Globalization

What is
Globalization?
Global industrialism
or globalization is a
process of forging
international 7-11 Beijing

political,
economic,
religious, and
socio-cultural
interconnections KFC Kuwait
 “The best definition of globalization”
Princess Diana's death
An English princess with an Egyptian boyfriend
crashes in a French tunnel, driving a German car with a
Dutch engine, driven by a Belgian who was drunk on
Scottish whisky, followed closely by Italian Paparazzi, on
Japanese motorcycles; treated by an American doctor, using
Brazilian medicines.

This is sent to you by an American, using Bill Gates's

technology, and you're probably reading this on your
computer, that uses Taiwanese chips, and a Korean monitor,
assembled by Bangladeshi workers in a Singapore plant,
transported by Indian lorry-drivers, hijacked by
Indonesians, unloaded by Sicilian longshoremen, and
trucked to you by Mexican illegals..... (from the web)
 What kinds of things cross international borders?
• Trade – goods and services.
– You can buy a TV from China, car from Japan, clothes from Indonesia or Italy.
– You can hire someone from India to write software or answer your telephone
• Capital – money, investment
– You can put your savings into a bank in Zurich.
– You can buy stock in SONY, a Japanese company
• People – immigrants, refugees, tourists
– Immigrants come to Calgary from Asia, Africa, S. America, Europe
– You can easily travel to Europe, Asia, S. America
• Communication
– You can easily call or email people around the world
• Culture (art, music, cuisine)
– You can hear music from Brazil, South Africa, India
– Nearby restaurants: Chinese, Thai, Ethiopian, Indian
• Ideas
 Marginal Product Revenue Theory
 Equilibrium is achieved
where supply and demand
meet in a competitive
market.
 The business world does
not like equilibrium Call Center India
because it limits profits.
 The more unique the
offering the more the
company can charge in
excess of their costs.
 Marginal Product Revenue Theory
 The Result: business will always seek
new markets and new products to offer.
 When did Globalization begin?

Obsidian Trade
in the Neolithic
(6000-3000 BC)

 Economic globalization is as old as history, a reflection of the

human drive to seek new horizons.
 The Silk Road: a series of trade
routes 8,000 km long connecting
China, Asia Minor and The
Mediterranean. Parts were
opened up about 5000 BC.
Connections between China and
Europe established with
Alexander the Great c. 330 BC

 It was Marco Polo and

Christopher Columbus’s occupation
 The first era of globalization (in
the sense that it encompassed the
globe) began during the 19th century
with the rapid growth of
international trade between the
European imperial powers
Marco Polo 1271-1295
This process was severely interrupted
from World War I through the
depression of the 1930s and World War
II until it restarted again, but slowly, in
the 1950s.
The pace has picked up in recent
decades, thanks to several driving
forces:
1. improvements in information
technology
2. Trade liberalization
3. capital flows
4. Cheap travel
5. Less rigorous immigration policies
6. Marketing
 Cost of a 3-Minute Telephone Call,
New York to London
(Constant 1990, U.S. $)

350

300

250

200

150

100

50
$0.30
0
1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990
 The Global Village
We live in a world in which all regions
are in contact with one another through
the mass media, instantaneous
communication, intercontinental travel,
and highly integrated economic and
political networks.

And it is changing cultures

Mobile phone tower Tanzania

 Is Globalization Good or Bad?

McDonald’s has
a banner the protestors carried in become a symbol
front of the IMF building in of globalization
Washington April 2000 read:
"worldwide coalition against
globalization".
Globalization’s impact has, generally, been viewed pessimistically
 For large parts of
Africa, about 200
million people
live, on less than
$1 a day.

Is Globalization
the cause or the
cure?
(Photo: STR / AFP-Getty Images
Cons  Increased environmental damage
 increased poverty, inequality, injustice
 erosion of traditional culture
 Corporations are motivated by profit
and have little concern for people
 economic globalization developments
feed into ethnic, religious, and factional
tensions that lead to wars and help
breed terrorism
 Terrorists now globally interconnected
and empowered with knowledge, create
a whole new category of warfare based,
in part, on the disruption of the
interconnections which are both created
by and necessary for globalization
Corporations shape political policy of
countries e.g. over fishing
 Pros
 increases economic
prosperity and opportunity
 higher degrees of political
and economic freedom in the
form of democracy
 Improved standard of living
– reduction in poverty
 Improved gender relations
 Increased life-span
 Globalization Issues
 Poverty: Enhanced or Diminished?

