Morgan Winkworth
SOST 200
10/3/06
NCSS Standard(s) Addressed: I. Culture & Cultural Diversity
Performance Expectation: c. Explain and Give examples of how language, literature, the arts, architecture, other artifacts, traditions, beliefs, values, and behaviors contribute to the development and transmission of culture.
Results/Expected Learning Outcomes:
1. The students will become familiar with the self-inflicted human physical traditions of various cultures (scarification, tattooing, piercing) and the cultural meanings behind them.
2. The students will view photographs and read case studies regarding the various cultures discussed and their contemporary use of body alteration.
3. The students will examine American culture, and sub-cultures, and identify possible similarities between the body-altering traditions across cultures.
4. Students will be able to identify the cultural significance of physical alteration.
Evaluation:
1. Students will present, in small groups, a summary of the body-altering traditions of one of three cultures including who participates, at what point in their lives they participate and why the act is culturally significant.
2. Students will analyze physical alterations that occur in American culture and identify one that relates to the tradition of their assigned cultural group. Students will then share their findings with the class.
3. Students will be assigned to consider/observe physical alterations among Americans over the next day and write a paragraph identifying one tradition (excluding items discussed in class) and what the cultural significance of that tradition might be.
Curriculum:
This lesson would fit into a World Geography class at possibly the 9th, 10th, or 11th grade level. It would serve as an introduction to the study of world cultures and regions with an introductory emphasis on cultural perspective and relativity.
Instruction:
1. Teacher will show images of the Maori of New Zealand and their facial Moko, the Karo tribe of southern Ethiopia and their lip-plates, and the men of the Sepik region of Papua New Guinea and their body scarification. Initiate discussion pertaining to possible reasons for such body alteration. Where are these people from? Why would they change their bodies like they have?
2. Teacher will briefly discuss the stories behind the pictures (who? where? when?) and then split class into small groups, giving each group one of the three case studies to read over. Have class consider the more in depth who? (women? men? what age?), what? (what is altered? how is it done?), why? (reason for alteration? beauty? initiation? cultural reasons?).
3. Teacher will then have students present their findings with different groups alternating facts concerning shared topics/cultures allowing room for questions and a little discussion.
4. Teacher will then have students get back into groups and analyze body alteration in American culture with the intent of identifying one American tradition that is similar to the tradition of their assigned cultural group. Class can consider reason behind their specific American-style body alteration as they did previously and draw similarities and differences between the two cultures.
5. Students will then share their findings in similar manner as previously done, with emphasis on reason for American body-alteration.
6. Homework assignment will be to consider/observe other American body altering practices (excluding topics discussed in class) and write a paragraph describing the practice and speculating about its cultural significance.
Discussion Questions:
1. What are some reasons people may physically alter their appearance? Reasons you (the student) may have altered your appearance?
2. What role does appearance play in reflecting your identity in America? In other countries?
3. Are beauty and attractiveness universal?
4. Who determines what is considered “attractive?”
5. What seems more justifiable; body alteration for beauty, or body alteration for tradition and culture? Can one be more justified than the other?
Karo woman with lip-plate (southern Ethiopia)
Men with back scarification (Sepik region of Papua New Guinea)
Maori man with Moko, facial tattoo (New Zealand)
Maori woman with female Moko, facial tattoo (New Zealand)
