Transformation of culture
Encyclopedia
Transformation of culture, or cultural change, to the dynamic process whereby the living culture
s of the world are changing and adapting to external or internal forces. This process is occurring within Western culture
as well as non-Western and indigenous cultures and cultures of the world. Forces which contribute to the cultural change described in this article include: colonization, globalization
, advances in communication
, transport
and infrastructure
improvements, and military
expansion.
in the New World
, and continuing with the industrial revolution
. The Modern Period, from 1914–1945, is characterized as a highly transformative era, with World War I
serving as the watershed moment initiating and forever marking the Modern period. In literature, the work of the High Modernists ruled this period. Notable High Modernists include: T.S. Elliot, Ernest Hemingway
, Gertrude Stein
, Ezra Pound
, and James Joyce
. The High Modernists were predominantly American expatriates living abroad after the war and strongly marked by the war experience. A great deal of literature was written attempting to convey the World War I
experience. Among these is Ezra Pound's poem, "Hugh Selwyn Mauberley", published in 1920. The poem points out the perceived pointlessness of World War I, but also the loss of faith in the British Empire
and Western ideals. Another example of literature during this time is the anti-war poem "Dulce et Decorum Est.", written by Wilfred Owen
. This poem contests the deep-seated tradition of noblesse oblige, and questions the idea of dying for one's country. The 1960s were a tumultuous time in Western culture, especially in Europe due to the severe restructuring necessary following the aftermath of the Second World War and in the United States due to its controversial participation in both the Cold War
and South East Asian political affairs with the Vietnam War
, where the US role was perceived from a numer of directions as prolonging the residual effects of decades of colonial patronization in the Asian region by economically well to do European powers. This period was marked by a number of nascent social changes including a hightened sensitivity to the futility of war which sparked hundreds of protest marches and popular uprisings on a world-wide scale, rising tides of awareness concerning the need to change overwhelmingly negative race-relations in the USA, experimental drug use, a new genre in popular music, and a general shift away from social normatives of previous generations. Out of this era stemmed some of today's most powerful forces, such as the internet. The internet was created in large part by people cooperating, taking chances, and experimenting outside of corporate settings. Many of the individuals who were drawn to the technology in its infancy were activists and progressives. Some scholars and social theorists recognize that we are undergoing another cultural change brought about by the New Industrial Revolution. This Revolution is changing the way that products are made and disposed of, how buildings are constructed, and our relationship to the natural world and its capital. See also: segregation laws, conscientious objection
, May 1968.
. Indigenous systems of collective economic production and distribution do
not conform to capitalism's
emphasis on individual accumulation. This phenomenon is not new, although processes of globalization
have increased the scale and frequency of such conflicts of perspective. The contradictions between indigenous and capitalist modes of production, and the tensions generated by their intersection, have deep historical roots in the process of colonization. In many cases, the two worldviews are indeed antithetical. Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, an Igorot activist from the Philippines
, summarizes the difference when she writes that "industrialized culture
regards our values
as unscientific obstacles to modernization
and thus worthy of ridicule, suppression, and denigration. The industrial world
also views our political, social
, and land-tenure traditions as dangerous: our collective identities; our communal ownership of forests, water
s, and lands; our usufruct system of community
sharing, and our consensus decision-making are all antithetical to the capitalist hallmarks of individualism and private property
." Many indigenous peoples view "resources" in a very different way from that of global industry's commodity
-centered calculus. A leader of the Indigenous Network on Economies and Trade, Secwepemc author Arthur Manuel writes: "Mainstream economists tend to value development
strategies solely in terms of their wealth
generation potential for industry
and governments. So resources are viewed in strictly monetary terms. But indigenous peoples consider the value of land and resources in far broader, more integrated terms, including cultural, social, spiritual and environmental values, and their sustainability
. Among indigenous peoples, decisions about caring for resources and the environment
are usually made as part of a collective process, where the community takes into account a full spectrum of values and benefits other than short-term economic gains" Around the world many indigenous groups have over centuries or millennia successfully sustained economies in one particular place and ecosystem
. The co-adaptation of people with other elements of their ecological systems has meant that the integrity and functioning of these systems has been sustained even as the communities' culture developed and changed historically. These economic arrangements are viewed as one component of a cultural understandings that include sacred
interactions with the world. Indigenous economies can thus be seen to be sustainable to the extent to which the holders of culture interact in a culturally appropriate way with the world around them, including those elements of the world known to modern scientists as "natural resources". In many areas indigenous people have sustained communities for centuries, and the ecological systems of which they are a component have maintained relative richness and resilience to natural perturbations such as drought or fires. The ecosystems that have been remained predominantly under control and care of indigenous peoples thus tend to be characterized by high biodiversity
, abundant renewable resources, and relatively unexploited nonrenewable resources. For many indigenous groups, the advent of globalization threatens the sustainability of their economies by making their land and knowledge valuable targets as commodities in a globalized economy.
