Perspectives An Open Invitation to Cultural Anthropology Textbook Chapter 12 Globalization

12 GLOBALIZATION Lauren Miller Griffith , Texas Tech University Jonathan . Marion , University of Arkansas marion ?

Learning Objectives Define globalization and the that can be used to characterize global flows or exchanges . Explain the relationship between globalization and the creation of new lifestyles and forms of consumption . Describe some of the ways people use agency to respond to globalization including syncretism and participation in alternative markets . Assess the relationship between globalization , and . Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of the intensification of globalization . Discuss the implications of globalization for anthropology . It is Tuesday on campus as you enter the dining hall . The days hot lunch entrees include Caribbean jerk pork with mango salsa and a side of collard greens . The next station is offering Asian . At the sandwich counter , tuna salad , an classic , is being served in a pita . Now , are these dishes authentic ?

That , of course , depends on how you define authenticity A similar question was asked at College in December 2015 when a group of students claimed that 304 305 ing foreign cuisines constituted a form of social Their claim , which raised a great deal of , was that the cafeteria appropriation and poor execution of ethnic dishes was disrespectful to the cultures from which those recipes were taken . Many people dismissed the students concerns as either an overreaction or as an attempt to rephrase a perennial complaint ( bad cafeteria food ) in a loaded language of social justice likely to garner a response from the administration . Regardless of what one thinks about this case , it is revealing of how college well as the larger societies in which they are changed over time . The fact that dishes like sushi and mi are even available in an Ohio college cafeteria suggests that globalization has intensified . The fact that the students would be enough to question the ethical implications of appropriating foreign cuisine suggests that we are truly in a new era . But what , in fact , is globalization ?

OVERVIEW AND EARLY GLOBALIZATION Globalization is a Word commonly used in public discourse , but it is often loosely defined in society ( much like the Word culture itself ) First appearing in the English language in the 19405 , the term globalization is now commonplace and is used to discuss the circulation of goods , the fast and furious exchange of ideas , and the movement of Despite its common use , it seems that the many people using the term are often not defining it in the same way . Some treat globalization as ply an economic issue while others focus more on the social and political aspects . What is clear , ever , is that globalization has many different facets of contemporary social life . This actually makes globalization an ideal topic of study for anthropologists , who pride themselves on taking a tic approach to culture ( see the Development of Anthropological Ideas chapter ) For our purposes , we adopt political scientist Manfred definition of globalization the intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice It is challenging to determine precisely when globalization began . Although some people discuss globalization as if it was an entirely new process Without historical antecedents , in truth its precursors have been going on for a very long time . In this chapter , we argue that the distinguishing feature of globalization in the contemporary era is the speed , rather than the scope , of global interactions . Early modern technological innovations hastened For instance , the invention of the wheel a need for permanent roads that would facilitate transport of animal drawn carts . These wheeled vehicles increased people mobility , which in turn facilitated the sharing of both goods and ideas . Even before the invention of the wheel , the creation of Written communication systems allowed ideas to be shared between people in distant locations . Certainly extensive empires have existed at various times throughout human history , including nese dynasties ( the Han dynasty , 206 CE , for instance , reached the same size the Roman Empire achieved much later ) the Ottoman Empire , and the Roman Empire . Most recently in world history , European colonial expansion into Africa , Asia and the Americas marked another landmark of globalization . As discussed in the Development of Anthropological Ideas chapter , colonialism refers to the political , social , economic , and cultural domination of a territory and its people by a foreign power for an extended period of time . Technically , colonialism can be practiced by any group that is enough to subdue other this certainly would be an accurate term for Ottoman and Roman imperial as a term , colonialism is typically associated with the actions of pean countries starting in the and lasting through the . During this period , European

306 PERSPECTIVES AN OPEN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY powers divvied up unclaimed land with little regard for ethnic groups who already lived in those places , their political structures , belief systems , or . By 1914 , European nations ruled more than 85 percent of the world , and it is not by accident that the image of the world most often seen on maps continues to be very in its orientation map ) Colonialism in the Americas was the result of European conquest of newly discovered territories during the Age of Exploration . Columbus was likely not the first explorer to reach the Americas , but his discovery intensified Europeans desires to colonize this new territory . European leaders began expanding their spheres of in Europe before turning their attention to lands further afield the successes they had in colonizing nearby lands , amplified by a growing demand for trade items found in the Orient , fueled their enthusiasm for exploration outside the region . The Catholic Church also ported this economically motivated mission , as it coincided with a weakening of their hold in places like England , Germany , and France . One of the most devastating features of the colonial period was the forced labor of both indigenous Americans and Africans who were enslaved and shipped off as chattel . Between 1525 and 1866 , million slaves were sent to the New World from Africa . Treated as chattel , only million Africans survived until arriving in the Americas . The US . imported approximately of these slaves . It is not by coincidence that the ethically irredeemable shipment of slaves to the Americas corresponded to massive shipments of goods to Europe and down the west coast of Africa . As far as the total scope of international flows , however , European colonialism pales in comparison to the scope of globalization that has transpired since the . Contemporary globalization , at least in terms of economics , is perhaps best pinpointed as coinciding with the conclusion of World War II and the Woods The agreements made at the Woods Conference led to the creation of the International Monetary Fund ( IMF ) as well as the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development , which later became the World Bank ( It also laid the groundwork for the World Trade Organization ( Taken together , these three have had a tremendous role in accelerating globalization and in shaping the lives of people in the developing world . The very idea of governing bodies like the United Nations , or regulatory like the IMF and , that exist outside the confines of a specific widely as Organizations ( to undermining local Although local , regional , and national identities and affiliations retain salience in the global era , their importance has shifted relative to the growing sense many people have of being citizens of the world . THE ACCELERATION OF GLOBALIZATION The of Globalization As we have already established , globalization refers to the increasing pace and scope of crisscrossing the globe . Anthropologist Arjun has discussed this in terms of five specific or , and . Thinking of globalization in terms of the people , things , and ideas that across national boundaries is a productive framework for understanding the shifting social landscapes in which contemporary people are often embedded in their daily lives . Questions about where people migrate , their reasons for migration , the pace at which they travel , the ways their lives change as a result of their travels , and how their original communities change can all be addressed within this framework . Questions about goods

307 and ideas that travel without the accompaniment of human agents can also be answered using rai notion of . refers to the of people across boundaries . While people such as labor migrants or refugees ( see case study below ) travel out of necessity or in search of better opportunities for selves and their families , leisure travelers are also part of this scape . The World Tourism Organization , a specialized branch of the United Nations , argues that tourism is one of the fastest growing commercial sectors and that approximately one in eleven jobs is related to tourism in some Tourism typically puts people from developed parts of the world in contact with people in the developing world , which creates both opportunities and challenges for all involved . While there is the potential for tourists to be positively affected by their experiences with the Other while travelling , the tourism industry has also received its share of criticisms . Individuals from wealthier countries like the , even if they are not wealthy themselves by the standards of the United States , are able to indulge in luxuries while ing abroad in poorer nations like those found in the Caribbean . There is a fine line between a ) tourists expecting service while on vacation and ) tourists treating local people like servants . This latter scenario exemplifies the unequal power relationships that develop in these kinds of situations , and such power relationships concern responsible social refers to of technology . Apple iPhone is just one example of how the movement of technologies across boundaries can radically affect life for people all along the commodity chain . Sales records are surpassed with each release of a new iPhone , with lines of customers spilling out of Apple stores and snaking around the block . Demand for this new product drives a fast and furious pace of production . Workers who are struggling to keep up with demand are subjected to labor most iPhone users would find abhorrent some even commit suicide as a result . The revenue with the production and export of technological goods is drastically altering the international distribution of wealth . As the pace of technological innovation increases , so does the of technology . This is not , of course , an entirely new phenomenon earlier technologies have also drastically and changed the human experience . For example , the production and distribution of the printing press throughout Europe ( and beyond ) dramatically changed the ways in which people thought of members not only of local communities , but of national communities as refers to the flow of ideas . This can be , such as an individual posting her or his personal views on Facebook for public consumption , or it can be larger and more systematic . provide a key example . Christian missionaries to the Amazon region made it their explicit goal to spread their religious doctrines . As the experiences of Daniel Everett show , however , local people do not necessarily interpret the ideas they are brought in the way missionaries In addition to the fact that all people have agency to accept , reject , or adapt the ideologies that are introduced to or imposed on them ( see syncretism below ) The structure of the spoken by the makes it difficult to provide direct translations of the refers to the flow of money across political borders . Like the other flows discussed by , this phenomenon has been occurring for centuries . The Spanish , for example , conscripted indigenous laborers to mine the silver veins of the mines of Bolivia . The vast riches extracted from this region were used to pay Spain debts in northern Europe . The pace of the global transfer of money has only accelerated and today transactions in the New York Stock Exchange , the index , and other such finance hubs have nearly immediate effects on economies around the world . refers to the of media across borders . In earlier historic periods , it could take weeks or even months for entertainment and education content to travel from one location to another . From the telegraph to the telephone , and now the Internet ( and myriad other digital communication ) media are far more easily and rapidly shared regardless of geographic borders . For example ,

