Gerhard: This episode focused on Australia,
a modern postcolonial settler society, which
means a society that is based on the colonization
of a piece of land by settlers with the support
of an empire at the outset to take control
of the new piece of land. It is postcolonial,
as this encounter between settler and indigenous
is being reevaluated and engaged more critically
today.
Racism is intimately tied to this experience,
as well as to more recent migration movements
that have brought people with different beliefs,
cultures, and looks to Australia. We cover
the impact migration has had and is having
on this society, especially at a time when
people movements, as well as the movement
of things—that's goods—and ideas has accelerated.
Multiculturalism has become a buzzword to
describe the cultural and ethnic diversity
we now inhabit. However, as Ghassan Hage has
made clear, we cannot just tolerate others,
as this retains power structures of us and
them and a mainstream that has to be assimilated
towards. It's important to navigate or negotiate
the muddy waters of difference to come up
with better ways of living with each, rather
than merely tolerating one another.
As more and more diverse people belong to
the remnant from centuries past—that's the
nation—and it's modern form—the nation
state—we have to reevaluate what it means
to belong together and how we can all fit
into the nation state as equal citizens with
such a diversity of opinion, worldview, cultural,
and ethnic background.
As anthropologists, we can describe the various
ways people fit in, extend the scope of the
nation and nationalism, or reject some people
from their place within it. We're also in
a position to bring novel ideas to the table,
as we have a wealth of studies that show how
people have lived in the past or are living
at present in radically different ways.
Put simply, anthropology opens the door to
other ways of being, and that is incredibly
important at a time when we're saturated with
a media imagery that pretends that we're all
living the same lives in terms of our consumption
habits. Think of all the all-pervasive Western
fast food; the form of politics, usually some
form of democracy; and the economy we inhabit.
Think of capitalism.
Anthropology's message here is that another
world is possible. Why? Because they're already
out there.
