Avatar: The Last air Bender in America

Topic: Globalization/Localization (Because we know they work together!)

Source:  My observation was conducted and continues to be every time I turn on one of my favorite Nickelodeon shows, Avatar: The Last Air Bender. On February 20^th 2012, I decided to take a deeper look into my favorite show the Avatar, the episodes are about 20 minutes long and I had watched about an hour’s worth that night, about  three chapters of the series.

Relation:  The Avatar is set in an Asian influenced world, where Chinese mythology is altered for the enjoyment of American entertainment, specifically the audience of children.  In our Wednesday lecture when we covered the ideas of Globalization, Anthropologist Arjun Appadurai proposed the idea that globalization is the flow or exchange of cultural forms across landscapes. Appadurai said that this is done through various carries, such as technology, finances, media, ideologies, and religion. In this case, the certain carrier is the media.

Description: Avatar: The Last Airbender is an American animated television series that aired for three seasons on Nickelodeon from 2005 to 2008. The series was created and produced by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko. Avatar is set in an Asian-influenced world where some of the characters are able to manipulate the classical elements by use of psychokinetic variants of Chinese martial arts known as "bending." The show combined the styles of Chinese anime and American cartoons, and relied heavily upon various images from East-Asian, Inuit, and South-American societies. During week six we focused on globalization and localization and I wanted to use that knowledge while watching one of my favorite T.V Shows.  As I watched the Avatar and its character I wanted to first see how they were portrayed with an American lens. In the episode from book two, I watched the behaviors of the characters where honesty and loyalty was above all the most important quality in a character. When reading into the history of Chinese mythology, being honest and loyal are also important. So while the characters attitudes are still consistent, how the media localized this show is very apparent. This is mainly shown through the language used by the characters.  The characters often use words like, “stupid”, “dumb” and for the funny moments, “check it!”  These words and expressions not well known, if at all, to the old Chinese mythology.  While in the past times of the Chinese mythology, women carried no rights to “bending”, the female characters were allowed to practice bending. In one of the episodes Kutara, a water bender, arrived to a town where women were not allowed to use water bending unless it was for the use of medicine and healing.  Kutara challenged this law and in the end was able to practice her bending for fighting showing how in American Television women were allowed to challenge ideas and fight, which we know from American history that that was not always the case.

Commentary/Analysis: During week six we focused on Globalization and Localization, and a lot of the readings talked about this topic as well, like Hip-Hop in Japan.  I enjoyed the topic and wanted to view Avatar in that way. The more and more and watched episode after episode, I noticed that they all kept the mythology ideas, the spirit world, and bending but it was just how the characters portrayed the Chinese ideas. That is what Localization is, where we have Globalization happening carried over through the media. The media takes the general culture, pictures, clothing, and traits, generally the ideas that made up the Chinese Mythology. These ideas are then transcended into more Americanized ideas, what we make different to fit the views of the American audience. I don’t know if I would have enjoyed Avatar as much if it wasn’t transitioned over into a more American version. Localization allows countries to use other ideas from around the globe and to make it into something the people of that country or time can enjoy.

Whats in your Closet?

Topic: Material Culture

Source: Observations conducted in Arcata, California in various locations within the city. I started by taking a look into my closet as well as one of my friend’s closet, while also looking in women’s magazines. I also analyzed one of my recent trips to the Bayshore Mall in Eureka, California.  I recalled the information from this trip to allow me recognizes how Americans view on clothing and we are built around having so many material items in our possession

Relation: Observing the clothing in itself, and how it is portrayed and sold to us consumers. In the Robbins text on page 18 and 19 is an article, “Anthropology at the Mall”, where behavior is observed by the shoppers. How the stores present a product and increase or decrease it selling rate. The various stores, Victoria Secret, Rue 21, Wet Seal, and even my Women’s Health magazine all have similar styles in which they portray their clothing. Understanding why we buy the clothing we do, can better help us understand why it is we rely so many material things, in this case, clothing.

Description: When I began rummaging through my closet, the first thing I noticed was color, and this stands true to my friend’s closet. I remember walking into Wet Seal and seeing this vast categorized color section. In one corner they have clothing surrounded around the color blue, another pink, and for the consumers awed by animal print, a cheetah print section. The store was greatly brightened with white backgrounds, allowing the clothing to paint the walls with its color. To my surprise this does not stand true with both Victoria Secret and Rue 21. These two stores have bright energetic colors on the walls and also both carry a clear separation between which sides the consumer would belong on. In Rue 21, there is a clear separation from the male and female side. The male side of the store is painted deep blue whereas the girl’s side is painted with more lively colors. Victoria Secret separates their consumers experience by not your gender but your age, which even allow their consumers separate entrances. On the left side is for women who are past their teen years and this is shown with the deeper red, pink and deep black shelving, showing a more mature presentation. Where on the other hand, bright pink, yellows and white shelving is directed towards a more younger crowd.  Once I was able to recall this shopping experience I began noticing a pattern from the clothing that hanged in my closet to the clothing on all the racks at the stores. The quantity of the clothing, within my closet I had many of the same style shirts but just in various colors, such as a simple V-neck, I had one in white, black and red. While rustling through my friend’s closet she had much of the same idea of clothing, same style different colors. My friend and I’s closet of recently bought clothing had the current “in” style, which was either semi see through shirts or half cut off shits . The clothing that we purchased allowed us to showcase our wealth because we were wearing clothes of the right fashion at the right time. We are able to present that our shirts and pants showcase our wealth. Those two categories of shirts were presented in various parts of the magazine, indicating that these styles are what’s “in” at the moment and the shopping centers such as the ones at the Bayshore mall help reinforce that style.

Commentary/Analysis: The way in which all of these stores and magazines all directed its sells in a directions and attitude that clothing is plentiful. We buy more than we need because of its targeted sale to its consumers. By having the clothing illuminated by the lighting at Wet Seal, draws in its buyers, like me, to make a purchase. One of the biggest thing all companies have done, from clothing to IPods, is come out with something better, to have that product continually sell. Like in my case, a specific skirt is made only in one style until they come out with a new line that may have added a zipper for example replacing the button, simple consumer steady buying ritual. Are wealth is many times promoted through our clothing, if we are dressed nice, and age and sex appropriate we are looked at differently by others in our society. So my friend and I have clothing in our closet that may not even represent who we are, but how we unconsciously believe we should represent ourselves. With the idea of material wealth, clothing does not seem to be in short supply of either the stores or the closet.  The magazines allow those bargain shoppers to still have a closet of shopaholic, and stores with their displays allow it to become more than accessible. By simply dissecting the bits and pieces of how clothing is portrayed and how it is illuminated by magazines and venders, you’re able to recognize how our wealth as a society is primarily based on our material things we posses.