 Child Labor: Increased or Reduced?

 Women: Harmed of Helped?
 Democracy at Bay?
 Culture Imperiled or Enriched?
 Wages and Labor Standards at Stake?
 Environment in Peril?
 Corporations: Predatory or Beneficial?
 Global Feminization of the Workforce
 Globalization of the last two decades has led to increasing
participation of women in the workforce

Reasons
declining male participation
 labour deregulation
need for non-skilled
temporary/part time workers
Rising divorce rates
Lower fertility rates
Infant formula
Periodic economic downturns
Rising cost of living Woman working in textile
Globalization – lower wages Mill Slovakia
 Impact on Women’s Status
Growing importance of women’s contribution to household
economy
 Eroded male authority - have gained more negotiating power in
the household
women less dependent on men’s wages leads to greater freedom
women redefine their domestic role and challenge the myth of male
breadwinner
 but adds a burden to women’s household roles
 If they work but are still dependent on
the primary male wage earner they may
be seen as supplementary wage earners
Most women seen this way in workplace
where they are confined to poorly paid
unstable jobs fish processing plant Morocco
 Cultures in Contact
 Cultural diffusion –the spreading of a cultural trait from one
society to another, may not involve contact
 Acculturation – cultural diffusion where a subordinate culture
adopts many of the cultural traits of the more powerful culture
due to continuous contact
 Cultural imperialism – active promotion of one’s cultural system
over another
 Cultural hybridization – the blending of global and local forces to
form a new culture
 Cultural homogenization – the obliteration of individual cultural
differences to form one uniform global culture
 Cultural nationalism (ethnonationalism) – the process of
protecting and defending a certain cultural system against
dilution or offensive cultural expression while at the same time
actively promoting the indigenous culture
 Globalization: the paradox
creates economic conditions attractive to many peoples seeking a
better life
Dennis Okelo, left,
saved enough money to
open a village grocery
store in Uganda after
farming cotton and
selling it to Dunavant
Enterprises.

contributes to
undermining of
local cultures and
to the breakdown
of local societies
There are two main theses concerning the relation
between globalization and culture:

 The cultural homogenization thesis holds that

Western domination of global mass culture
threatens to wash away distinct national cultures.

 The hybridization thesis focuses on how local culture

shapes globalizaing forces to produce new versions
of the local culture to retain a cultural identity.
 Global Culture: Homogenization
 Technology (Internet, TV, cell phones etc.) is sweeping
away cultural boundaries creating the possibility and even
the likelihood of a global culture.
 Global entertainment companies shape the perceptions,
values, and dreams of people, everywhere.
 This spread of values, norms,
and culture tends to promote
Western ideals of capitalism and
consumerism.
 Resulting in the disappearance
of local cultures, traditions, and
identities replaced by a single
commodity/ single identity world
– the Westernization of culture

Ladies only line Saudi Arabia

 Asymmetry in Power Relations and Flows
 Coca-colonization: Coke, McDonald’s, Levi’s, MTV,
Disney, computer games, American (or American style) TV
shows, look-alike shopping malls with look-alike goods
 the meaning of good, appropriate, success changes
 Banana Republicanization
 Move from the dominant to the weaker

Big Bird does China

like to teach the world to sing
 Globalism - a euphemism for
western cultural imperialism?

Russia

Israel

India
Japan
Global Culture as a Source of Universality
 Globalization is
assumed to erase
differences among
human societies and
create a universal
culture in which
particular
characteristics of
national and local
cultures are no longer
relevant.
Beijing
On the main street of 250 million Chinese have learned
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, © English as a second language
Dick Waghorne

Culture becomes more homogeneous - Not in the sense

that all cultures are incorporated equally, but biased
towards American culture and those presented in English
 Global Capitalist Monoculture
 Incorporation of all national cultures into
the global capitalist economic system is
creating a universal culture of
capitalism.
 Penetration of multinational companies
into national cultures creates not only a
uniform process of production and its
associated forms of deregulation, but
uniformity of consumer tastes, choices
and habits.

