Making connections: Teaching anthropology of the third world in New Mexico

Abstract

Teaching about women in social-science classes can stimulate interest in both women and the subject matter if students become involved in the issues and begin to consider them from positive perspectives. For classes on the Third World, it is important to raise questions about students' attitudes and values and to elicit their apprehensive and positive feelings about the lives of women outside their own settings. Students need to be given the feeling that positive changes are possible even in what they often perceive as no-win situations. The use of case studies presented by ethnographic films which show women taking charge of situations and using their energies and abilities to solve Third World problems has proved very successful. This strategy also allows students to make connections between their own way of life and that of people in the Third World by illustrating how the economies of the world are tied to one another and how historical events in both areas are related.