308 PERSPECTIVES AN OPEN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY Brazilian may provide entertainment on African bus trips , Bollywood films are shown in Canadian cinemas , and people from around the world regularly watch such as the World Cup and the Olympics from wherever they may live . While the five defined by provide useful tools for thinking about these various forms of circulation , them in this way can also be misleading . Ultimately , the phenomena studied by most anthropologists will involve more than one of these . Take clothing for instance . Kelsey , an author whose undergraduate concentration was in anthropology , was inspired to find out more about the lives of the people who made his In a single day , he found , the average American might be wearing clothes made in Honduras , and China . Something as seemingly simple as a can actually involve all five of . The transnational corporations responsible for the production of these shirts themselves are part of , an idea which has become part of the international . The is altered by a company in the . contracting a production facility in another country where labor costs are cheaper . The equipment needed to create these is purchased and delivered to the production facility , thus altering the . The is affected by individuals migrating from their homes in rural villages to city centers , often disrupting traditional residence patterns in the process . Finally , the is involved in the marketing of these . SELECTIVE IMPORTATION AND ADAPTATION Globalization most certainly changes the landscape of contemporary social life ( see our discussion of above ) Yet it would be a mistake to think of globalization as a state that emerges without human agency . In most cases , people make decisions regarding whether or not they want to adopt a new product or idea that has been made available to them via globalization . They also have the ability to determine the ways in which that product or idea will be used , including many far different from what was originally intended . A Boy Scout uniform , for example , may be adopted by a village leader as a symbol of his authority when dealing with Tanzanian government officials . 14 First emerging in the late , the term refers to the adaptation of global ideas into locally palatable In some instances , this may be done as a scheme by corporations . For example , offers vastly different menu items in different tries . While a Big Mac may be the American favorite , when in India you might try a ( a potato and pea patty ) in Hong Kong mixed veggies and egg mini in a chicken broth for breakfast , in Thailand corn pies or pineapple pies , or a Steak Mince Cheese pie in New Zealand . In other cases , people rather than corporations find innovative ways to adopt and adapt foreign ideas . The of , Mexico , for example , have found a way to adapt globally able consumer goods to fit their longstanding cultural traditions . Traditionally , when a member of the community dies , that individuals relatives have an obligation to ease his or her passing to the life . One part of this obligation is making an extraordinary number of tamales for the mourners who come to pay their respects at the home altar that has been erected for the deceased . These tamales are intended to be taken home and were once shared in traditional earthen containers . Rather than this tradition , the introduction of modern consumer goods like Tupperware has made the old tradition of sharing food In this case , culture is not threatened by the introduction of

309 foreign goods and ideas because the community incorporates new things into their without completely trading old ideas for new ones . Practices like these provide evidence that fears about globalization leading to nothing but cultural homogenization may be . Yet , other communities refuse these products precisely because they equate modernization and globalization with culture loss . For example , Nobel Peace Prize recipient recounts how adamantly the Maya elders where she was raised warned the youth away from consuming or even using modern corn mills rather than the traditional mano and Case Study Both Global and Local Dancing Around the World While there are a variety of texts regarding the histories of salsa music and dancing , as it exists today the salsa scene is inseparable from the five flows of globalization described Take for instance the vast number of salsa and festivals held worldwide throughout the year . People from near and far travel to these events as dance students , social participants , performers , and instructors ( the ) Travel to and from these events , often internationally , depends on modern transportation ( the ) What is being taught , shared , and communicated at these events is , primarily ideas about different dancing style and techniques ( the ) In addition to the costs of or the like , registration , hotel rooms , lessons , and other services are all available because they are being paid for ( the ) Finally , these events could not exist as they do today without online advertising ( see Figure for an example ) workshop and schedules , and event registration , let alone of the featured teachers and performers ( the ) Indeed , the very fact that dancers can come from disparate locations and all successfully dance with each in the absence of a common spoken to the globalization involved in such dance forms ) I June . i Advertisement lo ! the New Zealand Salsa Congress , The widely shared patterning of movement to music in this dance genre does not , however , negate the very real differences between local iterations . Featured in the very title of Sydney recent edited volume , Salsa World A Global Dance in Local texts , real differences between local , practices , and meanings are shown in chapters dedicated to the salsa scenes in New York , New

310 AN OPEN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY Jersey , Los Angeles , rural America , Cuba , Puerto Rico , Colombia ( Cali ) Dominican Republic ( Santo ) France , Spain ( Barcelona ) and Learning to dance at family gatherings is different from learning in a studio . Learning to dance to music that plays in every building on the street is different from learning in a setting with entirely different local instruments . Learning to dance is different when everyone comes from the same general socioeconomic and ethnic background compared to learning in extremely heterogeneous urban settings . This set of comparisons could continue for quite some time . The point is that even global forms take on local Lifestyle , Taste , and Conspicuous Consumption While some aspects of globalization are best studied at the societal level , others are best examined at smaller scales such as the trends visible within specific strata or even at the level of individual . The concept of lifestyle refers to the creative , and sometimes even ironic ways in which individuals perform various social identities ( see the Performance chapter in this volume ) Sociologist David Chaney describes lifestyles as characteristic modes of social ment , or narratives of identity , in which the actions concerned can embed the metaphors at 22 The lifestyles we live and portray , then , can be seen as projects ( see the Fieldwork chapter for more information about ) in the sense that they display both to ourselves and to our who we think we are , who we want to be , and who we want to be seen to be . Chaney argues that people only feel the need to differentiate themselves when confronted with an array of available styles of Societies organized via organic solidarity ( versus mechanical ) are predicated on different goods , skills , and tasks . Within this framework , the rise of a consumerist enables individuals to exhibit their identities through the purchase and conspicuous use of various Globalization has increased the variety of goods available for individuals to well as people awareness of these expanding the range of identities that can be performed through their consumption habits ( see the Gender and Sexuality chapter for more on performance of identity ) In some situations , identity is an individual project , with conspicuous consumption used to display one sense of self . For example , a student who feels alienated by the conservative , preppy , dents at her East Coast school can cultivate an alternative identity by growing dreadlocks , wearing Bob Marley , and practicing drumming , all of which are associated with the African outside the United States . Critics have argued that a consequence of globalization is the homogenization of culture . Along similar lines , some have worried that the rapid expansion of the leisure market would decrease the diversity of cultural products ( books , movies ) consumed by the populace . The disappearance of shops and restaurants has certainly been an outcome of the rise of global conglomerates , but the homogenization of culture is not a foregone Globalization enables individuals in corners of the world to encounter new ideas , commodities , belief systems , and voluntary groups to which they might choose to belong . At times these are at the expense of existing options , but it is also important to acknowledge that people make choices and can select the options or opportunities that most resonate with them . The concept of lifestyle thus highlights the degree of available to individual actors who can pick and choose from global commodities , ideas , and activities . At the same time as individual choices are involved , the decisions made and the selected are far from random . Participating in a lifestyle implies knowledge about consumption knowing how to distinguish between goods is a form of symbolic capital that further enhances the standing of the How much free will , freedom of choice , or autonomy an individual actually has is an question far beyond the scope of this chapter , but in many cases a persons consumption patterns are actually

