Global Culture
In the Fall of 1995 I took a class called Global Culture. This WEB
page is an attempt to display some interesting things that came of the
class.
We wrote two small papers for the class both of which are posted below. We
also completed a project, which is documented with both a standard paper and via hypertext. The papers deal with issues of how
global culture is defined and used by me, a western industrialized citizen.
My first paper: A reflection on Levi-Strauss' words
Levi-Strauss commented that the world's natural untouched places were
gone, and that industrialized society was turning all cultures were
being homogenized into a drab boring society. Are all cultures really
turning into one culture? He suggests that we are bored with out own
mono-culture. And because of that we consume the *real* culture of the
primitive people through travel literature. I see a different reason
for the obsession of the primitive.
My second paper: Global Politics and the
Sex Trade
Dennis O'Rourke, "Good Woman of Bangkok" and Mira Nair, "Indian
Caberet" both made movies about the sex trade in third world
countries. But thats where the two films depart. Take a look at this
comparison for a detailed look at the two films and a discussion of the
subject matter.
My third paper : The Discovery Channel,
Exploring the World Through the Cathode Ray Tube
This paper details the way in which the Discovery Channel follows in
the footsteps of another popular scienctific organization, "National
Geographic", and substitutes entertainment for educational material on
its show. It also offers reasons as to why the Discovery Channel must
do what it does.
One of my class mates (sorry Susan) did a piece on the changing views
of National Geographic. She documents how the magazine has gone
from showing primitives as a group of dangerous maniacs to caretakers
of paradise. My project attempts to explain the infatuation of the
west with the primitive and how this distorts our view of people
living outside industrialized society.
