is the course if you don’t know anything about anthropology don’t write this.
Observe a conversation between two of your friends or family members – these two informants should be of different gender identities and/or sexual orientations. That could mean one heterosexual male and one heterosexual female or it could mean one transgender self-identified female and one heterosexual male or vice versa – you get what I am saying. The conversation should last at least 15 minutes.
From an anthropological perspective, analyze the conversation that addresses the following research question – is there evidence in the language and communication styles of different genders to suggest cultural behaviors in the primary culture? That is, are there differences in the way different genders communicate that indicates one gender is dominate over the other or oppressed or that they are treated exactly equally?
Provide a word for word transcript of the conversation.
Identify elements of the conversation like tag questions.
Analyze the conversation in the following way:
Provide statistical analysis of the conversation. For example, does one interrupt the other more? How frequently? Let’s say the male interrupted the female 4 times out of the 10 statements the female made. That would be (4/10 = 0.40 or 40%) 40% of the time. That’s a statistical statement and analysis. How many tag questions were used? Statistics? What about filler words like uh or um?
Are they both engaging in direct eye contact?
How does their body language differ?
What are the differences in the way they speak? For example, does one of the two use what could be identified as more cooperative, inclusive language while the other uses words or phrases that are not as inclusive?
Provide an interpretation for your observations.
Compare your observations with information you find about conversation styles from a culture outside of your primary culture – for most of you this means from outside the US.
Discuss the similarities and differences, and how each might impact cultural behavior.
Provide references and cite those references in-text
