The Anthropocene: Politik—Economics—Society—Science

Volume 17

Series editor

Hans Günter Brauch, Mosbach, Germany

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/15232http://www.afes-press-books.de/html/APESS.htmhttp://afes-press-books.de/html/APESS_17.htm

Lourdes Arizpe Schlosser

Culture, InternationalTransactionsand the Anthropocene

123Cátedra UNESCO de Investigación sobre Patrimonio Cultural Intangible y Diversidad Cultural

Organizaciónde las Naciones Unidas

para la Educación,la Ciencia y la Cultura Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

Lourdes Arizpe SchlosserCentro Regional de InvestigacionesMultidisciplinarias

Universidad Nacional Autonoma de MexicoCuernavaca, Mexico

ISSN 2367-4024 ISSN 2367-4032 (electronic)The Anthropocene: Politik—Economics—Society—ScienceISBN 978-3-642-41601-9 ISBN 978-3-642-41602-6 (eBook)https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-41602-6

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018942002

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The cover photo illustrates: Anthropology and the Transformation of Cultures: Lourdes Arizpe and herresearch team observing neo-indigenous, New Age and Buddhist rituals in the Spring celebrations at thePyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacan, Mexico, 2013. The photo was taken by C. Amescua.The photo on the internal title page iii portrays Assistant Director-General for Culture Lourdes Arizpeaddressing a meeting on culture at UNESCO, 1997. The photo was taken by Sayah Msadek.

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To all those who believe that living is the pathtowards a sustainable futureFor MVG

Acknowledgements

So many researchers, professional colleagues, politicians, functionaries and acti-vists speak, deliberate and carry out transactions in the pages of this book that it isimpossible to acknowledge their contributions. They are all active participants inworking towards human advancement in the world of the living. I am particularlyindebted to the National University of Mexico, and its previous Rector, José NarroRobles, and to my colleagues at the Centre for Multidisciplinary Research, espe-cially to its former Director, the late Raul Bejar, and to its present Director,Margarita Velazquez Gutierrez, for their very generous support. My mentor andfriend, Rodolfo Stavenhagen, gave me most important support when I began mycareer as an anthropologist in Mexico.

For early induction into the world of international research and policy, I wish torecognize my intellectual debt to the brilliant leaders of the Society for InternationalDevelopment, among them Amartya Sen, Sir Richard Jolly, Mahbub ul Haq,Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, Francis Stewart, Paul Streeten and so many others, and par-ticularly to Louis Emmerij, who invited me to India and blew my mind with theunimagined possibilities of cultural creation, as well as the complexities of inter-national negotiations.

My introduction to the world of international science policy I owe to manycolleagues, especially to anthropologists and scientists of the International Union ofAnthropological and Ethnological Sciences, and the International ScienceOrganization. A special thanks to my colleagues of the constellation of socialscience associations of the International Social Science Council now World SocialScience Organization, whose research work has partnered scientific communities allover the world in the last 60 years. I would like to mention my friends and col-leagues of the Standing Committee on Global Human Environmental Change, SirRobert Worcester, the late Harold Nicholson, Roberta Miller, Martin Price, LezekKosinski, Pilar Magannon and so many others.

I owe my high-level participation in decision-making in international culturaldevelopment policy to Federico Mayor, former Director General of UNESCO, andto Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, who initiated me into the subtle mysteries of diplomacy

vii

and persuasion. My special thanks to the members of the World Commission onCulture and Development, among them Keith Griffin and Elizabeth Jelin, and to thestaff of its Secretariat, to Jérôme Bindé, Raj Isar, Jean-Ives Le Saux, GuiomarAlonso, Malick M’Baye and many others.

