1 McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. O v e r v i e w Cultural Exchange and Survival This chapter discusses the results of contact between cultures of uneven influence. It focuses on how cultures can attempt to become dominant and how others might resist. It also examines the spread of American popular culture throughout the world as a case study.

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 2 Contact and Domination The increased contact among cultures has created increased possibilities for the domination of one group by another, through various means. Development and Environmentalism –Currently, domination comes most frequently in the form of core-based multinational corporations causing economic change in Third World cultures. –It is noted that even well-intentioned interference (such as the environmentalist movement) may be treated as a form of cultural domination by subject populations.

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 3 Culture Clash Two sources of culture clash: –When development threatens indigenous peoples and their environments (e.g., Brazil and New Guinea). –When external relations threaten indigenous peoples (e.g., Madagascar, where sweeping international environmental regulations affect traditional subsistence life-ways).

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 4 Religious Change Indiana Jones is symbolic of Western domination of all cultural aspects based upon specialized technological efficiency. Religious homogenization is a technique frequently used by states trying to subdue groups encompassed by their borders.

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 5 Resistance and Survival Variation within Systems of Domination Scott (1990) differentiates between public and hidden transcripts of culturally and politically oppressed peoples. –Public transcript refers to the open, public interactions between dominators and the oppressed. –Hidden transcript refers to the critique of power that goes on offstage, where the dominators cannot see it. Gramsci’s (1971) notion of hegemony applies to a politically hierarchical system wherein in the dominant ideology of the elites has been internalized by members of the lower classes. Bourdieu (1977) and Foucault (1979) argue that it is much easier to control people's minds than try to control their bodies.

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 6 Weapons of the Weak As James Scott’s (1990) work on Malay peasants suggests, oppressed groups may use subtle, nonconfrontational methods to resist various forms of domination. Examples of antihegemonic discourse include rituals (e.g., Carnaval) and folk literature. Resistance is more likely to be public when the oppressed come together in groups (hence the antiassembly laws of the antebellum South).

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 7 Cultural Survival and Tourism

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 8 Cultural Imperialism Cultural imperialism refers to the spread of one culture at the expense of others usually because of differential economic or political influence. While mass media and related technology have contributed to the erosion of local cultures, they are increasingly being used as media for the outward diffusion of local cultures (e.g., television in Brazil). E.G. Satellite Dreaming-Australian Aborigines

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 9 Popular Culture According to Fiske (1989), each individual's use of popular culture is a creative act. Popular culture can be used to express resistance.

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 10 Indigenizing Popular Culture Cultural forms exported from one culture to another do not necessarily carry the same meaning from the former context to the latter context. Aboriginal interpretations of the movie Rambo demonstrate that meaning can be produced from a text, not by a text. Appadurai’s analysis of Philippine indigenization of some American music forms demonstrates the uniqueness of the indigenized form.

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 11 A World System of Images Mass media can spread and create national and ethnic identities. Cross-cultural studies show that locally produced television shows are preferred to foreign imports. Mass media plays an important role in maintaining ethnic and national identities among people who lead transnational lives.

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 12 Transnational Culture of Consumption As with mass media, the flow of capital has become decentralized, carrying with it the cultural influences of many different sources (e.g., the United States, Japan, Britain, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands). Migrant labor also contributes to cultural diffusion.

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 13 Postmodernism Postmodernity describes our time and situation--today’s world in flux, these people on the move who have learned to manage multiple identities depending on place and context. Postmodern refers to the collapsing of old distinctions, rules, canons, and the like. Postmodernism (derived from the architectural style) refers to the theoretical assertion and acceptance of multiple forms of rightness, in contradistinction to modernism, which was based in the assumed supremacy of Western technology and values. Globalization refers to the increasing connectedness of the world and its peoples. With this connectedness, however, come new bases for identities (e.g., the Panindian identity growing among formerly disparate tribes). Postmodern moments refers to a series of personal examples bearing out global linkages.

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 14 The Continuance of Diversity Anthropology has a crucial role to play in promoting a more humanistic vision of social change, one that respects the value of cultural diversity. The existence of anthropology is itself a tribute to the continuing need to understand social and cultural similarities and differences.

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 15 Cultural Survival

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 16 Effects of Anthropology If anthro is so super, why no bigger effect? –more research than applied work. –things published in Social Science Journal does not have much effect on Policy makers. Conflict between Policy and Anthros –Cult. relativism and holism important to anthros but not the govt. –Anthro studies take a long time, govt. want answers right away. –Tensions between anthro ethics and govt.

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 17 Growing Areas of Anthropology Medical Anthropology –brings together biological and cultural aspects of health and medicine. *i.e. We know the scientific name of tuberculosis is Myobacterium tuberculosis, but poverty and malnutrition are the main contributing factors. –Diseases are always experienced by people as mediated by their culture. *i.e. the stigma attached to Aids. Development Anthropology –concerned primarily with poverty, environment, disease, malnutrition, gender inequity, and ethnic conflict. –Understand nature of development. –Importance of long-term research. –Sensitivity to environmental issues