Problem 1: How can people begin to understand beliefs and behaviors that are different from their own?

Required Essay Assignment:  The Shopping Mall

You’ve been hired by Paco Underhill to explore the extent to which stores in Plattsburgh might make use of his services and to convince them that anthropology can assist them in improving their sales..  Your task is to survey a local shopping mall, and examine the organization of time and space, and the pattern of social relations and suggest ways that it could be improved to better appeal to shoppers.  Your research report should encompass at least 3 stages.

• First, Your introduction need to explain to future clients how anthropology and the concepts that it uses to understand human behavior can help them sell things.
• Second, based on your readings in anthropology up to this point, what are some of the features of the shopping environment that might be improved?  For example, if you examine the mall as a cultural text, what are some of the significant symbols and rituals that characterize the culture of the mall.
• Third, what specific suggestions might you make to mall officials for improving the culture of the mall?

You will need to carefully read, not only the text and readings, but also the case study at the end of chapter one on retail anthropology and try to extend the methods and ideas developed by Underhill to your analysis of the shopping mall.