In the first two weeks after my appointment as Assistant Director General ofUNESCO for Culture, I met more than 200 ambassadors, delegates of memberstates and UNESCO staff members, who offered advice, demanded changes or gaveme instructions, a widening sphere of thinking and action that in fact constitutes aprivilege for any human being to be involved in. Many of them became friends,close professional collaborators, political allies or critics and, through our immer-sion in the world of ideas, politics, diplomacy and programmatic failures andsuccesses, they imprinted in my mind the possibility and the necessity of theHuman Project. When he became Director General of UNESCO, I shared thisvision closely with Kōichirō Matsuura, as well as with other distinguishedUNESCO staff: Francoise Rivière, Katerina Steniou, Ann-Belinda Preis, NorikoAikawa, Isabelle Anatole-Gabrielle, Lyndell Prott, Doudou Diene and countlessothers.

I would not have discovered how to set out in creating new research pathwaysclearly if I had not come into contact with indigenous and migrant women inMexico, nor would I have discovered my history and place in the world were it notfor my feminist friends all around the world. First of all I thank Helen Safa, whosesupport in helping me get started in research was invaluable, as was that of manyother researchers, among them Kate Young, Lourdes Beneria and Carmen DianaDeere. The list of them would be endless so I will only mention those of ourThird-World partnership in Development for Women in a New Era (DAWN)—Devaki Jain, Gita Sen, Newma Aguiar, Magali Pineda and many others.

If I were to mention the institutions that supported my work, the list would alsoexceed these brief acknowledgements. In addition to the National University ofMexico and the Comisión Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología of Mexico, I will onlymention here the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the John G.Guggenheim Foundation, la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, the InternationalLabour Organization, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the Swedish InternationalDevelopment Agency and institutions such as the Library of Alexandria (withthanks to its dynamic director, Ismail Sergeldin).

Special mention must be made of the London School of Economics and PoliticalScience (LSE) in London, where I received a Ph.D. in Ethnology in 1975 under thetutorship of Professor Julian-Pitt-Rivers. Many of my classmates there, among themOlivia Harris, became me lifelong friends and colleagues. My thanks to Dr. DebraWilliams, for my visit at the Department of Anthropology at LSE in the summer termof 2017 which allowed me to continue to use the extraordinary support of theLibrarians at the LSE Library. I was also able to spend a term in 2004 at New YorkUniversity in relation with theKing JuanCarlos fellowship.My thanks for this and fortheir friendship to Professors Kate Stimpson, Renato Rosaldo andMary Louise Pratt.My gratitude also to the University of Manchester for the Honorary Fellowship that

viii Acknowledgements

I held in 2014, thanks to the welcoming hand of John Gledhill and other colleagues inthe anthropology department.

I would also like to mention the deep satisfaction that spurred me on with mytasks as I worked with successive generations of researchers in Mexico, the USA,the UK, France, India, Japan, Senegal, Brazil and Costa Rica. In recent years, it wasthe enthusiasm and conviction of many young anthropologists as they plunged intofieldwork with me that enabled me to experiment with concepts and methodologies—on development, on global environmental change, on migration, on intangiblecultural heritage—while closely exchanging insights with indigenous and localpeople. In particular, I would like to mention Cristina Amescua, as rising star, aswell as Edith Perez, Carolina Buenrostro and Juan Carlos Dominguez, amongothers I would also like to acknowledge the research and revision work carried outby two young scholars, anthropologist Felicity Errington and writer Mariana RoaOliva.

My special thanks also go to the Springer editor of the book, Hans GünterBrauch, whose advice, insightful suggestions and patience followed this book fromits inception. Crystallizing all those exchanges and experiences into a book requiredsustained support in keeping to rigorous argument and consistent explanation, madepossible by the work of editors Hester Higton and Mike Headon.

This book required intellectual input, institutional support and time to write, allresources that are at present continually being undermined by policies geared onlytowards monetary profit. If my writing contributes to keep the memory of suchendeavours, it is proof that international intellectual collaboration will always bepossible, and a necessity, for the Human Project.

