Anthropological Theories of Development - Essay Example

Anthropological Theories of Development: Answering Some Critical Questions Part 1 Introduction The art and science of Anthropology studies the human race in all of its dimensions and aspects. The most important and valuable part of the discipline needs scientists to analyze the process of growth in nations, the nations are considered and treated as future of humanity and therefore, they have always remained special subjects to the anthropological studies and expeditions. The theories of national development are based on the works of Rist. Rist developed the definition of development that considered the process as a multistage one and therefore, the objectives of development keep on changing as the nations move forward. Rist used historical evidence in order to support his arguments and he gave examples of nations that grew with the help of following his model such as America. The writer used quotation marks in order to distinguish his concept of development from traditional one which argues that the growth is linear process of becoming better than one’s current state but Rist’s believed the process as multistage and nonlinear in nature. The growth and development is supported by divine intellectual works and therefore, the author treated it as the part of modern religion. The religious schools of thought have integrated the concept of development with nation’s ability to gather knowledge and the secret of development lies in ability to acquire knowledge (Rist, 120). The countless number of psychologists and socialists worked in order to understand the process of growth in nations and some generalized findings were registered at the end. The growth process is divided into four distinctive parts in the intellectual work “History of Development” by Rist written in 1997, which are explained as follows: - The fulfillment of basic necessities The nations are always starting with gathering data and information about their external environment and its ability to help them in meeting their basic needs of food and shelter. The data and information gathering and assimilated in this timeframe always remain with the nation even at the later stages of its life. Additionally, it is suffice to say that this stage provides basis for all other ones to take place as the windows program helps other software in running. Development of Architecture and Civil Works The next stage of national development involves perfection of building methods and agriculture is also known to grow in this stage. The nation does not have the capacity to transform their homes into concrete structures but nonetheless they have them and it is the whole point and objective of this step. Industrialization The nations move in the direction of industrialization and division of labor and formal organizational structures seem to emerge during this stage. The need to communicate with other nations also significantly grows as the local production begins to outweigh the local demand and therefore, formal trade ties should be developed in order to export the surplus production and import the products that are short in the indigenous marketplace. Knowledge Creation The nations after fulfilling the requirements of industrialization move in the direction of becoming knowledge economies. The knowledge economies are primarily responsible for creating new information by doing research in all fields of life. The knowledge in then, applied in other countries whereas, the knowledge economies sell this information in order to make a living. The notion of globalized world is communicated by the Author as well because the new knowledge cannot be transmitted and applied without strong linkages amongst the nations and it is the defining attribute of the modern world of the 21st century. The featured passage highlights the presence of struggle that humans made in order to achieve development. The application and validity of these efforts cannot be ascertained without seeing and seeing their results and consequences. The arguments of Rist are valid because development is indeed a multistage process and its soul rests in the power to gain knowledge. The relationship of colonialism and development is supported by emphasizing the nature of colonialism as the fundamental step in the direction of achieving the development. The colonialism builds a society and then, it works towards the attainment of development in a holistic manner. The fourth point of Truman establishes that America can only develop by supporting the growth of its allies and the argument pointed out towards the presence of globalization that is a concrete reality in current times and no nation can grow without the help of others and vice versa. Implicit Discourse in the Developmental Process The implicit discourse in the national development process is known to occur when the leaders of the nation do not commit to the notion of development and growth in order to hold their personal and private agendas dear. The governmental role in converting the agricultural economy to industrial one is more than critical and if this role is not played well then, the process of development will no doubt becomes hindered. Cultural Assumptions of Development The cultural assumptions attached with the generalized model of development needs an individualistic culture to prevail in the society. The individualistic culture provides the firm basis for democracy’s growth and in this way, the government of the people can work for the people. According to Hofstede, the countries those are having individualistic cultures are more sovereign than those that have collective way of thinking. Part 2 Colonialism in General The colonialism is famous for taking place when social relations amongst the people are not based on equality. The governmental officials have undue power on the destiny of the general public whereas, the autocratic systems are emplaced in order to ensure control over the factors of production. Additionally, the colonial effect accompanies the nation during initial period of industrialization because at that time, economic power becomes the guarantee of political one. These influences tend to mitigate with the passage of time, when societies grow intellectually to see the true role of government. Anti-politics machine and Discussion of World Bank’s Rhetoric concerning Lesotho by James Ferguson The article is written in the year of 1990 and the author is an anthropologist who is also a professor at Stanford. The writer primarily cites the report of World Bank on Lesotho and he also benefitted from the work of Murray. Ferguson is influenced by the theory of social constructionism that points out to the fact that humans build their realities by themselves. He states that development is nothing but a process of rearranging reality. James wanted to know about the true nature of development and he went digging in order to find the reasons which compel humans to grow and evolve. He nevertheless found the answer in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs that highlights that humans inspire to be more than themselves under the head of self actualization requirements. James identified the phenomenon of development as an abstractive one because for each individual development’s meaning varies. Some of them consider accumulation of wealth as development and others find themselves evolved, if they are able to help the sufferers. The report of World Bank contained so many errors because the bureaucracy did not want its failure in Lesotho to become public knowledge but it did so eventually. The work of James guides us to read and follow up works cited because the author is a human being and therefore, he is not immune to humanly attributes of making an error or falsifying data or information in order to fulfill political goals. The research conducted by the writer made the people realize the fact that the facility of Lesotho is a prisoner camp and he used the definition of prison provided by Foucault to identify the featured facility as a jail. The World Bank ignored the fact that Lesotho is a prison because if the word would have gotten out then, the entire world would consider the operations as unethical and illegal. The overemphasis on agriculture gave the administrators the opportunity to use the labor force as farming requires significant number of labor. Works Cited Read More