appliedanthro

[appliedanthro]

TO BEGIN: APPLIED ANTHROPOLOGY, WHAT IS IT?

APPLIED ANTHROPOLOGY CONSISTS OF APPLYING KNOWN ANTHROPOLOGICAL DATA, THEORIES, OUTLOOKS, AND METHODS, IN ORDER TO CORRECTLY EXAMINE AND IDENTIFY SOCIAL PROBLEMS THAT NEED SOLVING. APPLYING CULTURAL RELATIVISM TO EACH OF THESE APPLIED SCENARIOS, IS WHAT CAN CREATE THE BEST POSSIBLE SOLUTION FOR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, MEDICAL, EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS, ETC. APPLIED ANTHROPOLOGISTS OFTEN WORK FOR COMPANIES AND GROUPS THAT MANAGE AND ORGANIZE FUTURE IDEAS THAT INFLUENCE MANKIND, AND THE SOCIAL SITUATIONS WITHIN THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE.

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Cross-Cultural Communication Study; Focus in the Work Place

There are many instances where cross-cultural communication comes into importance, where there could be a need for an anthropologist to come into the picture and help navigate people in the right direction. For this study we will be focusing on Cross-cultural communication within the work place. A Socio-cultural anthropologist, that focuses on languages, cultures, religions, traditions, and communication, is hired to work for a technology based business specializing in new software for hp computers. This business requires the synergy of multiple different ideas coming in from many different countries and cultures. There is wonderful ideas all over the world and many people would like to invest in this company because it has proven to have a worthy reputation. Only one problem. The company is Western based and the head firm is held out of Los Angeles. The coordinator’s for the firm are having a difficult time locking in sales and interested investors due to a failure to communicate properly and wrong impressions are given, in return losing sales. Here is where the anthropologist comes in. He or she, works with these coordinators, to help put them in a non-biased mindset that is open to the possibilities of other cultures and their beliefs/traditions. He or she clues the coordinators in on the many communication tips that they had come across on their own personal fieldwork endeavors. After extensive, eye-opening training with the anthropologist, these coordinators are on their own! Out on their first investor mission they go.  Now these coordinators and these companies can “apply” what they have learned, and use this knowledge to transition into other culture’s and their own unique forms of communication.

[appliedanthro]

Cross-Cultural Communication

What is cross-cultural communication? 

Cross-cultural communication has to do with the various forms of communication and how they differ from culture to culture. How we communicate amongst one another is solely dependent upon where we grew up and the traditions, beliefs, and backgrounds of the areas we live in. Each culture stands for different values and beliefs created during their upbringing and knowing how to respect the differences is what is most important on a communication level. If people can enter a situation that is unfamiliar to them, with a mindset of cultural relativism and having the emic point of view, then progress with communication globally, can be achieved. This is why an anthropologist’s influence can play a positive role in communication skills. 

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Applied Study; Tourism

For this study, we will be breaking down and dissecting the harm that tourism creates in countries with growing economies, but still considered to be poorer countries. I will be playing the part of an applied anthropologist and diving into tourism as a whole. 

1.  Where does the money coming in from tourism, really go?

Many people that participate in tourism, truly feel as though they are helping a poorer country build up their economy. While in some senses this could be true, where is the money really going? Yes some local, small businesses benefit from the money coming in for hotels, transportation, local markets with food and art, vendors, etc. A good majority of the money goes towards the larger Western companies that have ownership over the corporate hotels and resorts as well as the package deals you often find for cheap online, including the tour, resort, food and drinks, and transportation, etc. These package deals do create an increase in tourism, which can help smaller local businesses definitely. The bigger picture needs to be looked at though. Those corporations and “Western” economic companies take the majority of the profit, leaving the working class individuals to work hard while tourists are in their community, while getting paid low rates. This is a perfect example of globalization making it’s way into poorer countries or “developing countries”. The high profit is going to the corporations in charge, while the people on the lower end of the scale, are only making a tiny fraction of what is deserved. 

2. Tourism impacts cultural authenticity and causes a dividing component between the generations to come and their ancestors.

