{"id":288,"date":"2018-03-05T21:25:05","date_gmt":"2018-03-06T02:25:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/?p=288"},"modified":"2018-03-05T21:25:05","modified_gmt":"2018-03-06T02:25:05","slug":"material-modernity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/uncategorized\/material-modernity\/","title":{"rendered":"Material Modernity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Professor Daniel Lerner, in\u00a0<em>The Grocer and the Chief<\/em>, assumes what many Americans also assume, which is that modernity is the pursuit of a material improvement from traditional or subsistence lifestyles. Lerner&#8217;s assumptions are obvious in his characterization of the Chief as a self-sufficient and martial man, and his preoccupation with the Grocer as a caricature of &#8220;modern&#8221; culture and forward-thinking. The Chief values individual valor and his own position of power within his village, which Lerner conflates with holding on to tradition. The Grocer&#8217;s awareness of cinema and coffeehouses, on the other hand, seems to Lerner to signify a desire for a life marked by modern technology.\u00a0 One of Lerner&#8217;s key assumptions is that these men are unwilling to change and that while collective society may force alterations in daily life and the economy, individuals remain the same, conveniently representing distinct ideals of personhood.<\/p>\n<p>Lerner concludes his piece stating that the Grocer has won out in an imaginary contest between tradition and material modernization.\u00a0 However, he neglects the important fact that the Chief has notably modernized himself.\u00a0 As Balgat is incorporated into Ankara, the Chief incorporates himself and his family into the changed society.\u00a0 Yes, the <em>Muhtar<\/em>\u00a0keeps a small grove of trees, but he allows his sons, whom he once saw as heirs he must make ready for war, to open moderately successful westernized businesses.\u00a0 The Chief, over four years, gives up his farmland and his most integral values of makes a successful man.\u00a0 In this way, I believe that Lerner makes the same mistake as Tosun did in judging based on appearances.\u00a0 Lerner does not consider the effects of modernization on the individuals who adapt to their current situation and the interplay between individuals and material change within a modernizing society.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Professor Daniel Lerner, in\u00a0The Grocer and the Chief, assumes what many Americans also assume, which is that modernity is the pursuit of a material improvement from traditional or subsistence lifestyles. Lerner&#8217;s assumptions are obvious in his characterization of the Chief &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/uncategorized\/material-modernity\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1890,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1890"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":289,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288\/revisions\/289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}