Tokyo
 Standardization
The overwhelming dominance of multinational
companies in the production of cultural goods
creates a “convergence effect”.

From clothes to food to

music to film and
television to
architecture, we
encounter similar styles,
brands and tastes
anywhere in the world.
 Will local cultures inevitably fall victim to this
global consumer culture?

 Will English eradicate all other languages?

 Will consumer values overwhelm peoples’ sense
of community and social solidarity?
 Will a common
culture lead the way
to greater shared
values and political
unity?

 Or will cultures
select elements to
incorporate Korea
Shortcomings of “Globalization as a Source
of Universality argument”
 It reduces culture to material goods and consumption
patterns
 It underestimates the persistence of national and other
local cultures
 It assumes the dominance of global forces
 It fails to understand the complex relationship between
global and local forces.
 Globalization and its associated cultural forms are
constantly reinterpreted and reproduced in the process,
finally giving way to new hybrid social, economic and
cultural forms.
 A 2005 UNESCO report showed that cultural exchange is
becoming mutual.
 In 2002, China was the third largest exporter of cultural
goods, after the UK and US.
 Between 1994 and 2002, both North America's and the
European Union's shares of cultural exports declined, while
Asia's cultural exports grew to surpass North America.

Jackie Chan 1993

 Global Culture?
 Identity has intense
emotional ties
 Cultural attachment is
bound in tradition
 Mass marketing & pop
culture is no threat!
 No common pool of
memories
 No common global way of
thinking
 Blurs boundaries
Thailand
 Glocalization
globalization + localization

Enaotai Island, West PNG

 Hybridization
 Hybridization: mix and match from different sources, old &
new, local and global - music, popular culture, restaurants,
home decoration
 Hybrids help negotiate change and continuity while helping
individuals to establish identity and difference in local
structures, social hierarchies
 Hybridity involves integration of the global into the
practice of local life strategies
 first introduced by Methodist missionaries early 1900s the islanders have
transformed the game into an outlet for tribal rivalry, mock warfare,
community interchange, and an afternoon of entertainment
 an intervillage competition involving political reputation-building among
leaders, eroticized dancing and chanting, and wild entertainment.
Trobriand cricket players still bat, bowl, score runs, field, and make outs.
The sides, however, are no longer 11 players plus a reserve but are made up
from all the men of the competing villages. And average 60 players or more,
the main rule being that the sides must be roughly equal
Each team brings its own "umpire" who
overtly declares outs and keeps his own
side under control while secretly
performing war magic against the
opposition.
The main purpose is not to win by
scoring but to put on a fine display.
Chanting and dancing are a major part of
the repertoire of each cricket

Games end with an exchange of yams and betelnut between the two sides,
climaxing the politics underlying the event.
 Elements of
Hybridization
Interaction between the
local and the global

 Even though global

economic and political
forces enter into every
corner of the world,
local cultures reinterpret
these forces and create
local forms of global
forces to produce
complex hybrid forms of
culture.
Food provides an good example of hybridization
 Mexican food is hybridized in the U.S. to create
Mexican-American food.
 Along with Italian-American, Chinese-American, and
other hybridized cuisines
 These new combinations may be unrecognizable and
even unpalatable in the originating society.
But they are highly
appreciated in the
hybridizing society by
both the immigrant
groups that seek to assert
their local identity and
the dominant culture
 When Mexican food goes to Spain, it becomes
Mexican-Spanish food, different from both Mexican-
American and its Mexican parent.
Thus, although the
local may reassert itself,
it is inevitably changed
by the new contexts in
which it arises.