SH a of the social class in which she or he was when an individual thinks he or she is selectively adopting elements from global flows that fit with his or her unique identity . In other words , an individual taste is actually an outgrowth of his or her habitus , the embodied that arise from one in a specific social Habitus results in a feeling of ease within specific settings . For example , children who have been raised in homes are able to more seamlessly integrate into elite boarding schools than classmates on scholarships who might find norms of dining , dress , and overall comportment to be Habitus , the generative grammar for social action , generates tastes and , by extension , Recall the vignette that opened this chapter . The fact that the students of this prestigious liberal arts college are in the position to critique the ethical implications of specific recipes suggests that their life experiences are far different from the roughly one in seven households ( totaling million households ) in the United States with low or very low food Inevitably then , what people choose to consume from global the discourses they generate around those consumption often indicative of their social status . Once a commodity becomes part of these global , it is theoretically available to all people regardless of where they live . In actual practice , however , there are additional devices that ensure continued differentiation between social classes . Price will prevent many people from enjoying globally traded goods . While a may seem commonplace to the average college student in the , it is considered a luxury good in other parts of the world . Likewise , although Kobe steaks ( which come from the Japanese wagyu cattle ) are available in the , it is a relatively small subgroup of Americans who would be able and willing to spend hundreds of dollars for a serving of meat . Having the knowledge necessary to discern between different goods and then utilize them according to socially prescribed norms is another mark of distinction between social classes , as anthropologist Pierre work on taste made GLOBALIZATION IN EVERYDAY LIFE Although some within the discipline argue that anthropologists should report objectively on the and social phenomena they study , given the structure of the discourse surrounding globalization , it is increasingly difficult to avoid being pigeonholed as pro or anti globalization . In truth though , globalization has had both positive and negative impacts . Advantages of the Intensification of Globalization As optimists , we will start with the interpretation of globalization . Political Scientist Manfred has argued that humane forms of globalization have the potential to help us deal with some of the most pressing issues of our time , like rectifying the staggering inequalities between rich and poor or promoting The has made people in the Global North increasingly aware of the social injustices happening in other parts of the world . In his book on the global garment industry , Kelsey highlights the efforts undertaken by activists in the , ranging from public demonstrations the fur industry to boycotts of products produced in socially While many of these efforts fall short of their intended typically look the complexities of labor situations in the Global South where families often rely upon the labor of their children to make ends examples nonetheless underscore the connections people in

312 PERSPECTIVES AN OPEN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL one location now feel with others ( who they will likely never meet ) through the commodity chains that link them . Globalization has also facilitated the rise of solidarity movements that would not have been likely in an earlier era . To take a recent example , within hours of the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris , individuals from different nations and walks of life had changed their Facebook profile pictures to include the image of the French . This movement was criticized because of its the victims of a bombing in Beirut just the day before received far less international support than did the French . Shortcomings aside , it still stands as a testament to how quickly solidarity movements can gain momentum thanks to technological innovations like social media . programs and fundraising are yet more ways in which individuals from disparate circumstances are becoming linked in the global era . Kiva , for example , is a organization that enables anyone with an Internet connection to make a small ( 25 ) donation to an individual or cooperative in various parts of the developing World . The projects for which groups are seeking funding are described on the Kiva website and donors choose one or more specific projects to support . The recipient must then repay the loan to Kiva with interest . fundraising follows a similar principle , though without the requirement that money be paid back to the donors . One example involves funds gathered in this Way for a faculty led applied visual research class in , Belize in 2014 . By generating a small pool of additional funding , 100 percent of the students project fees could be dedicated to producing materials for local community partners ( compared to other groups , who used some of these fees for student lunches or other items ) As a result , the team was able to on what had been promised to the . The Cassava Farm ( Belize sole commercial cassava farm ) had requested a new road sign as well as marketing . The Austin Rodriguez Drum cultural resource center , and producer of traditional wanted help updating their educational poster ( see Figure and ) For both groups the team was able to a ) provide digital frames with all the research images ( so that the local community partners had something in hand and could use as they wanted ) use higher grade production materials , and ) start work on , style documents to be provided to each family and also copies to be donated to the local Museum .

Figure Original educational poster composed of photos , many , attached to cardboard of clear tape . Photograph by Jonathan . All reserved 314 PERSPECTIVES AN OPEN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY . Figure Updated poster , documenting the entire process , with matte lamination to protect from water damage . Photograph by Jonathan . Marion . All rights reserved Advances in transportation technologies , combined with an increased awareness of humanitarian crises abroad ( an awareness that is largely facilitated by advances in communication technologies ) also create new . Programs like the Peace Corps have a relatively long history of sending into foreign nations to assist with humanitarian efforts on a regular basis . Other volunteers are mobilized in times of crisis . Medical professionals may volunteer their services during a disease , to the regions others are trying to . Engineers may volunteer their time to help rebuild cities in the wake of natural disasters . And even lay people without a specialized skill set may lend their energy to helping others in the aftermath of a disaster , or by collecting or donating goods to be used in various relief efforts . In 2010 , a devastating , magnitude earthquake struck Haiti , ing an estimated three million people . Thanks to widespread coverage of the crisis , the international response was immediate and intense with more than twenty countries contributing resources and to assist in the recovery efforts . Clearly , then , there are also benefits facilitated by globalization . Disadvantages of the of Globalization In the previous section , we concluded by noting how the intensification of globalization can bring benefits to people in times of crisis . Yet it bears remembering and reiterating that sometimes such crises are themselves brought about by globalization . The decimation of indigenous tribes in the Americas ,

who had little to no resistance to the diseases carried by European explorers and settlers , is but one early example of this . Such changes to the worlds may also be accompanied by changes to local health . As epidemic after epidemic wreaked havoc on the indigenous peoples of the Americas , death rates in some tribes reached as high as 95 percent . Addressing a current instance , the research program on Climate Change , Agriculture and Food Security ( coordinated by the University of Copenhagen in Denmark , has called attention to the role of climate change in creating the current Syrian refugee crisis ( see case study by Laurie King below ) Similarly , a current example of how globalization can spell disaster from a public health standpoint would be the concern in 2014 about infected airplane passengers bringing the Ebola virus from Africa to the . In March 2014 , the country of Guinea experienced an outbreak of the Ebola virus . From there , it spread into many countries in the Western part of Africa . Medical professionals from the traveled to West Africa to assist with patient care . In October 2014 , the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( confirmed that a man who traveled from to the while asymptomatic became ill several days after reaching the and eventually succumbed to the disease . Several health workers in the also became ill with the virus , but were successfully treated . In response to this break , the increased screening efforts at the major ports of entry to the However , these cautions did not quell the fears of many Americans who heatedly debated the possibility of instituting travel bans to and from countries with confirmed cases of Ebola . The debates about travel bans to and from West Africa were a reminder of the xenophobic attitudes held by many Americans even in this age of globalization . There are many reasons for this . Racial is still very much a reality in world ( see the Race and Ethnicity chapter ) as is prejudice against other religions , gender identity , the differently , and others . In some ways , these fears have been heightened by globalization rather than diminished . Especially after the global recession of 2008 , some have become fearful for their economic security and have found it easy to use marginalized populations as scapegoats . While advances in communication technology have enabled social justice focused solidarity movements ( as discussed above ) unfortunately the same media have been used as a platform for by others . Social media enables those who had previously only been schoolyard bullies to broadcast their taunts further than ever before . Terrorists post videos of unspeakable violence online and individuals whose hateful attitudes might have been curbed through the informal sanctions of gossip and in a society can now find communities of bigots in online chat rooms . By the importance of the hypothetical average person , populist politics has engaged in scapegoating of minority ethnic and groups . This has been most apparent in the successful campaigns for the British vote on June 23 , 2016 and the election of Donald Trump as President in the United States . A portmanteau of British and exit , refers to the vote to leave the European Union . quartered in Brussels , Belgium , the European Union is an economic and political union of 28 states founded on November , 1993 in , Netherlands . Both this and the election of Donald Trump as the president of the represent backlash against some of the inequities generated by globalization . At the world scale , the Global North continues to extract wealth from the Global South . More tellingly though is the widening even in rich countries . Without sufficient social protection , system wherein profit motivates political and economic decision led to a situation in which the worlds eight richest men ( note the ) now control as much wealth as the bottom 50 percent of the entire world population . In other words , eight men now have just as much money as billion people combined and no nation in the world has a larger gap ( the difference between those with the most and the least in a society ) than the United States . So , while globalization has facilitated advantages for some , more and more people are being left behind .

