Global Challenges, Local Responses, and the Role of Anthropology Chapter 16 Global Challenges, Local Responses, and the Role of Anthropology

Chapter Outline What can anthropologists tell us of the future? What are today’s cultural trends? What problems must be solved for humans to have a viable future?

Anthropologists Contribution to the Study of the Future of Humanity Anthropologists see things in context. They have a long-term historical perspective and recognize culture bound biases. Anthropologists are concerned with the tendency to treat traditional societies as obsolete when they appear to stand in the way of “development.”

Migration

Multiculturalism An policy of mutual respect and tolerance for cultural differences. Ethnic tension, common in pluralistic societies, sometimes turns violent, leading to formal separation. To manage cultural diversity within such societies, some countries have adopted multiculturalism as an official public policy.

Global Corporations Their power and wealth, often exceeding that of national governments, has increased dramatically through media expansion. Megacorporations have enormous influence on the ideas and behavior of hundreds of millions of people worldwide. States and corporations compete for scarce natural resources, cheap labor, new commercial markets, and ever-larger profits in a political arena that spans the entire globe.

Structural power The global forces that direct economic and political institutions and shape public ideas and values. Hard power is backed up by economic and military force. Soft power is ideological persuasion. The world’s largest corporations are almost all based in a small group of wealthy states, which dominate international trade and finance organizations.

Globalization and Corporations Globalization provides megaprofits for large corporations but wreaks havoc in traditional cultures. Globalization is marketed as positive for everyone, but the poor are becoming poorer and the rich richer. Globalization engenders worldwide resistance against superpower domination. For this reason, the emerging world system is unstable, vulnerable, and unpredictable.

Results of Globalization Worldwide and growing structural violence-physical and/or psychological harm: Repression cultural and environmental destruction Poverty hunger and obesity illness, and premature death Caused by exploitative and unjust social, political, and economical systems.

A Sustainable Future Dramatic changes in cultural values and motivations, as well as in social institutions and the types of technologies we employ, are required if humans are going to realize a sustainable future. Shortsighted emphasis on consumerism and individual self-interest needs to be abandoned in favor of a more balanced social and environmental ethic.

Pollution and Over Population A direct threat to humanity. Western societies have protected their environment only when a crisis warranted. Many of the world’s developing countries have policies for population growth that conflict with other policies. Even with replacement reproduction, the population would continue to grow for 50 years.

Energy Consumption

Population