. Globalization
and increased consumerism
are increasing environmental stress by contributing to deforestation
. In addition to deforestation, other stresses such as introduction of foreign species, pollution
, and urban sprawl
.
impacts indigenous people, but also describes how indigenous communities resist or negotiate to defend their territories and cultural integrity.
Economic policy
, when set on a global scale, can undermine the political gains that indigenous peoples may have made within the legal systems of nation states. Victor Menotti of the International Forum on Globalization has written of how World Trade Organization
(WTO) authority is diminishing the sovereignty
of nation states over their land, water
, genetic material, and public services. The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), for example, favors the privatization of systems (such as those for water distribution) that serve the general public but without an equitable provision of services that is often at odds with maximization of profits. Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) imposed as a condition of loans from global finance
agencies such as the World Bank
also often mandate privatization
. The effects on indigenous peoples and other poor people can be devastating. World Bank-mandated SAP privatization
of coal mining
in the India
n state of Orissa
in the 1990s, for example, resulted in contamination
of rivers, increased rates of fluoride
poison
ing, infections, and cancer
, displacement of towns, and power rates that increased by 500%. The World Bank and IMF have also made water privatization
a prior condition for granting loans and debt reductions. Structural adjustment programs also weaken national-level environmental and labor laws that indigenous communities may have relied on in previous struggles to maintain control over territory and resources.
Other new international trade rules also negatively impact indigenous peoples. For example, Article I of GATT prohibits national governments from restricting imported goods specifically from any single other WTO
member nation. This article thus makes it impossible for national governments to restrict imports from other WTO countries with questionable human rights
, labor
, or environmental
records and thus disallows a potential safeguard for the rights of indigenous peoples. Article III of the GATT
, together with its corollary Articles V and XI, requires governments to treat all imports "no less favorably" than locally produced goods and bans restrictions on imports. Victor Menotti writes of how this feature of GATT
"prevents any government from favoring or protecting it own local industries, or farmers or cultures that might otherwise by overwhelmed by globe-spanning corporations bringing vast amounts of cheap imports that make local or indigenous economies non-viable". Similar "free trade" policies under NAFTA have already been demonstrated to undercut the livelihoods of small-scale Mexican
corn
farmers, many of whom are indigenous, who are unable
to compete with cheap, mass-produced grain
from the US
.
Advances in medical technology have contributed to demographic changes, including increased longevity and decreasing fertility. For example, although China has slowed its population increases through a one-child per family policy
, the median
age of its people will soar in the next 35 years.
In some Third World countries, kidneys, eyes and skin are sold in a flourishing market for body parts. There is also rising concern amongst many indigenous people groups over the interrelated issues of genetic patenting and biopiracy
. For example, a Guaymi
woman was diagnosed with leukemia
in 1991. Whilst in hospital in the city of Panama
she had blood samples taken and without her knowledge or free, prior, and informed consent. The cell-line enclosed in these samples was stored, "immortalized", patented, and put up for sale at a price of $136 US dollars. The scientists involved in this process claimed to have "invented" this woman's cell-line. Their rationale for taking the samples and processing them for patenting was that these samples held "commercial promise" in the scientific world for the discovery of potential medical breakthroughs and that the government encourages the patenting of anything which may have a link to such a discovery. The main contention in the debate apart from ethical dilemmas over genetic research is the fact that the woman from whom the samples were taken was never consulted about the process, so in effect, the whole process was done without her knowing it was going on or understanding what was happening to her. This presents an additional dilemma alongside the issue of genetic manipulation: freedom of information
. There is also the implication of "why her", "why an indigenous Guaymi woman and not a Euro-American". This type of technological case-in-point presents as a more recent dilemma for indigenous groups because commonly, such failure to properly inform insofar as the impact of either scientific research endeavours or corporate-style development
schemes are concerned has historically tended to coincide with policies and paradigms of practice which have their basis in racial discrimination.
