Search for the Son: Globalization and "Meet the Natives"

Search for the Son: Globalization and "Meet the Natives" from Kristine Peterson on Vimeo.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT
The 2007 UK series “Meet the Natives” documents the experience of five tribesmen from the island of Tanna, Vanuatu on their first trip to Great Britain. During their four week adventure, the natives have a lot to discover about England, while the English benefit from their lessons of simpler life. The program is full of laughable moments, like when the natives learn how to use a vacuum cleaner and taste their first beer, but also touching reactions to people living on the streets of Manchester. The spiritual quest behind their journey, however, was at times overlooked by viewers watching purely for entertainment. On Tanna, traditional belief says that the son of their Kastam god has taken the form of an Englishman (Adams, par. 3). When Prince Philip visited their island in the 1970s, villagers were so awed by his material wealth and stature that they named him their lord. For decades, they have awaited his homecoming that is said to bring magic, riches, and immortality to Vanuatu. Yapa, Joel, JJ, Posen and Albi of “Meet the Natives” are sent by their chief to find their savior and ask for his return. Although they go home happily empty handed, they bring back a message of false hope for his future arrival. Through my own editing of “Meet the Natives,” I hope to visualize the argument that while globalization aids in the understanding of each other’s cultures, this interaction can also create a mystified perception of the dominant society. In the case of the Tanna island natives, the Prince Philip cargo cult is a direct result of confusion in a globalizing, ever more Western world.

In 1988, historian James Clifford stated that globalization enables people to be aesthetically inventive, to partake of the “ironic play of similarity and difference” (Foster 149). “Meet the Natives” provides a fascinating, informal look into Melanesian culture, which simultaneously challenges various Western ideas and values (Lederman 440). Many times during the documentary, the tribesmen, who are descendents of cannibals, appear to be far better humanitarians than us of the West. When first exposed to the issue of homelessness, one of the natives, on the brink of tears, says:

It made me sad to realize that they need help, but people were unable or unwilling to help them. There are many buildings not used, but many people are still homeless. My heart was crying and I felt a heavy weight on me. [This] has made the issue feel real to me. I can’t say anything else about this because I feel so sad. (“Meet the Natives” Part 8)

The heartfelt opinions of these simple-minded hunter-gatherers profoundly affect viewers such as myself. There are complexities about Western culture they do not know of, yet provide a fresh outlook for people who live and breathe it daily. For example, the natives are pleased to witness “people of every color” mixing together on busy streets, but dislike the way strangers do not interact with one another. Part 16 includes one of the natives saying, “There are a lot of people going to work. They are rushing and they don’t talk. Even when I smile at them, they don’t smile back. They just walk. I wonder where this lifestyle is taking them.” Anthropologist Kirk Huffman, a consultant to the project, notes how much more open-minded and interested in big questions they are in comparison. He states, “In the West, we are obsessed by little things. Our culture is all about how: to travel faster, to live longer, and make more money. Smart cultures are more about why. They are more reflective. That's what they can teach us" (Adams, par. 27). When the natives learn how to artificially inseminate pigs, they are quite understandably not pleased either. Despite one Englishman’s explanation that it is more cost efficient, they consider the practice wrong and unnatural. In a scene where they are given the task of cleaning a house, the natives agree that it takes so long because there are too many unnecessary decorations and other clutter. Unlike similar documentaries of this style, there is more to be learned from the natives than by the natives, who I believe are actually aware of this themselves. “May the message we bring over help the good people of England. Let the people of these buildings, cars, and planes feel and experience what we have to share with them, so they can live well here as we do on Tanna,” prays the chief (“Meet the Natives” Part 8).