316 PERSPECTIVES AN OPEN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL Social scientists often use the term to describe efforts people make to reassert their traditional values and ways of life . While this impulse is understandable , many of these people are to the rhetoric of scapegoating being told some other group is at fault for the problems they are facing . This is the sword of globalization . Additionally , in some cases globalization is forced on already marginal populations in peripheral nations through institutions like the IMF and World Bank . In these instances , globalization facilitates and amplifies the reach and impact of , a political and economic philosophy that emphasizes privatization and lated markets ( see below ) GLOBALIZATION AND Latin America provides a good example of how the shift from colonialism to has been disseminated through and exacerbated by globalization . By the beginning of the twentieth century , the Latin American colonies independence from Spain and Portugal was secure , but the relations of power that prevailed during the colonial period had largely been replicated with local elites controlling the means of production . During this period , citizens individually and collectively endeavored to establish a new national identity . Despite nominal commitments to democracy throughout the region , client relationships functioned as the primary political mechanism . Internal divisions ran deep in many Latin American countries , with the supporters ( or clients ) of rival elites periodically drawn into violent contests for rule on behalf of their patrons . In the last decade of the and the first decade of the , people in Latin America began to question the right of the elites to rule , as well as the hidden costs of modernization . Peasant uprisings , like the one that took place at in Brazil in 1896 , were evidence of the shifting political framework . People also saw the imperialistic tendencies of the as a negative force of modernization which they hoped to avoid . Together , this led to a situation in which people in Latin America sought a national identity that resonated with their sense of self . During this same period there was a slight but significant change in the economic structure of the region . The economy was still based on exports of agriculture and natural resources like minerals , and the profits remained in the hands of the elite . What was new , however , was the introduction and modest growth of manufacturing in the cities , which created new job opportunities . Economic diversification led to a more complex class structure and an emerging middle class . Unfortunately , this period of tive prosperity and stability soon ended . Because of the plentiful natural resources and the captive labor source available for exploitation in Latin America , wealthy landowners were able to undersell their European competitors on agricultural products and provide exotic minerals . The privileged position of Latin American landowner compared to European farmers led to widespread poverty among farmers in Europe , which led to and political instability in Europe . As locally born Latin can peasants migrated from the countryside to the cities and the cities filled with European immigrants , the landowning elite began to lose control , or at least the kind of power they used to hold over the ers who worked their land and had no other work options . While city living provided certain opportunities , it also introduced new challenges . In the city , for instance , people rarely had access to land for subsistence agriculture . This made them far more ble to economic , and the vulnerability of city living necessitated the adoption of new cal philosophies . Urban poverty and desperation created a climate in which many people found socialist philosophies appealing , starting as early as the in some places like Brazil . Initially , union leaders and European immigrants who spread socialist ideas among the urban poor were punished by the state

and often deported . Eventually such repressive tactics proved insufficient to curtail the swelling caused by strikes and related actions by the unions . Faced with a new political reality , the elite the public rhetoric of the urban masses . Realizing the need to cast themselves as allies to the urban workforce , the elites ushered in a period of modest reform with more protection for workers . During this period , and as an extension of their activism , the middle class also clamored for of the social services provided by the state . Pressure from the middle class for more social services for citizens unfortunately played into growing xenophobia ( fear of foreigners ) resulting from the immigration of so many foreigners and faulty ideas about racial superiority communicated through a growing discourse of nationalism . In some places , the elites aligned with the middle classes if they saw it as politically advantageous . In other places , however , elites resisted incorporating the classes into the ruling structure and the elites power ultimately was wrested away though military coups . While emerging leaders from the middle class continued relying on the export economic model , they directed a greater percentage of the profits back into social programs . Only after the stock market crash of the the resulting global those in power start to question the export model . In the early part of the , Latin American countries largely supported free trade because they believed they had a competitive advantage . They believed that by producing the products their region was best suited to produce they would prosper on the world market . However , changing world circumstances meant that Latin American countries soon lost their advantage average family size in industrialized countries began to decrease , lowering demand for Latin American commodities . When other countries with similar climates and topography began to grow the same crops , a global ply of agricultural products led to lower prices and worsened the decline of Latin America financial status in the world market . This economic downturn was amplified by the loss of British hegemony after World War II . Before the war , Great Britain and Latin America had enjoyed a stable exchange relationship with Latin America sending agricultural goods to Great Britain and the British sending manufactured goods to Latin . As the rose in global power , Americans looked to Latin America as a new market for goods . In contrast to Great Britain though , the did not need to import Latin American agricultural goods because the produced enough of its own , production that was further protected by high import tariffs . Even if a consumer wanted to buy Latin American commodities , the ties would be more expensive than domestic if actual costs were lower . Overall , Latin America sold its agricultural goods to Europe , including Great Britain , but Latin American exporters had to accept lower prices than ever before . The United States economic strategy toward Latin America was different than Great Britain had been . For those commodities that could not be produced in the , like bananas , companies went to Latin America so they could directly control the means of production . Although these ties were grown or produced in Latin America , the profits were taken by foreign companies rather than local ones . This same process also happened with mining interests like tin and copper purchased the mines in order to extract as much profit as possible . American companies were in a position to exploit the natural resources of these countries because the had the financial capital local communities lacked and the technological expertise needed to sustain these industries . This tern curtailed the rate of economic growth throughout Latin America as well as in other regions where similar patterns developed . The late through the saw many Latin American countries turning to through both a cultural movement and an economic strategy . The middle classes were in a favor of curtailing the export economy that had been preferred by the elites , but did not have the

318 PERSPECTIVES AN OPEN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL political clout to win elections . Indeed , their agenda was regularly blocked by the elites who used their ( with their clients ) to press their interests , especially in the rural areas . With time , ever , middle class men increasingly came to occupy military officer positions and used their newfound authority to put nationalist leaders in the . Nationalists argued that an on agriculture had led to Latin America vulnerable position in the international economy and called for a of industry . They hoped to start producing the goods that they had been importing from the and Europe . Their goal industrial . The state was instrumental in this economic reorganization , both helping people buy local goods and discouraging them from buying foreign goods . Doing this was far from as easy as it may sound . The state imposed high duties on goods destined for the export market in order to entice producers to sell their goods at home . At the same time , the state imposed high tariffs on the imports they wanted to replace with local products . With time ( and struggle ) these measures had their intended effects , ing the locally produced goods comparatively more therefore local . As already noted , developing factories required capital and technological expertise from abroad , which in turn made the goods produced much more expensive . To help people afford such expensive goods , the state printed more money , generating massive . In some places this would eventually reach percent ! The combination of chronic with high foreign debt emerged as an enduring problem in Latin America and other parts of the Global South . Countries crippled by high and debt have turned to international institutions like the IMF and for relief and while the intentions may be good , borrowing money from these global institutions always comes with strings attached . When a country accepts a loan from the IMF or the , for instance , they must agree to a number of conditions such as privatizing state enterprises ( see the case study on Bolivia Water sis , below ) and cutting spending on social services like healthcare and education . Borrowing countries are also required to adopt a number of policies intended to encourage free trade , such as the reduction or elimination of tariffs on imported goods and subsidies for domestically produced goods . Policies are put into place to encourage foreign investment . Transnational corporations have now reached the point that many of them rival nations in terms of revenue . In fact , as of 2009 , of the worlds largest economies are 35 It is an understatement to note that the policies forced on countries by lenders are often not entirely locally preferred and preferences . Although the IMF and measures are intended to spark economic growth , the populace often winds up suffering in the wake of these changes . Colonialism has given way to a in which economic force achieves What used to require military force with transnational corporations benefiting from the exploitation of poorer nations . Case Study Privatization and Bolivia Water Crisis In 2000 , Bolivians in the city of took to the streets to protest the exploitative practices of a transnational company that had won the right to provide water services in the activists celebrated this victory of mostly poor mestizo and indigenous ple over capitalist giants , but the situation on the ground today is more complicated . Water is one of the most essential elements on this planet . So how is it that a foreign company was given the right to determine who would have access to Bolivian water supplies and what the water would cost ?

The answer serves to highlight the fact that many former colonies like Bolivia have existed in a perpetual state of subordination to global superpowers . When Bolivia was a colony , Spain claimed the silver and other precious commodities that could be extracted from Bolivia landscape , but after Bolivia became independent structural adjustment policies mandated by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank paved the way for foreign companies to plunder the country natural resources .

319 In other words , colonial style relationships have been replicated in a global system that forces impoverished countries to sell resources to creditors resource extraction is facilitated by debt relations ?

