ANTH 1120 C Final Exam Preparation Latest updated
aesthetic value: Value of a property based on its appearance and the emotional reponses it evokes.,
... [Show More] for example, polished and cut sapphires may receive higher aesthetic value as they look much better.
Anthropocene: This defines the birth of a new geological era marked by the predominant influence of human on the process and relationships that make up Earth System. The Anthropocene is very similar with global changes, with the metamorphoses that are affecting our planet, from market globalization to the erosion of biodiversity, from climate changes to habitat transformations. The Anthropocene is also characterized by the gradual, irreversible crossing of planetary boundaries.
Anthropogenic: Resulting from the influence of human beings on nature
authenticity: socially and culturally constructed quality of being authentic and genuine. This quality is often considered authentic or genuine by someone else and this considering is different across contexts.
bazaar economy: a bazaar economy is an economic system that involves participants not just in the buying selling and trading that one would expect to find in any market, but also a perpetual ‘search for information’ that will help them get ahead... Ankarana’s sapphire trade is a context in which good information ... is ‘intensely valued’ but hard to find, and as in any bazaar economy, this makes those who are less informed especially vulnerable in dealings with those who know more.
colonialism: is the establishment, exploitation, maintenance, acquisition, and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a set of unequal relationships between the colonial power and the colony and often between the colonists and the indigenous population. Colonialism is a process whereby sovereignty over the colony is claimed by the metro pole and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by colonists - people from the metro pole.
Culture: The system of meanings about the nature experience that are shared by a people and passed on from one generation to another, including the meanings that people give to things, events, activities, nad people.
cultural (re)production cultural
homogenization: The erasing of differences. When this term is applied to people, it often refer to the erasing of cultural differences so that peoples become more and more similar.
economic systems: The rules, mechanism, institutions and systems of relations through which goods and services are distributed and people get what they want
ecotourism: Ecotourism is about uniting conservation, communities, and sustainable travel. This means that those who implement and participate in ecotourism activities should minimize impact while travelling, build environmental and cultural awareness and respect, provide positive experiences for both visitors and hosts, provide financial benefits for both the conservation and local people and empower these people.
ecological value: is it valued for the role it participates in ecological processes?)
ethnographic method: The immersion of researchers in the lives and cultures of the people they are trying to understand in order to comprehend the meanings these people ascribe to their existence
exchange value: rather than use-value, exchange value refers to the quantified worth of one good or service expressed in terms of the worth of another or the price someone is willing to pay for it. It is how much of other commodities or products that an item is worth if it is traded. Opposed to the usage value or utility value derived from consuming or using the good itself
gifting: It is a give-receive reciprocate, unlike the movement of the market it is a never ending rhythm of friendship and reciprocity. It is an act of a sort that Malagasy people living in any community ought to do for one another and for the betterment of all and thus could not be answered with payments of money ex. Giving other miners access to your mine, allowing them to sleep on your floor, giving women mined dirt. This gifting was motivated by confidence that that the recipients were operating the same mind set of hospitality and support and would return the favour if and when called upon to do so.
global bazaar: a bazaar economy is an economic system that involves participants not just in the buying selling and trading that one would expect to find in any market, but also a perpetual ‘search for information’ that will help them get ahead... Ankarana’s sapphire trade is a context in which good information ... is ‘intensely valued’ but hard to find, and as in any bazaar economy, this makes those who are less informed especially vulnerable in dealings with those who know more.”
globalization: Defined by Anthony Giddens as the intensification of worldwide social relations that link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away, and vice versa (pg200) (258 in gloss)
grifting: manipulation of others in order to get others to give you what you want. Unlike thieves, grifters do not take what they want from others, but, rather, convince them to give to them what they want by preying on their confidence, often lulling them into what seem to be mutually beneficial, reciprocal relationships based on familiar patterns of exchange. When grifting works...it takes victims by surprise taking advantage of the reciprocity of gifting
- Madame Ferdenand.
hybridization: The combining of elements of two or more different things to create something new, and often occurs in globalized world.
factory system: The factory system is a method of manufacturing using machinery and division of labor. Because of the high capital cost of machinery and factory buildings, factories are typically owned by capitalists who employ the operative labor. Use of machinery with the division of labor reduced the required skill level of workers and also increased the output per worker. act of running society in order to act as labour, having kids so they can work as labour fetishism: putting a price on something turning it into a commodity and adding more value to an object that it is itself
- Example, diamonds
When sapphires and ecotourism experiences are seen to have value in and of themselves
• When value is assumed to be inherent in the thing
This erases the labour and social relations that are part of what gives these objects their
value.
