Many of them were runaways or rescued from FGM or child marriage

:(

Traditional does not really mean poverty stricken. I used to think that was the case, but then I got to know some “traditional” people and they changed my mind.

I lived in Nairobi, Kenya and worked in a little town outside of Nairobi (Kiserian) at a boarding school for Maasai girls from traditional homes. Many of them were runaways or rescued from FGM or child marriage. One weekend one of the girls fathers invited me to come and stay at their home with the family. I took 3 different vehicles, walked 2 miles through the bush, and waded across a stream to where they lived in their dung hut which was about as big as my bedroom. They live by herding goats and cows.

The thing that struck me immediately was how few material things they have. But the thing that struck me the deepest was that when you look closer, they are really not so impoverished. They have enough to eat and they have a strong community in which any family would help the others in a time of crisis. They don’t feel any poorer for not having a closet full of clothes or a nine to five job. In fact they don’t feel poor at all. Which is hard for my western mind to process, becaue they sure do LOOK poor to me.

What would improve their lives is better access to healthcare, education and water, not a different occupation or “way of life.”

I obviously have lots of thoughts on the topic, but I’ll spare you any more of my rambling.

one is that modernization happens more slowly in the cultures that develop the modernization than in the cultures that adopt it. This often allows time to determine how and what and why and which cultural aspects are to be preserved. Not that there aren’t unintended consequences, because of course there are, but developing the changes just gives a little more breathing room than adopting them does.

I can vouch for the application of this quote in China’s case as a student of modern Chinese history and someone with relatives who lived/are living in both the PRC and ROC. In examining modern Chinese history from the late Qing(late 19th/early 20th century) to the current day, one major theme among both Chinese intellectuals and Western China studies scholars over the last century is how Chinese society and its members have been dealing with “modernization”* and its side-effects. Many Chinese intellectuals over the last century have felt that China has undergone such rapid change over the last century that the people undergoing it have not had enough time to adjust before the next change arrives.

One common theme I keep coming across is how the pining for “tradition” is different depending on who is doing it. With Westerners, it is mainly focused on the loss of physical structures and superficial external trappings meant to evoke the Western tourists’ idea of traditional China. Though this is also lamented among the older generation of Chinese/Chinese traditionalists to some extent, the overwhelming main focus of their pining seems to be the perceived loss of 人情 (ren qing – treating others with basic manners in accordance with humanity.) among the younger generations. I’ve heard such sentiments among Chinese intellectuals in my parents and grandparents generation about all Chinese born in the Maoist system post-1949 as well as younger PRC-born Chinese intellectuals/classmates to describe the Chinese post-Tienanmen “milennials” whom they see as rude, self-centered, spoiled, socially apathetic, and mindlessly obsessed with the materialist consumer culture prevalent in current day China, especially in the wake of the recent economic boom. I’m betting other non-Western societies have had similar such internal conflicts regarding “modernization”.*

* There is some argument as to whether the way the term “modernization” has been used in the Chinese studies discourse is too centered in Eurocentric patterns of development. Though I’ve heard similar sentiments about other discourses in East Asian and non-Western fields, I do not have enough background knowledge to speak confidently about them.

But I do have to wonder what Tanzania will look like in another twenty years? Will there still be Maasai in their traditional red blankets herding cows through the hills?

when i visited kenya in 1995 (my brother was living in nairobi at the time), they had a saying: “even the maasai are wearing underwear now” the kenyans told me it referred to progress. i still think it’s a funny expression. do they have it in TZ?

I think Japan is a useful place to look for culture vs. economy vs. cultural annihalation, becuase its one of a very few places that *have* successfully modernized and aren’t European [1]. Actually, I can only think of one other exmaple, and that’s South Korea.

And Japan has a lot in common with Europe, but retained enough Japaneseness that it isn’t a copy of Europe.

Whether that model can be replicated elsewhere I don’t know, but I rather doubt it. There were some rather unusual circumstances surrounding Japan’s rise, as well as the fact that when it started its industrialization process they only had to catch up to roughly 40 years of progress. A lot of places are looking at close to 140 years of progress to catch up to now.