Acknowledgements ix

The Complexities of Culture: culture unites humankind yet may be used to affirm particularidentities, to discriminate against others or as a tool to fight back against exclusion. Aztec Dancersreinventing their rituals, at the Chalma Sanctuary of Mesoamerican origin in Mexico. Source Photoby Lourdes Arizpe

Contents

1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.1 Culture: The ‘Dreamcatcher’ of Human Experience . . . . . . . . . 11.2 Finding Patterns in International Transactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31.3 Why Culture? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61.4 “Becoming Enlightened About Relations” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91.5 Defining the ‘Undecidable’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101.6 Culture and International Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121.7 Culture and Globalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141.8 Anthropology and Reflexivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161.9 From Global Environmental Change to the Anthropocene . . . . . 181.10 Culture Makes the Difference Between ‘Life’ and ‘Living’ . . . . 20References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

2 The Politicization of Culture 1947–1995 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272.1 The Second UNESCO General Conference in Mexico City,

1947 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272.2 The Idea of Cultural Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292.3 Culture as a Rational, Critical and Ethical Capacity . . . . . . . . . 302.4 Culture Enters the United Nations Development Agenda . . . . . . 312.5 The Search for a New Vocabulary of Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

2.5.1 The “Clash of Civilizations” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332.5.2 Multiculturalism and Cultural Pluralism . . . . . . . . . . . . 362.5.3 Culture in a Postcolonial World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

2.6 Gender and the Cultural Construction of Identity . . . . . . . . . . . 382.7 An Ethnographic Experience, 1988 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402.8 The Cultural Dimensions of Global Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

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3 Internationalizing Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513.1 Framing the Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523.2 The Commission’s Mandate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543.3 Amending the Lines of Inquiry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553.4 Paris Consultation, March 1993 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

3.4.1 As Democracy Spreads, Does GovernabilityDecline? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

3.4.2 Political Reason Against Tribes and the Market . . . . . . 593.4.3 Culture Is Part of Democracy Since

It Gives Freedom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 593.4.4 Culture as a Double-Edged Sword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 603.4.5 The Loss of Compass in Understanding the World . . . . 61

3.5 Stockholm, June 1993 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 633.5.1 Towards an Agenda 21 for Culture? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 633.5.2 Diversifying the Sources of Funding for Cultural

Programmes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 653.5.3 The Paradox of Cultural Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 663.5.4 European Identity and Multiculturalism . . . . . . . . . . . . 673.5.5 Cultural Rights as Human Rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

3.6 San José, Costa Rica, February 1994 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 703.6.1 Culture, Production and Equity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 703.6.2 Subjectivity and Integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 723.6.3 Confrontations, Reconciliations and Utopias . . . . . . . . 723.6.4 Building a Democratic Multiculturality . . . . . . . . . . . . 733.6.5 A Culture of Violence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 753.6.6 Cultural Policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

3.7 Marshall Sahlins: The Cultural History of ‘Culture’ . . . . . . . . . 773.8 Pressures, Choices and Trade-Offs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

4 Recognizing Cultures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 834.1 Manila, November 1994 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

4.1.1 Is There an Asian Civilization? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 834.1.2 Globalization or Indigenization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 854.1.3 Civil Society, Not Nationalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

4.2 The Arab States, January 1995: How Did the West Becomethe ‘World’? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

4.3 New York, February 1995 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 904.3.1 A Vacuum of Cultural Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 904.3.2 “No Modern Government Can Shape Culture,

Because Culture Shapes It” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 914.3.3 “Multiculturalism Has Become a Legitimation

of Meritocracy” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

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4.3.4 Art, Heritage and Moral Chaos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 944.3.5 The Happy Paradox of the New Technologies:

A Revolution of Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 954.4 Tokyo, 1995: Crossing Ethical and Cultural Thresholds . . . . . . 974.5 The First Draft of the Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 994.6 Pretoria, South Africa, September 1995 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

4.6.1 “A Man Chiselling a Mask in His Backyard” . . . . . . . . 1004.6.2 Kinship Provides Checks and Balances to Ensure

Accountability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1014.6.3 Between Universal Knowledge and Lived

Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

5 Negotiating Cultures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1075.1 The Official Launch Meetings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1085.2 Our Creative Diversity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

