Political Anthropology: Power, Ideology & Inequality - Essay Example

Introduction Globalisation has become a concern for many anthropologists in recent decades. Bringing global culture and forging it with local has based the assumption that we will not have any cultural diversity in future. This essay argues that globalisation cannot unify different ways of life into some kind of 'planetary culture', because merge with different local traditions assumes different outcomes. It is the confrontation of the local and the global that will make our future. Global Influencing Local Although globalisation is often perceived as the trend emerged in 20th century its roots lie deep in the history of mankind. Dating back to 1500, the beginning of colonisation, the primordial form of globalisation was simply a conquest. It was feudal kingdoms of Europe, which associated the word 'civilization' with their culture, way of life, religious beliefs and political system. Other cultures were addressed as 'uncivilized': "The comparison was a series of forced understanding and a justification to carry and implant civilization in the rest of the planet, which had been declared either lacking some properties or having them in excess." (Jameson and Miyoshi, 1998, p. 33). This was the first attempt of expanding own way of life on others, later on labeled 'globalisation'. Globalisation is the right of the strongest - this 'core feature' has remained in almost primeval form. Western civilization unites the most developed countries of the contemporary world into a hegemony inducing its culture to the rest of the planet. There is no constant leader of this expansion: "At any one time a single state can be number 1 among the Great Powers... This was the case with Britain in the mid-nineteenth century and with the United States from 1945 to the 1970s" (Agnew, 1998, p. 7). Through this form of hegemony understandings and practices regulating world politics originated from Europe become dominant. Advocates of globalisation often speak of 'new choices' brought into regions. 'Global' gives a new perspective to 'local', therefore producing new ways of life: "More persons in more parts of the world consider a wider set of 'possible' lives than they ever did before. recently, whatever the force of social change, a case could be made that social life was largely inertial" (Appadurai, 1991, p. 197). Influencing on local traditions with a global view is meant to give bigger picture of the world we live in. Sadly, this good intention has a horrible implementation in violent propagation of 'better' or 'more civilized' culture destroying local way of life too often. Meanwhile there is a clear variance between theoretical debates on globalisation (how should it be) and its practical side (how is it in reality). "By encouraging students to display their virtuosity in abstraction, the discipline brackets questions of theft of land, violence, and slavery - the three processes that have historically underlain the unequal global order we now find ourselves in" (Krishna, 2001, p. 401). Indeed, the means of globalisation repeatedly look horrible in comparison to its ends. Globalisation habitually serves as an excuse for further expansion and the theory silently turns away from how locals are given these 'new possibilities of life'. While modern culture obliges globalisation to avoid the unnecessary violence, there are more effective ways of influencing local cultures. Countries of western civilization have enough economic power at their disposal to make 'brute force' avoidable. "The countries that form the Group of Seven, with their 800 million inhabitants, control more technological, economic, informatics, and military power than the rest of the approximately 430 billion who live in Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, and Latin America". (Hetata, 1998, p. 274). Capitalist culture uses its power for indirect methods of control, such as informational dominance. Information is the key to control - this simple truth has already become moss-grown. Culture is based on the knowledge people accumulate through their lives and transfer to descendants. But what if people's knowledge is the outcome of power differentials Then their understanding should be thought of not so much as though it were local knowledge pure and simple, but also as a kind of knowledge peculiarly shaped by power: the control of how such people get to know things, the control of what they know, what constitutes knowledge, what seems worth knowing. (Smith, 1999, p. 9) Using power in controlling the information flows proves to be a powerful weapon in the struggle of the 'global' and the 'local'. A case study of Sepik Women in Trade (SWIT) in Papua New Guinea is provided to support this idea. Case Study: Papua New Guinea Globalisation often brings jealousy. Inequality was not brought to Papua