http://kenan.ethics.duke.edu/uprooted-rerouted/reports/nepal-catotti.html
Variation and modification of culture happens to social groups over time and networked geographies to create versions of 'reality'. Social group's network to construct a collective identity by orientating towards others who share values, histories and meaning via various modes of communication, thereby interacting to support the group's interests.
Diaspora are migrant minorities who maintain sentimental and/or material links with native land (Sheffer, 1986). Identities are maintained through recreated community storytelling, myths, symbols and memorialisations that map through social group's journeys and histories (Kuttainen, 2015).
Facebook may be considered a virtual diaspora because it is a drift to a 'virtual' narrative as a form of 'social order'. Identity can be imagined through community pages, which link profiles to other people or groups who have common goals and interests via opting in/out of connections and controlling visibilty through privacy settings - a virtual geography of connections and interactions.
These 'people' diaspora share common themes as networked narratives can create collective memories, visions or myths about a 'real' or 'imagined' place of meaning. This cultural product continually redefines shared heritage and identity. These stories are past-orientated and constructed together. From the 1860s, the Italian diaspora in North Queensland has a chequered history of ratial conflict and hatred, described as 'white' aliens and 'Mediterranean' scum invading sugar plantations. However, from the 1970s Italianness experienced a renaissance, and Ingham's annual Australian-Italian Festival is iconicised. It is a celebration of all things Italian, food, song, dance and parades.
A virtual constructed identity is the Jamaican Rastafarian Movement which began in the 1930s as a religious movement, worshipping Haile Salassie I, as emperor of Ethiopia. Rastafarians saw themselves as exiled in Babylon (Jamaica) and wished to return to Zion (Africa). This 'imagined' movement seem to provide those a utopic universe of symbols, beliefs including the interconnectiveness of everything. I wonder if Rasta theme is black magic and sorcery for the gullible, as the entire concept and dialogue seems preposterous. Was Rasta a former morphology of posthumanism?
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/tEOg0D8j2Z8/hqdefault.jpg
References
Ma Mung, E., (2005). Diaspora, spatiality, identities. Bilbao, Spain: University of Deuso.
Kuttainen, V., (2015). Our space: Networks, narratives, and the making of place. Lecure 5: People Networks. Retrieved from [PowerPoint slides] https://learnjcu/jcu.edu.au
Images
http://kenan.ethics.duke.edu/uprooted-rerouted/reports/nepal-catotti.html
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/tEOg0D8j2Z8/hqdefault.jpg
The two main features that characterize diasporas include a source of origin(a location from which groups of people have dispersed from), and real or imagined links between individuals with each other and their homeland. I agree that an individual would be able to form links with other individuals, whether they are real or imagined. However, what location or space are people leaving to enter the social network? I’m not sure Facebook itself is a diaspora. It seems much more likely that Facebook facilitates communication between members of diasporas.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to the Rastafarian movement I’m not sure it is entirely accurate to define them as a virtual identity, that is my opinion though. Do you mean to say an artificial identity? I don’t necessarily disagree with the other points you make.
References:
Van Luyn, A. (2015). BA1002: Our Space: networks, narrative, and the making of place week 7 notes[powerpoint slides]. Retrieved from https://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au
While Diasporas before the rise of social media sites, may have allowed groups of dispersed peoples to create their own myths and stories. In the 21st century the internet and the increased connectivity means that the world is a much more real place then it was a few hundred years ago. Meaning that the internet now prevents people from finding a perfect haven for them to settle down as they have much more information available for them to find out exactly what they’d be getting into by travelling that a new continent or country. The result is that large cultural groups of dispersed people still exposed to social media and the internet struggle to imagine anything but the harsh realities they are exposed to.
ReplyDeleteReference
VOA,. (2015). EU Citizens Rally on Social Media to House Refugees. Retrieved 21 September 2015, from http://www.voanews.com/content/eu-citizens-rally-on-social-media-to-house-refugees/2946842.html