In the article "The Case for Contamination" author Kwame Anthony Appiah reflects on globalization, more so than on religion. He recalls the blowing of the horn at the palace, announcing the arrival of the king of Asante that Wednesday festival day in Kumasi, the town in Ghana where he is from. A ceremony rooted in years of old traditions but still present to its modern time, where prior to the kings arrival one could witness business men on their cell phones and conversations about contemporary issues. Traditional ceremonies like these are often seen as an interruption to the modern world and a threat to its uniformity.…
This paper is an analysis of the single cultural artifact that best represents the culture in which I live in today. The paper will provide a detailed analysis of the artifact and how it relates to the values and beliefs of the culture. Additionally, it will address the deep cultural roots of the artifact, the historical roots of the artifact, what allowed it to come into being and who was affected by its development. This information will come as someone trained from the humanities.…
The author’s purpose in writing this article was not to show the “Nacirema” as an example of how extreme human behavior can become, but how an outside perspective can affect your perception of an alien culture. If one were to look at the “Nacirema’s” cultural behaviors regarding physical appearance and health without any insight or knowledge of the specific beliefs or values of that culture, they might seem bizarre and even incomprehensible. By showing behaviors and “rituals” performed by this unknown tribe, Miner allowed others to see that the way studies were representing distinctive cultures was narrowminded and defective. Without the proper comprehension of the basis of any society, huge cultural misunderstandings could occur. Of course, in Miner’s article, the “Nacirema” refers to the American people, but in discussing ‘them’ as an exotic or unfamiliar people you are forced to forgo any ethnocentric notions of American society and try to understand their customs and rituals from an etic perspective. It’s an interesting and intriguing way to show a cultural analysis of a “primitive” people and provide a biased outlook on a different culture.…
understanding on how technology has had an impact on families. It is up to you to…
This research idea resonates with the topic Change and Continuity within the Society and Culture syllabus. It explores the changing uses of technology on social and cultural practices and traditions.…
As generations have progressed, technology has become a prominent feature of our lives. Due to the rapid advancing of technology, we have developed greed. We now demand to have access to things, as we need it. Cultures that have escaped this ‘revolution’ have more of an appreciation for things in life. They understand the work involved in achieving success, unlike the current generation who don’t fully appreciate the hard work and would rather…
With each new technology, there comes a greater distance between the rich and the poor. For example, at the onset of a new device, we have a tendency to hold on to it…
Firstly, to begin with nowadays, technology is keep changing very frequently. Accordingly, it becomes important for each section of the society to learn quickly. For example, The Microsoft corporation had underestimated the power of android phone and they preferred to continue their investment in the field of computers. But, the soon company had realized the mistake and confessed, it was the big mistake, not to learn about android technology. Thus, it is…
With the rapid growth of technology one many wonder how it is affecting culture and if it is good or bad. In American culture today, I see it in both lights. With more and more robots being produced, people are starting to be replaced and are consequently losing their jobs. Even a simple production line for making a car is not necessary for human labor anymore. The sense of products being “hand made” is a rare commodity these days. Culturally, it effects people by losing their channel of income, and now has to either find a new form, or rely on someone else for financial support. This is evident in young adults, with the rate of them living at home is increasing to a number this nation has never seen before. With that being said, there…
technology, but unless they are willing to see technology as a necessity, not a luxury, the…
In the first film, The Gods Must Be Crazy, the director continuously compares the tribe’s way of life with the the city life, such as busy individuals working all day being surrounded by technology, while the Africans live a more care-free life, not showing a sign of stress or financial pressure. According to Linda Hunter, the directors use satire to ridicule the Bushman using Ar. The director over simplifies common objects and symbols, such as reading the time as “eight- zero, zero” instead of saying “eight o’clock,” inferring that not doing so would be too complex for Africans to understand. The Bushman’s life quickly changes when an unknown object to them, a bottle, falls from the sky. The director takes the opportunity to ridicule the Bushman for not knowing the actual use and “refus[ing] to adapt to the environment” and not knowing basic objects. Linda Hunter explains how explains like this are to show that the film was produced with the only purpose of showing uncivilized and savage ways of the San tribe. She further elaborates how the director is constantly making jokes on the Bushman tribe, yet because they are uncivilized, they are not away of the damage the director is doing as he is pushing the negative stereotypes. Dunn further elaborates that people the director never portrayed the Africans performing…
| Does technology change culture or culture change technology?« Diane Rehm radio show on Social Networks on the WebWhat ever happened to KQML? »Does technology change culture or culture change technology?Tim Finin, 1:00pm 10 July 2006 TweetI attended the CRA’s Snowbird Conference last month. The most interesting talk was a keynote from Genevieve Bell (also see here) who is an anthropologist who works at Intel Research. One of her messages was that while we tend to think that technology changes culture, it’s more often the other way around. Cultures are very robust and change slowly. It’s typical for a new technology to be adapted within a culture and used to support existing patterns of behavior.For example, she said that mobile phone manufacturers have developed popular phones for Muslim users that support their religious practices by (1) reminding them when it is time to pray, (2) orienting them towards Mecca and (3) disabling incoming calls for 20 minutes. She gave many other examples from Africa and Asia that showed how new technology is being used in ways that fit into the existing cultures.I found the message reassuring. It’s easy to get worked up into a state of anxiety about what our modern world is doing to our societies. Human cultures are apparently more resilient than we naively assume.Related posts: 1. Computer Science publication culture 2. Interest in Computer Science and Engineering for college freshmen declines 3. On Larrabee and how multi-core computers will change CS education 4. Top technology brands 5. An introduction to Geospatial Semantic Web technologyCategories: Uncategorized Comments: 1010 Responses to “Does technology change culture or culture change technology?” 1. brad mccaul Says:…
The movie the Gods Must Be Crazy is about cultural diffusion. In the beginning of the movie we are introduced to a tribe that is isolated from everything else. One of the tribe members happens to find an empty glass bottle that apparently fell from a plane, but the tribe member believes that it fell from the sky and that it was a gift from the gods. Excitedly he shows all the other tribe members the gift from the gods but none of them seem to know what it is. So they immediately find various uses for the bottle and it becomes used for everything. They used it to make music, chop food, but they never actually drank out of it. Due to its various uses everyone wanted to use the bottle but there was only one which caused them to have to share. Apparently they weren't very used to sharing which caused arguments over who could use the bottle and they would end up hurting each other. Instantly they blamed the bottle for their fighting and the bottle went from being a gift from the gods to it being a punishment.…
Advancement in technologies have created a smarter culture, promoting innovative applications to learning on current technologies. Although reports show many negative effects towards learning skills from modern technologies, the same reports inadvertently show otherwise. Without looking further into this problem, a person could easily jump to conclusions about the harmful effects technology causes on learning skills. These assessments could lead to drastic reductions in advancing modern technologies; therefore, the positive effects of this subject should counter the argument. Education advances from the use of modern technology, which positively effects learning skills to help further the user’s knowledge.…
There wasn't a minute that our block didn't stop laughing our butts off when we watched The Gods Must Be Crazy. The characters of that humorous movie did well in their acting and so did the director of the movie for doing a great job for taking such wonderful cast and handling the actors of the great South African outback. What I loved most while watching the movie is its countless humor scenes like the when Andrew Steyn--a shy and bumbling biologist who is studying animals, left his car on a slope to open a gate and the car went uphill and back! The film's humor is not that immature or mature which is why it is suitable for all types of audience. Never did I imagine that I would laugh until my heart's content when we watched the movie, because of course as a teenager I assumed that this is yet going to be another boring movie our teacher expects us to make a reaction paper for.…