{"id":1125,"date":"2016-10-28T00:28:00","date_gmt":"2016-10-28T04:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techrhet.com\/3310\/?page_id=1125"},"modified":"2016-11-21T15:36:13","modified_gmt":"2016-11-21T20:36:13","slug":"essay-2-cultural-artifact","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/techrhet.com\/3310\/essay-2-cultural-artifact\/","title":{"rendered":"Essay 2: Cultural Artifact"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This is an artifact and that was a relic. This is alive in the now, whereas that merely remained<\/em>.<\/div>\n
~ Philip K. Dick, The Man in the High Castle<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Love is the invention of a few high cultures, independent, in a sense, of marriage\u2014although society can make it a prerequisite for marriage, as we periodically attempt to do. But in terms of a personal, highly intense choice, it is a cultural artifact.<\/div>\n
~ Margaret Mead, The New York Times<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The Moon Pie is a bedrock of the country store and rural tradition. It is more than a snack. It is a cultural artifact.<\/div>\n
~ William E. Schmidt, The New York Times<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Overview:<\/h6>\n

Write a 3-4 page* expository essay that considers the reciprocal relationship between culture and an artifact of your choosing. In your essay, you must discuss not only what the artifact communicates, but also, how the artifact communicates AND you must address how the artifact shapes and is shaped by culture. Ultimately, you will make a claim about how the artifact operates\u2014as an expression of cultural experience, as an agent which might affect culture, and as an act of rhetoric.<\/p>\n

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Update 11\/21 | While this was already a part of the essay requirements, what’s below might help to clarify:<\/div>\n
In your cultural artifact essay, you should:<\/div>\n
Discuss how the artifact is a product of<\/em> culture and how the artifact produces<\/em> culture<\/div>\n
In other words:<\/div>\n
1) How does culture shape the artifact<\/em>? and,<\/div>\n
2) How does the artifact shape the culture<\/em>?<\/div>\n
Discuss not only what<\/em> the artifact communicates, but also how<\/em> it communicates<\/div>\n
In other words:<\/div>\n
1) What<\/em> does the artifact communicate about the culture in which it is embedded? and<\/div>\n
2) How<\/em> does the artifact communicate within the culture?<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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While your essay need not be argumentative per se, it can simply suggest (or, argue implicitly,) that your artifact is important, interesting, or otherwise worth paying attention to.<\/p>\n

Artifact Criteria:<\/h6>\n

Anything can be an artifact, which is wonderful and awful. It\u2019s wonderful because artifacts are found all around us; it\u2019s awful because that also means you need to see the world around us as an object for analysis.<\/p>\n