Their Values On Other World Cultures example essay topic

Memmi writes that colonizers are creatures of want while all who are colonized need change. The fact that the colonizers do not see this is due either to a lack of understanding of colonization or their own selfishness. If the colonizer is acting as the oppressor then the victim cannot live in peace. According to Memmi, the first ambition of the colonized is to become equal to the colonizer. While this may seem like acceptance of colonization, it is actually their submission and an attempt to assimilate because they are rejecting who they are at the same time. The colonized try to change the color of their skin to be more like that of the colonizer and in doing so are fully accepting someone else's values.

The author gives an example of Necrophobia in a Negro, or anti-Semitism in a Jew, as being comparable to the colonized. Once the colonist realizes that his assimilation will never be accepted by the colonizer he becomes angry because he sees that he has lost the values he once lived for. The next step the colonized takes is to revolt against their newly defined enemy. This is the only way out of the repressing status of the colony. When colonized people view their colonizers as one oppressive human group they let themselves not only become racist but afraid of other people like them. This is a result, ultimately, of negatively judging themselves.

However, their racism is not the same as that of the colonizers. Because the colonized are fearful of the colonizers their racism is defensive while the colonizer's racism is aggressive because they are hateful of the other. The negative myth the colonized has about himself is followed by a positive myth. He becomes more self-assured and confident in whom he is and accepts his culture, country, color, and all the rest. In sum, he is able to justify who he is because he can explain it and understand it differently. Chapter Thirteen: Internationalizing the Aesthetic Stephen Spender, The Modern as a Vision of the Whole Spender explains that the movements of modern art and literature express the past-future confrontational view and analyzes six of them.

The first is realization through new art of the modern experience. Spender states that art is the only thing that remains archaic because artists have learned to connect past and modern changes in speech, vision and hearing and to mould them together. The great characteristic of realization, then, is the way artists pay attention to this break down in their work. The second is a pattern of hope created through art which results in influencing society. According to Spender, the basic reason for hope is that art may enable the artist to have a connection with the external world by affecting the lives of other people who share the artist's modern creative visions. Modern art is also revolutionary because the artist creates for the poor and oppressed rather than the rich.

The hope in this is that art be the vehicle of inspiration for a new society. The third is of shared life which is the use of art to interpret external materialism into the language of the inner life, often through the use of symbols. The fourth is the Alternate Life of Art which explores violence, sexual relations, madness, and drugs by creating art that gives the viewer or reader a feeling of them. This is also known as surrealism.

The fifth, distortion, is usually shown in visual art rather than literature, although there are many instances of it there as well. Spender states that modern distortion is the last phased in interpreting, selecting and changing the image at the end of the line of tradition. One example is artistic portraits. When an artist creates a portrait it a self-portrait as well because they are creating it from their own eyes and are therefore seeing themselves, thereby creating a distortion of the other person.

The sixth is the Revolutionary concept of Tradition which is a new and different look at tradition as an explosive force. Tradition became the source of which modern forms and style could derive. Spender concludes that the art of poetry has receded because poets are limiting creation of contemporary writing by turning away from many areas of the modern world. As I understood it, this was because poets are not using revolutionary concepts of tradition to create but are concentrating just on tradition. Terry Eagleton, Preface, from The Illusions of Postmodernism Eagleton defines postmodernism and postmodernity in this writing. The author refers to postmodernism as a form of contemporary culture and postmodernity as alluding to a specific historical period.

Eagleton describes postmodernity as "a style of thought which is suspicious of classical notions of truth, reason, identity and objectivity, of the idea of universal progress or emancipation, of single frameworks, grand narratives or ultimate grounds of explanation". It is the antithesis of the Enlightenment. Postmodernism is "a style of culture which reflects something of this epochal change, in a depth less, de centred, ungrounded, self-reflexive, playful, derivative, eclectic, pluralistic art which blurs the boundaries between 'high' and 'popular' culture, as well as between art and every day experience". In summary, postmodernism is playful and artsy whereas postmodernity is objective. Chapter 14: Globalizing Mass Culture David Held, et al., "Historical Forms of Cultural Globalization" Premodern, Pre- 1500, Extensity: While religion makes its way across many societies and cultures, all world religions as well as empires stay regional. Islam is the most global at this time from South Asia to North and East Africa.

