Contemporary Global Trends

1
Contemporary Global Trends
2
Objectives

• What changes are affecting the world today in
  terms of
• Environment
• Demography
• Technology
• Economy
• Politics
• Ethnicity
• Religion

3
The Global Village

• Since humans developed culture, weve moved
  toward globalization.
• We live in a world in which all regions are in
  contact with one another through the mass media,
  instantaneous communication, and highly
  integrated economic and political networks.

4
Environmental Trends

• Non-industrial societies depleted the environment
  by slash-and-burn horticulture, overgrazing, soil
  erosion, and species extinction.
• Industrialized societies have far more ways to
  kill the environment
• Mechanized Agriculture
• Agribusiness
• Green Revolution
• Genetic engineering
• Air Pollution
• Ozone depletion
• Acid rain
• Global warming/greenhouse effect

5
Population Trends

• Demographic-transitional
• model
• Applied
• Palaeolithic 10 million
• 2000 A.D. over 6 billion
• 2050 A.D. 10.2 billion?
• However, the U.S. population is only growing at
  0.7, and some countries are shrinking
• Western society has achieved ZPG (zero population
  growth) people just replacing themselves
• One-Child policy in China

6
Technological Change

• Energy consumption
• 1987 U.S. using 2 billion tons of coal per
  year, USSR close behind with 1.8 billion
• 1997 U.S., Russia, China leading producers and
  consumers of energy
• 1997 U.S. (5 of world population) using 26 of
  world energy consumption
• Peak level of oil production 2037 A.D.
• Loss of biodiversity
• 30 to 100 million species exist, 50 in
  rainforests ( 250K flowering plants, 800K
  lower-plant, 1.5 million animals)
• At least one species goes extinct every day,
  projected at 12

7
Pessimists vs. Optimists

• Pessimists
• Doomsday Model
• aka Neo-Malthusian approach
• Series of ecological distasters will wipe out
  humans as a species around 2070
• Optimists
• Think that population growth is tabling and
  people are solving pollution problems
• aka logic-of-growth model
• Food production increasing, cost decreasing
• Energy crisis will mean finding alternative
  solutions
• Human ingenuity will solve the worlds problems

Thos. Malthus
8
Pessimists vs. Optimists

• Optimists underestimate repercussions of
  technological developments like agriculture.
• Feel the Green Revolution is a good thing, deny
  neo-Malthusian ideas of food shortages
• Pessimists underestimate human ingenuity.
• Point out that the Green Revolution led to
  increased grain yields that go to feeding animals
  raised for meat.
• Anthropology can help assess causes of changes in
  the world and help develop policies based on
  links between local practice and global processes.

9
Case Studies

• Green Revolution in Shahidpur, India
• One village switched from subsistence to
  mechanized agriculture, and anthropologist Murray
  Leaf documented it.
• Switch proved economically advantageous.
• Conservation of Wood in Haiti
• Deforestation is a major problem for peasant
  farmers.
• Murray found that peasants feared theyd lose
  land, livelihood if forests were replanted.
• Murray was invited to offer a solution he came
  up with the introduction of fast-growing hardwoods

Farmers India (above) and Haiti (below)
10
Global Solutions

• June 1992
• Earth Summit in Rio de Janiero, Brazil
• Issues environment, climate change, population
  growth, deforestation, loss of biodiversity,
  air/water pollution
• December 1997
• Kyoto Summit organized by OECD
• Agreement endorsed by 110 countries
• 2001 Bush pulls U.S. out of Summit agreement
  citing looser restrictions on developing
  countries
• Sustainability Model
• Opposed to the logic-of-growth model
• Countries are adopting the model, but change
  needs to come at a global level.

People in South Africa protest Bushs withdrawl
from the Earth Summit
11
Economic Trends

• Review core/peripheral/semi-peripheral
• Multinational Corporations
• Promote spread of technical and cultural
  knowledge
• Reorganized production, might eventually manage
  global affairs
• Positives capital and jobs
• Negatives inhibits self-sufficiency, diverse
  economy ( neo-colonialism?)
• Case Study Western Samoa
• Low leasing/royalties
• Large employer, but only a shift of labor
• Peasants had no fall-back plan

House in Western Samoa
12
Economic Trends
Michail Gorbachev Boris
Yeltsin Vladimir Putin

• Socialist Changes
• Marvin Harris takes a cultural materialist
  approach infrastructure undermined the fabric of
  society
• Soviet Union
• Gorbachev perestroika and glasnost
• Imported western multinational corporations
• Yeltsin attempted to further Gorbys ideas

13
Economic Trends

• Eastern Europe
• Fall of Berlin Wall, rise of Lech Walesa
• Gender roles becoming patriarchal again
• Future of these societies cant be predicted
• China
• Promotes economic change, not political reform
• Cultural Revolution, Tiananman Square 1989
• Vietnam
• Doi moi economic reforms
• Struggle between conservatives and reformers

Berlin Wall Lech Walesa Tiananmen Square
14
Changes in Core Societies

• U.S.
• Exports 1/5 of industrial production
• No longer totally dominates world
• economy
• Trade deficit, largest foreign debt
• Japan
• Imperialism in Asia ( cause of WWII)
• By 1960s, with US aid, Japan became a leading
  exporter
• Changes in NICs (newly industrializing countries)
• From peripheral to semi-peripheral status
• Largely compete with Japan as former colonies
• Japan and the U.S. helped motivate capitalist
  economies

15
Political Trends

• European Union (15 countries)
• 1999 adopted the Euro as currency
• Covers 1.2 million square miles
• 375 million people speaking 11 languages
• Europeans no longer need passports
• United Nations
• Important role in the future?
• Nation-State
• Fragmenting along ethnic lines
• Larger political organization and processes coming

16
Ethnic Trends

• Globalization processes, multinational
  corporations contribute to ethnic tensions and
  conflicts
• People dont think government cares about
  individuals
• Ethnonationalism as a reaction to global
  processes (Québécois, Scots)
• Ethnic group is a refuge from globalization

17
Religion and Secularization

• Secularization religion becomes a private
  affair in industrial societies
• Persistence of religion
• Marx predicted religion would disappear, but it
  hasnt
• Religious leaders emphasize cultural values,
  often of an ethnic group
• Revival because of secularization (fundamentalist
  movements)
• Helps people feel a sense of power over their
  lives in the face of global processes they cant
  control