Consider that value is never inherent in an object, thing, or being.
Consider how “social the natural can be”: how all that we value in nature is actually part
of a social process (98)
Consider “the complexity of the calculation that go into determining the value of natural wonders.” (98)
fieldwork: Anthropologists engage in long-term interactions (usually a year or more) with various groups of people. this often involves leaving with people observing and contributing to daily chores and tasks (participant observation) and conducting interviews. Most fieldwork in anthropology has historically been qualitative in nature
free trade: The removal of barriers to the free flow of goods and capital between nations by eliminating import and export taxes well as subsidies paid to farmers and businesspeople it's may also mean reducing environmental or social laws when they restrict the flow of goods and capital.
Industrialization: The process in which a society or country transforms itself from a primarily agricultural society into one based on the manufacturing of goods and services. Individual manual labor is often replaced by mechanized mass production and craftsmen are replaced by assembly lines. Technological innovation to solve problems is the biggest character.ew
Industrial Revolution: A period of European history, generally identified a occurring in the late 18th century, marked by a shift in production from agriculture to industrial goods, urbanization, and factory system.
instrumental value: They are values which are instrumental in getting us to desired ends. They are useful only in that they are acceptable ways of behaving. They are closely related to morals and ethics. Instrumental values moderate how we go about setting and achieving our goals, insuring we do only inways which are socially acceptable.
knowledge differential: The difference in the level of knowledge, where one person knows something and the other person doesn’t, people take advantage of what they know and what others don’t know. Good information would allow a trader to take advantage of the “knowledge differentials”
labor migration: the process of shifting a labor force from one physical location to another. Migrations of this type have sometimes occurred due to shifts in technology, the emergence of new industries, or the relocation of the main operational facilities of a given business. Thus, a labor migration may commence due to the interest of job seekers, or because a business has instigated a move that necessitates that labor also move in order to keep a job.
market externalities Deregulated economies ensure that consumers and manufacturers do not pay the real price of commodities.Costs that are not included in the prices people pay, such as health risks and environmental degradation from the waste that corporations generate. Costs passed onto future generations or to people in other countries in the form of low wages, polluted environments, health risks, and the like.
market expansion : The process of offering a product or service to a wider section of an existing market or into a new demographic, psychographic or geographic market.
moral value Moral values refer to a set of principles that guide an individual on how to evaluate right versus wrong. People generally apply moral values to justify decisions, intentions and actions, and it also defines the personal character of a person. An individual with high moral values typically displays characteristics of integrity, courage, respect, fairness, honesty and compassion
more-than-human:We are more than cells and human body itself, instead, we are constituted through social relations, objects that shape the world around us.
natural wonders: the work of God(鬼斧神工)-reference to events things that catch you off guard or amaze you - not the work of ppl- have no control. Used by guides and conservation workers in Mahamasina to explain what attracts foreign visitors to Annkarana national park- what foreigners
cant get a zoos and botanical garden in Europe or north America- experience of warning into an environment that they haven’t made for themselves. Natural- being priceless- one of a kind- unique and generic- natural sapphires are more valuable – stones that come from the earth- think about chameleons- wont get them from anywhere else.
neoliberalism: The economic philosophy that argues for minimal government involvement in the economy and for greatly accelerated economic growth. It contends that the well being is best served by liberating individual entrepreneurs to operate in a framework of strong property rights, free markets and free trade. States roles should be limited to safeguarding the integrity of money and maintaining military, police and legal structures.
participant observation: An element of fieldwork that can involve participating ini daily tasks, and observing daily interactions among a particular group
subsistence living: A lifestyle for those who earn a very small amount of wage that is just enough to pay for basic subsistence such as food and water.
symbolic value: A symbolic value is a denotative meaning behind a specific object or event. Easter has a symbolic value in terms that the event denotes something deeper for those who celebrate it.
taboo:It is a vehement prohibition of an action based on the belief that such behavior is either too sacred or too accursed for ordinary individuals to undertake, under threat of supernatural punishment.
