Globalization, Culture Change, The Future

Slide 1: Cultural Change, Globality, and the Future Imperialism, Acculturation, and the Third World

Slide 2: Globalization and Cultural Change: Introduction  Cultural Change  Change always present  Present era: change has accelerated  Globalization  Again, present since the empires  Industrial era: Process has accelerated via technology  Infiltrated into all parts of Third World cultures

Slide 3: Leading Trends: Globalization  Economic Globalization:  Expansion of trade into an international division of labor  Core countries  Peripheral countries  Semiperipheral countries  Expansion of a global production system  Transportation innovation  Communication innovation  Labor-intensive processes to Third World  More recently: white-collar work

Slide 4: Leading Trends: Globalization Impact  Peasantization: Settlement of  Nomadic peoples  Independent cultivators (e.g. Yanomamo)  Proletarianization  Alienation of land  Rural workers  Rural-to-urban migration

Slide 5: Leading Trends: Earlier Phases of Globalizaton  Extermination of existing populations  Locations: the Americas, Australia  Processes: Diseases, conquest by division  Slavery  Examples: African slavery by Arabs, then Westerners  Contemporary examples: sex slavery in Thailand, forced labor in China

Slide 6: Leading Trends: Applied Anthropology  Westernization of  Technology and Economics  Derivative Institutions  Politics Religion  Positive Aspects of Westernization  Health Promotion (though debatable)  Elimination of harmful practices such as:  Tribal Warfare  Clitoridectomy and circumcision  Child Marriages

Slide 7: Leading Trends: Applied Anthropology  Negative Aspects of Westernization:  Loss of land  Loss of livelihood (India’s cotton):  Loss of independence  Role of Applied Anthropology  Change from subsistence to cash crops  Change from indigenous to market-based technology (e.g. fertilizer, demos)  Persuasion; changing attitudes

Slide 8: Overview  Theories of cultural change  Nature of peasant society  Case study of the twin processes in Guatemala  Guatemala at Conquest  Guatemala under Colonial/Conservative Rule  Guatemala under Liberal Regimes

Slide 9: Theories of Social Change  Most theories focus on the local  Index variables (Sociologists)  Entrepreneuralism (Economists; Psychologists)  Diffusionism: (Anthropologists)  Macroscopic Approaches  Dependency Theory (Frank)  World-Systems Analysis (Wallerstein)  Recent trends: Asian corporatism?

Slide 10: States of Economic Growth (Rostow)  Traditional stage: culture and attitudes are barriers to development  Culture change (premodern) stage: acceptance that change is both necessary and beneficial  Take-Off Stage: Investment and savings begin to rise  Self-Sustained growth: Self-reinforcing investment and savings rates as society undergoes industrialization; spread of education  High economic growth (or era of mass consumption): achievement of high standard

Slide 11: Theory of Social Change: Pattern Variables  Modernization is measured by indicators known as pattern variables  Traditional vs. modern measures  Ascription vs. Achievement  Particularism vs. Universalism  Drawbacks  Traditionalism masks diversity  Ignores wider economies  Counterexamples in modern society

Slide 12: Theory of Social Change:Psychological variables  Strategy  Foster entrepreneurial attitudes  Select society with this attribute  Example: McClelland  Need for achievement (n-ach): a measurable concept;t  One indicator: folk tales  Turkey: the boy and the grocer  Implication: decision as to whom to aid.

Slide 13: Theory of Social Change: Diffusionism  Strategy  Change in key societal characteristics  Demonstration projects  Marketing strategies  Tzintzuntzan: Mexican case study  Pottery marketing encouraged--and resisted  Image of limited good: absolute scarcity  Dyadic contract: distrust of organizations

Slide 14: World Systems Analysis and Allied Theories  Dependency Theory  Specialization on single exports  Primary sector  Fostered by industrial countries  World-Systems Analysis  Core countries (Industrialized, Diversified)  Peripheral: (Monocrop, specialized)  Semiperipheral (Intermediate, go-

Slide 15: The World Production System  The world has become one large system of production  Reasons: Improved communication  Reasons: Improved transportation technology  The production system involves the search for lower labor costs  Here how it works:

Slide 16: Division of Labor: Industrial Production System  Detail labor involves breaking each task down  To its subtasks in production  Assigning each subtask to each individual and  Ordering each individual how to do each subtask

Slide 17: Effects: Globalized Division of Labor  Has enabled globalization of production  Labor intensive tasks sent to Third World  Such as this leatherworking operation in Ecuador  Result: downsizing and plant closures  Mexican maquiladoras close  As low wages in China or Bangladesh draw factories there

Slide 18: Peasant Society  Importance: Linkage to wider society  Definitions based on this linkage  Kroeber: Part societies with part cultures.  Redfield: Two Aspects  Great versus Little Tradition  Folk-Urban Continuum  Fallers: African societies  Lack of a long-standing tradition  Drawback: Indigenous African states

Slide 19: Peasant Society: A Structural Definition according to Eric Wolf  The funding metaphor  Primitive Cultivators and Peasants both must meet a  Caloric fund (food, other necessities)  Replacement fund (seeds, house repair)  Ceremonial fund (life change, solidarity)  Peasants  Subject to domain of state  Rent fund (taxes, tribute, forced labor)