Like many countries in the Global South , Bolivia is deep in debt . A failed program of social reforms , coupled with government corruption , was worsened by a severe drought affecting Bolivian agriculture . In order to pay its debts in the , Bolivia agreed to structural adjustments mandated by the conditions of the country World Bank and International Monetary Fund loans . One of the mandates of these loans was of enterprises like the water system . Proponents of privatizing such resources argue that the efficiency associated with profit businesses will also serve to conserve precious natural resources . Some have gone so far as to suggest that increases in water prices would help customers better grasp the preciousness of water and thereby encourage conservation . Of course , if customers conserve water too much the company managing water delivery will fail to make a profit , thus initiating a dangerous cycle . When companies anticipate that they will not see a return on their investment in infrastructure , they simply refuse to extend services to certain areas of the community . What made the privatization of water in Bolivia so disastrous for the people of urban areas like was the rapid population growth they experienced starting in the latter half of the twentieth century ( growth that continues in the present ) Population pressures layered on top of the scarcity of water in the Bolivian natural environment makes access to potable water a perennial concern . Migration to urban areas was hastened by many different factors including land reform , privatization of mines and resultant layoffs , and severe droughts . This influx of migrants put pressure on urban infrastructure . To make matters worse , climate change led to a decline in the amount of surface water available . In 2015 , Lake , the second largest lake in Bolivia , went dry and researchers are doubtful it will ever fully recover ( see Figure ) Figure A boat IS stranded on the shrinking Lake Found , 2005 In , organizing began in . Community members formed an organization called Coordinator for the Defense of Water and for Life , which was run using a direct form of democracy wherein everyone had an equal voice . This was empowering for peasants who were accustomed to being silenced and ignored in a social hierarchy . This organization , in contrast , coordinated actions that cut across ethnic and class lines . As the situation came to a head , activists blockaded the roads in and out of the city and riot police were brought in from the capital . After several days of confrontations between the people and the military , local activists ousted the transnational company and reclaimed their water source . Despite reclaiming control , however , they still lacked the infrastructure needed to effectively deliver what was once again their water . This forced them to look to international donors for assistance , which could recreate the very situation against which they so recently fought . Access to increasingly scarce water supplies is a growing problem . For example , plans to seize surface water from lakes creates with rural peasants who depend on these water sources for agricultural purposes . Unfortunately , such problems have emerged in many other places as well ( such as throughout Africa and the Middle East ) and are increasing in prevalence and severity amidst ongoing climate change . The question of whether or not water is a human right remains one that is heatedly debated by activists , CEOs , and others . See of the position taken by Nestle Chairman Peter , who argues for the privatization of water , a position clearly at odds with the position taken by the United Nations General Assembly which , in 2010 , recognized water and sanitation as human rights . RESPONSES TO GLOBALIZATION Cultures are dynamic and respond to changes in both the social and physical environments in which they are embedded . While culture provides a template for action , people are also active agents who

320 AN OPEN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY respond to Challenges and opportunities in a variety of ways , some of which may be quite creative and novel . As such , it would be inaccurate to only see globalization as an impersonal force dictating the lives of people in their various . Rather , people regularly use a variety of strategies in responding to global forces . While a comprehensive catalog of these strategies is beyond the scope of this chapter , here we outline two key responses . Syncretism Syncretism refers to the combination of different those that are seemingly a new , harmonious whole . Though syncretism arises for a variety of reasons , in many cases it is as a response to globalization . In this section , we use the example of as a way of that syncretism is a form of agency used by people living under oppression . Most often , anthropologists discuss syncretism within the context of religion . Anthropologists define religion as the cultural knowledge of the spiritual realm that humans use to cope with the ultimate problems of human existence ( see the Religion chapter ) is an sion religion , in which initiates serve as conduits between the human and supernatural realm . It is also an excellent example of a syncretic religion . The many gods in , known as , are they all have personalities experience the full range of human emotions like love , hatred , and anger and have individual histories that are known to practitioners . Each is associated with a particular color , and practitioners of the religion often wear bead necklaces that correspond to the specific deity with whom they feel a connection ( see Figure ) Unlike Christianity ( a tic religion ) does not stress the duality of good and evil ( or heaven and hell ) Although on the surface these two religious traditions may seem very different , in actual practice , many adherents of also identify as Christians , specifically Catholics . So how can this be ?

Much like the , Catholic saints are and have unique roles within the Catholic tradition . This feature of so than any other major Christian a fairly seamless overlay with worship . For example , the who rules over the seas and is associated with fertility , is with Our Lady of Conception . Ogum , whose domain is war and whose ritual implements are the sword and shield , is with Saint Anthony . das , Brazil , 2012 Just to be Clear is in no Way unique to Brazil or the African it occurs when one group is confronted with and by another ( and typically one with more power ) The reason syncretism is particularly common within Latin American religious systems is due to ) the tenacity with which African slaves clung to their traditional beliefs ) the fervor of the Spanish and Portuguese belief that slaves should receive instruction in Catholicism , and ) the realities of colonial life in which religious instruction for slaves was haphazard at best . This created the perfect climate within which African slaves could hide their traditional religious practices in plain sight . Syncretism serves as a response to globalization insofar as it overlapping . It would be unnecessary if people lived in a world where boundaries were clearly defined with no

logical exchanges taking place across those boundaries ( if such a world ever existed ) Since that is far from the lived reality for most people though , syncretism often serves as what james Scott as a weapon of the weak a concept referring to the ways in which marginalized peoples can resist without directly challenging their oppressors ( which could incite retaliation ) Examples might include mocking the elite behind their backs , subtle subversion , sabotage , or participation in tive economies that bypass the elite . In the classroom , it can be rolling one eyes behind the professors back , or thinking that you are getting away with something when texting in class . So too in the case of . Syncretism allowed the slaves and their descendants , who continue the tradition today , to create a facade of compliance with mandated Worship within the Catholic tradition , while still to pay homage to their own thus perpetuate their own ethnic closed doors . Participation in Alternative Markets As discussed earlier , structural adjustments mandated by international bodies like the IMF and have left farmers in developing nations particularly vulnerable to the whims of global markets . Within this framework , fair trade has emerged as a way for consumers to support small farmers and artisans who have been affected by these policies . To be certified as fair trade , vendors must agree to a fair price , which will be adjusted upwards if the world market price rises above the fair trade threshold . If the world market price drops , fair trade farmers still make a decent living , which allows them to continue farming rather than abandon their fields for wage labor . While admirable in its intent , and unassailably beneficial to many , anthropological research reminds us that every situation is plex and that there is never a one size fits all perfect solution . As you read about in the Fieldwork chapter , and have seen demonstrated throughout this text , anthropologists focus on the lived experience of people closest to the phenomenon they are studying . In the case of fair trade , then , anthropologists focus primarily on the farmers or artisans ( although an anthropologist could also study the consumers or people who import fair trade goods or facilitate their sale ) Looked at from farmers perspectives , setting and maintaining fair wages for commodities like coffee or bananas ensures that farmers will not abandon farming when the world market prices drop . On the plus side , this helps ensure at least some stability for producers and consumers alike . One of the key features of fair trade is the social premium generated by fair trade contracts the commitment that a certain percentage of the profit goes back into beneficial community projects such as education , structure development , and healthcare . But , in order for this to be successful , it is the local community and not an outside entity ( however well intentioned ) that must get to decide how these premiums are used . Although fair trade is very appealing , it bears remembering that not everyone benefits from fair trade in the same way . Individuals in leadership positions Within fair trade cooperatives tend to have stronger relationships with the vendors than do average members , leading them to have more positive with the whole business of fair Similarly , people with more cultural and social capital will have more access to the benefits of fair trade . A cacao farmer with Whom Lauren works in Belize , for example , pointed out that farmers with less education will always be taken advantage of by predatory traders , which is why they need the assistance of a growers association when entering the free trade market . Also of concern is that in some communities fair trade disrupts traditional roles and relationships . For example in a Maya village in , traditional gender roles were , with men becoming even more dominant because their commodity ( coffee ) had a fair trade ket whereas the womens main commodity ( weaving ) did

322 PERSPECTIVES AN OPEN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL In addition to the challenge of finding a market for ones goods , there are additional barriers to becoming involved in fair trade . For example , it used to be that farmers could sell relatively low quality coffee to fair trade organizations interested in social justice . Now , however , fair trade coffee must be of exceptional quality to compete with specialty In and of itself this is not a bad thing , but remember that some of the elite coffee producers of today were once the low quality producers of old . In other words , the first generation of fair trade coffee farmers benefited from the many ways in which fair trade companies invested in their farms , their processing equipment , and their education in a way that newer participants can not replicate . Indeed , once these initial farmers achieved a high quality fee bean , there was less incentive for fair trade vendors to invest in new farms . Now that the bar has been set so high , it is much more difficult for new farmers to break into the fair trade market because they lack the equipment , experience , knowledge , and networks of farmers who have more longstanding relationships with fair trade companies . Also worth noting are the many situations in which global standards with local norms of decision making . To be labeled as fair trade within the European Union banana market , for example , bananas must be of an exceptionally high quality . Banana farms must conform to a number of other guidelines such as avoiding pesticides and creating a buffer zone between the banana trees and water sources . While this all may make sense in theory , it can be problematic in practice , such as in parts of the Caribbean where land is customarily passed from one generation to the next without being subdivide into individual parcels . In these cases , decisions about land use have to be made collectively . If some of the landowners want to farm according to fair trade guidelines but other individuals refuse to meet these globally mandated standards , the whole family is blocked from entering the fair trade IMPLICATIONS FOR ANTHROPOLOGY As has been argued throughout this text , culture is dynamic . So too is anthropology as the field of study dedicated to culture . Although many students of anthropology ( let alone the public at large ) may have romantic visions of the lone ethnographer immersing her or himself in the rich community life of a rural village in a remote land , this is not the reality for most anthropologists today . An increasing number of anthropologists find themselves working in applied settings ( see the Seeing Like an chapter ) but even many of the more strictly identified academic employed at colleges and begun working in settings that might well be familiar to the average person . Now that anthropologists understand the importance of global flows of money , people , and ideas the importance of doing research everywhere that these issues play home ( wherever that may be ) as much as clear . Urban Anthropology Globalization has become a powerful in contemporary society and it would be difficult to find anyone who has not been affected by it in at least some small way . The widespread of globalization on daily life around the directly ( such as through multinational ) or indirectly ( such as via climate change ) a number of questions that anthropologists have begun to ask . For example , an anthropologist might investigate the effects of global policies on people in different regions of the world . Why is it that the monetary policies of the International Fund and World Bank typically result in rich countries getting richer and the poor countries

323 ting poorer ?

