Modernization and Indigenous Cultures

Looking to modernization and indigenous cultures it is first important to understand what each of these words/ phrases means. Sociology is a science of people, or what some scientists refer to as a soft science, based in strong theories and fluid opinions much of the time. As a result, it is important to understand that while much of what is being taught and talked about in the following paper is based on previous scholars work, and some statistical referencing, it is still in a large part opinion. Modernization is the change of a specific culture from farming, agricultural based society to an industrialized one. Modernization occurred in Western Europe and North America during the 18^th and 19^th centuries and has spread to Eastern European nations as well as many Asian nations since that time. Modernization includes the view that over time, every society evolves into something greater, and as time goes on that change would allow the wealthier states to enjoy a greater freedom and understanding of the world around them. Indigenous is defined as the following "having originated in and being produced, growing, living, or occurring naturally in a particular region or environment" by the Merriam Webster dictionary. Culture is defined as several things however, it can be generalized as what a people/race/ or social group does. Therefore, an indigenous culture may be looked at as a culture that is not far removed from their origins. In the following paper, we will be looking at how the surroundings of an indigenous culture are different from that of a modernized culture. We will evaluate whether one is better than the other is or whether it just is.

When we look to modernization, a prime example of that is the urbanization we see as a result. As a direct result of this, we have seen massive cities growing up practically over night. While in a more primitive cultures people remain in much smaller groups and coexist over a much larger amount of space. Modern man has seen massive population growth, which in turn has produced an increase in pollution, crime, and even religions. Smaller more remote cultures tend to live in a more coexistent way with their environment. They may burn wood, hunt animals until they become scarce, and possibly change entire habitats as a direct result of their influence. However, when these much smaller indigenous groups began to see reductions in their surroundings they tend to move to the next location. Now obviously not all indigenous societies may do this but many do. Massively industrialized nations become far less mobile and in fact must discover methods of recovering or reusing the land they do inhabit versus indigenous species of man and their ability to adapt and change. Mobility is a large problem in some areas based on farming practices; however, the use of crop rotation has effectively reduced the problems to be almost non-existent.

One particular point of interest concerning the potential overuse of the earth's resources is the predicted shortfalls in fossil fuel production. There is no current set date as to this occurring however; fossil fuels are a non-renewable source of energy. Non-Renewing may defined as anything that has the potential to be finite. Technology has given us many wonderful things and has lengthened the average lifespan considerably, while at the same time potentially becoming a catalyst in the eventual cessation of human life, as we know it based on many variables. Indigenous humans have the ability to work around such shortfalls by one of two methods.

They do not use fossil fuels as we do, and in fact in many cases do not use them at all.

Steady continuous movement keeps their environments refreshed and renewed.

Even when an indigenous society overused one portion of their environment, they were able to move to the next place and begin over again. In the United States, alone we see the following, "Fossil fuels - coal, oil, and natural gas -- currently provide more than 85% of all the energy consumed in the United States, nearly two-thirds of our electricity, and virtually all of our transportation fuels." (U.S. Department of Energy, 2008) This is a huge amount of reliance on an un-sustainable and non-renewable resource. While our country is currently going through massive changes concerning this usage, we still have quite a ways to go. According to (U.S. Department of Energy, 2008) "Moreover, it is likely that the nation's reliance on fossil fuels to power an expanding economy will actually increase over at least the next two decades even with aggressive development and deployment of new renewable and nuclear technologies." With more hard work and focused energy put into the right areas, we could see massive improvements on the energy side of things. Even though we use far more energy and as a direct result slough off more pollutants it should be noted that we are far more comfortable than many indigenous societies, as well as having a better prospect concerning a longer life span.