Slide 20: Indigenous Guatemala: Ethnohistorical Overview  Pre-Columbian Era (ca 1000-1524)  Either city states  Or parts of a larger state.  Colonization by Spain (1524-1600)  Colonial and Early Independence (1600-1871)  Liberal Era (1871-Present)  Reform Hiatus (1944-1954)  Civil War and Aftermath (1960-

Slide 21: Pre-Columbian Era  Sociopolitical Organization  Patrilineal Clans  Joint Land Tenure  Warring Kingdoms: Quiche dominated  Tributaries to various cycles of states  Other Attributes  Calendrical System  Base 20 system of numbers  Writing combining glyph types

Slide 22: Spanish Colonization  Conquest completed by 1540, with a few exceptions  Colonial Setup  Spaniards perennially understaffed  Created congregaciones: forced population relocation to town centers  Each town deeded communal land  Quota system of labor and tribute

Slide 23: Spanish Colonization: Town Government  Offices staffed by Indians themselves  Enforced the quota system of labor  Assessed each household for tribute  Administered the allocation of land  Handled other daily affairs  Structure  Caciques became the administrators  Alcaldes (mayors) and regidores (council)  Police and messengers: the mayores

Slide 24: Spanish Colonization: Religious Governance  Priests directed the town’s church  Sacristans oversaw church’s daily administration  Cofradias assigned care of each saint and its celebration  Alter boys handled menial chores  Syncretism: Each saint “fronted” for indigenous spirits

Slide 25: Colonial Guatemala/Central America  Guatemala was captaincy-general of Central America (including Chiapas)  Spain lost interest in Central America  Lacked the gold/silver deposits of New Spain and Peru  Spain directed staff to these two colonies  Central America came to be neglected  In due course, Indians gained autonomy by default

Slide 26: Closed Corporate Communities  Communities were both closed and corporate  Corporate  Estate: communal land  Body of rights and obligations  Rights: usufruct land rights  Obligations: community service  Focus of service: civil-religious hierarchy

Slide 27: Communities as Corporate: Civil-Religious Hierarchy  Civil and religious organizations became fused into a theocracy  Hierarchy of offices  Lowest: messengers, police  Middle level mayordomo of cofradias  Upper level: mayors, council, top cofrades  Obligatory service  Financial support of office

Slide 28: Communities as Corporate: Civil-Religious Hierarchy  Cargo career  Youths began as messengers  Early to middle age: mayordomos  Elders became senior officeholders: councillors. mayors, senior mayordomos  Principales (e.g. moletik in Zinacantan)  Leveling mechanism  Led to reduced stratification  Resources directed to community welfare

Slide 29: Communities as Closed: Structural Barriers  Community Endogamy  Community markers  Distinctive dress style  Linguistic dialects  Product specialization  Regional markets  Rotating: markets held alternate days  Solar: central markets  Semimonopoly of crafts ensure demand

Slide 30: Regional Economies of Colonial Central America  Hostile symbiosis between  Haciendas  Closed corporate communities  Conservatives vs. Liberals  Conservatives: maintain national self-sufficiency  Liberals: Wealth through  Economic development  External commerce

Slide 31: Liberal Reformas: Roots  Economic Strategy  Country needs to industrialize  Key: Produce exports  Guatemala: lucrative export proved to be coffee  Origins: Costa Rica had a booming coffee economy by 1840s  In 1860, coffee proved successful

Slide 32: Liberal Reformas: Land  Rationale for Land Reforms  Needed land “locked” in communal land  Incentive lacking for Indians to plant the crop  Land Reforms  Privatization: only land registered to private individuals was recognized  Result: land grabs of communal property  Some communities vanished; others restructured

Slide 33: Liberal Reforma: Labor  Coffee requires massive labor inputs  Tending seedlings  Weeding  Picking and processing beans  Labor Reforms  Restoration of labor quota system  Debt peonage legalized  Fincas de mozos: worker-producing farms  Vagrancy laws (1930s)

Slide 34: Liberal Reforma: Impact on Communities  Land became a commodity  Communal land mostly nonarable  Communities became dependent on labor markets  Corporate institutions eroded  Politics dominated political part of CRH  Religious movements entered communities  “True” Catholicism displace folk beliefs  Protestantism entered.

Slide 35: Liberal Reforma: Long-term impact  Social reforms introduced, reversed  Labor legislation  Land redistribution  Civil war of attrition  Guerrilla warfare involved Indian in 1980s  Communities bombed, mass emigration  Peace Accords of 1996 ended war  Guatemala has become part of global system of production.

Slide 36: Reactions to Globalization: Latin America  Venezuela: Control of Oil Resources under Chavez  Cochabamba, Bolivia: Privatization of water followed by return to public  Bolivia: Control of gas resources  Argentina: Worker takeover of closed factories  Mexico: Narrow defeat of a socialist coalition; EZLN revolt

Slide 37: Reactions of Globalization: East Asia  China: Controlled foreign investment  Japan: Independent industrialization  The Four Tigers: Independent commerce  India: New Silicon Valleys  Question in ReOrient: Is East Asian hegemony about to re-emerge?

Slide 38: Reactions To Globalization: Fundamentalism  Iran: Islamic Republic as reaction to imperialism  Iraq and Afghanistan: Protracted warfare, with many precedents  Other Fundamentalist Movements: Turkey, Algeria, rest of Middle East

Slide 39: Conclusion  Corporate capital dominates the world  Third World Countries have become industrial appendages  Outsourcing of manufacturing and increasingly high-tech industries  Reactions have been multifarious—from co-optation to expulsion