5.2.1 Global Ethics and Pluralism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1125.2.2 Creativity and the Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1145.2.3 Women and Children . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1175.2.4 Cultural Heritage, the Environment, Policies

and Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1195.3 The Appraisal of Our Creative Diversity at the UNESCO

Executive Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1205.3.1 “Many Lanterns into the Future” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1205.3.2 Will Culture Become Another Conditionality? . . . . . . . 122

5.4 Santiago de Chile, August 1997: Our Creative Diversity“Gave Me Back My Feelings and My Utopias” . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

5.5 Lillehammer, September 1997: “There Is No Darwinismof Culture” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

5.6 Birmingham, February 1998: The Power to Defineand “Culture as Everyday Life” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

5.7 Response from the French National Commission: The Artistas Central to Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

5.8 In from the Margins: The Report of the Council of Europe . . . . 1285.9 The Stockholm Intergovernmental Conference on Cultural

Policies for Development, 1998 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1305.9.1 “A World Culture Is in the Making” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1325.9.2 The Stockholm Plan of Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

5.10 Freedom to Create . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

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6 Diversifying Cultures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1376.1 Languages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

6.1.1 Linguistic Pluralism: The Zimbabwe Conference . . . . . 1376.1.2 The Debates About Disappearing Languages . . . . . . . . 140

6.2 Economics of Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1426.2.1 Culture Counts: The World Bank Meeting

in Florence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1426.2.2 Culture in a World of Trade: New York University,

2000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1456.3 The Role of the Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

6.3.1 “The Expression of Cultural Diversity Is a Right” . . . . 1476.3.2 “The Idea that Local Voices Be Kept Alive Is not

Opposed to Free Trade” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1486.3.3 “The More We Are Wired, the More We Are Split

Apart” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1496.3.4 “Give People a Choice of What They Want

to See” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1496.3.5 How to Create Winning Conditions for Creators

and Consumers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1506.4 One “World Culture” or a “Global Organization

of Diversities”? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1516.4.1 Regional Debates: “Identities Are not Pacts with Gods

but Negotiations Between Individuals” . . . . . . . . . . . . 1526.4.2 Local Debates: Basque Culture in the Twenty-First

Century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

7 Culture and Conviviability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1597.1 The UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity . . . . 1607.2 The World Culture Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1637.3 The “Dialogue Among Civilizations” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1657.4 Two New International Conventions on Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . 1677.5 Consciousness, Culture or Soul? The Pontifical Academy

of Sciences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1707.6 Culture at the Global Economic Forum, Davos . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1727.7 Cultural Liberty in a Diverse World: The 2004 Human

Development Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1777.8 The Rockefeller Seminar on “The Value of Culture

and Art” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1847.9 “Failed Societies”, 2002–2006 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1877.10 Conviviability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

7.10.1 What Is Conviviability? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1907.10.2 A Different Concept of Human Sociality . . . . . . . . . . . 191

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7.10.3 Culture, the Cosmopolitan Outlook andConviviability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

7.11 Chengdu, 2013: “Historicized Knowledge, Not EmptyForms Floating About” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

7.12 The UNESCO International Decade for the Rapprochementof Cultures (2013–22) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

7.13 Protecting Cultural Heritage in Zones of Armed Conflict:Is a New Framework for Action Needed? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

7.14 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

8 Recasting Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2118.1 Culture in the Scientific Sphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

8.1.1 Rethinking the Cultural . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2158.1.2 A Hyper-Referential Term that Becomes

an Explanation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2178.1.3 Culture in the Context of International Relations . . . . . 2188.1.4 From Culture to Identity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2208.1.5 Culture as an Experimental System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2218.1.6 Culture in the Scientific Co-production

of Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2218.1.7 Culture in the “Web of Life” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222

8.2 Cultural Achievements and Emerging Paradigms . . . . . . . . . . . 2238.3 Culture, Globalization and ‘Planetarisation’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224

8.3.1 Globalization, Time and Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2258.3.2 The Multidirectionality of Cultural Flows . . . . . . . . . . 2268.3.3 Cultural Diversity in Globalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