territorialization (deterritorialization/re-territorialization): Refers to a weakening of ties between culture and place. It implies that certain cultural aspects tend to transcend specific territorial boundaries in a world that consists of things fundamentally in motion.
urbanization: It is a population shift from rural to urban areas, "the gradual increase in the proportion of people living in urban areas", and the ways in which each society adapts to the change.[1] It is predominantly the process by which towns and cities are formed and become larger as more people begin living and working in central areas.[
use value: is the utility of consuming a good—the want-satisfying power of a good or service in classical political economy. In Marx's critique of political economy, any product has a labor- value and a use-value, and if it is traded as a commodity in markets, it additionally has an exchange value, most often expressed as a money-price.
“value added”: value that objects or people obtain when either circulating in the market, or through the social relationships, for example, when sapphires are mined by the Malagasy miners, values start to be added into it, it means security and money to them. Later when they are cut and polished, economic value and aesthetic values are added.
values: Important and lasting beliefs or ideals shared by the members of a culture about what is good or bad and desirable or undesirable. Values have major influence on
a person's behavior and attitude and serve as broad guidelines in all situations.
Some common business values are fairness, innovation and community involvement. Western imperialism:
The extension of a nation's authority by territorial acquisition or by the establishment of economi c and political dominance over other nations.
A political doctrine or system promoting such extension of authority.
“we are the experiment”: diamond mining in Northern Canada
- Right to know
“paradox of plenty”: appearance of wealth in one nation but accumulation of wealth lies in another country. There is a plethora of jungles in Madagascar however, locals don’t have access to the jungles only tourists
“hot money”: Hot money is money that flows regularly between financial markets as investors attempt to ensure they get the highest short-term interest rates possible. Hot money will flow from low interest rate yielding countries into higher interst rates countries by investors looking to make the highest return.
plantation agriculture
“real cost”: The overall actual expense involved in creating a good or service for sale to consumers. The real cost of production for a businesss typically includes the value of all tangible resourcces such as raw material and labor that are used in the production process.
social relationships: The sum of the social interaction between people over time. This can be a positive or a negative relationship. Momentary social interaction can be a positive or a negative relationship. Momentary social interaction can be described in terms of parental care, dominant-subordinate or aggressive-fearful interaction etc.
nonhuman: is any creature displaying some, but not enough, human characteristics to be considered a human. The term has been used in a variety of contexts and may also be used to refer to objects that have been developed with human intelligence, such as robots or vehicles.
“one of a kind”: As the phrase express, it is the one of the kind meaning it is very unique, and precious. Usually used to describe natural wonders.
national sacrifice: Many years back as part of the anti-nuke movement in the 70s when it was the heyday of unlimited nuclear power touting energy too cheap to measure, we warned that there were many areas of the globe that would eventually have to be cordoned off and left forever as "national sacrifice areas" where human habitation was no longer possible. We argued that every step along the way from mining, fabricating, testing and use nuclear power and weapons production was leaving a trail of intense radioactivity that would be around long after humans had gone the way of the dinosaurs.
“mutant ecologies”: plants in Chernobyl are growing, adapting to the area after a disaster
“resource curse”: It is also known as the paradox of plenty, refers to the paradox that countries with an abundance of natural resources, specifically non-renewable resources like minerals and fuels, tend to have less economic growth, less democracy, and worse development outcomes than countries with fewer natural resources.
extractivism: Economic model built around the large-scale removal of natural resources for the purpose of selling raw materials. • The idea that resources can only be valuable when removed from the earth or, in the case of land, it must be worked to produce something • Mining activities and oil and gas extraction are traditional extractive activities • Definition can be expanded to include forestry, hydro-electricity, fishing, agro-industry, although there is not consensus on this.
“geography of sacrifice”: the land being sacrificed on behalf of ‘security’ or for the greater good
- Example of atomic bomb
Long and Short Answer Questions
Test your knowledge of the course material by answering these questions. These are just examples of potential questions. These are not necessarily the questions that will be on the final exam. Final exam questions may also be worded differently. Pay close attention to what the question is asking in order to formulate your answer.
The final exam will consist of 5 short answer questions (3-4 sentences). You will have some choice, answering 5 questions from a list of 6 questions. The exam will also have 3 long answer questions (1-2 paragraphs), which you will choose from a list of 4 questions.
