Extra Credit Options Sociology 31 Introduction Dr. Parker
You can earn up to 10 points toward your final grade by reading any one of the following books and answering the questions.
1) Read “behind the beautiful forevers” by Katherine Boo
- Describe how Abdul adapts to the environment that he finds himself growing up in? How do the social relations and material conditions influence his choices?
- What is Asha’s role in the community? What are her hopes for her daughter?
- Describe the role of the police in the book and how they treated the residents of Annawadi.
- Choose a character from the book and write a 1- 2 page essay about how they changed over time and how the material conditions and social relations influenced their choices.
1) Read Ursula LeQuin’s novel “The Dispossessed”.
- How is the society described on the anarchist planet different from our own?
- What are the pros and cons of this anarchist society compared to our own?
- Would you want to live on Sheveks planet? Why or why not?
- Write a 1 page essay explaining one aspect of the book using one or more of the concepts from the course.
2) Read “The Lemon Tree” by Sandy Tolan.
- What are the primary claims of both the Palestinians and the Israeli Jews?
- Why is it difficult (or maybe impossible) to reconcile the two sets of claims?
- In what ways are the two main characters of the book able to transcend their particular circumstances and in what ways were they not?
- Write a 1 page essay explaining one aspect of the book using one or more of the concepts from the course.
3) Read “Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human” by Richard Wrangham
- How did the act of cooking change the structure of human society?
- What changes in the human brain does the author argue resulting from those changes in structure?
- What are some of the implications of the changes brought about by cooking food rather than eating it raw?
- Write a 1 page essay explaining one aspect of the book using one or more of the concepts from the course.
4) Read “Seeds of Change: Six Seeds that Transformed Mankind” by Henry Hobhouse
- What did each of these plants enable human beings to do that they were unable to do prior?
- Pick two of the plants discussed and describe how they changed the structure of society in a way that changed people’s behavior.
- Pick a third plant and describe what you think would have happened if people had not discovered its uses as the author described them. How would history have changed?
- Write a 1 page essay explaining one aspect of the book using one or more of the concepts from the course.
5) Read “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot.
- Describe the mental models that Henrietta and her doctors have that hindered her getting the best treatment possible.
- Describe the social relations and the material conditions of Baltimore in the 1930’s and 1940’s and how it influenced Henrietta’s life, death and cells.
- Describe the controversy regarding the ownership of Henrietta’s cells.
- Write a 1 page essay explaining one aspect of the book using one or more concepts from the course.