Density: Low. Velocity: Negligible. Impact Propensity: The original onset of world religions and empires changed ways of life due to literacy and alterations in worldviews. I gave up here because I found it very hard to summarize what appeared to be a table summary - I thought it was really tedious to break down the text more than it already had been. Arjun Appadurai, Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy Appadurai's main focus is the framework he uses to look at global culture. The terms he uses and their meanings are: (a) ethno scapes, or groups of people such as tourists, immigrants, refugees, exiles and others who are affecting the politics of nations as more and more people are thinking about and actually are moving internationally. (b) techno scapes, the way that technology has moved across international boundaries by increasingly complex relationships among money flows, political possibilities, and the availability of both un- and highly skilled labor. (c) finance scapes, the way global capital is rapidly changing and making it harder to follow currency markets, national stock exchanges, and commodity speculations.

The global relations of the last three scapes are unpredictable because they act as constraints for movements in the others. (d) media scapes, refers to all forms of media and the images of they world that they create. They tend to be aware of these images and they differ depending on whether they are private or state interests. (e) ideo scapes are often political, dealing with state ideologies and ideas like freedom, welfare, rights, etc. The author's work suggests that the dynamics of the global cultural system are driven by the relationships among flows of these "scapes" and their influence on people. Chapter 15: Feminism and International Women's Movements Amrita Basu: Introduction Basu writes that there are three broad tendencies that literature on women's movements is characterized by.

Number one is that it tends to omit postcolonial women's movements and instead concentrate on Western Europe and the United States. Also, studies that are about the non-western world tend to put too much attention on developmental issues. The second tendency is to look at women's movements as a product of modernization and socioeconomic change which gives the false impression that these movements are strongest in industrialized nations. The third tendency assumes a cross-national equivalence of women's oppression and movements. Basu writes that the idea of global sisterhood is a myth because there are major differences in women's lives and meanings of feminism. Some of Basu's main points are as follows.

First, many women are uncomfortable with the concept of feminism because they believe it is Western. Some women, Chinese for example, believe they already have the rights that feminists are still attempting to achieve. Some fear that feminism is trying to change the social order and are "man-haters". Women's movements have been closely connected with national struggles, working-class struggles, and opposition of state repression and seeking to democratize civil society. Basu also points out that different women's movements focus on different women's issues and different issues are approached in different ways, which are just more reasons why we should not globalize all women. In conclusion, the success of women's movements can be judged either by its goals or on a universal scale.

"The Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action" The Platform for Action was adopted at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing, China. It represents 181 governments. The purpose was to continue to progress the goals of equality, development, and peace for all women in the interest of all humanity. The platform recognizes that the status of women has advanced but is unequal in many aspects. It states that poverty aggravates a lower status of women. The platform reaffirms its commitment to: equal human rights of both women and men by following the principles cited in the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as women's rights conventions; the empowerment and advancement of women.

The platform is convinced that: women's participation in the process of empowering them is fundamental to its success; all forms of equal rights are critical to the well-being of men, women and their families; empowerment requires that women have control over their bodies and health; local, national, regional, and global peace require the advancement of women; women's groups working with their government will help make the platform an effective one. The platform is determined to: do as much as possible to achieve the goals of the Nairobi Forward-Looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women; take action against women's rights violations; promote the economic independence of women; work actively to promote international peace efforts; find international cooperation of equal access to economic resources; ensure the success of the platform in countries going through economic transitions by international cooperation; to commit to reflect a gender perspective in all policies and programs and to encourage everyone else to do the same. It states that economic and social development and environmental protection is the basis for all of humanity's rights. The second part is the mission statement, which basically restates the above mentioned. The global framework sites that the end of the cold war has resulted in less of a threat of global conflict, however, violations of women still occur, especially under policies of ethnic cleansing. It emphasizes the social dimension of development, stating that accelerated economic growth does not by itself improve the quality of life of the population and that an approach to all aspects of development needs to be made.

