What challenges does Globalisation pose for cultural identity?

Tim Fairhall

Why it is contemporary?

What are the knowledge issues?

What is meant by Cultural Identity?

What is Globalisation?

Does globalisation put peoples’ cultural identity at risk?

Why does this interest me?Does this mark the end of individuality?

If so what are these problems?

The Knower

(ME)

Ethnographies

Official Journals /

News Articles

Documentaries

Tribes

News Items

Historical Evidence

Art and Photogra

phy

Nayan Chanda – Far Eastern Economic Review, 2008

Acknowledging globalisation as a secular trend of human history does not mean accepting the unfairness, injustice and inequality that have come in its wake. The leisurely pace of the past is over. Goods, ideas and culture are rushing across national borders with unthinkable speed and unprecedented volume – overwhelming many, and affecting their lives in ways that are beyond their control. Today’s protesters are right to draw attention to these negative aspects. Certainly the pernicious aspects of globalisation need to be addressed and prudently remedied. However, protesters are wrong to think that the restless movement of people and ideas across the globe can be arrested, and by so doing solve its marginal ill-effects. To be sure, fix globalisation. But to demand a stop to globalisation is to demand that life as we know it should cease’.

4. Homogenesism

3. Transformationalism

Theories

1. Hyperglobalisationism

2. Global Sceptism

Source 1 – Facts and FiguresAoK: Science & Maths WoK: Reason

Use of facts and figures as a

sourcePros Cons

Clearly shows the necessary details. Possibility of skewing data towards one view.

Based on facts and evidence. Not everything can be distinguished as (absolute) truth

Fair representation of important and relevant

Outdated, little clue of the future changes.

Sources: www.internetworldstats.com, UN World Tourism Organisation http://unwto.org, www.cnnmoney.com: companies’ annual reports (2006), SIL international (

www.ethnologue.com)

Author’s use of the area of knowledge and ways of knowing.

Pros Cons

Engages with the reader. Possible exaggeration of reality.

Based on facts and evidence. “the history is not the past.”

Allows identification. Personal judgement can affect validity.

Empathy created. Language is intended to give reader similar opinions.

Source 2 - EthnographyAoK: HistoryWoK: Language

Emotion

In tourist literature, the lip-plate is presented as evidence of a “tribal” existence, “untouched” by the modern world. Ironically, it is the growing need of the Mursi for cash that drives them to supply the tourists’ demands for photographs.

On the one hand, the lip-plate is prized by Mursi as a mark of their cultural identity. On the other hand, they recognise that outsiders see it as a mark of their backwardness.

[One claim] made about the lip-plate [is] that the practice originated in an attempt to make women less attractive to slave traders […] The lip-plate worn by Mursi women is an expression of female social adulthood and reproductive potential […] 

The Mursi know that the lip-plate is seen as a sign of their backwardness by powerful outsiders […] The pleasure that tourists derive from this activity is exploitative, combining fascination with repulsion.

Thirty years ago, the Mursi saw themselves as occupying a central position in relation to the outside world, geographically and morally. They saw the values which gave meaning to their lives as located in the physical space they occupied. They were at the physical and moral centre of the world. Since the regular arrival of tourists they have come to realise that the centre which they once saw themselves inhabiting has slipped away from them. They are revealed to themselves as a small, localised, poor, technologically backward and powerless group, living on the margins of the Ethiopian state. They [now] suffer from “the discomforts of localized existence”.

ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY VOL 20 NO 2, APRIL 2004

Source 3 – Photographs of the Singsing

PrejudiceEthnocentrism

AoK: Art WoK: Perception

Potrayal of the Singsing celebration dance

as photograph.Pros Cons

Accurate representation. Not full representation as it is solely one part of the event.

Objective – no interpretation presented.

Striking images could have an influence on opinions.

Neutral look at the dance. Criteria of “good” and “bad” varies.

Understanding of tourists attending views.

“Hawthorne effect” is this reliable? Could it be put on for the camera?

It is a depiction of the dance and that is the art form.

Is the photography itself really art?

Tribes Art Wolfe (1997)

ConclusionIt is clear to see Globalisation has two types

of effects on a culture and in particular the identity of that culture – being both positive and negative. On one hand globalisation has crossed borders and allowed for growth and expansion of ideology and materials to almost every part of the world. It marks sustainable progress, as in a continual learning of new ideas and values. On the other hand what comes with it is the domination by global companies and negative effects on the environment from travel. This makes it an issue that needs to be controlled.

Personal JudgementFrom the sources I have examined, I believe

globalisation is an inevitability, especially with new advancements in travel and technology as well as distribution of services and goods. This process should benefit cultures previously left isolated, allow them to develop and evolve, widen their concept of identity – becoming globalised as well as localised - from learning about others, new technological skills and values previously not known. However I cannot ignore the negative aspects that commercialism and tourism might bring which could damage an area’s localised culture and pose a threat to the value of distinctive cultural identity. After careful consideration though I personally believe that the advantages outweigh the potential drawbacks.

YouTube is one of the biggest website attractions with over 100 million videos being watched daily worldwide.

This makes it a key effect of globalisation in modern day society as it unites people from across the globe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J---aiyznGQ&feature=player_embedded