Pre-class Appadurai

In this text, what is most interesting is that Appadurai uses a lot of the theorist we have studied this semester and makes everything come together. It all finally makes sense may I say? All the notions and theories we have learned have given rise to our consciousness and we can now understand such a text which we would not have grasped at the beginning of the year.

I would like to focus on the first part of this text. Looking back on history, the theorist makes a strong point on the evolution of interactions in the past centuries. In the past exchanges between social and cultural groups were almost impossible due to distances and technologies. But with the print technology, and transportation advancements new transactions were now possible. As Appadurai puts it, there has been a "technological explosion" in the past century (trains, airplanes, telephone, computers and internet) making exchanges possible on a whole new level. One would think that this has created an ability to share and understand culture in a global manner but not at all. It has only promoted a sort Americanization of the East. Appadurai gives us the example of the Philippines singing songs of our past and celebrating them more than we do, with a certain nostalgia but the problem is this was never part of the Philippine culture meaning they sense a nostalgia with out a memory, for something "never lost". This is the irony of what global culture is bringing to the table.