It cites that a majority of women make up the 1 billion people living in poverty and that the overall official development assistance has recently declined. It makes the point that a transformation of women and men's relationship to an equal partnership will enable the world to meet today's challenges. The platform cites that women, on average, represent only 10 percent of all elected legislators in the world and in most national / international administrative structures. Another topic it brings up is motherhood. It states that no discrimination should be made against pregnant women, that they should be allowed to be active in society, and that women should be recognized for the important role they play in caring for their families. The platform also brings up young people, stating that half the world's population is under the age of 25 and that over 85 percent live in developing countries.

It mentions many times that young women and girls must be ensured the same life skills as boys so that they will be effective leaders of the future. In the end it states that if problems continue to persist, the goals will not be achieved. "Mahasweti Devi, trans. Gayatri Spivak, "Draupadi" This is the retelling of husband and wife Dulna and Dopdi, members of the Santals tribe in India, who killed their landowners and were suspected of attacking police stations, stealing guns, killing grain brokers, moneylenders, law officers, and bureaucrats.

The problem with finding them was that they were experts in hiding and more importantly, the Santals appeared the same as all the other tribes to the Special Forces. Senanayek, a Bengali specialist in combat and extreme-Left politics was put in charge of finding them. He knows them better than they do and his theory is that in order to destroy the enemy, become one, and theoretically he became one of them. Dulna, found drinking from some water by soldiers, was shot. He cried, "Ma-ho". No one could figure out what this meant - not even tribal specialists.

It was a water carrier who explained that the Santals had been using it as a battle cry since they began fighting at the time of King Ghandi. The soldiers assumed that Dopdi would come for his body but she didn't. As they searched for Dopdi, many fugitives were killed as they did not know the forest well. In the next phase no one was caught, and they believed that Dopdi was saving them. We are then introduced to Dopdi and learn that she has a fake name and that rewards have been placed for her. Dopdi's philosophy is that if she gets caught she will not name anyone else; she would bite off her tongue first.

We learn how she and Dulna and others killed landowner Surya S ahu. We know she is being followed, and soon she is apprehended and taken to camp. Senanayek leaves her with soldiers, telling them to "Make her. Do the needful". She is raped, beaten, and violated numerous times. When she is told to put on her piece of cloth she tears it.

The guard thinks she has gone crazy and Senanayek is alerted. She approaches Senanayek naked and asks, what is the use of covering her body after she has been stripped? After every one of her rights have been viciously dishonored, Dopdi stands up for herself (and in doing so, other women) in a way that most people never could. She scares Senanayek more than anyone else had because she was able to do this with her head held high.

Chapter 16: Ethnic and Religious Violence Mark Juergensmeyer: Terror in the Name of God Juergensmeyer states that activists such as Osama bin Laden believe their religion gives them the moral right to use violence against globalism and to wage cosmic war. He writes that there are three religious movements they follow. The first is their rejection of compromises with liberal values and secular institutions that mainstream religion has made. Second, they refuse to observe the boundaries that secular society has set around religion. And third, they try to create a new form of religiosity that rejects modern substitutes to their religion's origins.

Al Qaeda and other groups believe that the public world is not right due to a spiritual and moral conflict or their idea of a cosmic battle between good and evil. They label secular government as the enemy because the secular state is opposed to the idea that religion should have a role in public life. They challenge this modernity. One reason for this anti globalism is that aspects of the West's popular culture - such as music - threaten traditional forms. The lack of relation to Western values results in a "loss of faith" in secular nationalism. Juergensmeyer states that all public acts of violence are political.

These violent groups are the epitome of cultures that are against modernism's ideology of individualism and skepticism. And, their violence has been an effort to gain public acknowledgment of the legitimacy of their religious world views with the exchange of violence. Chapter 17: International Human Rights and Global Ethics Michael Ignatieff, The Attack on Human Rights Ignatieff writes that the universality of human rights is faced with a cultural challenge from Islam, the West, and East Asia, independently. The challenge of Islam can be traced back to 1947's drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The Saudi Arabians objected to Article 16 which dealt with free marriage choice and Article 18 which dealt with freedom of religion. They felt that the declaration was following Western civilization's standards and they defended their Islamic faith and patriarchal authority by stating that the control of females was central to both. During the Islamic Revolution in Iran people of Islam opposed the modernization being imposed by the shah because they believed that to choose one's marriage partner is to go against the authorities in Islamic society, and to go against the Koran. However, some Islamic societies have been able to modernize and enter the global economy, and they favor basic human rights. Egypt is in the process of passing legislation to give women the right to divorce. The Western challenge is that the West sees they are no longer able to use imperialism to dominate the world so it uses universal language of human rights in an effort to impose their values on other world cultures.

