LAS 470 Homework and Reflections

Banana Wars The authors place the regional nature of the banana trade on a spectrum categorized by size. Caribbean farms were by far the smallest; they were the most reliant on “small growers” and “household labor,” and they were the most susceptible to changes in weather, crop production and international market demand. South American farms, particularly in Colombia and Ecuador, lie somewhere in between Caribbean and Central American models of production. There, “domestic capitalists” controlled most of the production rather than multi-national corporations like UFCO, which directly controlled much of the manufacturing in Central America. Due to shipping failures of Minor Keith and other US companies to export bananas to Europe, European powers gained a market share in the Caribbean and began their own production. US production centered in Central America in the early 1900s, but moved to South America in the 1930s and 40s due to battles with “agricultural disease, labor problems, an...

Galeano's historical synopsis of the colonial encounter examines the effects of the desire for wealth and prestige on religious, political, and economic exploits in the New World. These exploits began in 1492 in a world contextualized by anti-Semitic tendencies, increasing religious expansionism and political volatility propagated by the new ideas of the Renaissance. The increase in Spanish exploration at the turn of the 1500s coincided with the desire for domestic religious purity; namely, the hegemony of Catholicism. Galeano notes in 1492 150,000 Jews were expelled from the country. This period also witnessed the expulsion of the Muslim element through war and inquisition. This model of conquest was exported to the New World, and was aided by distinct advantages in technology and religious piety (on the part of the Native tribes) which allowed the conniving Conquistadores to take advantage of foreign traditions and destroy pre-colonial society. The greatest aid, however, was undo...

Lury provides a fresh take on the impact of material goods in developing, perpetuating and changing cultural norms. The increasing culture of consumerism has coincided, she notes, with the development of a decidedly post-modern cultural framework that impacts the way we consume the world around us. The revolutionary idea is that consumption, like matter, in Lury’s definition, isn’t created or destroyed, but it appropriates and transforms it’s environment. Like salt mixing in a bowl of water, it changes the composition of the solution while retaining some recognized qualities. Lury also coins a new phrase, immaterial culture, that accounts for products birthed by physical or intellectual labor. Such products resist consumption in the traditional sense because they are organically produced, and they are not used up. They can also be self-perpetuating. An interesting point about consumer culture is its indirect relationship to poverty. Unlike consumption, which is govern...