On the more positive side, certain technological innovations such as computers, the Internet, and miscellaneous sound and visual recording media have been welcomed and embraced by indigenous peoples as a means of communicating to wider society their concerns about the dilemmas not only faced by them but by the whole world in view of the extent of socioeconomic, cultural and political transformations that have continued to evolve and impact global diversity in far-reaching and often unpredictable ways.
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
s of the world are changing and adapting to external or internal forces. This process is occurring within Western culture
Western culture
Western culture, sometimes equated with Western civilization or European civilization, refers to cultures of European origin and is used very broadly to refer to a heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, religious beliefs, political systems, and specific artifacts and...
as well as non-Western and indigenous cultures and cultures of the world. Forces which contribute to the cultural change described in this article include: colonization, globalization
Globalization
Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
, advances in communication
Communication
Communication is the activity of conveying meaningful information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast...
, transport
Transport
Transport or transportation is the movement of people, cattle, animals and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, rail, road, water, cable, pipeline, and space. The field can be divided into infrastructure, vehicles, and operations...
and infrastructure
Infrastructure
Infrastructure is basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function...
improvements, and military
Military
A military is an organization authorized by its greater society to use lethal force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. The military may have additional functions of use to its greater society, such as advancing a political agenda e.g...
expansion.
Theories of cultural change
Various scholars have proposed different theories of cultural change. Thomas R. Rochon proposed a differentiation between three modes of cultural change:- value conversion – the replacement of existing cultural values with new ones (ex. changing views of slaverySlaverySlavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
as an acceptable practice to an abhorrent one) - value creation – the development of new ideas to apply to new situations (ex. emergence of the environmental issues or concepts such as sexual harassmentSexual harassmentSexual harassment, is intimidation, bullying or coercion of a sexual nature, or the unwelcome or inappropriate promise of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. In some contexts or circumstances, sexual harassment is illegal. It includes a range of behavior from seemingly mild transgressions and...
) - value connection – the development of a conceptual link between phenomena previously thought unconnected or connected in a different way
Transformation of Western culture
"Western" or European culture began to undergo rapid change starting with the arrival of ColumbusChristopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus was an explorer, colonizer, and navigator, born in the Republic of Genoa, in northwestern Italy. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents in the...
in the New World
New World
The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...
, and continuing with the industrial revolution
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
. The Modern Period, from 1914–1945, is characterized as a highly transformative era, with World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
serving as the watershed moment initiating and forever marking the Modern period. In literature, the work of the High Modernists ruled this period. Notable High Modernists include: T.S. Elliot, Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...
, Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein was an American writer, poet and art collector who spent most of her life in France.-Early life:...
, Ezra Pound
Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound was an American expatriate poet and critic and a major figure in the early modernist movement in poetry...
, and James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
. The High Modernists were predominantly American expatriates living abroad after the war and strongly marked by the war experience. A great deal of literature was written attempting to convey the World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
experience. Among these is Ezra Pound's poem, "Hugh Selwyn Mauberley", published in 1920. The poem points out the perceived pointlessness of World War I, but also the loss of faith in the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
and Western ideals. Another example of literature during this time is the anti-war poem "Dulce et Decorum Est.", written by Wilfred Owen
Wilfred Owen
Wilfred Edward Salter Owen MC was an English poet and soldier, one of the leading poets of the First World War...
. This poem contests the deep-seated tradition of noblesse oblige, and questions the idea of dying for one's country. The 1960s were a tumultuous time in Western culture, especially in Europe due to the severe restructuring necessary following the aftermath of the Second World War and in the United States due to its controversial participation in both the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
and South East Asian political affairs with the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, where the US role was perceived from a numer of directions as prolonging the residual effects of decades of colonial patronization in the Asian region by economically well to do European powers. This period was marked by a number of nascent social changes including a hightened sensitivity to the futility of war which sparked hundreds of protest marches and popular uprisings on a world-wide scale, rising tides of awareness concerning the need to change overwhelmingly negative race-relations in the USA, experimental drug use, a new genre in popular music, and a general shift away from social normatives of previous generations. Out of this era stemmed some of today's most powerful forces, such as the internet. The internet was created in large part by people cooperating, taking chances, and experimenting outside of corporate settings. Many of the individuals who were drawn to the technology in its infancy were activists and progressives. Some scholars and social theorists recognize that we are undergoing another cultural change brought about by the New Industrial Revolution. This Revolution is changing the way that products are made and disposed of, how buildings are constructed, and our relationship to the natural world and its capital. See also: segregation laws, conscientious objection
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
, May 1968.