A Russian/Uzbek drinking Coke from a

no beef burger in India traditional Uzbek tea cup - Coca-Colonization?
 McDonaldization
“ the process by which a society
takes on the characteristics of a
fast-food restaurant”

(1) efficiency: ”fast”, method of

production scientifically proven
(2) predictability: ”a world of no
surprise” – standard menu, taste,
décor, service
(3) calculability: quantity rather than
quality
(4) Control: standardized
employees, non-human technology
 McDonald’s /Hong Kong
(1) Standardization: food, interior design,
layout etc.
(2) Initially presented itself as uncompromising
American food
- no Chinese name at first
- transliteration later
- no Chinese food
(3) Standard of cleanliness: clean washrooms
in restaurants
(4) Customer discipline: line up for food
(5) Idea of a regular meal: (a) exotic to
ordinary; (b) snacks versus meals
[customers: middle-class, like exotic
American culture  all ages, all social
classes, look for a simple meal]
Local?
(1) Resistance of McDonald’s? Involve in community
activities – hard to attack
(2) Local choice of food: fish burger and plain
hamburgers rather than Big Mac as favorite, other
local favorites e.g. shogan burger, chicken wings …
(3) Consumer discipline: service w/ a smile, busing own
tables, hovering, napkin wars
(4) Fast food restaurant? US: customers stay no more
than 20 minutes on average; HK: study room for high
school students, gathering place for senior people
 Shortcomings of “Global Culture as a
source of Hybridization” argument

 It ignores the inherent power structures that

exist in human societies and assumes that
people happily mix and voluntarily create new
identities.
 It fails to acknowledge the influence of
dominant economic and political forces.
 It fails to recognize that hybridization takes
place in urban settings and many parts of the
world is excluded from this process.
 Elements of Conflict
Persistence of national and ethnic identities:
 Since the mid 1980s, there is a gradual increase in
nationalist movements and ethnic conflicts. As global
forces penetrate into national and local cultures,
individuals turn inward and redefine their ethnic and local
identities as a reaction to globalization.
Resistance to global economy:
As the global economy diminishes the autonomy of local
economies, groups develop strategies to counter global
economic forces. Growing resistance to economic
globalization both in industrialized and industrializing
countries proves that global capitalism is far from being a
unifying force.
 Global Culture as a Source of Conflict
Jihad Versus McWorld
Global Culture would be defined
by the conflict between the
universalizing force of capitalism
and the particular force of local
cultures. (Benjamin Barber)
This argument assumes that the
gradual Westernization of the
world will create strong
reactionary movements in local
cultures.
In August 1999, Jose Bove
was arrested for ransacking a
McDonald’s restaurant in
Millau, France
He was seen as a hero fighting
against the pollution of French
culture by the Big Mac
Fear of an impending
McWorld and the globalization
it represents has unleashed an
increasingly strong backlash
against the possibility of
cultural homogenization.
 Ethnic Trends - Ethnonationalism
• People don’t think government cares
about individuals
• secessionist developments
• Ethnonationalism as a reaction to
global processes (Québécois, Scots)
• Arose in European-colonized areas,
in eastern Europe after the collapse
of the Soviet Union
• Ethnic group is a refuge from
globalization
Indigenous rights
 What does indigenous mean?
UN definition
‘Indigenous populations are composed of the existing
descendants of the peoples who inhabited the present
territory of a country wholly or partially at the time when
persons of a different culture or ethnic origin arrived there
from other parts of the world, overcame them, and by
conquest, settlement or other means, reduced them to a non-
dominant or colonial situation.

also includes isolated or marginal

populations not colonized or conquered

also the idea that they are placed under

the state structure which incorporates
mainly the national, social and cultural
characteristics of the dominant society.
 Indigenous Groups and Government
who is indigenous is decided by government ministers
national governments have different criteria because
indigenous groups may be able to claim state benefits
By such means governments are able to keep control over
the character and size of their indigenous populations
In Canada the federal Indian Act. defines
an Indian as "a person who, … is registered
as an Indian or is entitled to be registered as
an Indian." Persons registered under the
Indian Act are referred to as Registered
Indian Status. To be eligible to receive
benefits under the Indian Act, individuals
must be registered in the Indian Register,
which is maintained by the Department of
Indian Affairs and Northern Development
(DIAND).
In USA you have to be
registered which means you
have to be able to trace
your relationship to an
ancestor who was
registered in 1906
indigenous peoples
themselves often reject
these state definitions and
emphasize culture and self RAIN-IN-THE-FACE
identification and Sioux
Frank Fiske c. 1900
distinctiveness
 Populations
300 million indigenous people
about half of the countries in the world have an indigenous
population who do not Have the right to self determination

