An analysis of an aspect of human culture from an anthropological viewpoint - Essay Example

An analysis of the aspect of human culture from an anthropological viewpoint The world has undergone serious development in cultural, economic, political and academic circles since mid 1980s. However, no one has bothered to question the cultural erosion that has taken place as a result of this development. The paper, ‘Cultural Anthropological Perspective of Development Re – examined’, written by Abdulla Al Manun, argues that the development process which has been extensively carried out since mid 1980s has resulted in the expansion and penetration of the traditions.

It has further fostered the subordination of poor and developing nations by the rich and developed nations of the western world. This has lead to an environmental degradation and is regarded as a serious threat to non – western indigenous cultures and economies. This article further argues that the Western countries has set up international bodies like IMF, World Bank, United Nations and other donor agencies to control all major economic and political affairs prevailing in the rest of the world.

This papers approaches this issue from the holistic and anthropological perspective which surrounds the economic and non – economic factors at the same time. Let us refer to the works of the famous economist and anthropologist Karl Marx. This great thinker anticipated disturbances and imbalances associated with the unfettered expansion of the global capital. According to Marx, societies go from simple to complex in a number of steps. The pre – historic human culture of the Aborigines was at a lower evolutionary stage than the Western – European civilization.

Similarly, during the cold war between communism and capitalism, the two opposite developing strategies were some form of Central planning and Western economics. Here, the Western developed economic nations with their capitalist approach managed to destroy the so called communist approach which were prevalent in the then U.S.S.R. It ultimately lead to the breakdown of the entire nation to smaller nations. Now, there are limited countries like Russia which practise communism and the stronger western nations practise capitalism.

The more complex the development process, the more is the inclination of the western nation to influence their culture and tradition to the developing nations. This is done in a bid to rule over the entire world. According to Karl Marx, this is the shift from the family, the tribe, ancient communal, feudalism and the current civilised world. Marx of course argued that before reaching the ultimate goal, certain milestones had to be achieved. Currently, the western world is witnessing a stage of tremendous technological and economic development.

The writer, Mamun argues that the so called western nations are trying their level best to pave the path to rule over the poor nations. This is the class conflict which the world is subtly witnessing. Marx had referred to the existence of class conflict in a developed world in his writings. Karl Marx has also predicted that once the ultimate goal is achieved, the world would be peaceful and the society would be extremely complex. Today the world is witnessing erosion in human culture and traditions especially those living in the poorer nations.

The stronger western nations in their greed to influence their power over the weaker nations are slowing entering the political, economic, cultural and academic circles. The erosion of culture and tradition wherein people of these poorer nations are embracing the culture and traditions followed by the stronger nations is due to this subtle expansion. To conclude, we cannot ignore the writings of great thinkers of Karl Marx on the aspects of changes in the human culture as a result of development.

The negative outcomes of globalization were already predicted by this great thinker. References: Mamun, Abdulla, Al. “Cultural Anthropological Perspective of Development Re – examined”. Canadian Social Science. 4.2. (2008): 5 – 17. Print.