© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. Window on Humanity Conrad Phillip Kottak Third Edition Chapter 19 Cultural Exchange and Survival

© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. Overview Contact and domination Resistance and survival Making and remaking culture People in motion Indigenous peoples Preserving diversity

© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 19 Cultural Exchange and Survival Contact and domination –Acculturation Cultural changes that result when groups come into continuous firsthand contact May be voluntary or forced –Westernization – influence of Western expansion on other societies

© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 19 Cultural Exchange and Survival Contact and domination –Destruction, domination, resistance, survival, adaptation, and modification of local cultures may follow interethnic contact “Shock phase” – an indigenous population may be attacked, exploited, and repressed following an initial encounter with more powerful outsiders Indigenous group may suffer cultural collapse (ethnocide) or physical extinction (genocide) Political and economic colonialists (and even some development projects) have tried to impose their cultural standards on conquered and dependent peoples

© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 19 Cultural Exchange and Survival Development and environmentalism –Core-based multinational corporations often instigate economic change in Third World nations –Governments of many peripheral and semiperipheral nations have supported the predatory enterprises of corporations –Even well-intentioned interference (e.g., by environmentalists) may be treated as a form of cultural domination by subject populations –To be successful, conservation efforts (like development projects) must: Respect cultural variation and autonomy Build upon local forms

© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 19 Cultural Exchange and Survival Development and environmentalism –Culture clashes related to environmental change may occur when development or external regulation threatens indigenous peoples and their environments Outsiders may expect local people to give up customary economic and cultural activities without clear substitutes, alternatives, or incentives Well-meaning conservation efforts can be insensitive if they promote radical changes without involving local people in planning and carrying out policies

© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 19 Cultural Exchange and Survival Religious change –Religious proselytizing can promote ethnocide –Today, much religious change is promoted by missionaries and proselytizers representing the major world religions, especially Christianity and Islam –Political ideology of a nation-state may oppose traditional religion (e.g., Soviet empire) –Governments may also use their power to advance a religion (e.g., Islam in Iran or Sudan)

© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 19 Cultural Exchange and Survival Antimodernism –Antimodernism: rejection of the modern in favor of what is perceived as an earlier, purer, and better way of life –Barber (1992, 1995) argues tribalism and globalism are the two key – and opposed – principles of our age Tribalism: antimodern force pitting culture against culture, tribe against tribe, and religion against religion Barber uses the term “McWorld” to describe the modern forces that promote global integration and uniformity, including the diffusion of music, computers, and fast food –In antimodern movements, social solidarity often is achieved through exclusion, separation, and opposition

© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 19 Cultural Exchange and Survival Resistance and survival –Oppressed people always resist in some non- public way –Scott’s analysis of domination and resistance: Public transcript – open, public interactions between dominators and the oppressed Hidden transcript – critique of power that goes on offstage, where the dominators cannot see or hear it

© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 19 Cultural Exchange and Survival Resistance and survival –Hegemony (Gramsci) – a stratified social order in which subordinates comply with domination by internalizing their rulers’ values and accepting the “naturalness” of domination –Bourdieu – every social order tries to make its own arbitrariness, including its oppression, seem natural –Methods of curbing resistance: Hegemony Convincing subordinates that they will eventually gain power Isolating subordinates and supervising them closely

© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 19 Cultural Exchange and Survival Resistance and survival –“Weapons of the weak” (Scott) Oppressed groups may use subtle, small-scale, non- confrontational methods to resist domination (e.g., Malay peasants) Subordinates also use various strategies to resist publicly, in disguised form (e.g., metaphors, euphemisms, folk tales) Elites discourage public gatherings where resistance is most likely to be expressed openly Festivals (e.g., Carnival) are prime arenas for the expression of antihegemonic discourse

© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 19 Cultural Exchange and Survival Resistance and survival –Cultural imperialism Spread or advance of one culture at the expense of others, which it modifies, replaces, or destroys Modern technologies, particularly the mass media, act as agents of cultural imperialism by erasing cultural differences Mass media also allow local groups and cultures to express themselves to national and global audiences (e.g., television in Brazil)

© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 19 Cultural Exchange and Survival Making and remaking culture –Text – something that is creatively “read,” interpreted, and assigned meaning by each person who receives it –Any media-borne image (e.g., Carnival) can be analyzed as a text –Meanings and feelings that “readers” derive from a text may be quite different from what the creators of the text imagined –Hegemonic reading – the reading or meaning that the creators of a text intended, or the one that elites consider to be the intended or correct meaning –“Readers” of media messages may resist or oppose the hegemonic meanings of a text, or they may seize on its antihegemonic aspects

© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 19 Cultural Exchange and Survival Making and remaking culture –Popular culture Each individual's use of popular culture is a creative act (an original “reading” of a text) Forms and readings of popular culture can express discontent and resistance –Indigenizing popular culture People assign their own meanings and value to the texts, messages, and products they receive, based on their cultural backgrounds and experiences When forces from world centers enter new societies, they are indigenized – modified to fit the local culture (e.g., McDonald’s in Brazil)

© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 19 Cultural Exchange and Survival Making and remaking culture –World system of images Electronic mass media can spread, and even help create, national and ethnic identities Cross-cultural studies show that locally produced television shows are preferred over foreign imports Mass media play an important role in maintaining ethnic and national identities among people who lead transnational lives

© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 19 Cultural Exchange and Survival Making and remaking culture –Transnational culture of consumption Contemporary global culture is driven by flows of people, technology, finance, information, and ideology Business, technology, and the media have increased the craving for commodities and images throughout the world Most nation-states have been forced to open to a global culture of consumption

© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 19 Cultural Exchange and Survival People in motion –Today, people are traveling more than ever –Unit of anthropological study has expanded from the local community to the diaspora – the offspring of an area who have spread to many lands –Postmodern world – traditional standards, contrasts, groups, boundaries, and identities are opening up, reaching out, and breaking down –Emergence of new kinds of political and ethnic units – e.g., pan-Indian identity, international Pantribal movement

© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 19 Cultural Exchange and Survival Indigenous peoples – Term and concept i ndigenous people gained legitimacy through i nternational law 1982 U.N. Working Group on Indigenous Populations The Working Group's Declaration of Indigenous Rights was accepted by the U.N. for discussion i n 1993 –In Latin America, the drive by indigenous peoples for self-determination has emphasized: their cultural distinctiveness political reforms involving a restructuring of the state territorial rights and access to natural resources, including control over economic development reforms of military and police powers over indigenous peoples

© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 19 Cultural Exchange and Survival Indigenous peoples – Indigenous organizing has resulted in severe political repression, thousands of i ndigenous deaths, i ndigenous refugees, and i nternally displaced persons (e.g., in Guatemala, Peru, and Colombia) – Autochthony -- or being native to, or formed, i n the place where found -- has become an i ssue and i mportant notion i n efforts to exclude "strangers" i n Francophone parts of Africa, as well as i n debates about i mmigration and multiculturalism i n Europe

© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 19 Cultural Exchange and Survival Identity i n indigenous politics – Essentialism: process of viewing an i dentity as established, real, and frozen, so as to hide the historical processes and politics within which that i dentity developed – Identities are asserted at particular times and places by i ndividuals and groups, and after various kinds of negotiations

© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 19 Cultural Exchange and Survival Continuance of diversity –Anthropology has crucial roles to play: Promoting a more humanistic vision of social change Increasing respect for the value of human biological and cultural diversity Increasing understanding of similarities and differences among humans throughout the world