1. What do anthropologists bring to the study of globalization?
- Definition: globalization
- Significance: notion of value introduced
- Example: cotton – extracted by one nation, processed in another nation and then used to make t-shirts and clothing in a different country
- Example: sapphires acquire
2. What can anthropologists learn about a culture by studying nonhumans?
In anthropology, we can learn a lot about cultures from the mundane, everyday things that surround us. This is because things do not just appear in the world. It takes serious effort to make things, and ensure that they persist. Many forces come together in the production and maintenance of the things we have come to take for granted in our lives.
Making and keeping objects in circulation requires intensive human labour, as well as abundant material resources, energy, and infrastructures. What people put into making objects and putting them into circulation within and beyond their communities is itself shaped by particular educational institutions, ways of knowing, economic systems, political systems, cultural values, and more.
Once an object has been made, and made to persist and to circulate, it gets invested with a range of values and meanings specific to particular groups of people. An object’s value may be very different among different groups of people.
What questions do anthropologists ask?
• How does the global intersect with the local?
• How are global processes lived and experienced?
• How do they respond to globalizing processes? What do anthropologists care about?
• The specificities and particularities of lived experience
• Anthropologists study “forms of life,” “ways of living”. Anthropologists bring:
• “concrete attentiveness to human agency”
• “the practices of everyday life”
3. How does the global intersect with the local?
Global and local is about these tensions, the local is constituted by many local processes. .
The global is affected by local as local is simultaneously affected by global. Our consumption habits, our lifestyle, our values have direct effect on people in parts of the world where we do not think about. They are interconnected. What happens locally has repercussions on global level and global has an effect on local, it has simultaneous effect on one another. When looking at things from multiple perspectives, from the perspectives of local and the global changes, one can come up with a version of what is happening. For example, local mining in Ankarana provides the precious sapphires to the global market where there is a huge demand for it, while the same global consumer demand for sapphires have exploited locals further and left them with no benefit from it at all. People are producing in one country unknowing of where exactly the product may be consumed. For example, ipod assembled in China and the workers there won’t exactly be able to tell where it would be sold. There is Deterritorialization / Reterritorialization - deterritorialized refers to a weakening of ties between culture and place. They are interconnected
- All the locals make up the global – they are inseparable. As languages, cultures, ideas, images, practices, and values, travel globally across physical locations, borders and nations, they become de/territorialized and re-contextualized. Small local moments, and specific circumstances that are connected to one another, faster, more regularly, and across further distances than ever before.
4. What is the relationship between the expansion of cash crops and labour migration?
The cash crops refer to any crop that is considered easily marketable, as wheat or cotton.
- Definition: labour migration – movement of people in search of work
- Significance:
- Example:
5. What is free trade and how is it related to globalization and market expansion?
Free trade is the unrestricted purchase and sale of goods and services between countries without the imposition of constraints such as tariffs, duties and quotas. Free trade is a win-win proposition because it enables nations to focus on their core competitive advantage(s), thereby maximizing economic output and fostering income growth for their citizens.
The removal of barriers to the free flow of goods and capital between nations by eliminating
import and export taxes as well as subsidies paid to farmers and business people.
It may also mean reducing environmental or social laws when they restrict the free flow of goods and capital.
Corporations can sue governments for imposing barriers to their growth and productivity.
6. Describe the market externalities not accounted for in the price of a cotton t-shirt.
Chemical fertilizers and pesticides are relied on to produce uniform export quality produce far fewer of these chemicals we need it to grill local and subsistence cups for farmers off export crops also have presents perverse incentives or are you enforced by cannot make circumstances to cut to bed low-quality marginal land contributing to soil erosion habitat instruction and lend it degree Dacian in addition the we organize Asian of production and a globalization has led to the
creation of extended commodity chains that spreading my mental Inpex over many countries for example the production of cotton T-shirts can involve as many as six different countries creating different types of pollution and environmental impacts in each one process. The production of t- shirt involves process such as design production and processing assembly of the T-shirt in consumption and disposal and a lot of externalities occur during those process such as the what are use the fertilizer use the biochemical waste air and water pollution toxic Chemicals. All of these usually leads to a large amount of pollution and which will mostly be covered by the government which are paid by the text payers and these are them market externalities that are not accounted in the price of the cotton and a T-shirt
7. Identify the market externalities not accounted for in the price of a Twinkie.
$1.00. Hidden costs= real price. Market externalities. Additionally, monetary and non- monetary expenses that go to produce and distribute each ingredient in a Twinkie- those not shown in a store price. Without nation state, real cost of Twinkie would be $10 or more. The nation state functions to keep costs accessible and sales profitable.
