Lecture 11: Change in an Age of Online Media, Dissent and Incorporation

Question 1

Society and the Individual

Answer 1

• social and cultural anthropologists study the relationship between large societal changes and smaller scale activities that affect small groups of individuals
  
  • society is not something outside the individual; it is each and every individual
  • but hegemony is not evil; society cannot exist without it
• how and how much can the small group and the individual resist?
• resistance: when people do not give their consent; when people do something that goes against the social order
  
  • the popular use of the term, it’s usually something strong; but it doesn’t have to be (e.g. a student on Facebook during class time—doing something they’re not supposed to be)
  • (resistance is not futile) but most of the time, you will be assimilated
• incorporation: being assimilated into society; when you become a part of the hegemony

Question 2

An Ethiopian Farmer Becomes a Weaver

Case Study: Sintela Kuyita Joins the Funto Family

Answer 2

• for him to become a weaver over a farmer, it was a step down
• he had to do this because the type of farming he was doing became impossible due to the country’s circumstances
• when we talk about society, resistance, and incorporation, think back to Adam Smith (The Invisible Hand) and Antonio Gramsci (voluntary hegemony and prestige)
  
  • individual choices are made “spontaneously” in a way that supports the existing order
• “Real power means you can get what you want without having to exert violence.”—Barack Obama

Question 3

Hegemony and Resistance

Answer 3

• how free are we to make individual choices?
• are we able to successfully resist hegemony?
• how much can we change things? have we reached a kind of society where nothing will change anymore?
• how much will our resistance be incorporated?
• two examples: social media and the internet; hip hop music

Question 4

Forces That Impact Our Thoughts and Actions

Answer 4

• hegemony; involves prestige—who’s ways do we consider to be more prestigious?
• governmentality; involves discipline and self-discipline—what do governments (and individuals) do to implement the hegemony?
• culture—is always a part of the superstructure
  
  • related to the economic base (i.e. economic production); rf. Lecture 9
  • media technology—the means of production have changed

Question 5

Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980, U of T Professor): Media

Answer 5

• “global village”—McLuhan was writing in a time where TV was the new technology
• news broadcasts were able to connect people across the country, or even the world
• during the Vietnam War, the news would report on these events in great detail
• McLuhan, and many others, believed that the war ended because of TV; since people were able to see the gruesome footage and atrocities, the citizens had more fodder to feed their upset
• nowadays, governments are warier of what they let journalists report and show on TV
• but in another sense, McLuhan was simply saying that these people could now see what was happening halfway across the world, thus making us a global village
• “the medium is the message”

Question 6

Internet and Social Change

Answer 6

• the internet became a new medium that caused great changes to how we live our individual lives
  
  • e.g. YouTube; allowing anybody to post videos on the internet is a powerful feeling
• Michael Wesch (2008): Euphoric (The assigned video for Lecture 11.)
• with online videos, we have become not only a global village, but a universal village
• there’s something about posting a Facebook status or making a Tweet that feels really satisfying
• things like YouTube seemed to be the end of top-down broadcasting
  
  • we don’t need any kind of “BC” (broadcasting company) anymore; we can do it ourselves
  • it’s very democratic, i.e. power to the people; “participatory culture”
• it’s also very liberating
• a new community is created; groups of people can get together over the internet
• but it hasn’t necessarily turned out as beautifully as Michael Wesch conveyed

Question 7

Twitter, Facebook, Revolution

Answer 7

• claims have been made that revolutions in the Arab world happened because of social media
• the internet is different from TV because you choose to see what you want; we’re not all getting the same news anymore
• because of the internet, we may have less of a global image; e.g. we don’t have nearly as great of an image of what’s going on in Syria as we did the Vietnam War

Question 8

Authorities and the Internet: Social Media as a Double-Edged Sword?

Answer 8

• Evgeny Morozov (1984): the authorities, and not only the protestors, have made use of social media
• governments are able to monitor the people who are rebelling and spread their own message into the internet sphere
• Iran: attempts to restrict the internet to within Iran by temporarily cutting it off at times
• China: pays people to put up pro-government messages; getting involved in the internet instead of just shutting it down—likes to promote things it can control
• Syria: fake websites created to compromise the opposition
• Russia: “Roskomnadzor” office lays down blogging (etc.) rules
• Poland: police empowered to spy without a court order
• USA: spies on its own people, and others, and leaders

Question 9

“Jihadi John”: A New Community…

Answer 9

• the videos that ISIS puts on the internet allows people to connect with these communities and become absorbed into their ideologies
• although it can’t be proved that people getting involved with terrorists had no physical contact, it’s most likely
• the changes of the internet and online videos aren’t always good

Question 10

Innovation Against Hegemony: Hip Hop and Rap

Answer 10

• dissent, “resistance”
  
  • e.g. (mostly early) hip hop and rap—it was the music that came from the African-American ghetto, and expressed their dissatisfaction against the way things are
• e.g. Public Enemy: “Fight the Power” (1989)
  
  • this song was the theme for Spike Lee’s film “Do the Right Thing”
• incorporation; soon, hip hop became a money maker
• it became a standard part of the music industry
• in 2014, Puff Daddy/Diddy earned $700 million
• Jay Z and other artists are making pronouncements in politics, and they are quite influential
• rap sells; it’s been mixed with R&B, pop, world music
• there’s rarely any genre you don’t find rap in
• it spreads and expands its markets but merging with other markets

Question 11

“Shocking” Rap

Answer 11

• if something’s shocking, it’s not a part of the hegemony
• it’s accused of being sexist and materialist
• is the message of some of these songs that sexism and materialism is great, or is it trying to spoof these things? if it’s not the latter, then how is it fighting the hegemony?
• one great example of incorporation is Ernesto “Che” Guevara; most people know his face but not his political movement

Question 12

Antonio Negri (1933-Present)

Answer 12

• was in jail in Italy because he was accused of being a conspirator in the death of the Italian prime minister
• “You never know if your actions are resistance or just the first step in the next phase of the hegemony.”