Thinking Socially: a Way Forward Out of this Capitalist Mess

Can we find a social solution to this capitalist mess?
Image courtesy of the Socialist Organizer.

by douglas reeser on june 10, 2013

My recent return to southern Belize has been a pleasant and productive revisiting to a place where I spent nearly a year and a half working on my dissertation research in anthropology. I've written much about this place and Belize more generally, and while I am plumbing the depths of my experience here in an effort to complete my dissertation, I continue to find inspiration for shorter musings and reflections. One such experience occurred the other night while I was having some drinks with some non-Belizean friends of mine. 

We were out at a local seafood restaurant, popular with expats and tourists. It's a place with good food and character, an old wooden building sitting on stilts out over the Caribbean Sea, with a large outdoor deck perfect for star-gazing and enjoying the cool sea breeze. It's also the center of social life for the younger ex-pat community, where you can run into any number of young foreigners, here doing research, volunteering or interning at local NGOs, or working in efforts to relocate to Belize. I was there with some archaeologist friends, one of whom I did my Master's schooling with, and some researchers who work with a local conservation organization, talking about different issues that come up in the world of "development."

Soon, a mutual friend walked up to say hello before leaving for the night. She runs a local company that helps to produce and export agricultural products, and has helped to develop a program that sources the product from local farmers, and connects them to "ultra-premium" producers in the US and elsewhere. It's a model in the vein of fair trade, and provides farmers with a decent price for their product, and more importantly to some, introduces a level of competition in a field that was previously dominated by one company that dictated prices and terms to the farmers. We asked her how her business was doing, and before long, I was engaged in a short conversation with one of the conservation people I was sitting with. 

First Friday Picture Show: Maya Resilience by Kristina Baines

Recycled Minds Picture Show

by Kristina Baines on June 7, 2013

~ Keep Moving ~

Turning sesame seeds toasting on the firehearth.

Our June 2013 Picture Show is by Kristina Baines, an ecological/medical anthropologist who has been taking, developing, and thinking about photos for over 20 years.  She has a strong interest in corn, how what we do in our environment makes us well, and using innovative methods to make anthropology relevant and accessible to a wide audience.  You can find out more about how these interests translate into projects and pursuits at www.coolanthropology.com or by contacting her at yesbaines@gmail.com.   

~ Simiona's Shop ~

Rice to be sold if the mill is buying.

I made this set of photographs in 2011 while I was living in Santa Cruz, Belize conducting my dissertation research. A traditional Mopan Maya village in many ways, Santa Cruz continues to be in flux, its residents actively negotiating the changes brought about by new opportunities and stressors - road paving, new schools, changing politics… These photos capture both the adaptability and the resilience of the community’s residents, and their landscape, to these changes, highlighting the subtleties, and beauty, of everyday life that continues in their midst.

Continue Reading to view the rest of Kristina's show. 

This is a Global Resistance Movement. Obviously.

The road ahead is not what you are used to. It is not developed.
It must be created. Collectively.

by douglas reeser on June 3, 2013
The world has changed. It happened while nobody was looking, and in a way few thought would matter. The prominence of the nation state has receded, and taking over its place has been the multinational corporation. The global triumph of capitalism has led to unbridled confidence and blind following of the market doctrine. When capitalism won, nations lost, people lost, and the interests of multinationals were granted the power to drive policy in even the most powerful nations on the planet. It has gotten so that the multinational corporation has infiltrated not only our political system, but also our social life, our everyday. People often care less what it is to be a citizen of a nation, or what it is to be a human being, and more with the latest, greatest, fastest, coolest... product. And this change is global. In the US and other "developed" nations, such has been going on for decades now, but the penetration of the product (the many flags of the corporation) into social life has now reached every corner of the globe.

And what are the implications of this shift in attention that has become so pervasive all around us? I would argue the result is what "development" has become in the modern world: the constant erosion of the collective, the community, the whole, and the unreasoned acceptance of the individual as the point of primary concern. "Developed" society has led us to a point in history in which it is socially acceptable and desirable to promote your own interests over those of others. The capitalist ethos of competition, and the drive for profit has now been translated into a guide for action. "Do what you have to do to get that new smartphone, damn the rest." The intense rule of the product is especially pervasive in the world's youth, who are less well equipped to be critical of the constant promotion and advertising of the new rulers. It also important to remember that these new rulers - the multinational corporations - no longer have the interests of the nation in mind when calculating their next steps. Their interests are solely self-interests, primarily the drive to increase profit. No matter the cost.

All is not lost, however...

Destroying Nohmul: Heritage Distancing and an Ancient Mayan Site in Belize

The destruction of the ancient Mayan site of Nohmul can be seen
as an example of “heritage distancing.”
Photo courtesy of CTV3 Belize News.

