In this open-book take-home final essay, explore the connections between Brazil’s colonial history and contemporary manifestations of inequality and resistance among various groups, focusing on racial, ethnic, class, and regional dimensions. Choose at least three of the following sources to analyze how the legacies of colonization, slavery, and imperial policies have influenced current social structures and forms of resistance among Afro-Brazilians, indigenous communities, and different socioeconomic classes across various regions: Patricia Pinho’s studies on cultural identity and tourism, Mary Lorena Kenny’s exploration of quilombo communities, de Almeida and Guarnieri’s examination of social mobility, Junge’s analysis of family and political dynamics, Soares and Baines on Indigenous policies under Bolsonaro’s government, and Brune’s observations on the diasporic heritage of Brazilians in New York. Discuss how these contemporary issues of inequality and resistance connect to, or diverge from, the historical contexts of Brazilian colonialism and its aftermath.
There is no expectation that you will cover everything in the works listed above.
Your paper’s introduction should introduce the key themes and objectives of your paper, as well as its organizational structure. Somewhere in the Intro, include a sentence that begins with the (exact) words, “In this essay, I will…”.
You should also have a conclusion, and it should be substantive (not vacuous or superficial). In it, reflect on how the themes discussed resonate with or contrast to your own experiences and observations of social dynamics, inequality, and resistance in your community or personal life.
Paper Norms
1. Use one-inch margins and Times New Roman font (size 12).
2. Your take-home essay should include a cover page with your name, the date, course, instructor’s names, and the following statement:
All of the writing in this paper is my own original work, except where formal citations have been used.
Signed: [Type Your Name]
3. Number your pages. (The cover page doesn’t get a number; begin numbering on the first page of text; on Word, click the “Insert” menu, then “insert page number,” un-select the “show # on first page” option; and then click “format” and set the first page as “0.”)
4. Include a “Works Cited” section at the end of the essay; see “Citations Guidelines” section below.
5. For citations, you are free to use whatever style you choose – but you must be consistent throughout the paper. If you need a style, use the one provided at the end of this document.
6. Proofread carefully—there should be no spelling or obvious punctuation errors. (This is important.)
Notes on Style
1. Use section titles to label the various components of your paper.
2. Be precise (specific) and concise (to the point) in your writing.
3. When you are writing about the work of scholars we engage in this course, avoid imprecise and colloquial terms such as “says,” “talks about,” and “believes.” (For example, “Marx believes that class conflict shapes the contours of society.”) Instead, use scholarly terms such as “argues,” “proposes,” and “postulates.”
4. Review the difference between “its” and “it’s”: “It’s” should only be used as a replacement for “it is” (for example, “It’s not fair.”) An apostrophe is not appropriate in other usages (for example, “Its causes are uncertain.”)
5. Review the difference between their, there, and they’re. There states a place of being; Their references a form of ownership; They’re is a contraction meaning, “they are”.
6. Do not refer to academic texts or ethnographic monographs as “novels.”
7. Avoid empty verbiage! No need to tell me that a theory or theorist is “famous”.
8. Avoid overreliance on long quotes.
9. Avoid space-filling biographical background.
10. For this paper, the following words and expressions are “off limits”:
a. modern-day (alternatives: contemporary, current, recent, etc.)
b. huge, major, awesome (alternatives: substantial, significant, notable, etc.)
c. famous (alternatives: none! No need to tell me someone was famous)
d. talk about, said, believes (alternatives: asserted, proposed, discussed, considered)
Citation Guidelines
In this essay, you should cite readings from the course and include a list of cited works at the end, for example:
In addressing gender roles in Samoan society, Mead felt ethnography to be “crucial to the core” (Mead, 1934:345).
[End of Paper]
Works Cited
Mead, Margaret (1934) Coming of Age in Samoa, New York: Westview Press
To cite a narrated slideshow presentation, put “(Narrated Slideshow, [SEGMENT X.X])”—where you replace “X.X” with the segment info—in the text and include an entry in the “Works Cited” section at the end.
REMEMBER: No extensions are possible f
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