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CF 3333 Clash of Cultures

First Essay Assignment

Instructions

1. Your essay is due at 6:30 pm on Tuesday, 27 September. Late papers will be accepted, but will penalized one letter grade for each day after the due date (e.g., B to C). No exceptions to this policy will be granted unless there is a legitimate (documented) excuse. Papers must be handed to your instructor.

2. Your essay should be no more than five pages in length.

3. Pleas follow the instructions found in the “Format for Out-of-Class Papers” in the SourceBook. Review these instructions and the assignment with care.

4. Your essay should open with a “thesis paragraph” which presents the major ideas of your analysis; it should be a summary of that analysis.

5. Define the terms you use. Be sure to explain important terms, concepts, and ideas to support your major points with specific factual and/or documentary evidence (e.g., citations).

Assignment

1. The general topic for this essay is: "More, Morgan, and Private Property."

2. Re-read with care the definitions of civilization, culture, institution, and society in the SourceBook. Also re-read Utopia, Morgan’s “Ancient Society” and “League of the Iroquois” as well as the handout on Corporatism of the Middle Ages.

3. Then compose a coherent, well-focused essay in which you: a) compare the attitude of the two authors on the matter of private property; b) link More’s criticism of the European institutions of his day and his praise of Utopian institutions to the role of private property in both the societies of Utopia and the Europe of his day; c) discuss how the question of private property is treated by Morgan in the criticism he makes of Iroquois institutions; d) note how the concepts of Medieval Corporatism contrast with Morgan’s conclusions.