The Global Ecumene

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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

• 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

• 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

• 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?

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Some countries have strong cultural influence in
their regions

• 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 ones 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)
• 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 re-combine with local cultural
  forms
• to perform innovative acts of cultural brokerage

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A Creolizing World Summary

• 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
• 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, todays periphery may be
  tomorrows 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 NDour 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)

• 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?

• NDour 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

• 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 drumsinstruments that he introduced into
  Ethiopian popular musicas well as other
  percussion, keyboards and organ
• Albums mostly instrumental, released during
  Ethiopia's Golden 70s

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Nas and Damien MarleyDistant 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 reggaes 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 Im 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