Art, Nature, and Religion in the Central Andes: Themes and Variations from Prehistory to the Present

Chapter 4. Globalization Today

The second great variation this book considers is that of the modern period from the mid-twentieth century to the first decade of the twentyfirst century. This was a time of profound change among Andeans. Peru shifted from being a primarily rural to an urbanizing country. Most ruralto -urban migrants have Indigenous cultural background. Many Andeans also migrate to other countries in search of employment and have now established expatriate communities in a number of foreign lands. Technology , particularly in the area of telecommunications, changed Andeans’ perceptions of their world in a fundamental way. Globalization of trade, agriculture, industry—in short, every human product and behavior— painted an entirely new portrait of life’s realities and possibilities. The Spanish Baroque, with its dynamic movement, brilliant colors, horror vacui (designs that fill all available space with images and forms), love of the grand gesture, and cast-of-thousands theatricality has much in common with mass visual communication systems of the present millennium.The way these communication systems capture as well as limit the public imagination is also similar.Artists continue to make use of tactics like disjunction,inversion,and dual subjectivity to assert their own pride in cultural identity even within the maelstrom now known as globalization. This chapter presents information about recent large-scale social changes in Peru brought about by internal and international migration, the activities Chapter 4 Globalization Today 130-162 strong_CH4.indd 130 2/6/12 11:20:06 AM Globalization Today 131 of the Shining Path,urban squatter movements,the great influence of mass media, and other contemporary realities. There will be a discussion about how changes like these influence the arts and a section about the promotion and sale of Andean folk arts locally, globally, and over the Internet. A World Perspective The contemporary global age in Peru resembles the first one discussed here, the Spanish colonial era, in several ways. The actors are different in that the cultures in contact have evolved over time,and many more groups than two now confront one another in popular religious art expression. However, what remains the same is that there are similarities between contemporary times and the intensely public Baroque-inspired style of the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries and the effects of mass media and the world consumerism engines of today. In the popular mind in places in the world including Latin America, the idea of globalization often means a system that benefits the rich of the world. There are various alternatives for the poor such as socialism, the promotion of local industries and micro-enterprises, ATOs (alternative trade organizations ), and the like. Some of the major globalization theorists would very much agree that it is a system that benefits the rich and further exploits the poor.Notable among these is Manuel Castells.On the other side of the fence are theorists like Hernando de Soto who assert that contemporary global systems, if left untrammeled within free-market forces, will prove to be the salvation for all, rich and poor. For Andean art makers, globalization means that their hand-produced traditional styles and products are copied more cheaply by low-wage workers using inexpensive man-made materials and in much greater volume in modern factories located on other continents. It means that the internationally focused middlemen are more interested in quantity and low price than in quality. As a result, many artists produce shoddy work to keep afloat economically. It means that children in art-making families must seek other than traditional ways of making a living. These and many more difficulties and conundrums face Andean artists today. The world economic collapse of 2008 calls some of these global economic tendencies into question and so gives credence to the wisdom offered by Andean artists regarding their own contemporary situations and solutions for problems they encounter. 130-162 strong_CH4.indd 131 2/6/12 11:20:06 AM 132 Variations Analysts of Globalization Manuel Castells has produced several volumes about the phenomenon of contemporary globalization.Before analyzing his point of view in contrast to that of other experts, it is useful to employ his description of the nature of this contemporary age as a baseline. Castells contends that an entirely new form of socioeconomic organization has now emerged. The state as an entity lost prominence with the collapse of the Soviet Union. For the first time, the entire globe is within the capitalist system. This form...