indigenous peoples are generally a demographic minority

Native Americans 1.5% of
Canadian population
Australian aborigines less
than 2% of the population
USA native Americans
about .5%
Sweden less than .1%
 Globalization and Bands
• Fourth world societies
• Violent changes
– Ethnocide
– Genocide
• Ethnographic examples:
– Ju/’hoansi in Namibia and Botswana
– Mbuti Pygmies
– Siriono of Bolivia (500)
 Globalization and Tribes
• North American horticulturists
– Effects of contact
– Forced relocation
• Manifest Destiny
• Trail of Tears
• South American horticulturists
– Yanomamö
• Pastoralists
– Bedouins
– Qashqa’i pastoralists
Iran
The Yanomami, had little contact with the rest of Brazil until the arrival of the
first garimpciros (gold miners) in the 1970s. By 1987 an estimated 80,000 miners
had flocked to the area, polluting rivers and spreading malaria. Decimated by
disease, the number of Yanomamis living in Brazil (many also live in Venezuela)
fell from 20,000 to about 8,000 in just 20 years. In Aug 1993 23 Yanomami
Indians were massacred by goldminers.. The dead included men, women and
children who were decapitated with machetes

In the words of Yanomami

representative "What we do not want
are the mining companies, which
destroy the forest, and the
garimpciros, who bring so many
diseases. These whites must respect
our Yanomami land. The garimpciros
bring guns, alcohol, prostitution, and
destroy nature wherever they go. The
machines spill oil into the rivers and
kill the life existing in them and the
people and animals who depend on
them. For us, this is not progress."
Chiefdoms, Resistance, Preservation
• Chiefdoms
– Hawaiian Islands
• Resistance
– Native Americans
– Melanesia and New Guinea
– Hawaiian Religion
• Preservation
 Relation to Land
 Land contains their history and sense of identity and it
ensures their economic viability as an independent people
 land is often the seat of indigenous peoples spirituality and
has a sacred quality generally absent from Western thinking

Ayers Rock/ Uluru, the world's largest monolith and an Aboriginal

sacred site located in the Kata Tjuta National Park, which is owned and
run by the local Aboriginals. The Australian government handed
ownership of the land back to the Aboriginals some years ago.
 land is often revered and respected and its inalienability
is reflected in indigenous philosophy
 land is seen as a living entity which can neither be
claimed for oneself or subjugated
 unlike Westerners who see land as something that can be
controlled, subdivided, and owned.

Buffalo Hunt under the White Wolf Across the Continent: "Westward the
Skin: An Indian Strategem on the Course of Empire Takes Its Way"
Level Prairies After George Catlin, Frances F. Palmer, 1868
undated
This spiritual rapport with the land is at odds with the
prevailing materialist notions of Western society
 natural resources that are
left untouched by indigenous
peoples are often considered
wasted and are exploited
economic activities which do
not extract the greatest
commercial benefits are
judged inefficient and primitive
Terra nullius (no man’s land)
As a consequence the way of life of indigenous peoples, is
threatened by this attitude of cultural superiority and
materialism.
The struggle in the last two decades has centred on land
and their culture.
 Situation of Indigenous Peoples
 less access to medical care since live mostly in rural areas
 more likely to be unemployed than the majority
 paid less than comparable workers and generally in lower
paid manual jobs
 governments in most countries with an indigenous
population, have created special agencies for their welfare
 more often than not these bodies serve as mechanisms of
control over indigenous minorities and thereby compound
the discrimination talking place elsewhere

1990, the Supreme Court held that Oregon

could deny unemployment compensation to
two Native Americans dismissed from their
jobs for using peyote as part of tribal religious
rituals under the state’s narcotics laws
receive less opportunities for schooling
 basic education is often hampered by an absence of any
lingua franca --- in Brazil 120 different languages
 education is usually in the dominant language
 locations means that education is inaccessible, especially if
nomadic

where formal education is

available it is often
antagonistic to the traditions
of indigenous people

 It does not impart

indigenous culture and few
efforts are made to
accommodate to the needs
of indigenous communities
education is often seen as a means of gaining control of
indigenous peoples and subverting their culture

 Missionaries, teachers and governments have recognized

that the way to civilise their indigenous communities was to
take hold of the children before their parents could teach
them the tribal way of life.

