Anthropology-Culture and Globalization
ANTH101 Cultural Identities in a Globalized World
All throughout our readings, lectures, videos, and textbook we learn the effects of globalization on the different nations we studied. I often felt sad for these nations because we were encouraging them to practice our traditions and therefore their personal identities and culture were lost. Other than to improve healthcare and poverty through medical care and education I could not find positive improvements. In fact it appeared in most cases we were trying to force our beliefs and practices on these third world countries. Furthermore it appeared we weren’t doing this for the good of the group but to increase our own wealth, power, religious converts, prestige, and possessions. In India they eat dogs and worship cows. In America we eat cows and worship dogs. The Native Americans love and revere their elders and Americans put their elders in nursing homes and devalue their wisdom. It seemed to me that what they learned from the Americans was the American greed for material wealth, power, money, and ownership. These people never felt that was necessary to increase their well being. We Americans taught them that. Man;y comments in our text spoke of the fact that these nations weren’t wealthy. That’s a relative term. Wealthy by our standards or wealthy by the traditional native standards? Their wealth came from kinship relations, rituals, religious ceremonies and hunting, fishing, and farming.
The effects of globalization have caused the Tongans of the Polynesian Islands to become more capitalistic and market economy-driven and less interested in the Tongan ways. Furthermore, the youth traditionally brought up to farm and fish are migrating to urban areas to earn wages and obtain possessions. Tappa production once traditionally a female task is now being performed by male Tongans in order to increase sales for the market economy. The tradition of using Tappa cloth for personal and
All throughout our readings, lectures, videos, and textbook we learn the effects of globalization on the different nations we studied. I often felt sad for these nations because we were encouraging them to practice our traditions and therefore their personal identities and culture were lost. Other than to improve healthcare and poverty through medical care and education I could not find positive improvements. In fact it appeared in most cases we were trying to force our beliefs and practices on these third world countries. Furthermore it appeared we weren’t doing this for the good of the group but to increase our own wealth, power, religious converts, prestige, and possessions. In India they eat dogs and worship cows. In America we eat cows and worship dogs. The Native Americans love and revere their elders and Americans put their elders in nursing homes and devalue their wisdom. It seemed to me that what they learned from the Americans was the American greed for material wealth, power, money, and ownership. These people never felt that was necessary to increase their well being. We Americans taught them that. Man;y comments in our text spoke of the fact that these nations weren’t wealthy. That’s a relative term. Wealthy by our standards or wealthy by the traditional native standards? Their wealth came from kinship relations, rituals, religious ceremonies and hunting, fishing, and farming.
The effects of globalization have caused the Tongans of the Polynesian Islands to become more capitalistic and market economy-driven and less interested in the Tongan ways. Furthermore, the youth traditionally brought up to farm and fish are migrating to urban areas to earn wages and obtain possessions. Tappa production once traditionally a female task is now being performed by male Tongans in order to increase sales for the market economy. The tradition of using Tappa cloth for personal and