This class has been a very interesting and rewarding experience. I was not sure exactly what to expect when I had initially signed up, but am very glad that I was able to participate in this experience in retrospect. Explaining my initial views on these topics before I entered the class will require some background.
I am a plant biology major and had developed an interest in medicinal plants and ethnobotany over the course of my studies at NCSU. Although I study plants, I am very interested in a wide variety of (mostly) conceptual topics and have taken many anthropology, psychology, and philosophy courses along the way. This course was very interesting as it touched on a wide range of topics that are important but also challenge common ways of thinking. Through readings about ethnobotany, I have gained some insight into ethnoecology and am a bit biased toward this concept. Also, I was born in China, so Chinese culture was the first culture that I have experienced and I feel that this experience has allowed me to become more culturally aware, because I had to actually learn Western culture, so many tenets that people who are born into Western culture take for granted were once foreign to me, allowing me to eventually better recognize the influence of culture on our perspectives.
I liked the way we built up toward environmental problems through the establishment of various concepts about cultural lenses and frameworks of knowledge and then toward the question of the existence of global problems. I had always viewed environmental issues as a global problem, and had never actually considered that it might not be, but now I am not so sure. The readings in the class established concepts that allowed us to better explore concepts that were introduced later in the class, which I found to be very well structured. It allowed us to come to our own conclusions.
One of the most interesting things in this course, for me, has been the readings and discussions on globalization. I have always taken the idea of globalization as a fact and it was very interesting to read articles that challenged this, as well as exploring the differences in the concepts of Westernization and modernization. China in particular has changed and developed immensely over the past few decades, so I am very interested in this topic. I visited China about a decade after I had left and noticed a lot of change. At the time (I was in 7th grade), I saw this as Westernization. Many things that I’d fondly remembered as a child were different and this bothered me. I guess I saw it as a sort of cultural imperialism. But now I see this as modernization, with some aspects of Westernization, such as the addition of English to signs and street signs and changes to how people dressed. Anna Tsing’s concept of “friction” is also apparent from this experience. The extent of the cultural exchange that was set in motion over a hundred years ago. The US is seen as a great land of opportunity and Western culture was seen as superior. The word for United States (more aptly America) in Chinese is 美 国 (“mei guo”) which literally translates to “beautiful country.”
Another concept that was particularly interesting to me was that of commodity fetishism. This is something that I have never really thought about in detail, but have noticed somewhat in how products are designed, packaged, and branded. The James Carrier article was very enjoyable to read as it explored this very interesting concept in a somewhat humorous way (at least to me). It also showed the futility of ethical consumption as it is impossible for a consumer to be aware of all of the processes and backgrounds behind all commodities.
Also, I am a big fan of the way the course is structured. The seminar style makes the course much more interesting and engaging, in my opinion, than if it were just a series of lectures. The seminars allowed us to voice our opinions on the reading material. This also suited me because I am kind of a contrarian and love to take unpopular sides of the debates and also really love it when others challenge my views, especially if it is in a way that really makes me reconsider my stance. Because of this, I really liked it whenever Kyle spoke because he often had something very controversial (in respect to the class) to say and explained his reasoning well.
Finally, I really like the e-portfolio specialty topic investigation. It allowed us a chance to explore a topic of our own choosing and apply the concepts we have learned from the course. Initially, I picked the palm oil industry in Indonesia on a whim, because it was something that I had heard about, but it turned out to be an extremely interesting topic to examine from the perspective of Indonesia farmers, whose voices we rarely hear. All in all, I think this class will be memorable to me for a very long time and have helped me to further shape my views on the many topics covered. Thanks for the great experience!