Cultural anthropologist Rena Lederman defines globalization as the “radical intensification of relations between geographically separated places; to a structurally transformative movement of people, things, and ideas across cultural and national borders” (428). In “Meet the Natives,” we get a feel of the intense culture exchange from Tanna to England and back. I was surprised to find that more advanced studies on contemporary Melanesia, however, are few, rather incomplete, and far between. Most of which were conducted in the 1990s, they do explore historical experiences of Western influences, representations of regional and global relationships, anticolonial movements, and resistance to changes in religion, sexuality, and morality (Lederman 437). Most interesting to me has been their change in religious belief, which is a primary focus of my project. In the early 20th century, Tanna was converted to Presbyterianism by colonizers and missionaries (Stanley, sect. 6). The tribes reverted to traditional beliefs, however, just before WWII, when they claimed to have seen a spirit regularly appear on the island. At this time, about a thousand men were being recruited by Americans to work at military bases of Efate, a nearby island of Vanuatu. The sight of black soldiers and large quantities of Western goods left them mystified. “John Frum,” or “John from America” has become a cultural icon that is said to bring wealth from overseas (Raffaele 72). This was the beginning of Vanuatu’s “cargo cults,” whose members believe the same type of ships will return one day with loads of cargo meant for their people (Stanley, sect. 6). Huffman, who also spent seventeen years in Vanuatu, explains: "You get cargo cults when the outside world, with all its material wealth, suddenly descends on remote, indigenous tribes” (Raffaele 70). Since the locals are confused where the endless supplies come from, they believe there has been some holy interference. Dr. Andrew Lattas, a lecturer and cargo cult researcher from the University of Newcastle, says that we should not be surprised to find globalization merging with local religious traditions (75). About the Prince Philip cult featured in “Meet the Natives,” which is a division of the John Frums, he explains, “The hegemonic conditions for making the modern world livable require new kinds of lies, new kinds of secrets, and new kinds of collusions with whiteness and modernity” (Lattas 76). Theoretically, this is evident in both “Meet the Natives” and other research of the island nation. As each day passes, Tanna’s inhabitants grow less patient for their savior’s return, asking questions like “Where is Prince Philip?” and “Why doesn't he come?” (Shears, par. 40).

I chose to condense this documentary series into a short video that highlights exactly what I got out of it: globalization’s effects on indigenous island people. Although it is captivating to witness the group of tribesmen’s first experiences of the Western world, Tanna’s cults wouldn’t exist without this limited exposure. I have found that globalization is effective in both opening one’s eyes to new cultural perspectives and obscuring them at others. The latter part of the video is devoted to the natives’ journey to find Prince Philip, hence the title “Search for the Son.” I used the campy “Yellow Submarine” by The Beatles as a contrast from island beats to the familiar music of Great Britain. The song denotes a sense of adventure and togetherness, which I also deemed fitting. I hope to have successfully visualized my argument to those not familiar with “Meet the Natives.” Putting a face (or five) on the word “globalization,” I believe, is effective in understanding what it means to our rapidly changing worldwide culture.

Works Cited
Adams, Guy. "Strange island: Pacific tribesmen come to study Britain." The Independent. N.p., 8 Sept. 2007. Web. 2 Dec. 2009. .
Foster, Robert J. "Melanesianist Anthropology in the Era of Globalization." The Contemporary Pacific 11.1 (1999): 140-159. ScholarSpace. Web. 3 Dec. 2009.
Lattas, Andrew. "Capitalizing on Complicity: Cargo Cults and the Spirit of Modernity on Bali Island (West New Britain)." Ethnohistory 52.1 (2005): 47-80. Humanities Int'l Index (EBSCO). Web. 3 Dec. 2009.
Lederman, Rena. "Globalization and the Future of Culture Areas: Melanesianist Anthropology in Transition." Annual Review of Anthropology 27 (1998): 427-449. JSTOR. Web. 3 Dec. 2009.
"Playlist: Meet the Natives." VanuataVeritas's Channel. YouTube, 24 June 2009. Web. 2 Dec. 2009.
Raffaele, Paul. "In John they Trust." Smithsonian 36.11 (2006): 70-77. Humanities Int'l Index (EBSCO). Web. 3 Dec. 2009.
Shears, Richard. "Is Prince Philip a god?" Mail Online. N.p., 3 June 2006. Web. 2 Dec. 2009. < http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-388901/Is-Prince-Philip-god.html >.
Stanley, David. "Vanuatu Travel Guide." Vanuatu travel with author David Stanley. South Pacific Organizer, n.d. Web. 2 Dec. 2009. .

