This unit of study contains certain concepts associated with the topic which students will be expected to understand and use:
Student Vocabulary List
adinkra cloth
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Kings Prempeh I and II
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afena (sword)
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akuduo pot
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afenatene (sword)
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Kumasi, the Ashanti capital
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Akan
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akuaba (doll figure)
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legends and myths
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Ashante (Ashanti)
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Ashanti Wars
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masks, ceremonial and ancestor
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asuman (priest)
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matrilineal
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amulet
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“Mother Earth”
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ancestor spirits
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Asantahene, the Ashanti king
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Nyame (God)
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ceremony
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chief
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okra (the soul)
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clan
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Okomfo Anokye
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cowrie shells (money)
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Opoku Ware (chief)
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culture
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Osei Tutu (chief)
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ethnocentrism
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Queen Mother
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forowa pot
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ritual
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royal stools
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Ghana
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Golden Stool
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Silver Stool
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status
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juju (magic charms)
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sunsum (spirits)
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Kente cloth
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taboo
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kinship
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tribunals
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One primary goal of this teaching unit is to actively involve students in the creative learning process by helping them to develop their powers of observation and by encouraging them to evaluate an “artifact” of their own. I see this as a step-by-step process, beginning with simple observation of familiar objects. I hope to teach my students to observe objects and pictures and do detailed objective descriptions; then to use analytical skills to help them interpret what they are seeing through the eyes of the object’s creator. Through this object analysis, I hope to create an appreciation of the problems the artist had to solve, and an understanding of why he or she created the object in a particular way. In other words, I hope to challenge students to feel an empathy with the Ashanti artist, and by so doing, create in the students a similar feeling for the people of the Ashanti culture.
Where do the Ashanti live? What kind of history do they have? Why are they worth learning about? I will expect students in my course to be able to locate Ashanti territory, identify natural boundaries and landforms, and know about natural and mineral resources. They will become familiar with the rich history and traditions of the Ashanti as a representative West African culture, including an exposure to Ashanti political, economic, religious and social institutions. Students will come to appreciate how intricate and rich West African civilizations are and were.
The primary emphasis of this mini-course is on familiarizing students with Ashanti family life and customs, specifically through coming to understand the use of Ashanti art and artifacts. Students will become familiar with Ashanti betrothal and marriage customs, birthing rituals, and how Ashanti parents instruct their children in Ashanti ways. Students will distinguish between the pastimes of childhood, youth and young adulthood, and learn about the added responsibilities that accompany the privileges of each new stage in life.
I hope that my students will learn to empathize with Ashanti young people who face having to choose between the “old ways” of cultural tradition and the “new ways” of western civilization, and to see the “clash of cultures” as a genuine dilemma in a young person’s life that may help them to confront similar struggles for self-esteem and self-worth in a world of shifting and value systems and rampant materialism. Admittedly these goals are broad and far-reaching. As a teacher of inner-city high school students whose lives are often at risk, I believe social studies courses must try to challenge young people to set worthwhile goals for themselves, despite pressures of circumstance and peer relationships. By role-playing choices others must make, though in a different time and place, some of my students will be faced with the notion that to make responsible choices is to take a step toward a responsible future.