ANTHROPOLOGY OF GLOBALIZATION SOCI 202 Spring 2010 Instructor: Deniz Yükseker

The study of culture change European colonialism Decolonization in mid-20th century Neocolonialism Cultural imperialism Globalization (economic and cultural)

Cultural effects of European colonialism Acculturation : cultural borrowing as a result of contact Syncretism: a mixing of elements from two or more cultural traditions Assimilation: replacing a group’s culture with that of the dominant society; a one-way acculturation process as a result of unequal power relations between two groups

Cultural change in the postcolonial world National liberation movements Revolutionary movements  Nationalism and nation-states Modernization theory: explains the economic development of nation-states in a unilineal framework World-systems perspective: looks at the historically unequal economic relations between groups of nation-states within the framework of an international division of labor  core, periphery and semiperiphery

Globalization Globalization: intensification and speeding up of cross-border flows of Capital (multinational companies, stock exchanges, etc.) Goods (international trade) People (tourists, professionals, migrants, refugees) Ideas (fashion, human rights discourses, ideologies, etc.) Images (TV, films, music, fashions) Information (TV, internet) as a result of the improvement in (tele)communication and transportation technologies in recent decades

Consequences of globalization A reordering of time and space Speeding up  time-space compression (David Harvey) The world becomes more interconnected Stretching out  time-space distanciation (Anthony Giddens) Social, political and cultural processes across borders are “stretched out” “The global” and “the local” are entangled

Culture change under globalization Flows of people Deterritorialization of cultures (cultural pluralism and diasporas) Flows of signs and symbols Cultural imperialism Cultural homogenization Cultural diffusion The shifting of meanings and symbols under the impact of globalization Flows of ideas Identity politics Human rights discourses Cultural rights of groups

Culture change (cont’d) Flows of goods and capital New patterns of industrialization, investment, trade, etc. All aspects of the impact of globalization on cultures are interrelated!

Case studies Sushi goes global Global trade in human organs

Global sushi The use of bluefin tuna to make sushi in Japan Since the 1970s, the trade in bluefin tuna became global What does consuming sushi outside Japan denote? How does the trade in bluefin tuna affect the lives of US fishers, Spanish fishers, Japanese consumers, Japanese wholesalers, etc.? How are bluefin tuna populations in the Atlantic affected by the globalization of sushi consumption? In short, how can we interpret this example using our terminology for globalization?

Global trade in human organs What do you think of organ donation and organ transplantation? What do you think of the trade in organs? What does it have to do with globalization?

Organ trade Globalization results in diffusion of transplant surgery technology flows organs from South to North Flows of patients from North to South market exchange in body parts redefinition of meanings: Bodily integrity Scarcity in human organs Meaning of life and death Persons and nonpersons Rumors and facts