Transformation of indigenous cultures
Many of the themes discussed in the context of transformation of cultures and cultural change have particular urgency for the world's indigenous peoplesIndigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....
. Indigenous systems of collective economic production and distribution do
not conform to capitalism's
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
emphasis on individual accumulation. This phenomenon is not new, although processes of globalization
Globalization
Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
have increased the scale and frequency of such conflicts of perspective. The contradictions between indigenous and capitalist modes of production, and the tensions generated by their intersection, have deep historical roots in the process of colonization. In many cases, the two worldviews are indeed antithetical. Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, an Igorot activist from the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, summarizes the difference when she writes that "industrialized culture
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
regards our values
Value (personal and cultural)
A personal or cultural value is an absolute or relative ethical value, the assumption of which can be the basis for ethical action. A value system is a set of consistent values and measures. A principle value is a foundation upon which other values and measures of integrity are based...
as unscientific obstacles to modernization
Modernization
In the social sciences, modernization or modernisation refers to a model of an evolutionary transition from a 'pre-modern' or 'traditional' to a 'modern' society. The teleology of modernization is described in social evolutionism theories, existing as a template that has been generally followed by...
and thus worthy of ridicule, suppression, and denigration. The industrial world
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
also views our political, social
Social
The term social refers to a characteristic of living organisms...
, and land-tenure traditions as dangerous: our collective identities; our communal ownership of forests, water
Water
Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...
s, and lands; our usufruct system of community
Community
The term community has two distinct meanings:*a group of interacting people, possibly living in close proximity, and often refers to a group that shares some common values, and is attributed with social cohesion within a shared geographical location, generally in social units larger than a household...
sharing, and our consensus decision-making are all antithetical to the capitalist hallmarks of individualism and private property
Property
Property is any physical or intangible entity that is owned by a person or jointly by a group of people or a legal entity like a corporation...
." Many indigenous peoples view "resources" in a very different way from that of global industry's commodity
Commodity
In economics, a commodity is the generic term for any marketable item produced to satisfy wants or needs. Economic commodities comprise goods and services....
-centered calculus. A leader of the Indigenous Network on Economies and Trade, Secwepemc author Arthur Manuel writes: "Mainstream economists tend to value development
Economic development
Economic development generally refers to the sustained, concerted actions of policymakers and communities that promote the standard of living and economic health of a specific area...
strategies solely in terms of their wealth
Wealth
Wealth is the abundance of valuable resources or material possessions. The word wealth is derived from the old English wela, which is from an Indo-European word stem...
generation potential for industry
Industry
Industry refers to the production of an economic good or service within an economy.-Industrial sectors:There are four key industrial economic sectors: the primary sector, largely raw material extraction industries such as mining and farming; the secondary sector, involving refining, construction,...
and governments. So resources are viewed in strictly monetary terms. But indigenous peoples consider the value of land and resources in far broader, more integrated terms, including cultural, social, spiritual and environmental values, and their sustainability
Sustainability
Sustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of union, an interdependent relationship and mutual responsible position with all living and non...
. Among indigenous peoples, decisions about caring for resources and the environment
Environment (biophysical)
The biophysical environment is the combined modeling of the physical environment and the biological life forms within the environment, and includes all variables, parameters as well as conditions and modes inside the Earth's biosphere. The biophysical environment can be divided into two categories:...
are usually made as part of a collective process, where the community takes into account a full spectrum of values and benefits other than short-term economic gains" Around the world many indigenous groups have over centuries or millennia successfully sustained economies in one particular place and ecosystem
Ecosystem
An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight....