Views from the ANThill

by Claire Novotny & douglas reeser on May 27, 2013

The bulldozing and destruction of the ancient Maya site at Nohmul, in the Orange Walk district of northern Belize, has recently received widespread international attention. The largest structure of the ancient ceremonial center was reduced to rubble for use as road-fill by a local contracting company, a widely condemned act that will likely result in minimal consequences for the perpetrators. This incident, and others like it, are examples of the vulnerability of major historical sites, demonstrates the importance of the archaeological landscape for communities, and brings up issues of cultural heritage and engaged anthropology.

Nohmul was a medium-sized city founded in the Middle Preclassic period (650 BC – 350 BC). Interestingly, its fortunes waned during the Early Classic period (AD 100 – 250), when it was all but abandoned, only to be re-occupied during the Terminal Classic (AD 900 – 1000), when ties to the Yucatan peninsula are evident in its architecture and ceramic assemblage. Nohmul is one example of Maya longevity, memory, and re-use of important sites. When they re-occupied it in the Terminal Classic is was already an ancient place – at least 1000 years old. Nohmul has been a marker of place, history, and ancestral heritage for more than 2,000 years (see Hammond et al.).

March Against Monsanto: It's About Your Right to Know

Visit Occupy Monsanto for a march near you!
http://occupy-monsanto.com/tag/global-day-of-action/

by douglas reeser on May 24, 2013
The giant agro-chemical company, Monsanto, has a long and troublesome history about which people around the globe are starting to take issue with. This Saturday, May 25, 2013, marks the first ever global protest against the company, with supporters calling on a long list of motivations for the rally. Occupy Monsanto, one of the many outgrowths of the Occupy Movement, has a list with links to over 100 cities where marches and protests are set to take place. In addition to the list, there is a short, but telling list of reasons why people are are protesting:

- Research studies have shown that Monsanto’s genetically-modified foods can lead to serious health conditions such as the development of cancer tumors, infertility and birth defects.
- In the United States, the FDA, the agency tasked with ensuring food safety for the population, is steered by ex-Monsanto executives, and we feel that’s a questionable conflict of interests and explains the lack of government-lead research on the long-term effects of GMO products.
- Recently, the U.S. Congress and president collectively passed the nicknamed “Monsanto Protection Act” that, among other things, bans courts from halting the sale of Monsanto’s genetically-modified seeds.
- For too long, Monsanto has been the benefactor of corporate subsidies and political favoritism. Organic and small farmers suffer losses while Monsanto continues to forge its monopoly over the world’s food supply, including exclusive patenting rights over seeds and genetic makeup.
- Monsanto’s GMO seeds are harmful to the environment; for example, scientists have indicated they have caused colony collapse among the world’s bee population.

Student Debt in the US: Is There an End in Sight?

Students march in support of student debt forgiveness in San Francisco.
Photo courtesy of jjinsf94115 on Flickr.

by douglas reeser on May 15, 2013
The student debt issue has been back in the news recently, with a number of commentaries on what some are saying may be the next 'bubble'. With currently fixed interest rates on student loans set to double from 3.4% to 6.8% on July 1st, 2013, there is a growing call for some sort of relief plan. Last year we began to see some evidence that the issue was something deserving of attention. I first wrote briefly about my student loan experience in October 2012, just after returning from a year and a half of fieldwork, beginning the process of writing my dissertation, and already getting harrassed by the banks for repayment. Since then, my own situation has not improved, and neither has that of millions of students throughout the US, as overall student debt breached $1 trillion US earlier this year.

It seems that the trillion-dollar may have been the turning point that mark pushed the issue into the mainstream. One sign of this is that Yahoo has recently begun publishing a series of "First Person"articles on student debt that share "first-person accounts from those who are still paying and those who have lessons to share." With the announcement that the US government is set to earn $51 billion US from student loan borrowers this year alone, there seems to be a growing consensus that the need for reform has reached critical levels.

Tilting Towards the Local: Uneven Globalization in Belize

James Bus Line out of Punta Gorda Belize. I'll be busing down to PG from
Belize City, about a 6 hour ride. 

Views from the ANThill
by douglas reeser on May 6, 2013
I'm headed back to Belize in the morning. It's been about 6 months since I left, and I'll be returning for about 6 weeks. When I first left Belize last fall, I thought I would be returning in a month or two to teach a field school, but the class fell through. I was then offered the opportunity to teach a class at my home university during the spring semester. I've been a bit disappointed that my return to Belize has taken longer than expected, but getting back in the classroom was somewhat refreshing, and a good exercise for my brain.

The class I taught was an upper-level undergraduate course about human diversity, held in a discussion-based format. During class, I would only give short talks or show a short video, and dedicate the majority of class-time to a full class discussion with the 15-20 or so students who showed up on a regular basis. Teaching about diversity can be fun, as there are limitless iterations of human ingenuity around the globe, and we end up talking about many aspects of contemporary human existence. Talking about contemporary humans, however, inevitably brings up the interconnections that exist between and within cultures, and the inequality that is all too often a part of those connections.