Globalization and Identity. Review
Assignment #3: Globalization and Identity. Dialectics of flows and closure
Birgit Meyer & Peter Gerschiere
Current Issues in Social and Cultural Anthropology
Prof. Steven Van Wolputte
Review by Scarlett Tokunaga
Meyer and Geschiere proposes “globalization” as a process of ambiguity. According to historical events and current facts stated in the their book, the editors suggest social scientists might pay attention and research about what social phenomena that is emerging as a result of this dichotomy in the modern discourse. In one side, there is globalization as a process of homogenization, aiming the uniformity of social relations through contemporary bias, promoted by technological development, mass consumption and the increased access to different places that rises the individual knowledge about other cultures. However, otherwise, this wider contact with other societies has realized the cultural differences between social structures, questioning the notion of “identity”.
In this context, in order to understand globalization, anthropology as a science promotes the concept of identity defining global flows in contrast to culture closure; endorsing the study of globalization as different groups separate from each other with similar cultures. In the first time, anthropology science used the notion of identity as a tool of uniqueness of a specific group, remarking the loyalty of the members, for instance. Nowadays, due to the definition of identity; social relationships in arenas of global development (economy, religion, urbanism, and so on) experience from a process of uniformization to fixed transformation, enlarged bounded creations to remark cultural differences.
As an illustration, Senegal’s four communes show, through their political, economic and religion’s relations, their transformation to a global stage that admits their identity into the French system. Their assimilation to the French society is an early example of globalization. The fact of people
Birgit Meyer & Peter Gerschiere
Current Issues in Social and Cultural Anthropology
Prof. Steven Van Wolputte
Review by Scarlett Tokunaga
Meyer and Geschiere proposes “globalization” as a process of ambiguity. According to historical events and current facts stated in the their book, the editors suggest social scientists might pay attention and research about what social phenomena that is emerging as a result of this dichotomy in the modern discourse. In one side, there is globalization as a process of homogenization, aiming the uniformity of social relations through contemporary bias, promoted by technological development, mass consumption and the increased access to different places that rises the individual knowledge about other cultures. However, otherwise, this wider contact with other societies has realized the cultural differences between social structures, questioning the notion of “identity”.
In this context, in order to understand globalization, anthropology as a science promotes the concept of identity defining global flows in contrast to culture closure; endorsing the study of globalization as different groups separate from each other with similar cultures. In the first time, anthropology science used the notion of identity as a tool of uniqueness of a specific group, remarking the loyalty of the members, for instance. Nowadays, due to the definition of identity; social relationships in arenas of global development (economy, religion, urbanism, and so on) experience from a process of uniformization to fixed transformation, enlarged bounded creations to remark cultural differences.
As an illustration, Senegal’s four communes show, through their political, economic and religion’s relations, their transformation to a global stage that admits their identity into the French system. Their assimilation to the French society is an early example of globalization. The fact of people