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Table of Contents
Around the world in 13 weeks
Around the world in 13 weeks
Ryan Schram
November 1, 2017
ryan.schram@sydney.edu.au
Mills 169 (A26)
Available at http://anthro.rschram.org/1002/13.2
With help from Terry Woronov and the ANTH 1002 tutors.
Global forces and cultural differences
- Capitalism
- Colonialism
- Global religions, e.g. Christianity and Islam
- transcultural discourses of conservation and sustainability
- global warming and its effects on local environments
Capitalism is a culture
- Capitalism is a culture, not a space of “freedom.”
- In a capitalist system, people must play the role of the individual.
- Capitalism creates illusions, e.g. commodity fetishism.
The conjuncture of cultures
- No society exists in isolation; everyone lives in an intersection of two or more systems.
- Contemporary societies are all different, but we can understand them all as variations on the encounter of reciprocity and commodification.
- Efflorescence
- Tension, conflict, segregation
- Transformation
- Global forces are context for local cultural systems, and vice versa.
- This is not just true about global capitalism; we can apply the same perspective to any global movement, even climate change.
- Climate migration
- “Gone the bull of winter”
- The fantasy that indigenous people are wise prophets of sustainability
The snake and the mongoose
Once upon a time there was a snake and a mongoose…
Many opposites - values, ideas, institutions - are not binary, either-or. They are contradictions and they exist in an ambiguous tension which is both a source of conflict but also creativity.
Snake and mongoose
That is, contemporary life is defined by its contradictions. There are co-present forces in tension, leading to conflict and also unexpected side-effects.
- Globalization involves change in societies.
- Globalization allows people to recreate a coherent cultural order with new materials.
Everything is mixed
Categories are not dichotomous; Many opposites are actually co-present.
- Tradition / modernity
- Developed / undeveloped
- Custom / rationality
- Gift / commodity
- Love / money
References
Blain, Andrea. 2014. “'Snake and Mongoo$e' Races into Homes This Spring.” PR Newschannel. January 21. http://www.prnewschannel.com/2014/01/21/action-packed-film-snake-and-mongoose-races-into-homes-this-spring/.
Lacock, Hennie. 2013. Cobra and Mongoose. Caters New Agency. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/photo/2013-10/29/132841640_11n.jpg.
Pollock, Jackson. 1948. No. 5, 1948. Oil on canvas. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=No._5,_1948&oldid=631373543.