Warren Buffet once again World's Richest Man

In the slide show last week, Warren Buffett appears eating Dairy Queen ice cream (which he owns). Veronica knew of Buffett but made a comment about his image that reflects what I was sort of after with the slide show--multiple interpretations of culture. Remember interpretative ethnography? See Chapter 2 of Kottak.

Just read an article about Bill Gates no longer being the richest man in the world. In the article Buffett is revealed as a BIG MAN:

In October, Buffett issued a challenge to members of the Forbes 400 richest Americans list, saying he would donate $1 million to charity if the collective group (or a significant number of them) would admit they pay less taxes, as a percentage of income, than their secretaries.

Days after issuing the challenge, Buffett appeared before Congress to encourage it to keep the estate tax. Armed with a few Forbes 400 issues, he told the hearing that "dynastic wealth, the enemy of a meritocracy, is on the rise."

Kottak defines big man Figure often found among tribal horticulturalists and pastoralists. The big man occupies no office but creates his reputation through entrepreneurship and generosity to others. Neither his wealth nor his position passes to his heirs. p. 114 (5th ed.)

MODERN TRIBALISM (Chap 7 Political Systems)

TRIBALISM IN OUR MODERN WORLD:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5XusQuHiJE
When reading the chapter on political systems we realized that the word “tribe” is not a word of past but is still present in our modern society. In the tribal system there were “village heads” and “big men,” who had control over the population but didn’t have the authority to enforce rules. The village head and the big man are still present in our society. Men of wealth who demonstrate hard work and potential become leaders in our modern society. Often these people aspire masses by their intellect, actions, but most importantly their wealth. The big men of our modern society could be the owners of corporations that control the world and influence the political decisions. These people posses a great amount of wealth that allows them to use it to lobby the politicians and create changes in the system that benefit them.

Here is a short video about this:
WHO OWNS AMERICA?
In this video George Carlin talks about politics and the effect of "big men" - the “owners” of America on our society. In this case the big men are the corporation owners who influence the politics and basically run the country even though they are not put in power by people.
http://www.youtube.com/v/9KVTfcAyYGg

How is tribal culture still present in our society? We can see the evidence of modern tribalism in our culture every day. People often try to differentiate themselves from one another and they form groups that share similarities with the old tribes that existed in the past. An example of this would be the street gangs. In such gang there is always a leader who is respected by the gang members. This gang leader would be a modern type of a village head. We all in some way participate in some kind of a tribal life.

MODERN TRIBALISAM
This short clip illustrates the importance tribalism in our modern world.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5XusQuHiJE

Greatest force in nations, markets, business: TRIBALISM
http://www.youtube.com/v/HzKOu0UKCL4

What is the reason that people start to come back to tribalism? Many believe that the reason for the rediscovery of tribalism is descending in education and cultural intelligence. People lose the connection with the world and what is happening around them, they become apathetic and try to find their way through life in some kind of modern tribalism. What do you think about this? Is it necessarily a bad thing?

Questions to consider for this chapter:
Has the mankind start descending back to tribalism because of decline in education and cultural intelligence?

Is tribalism still prevalent in our modern lives? How is tribal life in the past similar to the life in our today’s society?

Political Systems - Boxer Muhammad Ali & Comedian George Carlin resist the Big Men

This segment of a 2007 ESPN documentary video about Muhammad Ali brings the issues in Chap 7 of the Kottak into the present.

"Ali's 65" debuts Jan. 3, 2007 on ESPN
Ali's 65, produced by Televersemedia, a Stamford, Connecticut production company, is a one-hour special that will explore the impact and true meaning of Muhammad Ali's life, exploring why there had never been an athlete like Ali before and why there will likely never be anyone like him again. Ali's 65 captures never before told stories of "The Greatest" from Spike Lee, George Foreman, Lennox Lewis, Ali's brother Rahman Ali, and in his final interview, Ed Bradley. For more information, please visit www.televersemedia.com

The 2:30 section shared a great video remix of a George Carlin's HBO Special called 'This Life is Worth Losing'.



Wikipedia's biography of Carlin states:

Grammy-winning American stand-up comedian, actor, and author.

Carlin is especially noted for his political and black humor and his observations on language, psychology, and religion along with many taboo subjects. In fact, Carlin and his "Seven Dirty Words" comedy routine were central to the 1978 U.S. Supreme Court case F.C.C. v. Pacifica Foundation, in which a narrow 5-4 decision by the justices affirmed the government's right to regulate Carlin's act on the public airwaves.

A good cultural anthropologist, an ethnographer who does their job well, always does a "background check" so to speak, on things they present publicly. I request we all be good ethnographers and do our scholarly homework on anything we present to the class and briefly contextualize the facts (For instance, "This is a YouTube video remix of comedian George Carlin, known for his black humor, speaking about the "Big Men" of corporate America"....etc.)

Here is the remix of a segment from his HBO special shown with graphics signifying all the corporate brands of the "owners of America" -- the BIG MEN. Great example of how the polities described in the chapter are present in our state polity.

The group in the 2:30 section will post their videos soon. Prof. G