Book Review Guidelines
ANTH 380/Traditional Cultures 
Fall 2007
Dr. Roberts

Format

These reviews are worth 25 points each but once again you must choose 2 of the 3. I will not read three reviews even if you write them. The one on Chagnon's book (The Yanomamo) will be due on October 9th, the one on Lee's book (The Dobe Ju'hoansi) is due on November 8th, and the review of Weiner's book (The Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea) will be due on the day of the final exam, December 11th. Late submissions will be penalized 5 points per day late. These reviews must be typed and double-spaced. Length is not necessarily indicative of quality. Nevertheless,  I’d say it would be difficult to do a credible job in less than 5 pages. If you cite the book verbatim then please insert the citation in quotation marks and place the page number in parentheses afterward; e.g., Barley claims that "[i]t is a common trait of returned fieldworkers, as they stumble around their own culture with the clumsiness of returned astronauts, to be simply uncritically grateful to be a westerner, living in a culture that seems suddenly very precious and vulnerable..." (189-190). If the quote exceeds five lines, although there's really no reason why it should, then it should be single spaced and left indented.

I will not deduct points specifically for mechanical reasons, i.e., for grammar, punctuation, and especially spelling. However, I would hope that you'll take pride in the quality of your writing. A large part of that should involve proofreading before you hand in the final copy. Nothing suggests a hastily written paper like numerous typos. How does that affect my subjective perception of what I am reading? Take a guess!

Substance

Although you need to convince me that you actually read the book, I do not want excessive regurgitation of ethnographic details provided by the authors. After all, I will be asking you questions from the books on the exams! What I do hope to see is a critical review done by you of these books. Please feel free to express your opinion of the book, but these thoughts must have some empirical bases.

As a suggestion your review should try to address the following: 1) How did this book illustrate a particular issue or issues within the context of this course? 2) What patterns did it show that were similar to those identified by King for this particular domain, zonw, and area? 3) What techniques did the author use in examining the primary topic(s) of his/her ethnography? 4) Did you find the book interesting and/or well written? Why/why not? Anything else of relevance is up to you. 

Last of all, try to have fun with it!