380 Student Discussion Questions - Week 2
Anthropology and Human Rights
(Messer 1993):
Messer sees a consensus within anthropology on the cultural relativism of Human Rights and examines how different regional and cultural perspectives differ in the notion of individuals’ human rights and inherent personhood attributed from the West. How can anthropology encourage institutions and influential social actors to promote mechanisms for a
universal and non-arbitrary protection of human rights within their culturally specific views?
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In the Religious Perspectives section Messer writes, "[one] way to approach comparative religious studies is to consider the UN human rights framework to be the particular expression of secular humanists, against which other religious perspectives can be compared" (page 232).
In general, is the UN human rights framework a sort of non-religious default setting, providing the basis for human rights discourse? Do you think Messer's description of the UN human rights framework is accurate?
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Discussing state and legal systems, Messer uses the terms "multinational states" and "stateless nations" (page 240; the last sentence before the conclusion). What do these terms mean? What peoples or regions reflect them?
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Why strive to develop and enforce universal human rights when, according to Messer’s article, compliance with the rights is determined based on international, national, religious, and local interpretations? ***
Sociology & HR - Hynes et al (2010):
What are your thoughts on “the argument that sociology neglected human rights due to the legacy of the founding theorists may have been somewhat exaggerated, and the reasons for neglect in the post-
war period are more complex as we have already indicated” (p.814)? Why?
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In what ways does Woodiwiss' perspective that the individual and the social are mutually important through the construction of rights challenge traditional sociological views that prioritize the individual over the social?
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