FABSTRACT

The 2007 UK series “Meet the Natives” documented the journey of five tribesmen from Tanna, Vanuatu to three cities in Great Britain. Inevitably, the natives had a lot to discover about England, while the English learned a lesson about simpler life. There were funny moments when the natives learned how to use a vacuum and drink their first beer, but also touching times when they couldn’t understand the concept of homelessness. The spiritual quest behind their journey, however, went overlooked by some viewers watching purely for entertainment. On Tanna, traditional belief says that the son of their Kastam god has taken the form of an Englishman. When Prince Philip visited their island in the 1970s, they were so awed by his material wealth and stature that they named him their lord. For decades, they have awaited his homecoming that is said to bring magic, riches, and immortality to Vanuatu. Yapa, Joel, JJ, Posen and Albi are sent by their chief to find their savior and ask for his return. Although they go home happily empty handed, they bring back a message of false hope for his future arrival. Through my own editing of “Meet the Natives,” I hope to visualize the idea that while globalization aids in the understanding of each other’s cultures, this interaction can also create a mystified perception of the dominant society. In the case of the Tanna island natives, the Prince Philip cargo cult is a direct result of confusion in a globalizing, ever more Western world.

Works Cited

[Tentative] Works Cited

Adams, Guy. "Strange island: Pacific tribesmen come to study Britain." The Independent. N.p., 8 Sept. 2007. Web. 2 Dec. 2009. < http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/strange-island-pacific-tribesmen-come-to-study-britain-401461.html >.

This online magazine article is about the production of the documentary. It provided some background information not mentioned in the series, so I found it useful as a reference.

Foster, Robert J. "Melanesianist Anthropology in the Era of Globalization." The Contemporary Pacific 11.1 (1999): 140-159. ScholarSpace. Web. 3 Dec. 2009.

The paper "reviews some of the relevant intellectual resources available to Melanesianist anthropologists and considers the implications of globalization for ethnographic fieldwork." I'll use it to study how social interactions have changed due to communications with larger world powers like Britain and the U.S.

Lattas, Andrew. "Capitalizing on Complicity: Cargo Cults and the Spirit of Modernity on Bali Island (West New Britain)." Ethnohistory 52.1 (2005): 47-80. Humanities Int'l Index (EBSCO). Web. 3 Dec. 2009.

Although this article is about a different (yet quite similar) cult, it will aid in my discussion about the effects of global commerce on these nativistic movements.

Lederman, R. "Globalization and the Future of Culture Areas: Melanesianist Anthropology in Transition." Annual Review of Anthropology 27 (1998): 427-449. JSTOR. Web. 3 Dec. 2009.

The author of this article briefly talks about some anthropologists' findings about native culture and a need for a discussion about globalization. I'll use it to research how Melanesian culture has changed over time in respect to colonization and globalization.

"Playlist: Meet the Natives." VanuataVeritas's Channel. YouTube, 24 June 2009. Web. 2 Dec. 2009.

This is the actual documentary. I did a pretty good search of the internets, and found nothing about how to cite a series of Youtube videos. So I took a stab at it by attempting to cite a playlist of parts 1-18. If you know how to properly do this, your help would be greatly appreciated!

Raffaele, Paul. "In John they Trust." Smithsonian 36.11 (2006): 70-77. Humanities Int'l Index (EBSCO). Web. 3 Dec. 2009.

"When material wealth suddenly descends upon indigenous tribes, they don't know where it came from and believe it must have been summoned by magic or is in some other way supernatural." This article discusses the events that led to the formation of cargo cults following the end of WWII. Good for historical stuff.

Shears, Richard. "Is Prince Philip a god?" Mail Online. N.p., 3 June 2006. Web. 2 Dec. 2009. < http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-388901/Is-Prince-Philip-god.html >.

This is just another news story about the Prince Philip and John Frum cults. I used it to write my previous blog so I threw it on here.

I need one more scholarly source! Still hunting...