There’s no arguing that the nations which developed modern tech had a somewhat easier time adapting to it, but its hardly as if Europe had a smooth transition or didn’t lose a great deal of its culture. The position of religion in European society was radically changed, in England a large culinary tradition was lost, etc. Which isn’t to deny that the undeveloped nations today aren’t going to have an even harder time, even if they were getting a fair chance economically speaking, which they aren’t.

In Europe the only economic exploitation that resulted from industrializing was native, which didn’t make it better but at least meant the profits stayed semi-local and could be taxed, etc. Today most “industrializing” nations are essentially turning into serfdoms, and the profits aren’t staying local at all.

Unfortunately my study of history tells me that the result of all this is going to be a series of nasty wars, which appears to have already began. Most Americans aren’t even aware of the Second Congo War, which hasn’t actually stopped despite the fact that it “officially” ended back in ’03. I don’t see it getting better for a long time.

[1] For the sake of not typing “European and/or USA” I’m going to just roll the USA and Canada into “European”, much to the annoyance of people in all three places I’m sure.

I am currently a Peace Corps volunteer in Malawi, a neighbor of Tanzania, and I wrote a post in my lj recently about this issue in Malawi. I think that as privileged westerners there are a couple of things just to be aware of–one is that modernization happens more slowly in the cultures that develop the modernization than in the cultures that adopt it. This often allows time to determine how and what and why and which cultural aspects are to be preserved. Not that there aren’t unintended consequences, because of course there are, but developing the changes just gives a little more breathing room than adopting them does.

The other thing is that I don’t believe that cultural annihilation is necessary for economic growth. But in order for (for instance) the Maasais to see what of their culture is worth preserving to them, they have to have a more realistic view of us. Right now our technology is exported along with our culture and a whitewashed and oddly distorted view of our lives (For a rather silly example, I have a sink in my dining room because apparently all North Americans of any class whatsoever have sinks in their dining rooms). So then it looks like there are no flaws with our system and only flaws with theirs when obviously every culture has problems. Only with a clear picture can people figure out which cultural and technological advancements for which they are willing to pay the cultural price.

One note on “all the economically successful societies are largely similar,” Our economic model has been exported wholesale to many diverse countries with horrible results–which tells me that there must be another possible model out there; my guess is that it’s going to have to grow from the cultures who are going to use it. But I’m not an economist, so I could be wrong.

I agree with JFM entirely that cultural change happens and there is no one “right” path. Just about any western/northern hemisphere intervention into southern hemisphere cultural change is wrought with historical and political implications rarely understood by anyone outside the lived experiences of the people themselves. As a member of the privileged west I envision my “duty” born from privilege is to work to help ensure that all individuals around the world have equal access to full human and civil rights and that everything beyond that is up to the individuals themselves. Of course even that goal can bring about unintended negative consequences….

While we often see modernization as gains, technology to make our lives easier, what is lost? What kinds of cultural practices should be maintained?

Fizgig hits on one very important aspect of our (that is, foreign, most likely Western, privileged in various ways etc) thinking about these kinds of issues. I think a good way to avoid some of the dangerous traps (romanticizing poverty) is simply to remember that 1) All societies change constantly and 2) There is no one right way to change. Modernization is not an all-or-nothing process: the Maasai don’t have to choose between either fossilizing their current way of life into a “tradition” to uphold indefinitely, or adopting US ways wholesale. What’s really important here is to look at the distribution of power involved. To what extent do the Maasai have the power to decide for themselves what happens to their land, their economy, their political structure? Do they have the resources (financial, political, educational) to make changes they wish to make? (Of course we can also take a look at who precisely is making these decisions–there are politics and power struggles within any group. Is there a small elite within the group that is ‘selling out’ the others? Are most of the people interested in pursuing the same goals?)

These are very tricky and delicate issues, and I’m not sure it’s even possible to find a perfect balance between being genuinely helpful and being overly interventionist. At the least, we should try to educate ourselves as much as possible, and above all keep ourselves humble enough to recognize that we don’t have all the answers.

One of these days I’ll learn to read.