EXAM ESSAY #2 QUESTION – Women in Chiricahua & Mescalero Apache Religions
(50 pts.)
Your Exam Essay should be, typed, single-spaced, with margins of 1 inch on each side. Put a blank line after each paragraph. Do not include the instructions or the question in the Word file with your essay. Do not quote from the reading assignments. Write everything using your own words.
Your Exam Essay should contain accurate content, be written in grammatical sentences and paragraphs, have an introduction stating a thesis and a conclusion restating the thesis in different words. The Essay should contain no typographical or spelling errors. Since students will be able to consult their reading materials while writing the essay, all non-English words must be spelled correctly. Factual inaccuracies, grammatical errors and misspelled words will diminish the grade of the essay.
Save the Exam Essay as a Word .doc or .docx, and upload it to the SafeAssign icon in Blackboard under Course Material. Save the Word file with the following name:
Lastname-Essay #2-Apaches
SafeAssign checks the Word file for plagiarized content, so make sure that everything in the essay is written in your own words. The instructor will reject an essay containing material copied from other sources. Write your essay in the Word document attached to the SafeAssign link that contains the question only.
Your essay must be uploaded to SafeAssign on Wednesday, June 24, before midnight. A late essay will have 10 pts. deducted from the grade of the essay.
QUESTION
A number of issues impact the status of women in religions⎯ 1) gender roles, 2) marriage and divorce, 3) property rights for women, 4) myths and doctrines about the limitations of the human condition, 5) views of women’s bodies, 6) violence against women, 7a) whether there are women as religious specialists based on charisma and shamanism, 7b) whether there are women as religious specialists based on credentialed leadership and possibly charisma, 8) goddesses and other concepts of the divine, 9) rituals/women’s rituals/rituals that affirm women, 10) whether there is equality for LGBT persons; 11) whether there is movement beyond patriarchy.
Discuss each of these factors in relation to Chiricahua and Mescalero Apache women in their religions and cultures. How are each of these factors present or not present in Chiricahua and Mescalero Apache religions and cultures? Do the predominance of factors in Chiricahua and Mescalero Apache religions and cultures support women’s equality or women’s subordination? Indicate why. What challenges to their well-being and status have Chiricahua and Mescalero Apache women faced in the past? What are the challenges to be dealt with in the present? (20 pts.)
Books: Catherine Wessinger, Theory of Women in Religions. WESSINGER. PDF manuscript on BLACKBOARD.
Claire R. Farrer. Thunder Rides a Black Horse: Mescalero Apaches and the Mythic Present. 3rd edition. Waveland Press, 2011. FARRER. ISBN-978- 1577666998. Paperback, $16.10.
Laura Vance, Women in New Religions.
VANCE. ISBN-978-1-4798-1602-6. Paperback, $15.30; Kindle, $9.99.
Selected chapters from Arvind Sharma, Women in World Religions. SHARMA. PDFs