There are hidden cost of the ingredients in a Twinkie, such as sugar, and production of sugar leads to a lot of pollution and environmental problems, for example, the dying of coral reefs, water pollution in Buenos Aires. The resulting pollution issue costs a large amount of money to fix. The sugar producers pay for a very small amount of it, and the rest will be covered by the tax payers. Other than that, there are also hidden costs of processing, packaging, delivery, and waste disposal. The energy and pollution costs of distribution alone would be considerable.
8. What does a Malagasy miner mean when he says he is “going to risk”?
The miners face high risks upon entering the mines, risking their lives for what they are doing. Their salaries are not guaranteed and the situations in the mines are very unsafe. The mines can collapse and trap you in. There are deadly fumes that can cause lung disease and even death. Inside the mines the lighting is quite poor, it is very hot and stuffy that it makes it very hard to breathe. The miners even have to crawl through feces, work with cuts and bruises on their arms and knees and watch out for manipulation and deception as miners without connections might have their mines urinated in. There is also a certain passage known as the fall of death, which is a small rope that needs to be crossed, but there is possibility of falling over and dying, and therefore there is a certain kind of knowledge that is needed to get passed the passage. After overcoming all these obstacles miners have to be aware of the police who monitor the premises to avoid being arrested.
“going to risk” instead of going to work. Risk and daring and need for social connections/relationships.
o Dared to crawl along cramped passages for 300/400 metres- get cuts on arms and knees.-crawled on shit and piss on ppl who didn’t get into the cave-they were upset.
o Getting into mine-need to have connections with ppl who guard the mine.
o Crossing a chasm with a rope- 3 have already died
o Hot conditions- cant be congested because it gets very hot and u cant breathe
o Dare to squeeze out rivals on their way to desired destinations
o Dared to work long hours under dangerous conditions Such were the experiences of koko and Joa
9. Who benefits and who loses in a bazaar economy?
- Definition: global bazaar
- unequal access to information- intensely valued search for information- traders trying to learn more about value of stone from international buyers.
- Significance: individuals of developing nations- such as locals lose more than foreigners from developed nations since they lack presence in the global bazaar where valuable information is traded
- Example: sapphires-miners don’t have as much information about the market value or use of sapphires therefore, they do not gain the same benefits as foreign more globally involved individuals
10. Who is supposed to benefit from ecotourism? Who actually benefits?
Ecotourism is about uniting conservation, communities, and sustainable travel. This means that those who implement and participate in ecotourism activities should minimize impact while travelling, build environmental and cultural awareness and respect, provide positive experiences for both visitors and hosts, provide financial benefits for both the conservation and local people and empower these people.
Ecotourism Islam did as a magic bullet solution for underdeveloped communities because it stimulates local economies provides a incentives for economic development and infrastructure and also promotes conservation and more over it offers a lot more job at Trinity's and and give opportunities for native people to earn more money to sustain their lives The local businesses feedings and Frestric sure for tourists hotels restaurants shops museums jobs in training for tour guides are the benefits and that are supposed to be from the ecotourism. However when we take a look in the difference in the value of foreigners money and local currency getting to these destinations costs significantly more than a tourist will spend during their state the flights cost much more than anything else and Ashley the airlines benefits the most and the travel agents and foreign to her operation selling package to her benefits aren't the most money out of the tour and actually the locals cannot really provide what the tourists want. The foreign owned ecotourism companies benefit the most because they build their own hotels where tourist stay at the cranium rates and trim their own for into a guide to offer the best tour experience. With that being said it's means that the local people actually earned by Lisa money or make very little profit out of the tour and foreigners are not really willing to purchase load of products or handmade souvenirs and the which is why a lot of people did not earn a lot of money out of the footwear reason.
• Local subsistence farmers who lose access to land for grazing cattle, harvesting wood for fuel and furniture building
• Sapphire miners risk arrest
• Communities just off the beaten track, who cannot lure tourists to them do not benefit Once transformed into a site for conservation, local’s access to Ankarana National
Park is increasingly restricted...
