Transcript The Global Ecumene

1
The Global
Ecumene
Ulf Hannerz, Ch. 12, pp. 105-115
(Excerpted from Hannerz, “The Global
Ecumene,” in Cultural Complexity: Studies
in the Social Organization of Meaning,
Columbia, 1992)
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Contradictory tendencies are always at work
– on the one hand towards homogenization
and the other towards new distinctions
Claude Levi-Strauss
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Globalization has created a global
ecumene – a global commons

ecumene: the inhabited or civilized world
[OED]
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“Cultural mosaic” metaphor no longer
makes sense

Cultural mosaic implies separate pieces,
with well-defined edges

Instead, entities we call cultures are more
like subcultures within a global commons
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But debates about cultural “integrity”
rage on

Defenders of national culture point to
threats to cultural integrity and identity

Disputes often center on the origin of
cultural items and practices
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Centers & peripheries in cultural flow

Since the 1960s, understandings of
globalization have highlighted asymmetry

center (core) & periphery

metropolis & satellite
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Asymmetries are also present in the
global social organization of meaning

The “social organization of meaning” refers
to culture

i.e., structures of meaning & cultural expression
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Material vs cultural asymmetries

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How closely aligned are asymmetries of
culture w/ those of the economy, politics, or
military power?
How do center/periphery relationships
affect structures of meaning & cultural
expression?
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Center/periphery relationships of culture are not
necessarily identical w/ political & ec power

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US case: congruence
USSR: little cultural influence, despite great
political/military power
UK & France: cultural influence in excess of
political & economic power
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But the cultural influence of countries is
uneven across different cultural areas

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US: science, technology & popular culture
France: high culture, food & fashion
Japan: corporate organization & culture
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And today?


Japan?
BRICs? Brazil, Russia, India, China?
12
Some countries have strong cultural
influence in their regions

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Mexico & Brazil in Latin America
Nigeria & South Africa in Africa
India in South Asia
Egypt in the Arab world
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Bush & Beento:
The World in the Third World

beento: a person who returns home to
Africa after studying or working in a foreign
country

cosmopolitan, sophisticated, possessing “cultural
capital”
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Bush & Beento:
The World in the Third World

bush: “an epithet for ignorance and rustic,
unsophisticated, uncouth conduct”

“To be labeled bush in one way or other was to
have one’s rightful place in modern society put in
question”
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Metropoles like NYC, London, Paris, Miami act
like “centers” of national cultures of periphery

diaspora produce & disseminate culture
(literature, art, film, music)

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diaspora: dispersion of people sharing common ethnic
identity
exiles find asylum
dissidents organize opposition to home regimes
technocrats and professionals gain skills to bring
back to their home countries
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Creolization & innovation

The transnational cultural flow, by giving
the periphery access to a wider cultural
inventory, provides new resources of
technology and symbolic expression to recombine with local cultural forms

to perform innovative acts of cultural brokerage
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A Creolizing World: Summary


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Autonomy & boundedness of cultures is a matter of degree
Distribution of culture is affected by a structure of asymmetrical
center/periphery relationships
These relationships affect cultures, to different degrees, in 2 ways:

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By shaping the material and power conditions to which cultures adapt
Through the influx of initially alien meanings & cultural forms
That influx does not enter into a vacuum, or “clean slate,” but into
various kinds of interaction w/ already existing meanings & forms
The transnational cultural flow is internally diverse
Market, state, form of life, and movement frameworks for the
organization of cultural flow all have their own ways of organizing
Not all cultures are local, in the sense of being territorially bounded
There may be no overall global “homogenization” of culture going
on.
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A Creolizing World

“As the world turns, today’s periphery may
be tomorrow’s center” (115)
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Strategic
Inauthenticity
Timothy Taylor, Ch. 17, pp. 151-155
(Excerpted from Taylor, “Strategic
Inauthenticity,” in Global Pop: World
Music, World Markets, Routledge, 1997)
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Youssou N’Dour”: A Modern Griot

Aims to make a new popular music that integrates
elements of indigenous traditional music and the
local language with music from around the world


griot: a storyteller in West Africa; perpetuates the oral
traditions of a family or village [WordNet]
Developed mbalax, dance music with strong
distinctive rhythm
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The Guide (Wommat)

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Nominated for Grammy in 1994
Guitar sound influenced by range of African
music, incl. soukous, highlife, Afrobeat,
reggae, salsa, soul, and disco
Lyrics are varied, recalling the virtues of
country life and traditional morality &
“propriety” as well as joblessness and
anticolonial resistance
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Whose Authenticity?

N’Dour: “In Dakar, we hear many different
recordings. We are open to these sounds.
When people say my music is too Western,
they must remember that we, too, hear this
music over here. We hear the African
music with the modern.” (155)
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Mulatu Astatke
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Ethiopian-born musician and arranger best known
as the father of Ethio-jazz
Musically trained in London, NYC, and Boston
where he combined jazz and Latin music interests
w/ traditional Ethiopian music
Astatke led his band while playing vibraphone and
conga drums—instruments that he introduced into
Ethiopian popular music—as well as other
percussion, keyboards and organ
Albums mostly instrumental, released during
Ethiopia's “Golden ’70s”
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Nas and Damien Marley:
“Distant Relatives” (2010)

“Unlike all previous collaborations between
Jamaican and American artists, Distant Relatives
is neither a remix nor a featured guest spot on a
single track but a fully collaborative effort filling an
entire album, opening new avenues of musical
expression. Distant Relatives traces the direct line
from dancehall reggae’s breakthrough moment
forty years ago to the rise of hip hop several years
later…”
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As We Enter: Verse 1
As we enter come mek we tek you pon di biggest adventure,
Must be dementia, that you ever thought you could touch our credentials,
what's the initials,
You be jamrock the lyrical official, send out the order, laws and the rituals,
Burn candles, say prayers, paint murals, it is truth we big News, we hood heroes,
Bruk past di anchor, we come to conquer, man a badman, we nah play Willy Wonka,
And I got the guns, I got the ganja
And we could blaze it up on ya block if you wanna, or,
Haze it up stash box in a Hummer, or,
You could run up and get done up
Or, get somethin that you want none of,
Unlimited amount you collect from us, direct from us,
Street intellectuals, and I’m shrewd about decimals,
And my man can speak patois, and I can speak rap star,
Yall feel me even if its in Swahili, habari gani,
msuri sana, switch up the language and move to Ghana,
Salute and honor real revolution rhymers
Rhythm piranhas, like true Obamas, unfold the drama.
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Chorus x2
Word is out
Hysteria ya heard about
Nas and Junior Gong came to turn it out
Body the verses til they scream murder out
The kings is back time to return the crown
Who want it
Tuck your chain when dude comin
Renegades that'll peel you back like new hundreds
Bet your jewels on it
You don't want to lose on it
Either move on or move on it
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Verse 2
Queens to Kingston
Gunshots we use and govern the kingdom
Rise of the Winston I can see the fear in your eyes realize you could
die any instant
And I can hear the sound of your voice when you must lose your life
like mice in the kitchen
Snitching, I can see him pissing on himself and he wetting up his
thighs and he trying to resist it
Switching I can smell him digging up shit like a fly come around and
keep persisting
That's how you end up in a hit list / In a badman business
No evidence / Crime scene fingerprintless
Flow effortless / Casual like the weekends
No pressure with / We comfy and decent
Set this off beasting / Hunting season
And frankly speaking
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