November 13-18 2003
Please note that there will be a film the next time.
Make an effort to be present so that you can answer exam questions.
I will be absent between 19-24 November due to a conference.
Next week
 You have to read the chapter on Religion ch.12 for next Tuesday.
Last time
 People on the move
 We covered quite a bit outside of the textbook.
 Colonialism, global trade and capitalism.
 Modernism and postmodernisim.
Thanksgiving
 Formal points:
 Remember page numbers!
 Paragraph style.
 There-their.
 SOURCES/The difference between a citation and a paraphrasing.
People on the move
Development of Global Trade
 Before 1500, world regions were virtually isolated from each other.
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 The Old World (Africa, Europe and Asia) formed a unit within which trade
allowed spread of technology and institutions.
European Expansion
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Began with the discovery of the Americas by Columbus in 1492.
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The Spanish, Portuguese, English, French and Dutch invaded the Americas.
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The European global maritime trade network allowed the exchange of
technology, food, animals, diseases and people.
Industrial Revolution
 Starting in about 1800, European contact with non-Western people changed to
political domination.
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 19th century was a time of European imperial expansion as the countries of
Europe began claiming lands and people of Africa, Asia and Oceania.
Emergence of the Global Economy
 Collapse of the existing colonial empires.
 Developments of technology have made geography irrelevant.
 International finance and the globalization of world capital.
Consequences of Globalization
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The increased contact among cultures has created increased possibilities for
the domination of one group by another through various means.
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Currently, domination comes most frequently in the form of core-based
multinational corporations causing economic change in Third World cultures.
Consequences of Globalization
 Increasing contact among peoples and increasing exposure of non-Western
peoples to Western cultural traditions.
 Growing resentment of Western economic dominance and cultural influences.
“Weapons of the weak”
 Oppressed groups may use subtle, nonconfrontational methods to resist
various forms of domination.
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Examples of antihegemonic discourse include rituals (e.g., Carnaval), and
"folk" literature.
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Resistance is more likely to be public when the oppressed come together in
groups.
Cultural imperialism
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The descriptions of "cultural imperialism" sometimes overstate the passivity of
subject peoples, depicting them too exclusively as victims.
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).
Making and remaking culture
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Popular culture: the notion of an individual reading popular culture as a text
connotes the potential for agency.
Indigenizing popular culture.
World System of Images: single domination of mass media images versus
multiplicity
Transnational culture of consumption
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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).
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Migrant labour also contributes to cultural diffusion.
People in motion
 The diaspora has become an increasingly important cultural identity base, as a
result of population migration and displacement.
Process of modernization
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Subprocesses:
Technological development
Agricultural development
Industrialization
Urbanization
Implications/modernist assumptions
 Linear development
 Belief in universal values
 Homogeneity
Postmodernisim
 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
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 Postmodernism (derived from the architectural style) refers 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.
Implications/postmodern assumptions
 Diversity and cultural diversity.
 Rejection of the possibility of common problems and common solutions.
 No universality – relativism.
People on the move –Miller ch15
The KEY Questions
 What are the reasons for migration?
 What is a displaced person?
 How are new immigrants contributing to transnational connections
and multiculturalism?
Migration
 Movement of a person or people from one place to another
 Major moves brought on by:
– necessity, e.g. famine
– population pressure, e.g. San
– extreme force, e.g. African diaspora
 Interrelated with other aspects of culture
Anthropology of Migration
Research methodologies
 Multidisciplinary
 Fieldwork often takes place in both the home and destination places
 Use of both macro and micro perspectives
– take national and global economic forces into account
 Often, the anthropologist is involved in providing assistance to migrants
Internal and international migration
 Internal and international migration have different consequences for the people
involved.
Internal Migration
 Movement within national boundaries
 Rural-to-urban migration to get work
 Push-pull theory versus structural forces
 Associated with psychosocial problems and elevated health risks
Push-pull theory
 Higher expectations of quality of life (push factors).
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 Employment, education and life style (pull factors).
Labour migration
 When people migrate to work for a specific period of time this is referred to as
wage labour migration.
 This can be both legal and illegal.
 E.g. Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait.
Circular migration
 When people go back and fort between places this is referred to as circular
migration.
International Migration
 100 million immigrants world-wide
 Result of economic and political changes that affect labour demands and
human welfare
 “Classic countries” of immigration (including Canada)
 In the 1960s, Canadian policies changed from “White immigration” to
immigration based on skills and experience
Categories of Migrants
New Immigrants
 International immigrants who have moved after the 1960s
 In Canada, immigrants arriving after Immigration Regulations of 1967
 Trends:
– globalization
– acceleration
– feminization
Transnationalism
 React against notions that
 societies, nations and cultures occupy naturally discontinuous spaces,
 world as consisting of distinct countries, different cultures and societies,
Transnationalism
 argues that
 space as hierarchically interconnected
 explore construction of belonging
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