Modernized man has seen fit to extend the lives of all its citizens regardless of ability, whereas in many indigenous cultures one will see higher rates of infanticide, while this does not necessarily mean they are outright killing these infants so much as they are not given the same "care" we see in the modernized world. According to Tomashek, K., Qin, C., Hsia, J., Iyasu, S., Barfield, W., & Rowers, L. (2006, December) "Results, Birth weight-specific infant mortality rates declined among American Indian / Alaskan Native and White infants across all birth weight categories, but American Indian / Alaskan Native infants generally had higher birth weight-specific infant mortality rates. Infant mortality rates declined for both groups, yet in 1998-2000, American Indian / Alaskan Native infants were still 1,7 times more likely to die than White infants. Most of the disparity was because of elevated post neonatal mortality, especially from sudden infant death syndrome, accidents, and pneumonia and influenza." These are treatable diseases and causes as in the United States proper these are not nearly as high causatively. It could be argued that the American Indian / Alaskan Native are not necessarily indigenous however, due to their being somewhat isolated from normal North American society they are indigenous simply in that many of them have a culture that is not far removed from its origins. By simply looking at the differences in lifestyles, we can see the benefits that each has to offer, however also there is a direct correlation to life spans and health during that life as well.

Population could be affected by ill health as well as many other factors, with indigenous societies they tend to have smaller numbers and form much smaller groups. Modernized societies have gravitated towards massive cities populated with (in some cases) tens of millions of people. Tokyo, Japan has over 25,000,000 people and New York has over 15,000,000 people these are just two of the major urban metropolises across the world. In older cultures, and indigenous societies we did see cities however, not nearly as large in numbers as the ones we have currently. Population numbers have climbed exponentially across the globe, According to (Bradley, 2009) "In the last 200,000 years or so, humans have vaulted from being just one edible ape on the African savanna to being a species with both the power to disrupt virtually every ecosystem on Earth and the intellect to realize we are doing it. Today there is more than 6 billion people on Earth, and the United Nations expects that number to rise to around 9 billion by the middle of the twenty-first century." What has been noticed is that the more undeveloped regions of the world tend to have a much higher rise in population at a faster rate than more technologically advanced societies. There are many reasons for this to exist; I tend to believe that this is more a result of modernized humans getting back to what kept them aggressive and allowed for the ability to survive the hunting and foraging of the ancient world. This "spirit" has become necessary again to move ahead in the corporate world; as a result, I feel that in highly industrialized society's births is less due to the focus of life being on more than just reproduction. Of course, we also have a reduced need for additional help in working, farming, hunting etc. whereas in a less industrialized society you may see that the need is a causative factor in more births. This of course leads us to the ability of the indigenous and modernized society's ability to produce a viable economic standing.

Industrialized societies produce mass quantities of marketable goods while consuming even larger quantities of raw goods to produce these. Indigenous societies may not produce marketable goods on the same scale though they can be very involved in the production of raw goods. Property is based in more than just the land you live on within the boundaries of the modernized society; it can be your stock holdings, vehicles, clothing, and other items that are seen as having value. While in the boundaries of an Indigenous society one could simply have the clothes on their back or the land they live on. It is important to understand that while it may seem that many indigenous societies are backwards in comparison they are in effect very complex in nature. According to Galbraith, Rodriguez and Stiles, 2006 "One of the most commonly repeated false myths, often put into the context of land ownership, is that indigenous populations historically did not view property as private or that they shared communally the various factors of economic development (Mika, 1995; Johansen, 1999). There is little historical basis for this myth." Property is owned and traded among both modernized societies as well as indigenous societies.

What we can infer from this paper is that both indigenous and modernized societies have drawbacks, though both also have their draws. It is my opinion that we do not necessarily need to attempt to change everyone to approaching things from a modern mindset so much as learning to adapt better with who and what makes up our surroundings. Time will eventually discard those that cannot change with the times. One of my favorite Sociology authors stated the following, "The miracle of man is not how far he has sunk but how magnificently he has risen. We are known among the stars by our poems, not our corpses. No creature who began as a mathematical improbability, who was selected through millions of years of unprecedented environmental hardship and change for ruggedness, ruthlessness, cunning, and adaptability, and who in the short ten thousand years of what we may call civilization has achieved such wonders as we find about us, may be regarded as a creature without promise." (Ardrey, Robert 2006)