Unlike Islam's failure to benefit from the global economy, Asia challenges western human rights standards as a result of their economic success. This success has made them confident that they do not need the democracy and individual rights of Western societies. Ignatieff states that rights are only meaningful if they can be enforced against institutions such as family, state, and church. Those who seek human rights do so because it legitimizes their protests against oppression.

An important point Ignatieff makes is that one need not adopt Western ways of life by standing up for their rights. One example is the Pakistani women who are against "honor killings". They are empowering themselves but are not changing anything else. Western society's American, European, and British law have seen its own conflict.

America and Europe differ on moral issues such as abortion and capital punishment and their differences will only increase. The human rights movement is just now coming into itself and there will be many changes to come. Giles Gunn, Human Solidarity and the Problem of Otherness Gunn writes that the relation between identity and difference, which is negative today, needs to develop democratic politics that are sensitive to differences. A sense of human solidarity is one way that we have thought about the nature of humanity that crosses cultures and sees the similarities that we all possess as human beings. Today, human solidarity has been discredited and / or looked at with distrust.

It no longer looks like humans share a universal, common nature - it now looks like we only share human differences. Today we see much ethnic and religious violence and, even more disturbing, ethnic cleansing. And then there is the idea of the "other". The only way to understand the other is to be willing to risk one's own convictions and have a meaningful encounter with the other. That creates the question of how the self maintains differentiation from the other once this happens. The answer is that otherness is part of the ego because in order to understand the other you have to be part of the same as well.

Chapter 18: Cultural Problematic's of the New World Order Samuel P. Huntington, The New Era in World Politics Flags and cultural identity - after the Cold War peoples' identities changed and so did the symbols that they identified with. One symbol was the Russian flag which was hung upside down when Russia was going through the transition but once their new cultural identities were established the flags were hung right-side up once again. When Sarajevans wanted to show who they identified with they used flags - Saudi Arabian and Turkish flags. Other symbols used to demonstrate cultural identity are crosses, crescents, and head coverings as more and more people are finding meaning in their cultures. Huntington writes that the period of the post-Cold War world is, for the first time in history, seeing global politics as both multi polar and multicivilizational. The world today no longer defines modernization as Westernization and we see this in that there is no effort to try and produce either a universal civilization or the westernization of non-Western societies.

This is due to the new cultural distinction people make today instead of ideological, political, or economic. People are searching to find who they are and they are able to do this by thinking about what is the most important to them and that usually is their culture. Today we have seven or eight major civilizations rather than only three as during the Cold War, and. More and more non-Western societies are developing economic wealth, military and political power and are rejecting Western cultural values. Huntington predicts that the dangerous conflicts of today will be between different cultural civilizations such as the clash between tribes in Rwanda and its consequences on Uganda, Zaire, and Burundi. Amar tya Sen, Civilizational Imprisonments: How to Misunderstand Everybody in the World Sen does not agree with the thesis of a civilizational clash.

Sen states that it is far-reaching in its relevance because it requires the categorization of people of the world according to only one system. An example of this would be to see someone as primarily (or wholly) a member of "the Western world" or "the Islamic world" rather than as many things. According to Sen, these theories of civilizational clash over complicate the world and encourage bigotry. Sen writes that the problem of civilization analysis is that our identities have pluralities and that we choose how we see ourselves and that people do not see themselves as only one thing. People rate the importance of each faction they identify with differently.

Individuality is not the only thing that is not being taken into account. To name India a "Hindu civilization" is to divide up the people and as a result, ignore other groups, like the great amount of Muslim people who live there as well. To describe India this way is deceptive to our history. Sen also points out that it encourages the alienation of people who live in different parts of the world and distorts people's view of others.

To define a person by their religion or civilizational identity is misleading because there are other memberships that they find important. It also concentrates on what divides people rather than what unites them.