New Guinea by global culture; inequality is normal to all social forms. It is also normal that some people get used to new conditions faster than others. Nevertheless 'modernity' led by globality has become a problem for locals; it was considered to be a reason of inequality by Papua New Guineans. There was general recognition that an indigenous urban elite was both well established and self-perpetuating, largely as the product of a highly restrictive western-style education (Moore 1990). Eventually their welfare has become a subject of jealousy for ordinary Papua New Guineans, bringing unrest into social life of the country. Global culture implied without stating directly that local culture is of somewhat archaic remnant of the past unable to compete with capitalism in the modern reality. Therefore Papua New Guineans have become wary of their children's future, especially of those who could not pass the exams or afford the costs of western education. "The 'grassroots' (as they have come to be known) often spoke of their 'jealousy' and their desire to 'bring down' to their level those who, in an increasingly unfair system, had been able to acquire significantly more than they" (Gewerth & Errington, 1998, p. 345). Therefore the situation required further improvement. It has come in the form of Sepik Women in Trade (SWIT) founded to help grassroots to adapt to commercial relations associated with western capitalism. "As 'an organization to help local producers,' SWIT would provide Sepik women with a guaranteed market; it would buy their handicrafts and resell them to national and international markets, for example, to hotels, museums, and artifact shops" (Gewerth & Errington, 1998, p. 345). The culmination of the program was attending the international trade fair in Jayapura, Indonesia. Although going to Jayapura was commercially unsuccessful for all the members of SWIT, they enjoyed the journey. SWIT, without bringing any real benefit to its members has shifted their opinion on poverty, introducing capitalist ideology, i.e. poverty was presented as an individual failure of those who could not adapt to new reality, not the result of social injustice. Local Resisting Global Obviously local cultures struggle against their modern global contenders. Due to certain historical and geopolitical conditions a certain way of life was formed in every region, and it will not give up without testing if a 'new global competitor' is more appropriate for contemporary deeply integrated world. Every national identity resisting the expansion of globality is a natural process sometimes even performed unconsciously. "It is not enough to observe that modernity has always had its counter-current each taps the other for the powers it is held or claims to have: they feed off each other, empowering and disempowering in unpredictable ways." (Wade, 1999, p. 76). The struggle between the local and the global does not always go smoothly. Violence frequently used when globalising new regions returns back in the form of the opposition. For example current instability and high level of crime in Papua New Guinea police forces are desperately fighting with was caused by the brutal policing methods used in Bouganville. Police mobile squads were also deployed on Bougainville during the secessionist conflict. Indeed, the brutal behavior of these squads turned many Bougainvilleans against Papua New Guinea in the early months of the crisis in 1988-89 (Regan 1996, p. 8). In fact defining what is crime depends on the cultural and political point of view, from which each action is observed. It is a common case when protectors of local traditions do not have any options, but to resist with arms and physical violence. Mass media, although capable of helping to preserve local traditions, serves only as a mirror reflecting the opinion of majority. For instance, Ignatieff argues that television does not help local to make an impact on the global: "Faced with the deep persuasiveness of ideologies of killing, the temptation to take refuge in moral disgust is strong indeed. Yet disgust is a poor substitute for thought. Television has unfortunate strengths as a medium of moral disgust" (1988). Media has failed to be a worldwide tribune for local regions. While local is a minor force on the world arena in its region it initially has more power than representatives of the globalisation. Resistance takes different forms, from distrust to armed conflicts making an impact on the globalisation strategy. E.g. the government of Papua New Guinea used mercenaries in its try to reduce the level of unrest, which was considered by society as a display of militarism: "To a large extent, militarised responses to internal conflict in Papua New Guinea are a consequence of the institutional weaknesses of state agencies and their inability to secure desired outcomes by non-coercive