Macquarie University

Globalisation, Religion and Conflict - ANTH321

Mass communications, technological advances such as the cyberspace are powerful forces for cultural change in the contemporary world. For anthropology the globalisation thesis raises important questions about culture, religion and also how violence and its control has changed in a global world. How are we to understand cultures, religious movements and ideologies, previously understood as bounded entities, in a globalising world? How might we theorise the relationship between local and global events, such as conflicts, terrorism and violence? Some commentators argue that globalisation is nothing more than the spread of the West; that it is Americanisation or McDonalisation. Others argue that culture does not move only from the 'West to the rest' but flows freely and in multiple directions. History shows us that culture has always been dynamic and changing yet there are certain features that characterise the 'modern', 'late modern' or 'post-modern' world in which we live. In this unit we will draw on a variety of phenomenon such cultures, religion and violent local conflicts that turns global to examine critically some of the issues which are raised by the globalisation thesis. We will look at the 'speeding-up' of the world in terms of our experience of time and space. And we will consider the possibility of alternative or parallel modernities.