IF YOU CANNOT ACCESS THE LINKS REQUIRED PLEASE DO NOT BID FOR THIS ASSIGNMENT!!! thank you
Required course materials links
http://fod.infobase.com.library.esc.edu/p_ViewVideo.aspx?xtid=34471
View the video, The Story of Stuff (00:21:24). (Or review the annotated script for The Story of Stuff, which provides references for the facts that Annie Leonard cites in the video (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International).
This video focuses on the materials economy, which is part of our contemporary capitalist mode of production involving a market mode of exchange. In this video you will learn about the five major parts of the materials economy, including 1) extraction, 2) production, 3) distribution, 4) consumption, and 5) disposal. In 1955 during the post War economic boom, retailing analyst Victor Lebow wrote that “our enormously productive economy… demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption… we need things consumed, burned up, replaced and discarded at an ever-accelerating rate.”
Globalization Video Resources
Fighting the Global Tide: Developing Nations and Globalization. (2004)
Malawi: A Nation Going Hungry
Ecuador: Divided over Oil
Nicaragua: Turning Away from Violence
India: Working to End Child Labor
Guatemala: The Human Price of Coffee
After viewing ONE of the Globalization videos (see table at right or links on the Module 3 Readings and Resources page) and the Story of Stuff video, think about the global impact of our capitalist consumption. Think about the ways in which anthropologists are involved in studying each segment of the global economy, from the Fair Trade movement (extraction and production), to studying the lives of workers in global factories (production and distribution), to how kids play with Barbie dolls (consumption).
Reflecting on the two videos you viewed and the module readings, think about your own rituals and patterns of consumption, and address the following questions in your discussion post:
Do you have rituals around the way you and/or your family shops or consumes goods?
Do you throw out 99% of the consumer goods you purchase within six months?
What consumer goods do you own that fit the categories of “planned obsolescence” and “perceived obsolescence”?
How does our consumption impact the lives of workers in developing nations as presented in the Globalization video you viewed?
How do the videos illustrate processes of globalization, and the 5 “scapes” identified by Appadurai?
