Globalization of Hybrid Cultures
Argentine Nestor Garcia Canclini, in his book, "Globalization of Hybrid Cultures," presents a culture made up of surviving traditions and incoming modernity, particularly in Latin America, where he was born. Viewing the quaint merger at a pluralistic perspective, he asserts that pluralism is indispensable in dealing with Latin America, that is, in considering its "contradictory and unequal components" of modernization, which are emancipation, expansion, renovation and democratization (Canclini 1995). In presenting the theoretical and practical challenges of a hybrid culture, he asks (1) how to hybrid cultures constituting modernity can be studied and given a specific profile in Latin America; (2) how the partial knowledge of the different disciplines on culture can be combined in better interpreting the contradictions and the failure of modernization; and (3) what should be done with the mix of "heterogeneous memory and truncated innovations." He writes on his concept of Latin America as "a more complex articulation of traditions and modernities, a heterogeneous Continent," consisting of coexisting countries with multiple forms and levels of development. In order to see through the heterogeneity, he believes that the anti-evolutionist approach to postmodernism is useful and "more radical" than anything before it. This posture can break through and detect "fundamentalist pretensions of traditionalism, ethnicism, and nationalism."
His book undertakes the work by reflecting on modernity and post-modernity in metropolitan countries and by examining the contradictions between autonomous societies and the industrialization of symbolic markets (Canclini). Afterwards, he proposes how the links between modernism and modernization can be reinterpreted, based on recent historical and sociological research on Latin American cultures. Then, he discusses the behavior of artists, middlemen and the public towards innovation and democratization. This leads to Canclini's examination of these hybrid cultures as generated or promoted by the new communication technologies.
The book centers on Latin America's economy and cultures, as they are unique to themselves, among other developing regions. He maintains that social formation does not necessarily proceed from ancient to modern, from inferior to superior, and that it was when Latin American countries tried to modernize, while trying to retain their native cultures, that inequalities evolved and made legitimate.
He suggests that the central theme of cultural policies should be how to "construct societies with democratic projects shared by everyone without making everyone the same (Canclini) where disintegration is elevated to diversity and inequalities re reduced to differences." It has been noted that his view opposes the position taken by cultural studies in Latin American, which held that the mass media were a huge threat to the region's popular traditions. Canclini maintains that the homogenization of Latin America's indigenous cultures began much earlier than radio and television. The process started with the onslaught of conquests and colonization, in the violent Christianization and introduction of other religions, when national states began forming, with the use of single languages in schools and in the colonial or modern organization of urban space (Canclini).
Canclini suggests the use of combined anthropological and sociological methods in building an autonomous culture, which can survive the ravages and challenges of the transnational market. He sees modernity as relative, doubtable, but not antagonistic to traditions or may overcome them through some evolutionary law. A post-modern stance, he believes, will enable the handling of an impure merger of passing traditions and the disjointed and heterodox trends and accomplishments of modernity (Canclini).
Anthropologist Adam Kuper advances the observation that postmodernism is relevant only within the confines of a school, mainly by university committees, which decide on matters of hiring and tenure, and not in the outside world of knowledge and understanding. He cautions that cultural diversity should not only be a reason for celebration, but also of wariness towards negative and unintended consequences owing to attitudes about race and ethnicity. One must not forget about the value of cultural universality and solidarity. While underprivileged minority groups may well politically identify with America, other societies with their own histories cannot do so without great risks of disaster to their own cultures.
He illustrates this in the example of his native South Africa, where anthropological studies have, for long, engrossed with the integrity of local cultures. In celebration of cultural identity, these anthropologists made the signal mistake of choosing to promote local Bantu culture than to produce "black Europeans (Kuper 1999)," which led to the official separation of white and black cultures.
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