FREE ESSAY ON CULTURAL ACTIVISM

CULTURAL ACTIVISM

In our society we have the convenience of technology--computers, television (the media,
film, and video), and other means of communication with the general public. Our society
has developed ways to convey ideas and beliefs through the use of technology. In other
parts of the world, there are still some societies that are not aware of this technology
that our society embraces. However, the growth of technology will soon reach and combine
with traditional cultural societies.
In Faye Ginsburg's article From Little Things, Big Things Grow, she argues that these
latest products of indigenous expressive culture are part of self-conscious efforts to
sustain and transform culture in aboriginal communities, an activity that is linked to
indigenous efforts for rights to self-representation, governance, and cultural autonomy
after centuries of colonial assimilationist policies by surrounding states. It is
important for a culture to sustain its beliefs and not to completely be assimilated into
Western culture. However, by the use of the media, we as a society are able to better
understand those of different cultural backgrounds and are able to see what other
cultures, besides our own, are like.
Ginsburg also states, I suggest that indigenous media work is significant not simply as a
transformation of Western technologies, but also as a new form of collective
self-production that is being used self-consciously by indigenous producers to mediate
historical ruptures within their own cultures and to assert 
the presence and concerns of First Nations peoples in the broader societies that
encompass them. By introducing media technology to other cultures, those cultures, in
turn, are able to use the technology and fuse it in with their traditional beliefs. Also,
these cultures are able to bring forth issues that occurring in their societies that need
to be addressed and made known to others. Technology makes for better communication, and
with this communication these cultures can reach other cultures besides their own. 
Through the use of technology (the media), we can better understand the histories of many
cultures and the ways of life of in other societies. ....The very creation of media work
that both reflects and revisions their lives and histories is a kind of self-conscious
and direct social action that establishes and reinforces the visible cultural presence of
indigenous lives in a form that can circulate in and among many communities (Ginsberg,
121). The use of the media can reveal growing issues in communities and portray the lives
of people in many cultures. Therefore, turning the media into a global application and a
window into the customs of other cultures. 
They (indigenous producers) see the capabilities of visual media to transcend boundaries
of time, space, and even language can be used in part to transform historically produced
social ruptures by renarrating , from their perspective, the relationships between
indigenous histories and cultures and the encompassing societies in which they live
(Ginsberg, 123). The media is able to surpass the obstacles of time, space and language.
Americans can watch a documetary on the Aztecs and be able to understand their culture
because it is 
spoken in English. The same documentary can be seen in another part of the world, for
example Japan, is able to understand the history because it is in Japanese and we can
both relate to the same documentary since it was shown in our native languages. Even
though Japan is on the other side of the globe, the same information can be transmitted
because of the media. We can learn more about a particular culture, such as the life of
the ancient Egyptians and the history of ancient Egypt, even though a great amount of
time has passed since the great pyramids have been built.
In conclusion, the media is a tool in which can bring societies together. It makes for
better understanding of different cultures and societies. More and more the assimilation
of technology into different cultures enable the rest of the world to understand
different societies than their own. If societies continue to adopt the media into their
way of life, then other societies and communities will also accept the media and
therefore circulate this phenomenon to other societies in different parts of the world.
Bibliography
Bibliograpy
Ginsberg, F. From Big Things, Little Things Grow.