LAS 470 Discussion (Emma Link)

It seems to me that the opera represents the privilege and prestige of the upper class, the ability have the experience of seeing an opera. It may not mean anything to the rich as they are accustomed to receiving nice things and experiences, they have become apathetic to consumption of these. However, the poor are willing to row thousands of miles in order to attend the opera show for just one night. Fitzcarraldo mentions that his father was Irish, it seems to me that he comes from a poor background. He says his one dream is the opera which could have been why he wants to build a railroad. He wants to fit in with the rich and prestigious in Peru. “The rubber business is growing by leaps and bounds” and one of the characters said that the opera house could soon be too small for the growing city. The rich lady says that having natives as her house keepers is “much better than sending them out on the street”. It’s funny that Fitzcarraldo says “I can’t stand the sight of dandies who think...

Banana Wars The banana business has affected caused "profound ecological, demographic, cultural, and political changes" in Latin America. The banana business has also "procured some or most of their fruit through contact farming" and "take a wide range of formas and had varied effects on farming communities". In many regions "the cultivation of bananas was intimately linked to processes of nation building, capital formation, and internal and international migration" and its inception was "viewed as one of Latin America's most promising mechanisms of economic and social modernization". It changed because it "is now popularly associated with the brazen manipulation of national governments by foreign capital". The banana business in Central America is "where they have exerted their greatest influence over national governments and civil societies". In the Caribbean "the region's banana industry has always ...

Consumer Culture (1997), Celia Lury 1.      How is the concept  material culture  defined by Lury in her text? “A culture of the use or appropriation of objects or things” 2.      Why is the concept useful? It is useful because “it implies that the material and the cultural are always combined together in specific relations and that these relations may be subject to study. 3.      How is it related to the concept  immaterial culture ? Is it a contradiction? Why/ why not? Material includes immaterial culture. Which “refers to products or services whose important characteristics are the outcome of intellectual – or immaterial – labour”. Material culture is an outcome of material and physical labour and also intellectual and immaterial labour. 4.      How does Lury relate consumer culture to poverty and Inequality? What can the study of poverty tell us about consuming...

Galeano pp. 11-31 The year 1492 was a momentous year for Spain because of their conquest of “America” but also because they recovered Granada from the Arabs. These are both instances of the Spanish exerting their power over minority groups. It also reinforces the opinion held by the Spanish at the time that Christianity is the superior religion and the Spanish are superior to other groups of people. It seems to me that the Spanish used their “faith in God” to reinforce their reasonings for enslaving native Americans and overtaking their land. I also notice the privilege that the higher ups in the church had in society, since they could read and write. This appears to me to be a strategy to abuse power solely because “it is God’s will”. The Europeans had soldiers, trained dogs, guns and “their good Catholic faith” that could be considered advantages over the native Americans. Columbus described the Indies as “the greatest rich domain in the world”. Galeano says that “the Spaniards ...