1. Ethnicity and Nationalism Ch. 7
1.1. Ethnicity is one of the most powerful identities that humans develop: it is a sense of connection to a group of people who we believe share a common history, culture, and (sometimes) ancestry and who are distinct from others outside the group (Ericksen 2010; Jenkins 1996).
1.2. People learn, practice, and teach ethnicity. Anthropologists who study it seek to understand how it is created and reinforced, how boundaries are constructed, how group identity is shaped, and how differences with others are mobilized and perpetuated (Jenkins 2008).
2. Race and Racism
2.1. Brazil’s population of Europeans, Africans, and indigenous people has had a long history of interracial mixing. The Portuguese colonial government promoted assimilation and did not bar miscegenation—that is, interracial marriage. As a result, many single Portuguese men who settled in Brazil chose to intermarry. Nor has Brazil applied the rule of hypodescent—the “one drop of blood” rule—that in the United States meant that having even one black sancestor out of many could mark an individual as black (see “The Rule of Hypodescent” later in this chapter). As a result, a Brazilian family may include children who are categorized as various shades of white, brown, and black. Guest, Kenneth J., (2018) Cultural Anthropology: A Toolkit for a Global Age by W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
2.2. “White Privilege” In her article “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” (1989), anthropologist Peggy McIntosh writes of “an invisible package of unearned assets” that are a legacy of generations of racial discrimination. Through these assets, whites have become the beneficiaries of cultural norms, values, mental maps of reality, and institutions. Unearned advantages and unearned power are conferred systematically and differentially on one group over others, whether those benefits lie in health, education, housing, employment, banking and mortgages, or the criminal justice system. Guest, Kenneth J., (2018) Cultural Anthropology: A Toolkit for a Global Age by W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
3. GLOBALIZATION, ECONOMY, AND INEQUALITY
3.1. Anthropologist Yehudi Cohen (1974) refers to an economy as a set of adaptive strategies that humans have used to provide food, water, and shelter to a group of people through the production, distribution, and consumption of foodstuffs and other goods. In the following sections, we will explore the varied ways humans have produced, distributed, and consumed as part of their economic activity. In particular, we will consider distinctive modes of production, ranging from food foraging to industrialism; general patterns of distribution and exchange; and the emergence of a global economy that has transformed both production and distribution, as well as patterns of human consumption. Guest, Kenneth J., (2018) Cultural Anthropology: A Toolkit for a Global Age by W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
3.2. The decision to migrate and the chosen destination are often shaped by pushes and pulls. People are pushed to migrate from their home community by poverty, famine, natural disasters, war, ethnic conflict, genocide, disease, or political or religious oppression. Even some development policies may push people to move: For example, some may have to relocate to make room for a hydroelectric dam that is essential to the country’s economic development. (This has been the case in areas throughout the world, including Panama’s Bayano dam, China’s Three Gorges dam, and Malaysia’s Batang Ai dam.) Those who are forced to migrate are often termed “refugees.” Other people are pushed to migrate by a lack of opportunities in their home community. Indeed, the uneven development in the global economy stimulates much of today’s global migration. Frustrated by their inability to achieve life aspirations and meet the needs of their families at home, many people seek opportunities elsewhere. Still others migrate to keep up with successful immigrant neighbors who send money back home to support family, build a house, or pay for family members’ education (Portes and Rumbaut 2006). Guest, Kenneth J., (2018) Cultural Anthropology: A Toolkit for a Global Age by W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
3.3. Fully 56 percent of U.S. households carried a balance on their credit cards, with an average of over $16,000 per indebted household in 2016. Perhaps more surprising, in 2010 student loan debt surpassed total credit card debt for the first time, climbing to $1.3 trillion in 2016 and revealing the shifting burden of educational expenses into long-term debt (FinAid 2016).
4. RELIGION
4.1. People make sense of the world, reach decisions, and organize their lives on the basis of their religious beliefs. Starting from these beginning principles, anthropologists also explore the myriad ways religion intersects with other systems of power, whether economics, politics, race, gender, or sexuality. And we explore how local religious expressions may be connected to larger religious movements or institutions. Guest, Kenneth J., (2018) Cultural Anthropology: A Toolkit for a Global Age by W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
4.2. Throughout the United States, Catholic churches are being rejuvenated as immigration from heavily Catholic countries brings new membership, worship styles, social needs, and political engagements. A wave of rallies in major cities across the United States in 2005 in support of reform of U.S. immigration laws received key institutional and organizational support from local Catholic churches, with encouragement from the U.S. Catholic leadership. Indeed, the Church saw as a key human rights issue the reuniting of families across the border and eliminating opportunities for the exploitation of vulnerable, low-wage workers. At the same time, today’s immigrants are reshaping the Church’s future—just as immigrant waves from Ireland, Germany, and Italy did in the nineteenth century. Guest, Kenneth J., (2018) Cultural Anthropology: A Toolkit for a Global Age by W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
5. Anthropology in a Global Age Ch. 1
5.1. Coke and Water
5.1.1. "when the company began to drill more wells and install high-powered pumps to extract groundwater for the factory, the local water table fell dramatically—from 45 meters (147.5 feet) below the surface to 150 meters (492 feet)" The extreme harvest of water from the local water table by coke and other companies like coke destroy the environment by using nine liters of water to make one liter of coke. Guest, Kenneth J., (2018) Cultural Anthropology: A Toolkit for a Global Age by W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
5.2. Globalization and the Environment
5.2.1. Humans have planted, grazed, paved, excavated, and built on at least 40 percent of Earth’s surface. Globalization in all its greatness bringing cultures together and connecting people like never before, is also destroying the environment. The infrastructure needed to grow globalization such as server centers for internet providers, take kilometers of natural land away from locals and wildlife that depend on that to survive. Guest, Kenneth J., (2018) Cultural Anthropology: A Toolkit for a Global Age by W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
6. Culture Ch. 2
6.1. What is Culture?
6.1.1. Culture is our manual for understanding and interacting with the people and the world around us. It includes shared norms, values, symbols, mental maps of reality, and material objects as well as structures of power—including the media, education, religion, and politics—in which our understanding of the world is shaped, reinforced, and negotiated. Guest, Kenneth J., (2018) Cultural Anthropology: A Toolkit for a Global Age by W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. As stated above, culture is ideals passed down from one generation to another, through stories or teaching. Whether it be through physical crosses worn around the neck or beliefs taught through different ideals. The way we live our lives is based on what we grew up with in our own cultures.
6.2. Advertising
6.2.1. Advertising is a powerful tool of enculturation, teaching us how to be “successful” in consumer culture, how to be cool and normal. Guest, Kenneth J., (2018) Cultural Anthropology: A Toolkit for a Global Age by W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. Currently advertisement is a huge part of all cultures. Whether it be hidden or obvious, we are blasted daily with the newest items that would make us the "cool kid". Advertising in culture can change how we dress and what we wear or what we drink and eat. Advertising can also move people to literal different cities or countries to live and work, advertising can be a great weapon for companies.