ANTZ202 Introduction to CultureMeeting 13, April 3, 2007Changes

Notes

•Global inequalities•World system•Innovation, creativity•Define who we are

Tradition and Change

•Continuity•Conservatism•Implies change

Revolution and Modernity

•Discontinuity•Always keep something

Ethnocentrism

•Lenses through which see world•Evaluation

Humanitarian Aid

•Imposed change?•Who chooses?•“Why can’t they be more like us?”

Some Broad Changes

•Industrialisation•Commercialism•Complexification•Individualism

From Last Week

•Diversity•Social complexity•Commercialisation•“West”/”Non-West”

Internal Change

•Independent Invention▫Original solutions to problems

•Internal Dynamism▫Change through social diversity

Change Through Contacts

•Diffusion▫Spread through borrowing▫Possibly indirect

•Acculturation▫Continuous contact▫Asymmetrical

Contacts

•Mobility▫Individuals or groups

•Trade and Exchange Networks▫Goods, services, knowledge▫Specialization▫Often Equal

Uninvited Contacts

•War▫Territorial expansion▫Invasion

•Colonialism▫Conquest▫Unequal deals

Globalization

•Interconnected, interdependent•Mutual influences•Inequalities•Decentralized flow of capital•Transnational culture of consumption

Mass Media

•“Virtual” contact•“Imagined Communities”

▫Nationalism▫Internationalism

Popular Culture

•Local cultures▫Erosion▫Diffusion▫Adaptation

•Bollywood•Telenovelas

Anthropology and Change

•Humanistic vision•Voluntary vs. coerced change•Cherish cultural diversity•Understanding similarities and

differences

Changes in Ethnography

Armchair Anthropology

•Second-hand accounts•Often non-researchers•Displaced context•Deductive•Universalist

Early ethnography

•Realism•Holism (integrated culture)•Particularist (culture in own terms)•Native understanding•Some “Gone Native”

Interpretive Anthropology (Geertz)

•Culture as text•Translation•Meaningfulness, significance•Native voice

Ethnographic Crisis

•“Writing Culture” (Clifford and Marcus 1986)

•Question ethnographic realism•Question ethnographic present•Ethnographies as products

Complex Societies

•Global World•Adapt methods•Qualitative basis•Identities•Subjectivities

Problem-Oriented Ethnography

•Issue in broad context•Finding solutions•Applied anthropology•Interdisciplinary