Globalization

Globalization, the world is becoming connected in more and more ways. Something that occurs in America, can directly affect a child in Bolivia. Words, ideas, people, diseases, products can travel around the globe, faster than anyone can imagine. Globalization can be seen in a positive and a negative light. A technologically advanced, first world country like the United States or Great Britain, can help a child in Africa of a disease they could die easily die of but can easily be cured of. Globalization is a process by which creates interdependence between people, governments and organization. An example of globalization is United States corporations dependency upon sweat shops and factories in other countries to produce cheap merchandise. This is a great downside of globalization.

I do not believe globalization is a good thing, but an inevitable process, as technology increases and ties between countries continue, especially economically, there is nothing you can do. Globalization is a double edged sword, it can create exploitation and bring countries into a world market. The most concerning aspect of globalization is the spread of culture, and especially western norms that is destroying culture and traditions in other countries. Can kill cultural diversity.

In globalization, anthropologist are most concerned on the impact that this interdependence and transfer of ideas has on people's everyday lives and how it changes norms and values. This is something that is very interesting, especially Western ideas impact on the traditions of the Chinese and Japanese, and how our pop culture is dramatically affecting hte norms of this generation. Sexual promiscuity is rising in these cultures, which is totally against the norms and values of the culture. And the growing consumerism of  these cultures, is of concern. Even western countries like Germany, are experiencing a surge of Americanism in their culture, especially the degeredation of their language with American words, such as "bloggen" and "backpack" and this is a real concern for the Germans who want to protect their language. This is a result of globalization and the prolonged and constant contact between cultures, whether it is economies, travellers, and internet interaction, cultures are seeing signs of homogenization, or a blend of cultures into one. When this begins to happen, it means a great loss of culture and traditions

"Underdeveloped" (in western terms) and indigenous civilizations are put in a bad situation by globalization, because of the fact their traditions, way of production do not fit into the capitalist mode of production or economy and they are left out and greatly dissadvantage. They are left out of the system and they cannot keep up, then they suffer greatly. Globalization threatens their ability to sustain their own economies. Their land and resources often become valued to companies from first world countries, and that lead to greater exploitation. Also the expansion of population and the acceleration of the growth of civilization has a huge impact on our environment. Climate change, air and water pollution, over fishing, over farming, deforestation are all issues that we will have to deal with and remedy because of globalization. Many factories are built in countries where there are no environmental protection and they can pollute without government regulations.

Anthropologists must used ethnography to study the affect of globalization on cultural practices. How globalization affects our lives, individually is more relative to anthropology rather than on a global scale. Anthropology takes that massive globalization that spans the whole world, and breaks it down and studies it on a local and small scale to truly understand it impacts. Globalization can be a scary thing, it makes our world smaller. To me it is a crazy idea that the food i eat everyday comes from other countries, it takes away from local communities, globalization takes the power out of our hands. Our clothes are made by poor people in other countries that are greatly affected by me and you. Someone we will never even meet are affected by the small things we do, and that is the result of our ever shrinking planet.