Premodern vs Modern Flashcards
What year marked the invention of Gutenberg Printing Press?
1450
What does premodern or traditional refer to?
- Refers to societies or elements of societies that are small-scale primarily drives from indigenous (originating in and characteristic of a particular region or country; native) and often ancient cultural practices
Why was the creation of the Gutenberg Printing Press significant?
Because people could finally read the bible, and didn’t have to rely on what others said it said.
Modern time
1450 to our current time
- refers to those practices or characteristics that relate to the industrial mode of production or the development of large-scale [didn’t finish writing]
Why is the use of a comparative model a flawed strategy?
- Today the world is neither totally modern nor totally pre-modern
- Modern and pre-modern societies coexist today in the world
- World these two worlds collide in their interactions there are significant effects on both
Cateogories we comparmentalize our existence into
- economy
- religion
- politics
- social relations
None of these compartments make sense to the traditional or pre-modern worldview
Traditional or pre modern societies
- production of goods is subsistence living
- very simple division of labor (age, gender) significantly more cooperation anongst individuals
- units of production: family, clan, village, age-group; everything made by hand
- units of distribution and consumption: socially based (family)
- consumption is meant to satisfy people’s basic needs or roituals
- Little transformative of produce (crafts, metallurgy, cooking)
- Tasks are organically interdependent
Main purpose for production of goods in modern societies
- for profit and growth of the buisness
Modern Societies
- complete division of labor (specialization and differentiation)
- individualized and mechanized: units are hard to identify (not social)
- production of goods is for profit and growth of the business
- Units of distribution are individual, mechanical, commercial, and corporate
- consumption needs and competitive over-consumption
- high dependence upon other’s skills/knowledge
Material culture (traditional or premodern)
- accumulation of stuff in order to redistribute to others; exchange for prestige or an alliance between groups or individuals; collective ownership
- no distinct economic sphere in culture; interwoven with kinship age ritual
- work for pay/income does not exist; no formal contracts
- few individual possessions, most people have a similar standard of living
- all goods are handcrafted by human labor
Material Culture (modern)
- the cult of wealth exists; resources are not always used for social ends
- private ownership of goods
- distinct economic sphere with distinct domains
- pay for goods and services; contract based
- many possesions
- inequitable distribution resources and wealth
Cultural ecology (premodern or traditional)
- usually a subsistence strategy related to environmental ecology, population size and settlement patterns
- land is often sacred and held in common by the group of people
- the environment is meant to be used by the people to live within and sustain their existence
- transportation is done via human or animal energy
- individuals have many skills; make tools and use them for a variety of tasks
- Limited but a nutritious diet
Cultural Ecology (modern)
- a technological economic system that is unrelated to the environmental, social, and cultural factors within the group
- property ownership is to the individual person and is considered private or restricted access
- domination of nature; resource exploitation
- machine transportation and chemical energy
- specialized expertise replaces skill and knowledge
- intensive chemical and mechanical energy
- Urbanization, rural areas support population growth
- varied but questionably nutritional diet (commercialized food)
Premodern or traditional: Inhertntly democratic or republican?
Democratic
Political and social features pre- modern or traditional
- inherently democratic, decentralized power, kin-based
- public goals (the good of the group over the individual)]
- no bureacracy
- foreign policy with outsiders consists of trade, raiding, negotioatio or retaliation/ Age kin and gender dominates these relationsiphs; communities rarely interact
- community cohension’ law of hospitality
- face to face relations, everything is negotiable. importance of consensus
- Family is the most important factor in the culture