Many parts of a culture can be transformed into something unrecognizable to its’ ancestors. Language, beliefs, rituals, clothing, reproduction rates, art, crafts, as well as the environment. Everyone of these important factors within a society and culture, if changed too drastically, or commercialized, can become unauthentic. That is dependent upon what is considered to be truly “authentic” or not. That is an opinion in most cases but for this specific scenario, authentic will correlate with work and beliefs of the ancestors and the traditions involved. For example, in the class traditions of “Tiki” had been discussed as well as the “Cannibal Tours” and I would also like to use the example of Vodou from the roots in Haiti and the Dominican Republic to the transformation into Louisiana primarily. Vodouism transformed from authentic practices to a commercialized culture once it moved to the states. While some of this was to make a living and you have to sell what you know to make a living, it destroyed the outlook of the culture and it turned into “dark magic” and stigmatized stereotypes. This is something caused by tourism. People coming to visit the things they are curious about, things they want to understand better and take a piece of that “authentic” culture home with them. What needs to be realized is that those authentic pieces taken home, are replicas of authentic work from the past, but now sold with different meanings behind them. Does the selling of traditions, create a dissonance with being truly “authentic”? Masks and sculptures, rituals and music, dancing, and religious practices. All of these aspects of culture become altered and commercialized and I do personally feel that tourism decreases authenticity within a culture’s traditions. 

3. Abuse on an environmental and Labor level.

Environmental impact to these tourist areas are higher than most. Often poorer countries receive the most tourism for corporate based packaged deals and discount cruises, and they also have less access to proper disposal of waste, especially with the high volume of tourism that the environment is not capable of sustaining. Cruise-lines specifically have many cases each year of fecal waste being inappropriately disposed of, as well as chlorine and high sulfur levels in the fuel. Aside from the extreme environmental damage involved with tourism, labor abuse is a valid problem that is increasing as excessive growth in population also increases. The exploitation of workers and provided low wage, is one of the most concerning issues with tourism.

These are all reasons to evaluate the human experience as an applied anthropologist and dissect the pros and cons of the impacts on a culture and its’ people. These are reasons to view tourism in a different sense, to bring issues to the public and put the spotlight of the wrong doings on the large companies. This leads to creating a need for policy changes globally, for the purpose of bettering the human  experience, long term and short term. 

https://matadornetwork.com/change/lets-stop-pretending-travels-developing-countries-automatically-help-poor/

http://www.cruisejunkie.com/envirofines.html

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Tourism  & Anthropology

I would first like to begin this topic with a comment from a documentary I had watched in the class this quarter called “Cannibal Tours - 1988″ by Dennis O'Rourke. This was a well made film, showing the benefits and the many disadvantages of tourism within a community. This film helps people to see how invasive tourism can be and how a society inevitably becomes centered around tourism due to the financial advantages it can bring in. I would like to use South Lake Tahoe as a quick example. Lake Tahoe has always been a desirable vacation getaway due to the many attributes it comes with, such as, the recreational options and the scenery. This being said, within the last ten years, Lake Tahoe’s residential population (the people that live in Tahoe long term) has decreased, where as the tourist population and seasonal residents have increased heavily. Tourism does in fact lead the economy in Tahoe more than anything else, but it has created major traffic issues, overcrowded beaches in the summertime, overcrowded ski resorts in the winter time, and most importantly, increased short-term rentals. This increase in short-term rentals, has lowered the amount of available houses for the long-term renters. That being said, the rent has drastically increased because demand has. With wages staying the same for the community and the ability to live comfortably decreasing, this in turn is pushing people to move out of Lake Tahoe, creating more room for tourists. It is a cycle that is creating a downward spiral. This environment is not meant to sustain this many people, while also attempting to manage sustaining environmental longevity and growth. 

This is what Tourism can do to a community, but it can also help the economies of poorer countries drastically. While this is a wonderful and beneficial advantage to have, a cultures heritage and authenticity is in jeopardy when tourism enters the scene.

https://www.towncharts.com/California/Demographics/Lake-Tahoe-CCD-CA-Demographics-data.html

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What is Tourism?

What is tourism and what are the impacts it can have on a society, economy, and its’ people?