In her book Beautiful Flowers of the ( 1997 ) for example , Norma gives an portrait of the lives of Mexican women working in factories in the infamous border zone of Although the working conditions in these factories are dangerous and the women are subjected to invasive scrutiny by male supervisors , many of the women profiled in the book less appreciate the little luxuries afforded by their work . Others value the opportunity to support their household or gain a small degree of financial independence from the male figures in their life . Unable to offer any artificially answer concerning whether globalization has been good or bad for such individuals , anthropologists focus on the lived experience of the people most affected by these global forces . What is it like to live in such environments ?

How has it changed over time ?

What have been the costs and benefits ?

Especially amidst the overlapping of people and ideas , questions concerning mobility , and identity have all become increasingly important to the field of anthropology . Although some exceptions exist ( see quinoa case study below ) the general trend is for globalization to result in urbanization . With comes the loss of programs and jobs , the ity of small farms , and the need for economic alternatives that are most commonly found in urban areas . While anthropologists have long studied cities and urban life , the concentration of populations in urban centers has added increasing importance to of the metropolis in recent Indeed , the term urban anthropology came into use to describe experiences of living in cities and the relationships of city life to broader social , political , and economic including issues of globalization , poverty , and The heightened focus on the city in global context has also heightened awareness of and attention to issues of the understanding that peoples lives may be lived or significantly by events that cross the geopolitical borders of nation Case Study Global Demand for Quinoa When a group of people is afforded little status in a society , their food is often likewise Until recently , this held true for quinoa in Bolivian society , which was associated with indigenous Mirroring first world patterns from the and Europe , city dwellers preferred foods like pasta and products . Conspicuous consumption of these products provided them with an opportunity to case their sophisticated choices and tastes . Not surprisingly , there was little local demand for quinoa in Bolivian markets . Further ting the appeal of producing quinoa , the Bolivian government adoption of policies eliminated the meager financial protections available to peasant farmers . If that was not bad enough , a significant drought in the early spelled disaster for many small farmers in the southern Altiplano region of Bolivia . As a result of these overlapping and amplifying obstacles , many people moved to ) cities , like La Paz ) nearby countries , like Chile , and even ) to Europe . The situation faced by Bolivian peasants is not unique . More than half of the world people currently live in cities . This is the result of spread urbanization that began at the end of World War II and stretched into the . As a result , many peasants lost access to their modes of subsistence . Although migration to the city can provide benefits like access to education , infrastructure , and , it can also result in a loss of identity and many peasants who migrate into cities are forced to subsist on the margins in substandard conditions , as they most often arrive without the social and cultural capital necessary to succeed in this new environment . Fortuitously for indigenous Bolivians , the structural adjustments adopted by their government coincided with foreigners growing interest in organic and health foods . Although it is often assumed that rural peasants only produce food for their own subsistence and for very local , this is not always the case . In some situations , peasants may bypass local markets entirely and export their commodities to places where they have more cultural capital , and hence financial value ( see discussion of taste above ) In the , the introduction of tractors to the region enabled farmers to cultivate quinoa in the lowlands in addition to the hillside terraces they had previously favored . In the , tive groups of farmers were able to find buyers in the Global North who were willing to import quinoa . These cooperatives researched the best ways to expand production and invested in machines to make the process more efficient . Now , quinoa is such a valuable commodity that many of those individuals who had previously abandoned the region are now returning to the Altiplano . Vet this is not a simple success story ,

324 PERSPECTIVES AN OPEN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY because there are serious issues associated with the of the Bolivian countryside and with the fact that a healthy local crop has been removed from many people regular diets since it can be sold to the Global North . Another serious issue raised by the reverse migration from the cities back to the Altiplano concerns environmental sustainability . It is easier to grow large quantities of quinoa in the flat lowlands than it is on the steep hillsides , but the lowland soil is much less conducive to its growth . The use of machinery has helped a great deal , but has also led to a decline in the use of llamas , which have a symbiotic relationship with quinoa . Farmers must now invest in fertilizer rather than using manure provided by their own animals . The global quinoa boom also raises questions about identity and communal . Conflict has arisen between families that stayed in the region and those that are returning from the cities . Pedro , a farmer who stayed in the region , says of the others those people have returned but as The two groups often clash in terms of what it means to respect the land and how money from this new cash crop should be used . So has the international demand for quinoa been a good thing for rural Bolivian peasants ?

In some ways yes , but in other ways no . on the whole , it may be too soon to know for sure . couple and harvest wheat land above PEN they quinoa , barley , and potatoes , but the global such farmers to grow quinoa as a cash to capitalize on world demand , Photo by reserved Changes in Where Conduct Research Globalization has changed not only what anthropologists research , but also how they approach those topics . the links between global processes and local settings , ethnography examines specific topics and issues across different geographic field ethnography may be conducted when the subject of ones study involve or impact multiple locations and can be best understood by accounting for those multiple geographic . For example , in her study of yoga , Positioning Yoga Balancing Acts Across Cultures , Sarah Strauss ( 2005 ) found that her study would be incomplete if she focused only on Indians studying yoga . To understand this transnational non , she recognized the importance of also focusing on practitioners of yoga who had gone to study yoga in its Work such as that of Swedish anthropologist Ulf , who studies news media correspondents , highlights the ways that people can be on the move , creating a of study that is both and Further work has expanded on these models , highlighting various locations that can not be geographically defined . Such models include calls for an anthropology ( where it is the activity itself that is the site of the ture or the basis of the community ) 55 and digital anthropology ( where the field site exists online ) Globalization in Application The Syrian Situation Today ( courtesy of Laurie King )

