Arapaho | Apache | Cherokee |
Choctaw | Navajo | Ojibwe |
Sioux | Oneida | Mohawk |
Lakota | Iroquois | Hopi |
Omaha | Comanche | Huron |
Blackfeet | Pawnee | Ponca |
Seminole | Pontiac | Creek |
Shawnee | Ottowa |
SOC 100B: Sociology of Everyday Life Fall, 2021
Instructor: Dr. Jackie Burnside Name ________________
Data Workshop: Sociological Imagination* and a Timeline (10%)
Due: September 15th (Wed)
Introduction: The task of Sociology, and its “promise”, as sociologist C. Wright Mills explained, is to help humans understand “the intersection between biography and history” (Ferris and Stein, 12). By developing our sociological imagination, we can see links between our personal troubles (micro-level) and the larger social forces (macro-level) that influence our lives. For instance, sociologist W.E.B. DuBois’ concept of double consciousness described the dual-identification racial minorities encountered living in America in the 19th and 20th centuries (Ferris and Stein, 233).
Purpose: This assignment directs students to develop a timeline that identifies societal factors that affect one’s personal life (micro-level of family and friends) and their wider community (meso level of neighborhoods, schools/clubs & groups, religious and civil organizations) and the social world (macro-level of state/region/nation).
Directions: Choose time periods most relevant in your personal biography with your families’ experiences across two to four generations, if possible, about 40 to 100 years.
pursuit of sovereignty | land rights activism | climate change activism |
artifacts | burial mounds | commercialization and appropriation of Indigenous art |
kinship | language | coming-of-age rituals |
holidays/traditions | food | education |
folktales/creation stories | religion/spirituality | attire |
music | art/crafts | social organization |
Ethnic Newswatch is a great place to search because it includes newspapers, magazines, and scholarly journal articles written by the actual Native American tribes you are researching.
We also have an online database of electronic encyclopedias, called Gale Virtual Reference, which you can search below:
We have print encyclopedias, listed below, which you can find in the Reference Area on the main floor of Hutchins.
We have many print books, including children's books, related to Native American culture:
Functionalism: A theoretical perspective based on the notion that social events can best be explained in terms of the functions they perform – that is, the contributions they make to the continuity of a society.
Conflict: A theory which argues that deviance is deliberately chosen and often political in nature.
Symbolic Interactionism: A theoretical approach in sociology developed by George Herbert Mead, which emphasizes the roles of symbols and language as core elements of all human interaction.
Rational Choice: More broadly, the theory that an individual’s behavior is purposive. Within the field of criminology, rational choice analysis argues that deviant behavior is a rational response to a specific social situation.
Feminist: A sociological perspective that emphasizes the centrality of gender in analyzing the social world and particularly the uniqueness of the experience of women. There are many strands of feminist theory, but they all share the desire to explain gender inequalities in society and to work to overcome them.
Works Cited:
Giddens, Anthony. Essentials of Sociology. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2008. Print.