Essay Assignment

Please answer each of the four questions with at least 100 words in length to qualify for an A. (A little longer is fine, but don’t go overboard! Part of making a good answer is deciding what the most important points are).

1. Re-read the description of women that the textbook quotes from the Malleus Maleficarum (in the section called “women as witches.”). Compare and contrast the description to the way women are presented in the documentary “The Virgin Daughters.” Make at least THREE distinct comparisons AND/OR contrasts, and indicate them with the words first, second, and third.

2. Many of the parents interviewed in “The Virgin Daughters” indicated that they had not been virgins when they got married. Could the new emphasis on purity and efforts to get girls to sign purity pledges be seen as a revitalization movement? To support your answer, evaluate the movement in terms of 1) the definition of revitalization movements provided by the textbook; 2) Anthony Wallace’s model for the common origins of revitalization movements; and 3) the types of revitalization movements listed by the textbook (specifically, whether you think it could be considered a nativistic, revivalistic, millenarian, or messianic movement, or not.)

3. What is the piety movement, in your own words? Please bring together information from “The Light in Her Eyes” documentary, the POV discussion guide that goes with the film, and the Saba Mahmood interview in your answer (and make it clear where your information is coming from by saying this such as, “as Mahmood tells us…, or “in the film…”). (NOTE: all materials are posted in Module 12.)

4. Compare and contrast the models for female empowerment envisioned for girls in the purity movement (i.e. as discussed by the couple who organizes the Colorado Springs purity ball) vs. the model pursued by the preacher Houda in “The Light in Her Eyes.” Please discuss them in an anthropological way — which means respectfully — even if you don’t agree with them. How does each religious leader connect their models to their religions?

MOST OF THE EXAM – AT LEAST 80% — SHOULD BE IN YOUR OWN WORDS, not quoted. Your answers will be checked by turnitin.com and plagiarism (copying from sources without citation, or copying from another student) will lead to a “zero,” and the filing of an academic misconduct report. If you have any questions, let me know. And good luck!