SOC 100C: Contemporary Society
TuTr 2-3:50, Asbury Hall 301
 FALL 2006
Professor Thomas Hall
 Office: 106 Asbury, x4519, email: thall@depauw.edu
 OFFICE HOURS:  TuTr 1-1:50; W 11-12; & by appt
Second Reaction Paper
Last Updated 10-11-06
Due Thursday October 26

Write a 4 to 5 page (1200-1800 word), typed, double-spaced, essay on ONE of the topics below. Be sure to consult the general instructions, How to Write Essays for Professor Hall.
Paper form: NO Cover pages or binders Name, course, paper, & topic in one of the top corners :

Your Name
Soc 100C F06
RP 2, TOPIC X, where X = topic letter
Page x

If you do not know how to set running headers, you may write it in by hand!

References:  For references to class texts you need only put author and page in parentheses [e.g., "blah, blah, blah...." (Margolin, p. 133)]. For references to material OUTSIDE OF COURSE TEXTS use " blah, blah, blah,....." (Smith & Weson 1938, p. 45) and a bibliography at the end (NOT on a separate page).

Remember:   Essays are FORMAL exercises, no slang, no contractions, correct spelling and grammar are required.  In your FIRST draft, work at getting your ideas on paper. In your SECOND draft, work on getting the argument in order. In your THIRD draft work on grammar, spelling etc. Keep the introduction, BRIEF, get right to the point.  Write it last!

Note: the answer to "WHY" is the heart of each essay. That is, logic and evidence, not position on the issue, is the key factor. Try to think of arguments FOR & AGAINST your position, and state why those FOR it are more persuasive. To answer the why part you need to pull your own assessment out of what you have read. The answer is not "in the book on  page xxx," rather, it is in your interpretation what you read. That is, these are thought questions, NOT research questions.

GENERAL: Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart is a novel about what an advanced horticultural society in west Africa, the Ibo (sometimes spelled Igbo). It describes their life and the disruption of their society due to the arrival of British colonial powers in the late nineteenth century. The novel is somewhat vague about the time because Achebe sought to convey the tremendous impact of colonization on African societies and wanted his novel to be general enough to apply to more than the Igbo case. The following topics ask you to reflect on the sociology of what happened and why. You MAY find Sanderson & Alderson's discussions of colonialism in Chapter 9 helpful. You can also compare and contrast events in Things Fall Apart with the descriptions of the arrival of Spaniards in The Ohlone Way. Do NOT repeat the above information. Start right in on your answer.

Topic A: Some people argue that while colonization may have been harmful at times, it generally benefits people in the long run. If you accept that the portrayal of events in Things Fall Apart is accurate, how would you respond to this argument? Is it appropriate for members of a more complex society to decide what is good "in the long run" for members of less complex societies and force them to accept change? Or, is all the religion and "good for them in the long run" merely a cover-up for a much more insidious economic agenda?

Topic B: Analyze the events portrayed in Things Fall Apart in terms of colonization. How do Umuofians resist incorporation into the British empire? Which forms of resistance work and which do NOT work? WHY? What degree of resistance is possible? Why did they not simply begin to trade palm oil, or other goods, and leave their religion alone? Would the end result have been any different if trade rather than religion had been the first type of contact and colonization? Why or why NOT?

Topic C:  Analyze the role of religion, an ideology, and hence a type of information, in the incorporation of Umuofia into the British dominated world-system. Are the events that happen a result of the content or the form of the religion? [One way to think about this is, would the story have been different if the missionaries had been Islamic or Buddhist?]. Why are missionaries able to work in Umuofia? How do the people resist? Is the harm that is done to Umuofians [define and explain what is harm] avoidable? How & Why or Why NOT? 
 
Send comments or questions to thall@depauw.edu
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