Saturday, February 26, 2011

2D Theory

I have been given the most difficult assignment of my life thus far. I am to analyze the last three books we've read in my soc/antho seminar by creating an annotated map. The books have been A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid, Cosmopolitanism by Kwame Anthony Appiah, and Remotely Global by Charles Piot. All relate to colonialism somehow, but all are very different books. Kincaid's book is about the small island of Antigua, how the British slavers and now tourists have fucked it up and should stay home. Appiah's book is a philosophy book that uses stories about Ghana/England to show there are universal values. Piot's book is an ethnography of the Kabre in Togo, particularly their relational social structures and gift-giving practices.

How exactly am I supposed to map this? I am not particularly artistic nor creative. I think I'm just going to put little pictures of the countries, and lines to show what is moving between the countries (people, ideas, identity, money), and annotate to tell exactly what that means (ex: Antiguan identity was shaped by England to be oppressed and enslaved, whereas Antigua helped shape England's identity as a colonizer and master, roles which are still continued in todays tourism models). Not the most beautiful or profound, but it beats writing a paper. :)

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