精东传媒app

The aims of this course are to enable students to gain an appreciation of the situation of contemporary small scale Indigenous groups within the boundaries of nation states focussing on the culture of capitalism and the impacts of western industrial culture. The spread of the capitalist world system has been accompanied by the creation of distinctive patterns of social relations, ways of viewing the world, patterns of food production, distinctive diets, patterns of health and disease, relationships to the environment, and so on. However, the spread of this culture has not gone uncontested; there has been resistance that has taken the form of both direct and indirect actions - political, religious, social protest and revolution. How and why capitalist culture developed along with the reasons why some groups such as Indigenous peoples resisted and continue to resist are central themes throughout this course enabling students to assess from a different perspective the role of western expansion and the culture of capitalism.

One of the casualties of the expansion of the culture of capitalism for Indigenous peoples is cultural diversity related to the profound cultural incompatibilities between indigenous peoples and the culture of capitalism and the need of the nation-state to ensure political authority and control over economic resources desired by corporations or the nation-state itself. This course then, examines the historical and contemporary impact of the Nation State on small-scale Indigenous societies around the world with a focus on the capitalist system. Broad theoretical frameworks relating to global western expansion as well as specifics relating to the effects of the culture of capitalism are explored.

On completion of this course, students will have:

1. an understanding of the role of the nation state in the marginalisation of Indigenous peoples;
2. a broad understanding of the social and historical origins of capitalism;
3. a thorough knowledge and understanding of the capitalist system;
4. an understanding of the effects of global capitalism on small scale Indigenous societies.