Modernity & Social Change

Modernity & Social Change • *before we begin, download the worksheet entitled “Three Ways of Looking at Social Change.” • it can be found on Blackboard by going to Course Documents, then At Home Sessions Note that towards the end of the slide show slides will include audio segments that you should listen to. Whenever you see the “play” sign on a slide (like the icon below), click it to hear the audio.

3 ways of looking at social change • ethnocide: the idea that indigenous culture groups are dying, either literally (by disease or genocide) or by breaking up and dispersing. • homogenization: the idea that all the world is becoming similar, that all people are assimilating to Western norms. Groups do not necessarily die or break up, but they lose all of the cultural attributes that make them distinctive. AKA “Americanization,” “Westernization,” “Coca-cola-ization” • heterogeneity: the idea that cultures are maintaining their distinct identities and traditions in the midst of globalization. AKA “cultural resiliency,” “cultural conservativism”

Now, go to your worksheet. In order to fill it out, browse through the articles, books, and films listed on your syllabus (a copy is posted under “Course Information” on Blackboard). Everyone should make a post to Blackboard explaining one of their responses. DO NOT go forward with this presentation until you have filled out the form and made your post to Blackboard!

1. Ethnocide This does happen to some unlucky groups, but only a minority. Question: apart from those peoples who die off as a result of disease or genocide, why do some indigenous peoples completely abandon their way of life? Ponder this for a minute, then proceed to the next slide.

Note: the answers to this question include examples that might be categorized under “ethnocide” on your worksheet • They have been forced to do so by their governments. Ex: N!ai and her family, who were forced to live on a reservation and could no longer hunt and gather (film “N!ai: Story of a !Kung Woman”)

They have been pressured to give up their traditional subsistence strategies by well-meaning development agencies. Ex: Many Turkana pastoralists in East Africa have been encouraged to give up their pastoral lifestyle in favor of ranching or agriculture. However, the Ngisonyoka Turkana, a subgroup that continues to herd animals, can actually better survive drought. (article “Beating the Odds in Arid Africa”) • They have been driven out of their traditional territories by greedy transnational corporations eager to exploit natural resources. Ex: the Baka pygmies of central Africa are being forced out by loggers. Similarly, many indigenous peoples of Brazil are being forced out by oil companies (although some, like the Huaorani, are resisting this). Ex: (article “Baka Beyond” and film “Trinkets and Beads”)

They have been forced, by extreme poverty and deprivation, to adopt lifestyles and beliefs that run counter to traditional lifestyles and beliefs. Ex: the failure of shanty-town mothers in Brazil to nurture and care for their newborns. Scheper-Hughes’s interpretation is that this is not “traditional culture,” which has largely been lost, but is a reaction (albeit an unhealthy one) to modern life. These marginalized people have been forced off the land and must work as laborers on rich men’s plantations or in low-paying urban jobs. Suffering incredible poverty and high infant mortality rates, women refuse to invest mother love in their infants until they are sure they will survive. Such beliefs are reinforced by another institution of modernity: the Catholic church.

2. Homogenization This is the most popular belief, but in fact many anthropologists dispute the idea that all people are becoming the same. Indigenous peoples may superficially adopt certain “Western” practices, like wearing Western clothing, eating Western foods, and using Western commodities and technologies, but deep down their way of life remains very different from ours and they retain many elements of traditional culture. However, there is no doubt that some peoples are changing certain key aspects of their traditional culture, like . . . REFER TO THE ANSWERS YOU GAVE ONYOUR WORKSHEET FOR HOMOGENIZATION

the Mosou, who are abandoning their practice of “walking marriages” as they come into contact with tourists, schools, and other peoples whom they meet when they leave the village. In addition, they are pressured by a disapproving government. (film “A World without Fathers or Husbands” and article “Land of the Walking Marriage”). • Polyandrous families in Tibet. Because this marriage system is so unstable, brothers increasingly opt to leave the family farm rather than remain in a polyandrous marriage where conflict between brothers can be severe. (“When Brothers Share a Wife”) • Gikuyu women of East Africa who are abandoning female genital operations. Women increasingly convert to Christianity and receive an education, which leads them to think critically of this tradition. In addition, the government declared female genital operations illegal in the 1980s.

Question: Thinking in more abstract and general terms, why might some groups abandon key aspects of their traditional culture, leading to homogenization? Ponder this for a minute, then proceed to the next slide.

They may be pressured by human rights groups or religious groups to give up practices that are deemed unethical. The case discussed above, of East African women giving up female genital operations, is a good example. (article “Wamutira: The First Wife”) • Group members may feel embarrassed by the racist images that others hold of them. Although anthropologists have shunned the notion that non-Western peoples are “primitives” or “savages,” many urban residents of developing countries continue to look upon indigenous peoples in this derogatory manner. Ex: the Teduray man who cut his hair and wears modern clothing since other Filippinos made fun of him at the market. [Or the “townie” Brazilians who gawked at the Huaorani when they went to the protest in town.] (book Wisdom from a Rainforest)

Group members might find that new products and technologies make their lives easier. Ex: Wolof women (with whom I did fieldwork) must spend hours every day pounding millet, pulling water from 60-meter wells, and gathering fuelwood. they would adopt, in a second, powered millet grinders, running water, and gas or electric stoves (these exist in some villages, but many are too poor to get hold of these). • Youth in the group might be influenced by the media (TV, radio, advertising) to take up dress and demeanor that is trendy. Ex: in the Senegalese village where I worked, many youth wore counterfeit Michale Jordan tops and Nike sneakers (pirated in from China). Watches were a favored item, and had become a standard item in bridewealth payments.

3. Heterogeneity This is the perspective that many anthropologists insist is the case for the majority of the world’s peoples.

Things to consider with regard to heterogeneity . . . • anthropologists point out that among indigenous peoples there is an increased self-consciousness about one’s place in the world (“culture” has new meaning–people are aware that they have a unique culture and conscientiously try to maintain and safeguard it)

Things to consider with regard to heterogeneity . . . • attention is given to the indigenization of modernity: how indigenous peoples selectively pick and choose bits and pieces of modernity and incorporate them into pre-existing cultural schemas without fundamentally changing one’s beliefs and practices.

Question: So what groups might we categorize as exhibiting heterogeneity? • The Trobrianders (book, The Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea)

Question: So what groups might we categorize as exhibiting heterogeneity? • The Hmong (book, The Spirit Catches you and You Fall Down)

Question: So what groups might we categorize as exhibiting heterogeneity? • The Huaorani (film, “Trinkets and Beads”)

Question: So what groups might we categorize as exhibiting heterogeneity? • The people of India (article “Arranging a Marriage in India” and film “Caste at Birth”) • The Teduray (book, Wisdom from a Rainforest)

The Hmong People and Social Change Are the Hmong a “stone age people”? Are they primitives lacking in beliefs, as the evangelist minister in the film claimed?

What changes have the Hmong undergone throughout their history? • Were oppressed for centuries in China • Migrated to Laos and Thailand • Were tied to a global market in opium • Fought a proxy war for the U.S. against communists • Lived in refugee camps in Thailand for years, dependent on food aid • Became involuntary refugees living in the U.S. • Now: they experience much pressure to change by Christian missionaries

Modernity & Social Change