Course Outcomes
In this project, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following outcomes:
Develop questions about fundamental aspects of human culture that inform personal assumptions, beliefs, and values using evidence from cultural artifacts and systems
Investigate major developments in the humanities for informing critical questions related to human culture and endeavors
Determine fundamental approaches to studying the humanities in addressing questions about how cultural artifacts and the culture they are created in have influenced each other
Articulate the value of the humanities for their impact on contemporary issues focusing on how humans generate unique meanings
Overview
The enduring relevance of the humanities is that they encourage us to consider the “big ideas.” From wondering what culture is to how we go about studying it, and what is the relationship between objects of cultural and historical significance and the culture in which they are created, the study of the humanities is all-encompassing. The relationship between the creators of works of cultural and historical significance and the things they create and how human meaning is generated through cultural works are part of the themes we will be exploring in this assignment. We humans seem driven to express and create in our search to understand and be understood.
Scenario
For the purposes of this assignment, imagine you are a researcher of human cultures, an anthropologist who is looking from the future back to our world today. In this position, you develop a natural curiosity about cultural works and how they represent a particular culture. You are also curious about how cultural works influence the environment in which they exist. You are new at your job, and your first project is to conduct a thorough analysis of today’s culture via a cultural work, looking to understand how it represents culture and how it reflects its cultural environment. The results of your analysis will be used to craft the copy for a brochure accompanying a museum exhibit about cultural works of the current year.
Directions
Analysis of a Cultural Work
As an anthropologist, you will start your task by analyzing the work of human creative expression that you selected in Module Four. With this work in mind, respond to the questions below. Remember, the insights you gain here will be used to write the copy that will go in the museum exhibit brochure.
Answer the following questions:
Describe the work in detail. Consider the following:
Where did you see the work?
What elements or characteristics stand out to you?
Describe the purpose of the work. Consider the following:
What do you think the creator intended to express?
Were they successful?
Use the work to explore how acts of creative expression impact and are impacted by the people and situations that surround them. Consider the following:
What contributions does the work selected make to continuing a dialogue about that culture and the importance of its works?
State questions you have after thinking deeply about this work. What more do you want to know regarding the following?
The relationship between culture and expression: What is the relationship between the possible intent of the creator and your own interpretation of its meaning?
Explain how your values have shaped and are shaped by your expression and that of others.
Explain how you would approach answering these questions:
What would you study about this work that might address the questions you stated?
Where would you find information to address the questions?