Social and Cultural Anthropology subject report

May 2009 extended essay reports Page 1 © International Baccalaureate Organization 2009 SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY Overall grade boundaries Grade: E D C B A Mark range: 0 - 7 8 - 15 16 - 22 23 - 28 29 - 36 The range and suitability of the work submitted As has been true for some years, the majority of essay s lacked an explicit anthropological perspective. This can lead to essays receiving significantly lower marks than those with a specific anthropological focus. Despite warnings in the Extended essay guide itself, and past warning from Chief examiners, it remains clear that ma ny schools continue to permit candidates not enrolled in Social and Cultural Anthropology to write essays in the subject. Further, from comments registered by their supervisors, it is often apparent that the latter are not always realistically evaluating their candidates’ work. The most successful candidates presented topics solidly grounded in anthropological theory. There was for example a strong essay critically applying feminist and postmodernist theory to understanding marriage in a particular ethnogr aphic context; another essay examined linguistic classification and gender relations among low income inner -city residents; another insightfully examined the construction of ethnic identity and resistance to assimilation among the Roma of Serbia. As usual, there were a number of essays focused on “social problems,” including human rights issues. There were several successful essays among these, for example, an essay comparing the underground economies of the urban poor in East Harlem, New York. Another well-designed comparative study explored tensions between structure and agency in two urban ethnographies. Most social problem -oriented essays, however, presented little or nothing of an anthropological perspective, as was generally the case of the essays. Mos t of these essays were marred by prescriptive and usually superficial conclusions. Popular culture as usual drew the attention of some candidates, for example, various genres of music were looked at as “reflections” of society, or as tools of social or cultural change. There were a number of