11. Why does Andrew Walsh suggest that Malagasy people always be “left behind” in the global bazaar?
(Ferguson 2006: 42, see also West 2006 “left behind” and “locked out”)- Papa New Guinea Gimi- examples.
Unequal access to information reinforces social inequality because those who do not have access to the same information as those who do are often marginalized and disadvantaged. Geertz terms this idea as the bazaar economy in which people that have less access to information than others are extremely vulnerable simply because they do not know the things that advantage other people. For example, the Malagasy sapphire miners do not know the foreign market value of each diamond they find which allows sapphire traders/buyers to devalue the worth of valuable sapphires, buy these sapphire miners at a very cheap price, and sell it for millions of dollars in external global markets. This difference in knowledge allows Malagasy sapphire miners to be deceived and when they should be making huge profits from their labor they receive only little benefits.
Additional
- Life and debt example: After independence Jamaica did not have economic growth. Could have been because they did not know how to govern their own country because for centuries they were colonized and did not have the means to education. The British gave them independence but did not tell them how to govern their country. Therefore difference in knowledge in how to compete with other markets and how to get their economy running. Therefore the IMF lent them money at full interest for a short period and then restricted them. So they couldn’t finance what they actually needed instead in order to jumpstart the economy instead they were focused on paying off the debt of the loan they were required to cut down on gov’t spending which made them cutback on social infrastructure. This led to even more poverty and devastation. Thus knowing less led them to be vulnerable to social inequality and marginalization.
12. Why is the value of a sapphire circulating through the global bazaar so unstable?
-Distinctiveness of each stone
-Miners and local traders lack of information about the global trade
-Timing of the trade: stones circulating in the market towards the end of the day have already been scrutinized and passed over.
-Uneven social relations between miners/traders and between local/international traders
-Lies and misinformation in the bargaining process
13. Describe the different ways that a sapphire is valued by a miner, a local trader, an international gemstone dealer, and a consumer.
The experience of entrepreneurial miners in place like Ambondromifehy are devalued because miners essentially get pennies for sapphires that are sold for thousands of dollar in the international sapphire trade and their experiences are devalued because since there are so many miners, buyers have so many choices to choose from. In other words, when miners go through dangerous experiences it may not be worth it if they do not gain any profit from doing so. Their experiences are simultaneously valued because when
foreigners buy the sapphires, they are interested in the stones that were found by miners who endured dangerous and adventurous circumstances; knowing this adds value to the sapphires that foreigners buy. Essentially, their value becomes expensive in distant places and not at the origins (devalued)
Consumer: Aesthetic value, authentic, natural, and beautiful, exotic.
14. Explain how a sapphire is “in the world” and how the “world is in” a sapphire. 15.How is the sapphire rush in Ambondromifehy gendered?
16. How are traditional Malagasy masculinities shaped by the sapphire rush?
17. What is the difference between gifting and grifting? How do gifting relationships shift to grifting relationships for people in Ambondromifehy?
Unlike thieves, grifters do not take what they want from others, but, rather, convince them to give to them what they want by preying on their confidence, often lulling them into what seem to be mutually beneficial, reciprocal relationships based on familiar patterns of exchange. When grifting works...it takes victims by surprise. The rhythm of grifting differs by only one very important beat: give, receive, reciprocate; give, receive, reciprocate; give, receive, reciprocate...nothing. Trust is extremely important in Ambondromifehy.
18. What role do “knowledge differentials” play in the global bazaar?
Information is very important in the global bazaar
a. Traders need reliable information about different qualities of sapphires, state of the local market, demands of foreign buyers...
b. They spend time searching out information they lack and protecting information they have.
Knowledge differential is the difference in the level of knowledge, where one person knows something and the other person doesn’t, people take advantage of what they know and what others don’t know. Good information would allow a trader to take advantage of the “knowledge differentials” that enables successful players in all bazaars to profit from the relative ignorance of others. The greatest fortune made in Ambondromifehy’s sapphire trade were made at the very start of the rush, not because this was a time when the most valuable sapphires were coming out of the region’s pit and caves, but because this was when the knowledge differential between experienced sapphire buyers and novice sapphire sellers was the greatest. The miners have no idea what sapphires are used for, initially they were very confused to why foreign consumers valued the minerals so much and then later came up with possible uses for the minerals, which include the thought that they might be used for bulletproof vests
19. Why is information the most valuable commodity in the global bazaar?
Unequal access to information reinforces social inequality because those who do not have access to the same information as those who do are often marginalized and disadvantaged.
