Global Challenges, Local Responses, and the Role of Anthropology

1
Chapter 27

• Global Challenges, Local Responses, andthe Role
  of Anthropology

2
Chapter Preview

• What Can Anthropologists Tell Us of the Future?
• What Are the Cultural Trends in Our Globalizing
  World?
• What Problems Must Be Solved for Humans to Have a
  Viable Future?

3
Cultural Future of Humanity

• Anthropologists unlike futurist projections try
  to view things in context, further than 50 years
  from the present.
• They have a long-term historical perspective and
  recognize culture bound biases.
• Anthropologists are concerned with the tendency
  to treat traditional societies as obsolete when
  they appear to stand in the way of development.

4
Global Culture

• Since the 1950s it has been a belief that
  eventually the world will become one large
  homogeneous culture.
• Evident through such things as fast food chains
  and soda companies like Pepsi and Coca Cola.
• Meaning that if a North American were to travel
  abroad, no matter the destination, they would see
  a similar culture to their own in North America.
• Do you think this could be possible?

5
World Migrations

• Migration continues to have a significant effect
  on world social geography, contributing to
  culture change, to the diffusion of ideas and
  innovations, and to the complex mixture of
  cultures in the world today.
• Internal migration occurs within the boundaries
  of a country.
• External migration is movement from one country
  or region to another.

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World Migrations

• Prior to the mid-20th century, three types of
  external migration were most important
• Voluntary- in search of better opportunities
• Forced- people who have been driven from their
  homelands by war, environmental disasters, or
  transported as slaves
• Imposed- not entirely forced but made advisable
  by the circumstances.

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Global Culture, Good?

• In theory it might sound like a world with more
  peace and less misunderstandings of differing
  cultures.
• The reality is that it is unlikely that cultures
  will change into one similar culture especially
  if they are being forced to quickly do so by
  outside powerful nations.
• What is created are poorer peasant communities
  who are in the crosshairs of westernization and
  their indigenous life ways.
• Since they failed to change quick enough for the
  western corporate powerhouses.

8
Ethnic Resurgence

• The presence of westernization is glaringly
  obvious worldwide with the diffusion of western
  food, clothes, music, etc.
• This does not mean it is accepted. There is an
  increase of ethnic pressure against
  westernization.
• Resistance against globalization is becoming much
  more frequent.

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Cultural Pluralism Multiculturalism

• So what is the future?
• Chances are it includes a world with
  multiculturalism- a public policy of mutual
  respect and tolerance for cultural differences.
• Ethnic tension, common in pluralistic societies,
  sometimes turns violent, leading to formal
  separation.
• To manage cultural diversity within such
  societies, some countries have adopted
  multiculturalism as an official public policy.

10
Transnational Cultural Flowsin a Global
Environment

• Anthropologist Arjun Appadurai marks out five
  global spaces or dimensions in which
  transnational cultural flows occur, identifying
  them as scapes (meaning something crafted,
  configured, or transformed by humans)
• Ethnoscapes the fluid and shifting landscape of
  migrants
• Technoscapes the global configuration of
  technologies moving at high speeds across
  previously restrictive borders.

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Scapes

• Financescapes the global crossroads of currency
  speculation and financial transfers.
• Mediascapes the distribution of electronic media
  capabilities to produce and spread information,
  plus the large complex repertoire of narratives
  and visual images generated by these media.
• Ideoscapes ideologies produced by the state and
  alternative ideologies developed by non-state and
  counter-hegemonic forces, around which societies
  organize their political cultures and collective
  cultural identities.

12
Structural Power

• Structural power is the power that organizes and
  orchestrates the systemic interaction within and
  among societies.
• Often directing economic and political forces on
  the one hand and ideological forces that shape
  public ideas, values, and beliefs on the other.

13
Structural Power

• Two major interacting forces of structural power
• Hard power is the type of power that is backed up
  by economic and military force.
• Soft power is the type of power that is co-optive
  where ones ideas are pressed onto others through
  attraction and persuasion to change ones ideas,
  beliefs, or values.

14
Economic Hard Power

• Large corporations which are usually a cluster of
  several smaller corporations held together by
  common interest, money, and strategy are
  controlled by one group in one country.
• Their power and wealth, often exceeding that of
  national governments, has increased dramatically
  through media expansion.

15
Economic Hard Power

• Mega corporations have enormous influence on the
  ideas and behavior of hundreds of millions of
  people worldwide.
• States and corporations compete for scarce
  natural resources, cheap labor, new commercial
  markets, and ever-larger profits in a political
  arena that spans the entire globe.

16
Structural Violence

• Structural violence is physical and/or
  psychological harm (including repression,
  environmental destruction, poverty, hunger,
  illness, and premature death) caused by
  impersonal, exploitative, and unjust social,
  political, and economic systems.
• Current structures are poised to offer wealth,
  power, and comfort for a lucky few and poverty,
  suffering, and death for the majority.

17
Overpopulation

• In 1750, 1 billion people lived on earth.
• By 1950, nearly 2.5 billion.
• Between 1950 and 2000 the world population soared
  above 6 billion.
• Today, India and China have more than 1 billion
  inhabitants each.
• Population projections suggest that global
  population will peak around 2050 at about 9.37
  billion people.

18
Overpopulation

• Replacement reproduction, the point at which
  birthrates and death rates are in equilibrium
  people producing only enough offspring to replace
  themselves when they die.
• Even with the replacement reproduction the
  population will continue to grow for 50 years or
  more.

19
Overpopulation

• Western societies have protected their
  environment only when a crisis warranted.
• Many of the worlds developing countries have
  policies for population growth that conflict with
  other policies.
• A direct threat to humanity.

20
Hunger and Obesity

• Currently over a quarter of the worlds countries
  do not produce enough food to feed their
  populations and cannot afford to import what is
  needed.
• Most of these countries are in Saharan Africa.
• What is ironic is that while millions of people
  go without food daily, millions of people eat too
  much food daily.
• Obesity is not solely related to overeating, it
  is also related to the high sugar and fat content
  found in food.

21
Global Pollution

• Air and water pollution appear to be the direct
  result of the human hand. The largest negative
  side effect of agribusiness is environmental
  degradation.
• Pollutants cause the development of acid
  precipitation, which damages soil, vegetation,
  and wildlife.
• Most atmospheric scientists believe that the
  greenhouse effect is being enhanced by increased
  carbon dioxide, methane, and other gases produced
  by industrial and agricultural activities.

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The Culture of Discontent

• As previously mentioned the worlds poorest
  countries have been told that they can and should
  enjoy a standard of living comparable to that of
  the rich countries.
• The resources necessary to maintain such a
  luxurious standard of living are limited. Non
  renewable resources would quickly disappear at
  such a high rate of consumption.
• This growing gap between expectations and
  realizations has led to the creation of a culture
  of discontent.

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The Culture of Discontent

• The culture of discontent is not limited to poor
  and overpopulated countries.
• It can be found among the most wealthy and
  enduring nations.
• Where the people are spending money to obtain
  material riches which often lead to more
  discontent.