. The co-adaptation of people with other elements of their ecological systems has meant that the integrity and functioning of these systems has been sustained even as the communities' culture developed and changed historically. These economic arrangements are viewed as one component of a cultural understandings that include sacred
Sacred
Holiness, or sanctity, is in general the state of being holy or sacred...
interactions with the world. Indigenous economies can thus be seen to be sustainable to the extent to which the holders of culture interact in a culturally appropriate way with the world around them, including those elements of the world known to modern scientists as "natural resources". In many areas indigenous people have sustained communities for centuries, and the ecological systems of which they are a component have maintained relative richness and resilience to natural perturbations such as drought or fires. The ecosystems that have been remained predominantly under control and care of indigenous peoples thus tend to be characterized by high biodiversity
Biodiversity
Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or an entire planet. Biodiversity is a measure of the health of ecosystems. Biodiversity is in part a function of climate. In terrestrial habitats, tropical regions are typically rich whereas polar regions...
, abundant renewable resources, and relatively unexploited nonrenewable resources. For many indigenous groups, the advent of globalization threatens the sustainability of their economies by making their land and knowledge valuable targets as commodities in a globalized economy.
Environmental stresses and impacts on cultures
Cultures around the world are undergoing change due to environmental stresses, such as climate changeClimate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
. Globalization
Globalization
Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
and increased consumerism
Consumerism
Consumerism is a social and economic order that is based on the systematic creation and fostering of a desire to purchase goods and services in ever greater amounts. The term is often associated with criticisms of consumption starting with Thorstein Veblen...
are increasing environmental stress by contributing to deforestation
Deforestation
Deforestation is the removal of a forest or stand of trees where the land is thereafter converted to a nonforest use. Examples of deforestation include conversion of forestland to farms, ranches, or urban use....
. In addition to deforestation, other stresses such as introduction of foreign species, pollution
Pollution
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into a natural environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e. physical systems or living organisms. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat or light...
, and urban sprawl
Urban sprawl
Urban sprawl, also known as suburban sprawl, is a multifaceted concept, which includes the spreading outwards of a city and its suburbs to its outskirts to low-density and auto-dependent development on rural land, high segregation of uses Urban sprawl, also known as suburban sprawl, is a...
.
Indigenous resistance
In many cases, however, indigenous people have not passively acceded to the penetration of extractive capitalism into their communities. The following section thus not only reviews how globalizationGlobalization
Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
impacts indigenous people, but also describes how indigenous communities resist or negotiate to defend their territories and cultural integrity.
Economic policy
Economic policy
Economic policy refers to the actions that governments take in the economic field. It covers the systems for setting interest rates and government budget as well as the labor market, national ownership, and many other areas of government interventions into the economy.Such policies are often...
, when set on a global scale, can undermine the political gains that indigenous peoples may have made within the legal systems of nation states. Victor Menotti of the International Forum on Globalization has written of how World Trade Organization
World Trade Organization
The World Trade Organization is an organization that intends to supervise and liberalize international trade. The organization officially commenced on January 1, 1995 under the Marrakech Agreement, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade , which commenced in 1948...
(WTO) authority is diminishing the sovereignty
Sovereignty
Sovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a geographic area, such as a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided...
of nation states over their land, water
Water
Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...
, genetic material, and public services. The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), for example, favors the privatization of systems (such as those for water distribution) that serve the general public but without an equitable provision of services that is often at odds with maximization of profits. Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) imposed as a condition of loans from global finance
Finance
"Finance" is often defined simply as the management of money or “funds” management Modern finance, however, is a family of business activity that includes the origination, marketing, and management of cash and money surrogates through a variety of capital accounts, instruments, and markets created...
agencies such as the World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
also often mandate privatization
Privatization
Privatization is the incidence or process of transferring ownership of a business, enterprise, agency or public service from the public sector to the private sector or to private non-profit organizations...
