ON TECHNOCULTURES

Felipe P. Jocano Jr.

Department of Anthropology
CSSP, UP Diliman
WHAT IS TECHNOCULTURE ALL ABOUT?

• ….an enquiry into the relationship between

technology and culture and the expression of
that relationship in patterns of social life,
economic structures, politics, art, literature
and popular culture (Shaw 2008).
• ….from the late eighteenth century onwards,
social structures in the developed West have
to be understood as organized according to
the development of new technologies that
changed patterns of work and social life and
influenced cultural institutions and their
expression in art forms like painting,
architecture, dance, drama and literature
(Shaw 2008)
• Technology has always been a part of
humanity’s experience in the world. Tools,
tool-use and tool-making are integral to our
definition of humanity. It is the meanings of
technology and the impact of innovations
upon culture that are the focus here
 BRIEF HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
• Europe 18th-19th centuries – the Industrial
Revolution and the metaphor of the machine
for society
– Superiority of technology as the means for
conquest of new territory and the subjugation of
indigenous peoples
– 19th century – evolution as the lens for describing
the diversity of societies and cultures, in terms of
progress
– Example: Lewis Henry Morgan’s typology of
societies from primitive to barbarian to civilized
– Example: Sigmund Freud’s concept of the
development of personality, using idea of progress
• 20th century – reification of Victorian-era ideas of
progress and evolution in the development of
contemporary technology
– The questioning of these assumptions by the 1960s and
70s, when concerns about the impact on the
environment were being aired in public
– The impact of science and technology on literature –
from new ways of doing literature (printed word to
electronic media) to science and technology as themes in
literature (science fiction, technofantasy, magical realism)
• 21st century: the pervasiveness of electronic
technology and the new spaces created in the
virtual world led to new ways of reimagining
cultural identities, new economic
opportunities (online retail, bitcoin, etc), new
art forms and media (Youtube)
 TECHNOSCIENCE AND POWER
• Science is not always pursued for its own sake, but
mainly because of the value it creates, through the
application (technology).
• Power/knowledge are intimately intertwined with each
other (Foucault)
• Examples:
– Truth claims in advertising: do vitamins whiten your skin when
applied topically? Can you break down fats simply by using a
massage belt? Is one brand of toothpaste better than another
simply because the Philippine Dental Association is supposed
to endorse it?
 NATURE/TECHNOSCIENCE/CULTURE
• Nature as the raw material of science and
technology:
– Scientists as heroes in the advancement of society,
wresting nature’s secrets from her (note the genders)
• Nature as the original state to which we must
return
– Health concerns in a technological society: concerns
about food (processed vs. natural or whole) wellness
(exercise more, walk more) mental health (relax,
meditate)
 TECHNOBODIES
• The disciplining of the body (Foucault) in
accordance with ideas of appropriate health and
fitness, gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity
– The medical exam (welcome to UP!)
– Fitness and strength as spectacle – moving bodies
within the gym, triathlon events, the Olympic
– Uniforms and uniformity
– Why do you want to go to Wakanda? (Team
Mingmingming vs Team Swswswsw)
– Valorizing the Badjao Girl and the Igorot Man
 TECHNOSPACES
• Outer space as the new frontier: metaphors of
conquest and control
– For global North nations: control of space = superiority
and dominance
– For global South: the possibilities of development
• Reimagining physical spaces: technologies that allow
new visions of physical spaces: GPS, infrared
imaging, radar imaging
• Cyberspace: the simultaneous world alongside the
everyday physical world that we live in.
 TECHNOAESTHETICS
• New technologies used in production of
popular art and culture are at times
indistinguishable from propaganda
– Whitening and brownening the heroes of movies
• New technologies = new art forms