April 14 – ANTH 316

Kajsa Ekholm-Friedman and Jonathan Friedman, "Global Complexity and the Simplicity of Everyday Life" (1995), in Worlds Apart: Modernity through the Prism of the Local, edited by Daniel Miller

Worksheet

What is the relationship that the Friedmans are arguing for between complex global systems and local everyday life?

How are the two examples that the Friedmans discuss (Congolese la sape and the Hawaiian village Miloli’I) NOT examples of "a mixture of culture" (135) or of the local culture being a "mere product of external forces" (134)?

What is the distinction that this article makes between "observed complexity" and "local simplicity"?

define:

endo-sociality / exo-sociality --

global processes --

local self-identity --

Connect the dots:

How would the Friedmans interpret some of the aspects of "globalization" that we discussed in class, like McDonalds and Coca-Cola being established in a multitude of societies?

How does the aspects of globalization that the Friedmans focus on compare to what Appadurai theorizes about globalization?