325 Syria today presents us with an apocalyptic landscape major cities such as have been reduced to rubble and anyone remaining there is starving . Since 2011 , over civilians have been killed by barrel bombs , shelling , internecine terrorist attacks , drone strikes , the use of chemical weapons , and Russian aerial assaults . and Islamist militias control large swathes of the country and have , for all intents and purposes , erased the border between Syria and Iraq , thereby undoing the 1916 agreement that established the new of the modern Middle East after the fall of the Ottoman Empire . The Islamic State ( has destroyed world heritage sites such as Palmyra ( ethnically cleansed towns , enslaved women , and flooded the global media with horrific images of beheadings , and mass executions . a city of ning architectural beauty with a rich heritage , is now damaged beyond repair and largely uninhabitable as the result of fighting between IS , Syrian regime forces , and a diverse but largely Islamist Syrian opposition . Farming in the Syrian countryside has come to a virtual halt . Since 2003 , Syrian agriculture had been suffering from a prolonged drought , pushing many rural families into urban centers such as Damascus and In 2015 , the Global Seed Vault ( the Doomsday Seed Vault ) in Norway was accessed for the first time to obtain seeds needed for crops to feed the Syrian Meanwhile , as any glance at the evening news demonstrates , millions of refugees continue to flow out of the country , mostly through the border , before ing dangerous trips in unsafe boats to Greece , hoping to get their families to Europe and away from the that their country has become . Five years ago , no scholar of Syrian society and politics could have predicted the dire conditions Syria now faces . Given the Assad iron grip on all aspects of Syrian society since 1970 , the dramatic transformations of the last five years were inconceivable at the beginning of 2011 . The and flows of globalization by were largely absent from Syria over the last 40 years . The hardline regime of , who came to power in 1970 through a bloodless coup , was profoundly insular and not open to the world whether regionally or internationally in the realms of finance and commerce . Never a major petroleum power , and not blessed with vast tracts of fertile land for farming , Syria economy centered largely on industry and commerce . Up until the , Syria had a highly centralized economy that private ownership of industry or services . With the end of the Cold War ( during which Syria had been a client state of the USSR ) and the ensuing dramatic shifts in regional power dynamics most notably the 1991 Iraq war , which saw the rout of Saddam Hussein forces from Kuwait and the diminution of the Iraqi regime emerged as a key regional player capable of leveraging concessions from other Arab states as well as the West . In exchange for joining the led coalition against Iraq , the United States and the international community raised no objections to Syria asserting direct and indirect control over its neighbor ( and former mandatory province ) Lebanon , where a series of interconnected civil , regional , and global wars had raged for teen years . Syrian political and military control effectively put the Lebanese wars into a deep freeze between 1992 and 2005 . While freedom of speech in Lebanon declined significantly under Syria tutelage , an unregulated market economy flourished , centering on the massive boom . The Syrian economic with the significantly from business deals in Lebanon , while thousands of Syrian workers flooded into Lebanon to do construction work on the new city center and repairs . The influx of money from Lebanon strengthened and entrenched the ties between the Syrian regime ( whose members were also relatives by blood or marriage ) and a growing class of wealthy businessmen , who owed their wealth to the regime . As notes , the insularity of and corruption within the regime and big business blurred the line between private and public domains , while sharpening class divisions within Any attempts to foster political reform , economic transparency , and international commerce were viewed suspiciously by political , commercial , and elite . In June 2000 , died . His son , an ophthalmologist who had lived in London for many years , succeeded him . Local and international observers wondered if the new , young president would launch an era of economic reform and political . seemed keen to bring Syria into the Internet era , and his first years in power witnessed relatively free discussion of the need for economic and political reforms , heralded by the closing of the infamous prison , where many political prisoners had been tortured and killed . But power remained in the hands of the few in the upper reaches of the party , some of whom did not know whether or not to trust , who lacked the steely reserve and unquestioned authority of his father . Although Syria lacked the sort of material and financial capital enjoyed by its neighbors , such as the Gulf states , it enjoyed the fits of symbolic capital as the sole , Arab nationalist state opposing Israel and resisting any normalization of ties with the Jewish state in the war era , even as the Palestinian Liberation organization and Egypt in establishing peace treaties with Israel . In the hope that Syria would come into the fold , the United States did not make harsh demands on Syria for internal reforms or regional economic integration . In February 2005 , in the wake of growing Lebanese dissatisfaction with Syria control of the country , Prime Minister and over a dozen of his colleagues were killed in a massive suicide bomb while traveling in a motorcade through downtown Beirut . To this day , no one knows decisively who was behind the car bomb , though many suspect Syrian involvement . Massive , largely peaceful , demonstrations erupted in Beirut immediately , and within a matter of weeks , Syria was forced to end its occupation of Lebanon and retreat . While Syria had not experienced a significant flow of people and wealth in and out of its borders for years , media and technology flows were growing in the first decade of the century . The flow of ideas and images from and Egypt in the wake of the Arab Spring uprisings of 201 heralded Syria first sustained experience with the dynamics of globalization , described in this text by political scientist

326 PERSPECTIVES AN OPEN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL Manfred as the intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away , and vice versa . In February 2011 , the regime lifted the ban on Facebook and You Tube following unprecedented street protests on January 26 , the day after the Egyptian protests began . Before this , Syrians contravened the ban through proxy servers . Soon , Facebook groups were organizing and even calling for a Day of Rage and encouraging people to come out to the streets to protest against the regime . Nothing came of this , though . Despite garnering thousands of likes , no one seemed to be following the directives of the new Facebook The Internet impact in the Arab world has built upon the phenomenon of satellite television , particularly that of , which opened up new spaces of discourse and debate about political and human rights issues in the Arab world , thereby undermining the legitimacy and validity of news programs and the power structures underpinning them . While Al instilled a powerful reformist spirit , blogs were particularly crucial in advancing and fortifying Arab activism efforts . Before blogs , there were chat rooms , and email communication , all of which enhanced and expanded a cyber world of public course in some Arab states , but not in Syria . Some Egyptian bloggers called the Internet and social media our lungs . If they cut them off , we will suffocate . As a result of Internet communications technology ( social isolation in the Arab world began to give way to the formation of communities of conversation and debate , which ultimately evolved into social movements that took to the streets and made history in the real world . Our networked society , to use Manuel phrase , connects us horizontally and allows us not only to communicate , but to communicate and We not only consume the news , we now evaluate , filter , and respond to the news . We not only read headlines , our networked actions and reactions to breaking news can ripple out across countries and continents and make headlines . While Western media paid considerable attention to Egypt uprising , the Syrian uprisings were not as well covered . Perhaps this is because Egypt is part of the West cultural imaginary . Hollywood movies such as Raiders ofthe and popular culture depictions of pyramids , pharaohs , and the Valley of the Kings are all evidence of this . Syria , a tightly controlled authoritarian state , had not been a destination for tourists , scholars , film producers , or even journalists for decades , so its street protests and popular struggles did not loom large in Western media coverage . While every major American news agency covered the uprising in Square in Cairo in real time , news of protests and civil society activism in Syria did not always reach the rest of the world . It seems that the Syrian regime underestimated its ability to channel or harness public opinion by lifting the ban on social media . Vigils , protests , and marches , all initially peaceful , began to appear on Syria streets , drawing larger and larger crowds . The response of the regime , unaccustomed to public political expression , was quick and brutally repressive . Rather than scaring people into silence , the regime now fronted an armed opposition . Within just one year , social media protests had become street protests , which became street battles between and forces . Globalization , as experienced in Syria , has revealed the limits ofan authoritarian regime ability to control and strain social action in the age of social media . Syria is now experiencing flows of people across borders . Syrians are escaping to Turkey , Europe , Jordan , Lebanon and Iraq by the millions , creating the world worst refugee crisis . Meanwhile , drawn to the message of the Islamic State ( IS ) young men and women from across the Middle East and as far afield as Europe and North America are traveling to the IS controlled territories of eastern Syria and Western Iraq to join in a global jihad . As the and gory video productions of IS demonstrate , technological and media resources , skills , and knowledge are flowing in and out of Syria borders . Financial flows in oil wealth are now in the hands of IS , and food resources are flowing into the country when ble from international organizations such as Mercy Corps . Syria is an example of the disadvantages of globalization , as well as an illustration of how quickly one country crises can become global crises . CONCLUSION The term globalization is not simply a verbal shortcut for talking about contact , transmission , and transportation on the global scale . This chapter has shown that contact has existed across disparate locations throughout much of human history . As it is used and understood today , however , tion is about much more than the total scope of contact it references the speed and scale of such tact . Understood in this way , globalization is a modern phenomenon it is not just how many places are connected , but in how many ways and with what frequency . Where people once had to rely on horses or ships to bring them to new locations , mass transportation ( especially air travel ) makes such commutes a part of many people daily lives , and someone who had never seen a one week might end up visiting , Cairo , or the next . News , which might have raced ahead via carrier pigeons can now be transmitted in a virtual instant , and information once confined to physical libraries can now be accessed on the smart phones carried by

327 peoples around the world . Neither good nor bad , globalization is a fact of life today . Whether a ness woman between international hubs on a weekly basis or a man tends his garden on a remote plateau , both of their lives may be equally by how a specific crop is received on the world market . Providing both opportunities and constraints , globalization now serves as the not the how life gets lived , on the ground , by us all . Discussion Questions I . In his research , Kelsey discovered that the average American is wearing clothes made in many different countries . This demonstrates how everyday items can involve all five of Arjun . Choose another product that is part of your everyday life . How many can you connect it to ?

Globalization makes new forms of consumption possible , but the effects of globalization on an individual lifestyle vary based on many factors including socioeconomic status . In what ways is globalization experienced differently by people from wealthy tries compared to people in developing countries ?

How are producers of commodities like clothing or food affected differently by globalization than consumers ?

In Latin America , globalization and have led to the development of policies , such as the privatization of the water supply , that reduce local control over important resources . In what ways is globalization a sword that brings both benefits and problems to developing countries ?

Globalization presents the possibility of engaging in anthropology , where it is the activity itself that is the site studied , or digital anthropology , where the field site exists online . What kinds of activities or digital environments do you think would be interesting to study using this approach ?

GLOSSARY Commodity chain the series of steps a food takes from location where it is produced to the store where it is sold to consumers . the of people across boundaries . the of money across political borders . Global North refers to the wealthier countries of the world . The definition includes countries that are sometimes called First World or Highly Developed Global South refers to the poorest countries of the world . The definition includes countries that are sometimes called Third World or Least Developed the adaptation of global ideas into locally palatable forms . Habitus the dispositions , attitudes , or preferences that are the learned basis for personal taste and lifestyles . the global of ideas . the of media across borders . the ideology of et capitalism emphasizing privatization and unregulated . Syncretism the combination of different beliefs , even those that are seemingly contradictory , into a new , harmonious whole . the global of technology .

