Anthropology outlines:
Movement across boundaries and borders
Interactions among different groups of ppl (not jst within them)
New forms of coherence- new ways of constituting similarity n difference
New forms of persons, embedded in relations with others- one doesn’t come out as a person but as a human being until one is embedded in cultural system
We are not living in cultural systems that bounded units where cultures are understood to be identical among the ppl communicate with all the time n where our interactions with ppl with face to face. – i.e. no text, Skype or whatever via tech
We are not bounded communities
We don’t communicate only with those with same cultural background but with different cultural systems- i.e. multi-culture
What is globalization?
We constantly bombarded with culture, symbols, people and language to name a few which don’t make sense but highlight the very meaning of the globe
The globe: there’s always a value in something we used to
– The world works with Europe domination
– We take for granted the ‘Age of imperialism’: we jst think about the globe
– There’s covalent with people and cultures or ways of life i.e. power and languages
Is globalization bad or good? : Why?
Bad (anti-globalization) : – destroys culture, imperialism, terrorisms, loss of quality one’s cultural/traditional effect
Effects of globalization- global connection
-painful adjustment
-global citizens on the move
-criminal tendencies
-no quick fix
-identity crisis
-states of uncertainty
-strain within the family
-freedom without responsibility
-rebuilding war-torn societies
Good: – development, anti-poverty movements, global health initiatives, multiculturalism
-medicine
Globalization is a regular analysis coz we still learn and living it
Anthropology is committed to local communities:
Rights, identity and culture are all part of globalization
Mobility of cultural systems within and out of the local boundaries
Globalization is something that we need to explain and how we use words (e.g. globalisation) to capture ‘newness’ of today. It refers to many different processes at the same time
Globalisation: partly a question a new kind of circulations i.e. gifts and commodities as forms of circulation
-new forms of coherence:
-does not erase difference (main argument) not margining any form of such but produces new dynamics that sustain difference and enable the ongoing reproduction of difference (doesn’t make the world all the same- decide is it good/bad?)
Modernity (used to discuss globalization)
-what is modernity
-how does it structure concepts of the person
-how do people around the world become ‘modern’
-what are alternative and/or parallel forms of modernity around the globe?
*the categories/oppositions we associate with modernity are not natural. They are formed thru the ongoing production and reproduction of modernity as a social, cultural and ideological system
*Globalisation is partly a process of the ongoing re-constitution of the categories of modernity
ANTH1002: Lecture 2
Claude levi-Strauss (anthropologist): “there’s nothing to be done about it: civilization is no longer a fragile flower, to be carefully preserved and reared with great difficulty here and there in sheltered corners of a territory rich in natural resources: too rich , almost for was an element of menace in their vitality; yet they allowed fresh life and variety into our cultivations. All that is over: humanity has taken to monoculture, once and for all, and is preparing to produce civilization in bulk, as if it were suger-beet. The same dish will be served to us every day” (1973 <1951>, 38).
Claude main message is that every society on earth is a system onto itself.
-each culture is an expression a fundamental of human possibility
-culture as pattern
-tropics- a lof of change and so is the world humanity is taken to monoculture; i.e. the Polynesian have been smothered in concrete and turned into aircraft carriers, the whole of Asia is starting to look like a dingy suburb, the first thing we see as we travel round the world is (the West’s) own filth, thrown in the face of mankind
-Claude is a great example of class anthropology: understanding human behaviour
– society is a whole which is greater that then sum of its parts
-the parts of a social system fit together in functional ways
-societies have boundaries and order
-the purpose of anthropology is to explain why a social system stays the same and remains intact.
But: Everything changes and nothing stands still. You cannot step into the same river twice
-There’s a limit to every society’s life-the world is always changing/moving
Classical anthropology has always been haunted by melancholy. The anthropologist was one who observed “a world on the wane”
-N.Amercian anthropology began as ‘salvage ethnography’ of Native Americans
-British social anthropology was used by colonial administrations to govern native societies
-Australian anthropology viewed indigenous societies as “dying” cultures.
*classical anthropology: producing knowledge about sth that is going to change (world on the wing)
Ethnocentric map- assumes that the culture of the Europe and US are standard and everybody have to compare to them
Classical- culture change or fading away
Mardi gras made in china: David Redmon’s punchy documentary critique of globalization.
-Mardi gras is made in china, American tradition and celebrated around the world
-Beads are made in china- shipped to everywhere for mardigras
-workers never refused working
-some may stop working coz of punishment
-get paid for what they accomplished
-15hrs is more money
-designed to spark informed debate about exploitative aspects of globalization
Good Hair: hair is exported from around the world (mostly India) to celebrities to look good
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