8.4 Gender and Global Cultural Restructuring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2288.5 Diversity in International Policy Frameworks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2328.6 Culture, Postcolonialism and Imperial Eyes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2378.7 Human Development and the Capabilities Approach . . . . . . . . . 2398.8 Anthropology and Cosmopolitanism: “Spaces of Cultural

Improvisation” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2428.8.1 Reconceptualizing Worlds: Animisms,

‘Planetarisation’ and the Identity of ‘Earthlings’ . . . . . . 2458.9 Resonance, Resilience and the “Social Brain” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2478.10 Cyberculture and Artificial Intelligence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250

8.10.1 “Questions Without Answers” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2518.10.2 “New Connectivities” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2528.10.3 Acting Ethically—Who is Human? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2548.10.4 Memetics: The “Replicator Dynamics” in the “Spread

of Ideas”? or the Threat of “Meme Warfare”? . . . . . . . 256

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8.11 Scales of Cultural Interaction: A Heuristic Proposal . . . . . . . . . 258References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262

9 Culture and the Anthropocene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2679.1 From Human Dimensions of Global Change to the

Anthropocene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2679.1.1 The International Social Science Council Human

Dimensions Programme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2719.2 Defining the Anthropocene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2729.3 When Did the Anthropocene Begin? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2769.4 The Anthropocene as Political Event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279

9.4.1 The Great Acceleration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2819.4.2 The Anthropocene and Narrativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2829.4.3 Cosmopolitics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

9.5 The Anthropocene as a Cultural Event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2849.5.1 Exploring the Anthropocene: The Human,

the Post-human and the Non-human Turn . . . . . . . . . . 2849.5.2 Exploring the Anthropocene: Cultural Evolution . . . . . 2859.5.3 Exploring the Anthropocene: Nature and Culture

Transformed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2869.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289

10 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29310.1 Culture: A Template for Transactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29310.2 International Cultural Politics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29510.3 The Complexities of Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29710.4 Ungrounded Diversity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30010.5 Minds, Memes and Machine Intelligence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30410.6 Ethnography of Transactions: Follow the Rethinking . . . . . . . . 30710.7 Culture as a Template for Global Transactions in the

Anthropocene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30810.8 Pathways to the Future: An Agenda for Living . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30910.9 Living and the Probabilities of Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315

Centro Regional de Investigaciones Multidisciplinarias (CRIM) . . . . . . . 317

About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319

Index on Persons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321

Subject Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

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Abbreviations

AI Artificial IntelligenceAWG Anthropocene Working GroupCEDAW Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against WomenCIRCLE Cultural Information and Research Liaison in EuropeCOP21 21st Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on

Climate ChangeECLAC Economic Commission of Latin America and the CaribbeanGDP Gross Domestic ProductGNP Gross National ProductGPS Global Positioning SystemHDGEC Human Dimensions of Global Environmental ChangeHDR Human Development ReportICAES International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological SciencesICC International Criminal CourtICPHS International Council for Philosophy and Human SciencesICSU International Council of Scientific UnionsIDRC International Decade for the Rapprochement of CulturesIFIAS Institute for International Assistance and SolidarityIGBP International Geosphere-Biosphere ProgrammeIGO Intergovernmental organizationILO International Labour OrganizationIMF International Monetary FundIPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate ChangeISSC International Social Science CouncilIUAES International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological SciencesLAWS Lethal Autonomous Weapons SystemsMAI Multilateral Agreement on InvestmentMDG Millennium Development Goal(s)MPAA Motion Picture Association of AmericaNATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization

xvii

NGO Non-governmental OrganizationOAS Organization of American StatesOAU Organisation of African UnityOECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and DevelopmentR2P Responsibility to ProtectSDG Sustainable Development Goal(s)SID Society for International DevelopmentUNDP United Nations Development ProgrammeUNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural OrganizationUNU United Nations UniversityWCCD World Commission on Culture and Development

xviii Abbreviations