Globalisation and Culture



Globalisation and Culture

Week 3 September 14-20

1. roll

2. before you leave today hand in the readings for week 2

3. this week we begin a series of discussion board activities

(Tuesday) Is there a Global culture?

One way to understand the extent of globalisation is to look at some traditional events. If what we read is true – globalisation is a recent occurrence like the Industrial Revolution but it isn’t. As far back as there have been humans there has been an exchange between people. Whether it was one group of folks living in a cave and developing traditions then at some point wandering off to another area and finding a group of people living differently with different world views and styles one group would believe their trip was superior to the other.

Religion is a prime candidate for globalisation – one group believes their teachings are superior to another group and they find a way to get others to believe the same: usually through force. As well as religion or along with it has always been the idea of trade or barter or the selling and attaining of goods and services.

We will look at many aspects of how cultures influence each other in this course.

One we will look at now is the marriage event. Marriage is shared by all culture and even in our globalised world there are individual ways of going about it. Most people except it as a good thing in some form or another.

What we in the Western world believe is our own traditions are really a mixture of traditions from many other places.

Looking at something that is shared by cultures world wide –

IS MARRIAGE A GLOBAL EVENT?

Many of today's popular wedding ceremony and reception traditions can be traced to ancient Egyptian and European customs. These were often based on symbolism, superstition, folklore, religion, and even the belief that evil spirits could bring disease and death to newlyweds and crops, which was very important in many farm-based early cultures.

To do the marriage trip is to take on a globalisation of sorts. In different times and places different customs have prevailed

For instance, ancient Hebrew law required a man to become the husband of a deceased brother's widow.

There are different variations of marriage such as:

Some varieties of marriage are

polygamy - one man, several wives or one woman, several husbands

polygyny - one man, several wives

polyandry - one woman, several husbands

endogamy- requirement to marry someone who belongs to his or her own group

exogamy - people have to marry someone from another area

common-law marriage

monogamy - one man, one wife

The Twelfth century troubadours were the first ones who thought of love in the same way we do now. The whole notion of romance apparently didn't exist until medieval times, and the troubadours.

Some examples are:

THE ORIGIN OF THE "ENGAGEMENT RING"

In 860 A.D., Pope Nicholas I decreed that an engagement ring become a required statement of nuptial intent. He insisted that engagement rings had to be made of gold which signified a financial sacrifice on the part of the prospective husband.

THE ORIGIN OF THE WEDDING CAKE

In the 1st. century B.C. in Rome, the cake was thrown at the bride or broken over her head as one of the many fertility symbols which then were a part of the marriage ceremony.

THE ORIGIN OF THE BEST MAN TRADITION

Among the Germanic Goths of northern Europe in 200 A.D., a man usually married a woman from within his own community. However, when there were fewer women, the prospective bridegroom would capture his bride from a neighboring village. The bridegroom was accompanied by his strongest friend (or best friend), who helped him capture his bride.

THE ORIGIN OF THE "HONEYMOON"

After "kidnapping" his bride, the groom would take her and go into hiding. By the time the bride's family tracked them down them, the bride would probably already be pregnant! A "bride price" would then be negotiated.

THE ORIGIN OF THE TERM "TO TIE THE KNOT"

The term "tie the knot" also goes back Roman times. the bride would wear a girdle that was tied in many knots which the groom had the "duty" of untying.

WHY IT BECAME "BAD LUCK" FOR THE GROOM TO SEE BRIDE BEFORE THE CEREMONY

Until relatively recently, brides were considered the property of their father. Their futures and husbands were arranged without their consent. The marriage of an unattractive woman was often arranged with a prospective groom from another town without either of them having ever seen their prospective spouse. In more than one instance, when the groom saw his future wife, usually dressed in white, for the first time on the day of the wedding, he changed his mind and left the bride at the altar. To prevent this from happening, it became "bad luck" for the groom to see the bride on the day of the wedding prior to the ceremony.

There was an ad in one foreign newspaper that read:

Dowry: We pay the best price! Top Bids invited

Western fashion has influenced the style of dress of many non-western cultures, in some areas replacing the traditional dress entirely. THE ORIGIN OF THE TRADITIONAL WHITE WEDDING DRESS

In 1499, Ann of Brittany popularized the white wedding gown. Prior to that time, a woman simply wore her best dress or a new dress without regard to the basic color.

Wedding celebrations are sometimes the only places where a semblance of a culture’s traditional dress survives.

A. Attire from different cultures…

1. Morocco - The Legend of Imilchil Brides' Festival?

2. Several countries incorporated the white wedding gown into their wedding traditions during the early and mid twentieth century.

3. In several Asian countries, wedding ceremonies share a common Confucian tradition, and common traditions regarding color. Many traditional wedding costumes incorporate the color red, since it is an auspicious and happy color. White, on the other hand, is the traditional color of death and mourning.

4. Traditional Korean bridal dress is based on the costume of royal princesses. The red skirt and yellow jacket are worn over full pantaloons and a long slip, and under a red robe with wide rainbow stripe sleeves.

