Anthropology
254a
Instructions
and Question Bank for the Final Examination
The examination will ask you to write
four brief essays. The essay
questions will be drawn from the following list. At the examination, I will select and
present you with six of these questions, from which you will select and
answer four.
Your
essays will be graded on the points that you make, on the quality of the
evidence that you offer in support of your points, and on the way in which you
express your argument. I am
particularly interested in the ways in which you can integrate the readings,
lectures, and videos of the course in addressing these questions. This is an opportunity to demonstrate
the reading and thinking you have done about the full range of course
materials\sessions, reading assignments, and the videos. Aim to support your general statements
with specific illustrations. And by
making the questions available in advance, I expect you to answer with
thoughtful essays and not just random lists of points.
Please note the following about the examination:
1. You
will have 2 1/2 hours to complete your examination. Each question will be weighted equally,
so allow about one-half hour per answer. Use the additional half hour for getting
yourself going at the outset and for reviewing and proofreading at the end.
2. No
notes, books, or other materials may be used during the examination period.
3. Please
write your examination on ruled 8 1/2" x 11" paper. There may be some paper at the
examination, but it will be most helpful if you bring your own supply.
4. A note on
referencing in your exam responses.
I do not need or expect full references of names and titles; just give
me enough so that I recognize your example (e.g., gRohlen on Kobe high
schools,h gNoriko video,h gBumiller book,h glecture on
traditionh)
I and the TAs will be available to meet with you before the examination to clarify any issues, by appointment.
Anthro 254a: Final Exam Question
Bank for Fall Term, 2006
1. Throughout
this course I have employed the concepts of gmainstream consciousnessh and
gstructured diversity.h How have
you come to understand these concepts as they apply to Japan (e.g., how would
you explain them to a friend who has not taken the course)? What examples from course readings and
documentaries might you give to illustrate your explanation?
2. To what extent and in what particular
ways do you think the life experience and attitudes of Mariko Tanaka, as
profiled by Elisabeth Bumiller, are (and are not) representative of
contemporary Japan as you have come to understand it through this course?
3. What
do you find to be some of the important differences between the conditions and
organization of work in large companies versus work conditions and organization
in the medium and small workplaces of contemporary Japan? How are these illustrated by cases and
characters you have encountered in course lectures, readings, and videos?
4. Given
the lectures, readings, and videos of this course, how would you characterize
women's roles and gender relations in present-day Japanese society? Is women's
position a matter of gpublic discrimination, but private powerh? Do you agree with Ogasawarafs argument
about the power of the Tôzai Bank OLs?
What do you think are the prospects for and directions of change in the
future?
5. How
would you characterize postwar patterns of family form and formation? What are some of the connections between
family and work in contemporary Japan?
Be sure to illustrate your argument with examples from course materials,
including both readings and documentaries.
6. What
do you now understand to be the principal aims of Japanese schooling at the
primary, secondary, and tertiary levels?
To what extent and in what ways would you say that the entrance
examinations for high school and for college drive the educational system of
contemporary Japanese society? How
do the pedagogy and experiences at the other levels of education reinforce and/or
contradict the demands of exam performance?
7. What does the experience of Brazilians in Japan teach us the position of minorities in Japan. Explain how Roth uses the concept of "structural marginalization" in his work.
8. The
documentary filmmaker Kim Longinotto has given us both gDream Girlsh and gGAEA
Girls.h What are some of the
important lessons of these documentaries about gender, mass culture, and other
topics of contemporary Japan?@How might
they connect with other materials we have encountered in the course?
9. This
course takes its title from the premise that contemporary Japan should be
thought of as fully but distinctively modern. How have you come to understand this to
be so? What areas of life, in
particular, do you think have developed in ways alternative to Western\or at
least U.S.\forms of modernity?