Title: The Global Ecumene
1(No Transcript)
2The Global Ecumene
- Ulf Hannerz, Ch. 12, pp. 105-115 (Excerpted from
Hannerz, The Global Ecumene, in Cultural
Complexity Studies in the Social Organization of
Meaning, Columbia, 1992)
3Contradictory tendencies are always at work on
the one hand towards homogenization and the other
towards new distinctions
4Globalization has created a global ecumene a
global commons
- ecumene the inhabited or civilized world OED
5Cultural mosaic metaphor no longer makes sense
- Cultural mosaic implies separate pieces, with
well-defined edges - Instead, entities we call cultures are more like
subcultures within a global commons
6But debates about cultural integrity rage on
- Defenders of national culture point to threats to
cultural integrity and identity - Disputes often center on the origin of cultural
items and practices
7Centers peripheries in cultural flow
- Since the 1960s, understandings of globalization
have highlighted asymmetry - center (core) periphery
- metropolis satellite
8Asymmetries are also present in the global social
organization of meaning
- The social organization of meaning refers to
culture - i.e., structures of meaning cultural expression
9Material vs cultural asymmetries
- How closely aligned are asymmetries of culture w/
those of the economy, politics, or military
power? - How do center/periphery relationships affect
structures of meaning cultural expression?
10Center/periphery relationships of culture are not
necessarily identical w/ political ec power
- US case congruence
- USSR little cultural influence, despite great
political/military power - UK France cultural influence in excess of
political economic power
11But the cultural influence of countries is uneven
across different cultural areas
- US science, technology popular culture
- France high culture, food fashion
- Japan corporate organization culture
12And today?
- Japan?
- BRICs? Brazil, Russia, India, China?
13Some countries have strong cultural influence in
their regions
- Mexico Brazil in Latin America
- Nigeria South Africa in Africa
- India in South Asia
- Egypt in the Arab world
14Bush Beento The World in the Third World
- beento a person who returns home to Africa after
studying or working in a foreign country - cosmopolitan, sophisticated, possessing cultural
capital
15Bush Beento The World in the Third World
- bush an epithet for ignorance and rustic,
unsophisticated, uncouth conduct - To be labeled bush in one way or other was to
have ones rightful place in modern society put
in question
16Metropoles like NYC, London, Paris, Miami act
like centers of national cultures of periphery
- diaspora produce disseminate culture
(literature, art, film, music) - diaspora dispersion of people sharing common
ethnic identity - exiles find asylum
- dissidents organize opposition to home regimes
- technocrats and professionals gain skills to
bring back to their home countries
17Creolization innovation
- The transnational cultural flow, by giving the
periphery access to a wider cultural inventory,
provides new resources of technology and symbolic
expression to re-combine with local cultural
forms - to perform innovative acts of cultural brokerage
18A Creolizing World Summary
- Autonomy boundedness of cultures is a matter of
degree - Distribution of culture is affected by a
structure of asymmetrical center/periphery
relationships - These relationships affect cultures, to different
degrees, in 2 ways - By shaping the material and power conditions to
which cultures adapt - Through the influx of initially alien meanings
cultural forms - That influx does not enter into a vacuum, or
clean slate, but into various kinds of
interaction w/ already existing meanings forms - The transnational cultural flow is internally
diverse - Market, state, form of life, and movement
frameworks for the organization of cultural flow
all have their own ways of organizing - Not all cultures are local, in the sense of being
territorially bounded - There may be no overall global homogenization
of culture going on.
19A Creolizing World
- As the world turns, todays periphery may be
tomorrows center (115)
20Strategic Inauthenticity
- Timothy Taylor, Ch. 17, pp. 151-155 (Excerpted
from Taylor, Strategic Inauthenticity, in
Global Pop World Music, World Markets,
Routledge, 1997)
21Youssou NDour A Modern Griot
- Aims to make a new popular music that integrates
elements of indigenous traditional music and the
local language with music from around the world - griot a storyteller in West Africa perpetuates
the oral traditions of a family or village
WordNet - Developed mbalax, dance music with strong
distinctive rhythm
22The Guide (Wommat)
- Nominated for Grammy in 1994
- Guitar sound influenced by range of African
music, incl. soukous, highlife, Afrobeat, reggae,
salsa, soul, and disco - Lyrics are varied, recalling the virtues of
country life and traditional morality
propriety as well as joblessness and
anticolonial resistance
23Whose Authenticity?
- NDour In Dakar, we hear many different
recordings. We are open to these sounds. When
people say my music is too Western, they must
remember that we, too, hear this music over here.
We hear the African music with the modern. (155)
24Mulatu Astatke
- Ethiopian-born musician and arranger best known
as the father of Ethio-jazz - Musically trained in London, NYC, and Boston
where he combined jazz and Latin music interests
w/ traditional Ethiopian music - Astatke led his band while playing vibraphone and
conga drumsinstruments that he introduced into
Ethiopian popular musicas well as other
percussion, keyboards and organ - Albums mostly instrumental, released during
Ethiopia's Golden 70s
25Nas and Damien MarleyDistant Relatives (2010)
- Unlike all previous collaborations between
Jamaican and American artists, Distant Relatives
is neither a remix nor a featured guest spot on a
single track but a fully collaborative effort
filling an entire album, opening new avenues of
musical expression. Distant Relatives traces the
direct line from dancehall reggaes breakthrough
moment forty years ago to the rise of hip hop
several years later
26As We Enter Verse 1
- As we enter come mek we tek you pon di biggest
adventure, - Must be dementia, that you ever thought you could
touch our credentials, - what's the initials,
- You be jamrock the lyrical official, send out the
order, laws and the rituals, - Burn candles, say prayers, paint murals, it is
truth we big News, we hood heroes, - Bruk past di anchor, we come to conquer, man a
badman, we nah play Willy Wonka, - And I got the guns, I got the ganja
- And we could blaze it up on ya block if you
wanna, or, - Haze it up stash box in a Hummer, or,
- You could run up and get done up
- Or, get somethin that you want none of,
- Unlimited amount you collect from us, direct from
us, - Street intellectuals, and Im shrewd about
decimals, - And my man can speak patois, and I can speak rap
star, - Yall feel me even if its in Swahili, habari gani,
- msuri sana, switch up the language and move to
Ghana, - Salute and honor real revolution rhymers
- Rhythm piranhas, like true Obamas, unfold the
drama.
27Chorus x2
- Word is out
- Hysteria ya heard about
- Nas and Junior Gong came to turn it out
- Body the verses til they scream murder out
- The kings is back time to return the crown
- Who want it
- Tuck your chain when dude comin
- Renegades that'll peel you back like new hundreds
- Bet your jewels on it
- You don't want to lose on it
- Either move on or move on it
28Verse 2
- Queens to Kingston
- Gunshots we use and govern the kingdom
- Rise of the Winston I can see the fear in your
eyes realize you could die any instant - And I can hear the sound of your voice when you
must lose your life like mice in the kitchen - Snitching, I can see him pissing on himself and
he wetting up his thighs and he trying to resist
it - Switching I can smell him digging up shit like a
fly come around and keep persisting - That's how you end up in a hit list / In a badman
business - No evidence / Crime scene fingerprintless
- Flow effortless / Casual like the weekends
- No pressure with / We comfy and decent
- Set this off beasting / Hunting season
- And frankly speaking