How To Develop Strong Arguments In Anthropology Essays

Many weak anthropology essays exist because they are too descriptive. A good example would be a student who writes fifteen pages or more of an anthropology essay explaining how a certain community in the Andes or a certain fishing village organizes for labor or explains their system of inheritance. After the reader finishes the long essay, the professor often writes ‘so what?’ on one side of the grading scale, giving the student a B-minus grade.

Description is where we begin to do anthropology. It is not where we end an essay.

A strong argument is one that interprets evidence in order to arrive at a conclusion that the reader would not have arrived at had they read the ethnography on their own. Therefore, a good anthropology essay goes beyond simple description of data provided in an ethnography.

Start With A Question That Can Be Answered Two Ways

A good argument exists within a space of real disagreement. The weak argument is the one that asserts a fact that everyone agrees with already.

This is how one could rephrase the opening to make it stronger: “Mauss treats gift exchange as a moral obligation, but the Trobriand material suggests it functions just as often as a tool for political rivalry.” Now there is something to defend.

Write the question first and then answer it. The best questions are how, why, or to what extent something is the case. Most “what” questions result in summary.

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Choose A Theoretical Lens And Commit To It

Anthropology has many theoretical frameworks within which one can approach a problem. There are, for example, the structuralist approaches of Lévi-Strauss and others, practice theory, political economy, interpretive anthropology, feminist approaches and postcolonial critique.

These approaches are often mistakenly included in an essay in an attempt to provide a complete study of the subject under review. The result is a collage or pastiche, in which the student appears to be unable to make a decision.

Pick one primary lens to organize your evidence with. Then, bring in a second thinker that might provide some sort of contradiction or added complexity. As I mentioned earlier, Clifford Geertz and Talal Asad present two vastly different ways of looking at culture and would create a wonderful argument for a paper on the subject of culture. However, to include both Geertz and Asad in a paragraph without addressing the contradictions between the two would serve no purpose in the essay.

Let Ethnographic Evidence Carry The Weight

Anthropology is an evidence-based discipline and so in the end all claims are going to be judged on the basis of specifics. So “many cultures” is pretty much always going to be a red flag for a terrible thesis statement. You want to be able to talk about a specific case: a village, a year, a researcher, etc. and then say something about that case that will be surprising to your reader.

This is to remind you of the standards of evidence for arguments about anthropology that have been argued out for decades, such as the interpretation of Margaret Mead’s Samoan work. How did the claims of Derek Freeman, for example, succeed or fail? Not on the basis of his rhetoric, I am sure.

When using sources in your paper, do not simply include quotes and then continue on to another point. Explain what the selected quote is trying to convey and why you chose to use it in the first place. Connect the quote back to your argument. This is the most common form of a ‘quote sandwich’ in weak anthropology essays.

Watch For The Generalization Trap

Be careful with generalizations such as “in African societies” or “indigenous peoples believe”. The large variety of human cultures has been studied for a century by anthropologists and it would be most unfair to contribute to new stereotypes. We urge you to read carefully the ethics statement of the American Anthropological Association with respect to representing human cultures and to apply it to your essays as well.

Take The Counterargument Seriously

It is not enough to identify some strength and then move on to the next thing. The good writer will identify the strength of opposing arguments and then use that to better his or her own arguments.

At first glance this may seem to be a very high-risk strategy; but in reality it reveals your greatest strengths as a researcher – that you have carried out wide reading on the topic, that you have given great amount of thought to it, and that you are not naive enough to believe that there are no opposing views to your own.

Even if you develop an argument that concludes that it are the economic needs of a community that primarily determine its kinship structures, it is wise to acknowledge the contributions of other scholars, whose analyses of the same data reach different conclusions regarding the significance of symbolism and/or ritual in these structures.

Build The Structure Around The Argument

An anthropology essay is not a travelogue to far-off lands. Each paragraph must move your argument forward.

The only way to really test this is to read the first sentence of each paragraph. If these form a coherent chain then the rest of the paragraph will too.

Purdue OWL is an excellent resource that includes guidelines for topic sentences and paragraph unity that would even benefit more advanced students to read.

Here are a few habits that sharpen structure:

• State your thesis in the introduction and restate it in a different form near the end of your essay.
• Open each body paragraph with a claim, not a topic label.
• End with a comment that ties all the evidence back to your question.
• Cut any paragraph that only summarizes a source.

Check Your Own Assumptions

Reflexivity – a search for how one’s own life experiences can influence your interpretation of other people’s – is demanded by the study of anthropology.

Ask yourself the following questions before you submit your essay:

1. Am I imposing a category that the community itself wouldn’t recognize?
2. Whose voice is missing from my sources?
3. Would a researcher from the community I’m describing agree with my reading?

You might not be able to give a fully satisfactory answer to these questions, but acknowledging their presence and dealing with them is sufficient to demonstrate analytical maturity.

Revise For Argument, Not Just Grammar

Most students spend time polishing their writing in the final stages of revision instead of delving deeper into their argument to see where it holds up. Printing out your essay and underlining your thesis would be a good place to start. Then read through the evidence you have provided to see where it actually supports your arguments and where you have ‘drifted’.

The drifting spots are your revision targets.

In short, solid anthropology arguments are rarely the most outspoken; they just hold up well in discussion. To that end, one just needs to include relevant evidence, use the right ‘lens’, and show due respect to opposing views.