Geertz terms this idea as the bazaar economy in which people that have less access to information than others are extremely vulnerable simply because they do not know the things that advantage other people. For example, the Malagasy sapphire miners do not know the foreign market value of each diamond they find which allows sapphire traders/buyers to devalue the
worth of valuable sapphires, buy these sapphire miners at a very cheap price, and sell it for millions of dollars in external global markets. This difference in knowledge allows Malagasy sapphire miners to be deceived and when they should be making huge profits from their labor they receive only little benefits.
Life and debt example: After independence Jamaica did not have economic growth. Could have been because they did not know how to govern their own country because for centuries they were colonized and did not have the means to education. The British gave them independence but did not tell them how to govern their country. Therefore difference in knowledge in how to compete with other markets and how to get their economy running. Therefore the IMF lent them money at full interest for a short period and then restricted them. So they couldn’t finance what they actually needed instead in order to jumpstart the economy instead they were focused on paying off the debt of the loan they were required to cut down on gov’t spending which made them cutback on social infrastructure. This led to even more poverty and devastation. Thus knowing less led them to be vulnerable to social inequality and marginalization.
20. How is value added to sapphires as they move through the global bazaar? 21.What makes natural sapphires more valuable than synthetic sapphires?
Commodified means to take a something that was not originally bought or sold and turn it into a commodity by buying or selling it and Authenticity is defined as the quality of being authentic and genuine. Thus, commodified authenticity means to turn what is considered genuine or authentic into what is bought or sold. An example of something that is considered commodified authenticity is ecotourism. The Ecyostems within the ankarana national park are natural, genuine and untouched but when conservationists created the park is become a commodity because profits were made from it and the idea of it was essentially sold to foreign ecotourists.
22. How is authenticity commodified in the gemstone trade?
First, it is important to understand the terms “commodity” and “authentic”. Commodity is anything that can be bought or sold in market exchange. Authentic is the quality of being natural or real. Now, Commodified authenticity is when the quality of being genuine or natural gets turned into something that can be bought or sold . The quality of being genuine is what you are buying today. It is distinct from what is considered “unnatural”. It is about commodifying objects that are associated with naturalness. It is the social construction of authenticity, the idea of naturalness associated with viewing it as a commodity.Authenticity is seen as a feature of consumable things, like consuming the "real thing". Commodified authenticity brings a distinction of the real things vs. copies, people who value authenticity, would choose the real vs. copy (synthetic sapphires for e.g.). However there is an irony here, money seems to undermine what makes an experience authentic or natural – why should have to pay more for something natural, it should be priceless.
23. What made wild yams in Mexico so valuable? Why did they eventually lose their value?
23. How is the sapphire rush in Madagascar similar and different to the wild yam rush in Mexico?
24. Compare and contrast the ways that the people of Ankarana value their region to the ways that tourists value this same place?
Worldview is defined as an encompassing picture of reality based on shared cultural assumption about how the world works. There are certain taboos that the Antankarana have to abide to commemorate ancestors buried in the caves such men having to braid their hair into 4 braids, women unbraiding their hair, using torches instead of flashlights in the cave. This ceremony tells us that they believe that it is important to follow the taboos and maintain the sacredness of the caves in order to gain prosperity, attain the well- being of their community, and to divert misfortune. If they endure misfortune it is because the sacredness of the caves are not maintained and therefore blessings are not bestowed upon them.
25. Mining is dangerous and illegal in National Parks. Why do miners risk their lives to mine sapphires there?
26. Why are social ties and trust so strongly valued in Ambondromifehy?
27. How did the sapphire rush transform traditional social relations in Madagascar?
- Definition: social relations
- Significance:
- Example: sapphire miners develop a sort of brotherhood since they spend more their time together and this traditional familial relation develops
28. What are the hidden costs of oil production?
- BP oil spill, ecological costs
- Market externalities are costs that are not included in the prices people pay, such as health risks and environmental degradation. When the British colonized the Caribbean and brought over sugar to England, British consumers were not aware of the hidden costs of the sugar. They were ignorant of the fact that in order for them to get sugar into their households millions in the periphery of the Caribbean endured harsh slavery, poor working conditions, injuries, poverty, health issues, death etc. When British consumers saw the sugar they merely thought of its quality and its market price; not the unquantifiable prices and the dangers/ suffering Caribbean slaves paid to attain it for them.
