Healthy cultures are constantly growing and evolving
“A healthy culture is like a healthy person: it is constantly changing, growing, and evolving, yet something persists through these changes, a ballast that keeps it upright and recognizable no matter how much it is buffeted by the transformative winds of trade. We can even expand the analogy a bit, and think of a culture as something akin to a society’s immune system — it works best when it is exposed to as many foreign bodies as possible. Like kids raised in too-clean environments, cultures that are isolated from the world are beautiful but extremely fragile. That is why, when it comes to protecting the particular cultures of the world, “authenticity” of the sort that natives engage in for tourists is probably the last thing we should be concerned with.”
Andrew Potter, Cultural immersion or imitation?, The New Zealand Herald, May 4, 2010
August 4th, 2011 at 2:58 pm
Oh, God, you did struck a chord in me with this post…me, still attempting to adapt myself to Norway, worrying about their immediate fragility/vulnerability I had somehow sensed, (at times even resenting it, I admit), right from the beginning, which I, myself, did attribute in part to their characteristic insularity…
August 4th, 2011 at 3:05 pm
Erratum: sorry for verb disaccord…I should’ve said, “you did strike a chord in me”…it happened just because I added the “did” for emphasis, forgetting to “realign the verb”…which should TEACH me not to attempt anymore to emphasize anything anymore, especially on-line, or even when among alien cultures…because I may risk further misunderstandings, diplomatic snafu’s, or other grave consequences, such as being eaten by some cannibals. (I hope I haven’t FURTHER alienated anyone by my completely un-PC attempt to correct a mere human grammatical error.)
August 4th, 2011 at 3:52 pm
We should not expect indigenous cultures to remain unchanged in some pre-Lapsarian form because we feel guilty about our own culture and values. Health in a culture, as in a body, is the ability to adapt to their environment, and to do so requires that they have the freedom to make the thousand incremental and tentative adjustments from what they were to what they may become, until they get what seems right for themselves. You may feel free to criticize, of course, but respect their freedom and respect their choice: it’s their life.
Let me say, by the way, that I do not like that result and wish the natives would remain their colorful old selves. But that is what morality calls for. That is how it must be if all humans are equal and their rights, expressed by their choices, are entitled to preference over our romantic whims.
August 4th, 2011 at 7:39 pm
@ Davis: I actually consider it an unrealistic and even possibly unethical “whim” to NOT give the CHOICE of some isolated & possibly insular cultures to LEARN by ETHICAL educational exposure about other cultures, thus unethically encouraging their continued possibly detrimental insularity and possible isolationism. Other “cultures” are made of PEOPLE, of humans, just like you and I, and they too are or should be allowed access to Internet, access to learning languages of large circulation, if they are curious and desire to do so. They are NOT some sort of “museum” artefacts one needs to preserve unchanged over centuries. Obviously, I am not advocating an unethical forced “exposure”, for example the way Australia treated Aboriginal people in the first half of the XX-th century (for which they have, I believe, already publicly apologized). OTOH free CHOICES depend on EDUCATION, because if one doesn’t even have the most basic grasp of what is OUT THERE available to choose from, how can one make an INFORMED choice ? Not to mention the general social public health benefits of having running water & an immunization schedule. I am NOT trying to play Devil’s Advocate more than I should. I am just encouraging debate on this issue of isolationism & insularity in some possibly still immature, and, why not call it like it is, WITHOUT a specific derogatory tone to it, more “primitive” cultures.
August 4th, 2011 at 7:45 pm
Sorry for the capitalization of certain words. Please do not interpret it as being impolite or “shouting”…I just wanted to emphasize some words, because I did not wish to be grossly misunderstood (I am compulsively anxious when discussing possible ideology matters..ah…this word itself makes me so anxious that I actually had to light up a cigarette !), or even “mislabeled”. I promise I am attempting to be very careful when using abstract or even “trigger” words, like “ideology”…BRR !… on the Internet, just because I know how easily they may be misunderstood, and then I try to over-clarify, until I bore everyone off to tears !