How do rituals and symbols define the values of a community?
Prior to beginning work on this assignment, review the following essays found in your course text: “Journey by Inner Light,” “Body Art as Visual Language,” “A Look Behind the Veil,” “Too Many Bananas,” “An Island Passover,” “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema,” “Shamans, Healers and Experiences I Can’t Explain,” and “Walking Back Alone.” In addition, review the sections “The Veil” and “The Bicycle” from the graphic novel
Persepolis
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How to Read a Graphic Novel
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.
For this assignment, you will analyze how three texts depict rituals and symbols to reveal the norms and values of a culture and to challenge the assumptions that govern interpretations of the world.
The literary texts and graphic novel assigned for this week depict different cultures as understood through their cultural practices, rituals, and symbols. The authors of the texts attempt to understand cultural norms and values through observing a variety of cultural practices related to clothing, hair, body art, food, religious practice, funeral practices, and healing practices. These become signs and symbols of identity, belief, value, and individual reality.
Choose three of the texts assigned for this week. Consider the rituals and symbols described in the texts and what they tell you about the values of the cultures in which they are used. Consider how they create meaning and encourage a new way of seeing the world. Consider also how the meanings given to events, actions, and words are not their only possible meanings (Hirschberg & Hirschberg, 2018, p. 338), and the how rituals and symbols of different cultures challenge assumptions of those meanings.
In your paper,
· Develop a thesis statement that asserts a central idea about how three texts use depictions of rituals and symbols to define the values of a community and culture.
· Analyze how the three texts situate rituals, practices, and symbols within a specific cultural context.
· Interpret the meaning each author wishes to convey to readers through depictions of rituals and symbols within a culture context.
· Asses how the depictions of rituals and symbols in each text challenge authors and readers’ cultural assumptions that govern their interpretation of the world.
No secondary or scholarly sources are required for this assignment. However, if you do choose to bring in outside sources, remember to cite any information from those sources in APA Style. As you refer to specific passages or aspects from your primary texts in the paper, remember to cite those sources correctly and include them on your references page.
The Traditions and Customs: How Rituals and Symbols Reveal Cultural Norms and Values paper
· Must be three to five double-spaced pages in length (not including title and references pages) and formatted according to
APA Style
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as outlined in the Writing Center’s
APA Formatting for Microsoft Word
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· Must include a separate title page with the following:
· Title of paper in bold font
· Space should appear between the title and the rest of the information on the title page.
· Student’s name
· Name of institution (The University of Arizona Global Campus)
· Course name and number
· Instructor’s name
· Due date
· Must utilize academic voice. See the
Academic Voice
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resource for additional guidance.
· Must include an introduction and conclusion paragraph. Your introduction paragraph needs to end with a clear thesis statement that indicates the purpose of your paper.
· For assistance on writing
Introductions & Conclusions
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and
Writing a Thesis Statement
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, refer to the Writing Center resources.
· Must document any information used from sources in APA Style as outlined in the Writing Center’s
APA: Citing Within Your Paper
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· Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA Style as outlined in the Writing Center. See the
APA: Formatting Your References List
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resource in the Writing Center for specifications.