328 PERSPECTIVES AN OPEN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY ABOUT THE AUTHORS Lauren Miller Griffith is an assistant professor of anthropology at Texas Tech University . Her research agenda focuses on the intersections of performance , tourism , and tion in Brazil , Belize , and the USA . Specifically , she focuses on the martial art capoeira and how practitioners use travel to Brazil , the arts homeland , to increase their legitimacy within this genre . Griffith current interests include the links between tourism , cultural heritage , and sustainability in Belize . She is particularly interested in how indigenous communities decide whether or not to participate in the growing tourism industry and the effects of these . Jonathan Marion is an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology and a member of the Gender Studies Steering Committee at the University of Arkansas , and the author of Ballroom Culture and Costume in Competitive Dance ( 2008 ) Visual Research A Concise Introduction to Thinking Visually ( 2013 , with Jerome Crowder ) and Ballroom Dance and Glamour ( 2014 ) Currently the President of the Society for Humanistic Anthropology , and a of the Society of Visual Anthropology , Marion ongoing research explores the between , embodiment , gender , and identity , as well as issues of visual research ethics , theory , and methodology . Notes . See Charles , Culture and Authenticity ( New York Wiley , 2007 ) Robby , College Students Cafeteria Food is Racist , The Daily Beast , December 20 , 2015 Manfred , Globalization A Very Short Introduction ( Oxford Oxford University Press , 2013 ) Globalization , 13 . Globalization . Ibid .

20 . 21 . 22 . 23 . 24 . 25 . 26 . 27 . 28 . 29 . 30 . 31 . 32 . 33 . 34 . 35 . 36 . 37 . 329 United Nations World Tourism Organization , Why Tourism , To be fair , responsible policy makers and businesses , local communities , and travelers themselves may also be concerned with these issues . See Benedict Anderson , Imagined Communities on the Origin and Spread ( London Verso , 1983 ) Daniel Everett , Do Sleep , There Are Snakes Life and Language in the Amazonian ( New York Vintage Books , 2009 ) Daniel Everett , What Does Grammar Have to Teach Us About Human Language and the Mind ?

Wiley Reviews Cognitive Science no . 2012 ) Kelsey , Where Am I Wearing ?

Wiley Sons , 2012 ) Robin Schmidt and Morten Vest , on the Move , Film , directed by Robin Schmidt and Morten Vest ( 2010 , Danish Broadcasting Corporation ) See Kumar Sharma , Emerging Dimensions of Debate in the Age of tion Indian journal Studies 19 no . 2009 ) Anya Peterson Royce , Becoming an Ancestor The Isthmus Way ( Albany State University of New York Press , 2011 ) I , An Indian Woman in , trans . Ann Wright ( London Verso , 1984 ) See , for instance , Peter Wade , Music , Race and Nation Tropical in Colombia ( Chicago University of Chicago Press , 2000 ) Or , Lise Waxer , The City Memory Salsa , Record Grooves , and Popular Culture in Cali , University Press , 2002 ) For more on traveling to train at such and salsa , or any other embodied Griffith and Marion , Apprenticeship Pilgrimage Developing Expertise through Travel and Training ( ton forthcoming ) Sydney , Salsa World A Global Dance in Local ( Philadelphia Temple University Press , 2013 ) Also see Lise Waxer , Salsa Global Markets and Local Meanings in Latin Popular Culture ( New York ledge , 2002 ) David Chaney , Lifestyles ( London , 1996 ) 92 . Chaney , Lifestyles . Ibid . 24 . 57 . Pierre , Distinction A Social Critique of of Taste , trans . Richard Nice ( Cambridge , MA University Press , 1984 ) Shamus Khan , Privilege The Making ofan Adolescent Elite at Paul School ( Princeton , Princeton University Press , 2012 ) Chaney , Lifestyles , 60 . Economic Research Service , United States Department of Agriculture , Food Security Status of US Households in 2014 Pierre , Distinction . Manfred , Globalization , xiii . Kelsey , Where Am I Wearing ?

Bruce Campbell and Lisa Goddard , Climate Change , Food Security and the Refugee Crisis Connecting the Dots to Avoid Future Tragedy . Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , 2014 Ebola Outbreak in West . Globalization , 54 . This case study is based on the work of Nicole Fabricant and Kathryn Hicks , Next Water War

330 AN OPEN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY 38 . 39 . 40 . 41 . 42 . 43 . 44 . 45 . 46 . 47 . 48 . 49 . 50 . 51 . 52 . 53 . 54 . 55 56 . 57 . the Struggles over Access to Water Resources in the Century Radical History Review 116 ( 2013 ) 131 . Reuters , Lake , Bolivia Lake , Dries Up December 18 , 2015 , James Scott , Weapons of the Weak Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance ( New Haven Yale University Press , 1985 ) Sarah Lyon and and Mark , Fair Trade and Social Justice ( New York New York University Press , 2010 ) Sarah Lyon , A Market of Our Own Women Livelihoods and Fair Trade Markets , in Fair Trade and Social tice , ed . Sarah Lyon and Mark ( New York New York University Press , 2010 ) Julia Smith , Fair Trade and the Specialty Coffee Market Growing Alliances , Shifting Rivalries , in Fair Trade and Social justice . Mark , A New World ?

and Fair Trade Farming in the Eastern Caribbean , in Fair Trade and Social Justice . Norma , Beautiful Flowers of the Life Histories of Women Workers in Tijuana , trans . Michael Stone and Gabrielle ( Austin University of Texas Press , 1985 ) See , especially , Low , The Anthropology of Cities Imagining and Theorizing the City Annual Review of Anthropology 25 ( 1996 ) and Ulf , Exploring the City Inquiries toward an Urban Anthropology ( New York Columbia University Press , 1980 ) For the Oxford Bibliography of Urban Anthropology , see . For a brief online overview , please see ( prepared by Layla ) See Andrew Irving , Cities An Anthropological Perspective Anthropology Matters no . 2004 ) This case study is based on the work of Tanya , Food Sovereignty and the Quinoa Boom Challenges to Sustainable in the Southern Altiplano of Bolivia Third World Quarterly 36 , no . 2015 ) See Richard Wilk , Real Food Building Local Identity in the Transnational Caribbean American Anthropologist 101 no . 1999 ) Quoted in Tanya , Food Sovereignty and the Quinoa George Marcus , Ethnography the World System The Emergence of Annual Review , 24 ( 1995 ) For a more recent perspective , see . Ethnography Theory , Praxis and Locality in Contemporary Research ( UK Publishing Limited , 2012 ) Sarah Strauss , Positioning Yoga Balancing Acts across Cultures ( Oxford , UK Berg , 2005 ) Ulf , Being there and there and there ! on Ethnography Ethnography no . 2003 ) Jonathan Marion , Beyond Ballroom Activity as Performance , Embodiment , and Identity Human Mosaic 36 no . 2006 ) 2006 . Also see Jonathan Marion , Ballroom Culture and Costume in Competitive Dance ( Oxford , UK Berg Publishing , 2008 ) Marion , Circulation as Destination Considerations from the Culture of Competitive Ballroom Dance the Anthropological Study ofHuman Movement 17 no . 2012 ) See Tom , Coming in Second Life An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human ( Princeton Press , 2009 ) For more on theory and method see Tom , Bonnie , Celia Pearce , and Taylor , Ethnography and Virtual Worlds A Handbook ( Princeton University Press , 2012 ) Heather Horst and Daniel Miller , Digital Anthropology ( London , UK , 2012 ) and Sarah Pink , Heather Horst , john , Larissa , Tania Lewis , Digital Ethnography Principles and Practice . sand Oaks , CA Sage , 2015 ) The Syrian Regime Business Backbone , Middle East Report , 262 no . 42 ( 2012 ) Doyle , Syrian War Spurs First Withdrawal from Doomsday Arctic Seed Vault Reuters September 21 ,

331 The report states , an expert at the Norwegian Agriculture Ministry , said the seeds had been requested by the national Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas ( moved its headquarters to Beirut from in 2012 because of the war . wants almost 130 boxes out of 325 it had deposited in the 59 . The Syrian Regimes Business 60 . Manfred , Globalization A Very Short Introduction ( Oxford Oxford University Press , 2013 ) Syria Lifts Ban on Facebook and Youtube , Reflections on the Egypt Effect in Syria Sapiens Productions February 11 , 2011 , 62 . Manuel , Communication , Power and in the Network Society International journal of Communications ( 2007 )