In this post I am going to talk about how cultures are influenced and shaped by others. One of the aspects that can most prejudice a culture is change in its economic system and sustainability strategies. These changes can bring undesirable consequences to the culture’s life style and survival. Among the readings done for this week I would like to focus on an article about Bolivian villages whom their economic system have been influenced by globalization and the economic world system.
From the beginning of humanity, culture has been the mediator between humans and the environment. However, more recently in history, economic world system has become part of this aspect—it has influenced in the people’s interaction with the environment around them. Because of this, isolated and small cultures have had to learn to adapt to these new changes and demands. What cultures do to adjust and what they do with their traditions, for their survival to accommodate themselves to these demands, are not always good.
Pocona, a Bolivian village, has been influenced because of the demand and use of cocaine in the United States and Europe. For the people of Pocona and other surrounding villages, the coca leaf is one of their basic scrubs for survival. It is present in their economic system and in their daily diet. Since coca leaves are the staple of cocaine, the drug traffic industries have taken advantage of the fact that in countries like Bolivia coca leaf is widely produced. And, because of these actions taken by the drug dealers, the American authorities have made the decision on trying to cease the drug consumption by militarily intervening in these Bolivian villages.
Economy in Bolivia have been poor many years before this situation with the coca leaf, however, it contributed in making the economy even worst. These actions taken by the drug dealers have even brought to this community changes in family structure, generation of deceases, inflation, among others. An example, which I think demonstrate the magnitude of this cultural influence and change, is concerning the family and economy. People in Pocona are poor—they almost can sustain themselves with what they produce. They cannot have meat because the price is to high, the coca leaves cannot be grown there because of the height of the place, and the community is partly isolated. For these reasons, men of the community find the necessity of leaving the village with the purpose of working in the coca fields in another village, Chapare, to earn some money and survive. Women then, stay alone without husbands or sons, working their land on other crops for their survival. However, these crops cannot be sold because they cannot compete with the ones that people in Chapare consume—truck drivers and traders do not go any more to Pocona because is too far away. This situation brings to the people of Pocana the decline of the economic survival system and changes in the family nucleus. With time, although people try to adapt to new circumstances and find their way to survival, these changes will generate the deterioration of these cultures and communities. There have been, however, cases in which people face these problems and fight back, gaining back their rights and traditions, as the actual president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, has done. He came from those Indigenous communities to the power to change their situation. Adaptation processes of some cultures have been good enough to survive, but some others have been not.
Since I was teenager, I have heard the issue of the globalization around the world, and since I live in an “undeveloped” country, that topic is all around the news and people always talk about that in the streets. Later on, I heard people talking about the unpleasant consequences of globalization—that it affected cultures around the world—Indigenous and less develop ones—and made the poor countries even poorer. By that time I had not understood why was that and how could that happen, I just knew and understood that globalization was present around the world. Only after enrolling in this cultural anthropology course, I began to see the world and the cultures around it with different eyes, and not just my vision has changed, my understanding as well. And now, after reading these articles and book chapter, I more clearly understand the concept, causes and consequences of globalization and how it effects toward cultures. After reading theses articles I feel like I would like to do something significant for the world’s situation—something that can really help the world turn into a better place. However, right now I feel so much powerless, or at least incapable of coming up with some idea or action that I could take for changing this kind of situations. Personally, I have not much interests in politics and economics, but these readings have gave me a little bit more of interest in putting my “rice grain” to each day build up a better place to live. I have gained a desire of contributing to this world in the ways I can.
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