Coffee Breaks and Coffee Connections - Assignment Example

Anthropology: Coffee A) What are some of the factors that drive the apparently insatiable craving for coffee in European and North American society,and (B) what are some of the transformations in the physical landscape and organization of production in supplier countries, such as Tanzania (the focus of the Brad Weiss chapter in Cross-Cultural Consumption) and in Central America A.- In the Western world, coffee serves as a vehicle to assume an identity, a selfhood, associated the capitalist values of clear-headed rationality, sobriety, alertness, invigoration, energy, self-control, sign of achievement, effort, etc., that the coffee provides as a stimulating drink. It also functions as a cosmopolitan connection at a global dimension. For example, the varieties of coffee are designated according to their countries of origin, not in relation to its age, flavor, botanical stocks, heritage, etc. This factor gives the consumer a sense of internalization, of being a part of a greater picture in a global community. Coffee is also related to exotic places in the minds of the Western consumers. The coffee-house at the end of the seventeenth century, but mostly from the eighteenth century up to this day, played a very prominent role in providing a public space for commerce and culture. Since its beginning it was a place for the middle class where business transactions were made and public discourse found its way of expression. We have the case of Lloyd's Coffee-House, that later gave birth to Lloyd's News, and in the present it has the well-known institution Lloyd's of London. It all started as a coffee-house. Commerce and news mixed together in this coffee-house and the journalistic business was the logical product. Missionaries and capitalists in the West loved coffee since its early history as this stimulating drink goes hand in hand with the protestant and capitalist spirit of discipline, self-control and sobriety. Coffee was thus contrasted to ale, which was considered to be a rude and corpulent drink. A very important factor that drives the apparently insatiable craving for coffee in European and North American societies can be found in the very famous institution of the coffee break in the workplace. It is extremely common to consider the coffee break as very significant part of the workers' life. The coffee break gives cohesion in the workplace. It is a time to recover the energies that coffee can provide, so in an industrious society like the capitalist's environment coffee brings new meaning of productivity into life. As such coffee is a valued commodity in the workplace. B.- The transformations of the physical landscape and the organization of production in coffee-supplier countries like Tanzania have being instituted along the years as a way of constructing values and meanings in an interaction between two roles as consumers and producers. In Haya, located in the region of Kagera, Tanzania, this dialectic relationship in its communities has its source of origin at the beginning of the twentieth century when the arabica variety of coffee was introduced by the missionaries. The arabica coffee is much more valued than the robusta coffee, which was being produced earlier in Haya. Since the beginning of the twentieth century the coffee exports from Haya have been on a steady rise. The major source of income is generated by the production of coffee. After the 1920s an extreme class division has been established in Haya. This has been a consequence of shifting from the colonial to the post-colonial times in Tanzania. African Socialism has a system of co-operatives and all the coffee producers are supposed to sell their harvests through this system, which is very slow and sometimes people don't get paid. So there is a black market going parallel to the state's co-operatives. Traders or marketers buy the crop in advance to needy farmers in an illegal transaction that is very common in the region. In the 1980s the traders or marketers in this black market were used to get ten times the amount of the advance they gave to the farmers. There is a prominent rite in Haya in which coffee cherries are offered as gifts to guests visiting the household. The robusta coffee cherries are dried and cooked with spices and they function as masticatory snacks to be chewed by the guests. This ceremony serves as a sign of blood-brotherhood, clanship, among the people from Haya. These coffee cherries have some connection to serving meals, but they are just snacks. The real meals are served only behind closed doors among the members of the family. So there is a distinction between being a guest and being a close relative. This way people from Haya use coffee as a medium to construct meanings and values in their socio-cultural lived experiences. In the house opening ceremony coffee is also used and the host or hostess through coffee in the four cardinal directions. The same rite is done by the travelers when they have to go a long distance. Coffee is used in connection to space in these cases. From a long time ago certain coffee trees served as a means of identifying its owner in relation to his/her life force. When a coffee tree died, it also meant the omen of the owner's death. Coffee is also measured using "cars" and "lorries" as units of volume. It implies movement from a local to a distant place. Coffee trees are planted away from home, but bananas -which are meant to be consumed as meals- are interspersed with the coffee. So we can see that coffee is used as a commodity to be produced and as a gift appropriate for sociality. All this means that there is certain degree of ambiguity in relation to coffee as it used as cash and as a gift. Coffee is a commodity that brings meaning to the community as a local, national and transnational entity. It is a cash crop and a fine food at the same time. As we can see from the usage of coffee in Haya, there are certain local socio-cultural characteristics that the process of globalization can't homogenize. Global culture is able to transform and organize certain communities in a homogenizing process, but some local aspects of that community will remain untouched by the process of globalization. Coffee provides the people from Haya, Tanzania, with a medium for self-expression as producers and consumers, being a part of the global community, but at the same time keeping their own values and meanings regarding the objectification of coffee. Bibliography Weiss, Brad. "Coffee Breaks and Coffee Connections". (n. d.). (pp. 93-105). Read More