Indigenous cultures
often thought to be
inferior and needed to
be bred out of them
 Assimilation or partial assimilation of indigenous peoples
has led to despair at the loss of traditional social cohesion

 This, coupled with disillusion over limited opportunities

offered by the wider economy has created serious problems
among indigenous communities

 violent and accidental deaths and high suicide rates

 alcoholism and prostitution
 The Issues
1. Self-determination
 tied in with all aspects of life - political, economic,
social, and cultural-how people choose to live
 seeking to assert their political voice along with their
economic, cultural and social perpetuation and
development
 the most problematic topic

Questions the legitimacy of

the settler regimes

the establishment of
Nunavut may be an indicator
of change
April 1 1999
 2. Intellectual property rights
 for medicines developed from plants and traditional
medical practices of indigenous peoples

 Until recently in many cases little or no compensation has

been given to the tribe which had preserved and actually
discovered the medicine.
In late 2000, the World Intellectual
Property Organization established the
Intergovernmental Committee on
Intellectual Property and Genetic
Resources, Traditional Knowledge and
Folklore to address both policy and
practical links between the Intellectual
Property system
and the concerns of practitioners and
custodians of traditional knowledge.
3. Control over the exploitation of natural resources
located on the traditional indigenous lands.

 At present these
resources are
usually claimed by
the settler society

 which gets any

fees or profits from
exploitation with The coal-fired Navajo Generating Station near
little regard to the Page, Arizona provides electrical power to
needs or desires of customers in Arizona, Necada and California.
The ownership is:
the indigenous U.S.Bureau of Reclamation 24.3%
SRP 21.7%
peoples LA Dept. of Water & Power 21.2%
Arizona Public Service Company 14.0%,
Nevada Power 11.3%
Tucson Electric Power 7.5%
4. Preservation of cultural traditions and languages

 a high priority for many indigenous peoples since

Language is the most efficient means of transmitting a
culture and identity is most closely associated with language
 Most majority societies have been extremely reluctant to
allow the use of indigenous languages in formal
governmental activities.

languages spoken by a
minority of people in the
nation are often held in low
esteem, causing its speakers
to avoid using it or passing it
on to their children
Trinidad Pacaya Inuma, one of the
remaining 150 fluent speakers of Iquito
(Peru).
 Whale Hunting Among the Makah
 Place: Neah Bay, on the Olympic
Peninsula in Washington State
 May 17, 1999- 1st Gray Whale
Killed in 75 years by Indigenous
Whale Hunters
Makah buthcer a whale (c.
 Media Coverage Explosion 1905-10) Washington State
Historical Soc.
 Debates upon two recurrent
Themes: Indigenous Rights and
Environmental Impacts of
Whaling

Makah Whale Hunter Curtis (1915)

 The Whale Debate

1. What were the Makah

trying to protect by
returning to whale
hunting?
2. What were
environmental groups
who opposed the
Makah whale hunting
trying to protect?
3. Should the tradition of
whaling should be
continued?
5. Compensation for the theft of land
and property by the settler societies.
Includes return of artefacts now in
museums

 also return of skeletons and the right

to bury them according to tradition

9000-yr-old Kennewick Man found near

Kennewick Washington July, 1996. The totem pole from Star
House, Massett village.
Under the Native Am. Graves
Queen Charlotte Islands
Protection and Repatriation Act, 5 (Haida Gwaii), Canada.
Native American groups (the Nez Now at the Pitt Rivers
Perce, Umatilla, Yakama, Wannapum, Museum, Oxford
Colville) claimed the remains as theirs,
to be buried by traditional means.
Feb 2004 US Court of Appeals rejects
claims
 local indigenous peoples want development
 that address their needs,
 that are inclusive of their cultural values,
 that respect their collective identities, and
 that provide sustainable development for their
communities.