Not-so-short Final Project Proposal

I've just spent the afternoon watching a fascinating 2007 UK documentary series called "Meet the Natives." In has been broken down into 18 segments on Youtube, averaging about 8 minutes each. Here's the promo:



In this series, 5 men from the Kastam tribe of the island Tanna travel to England to experience life in a land they believe was connected to theirs at the time of creation. Yapa, Joel, JJ, Posen and Albi spend a week with each English "tribe": a middle class, working class, and upper class family. They call themselves "the first Tannese explorers."

An article from Britain's The Independent said the following:
"...for generations, western anthropologists have traveled to faraway lands to live among native tribes and document their way of life. But, until now, anthropology has always been a one-way street; alien cultures have never 'gone native' over here."

The 5 tribesmen do not travel to England just to experience a different lifestyle, however. They are on a religious mission to meet a person they have been worshiping all their lives. In Tanna, they believe England's Prince Philip is God's son. For 33 years, they've been waiting for Philip to return and rule the island, making life better for all of its people. Prince Philip is their Jesus.

Here's another excerpt from that article I just mentioned:
"The story runs something like this: at the start of the last century, English missionaries visited Tanna in an effort to convert them to Christianity. This angered the Kastam God, who sent his eldest son over to the UK to try to stop them. On Tanna, this son was a spirit, but in England they believe that this spirit has taken on the form of a man. When the Royal yacht Britannia visited their island in the 1970s, they decided that this man was Prince Philip. Shortly afterwards, the tribe sent the Duke of Edinburgh a club, by way of a gift. Several months later, Buckingham Palace returned the favour, posting them a framed picture of a smiling Prince Philip holding the club. In such gestures are legends born. Today, that photograph is a religious icon, their equivalent of an altar at a church."

SIDE NOTE: In Things Fall Apart, English settlers visit native tribes with a religious mission. In "Meet the Natives," natives come to England also with a religious mission. Interestingly, Vanuatu (the nation of islands that includes Tanna) was under French and British rule until 1980, when it became independent. Since then, it has been working hard to re-develop its very unique Melanesian culture. Well hello again, postcolonialism!

Today I was introduced to what are called "cargo cults." A cargo cult is a type of religious practice that may appear in traditional tribal societies in the wake of interaction with technologically advanced cultures. The cults are focused on obtaining the material wealth (the "cargo") of the advanced culture through magical thinking and religious rituals and practices, believing that the wealth was intended for them by their deities and ancestors. I was surprised to have never heard anything about this phenomenon in discussions about the effects of globalization.

Anyway, the end of the documentary is bittersweet. The natives finally get to meet Prince Philip, who tells them he is not ready to return. They are happy with this, and take the news back to their village. What saddens me, however, is that these people continue to wait for an update. Prince Phillip will most likely never visit despite their offer, which sounds great in my opinion anyway:
"We want him to spend the last years of his life here, because we believe that when he returns as our god, his powers will make our wrinkles disappear and we will have many wives to attend to our every need. He won't have to hunt for pigs or anything. He can just sit in the sun and have a nice time."

I'd like to make a short video project that visualizes my argument: While globalization gives us the opportunity of reaching out to different cultures (as we will see in the humorous and touching moments of "Meet the Natives"), it also creates confusion and sadness for native peoples (i.e. the whole Prince Philip ordeal). Through my montage/condensed version of the documentary, I hope to demonstrate that.

Since this post is already kind of lengthy, I will put Tentative Works Cited in the following one.

Tiananmen Square Google Image Results

Here are the Google image search results for the 1989 Tiananmen Square protest in China (left) and the U.S. (right). I thought this was pretty interesting although completely expected. Click here to see the full version.

Lahiri's Mysterious View of Love and Marriage

I regret to say I know very little about India. Like anyone else I think of red dots, colorful bangles, delicious curries, and that incredibly catchy "Jai Ho" song from Slumdog Millionaire. I have one friend of Indian descent, whose mother's house I cleaned over the summer. Her husband Surrender (I know! such a cool name) left India to practice cardiology and met his wife, a Caucasian woman, in the states. I always wanted to ask her what it was like when she visited her husband's homeland with her American children, sort of like the Das family did in "Interpreter of Maladies." I got to look at some of their travel photos, but that is about the extent of my experience.

