Midterm Exam for ANTH 2100

Midterm Exam for ANTH 2100 Submission window: Jul 23 – 26 @ 11:59PM 1. Arjun Appadurai and Samuel Huntington express fundamentally divergent assumptions about the nature of globalization and the relationships of different world regions and peoples to one another. How do their perspectives differ, what insights do they offer into contemporary global realities, and, lastly, which approach do you regard as more convincing and why? (12 points; approx. 600 words). Arjun Appadurai is an Indian American socio-cultural anthropologist with specializations in globalization studies, public culture, and urban studies. His article "Disjuncture and Difference in Global Cultural Economy" discusses the idea of global flows and gives the reader a reflective view on the processes of a globalized society. In Appadurai's article, he suggests that a main problem of cultural interactions is between the idea of purity and hybridity. The Western culture has people from different diversities, but a main problem is that even if many Western cultures are willing to change their attitude about their culture, there are still non-Western cultures who have their own beliefs and values. Appadurai proposes "an elementary framework for exploring such disjunctures is to look at the relationship between five dimensions of global cultural flow" (Appadurai, 296). The terms coined by Appadurai are (a) Ethnoscapes, which describes the migration of refugees, tourists, and students across cultures, (b) Mediascapes which explains the way media shapes how we understand the world, (c) Technoscapes which means the movement of technology around the world, (d) Finanscapes, forms of capital and its movement across the world and finally (e) Ideoscapes, the concentration of political images that have to do with ideologies of state and counter-ideologies of movement. He labels these five dimensions "scapes" because they are constantly shifting, just like how cultures are. Lastly, Appadurai explains how cultural homogenization is a concept, where the nation-state can manipulate civilians from various cultures. Samuel P. Huntington expands Arjun Appadurai's theory in his article. Samuel P. Huntington was an American political advisor and academic who was known for the "Clash of Civilizations” essay . Huntington hypothesises in this essay suggests that the f uture conflicts would originate from clashes between 'civilizations' . He states "It is my hypothesis that the fundamental source of conflict in this new world will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic. The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural (Huntington, 1993) . He also describes the word civilization as "the highest cultural grouping of people and the broadest level of cultural identity people have short of that which distinguishes humans from other species" (Huntington, 1993). The main differences between these civilizations can be seen through language, history, culture, or religion, which is why over the centuries, it did create some violent conflicts. The eight major civilizations stated by Huntington are: Western, Latin-American, Orthodox, Islamic, Hindu, Japanese, Sinic and African. Lastly, Samuel P. Huntington also predicts that the West and Arab nations, such as Saudi Arabia and China might have an increase in cultural conflict with each another. Looking at both hypothesis from Arjun Appadurai and Samuel P. Huntington, we can see that they both had different assumptions on the nature of globalization and the relationships of different world regions and peoples to one another . One of the differences between both articles, “Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy” and “The Clash of Civilizations?” is that Appadurai suggests that the tension exists between cultural homogenization and heterogenization, while Huntington explain that this tension will start conflicts and war between

the eight civilizations. In my opinion, I feel Huntington's approach is more convincing because as we look back on his article, we see that his hypothesis has manifested several events in the world like politics and current events such as September 11, 2001, where an Islamic terrorist group targeted the twin towers and pentagon in the US and the Iraq War in 2003, where the USA, UK, Spain, and Poland invaded Iraq to end the support of terrorism and disarm their weapons. There are way more conflicts around the world like in Middle East that are related to religion and cultures. 2. We know that sweetness is not universally desired, and yet sugar is consumed in such large amounts by Europeans and North Americans that we can be excused for believing that it is. What can we say about the history of sugar as a commodity that might help us to understand why so many people eat so much of it? (12 points; approx. 600 words) Sidney Mintz’ Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History analyzes the history of sugar from the beginning of its recorded time to modern day. Mintz analyzes the substance ( C12H22O11) by breaking the history into five different categories: (a) food and sociality, (b) production, (c) consumption, (d) power, and (e) eating and being. People all around the world never felt how sweetness tasted until sugar became popular and addictive. Throughout history, sugar had lots of different uses as it was not always expensive, highly accessible and widely available as it is now. Sugar was used as a luxury such as medicine and sweetener. As a medicine, sugar was used to help relieve stomach pains by drinking it or it was prescribed by physicians for ailments of the eye. Also in classic Islamic pharmacology, it is believed to be useful in the treatment of various ailments gastrointestinal. When sugar finally made its way to the European countries such as Britain, sugar was used as a sweetener in chocolate, tea, and coffee. Tea is originally known as a bitter beverage, but with the combination of sugar, the sweet-tasting substance became very popular in Britain and made a huge turning point in their culture. Sugar changed in two ways, first in the way it was used by the people and second in between the different classes of people in the British society. Sugar was considered rare that only the wealthiest people would be able to afford but slowly as the production of sugar grew and became more advanced, the price of sugar started to drop. This was huge in Britain and changed the life of many people because a substance that was once only purchased by the wealthy and noble people, was now accessible to the working class of the British society. This is why Mintz stated in his research that combining the sugar and tea was a “turning point in the British society.” Tea drinking became more popular as soon as sugar became more affordable, and the people of England grew very fond of it. Sugar slowly started transforming from a sweetener, into a basic food which is now consumed daily by many people. Some days when food supply would be very minimal and sugary food was known to last longer, the lower classes would buy and use sugar as their source of calories such as bread. Looking through the development of sugar from the 17th century to modern day, we can notice that it was changed and processed many times in society and culture till it finally reached to what its considered to be today. In modern day, sugar is now found in almost every food such as fruits, vegetables, dairy, and some grains. We can also see that now-a-days, sugar is coming in many forms and the most common one is the granulated powder form. Sugar did not only change in the way it was processed but also changed in the way it was used. Sugar started off in the form of a liquid such as honey, molasses or any type of sugar syrup but with the advancements of sugar cane processing, the sugar started to become more white and purer. Granulated sugar

Socialism also rejected the premise of individualism and its association with the rights of individuals. (c) Nationalism has the idea of how a society must be culturally homogenous in order to thrive. It also offers a counterpoint for both liberalism and socialism. (d) Scientific Racism is one of the expressions that nationalism can also support. It also establishes a social hierarchy based on the biological markers, whether its visible (skin colour) or bloodline (Jewish, Black, Chinese or Arab). As stated in the reading: "Ideologies of progress have sustained the sense of cumulative growth, both economically and cognitively, that stand as the signal feature of the modern world". (Buzan and Lawson, 2015) Of the four ideologies, liberalism and nationalism have a big influence on contemporary international society. Socialism remains influential as an idea but is undermined by the shortcomings of the applications. Finally, 'Scientific' racism is the "clearest loser, even if many racist legacies linger on". (Buzan and Lawson, 2015)

Work cited Appadurai, A. (1990). Disjuncture and difference in the global cultural economy. Public Culture, 2 (2), 1-24. doi:10.1215/08992363-2-2-1 Buzan, B., & Lawson, G. (2015). Ideologies of progress. The Global Transformation, 97-126. doi:10.1017/cbo9781139565073.008 Huntington, S. P. (1993). The clash of civilizations? Foreign Affairs , 72 (3), 22+. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A13187561/EAIM?u=yorku_main&sid=bookmark EAIM&xid=4a385e19 Mintz, S. W. (1985). Sweetness and power: The place of sugar in modern history . London: Penguin Books. Suárez-Navaz, L. (2004). Rebordering the mediterranean: Boundaries and citizenship in southern europe . ProQuest E-book Central https://ebookcentral.proquest.com