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-# Western modernity as culture #
-## World-making and world-breaking ##
-Ryan Schram
-Mills 169, A26
-ryan (dot) schram (at) sydney.edu.au
-Monday and Wednesday, October 17 and 19, 2016
-Available at http://anthro.rschram.org/1002/12.1
-### Reading ###
-Haynes, Naomi. 2015. “‘Zambia Shall Be Saved!’: Prosperity Gospel Politics in a Self-Proclaimed Christian Nation.” Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions 19 (1): 5–24. doi:10.1525/nr.2015.19.1.5.
-## Alternative modernity
-Brenner argues that Islamic movement does for Indonesia as
-Protestanism did for early modern Europe, i.e.:
-Islamic movement : Indonesia : : Protestantism : Europe
-So Indonesian modernity is an "alternative" to Western modernity, but
-for Brenner, there is a formal parallel between them. The societies
-are changing in different ways, but the process of change is the same
-on a deeper level.
-## If there are many modernities, which one is this?
-The **multiple modernities** thesis states:
-* All societies change, but societies do not all eventually end up at
-  the same destination.
-* Social change cannot be measured on a single, absolute scale of
-  progress or development.
-If there are many modernities, then Western society exists in only
-one? What makes it different?
-## Do secular societies have a 'sacred'?
-What are the distinctive cultural values of Western modernity not
-shared, for instance, by Indonesian modernity, Swahili modernity or
-Sahka modernity?
-Western societies tend to be very secular, but as cultures, their
-members also share a system of values? What is the idea to which
-Western societies attribute overriding importance, that is, "sacred"
-value?
-## The individual as a cultural construct
-Western societies tend to teach members to see themselves as
-individuals. This has come into our discussion in several ways
-already:
-* The person as a consumer
-* The person as a wage laborer
-* The person as a social actor
-Let's examine directly the idea all these have in common: The
-individual.
-## An alternative to Weber
-Weber assumed that being an individual is natural, and hence a
-precondition for social action. It is natural for an actor to have a
-unique, subjective, private view of their action, and so we must take
-their perspective as an individual to see what they create through
-action.
-What if the individual does not exist except in our imagination?
-What if you have to be taught to see yourself as an individual, and
-not something else? Western children are taught this from the day they
-are able to talk.
-* What do you want to be when you grow up?
-* What is your favorite X?
-## Christianity around the world
-When we think of the globalization of Western cultural forms, most
-people think of commodities and mass consumption. They may also think
-about ideologies like liberal democracy, capitalism and personal
-achievement.
-{{:christianity-graphic-04.png|The Pew Forum of Religion and Public Life. 2011. “Global Christianity: A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World’s Christian Population- Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.” http://www.pewforum.org/}}
-Different kinds of Christianity have also globalized, but not always
-in the same ways or to the same places. Pentecostal Christianity
-speads almost by word of mouth and is growing very rapidly
-* Kekchi Maya of Guatemala
-## Christianity is based on Western ideas of the individual
-* Personal, sincere confession
-* Equality of all believers qua moral subjects
-* Individual responsibility for one's relationship to God
-* Christian morality is distinct from obligations entailed in social relationships
-* God cares for human beings as individuals, not groups or as members of society
-## The Urapmin of Papua New Guinea
-* "The Holy Spirit came." (Robbins 2004, 129)
-* The present era is a "free time." (p. 220)
-* "When do you think the world will end?" (Robbins 1997)
-## Urapmin Pentecostalism is a contradiction in values
-* "My wife can't break off part of her belief and give it to me." (Robbins 2002)
-* "You shouldn't talk behind the Holy Spirit's back." (Robbins 2004, 135)
-## Prosperity theology and individualism
-* Prayers to God must be answered.
-* Health, success and wealth are what God wants for believers.
-* Not an ascetic morality
-Is this a reflection of Western individualism, or a kind of reciprocity with God?
-## References
-Robbins, Joel. 1997. “‘When Do You Think the World Will End?’: Globalization, Apocalypticism, and the Moral Perils of Fieldwork in ‘Last New Guinea.’” Anthropology and Humanism 22 (1): 6–30. doi:10.1525/ahu.1997.22.1.6.
-———. 2002. “My Wife Can’t Break Off Part of Her Belief and Give It to Me: Apocalyptic Interrogations of Christian Individualism Among the Urapmin of Papua New Guinea.” Paideuma 48: 189–206.
-———. 2004. Becoming Sinners: Christianity and Moral Torment in a Papua New Guinea Society. University of California Press.
-## A guide to the unit ##
-{{page>1002guide}}

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