. The effects on indigenous peoples and other poor people can be devastating. World Bank-mandated SAP privatization
Privatization
Privatization is the incidence or process of transferring ownership of a business, enterprise, agency or public service from the public sector to the private sector or to private non-profit organizations...
of coal mining
Coal mining
The goal of coal mining is to obtain coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United States,...
in the India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n state of Orissa
Orissa
Orissa , officially Odisha since Nov 2011, is a state of India, located on the east coast of India, by the Bay of Bengal. It is the modern name of the ancient nation of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Maurya Emperor Ashoka in 261 BC. The modern state of Orissa was established on 1 April...
in the 1990s, for example, resulted in contamination
Contamination
Contamination is the presence of a minor and unwanted constituent in material, physical body, natural environment, at a workplace, etc.-Specifics:"Contamination" also has more specific meanings in science:...
of rivers, increased rates of fluoride
Fluoride
Fluoride is the anion F−, the reduced form of fluorine when as an ion and when bonded to another element. Both organofluorine compounds and inorganic fluorine containing compounds are called fluorides. Fluoride, like other halides, is a monovalent ion . Its compounds often have properties that are...
poison
Poison
In the context of biology, poisons are substances that can cause disturbances to organisms, usually by chemical reaction or other activity on the molecular scale, when a sufficient quantity is absorbed by an organism....
ing, infections, and cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
, displacement of towns, and power rates that increased by 500%. The World Bank and IMF have also made water privatization
Water privatization
Water privatization is a short-hand for private sector participation in the provision of water services and sanitation, although sometimes it refers to privatization and sale of water resources themselves . As water services are seen as such a key public service, water privatization is often...
a prior condition for granting loans and debt reductions. Structural adjustment programs also weaken national-level environmental and labor laws that indigenous communities may have relied on in previous struggles to maintain control over territory and resources.
Other new international trade rules also negatively impact indigenous peoples. For example, Article I of GATT prohibits national governments from restricting imported goods specifically from any single other WTO
World Trade Organization
The World Trade Organization is an organization that intends to supervise and liberalize international trade. The organization officially commenced on January 1, 1995 under the Marrakech Agreement, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade , which commenced in 1948...
member nation. This article thus makes it impossible for national governments to restrict imports from other WTO countries with questionable human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
, labor
Labor relations
Industrial relations is a multidisciplinary field that studies the employment relationship. Industrial relations is increasingly being called employment relations because of the importance of non-industrial employment relationships. Many outsiders also equate industrial relations to labour relations...
, or environmental
Environment (biophysical)
The biophysical environment is the combined modeling of the physical environment and the biological life forms within the environment, and includes all variables, parameters as well as conditions and modes inside the Earth's biosphere. The biophysical environment can be divided into two categories:...
records and thus disallows a potential safeguard for the rights of indigenous peoples. Article III of the GATT
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade was negotiated during the UN Conference on Trade and Employment and was the outcome of the failure of negotiating governments to create the International Trade Organization . GATT was signed in 1947 and lasted until 1993, when it was replaced by the World...
, together with its corollary Articles V and XI, requires governments to treat all imports "no less favorably" than locally produced goods and bans restrictions on imports. Victor Menotti writes of how this feature of GATT
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade was negotiated during the UN Conference on Trade and Employment and was the outcome of the failure of negotiating governments to create the International Trade Organization . GATT was signed in 1947 and lasted until 1993, when it was replaced by the World...
"prevents any government from favoring or protecting it own local industries, or farmers or cultures that might otherwise by overwhelmed by globe-spanning corporations bringing vast amounts of cheap imports that make local or indigenous economies non-viable". Similar "free trade" policies under NAFTA have already been demonstrated to undercut the livelihoods of small-scale Mexican
Mexican people
Mexican people refers to all persons from Mexico, a multiethnic country in North America, and/or who identify with the Mexican cultural and/or national identity....
corn
Maize
Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...
farmers, many of whom are indigenous, who are unable
to compete with cheap, mass-produced grain
GRAIN
GRAIN is a small international non-profit organisation that works to support small farmers and social movements in their struggles for community-controlled and biodiversity-based food systems. Our support takes the form of independent research and analysis, networking at local, regional and...
from the US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Technological impacts
Technological innovations can enhance, displace or devalue human existence and culture.Advances in medical technology have contributed to demographic changes, including increased longevity and decreasing fertility. For example, although China has slowed its population increases through a one-child per family policy
One-child policy
The one-child policy refers to the one-child limitation applying to a minority of families in the population control policy of the People's Republic of China . The Chinese government refers to it under the official translation of family planning policy...
, the median
Median
In probability theory and statistics, a median is described as the numerical value separating the higher half of a sample, a population, or a probability distribution, from the lower half. The median of a finite list of numbers can be found by arranging all the observations from lowest value to...
age of its people will soar in the next 35 years.
