Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Asante & Afrocentric Criticism

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2 comments:

sean ottosen said...

Molefi Asante - "An Afrocentric Communication Theory"
First words: “I am concerned with nothing less than human maturity.”
A crisis in the field of social sciences? Depends on your faith in the system. However, for those that don’t believe in it, difficulties emerge (of course).

“…we must demonstrate a more righteous way to explore human issues. It is therefore, the purpose of this present enterprise to present a clarifying portrayal of human beings, in the generic sense, as they exist in contemporary society” (552).

Social science is rooted in materialism. Material consciousness led to the compartmentalization of social sciences into various other fields (sociology, psychology, economics, political science….). These have had a stronghold over human studies.

18th century: the discovery of “society.” Ironic, due to the fact that organized groups of people have existed for…well…as long as there have been people.

The emergence of the “free” (white European) societal “man.” Scholars attested to this freedom, though many of them held indentured servants or slaves. The term “society” held two meanings: Eurocentric (stick the word “high” in front of it) and The Others. This ambiguity informed academia a great deal.

“Social science cannot be separated from political science, but neither can it be separated from communication, either as art or science. Indeed the very gluon of society is communication” (553).

[page 554] COMMUNICATION CHARACTERISTICS: 1. A systematic understanding of human interaction across cultures is basic to an effective critique of societies. 2. The potential of human communication resides in the creative development of personality. 3. Communication is itself the new social environment. 4. A social situation that distorts human development is illegitimate. 5. The communication person is holistic.

Informed by Afrocentric scholarship (Appiah and Nhiwatiwa): The Okyeame, neither state nor people, functions as an integrator of both. Communication, the source and end of interaction, creativity and collective production, holds the society together (reiterates "holistic" and adds "personalism").

The social science model, characterized by fragmentation and particularization is incapable of this, in part because communication is not at its core. Studies are focused on a specific topic, or one part of a whole discipline, a specialty. "Unfortunately this means that you probably know very little about the nature of humankind" (555). The Afrocentric attempt must locate the proper place for integrative knowledge and then position ("enthrone") the communication person here.

NATURE OF HUMAN BEINGS: What is lacking in Western communication studies is a concept of Humanity. "To maximize human recourse, a theory of communication needs to break away from the boundary of specific social or political systems and reach for universal assumptions..." (556). Eurocentric communication theory has stressed the value of psychology. "Historical pressures" coincided with this development, however theorists have ignored certain "revolutions in consciousness (occuring) in the classrooms and in the streets." Instead they invented various models in an attempt to define human existence. The end result: Frustration.

More on the communication person (557): "(A)n organizer of messages...responsive to images, sights and sounds...addicted to urban settings...comfortable with electronic media...untrapped by any one political doctrine but open to all human possibilities...checked by a creative belief in the human personality...you may even be one of them." This theory is in opposition to standards of normality.

(558) Media industries have had an impact on communication as a field of inquiry. "Students in universities want to learn..."

NEW PERSPECTIVE (559): "The methodological posture which the communication field must take is that all sectors of a society and all societies can be explored, analyzed, and questioned on the basis of their contribution to the human personality." This begins with self-examination, finding the source of one's own message contradictions.

It is important to know that other cultures/societies have different ways of expressing themselves (561).

Summations: "Put simply, the communication person, as reflected in the best thinking of the age, is now closer to the African than at any other time in history. This is because of the congruence of African society with the demands of a person's inner-self for harmony...we have emerged and will emerge more concretely as keepers of the society."

March 4, 2008 at 12:12 PM
T said...

I think that racism and ignorance towards the African American culture is beyond wrong and ridiculous because in actuality all of us, every single human being in this world are descendants of Africa. However, it seems that no matter how much the human race matures, racism still exists. I agree with Asante's statement that "It is important to know that other cultures/societies have different ways of expressing themselves (561) , because I believe this is the basis of racism: ignorance. I also agree with Asante expressing that "Put simply, the communication person, as reflected in the best thinking of the age, is now closer to the African than at any other time in history", because I believe the African American in this country has more opportunities to succeed in American than ever before, an excellent example would be hopeful President of the United States, Barack Obama. I agree with Sean that it depends on one's opinion toward the system to decide whether or not there is a crisis in the field of social sciences because most likely their foundations of their opinions are their race, culture and overall background.

March 5, 2008 at 11:24 PM

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