“Development with Identity”.

Human development is first and foremost about
allowing people to lead the kind of life they
choose—and providing them with the tools and
opportunities to make those choices
The politicization of horticulturalists living in the rain
forests of Eastern Brazil.
culture
Mid 1970s Terrence Turner
The Kayapo discovered 700 of 800 of one group
had died of disease. total pop:
4,000
A state organization controlled
their trade and communication with
the outside, and embezzled their
cash from the nut crop
The Kayapo felt dependent and
in a situation over which they
had no control
 Missionaries
provided
medicine in
exchange for the
Kayapo's
adopting western
clothes, building
their village along
a street, and
suppressing their
ceremonials
 The anthropologist proceeds as
if what is being studied is 'a
culture'. In the process, what
people had hitherto experienced
as an embedded way of life
becomes objectified and
verbalized - invented - as 'culture'.
The Kayapo did not see it like
that: it was just the way they did
things
They did not have a concept
Kayapo chief wearing a through which to objectify and
feather headdress which label their everyday life as a
establishes his rank and
smoking natural
'culture'.
tobacco in a traditional
ironwood pipe

A Kayapo chief wears the
traditional botoque through his
lower lip. The plate is made out
of balsa wood, and is a sign of
courage meant to frighten the
enemy.
they needed such a
concept to deal with
their situation: to give
them an identity and
distinguish themselves
as a 'culture' on a par
with other indigenous
people and vis-à-vis the
dominant national
society in an multi-
ethnic state system.

Young Kayapo girls painted
with Jemipapo, a black paint
which is made from
Jemipapo fruit crushed and
mixed with fish oil.
The Kayapo realized that
what missionaries and
state administrators used
as justification for
subordination and
exploitation, another set of
Westerners valued highly.
'Culture', which had
seemed an impediment,
now appeared as a
resource to negotiate their
co-existence with the
dominant society
 After a Disappearing
World documentary was
made, the Kayapo sought
further documentaries so
as to reach the sympathetic
elements in the west.

In 1989 the Kayapó protested a government proposal to

build hydroelectric dams along the Xingu River which would
have flooded much of their territory
 When they arranged to meet the Brazilian government to
oppose the dam, they choreographed themselves for the
western media in order to gain support of the western
audience and add pressure on the government.
Their appeal aroused worldwide support and the project was
shelved.
Gone were the shorts, T-shirts
and haircuts that had appeased
the missionaries; with men's bare
chests, body ornament and long
ritual dances, the Kayapo
performed their 'culture' as a
strategy in their increasingly
confident opposition to the state.
by the 1990s the Kayapo had
obtained videos, radios,
pharmacies, vehicles, drivers and
mechanics, an aeroplane to patrol
their land, and even their own
missionaries.
Kayapo had learnt to
objectify their everyday life
as 'culture' (in the old sense)
and use it as a resource in
negotiations with
government and
international agencies.
Kayapo politicians seem to
have been fully aware of the
constructedness of 'culture'
They presented themselves
as a homogeneous and
bounded group

They defined 'culture' for themselves and used it to set the

terms of their relations with the 'outside world'

Kayapo girls dancing
during the Jemipapo
ceremony. Note the girl at
the lower center with the
traditional Kayapo haircut.
In a history spanning forty
years, missionaries,
government officials, the
Kayapo, anthropologists,
international agencies and non
government agencies had all
competed for the power to
define a key concept, 'culture'.
 Missionaries and government
agencies initially had used the
concept to define an entity that
could be acted upon, producing
disempowerment and
dependency among the Kayapo.
The Kayapo strategy to wrest control of this concept from
missionaries and government officials and turn it against
them was part of a struggle not just for identity but for
physical, economic and political survival.
Kayapo leaders have used ethnographic film to assert
their own definition of their 'culture' and used the
strategies others have used against them to challenge
the processes that have marginalized them