means" (Dinnen, 1999). There is an important role played by the elite of regional society in every case of globalisation. Developing countries usually do not have middle class; people are either 'rich' or 'poor'. The rich are more favourable to global culture, while the poor ones think of it as a reason of social injustice and serve as a backbone of resistance. That is why distinguishing middle from the poor often helps to weaken the resistance: middle class is oriented by elites. "There was considerably less resistance to the assimilation of the middle- and upper-class Palestinians who had migrated from towns in the coastal plain to towns in the West Bank" (Bisharat, 1997, p. 215). Unfortunately, elites are often too busy with thinking about themselves and have little care for smoothing the merge of globalisation with local culture. James speaking about Ethiopia: "In spite of the ideology of 'aid-speak' it is difficult to argue that the current transfer of aid has 'empowered' refugees it has fuelled wealth of elites, directly or indirectly living off the presence of the refugee scheme" (1999, p. 26). It would be completely wrong to state that local cultures are doomed because of globalisation. Instead local and the global merge with each other making an impact in both directions. The dominance has to be determined individually in every single case. The following case study illustrates the victory of local culture over the globalisation. Case Study: Andalusian Pilgrimage The pilgrimage of El Rocio in Andalusia dates back to 15th century and is a part of a cult to the Virgin Mary. Every spring, during the holy day of the Pentecost, the brotherhoods make a pilgrimage to the shrine, each following its own itinerary. Referred to as el camino, this journey is a strenuous undertaking of seven to eight days, with three days lapsing between departure from the home community and arrival at the shrine, followed by two days spent at the shrine and then three days to travel home. (Crain, 1997, p.294) While being absolutely local pilgrimage tradition of El Rocio has draw a lot of attention of mass media and the tourist industry. It was perceived as a part of 'closed' Spain - exquisite exotic, barbarous. "The majority of people attending the romera [religious pilgrimage] today are not pilgrims but spectators of primarily domestic but also foreign extraction" (Crain, 1997, p. 298). The danger tourists bring lie within the 'comforts of civilization' they use during the pilgrimage, while it was intended to be a cleansing through exhausting trip. The global culture has begun transforming this local sacred pilgrimage into a festival. Tourist boom was not stopping even in front of Andalusian ill fame as a land of gypsies and thieves. Local villagers were noticed by anthropologists because of a strong distrust towards modern global trends: village culture in the area of Andalusia is characterized by a staunch localism and a sense of singularity in which villagers imagine themselves residing at the moral center of the universe (Baroja, 1957). Their form of resistance was somewhat of strange but effective. Young rebels "call attention to themselves by creating a counterspectacle, one that makes a burlesque of elite decorum. Shirtless and with their clothes often soiled and torn they impose an alternative visual regime that parodies "the look" so valued by yupeez." (Crain, 1997, pp. 305-306). Tourists are afraid of these rebels: despite merging with global culture the pilgrimage of El Rocio has retained its locality through mocking on those who do not respect its traditions. Conclusion Of course, examples illustrated in this essay cannot prove that local cultures will remain untouched. Modern technologies make our world much more integrated, therefore every culture has to evolve and communicate with others for survival. The point of globalisation lies not within unification of every society into one universal group. New ways of life are born in the struggle of local and global, which makes this struggle the most important aspect of globalisation. References Agnew, J. 1998. Geopolitics: Re-Visioning World Politics. London, Routledge. Appadurai, A. 1991. "Global Ethnoscapes: Notes and Queries for a Transnational Anthropology." In Richard Fox (ed.), Recapturing Anthropology: Working in the Present. Santa Fe, School of American Research Press, pp. 191-210. Baroja, C. 1957. Razas, Pueblos, Linajes. Madrid. Bisharat, G. 1997. "Exile to Compatriot: Transformations in the Social Identity of Palestinian Refugees in the West Bank". In James Ferguson & Akhil Gupta Culture, Power, Place: Explorations in Critical Anthropology. Durham, Duke University Press, pp. 203-233. 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In Cheater, A. (ed.) The Anthropology of Power- Empowerment and Disempowerment in Changing Structures. London, Routledge, pp. 73-87. Read More