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Chapter 15 The Struggle for Cultural Survival, Revival, and Revitalization 1 © David Eller 2009 Cultural anthropology has not only become—and perhaps always been—the study of humans in crisis It has tended to see itself as the voice of the voiceless, the revelation of the invisible, speaking not only about but also for peoples who could not speak for themselves 2 © David Eller 2009 Cultural anthropology has tended to focus not only on the “other” but on the disadvantaged other, the “lower” other = the subaltern But non-Western and natives peoples increasingly can and want to speak for themselves and to determine their own lives and futures— as do all peoples 3 © David Eller 2009 Anthropology’s conventional interest has been Fourth World peoples, also known as indigenous societies or First Peoples = the original or earliest inhabitants of places, or at least those present prior to colonial contact usually small, pre-state or non-state societies live within the borders of states in which they are disempowered minorities typically the poorest and weakest groups in the state 4 © David Eller 2009 It is commonly calculated that some 6,000 societies exist in the world, of which more than 3,000 have less than five thousand members more than 300 have over a million members more than one-third live in Asia more than 800 live just in Papua New Guinea up to one-third are in danger of language loss or total extinction 5 © David Eller 2009 Many if not most indigenous groups have suffered loss of land, lives, and culture homelands taken for settlement and development by other peoples depopulation through war, disease, malnutrition, and despair artifacts, knowledge, and even physical remains extracted for study or sale ways of life under assault by state governments and globalization processes 6 © David Eller 2009 Some steps have been taken to protect indigenous land, people, and culture United States: Indian Self-Determination Act (1975) Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (1990) Australia: Report on Recognition of Aboriginal Customary Laws (1986) Native Title Act (1993) 7 © David Eller 2009 Many indigenous peoples have also become articulate spokespersons for their own interests, problems, and ways of life constitutional lawyers among Native American societies political leaders and activists authors, filmmakers, musicians, artists, etc. trained social scientists, including anthropologists 8 © David Eller 2009 In the contemporary world, culture is often a resource in struggles over land, wealth, power, recognition, rights, and sovereignty Cultural differences or disputes give rise to cultural movements efforts to change or improve social circumstances on the basis of culture or identity often involve an “ethnographic” awareness of their own culture 9 © David Eller 2009 Compared to the conventional view of culture, cultural movements tend to be more self-conscious and intentional more vocal, even argumentative (i.e., opposed to something) more mobilized, often militant—sometimes prepared to use force and violence 10 © David Eller 2009 Anthony Wallace called such cultural activities revitalization movements = “a deliberate, organized, conscious effort by members of a society to construct a more satisfying culture” (1956: 265) “Revitalization is thus…a special kind of culture change phenomenon:” 11 © David Eller 2009 “the persons involved…must perceive their culture, or some major areas of it, as a system (whether accurately or not) ‘they must feel that this cultural system is unsatisfactory “and they must innovate not merely discrete items, but a new cultural system, specifying new relationships as well as, in some cases, new traits” Therefore, revitalization is not just old culture mobilized but, in a sense, new culture 12 © David Eller 2009 Process of Revitalization: Steady state (“tradition”) Period of Increased Individual Stress Period of Cultural Distortion Period of Revitalization Mazeway reformulation (prophet) Communication Organization (charisma) Adaptation Cultural transformation Routinization New Steady State (new culture) 13 © David Eller 2009 Revitalization movements can take many forms, often in combination: (1) 14 Syncretism = the mixing or blending of elements from two or more cultural sources to produce a new, third, better culture or system © David Eller 2009 Syncretism is not so much a “type” of culture change as the essence of culture change, and of culture itself can mix elements from different cultures can mix elements from different domains or aspects of a culture— e.g. politics, economics, arts (music, movies, television), religion, popular culture, technology, etc. 15 © David Eller 2009 (2) Millenarianism = movement to prepare for or elicit the end of the present (inferior, unhappy, or wicked) era and the start of a new, better era (3) Irredentism = movement to recover and/or re-occupy a lost homeland 16 © David Eller 2009 (4) Modernism/vitalism = movement to import and accept foreign (especially “modern,” especially Western) cultural ways, in part or in total (5) Nativism/fundamentalism = movement to restore, re-affirm, or protect local or “traditional” culture and values, usually in resistance or opposition to alien or “modern” culture and values 17 © David Eller 2009 Where does culture go from here? Since culture is not static the boundaries of culture and society are not firm and permanent much of the world is deeply dissatisfied by its current cultural condition the technologies and media of culture and culture change are widely available we can be assured that culture will continue to change, organize, mobilize, and resist 18 © David Eller 2009 Modern vs. Postmodern Culture At least since the 1700s, “modern” culture has been characterized as: rationalistic—committed to knowledge (“science”), prediction, and control progressive—believing in the ideal of continual progress or improvement optimistic—sure that things will get better integrative—dedicated to transcending differences and building bigger (even universal) systems and institutions 19 © David Eller 2009 bureaucratic—becoming increasingly organized and hierarchical, based on expertise and efficiency secular—restricting the power and reach of religion, even expecting the demise of religion completely However, by the early 1900s (if not earlier, for some philosophers and artists), modernity seemed to give way to “postmodern” society: 20 © David Eller 2009 dominated by the irrational, the emotional, even the unconscious 21 (e.g. Freud)—will to power, instinct, sex drive saw limit to progress and optimism, sometimes emphasized fear and despair loss of faith in absolute universal truths or “grand narratives” of history (Lyotard) subjective (no ultimate truth), decentered superficial, playful—essential expression of postmodern sensibility was the collage, the surrealist painting, the MTV video © David Eller 2009 The fact that culture is produced and reproduced led to intentional making and marketing of culture—culture as a commodity cultural tourism groups can display or offer their culture for sale visitors can consume culture popular culture entrepreneurs can create and distribute culture to a mass audience 22 © David Eller 2009 The Future of Culture Whatever culture will be in the future, it will not be quite the same thing it is today—certainly not “traditional” Cultural anthropology has a valuable role to play in the understanding and interpretation of future culture, and perhaps even in the production of such culture(s) 23 © David Eller 2009 Possible future #1: One-World Culture With increasing travel, technology, and global integration, all societies converge into a single global culture 24 © David Eller 2009 Possible future #2: Jihad-vs-McWorld (Barber) Binary opposing cultural forces: globalization, largely Western corporatism ethnic/cultural fragmentation Neither force respects human freedom 25 © David Eller 2009 Possible future #3: Clash of Civilizations (Huntington) World fractures along regional/continental lines, dividing into competing and conflictual culture-families or civilizations (West/Christendom, Islam, China, Africa, etc.) 26 © David Eller 2009 Possible future #4: Multiple Modernities Cultures do not become one, two, or a few, but very many cultural diversity persists some old cultural forms lost, other new ones created each culture develops its own form of or makes its own accommodation to “modernity” “modern” as currently known is distinctly Western but not the only possible form 27 © David Eller 2009 Whatever the future of culture holds you and your descendants will have to live in it it will be a product of human agency—an invention, guided by cultural and “traditional” values and practices cultural anthropology will be a valuable and necessary discipline for understanding, assessing, and critiquing cultural processes and products 28 © David Eller 2009