parties.
Your submission should be a complete, polished artifact containing
all of the critical elements that reflects the incorporation of feedback gained throughout the course. Although there is no minimum page requirement for your report, you should ensure it contains enough information to contribute to a script for your press conference.
This submission will be graded with the Final Project Part I Rubric (below).
What to Submit
Although there is no minimum page requirement for your report, you should ensure it contains enough information to contribute to a script for your press conference in Part II of the project that will last seven minutes. Your cultural ethics analysis report should be double-spaced, with 12-point Times New Roman font and APA formatting. Your list of resources should also be included and utilize APA guidelines.