Tourism is something that can take place for leisurely vacations, pleasure, business, curiosity, and education. While this is tourism on one side of the spectrum, there is also the very important side of “accommodation of tourists”. There is a sense of business involved, due to attracting a certain crowd that has an interest in the resources and views a country is able to provide. Increases in accommodations occur, such as restaurants and food, housing, transportation, as well as the cultural aspects such as rituals, art, clothing, music, etc. in order to gain a profit in the tourism occuring. There is the entertaining of tourists and in some cases, operating actual tours within the community and culture itself. All of these factors can cause positive and negative effects on an economy and the people of a society. Let us now dive into the human experience in an applied sense.

[appliedanthro]

Globalization Study

According to Investopedia, “The goal of globalization is to provide organizations a superior competitive position with lower operating costs, to gain greater numbers of products, services and consumers.” This is a well put definition of the process of globalization.

Now since we have an understanding of what globalization is all about, let us jump into the study I designed in a hypothetical sense, based off of societal problems that already exist globally. 

I feel a good example of this could be oil and gas companies expanding out. Oil can be an expensive resource to work with for profit and many companies feel the need to find the oil deposits in areas that are also considered third world countries, with high natural resources. This allows for them to move their companies outward for higher volume of workers for less payment for labor, and more profit for the company itself. An example could be the country of Benin, located on the coast of Western Africa. 

Benin is considered to be a third world country that contains a hardworking community, as well as an economy that is still in the process of positive growth. This being said, the people living in this area are mainly involved with agricultural-based jobs for a living. This country has some offshore oil deposits off of the coast and lets say an oil company moves in from the U.S. and makes arrangements to expand their business to Benin, while in return providing many jobs for the people in the community. This of course may either sound like a good idea for a country that is economically not in the best shape, or it may feel as though they have no choice in the matter because they feel outnumbered in ways they have no control over. This is an on going issue globally and usually these are the two ways globalization of a less wealthy country can occur. Companies then give the residents low wages, long hours, as well as little to no benefits. This method simply allows them to work excessively in order to live paycheck to paycheck. 

In this example, applied anthropologists could either come into regions with plentiful natural resources, or come into regions with less resources, but high populations and a vast amount of land to build factories and buildings on. They then analyze what global business expansion would do to these communities. If large businesses had more sense of having good intentions, then they would hire applied anthropologist from many fields (business, cultural, political, medical, etc. as well as sociologists, environmentalists) to scope out communities prior to expanding upon them. The purpose of this method would be to, still expand upon a business, still “globalize”, but in a humane and ethical way that allows for people to have economic, social, and political growth within their country/community, rather than being oppressed and causing struggle within the communities.   

Cited sources:

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/10/globalization-developed-countries.asp 

https://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/profiles/Benin/Geography

http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/third-world-countries/

https://www.everyculture.com/A-Bo/Benin.html

[appliedanthro]

What is Globalization?

First off, before we dive into the effects and then the study, what is globalization? Globalization has to do with businesses and organizations expanding their companies out, in order to operate on an international scale. This process of globalization has much more to it than the given definition, in terms of the damage it can cause to a country and its’ people.

In regards to these situations, there is cheap labor being paid to the workers (less money, for the same amount of work people in wealthier countries would be getting paid more for). In these locations, people do not have as adequate of job opportunities available to them, as they may have if they lived in more wealthy and stable economies. This inevitably leads to residents falling into this destructive globalization process and becoming trapped within a working class that is stripped of the possible resources and income they could potentially have elsewhere. 

When Karl Marx examined the experiences people were facing with the rise in factories, he understood that the working class will always be the workings class, if they work for the companies that navigate in a capitalist manner. The companies that allow the lower-middle working class to work for them, but then pay them insignificant wages, comparatively to the profit these companies are gaining from the created goods and products made by these working class individuals.

People take what they can get in regards to work during hard financial times, so yes, there is an argument to say, “Well, at least we are providing them with jobs in the first place, we’re allowing them to have income for their families and themselves.” Globalization is doing no one any favors, besides the company owners seeking the expansion and the profit gained from the international development projects. 

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PURPOSE FOR THIS PROJECT: Design a short study as an application of some aspect of anthropology to the world.

Developmental anthropology, business, medicine, tourism, education, communication, etc. Discuss what you did, what you concluded, studied, etc. and may involve media. Might not have time to complete a full-fledged research project, so you may turn in a project that reflects some unfinished aspect of the project.