Anthropology and the Third World

Origins and Evolution of the Concept “Third World”

The term Third World (tiers etat) was coined in 1952 by Alfred Sauvy, a French demographer, to describe the poor, marginalized, and powerless class of prerevolutionary France. Its meaning expanded rapidly to denote areas of the world that were distinct from the industrialized capitalist countries, the First World, and from communist bloc nations that formed the Second World. This new way of talking about disenfranchised peoples of the world caught on rapidly and was used by social scientists at the 1955 Conference of Afro-Asian Countries in Brandung, Indonesia. A new journal, Le Tiers Monde, launched in 1956, provided a forum to explore the conditions of impoverished peoples of the tiers monde—Africa, Asia, Oceania, and Latin America—who, much like the commoners of the French third estate, le tiers etat, lived under conditions of oppression while their labor supported the more affluent social classes.

Discussions about the state of the Third World amplified and quickly moved from a focus on economic and social issues to reflect the political tensions that characterized the Cold War era and pitted capitalist nations (Western Europe, the United States, Canada,Australia, and Japan) against their communist antagonists (Russia and other communist countries that formed the USSR). Some Third World countries, wishing to remain outside the sphere of influence of these “superpowers,” came together as the Non-Aligned Nations, thus formalizing the division of the world into three distinct political arenas. The term nonaligned, used to indicate the political neutrality of these nations, was at best an ideal. Capitalist and communist countries vying for control of Third World politics and economies and looking to expand their sphere of influence formed often shifting alliances with poor countries in return for economic support. These rivalries continued until the collapse of the Soviet Union that began with glasnost and perestroika in 1986 and ended in 1989 with the fall of the Berlin Wall.

However, the First World/Third World distinctions and dynamics survived these changes and still influence contemporary geopolitical patterns.

Patterns That Characterize Third World Countries

Third World nations share some broad characteristics. Most were at one time European colonies and share a postcolonial legacy of political instability and repressive governments. They fall within a wide spectrum. While some of these countries are now stable, others are burgeoning democracies. A large number of Third World countries still struggle under dictatorial governments and lack well-organized political structures. Civil wars and ethnic conflicts are yet other legacies of both colonization and the arbitrary repartition of traditional lands. Weak political infrastructures are often associated with less engaged civil societies and a lack of national identity—pitting predatory states against exploited and voiceless masses. Most people in the Third World still do not have access to appropriate sanitation, clean water and electricity, good roads, and communication. They have experienced rapid shifts toward export production at the expense of production for local consumption and traditional methods that used to ensure sustainability. These changes inevitably lead to marginal economies characterized by high unemployment rates, low per capita income, and loss of productive potential. Furthermore, most people in Third World countries experience dire poverty and have little hope of improving their socioeconomic status; wealth and valuable resources are in the hands of small elites that also control politics, government, and trade. This uneven distribution of resources leads to social imbalance and a system reminiscent of colonialism.

...