BigManWeek+13

I read Chapter 14 in my hall's lounge, where someone was playing music from Pocahontas, and I realized that conflicting cultures have existed since the Age of Exploration, and most likely earlier as well. Then I noticed that the book seems to put some weight on scenarios that would make readers assume some kind of obstruction to progress, most notably moral dilemmas (child prostitution, domestic violence, etc.). My question is not necessarily about globalization, but about worldviews: Do you think our textbook is tailored to who we are as a society? Is there some shock value in writing about controversial issues to bring our attention to a subject that you may still touch on using more trivial examples?

There are many kinds of multi-sited ethnographic research in anthropology including the studying people (immigration, diaspora, pilgrimages), objects (circulation of goods, trade, items), and stories (oral tradition, myths). Has globalization played a role in the development and evolution of multi-sited ethnographic research? How so? In turn, how could this kind of research influence globalization even further?

http://thomaspmbarnett.com/globlogization/2010/9/14/the-indian-chinese-rivalry-on-outsourcing-indias-upper-hand.html

Slum tourism seems to me a way for foreigners to open their eyes to poverty and realize that the world isn't so easy for everyone. However, reading the article opened my eyes to the perspective of residents trying to live their lives <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 1.5;">while being <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">intruded upon by hundreds of unwanted eyes. Does slum tourism have any <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 1.5;">true benefits <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">for the locals?

http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415698788/

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">The introduction of the globalization chapter in the textbook says that “Humans have never lived in total isolation from one another…” Does this imply that lifestyles of one human culture have been directly influenced by cultures of other humans? If so- how were Whites able to so easily justify the notion of eugenics and white purity/superiority? Throughout history the paths of African Americans and Whites have intertwined so it seems almost logical that different aspects of the separate cultures would begin to blend. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">===

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">In chapter 14, the book discusses about cultural hybridity and that in a sense that when new cultures from different places enter a society, it is modified and changed to fit the society. Furthermore, the book states that “one is succumbing to cultural imperialism or losing one’s cultural ‘authenticity’”. Does these mean that certain traditions and custom present within a certain culture can be distort to the point where people are doing random actions for no apparent reason or to benefit the people who have changed the culture? How do we know this isn’t already prevalent?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Y5rC7kDx3o

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">The article this week discussed how Data Air in Barbados favored women with <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">children because they were seen as being more responsible and committed than <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">those who were there "just for the paycheck". However in other cultures these <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">women are not favored for jobs. What are the reasons that they would not be <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">favored given the fact that in Barbados they are seen as more dedicated?

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">In the article we read this week, Carla Freeman mentions Foucault's idea of

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">the panopticon, which was a very effective means of establishing power and

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">enabling complete surveillance a couple hundred years ago. She writes that

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">this same idea is now applied through the video display terminal keeping

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">track of workers' performance. I was wondering how the idea and use of the

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">panopticon have evolved as technology has changed over time. Are there still

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">examples today of the traditional structure of the panopticon being used?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVTKHI5ovyc

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">Isn't the "genderization" of work force roles and exploitation of these a problem throughout the majority of the world, the corporation-knows-best mindset also seems widespread throughout. After the reading I wasn't really sure what Freeman was trying to get to, some of the issues portrayed as exclusive to Barbados, while drawing parallels from other locations; maybe this threw me off. I was expecting the reading to discuss the increase of crime and gangs and their relation to changes in the family structure and changes in the workforce when it was mentioned, but it seemed to shift focus to the corporate ideals. I understand that the reading was about Corporate Discipline in Barbados, but aren't we all guilty of abiding to the "professional expectations" of our role, which is not necessarily a bad thing. The "westernization" and "corporatization" of these places combined with their culture seems to the "patchwork" female work environment, expectations, etc now present everywhere. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">===

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">After reading the "Designing Women: Corporate Discipline and Barbados's <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">Offshore Pink-Collar Sector," article, I compared the type of work force <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">that was described in Barbados and the current American work force. It <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">was stated that the clerical work was mainly held by younger women with a <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">very strong work ethic compared to older women and men in the stated <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">field. The end of the article also stated how the increasing <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">globalization in Barbados is possbly causing a shift to more skilled <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">workers, much like how the economy in America is. With the ever <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">increasing change in work environment, could the young workers in <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">Barbados become, at least in my opinion, jaded? I feel that much of the <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">youth in America feel "above" working in a clerical or "blue or pink" <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">colared environment. Is that belief by young Americans a product, at <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">least partially, from the increase in availability of more qualified jobs? <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">===

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">How often does the facade of the physiological difference between men and women serve as a convenient excuse for the difference in gender roles? In "Corporate Discipline in Barbados", men repeatedly shied away from applying for data-entry work with the justification that "their fingers are too big for typing". Do we genuinely believe that we are more or less qualified for a particular role in society because of biological difference or do we subconsciously use this as a front to conform to the gender acceptable roles we are ingrained with from an early age?

http://www.unicef.org/protection/57929_58009.html

http://www.un.org/rights/50/carta.htm

http://www.ohchr.org/EN/UDHR/Pages/SearchByLang.aspx