5. Africa along the Nile they are devoted nudists. Clay, ash, feathers, sandals and a necklace are considered ample dress for any occasion. The bride wears the beaded apron and half skirt of the unmarried girl.

6. France - Everything is white: flowers, dresses and decorations.

Various strategies of dealing with foreign influences have been identified. The most prominent of these are resistance and appropriation.

Regarding resistance: The state often tries to prohibit foreign influences to enter its territory.

• The iranian state doesn’t allow its citizens to own satellite-dishes,

• France tries to protect the French language from being anglizised and invents new french words fast food and the internet (formule rapide and entre-reseau).

• Imported goods, institutions and ideas also meet resistance from social movements or certain sections of society (ranging from protest against the Miss World beauty contest in Nigeria last year The contest faced a boycott by beauty queens from France, Belgium, Norway, Ivory Coast, and Kenya in protest against the decision of a Muslim court in northern Nigeria to sentence a mother-of-three to death by stoning for adultery [it was moved to London] to protest against McDonalds in many countries)

view ‘Global news’ from “Global Insights 3” from 1998 ~ a bit old but it is an example of a world community such as we spoke of last week – a community of protesters/activists

1. people protesting Uranium mining – In Australia

2. Germany –

3. USA

4. Poland

5. Denmark

6.

2. The pros and cons of globalisation: the global debate

Pro globalisation

Globalization leads to a new cultural diversity

There is mounting evidence that inequalities in global income and poverty are decreasing and that globalisation has contributed to this turnaround. For example, the World Bank notes that China's opening to world trade has brought it growth in income from $1460 a head in 1980 to $4120 by 1999. In 1980, American's earned 12.5 times as much as the Chinese, per capita. By 1999, they were only earning 7.4 times as much. The gap between rich and poor is also shrinking with most nations in Asia and Latin America. The countries that are getting poorer are those that are not open to world trade, notably many nations in Africa. (Care is required when statistics are used. See the note on statistics at the bottom of this page.)

Everywhere cultural traditions mix and create new practices and worldviews

Culture is one of the most prominent global concepts and gets appropriated in highly diverse ways.

From 1970 to 1980 the number of northamerican Indians has increased from 700.000 to 1.400.000. This is not the result of a population explosion but reflects the rapidly growing number of North Americans who acknowledge their indian ancestry and their cultural roots openly.

Anti globalisation

The gap between the rich and poor nations of the world is increasing. The figures used most frequently are those from the UNDP 1999 Development Report which find that over the past ten years, the number of people earning $1 a day or less has remained static at 1.2 billion while the number earning less than $2 a day has increased from 2.55 billion to 2.8 billion people. The gap in incomes between the 20% of the richest and the poorest countries has grown from 30 to 1 in 1960 to 82 to 1 in 1995.

By the late 1990s the fifth of the world’s people living in the highest-income countries had:

• 86% of world GDP—the bottom fifth just 1%.

• 82% of world export markets—the bottom fifth just 1%.

• 68% of foreign direct investment—the bottom fifth just 1%.

• 74% of world telephone lines, today’s basic means of communication—the bottom fifth just 1.5%.

(Care is required when statistics are used. See the note on statistics at the bottom of this page.)

Critics of globalisation say that rising inequality is the inevitable result of market forces. Given free reign, market forces give the rich the power to add further to their wealth. Hence, large corporations invest in poor countries only because they can make greater profits from low wage levels or because they can get access to their natural resources.

It is estimated that just 10% of over 6.500 languages spoken today will survive

3. Migration as globalisation. Video of Australian migration from Global Insights 3 Also view the clip ‘a Muslim family describes their feelings and thoughts on the issue of Western (Australian) Governments VS asylum seekers’,

Visit the following website where you will have an opportunity to apply the law in an asylum case.



Discussion Board: Discuss in two-three sentences something you did this week that was a result of globalisation

Journal

Journal article due Tuesday 23 September

 

YOUR JOURNAL ARTICLE FOR THIS WEEK MUST COME FROM A FOREIGN NEWSOURCE FROM THE COUNTRY YOU ARE ASSIGNED – THE ARTICLE NEEDS TO ADDRESS AN ISSUE ON GLOBALISATION – you will need to do this via the Internet unless you can get a paper from that country in the library.

For example – If your group’s country was Zimbabwe. From Africa daily at: You would then discuss this article bringing up the issue why international isolation is bad for Zimbabwe.

|Posted on Tue, Sep. 16, 2003 | |[pi|

| | |c] |

|[pic] | |

|Zimbabwe Police Seize Newspaper Equipment | |

|ANGUS SHAW | |

|Associated Press | |

|HARARE, Zimbabwe - Police seized computers and other equipment Tuesday from Zimbabwe's only independent daily newspaper, | |

|which was shut down last week for failing to register under sweeping media laws. | |

|The closing of the Daily News comes amid a government crackdown on dissent as Zimbabwe struggles with an economic collapse | |

|and international isolation. | |

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