29. What are the hidden costs of maintaining national security through nuclear weapons production and testing?
The global effects of nuclear production have transformed the global environment, making the biosphere itself a postnuclear formation. Because the trace elements of atmospheric fallout are now ubiquitous in soils and waterways, flora and fauna, the “nature” of wildlife as a concept has changed in the nuclear age. If exposure is now a general condition—a question of degree rather than kind—then what does it mean to promote such images of survival in the midst of contamination?
30. Why does Joseph Masco use the term “mutant ecologies” to describe sites of nuclear contamination?
It is a curious phenomenon of nature that only two species practice the art of war—men and ants.
This article explores the production of nuclear natures in New Mexico, arguing that one of the most profound legacies of the Manhattan Project has been to put in motion changes in specific social and biological ecologies that are highly mutable. To understand these new formations I pursue an alternative engagement with nature/culture through a theoretization of “mutation.” The value of this term for an anthropology of science is its attentiveness to multigenerational reproduction and the quality of biosocial transformations over time— marked alternatively as injury, improvement, or noise
31. Why does Joseph Masco invoke the concept of “sacrifice” to talk about the effects of nuclear testing during the Cold War?
The internal logics of nuclear development required deliberate acts of territorial devastation, producing an archipelago of contaminated sites stretching across the continental United States from South Carolina to Nevada, from Kentucky to Washington, and from Alaska to the Marshall Islands. This “geography of sacrifice,” as Valerie Kuletz (1998) has called it, is currently estimated to entail a $216–$400 billion environmental restoration project for those sites that have been identified as “remediable,” and it is likely to cost more than the Cold War nuclear arsenal itself (see Schwartz 1998; U.S. Department of Energy [DOE] 1995a, 1995b). Nuclear security has required complex new forms of internal cannibalism, as both the biology of citizens and the territories of the state encounter an array of new nuclear signatures after 1943
32. How were animals used in nuclear testing experiments and what kinds of value did they acquire for researchers?
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33. Why is Joseph Masco so concerned by the designation of US nuclear waste sites into wildlife preserves?
34. How was market expansion related to colonialism during the Industrial Revolution? Explain your answer using the example of the textile industry.
Producing goods in colonial times connected locations that were far away from each other through the process of globalization. Globalization is defined by Anthony Giddens as the intensification of worldwide social relations that link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away, and vice versa. In the example of the sugar industry, the people living in Caribbean cultivated sugar that was then sent to Britain to be refined and sold to British consumers. Although both places were miles away, a social relationship, although built on the suffering of
Caribbean’s and the progress/development of the British, was established; connecting both places to each other.
35. What can anthropologists learn by studying how a thing/being/object acquires value?
Definitions:
Neoliberalism: less governmental policy and more capitalist ideology- profit making ideology
- Example would be cutting welfare
Commodity Fetishism: putting a price on something turning it into a commodity and adding more value to an object that it is itself
- Example, diamonds
“We are the Experiment”: diamond mining in Northern Canada
- Right to know
Paradox of Plenty: appearance of wealth in one nation but accumulation of wealth lies in another country
- There is a plethora of jungles in Madagascar however, locals don’t have access to the jungles only tourists
Mutant Ecologies: plants in Chernobyl are growing, adapting to the area after a disaster Anthropogenic Effects: the human intervention
Factory System: act of running society in order to act as labour, having kids so they can work as labour
Geography of Sacrifice: the land being sacrificed on behalf of ‘security’ or for the greater good
- Example of atomic bomb
Territorialization: movement of people in order to attain access to the land
- “Re”: moving back towards your land
- “De”: being forced out of your land to go somewhere else
Grifting: manipulation of others in order to get others to give you what you want
- taking advantage of the reciprocity of gifting
- Madame Ferdenand More-than-human: object lessons
- How we add value of non-human objects
Knowledge Differential: difference in information between one person and another in the global bazaar and how information is valued
- Sapphire miners not knowing why sapphires are so valued [Show Less]