School of Information Management & Systems.   Fall 2003.
142   Access to American Cultural Heritages.   M. Buckland.

Assignment 12:   Two Simple Questions. Due Tuesday Dec 2.

As a result of the discussion in class on Wednesday Nov 26, there will be no class and no inclass exam on Monday Dec 1. Instead, each student is required to write a single paragraph on each of the following two questions:

1. What does it mean to be an American?
    Explanatory comment: The American Cultures Requirement is defined by a focus on the "analytical and comparative" study of at least three of the Big Five ethnic groups in the U.S.A.: African American; Asian American; European American; Hispanic American; and Native American. There are some problems with this formulation:
    First, ethnicity is seen in isolation, as phenomenon existing only in one country, the United States of America, not elsewhere, so there is no basis for international comparison, on how the situation is the same here as elsewhere or different;
    Second, the attention is, by definition and in practice, on subsets of the population and how they differ from each other, including how smaller subsets differ (e.g. among Asian Americans, comparing Chinese Americans' cultural heritage with, say, Indian Americans'.) How could it be otherwise? So how come so little is said about the whole: The U.S. cultural heritage. Yet any foreigner will tell you that Americans have a recognizably different culture from, say, Germans or Afghans or Nigerians or the Japanese.
    Third, a large and increasing percentage of the citizens of the U.S. simply don't fit into the Big Five categorization, but have a blended heritage.
    This is divisive, inward-looking, and unrealistic. So write a paragraph describing or explaining or characterizing U.S. cultural heritage and/or commenting on the difficulties (if any) of understanding what it is.

2. What is cultural heritage?
    We have talked and read about cultural heritage all semester. By now you should have formed some understanding of what it is. Provide a single paragraph explaining what you think it is, in your own terms.

Send your two paragraphs as an e-mail note to buckland@sims.berkeley.edu, copied to vivienp@sims.berkeley.edu. Must arrive no later than Tuesday Dec 2.