SOC 3040         FALL 2011       WRITING ASSIGNMENT #1   Prof. Ciccantell

BRAZILIAN SOCIETY AS SEEN FROM THE BOTTOM AND FROM THE TOP

This assignment requires you to analyze Brazilian politics, economics, and system of race and ethnicity from two different perspectives, one a poor person and one a member of the wealthy elite, in a 4-5 page (double-spaced) paper worth 40 points DUE IN CLASS ON WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2.

Take the position of a poor person today living in a slum in a Brazilian city or in the Brazilian Amazon. Answer each of the following questions from the perspective of this person, based on materials from the course and your own research (you need fourteen outside sources, in addition to any course readings, videos, or lecture notes).

1. Describe the major characteristics of Brazil’s political system from your perspective. What roles do the poor play in this system, from your perspective?

2. Describe the major characteristics of Brazil’s economy from your perspective. Why is the economy the way that it is, from your perspective?

3. Describe the major characteristics of Brazil’s system of race and ethnicity from your perspective. How does the system of race and ethnicity affect your life?

Now, take the position of a wealthy descendant of one of the fifteen families that were given a captaincy in the early 1500s by the Portuguese king; this wealthy descendant is living in Brazil today. Answer each of these questions.

4. Describe the major characteristics of Brazil’s political system from your perspective. What roles do the wealthy elite play in this system, from your perspective?

5. Describe the major characteristics of Brazil’s economy from your perspective. Why is the economy the way that it is, from your perspective?

6. Describe the major characteristics of Brazil’s system of race and ethnicity from your perspective. How does the system of race and ethnicity affect your life?

From your own perspective and based on what we have learned this semester:

7. How are your answers of the wealthy person different from those of the poor person? Why?

8. How are the Brazilian politics, economy, and system of race and ethnicity similar to and different from those of the United States?

Find fourteen information sources (in addition to the lecture notes, course videos, and course readings) relevant to the questions. Use the library online catalog to find books, academic journal articles, and magazine articles on your topic. Many academic journals and magazines that are not available physically in the library are available free via the full-text article databases on the library catalog. No more than six sources can be web sites; academic journal articles and magazine and newspaper articles that you access via full-text databases are NOT considered web sites, since the original article is from a printed source and therefore do NOT count against the six web site limit.

Patricia Vander Meer at Waldo Library has created a resource page for our class that would be a good starting point for your research: http://libguides.wmich.edu/SOC3040

Make sure to cite the sources of your information in the body of the paper and list your sources in the references section at the end of the paper in the format provided below. Failure to do so will significantly negatively impact your grade.

REFERENCE FORMAT:

Books:

Author(s).         Year.    Title.    City:     Publisher. 

__________.     ____.    ______.             ________:         _________.

Academic Journal, Magazine, and Periodical Articles:

Author(s).         Year.    Title.    Name of Journal: Volume & Page #'s.

__________.     ____.    _______.           _______________:___________.

Web Resources:

Name of the Organization or Person Who Owns the Site. Date you accessed the site. Web location of the site.

_____________. _____. http://____________________________.

5 PT. EXTRA CREDIT OPPORTUNITY (OPTIONAL)

Take the position of a member of the middle class in Brazil and answer EITHER #1 OR #2 from this perspective.