In some Third World countries, kidneys, eyes and skin are sold in a flourishing market for body parts. There is also rising concern amongst many indigenous people groups over the interrelated issues of genetic patenting and biopiracy
Biopiracy
- Biopiracy and bioprospecting :Bioprospecting is an umbrella term describing the discovery of new and useful biological samples and mechanisms, typically in less-developed countries, either with or without the help of indigenous knowledge, and with or without compensation...
. For example, a Guaymi
Guaymí
The Guaymí or Ngäbe are an indigenous group living mainly within the Ngäbe-Buglé comarca in the Western Panamanian provinces of Veraguas, Chiriquí and Bocas del Toro, as well as in the indigenous town of Conte, Costa Rica near the extreme southern tip of the country...
woman was diagnosed with leukemia
Leukemia
Leukemia or leukaemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow characterized by an abnormal increase of immature white blood cells called "blasts". Leukemia is a broad term covering a spectrum of diseases...
in 1991. Whilst in hospital in the city of Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
she had blood samples taken and without her knowledge or free, prior, and informed consent. The cell-line enclosed in these samples was stored, "immortalized", patented, and put up for sale at a price of $136 US dollars. The scientists involved in this process claimed to have "invented" this woman's cell-line. Their rationale for taking the samples and processing them for patenting was that these samples held "commercial promise" in the scientific world for the discovery of potential medical breakthroughs and that the government encourages the patenting of anything which may have a link to such a discovery. The main contention in the debate apart from ethical dilemmas over genetic research is the fact that the woman from whom the samples were taken was never consulted about the process, so in effect, the whole process was done without her knowing it was going on or understanding what was happening to her. This presents an additional dilemma alongside the issue of genetic manipulation: freedom of information
Freedom of information
Freedom of information refers to the protection of the right to freedom of expression with regards to the Internet and information technology . Freedom of information may also concern censorship in an information technology context, i.e...
. There is also the implication of "why her", "why an indigenous Guaymi woman and not a Euro-American". This type of technological case-in-point presents as a more recent dilemma for indigenous groups because commonly, such failure to properly inform insofar as the impact of either scientific research endeavours or corporate-style development
Business development
A subset of the field of commerce, business development comprises a number of techniques and responsibilities which aim at:1. Researching new types of business/products/services with an emphasis on identifying gaps in the mitigation of needs of potential clients .2. Attracting new customers3...
schemes are concerned has historically tended to coincide with policies and paradigms of practice which have their basis in racial discrimination.
On the more positive side, certain technological innovations such as computers, the Internet, and miscellaneous sound and visual recording media have been welcomed and embraced by indigenous peoples as a means of communicating to wider society their concerns about the dilemmas not only faced by them but by the whole world in view of the extent of socioeconomic, cultural and political transformations that have continued to evolve and impact global diversity in far-reaching and often unpredictable ways.
See also
- GlobalizationGlobalizationGlobalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
- Indigenous peoplesIndigenous peoplesIndigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....
- Human geographyHuman geographyHuman geography is one of the two major sub-fields of the discipline of geography. Human geography is the study of the world, its people, communities, and cultures. Human geography differs from physical geography mainly in that it has a greater focus on studying human activities and is more...
- Industrial revolutionIndustrial RevolutionThe Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
- PostmodernismPostmodernismPostmodernism is a philosophical movement evolved in reaction to modernism, the tendency in contemporary culture to accept only objective truth and to be inherently suspicious towards a global cultural narrative or meta-narrative. Postmodernist thought is an intentional departure from the...
- PostmodernityPostmodernityPostmodernity is generally used to describe the economic or cultural state or condition of society which is said to exist after modernity...
- Columbian ExchangeColumbian ExchangeThe Columbian Exchange was a dramatically widespread exchange of animals, plants, culture, human populations , communicable disease, and ideas between the Eastern and Western hemispheres . It was one of the most significant events concerning ecology, agriculture, and culture in all of human history...
Further reading
- Indigenous Peoples and the World Bank: Experiences with Participation, published by Forest Peoples Programme, 2005
- For a critique of the HGDP, see Debra Harry, The Human Genome Diversity Project: Implications for Indigenous Peoples.
- Peter Berger, Four Faces of Global Culture (The National Interest, Fall 1997)
- Cultural Survival