Lahiri's stories touched on those aspects of Indian culture I was looking for a bit, but while searching for differences I found more similarities. I think "A Temporary Matter" hit us so hard because we can relate to the characters regardless of what country we come from or what color our skin is. "The Third and Final Continent" is about experiencing a new land and a new culture. I'm sure we've all at one point felt like a foreigner.

One difference we can't overlook, however, is this topic of marriage, which both Kourtney and Gannon discussed in their blog posts. Coincidentally, I am no marriage expert either. I do know that Indian marriages are traditionally arranged for economic and social benefits. In America, by contrast, we wed for love, which interestingly leads to a 44% higher divorce rate than India.

In our class, we discussed the possibility that the married couple in "A Temporary Matter" does reconcile shortly after the story ends. Some of us happy ending lovers hope that when Shoba turns the lights off and they join together to cry at the table, it is a fresh start for them. So don't just be depressed, Gannon. And read the rest of the last story!

As Kourtney mentioned, there is a sense of familial duty in Indian marriage. Women certainly have their place, and as we read in "The Treatment of Bibi Haldar," they are shamed for being unwed by a certain age. Men, however, have an obligation to keep the marriage together as well. I found Mala's husband's little grievances kind of silly, yet familiar:

"I would have to buy her her first pair of snow boots, her first winter coat. I would have to tell her which streets to avoid, which way the traffic came, tell her to wear her sari so that the free end did not drag on the footpath." (The Third and Final Continent pg. 190)

I have to wonder if that's much different than how my boyfriend feels when he takes me out each weekend. Surely he's thinking:
"I will have to buy her her dinner, her movie ticket. I will have to tell her to stop playing with her food, which d-bags to avoid by the bar, tell her to put her cell phone on silent so that it does not go off in the theater."

We're all humans, right? Maybe it wasn't as important which marriages succeeded/failed based on whether they were arranged or not. Every relationship has some of the same characteristics regardless of who chooses it.

One last thing. Mala and her husband could only find love and happiness once they started relating (by TALKING) to one another. Mrs. Das' failure to communicate led to a huge scandalous secret suitable for The Maury Povich ("you are NOT the father!") Show. Shoba pushed the mourning of her child aside so far that it pushed away her husband too. These couples were just horrible with communication!

You Try to Write Your Stories in China But They Say No, No, No

Ha Jin did what he had to do. I hate to learn of such rigid censorship, mass brainwashing, and loss of creative expression that actually occurs in a world outside of Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, but I'm glad that I've had the opportunity to read his stories as a result of his decision to write in English.

If Conrad had written Heart of Darkness in his native Polish, it wouldn't have reached all those snooty English people he wanted to. My guess is that his novel would have remained in Poland for the most part. Since we, the descendents of those Europeans, look at Heart of Darkness as a starting point in postcolonial literature, that's a pretty big deal.

But back to Ha Jin. If he had even tried to publish The Bridegroom in communist China, what kind of punishment would he have received? Let's look at what they would have found objectionable.

"After Cowboy Chicken Came to Town," page 187:
"We nicknamed Mr. Shapiro 'Party Secretary,' because just like a Party boss anywhere he did little work."
STOP, FOOL! You can't diss the Party. Big no-no.

"Alive," page 19 and 41:
Fei, twice noted for being a new or young Party member, is a villain for taking Guhan's job. He is described as "too clever and oily." ALERT THE CENSORS! Once again, any art or literature that doesn't serve the Party/make it look good is restricted.

"A Tiger-Fighter is Hard to Find," page 60:
The narrator recognizes that the Wu Song tiger beating story was "pure fabrication that has misled readers for hundreds of years." The actor going crazy and failing to beat the tiger shines negative light on the communist system in general.

"Saboteur," the whole story.
This one really makes the Party look bad. Chiu is clearly taken to jail for being a scholar rather than the "scene" they accused him of making. It also shows that Party members are unhappy enough to take it out on innocents, as Chiu did by intentionally spreading hepatitis in restaurant settings.

P.S.- I've been thinking about this video all week. This is how you contaminate food in a big way. Thanks for the proper demonstration, Lorraine.



STAY BEHIND THE SNEEZE GUARD!