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Chapter 10: Globalization & Culture Change
Objectives:o Define globalization and major theories of
globalizationo Identify different colonial strategies and describe
how they influenced culture change in the colonial and postcolonial eras
o Describe how globalization influences contemporary fieldwork
o Critically engage various Christian responses to globalization
Globalization
Definition:
The integration of local, regional, and/or national production, exchange, and culture into a global system
Economic dimensions At times conceived in
binary terms Balkanization vs.
Westernization (Jihad vs. McWorld)
What is the experience of globalization in local places?
Theories of Globalization
Modernization Theory All societies move through common stages Neoliberalism
Dependency Theory Andre Gunder Frank Some societies are dependent on others in the global
economy
World Systems Theory Immanuel Wallerstein Global economy is organized into core, semi-periphery,
periphery
Colonialism and Culture Change
Colonialism introduced new forms of global economic integration
Colonialism vs. imperialism Different European powers practiced different
forms of colonial expansion. Key concepts:
Hegemony Political and cultural
Resistance May produce counterhegemony
Postcolonialism
Refers to the cultural and economic legacy of colonialism, including ongoing relationships between former colonies and colonizers
Distinct from neocolonialism Meaning “new colonialism,” neocolonialism occurs
when a nation or group of people is essentially a colony of another nation, despite the absence of direct or formal political control.
Often involves blending cultural influences from colonial powers with an independent national identity
May involve cultural hybridity
Cultural Hybridity
The cultural practice of combining and assigning new meanings to previously separate beliefs, practices, or ideas
A hallmark of the postcolonial condition in which, following decades or centuries of colonial rule, people have so deeply internalized cultural norms and practices from the colonial power that they feel natural and normal
Example of a site of contemporary hybridity: India
British Raj
Post Raj Boundary
India and Hybridity
o Prior to British colonialism:o No central authorityo Villages practiced local religious and political life
o British imposed notion of Hinduism as singular religion
o Contemporary India engaged in decolonialismo Cricket as national sport of India
Anthropology of Globalization Today
What do anthropologists study today, and how do they study it? Use of multisited research Studies of diasporas
Migrants Refugees Cosmopolitans
Deterritorialization Interstitial zones Localization
Christians Respond to Globalization
o Some—Ron Sider, Shane Claiborne, Mother Teresa—argue that Christians must reject unsustainable consumption, emphasizing local community and simple lifestyle.
o Others emphasize the benefits of globalization for human flourishing.
o Christianity itself is a global movement and facilitates globalization in other ways.
o Western Christians must recognize the negative effects of globalization for some and the role Western missionization has sometimes played.
Globalization, Christians, and the Church
Globalization is a diffuse and complex process in which Christians are, and must remain, intimately involved. There are no simple answers as to how economic, political, and social life can better reflect God’s justice, but certainly Christians must ask difficult questions and be willing to make changes where appropriate. Anthropology contributes insight into how globalization affects people and their ways of life—knowledge that can help Christians be increasingly aware of globalization and their responses to it.
