Dear Friends! Welcome once again in to our topic of Culture and Development. In this part of our series we will look on to Culture and Governance, specifically looking in to the importance on governance. Therefore, lets draw a background from theories of social sciences to paint a picture that shows a great degree of relations between local cultural processes and public actions towards governance.
It is clear that, our every day life practices forms pattern of culture at the same time culture shapes the way we live. Therefore, it is important to consider how do we, not only understand our local cultural practices but also the way we define its patterns that govern our lives. Scholars of social sciences, specifically those who are looking in to social transformation in to prospects are keenly working in the developing better ways of understanding the importance of cultural practices and the way they are defined and been used.
Thierry Verhelst and Wendy Tyndale are one among them. In their work on culture, spirituality and development in Deborah Eade’s (ed.) book titled Development and Culture, they emphasized on the way in which cultural processes can be used for the purpose of development work in two ways. First, as a tool that aid the coping with negative influence and pressure, and second is the creative and joyous responses and power of influence to the way individuals forms relationship with them selves through cultural practices.
How do we understand the concept of culture? It is important to develop clear understanding on our cultural practices and the way it is used together with other concepts, such as public actions. Through these practices help to create a platform that produces mechanism that facilitates transformation of our societies in the case of development. Appadurai probe the understanding of culture by asking whether cultural practices matter for development and for the reduction of poverty. “Culture is every thing,” he says. “Culture covers ideas of human activities,” he continues. He also explained that it cultural practices inform our identities, values, and social organizations. In the other hand it also brings truthfulness and the sense of tenure whether in “Collective” or “collective” of tradition, property including monuments and expressions.
I used the term “Collective” and “collective” in explicit terms trying to give descriptions of influence of culture at individual level to that of community level. The first collective with capital “C” represent the collective of individual cultural processes that informs our identities in relations to every issues such as gender (male or female), wealthy matters (affluent or poor), governance roles (ruler, servant or civil) etc. Donna Haraway gives her account of this Collectives by addressing the wide range of issues on how do we understand different issues of importance in to our individual social constructions. Our every cultural processes continuously produced identities that are embedded on to us in a different situations and time (Haraway, 1991).
In this Collective, we have seen over time the emergence of gender roles such as girls and boys, mother and father, wife and husband, and in the more recent past masculinity and femininity. She continues to say, “Feminists have to insist on a better account of the world; it is not enough to show radical historical contingency and modes of construction for every thing”. Haraway approach knowledge production, termed as “Situated Knowledge” is embedded in the local cultural processes that she suggest that it need a better account of defining things and the way we derive to our understanding. The importance of culture to the three examples given above (Gender, Wealthy and Governance) are also illustrated in the scholarly work of Holtedahl, Lisbet, (1999) when she investigated the local cultural practices in the West Africa through the life of two young women who went to study in Europe as consequences.
In West African, according to Holtedahl, (1999) female child born in a family with either radical Islamic or Christian faith faces several challenges as compared to male child. Local cultural processes influences in the way children are brought up. Been a girl or a boy, it was clear that the two would have different up bringing. Which are culturally constructed. A female child will always grow in to disadvantage to a male child. A male child in seen as superior to female child. Entitled to education, wealthy (including inheritance). Above all he is the head of the family when it comes to marriage. But it is through these Local Cultural Practices that set up a form of motivation to young women help them to look in to other form of External Cultural Practices such as Western Education (European Magic) when it comes to construction of women identity. It is attaining of this new identity through a different form of knowledge that help these two young Western African women to look in the future with expectations of individual (Collective) social transformation.
Verhelst and Tyndale’s first notion of culture as an aid to cop with negatives influence (such as gender issues with female subordination, beliefs system, under development, poverty, homelessness, traditions, etc), provide us with an opportunity to look on to our past (culture) and learn form it (Appadurai, 1991). To date culture has been associated with negative attitude towards social development and against many of public actions.
In this way culture is painted with “pastness” as habits, customs, heritage and traditions. Another good example of this account of Collective in relations to local cultural processes is vividly visible in the work of Astrid Nypan when she investigated the Revival of Female Circumcision (Nypan, 1991) in her concept of Neo-Traditionalism. But the difference is Nypan paint a positive picture of local cultural processes and practices that has resurface due to its power to motivate and form joyous and creativeness among women in Tanzania. Nypan explains that from the end of 1970s backwards; to 1960s and 1950s the performance of female circumcision negatively influenced by Western Culture (Christianity and Education) with specific focus to conversion from Traditional Religious Belief System to Christianity.
Similarly, Traditional Initiation Practices (TIPs) turn in to Recognized Formal Education (FE), which gave rise to emphases of Female Child Education (FCE). Many educated female saw female circumcision as old tradition that has go no room to the educated women. This was to put more emphases to derailed local cultural practices of Meru people of Tanzania since the insertion of Missionaries early in 1900s.
Although many reason were given on local (Meru) cultural practitioners on why was circumcision was to be performed, most of these reasons were based in traditions and taboos. And these are the products of culture. Christianity, Education as well as Modernity painted a negative picture in to female circumcision practices years before 1980s. However, the same local cultural practices (female circumcision) gave raise to creativity of its performance, pride for young women, as well as access to material and identity.
In doing so, Verhelst and Tyndale’s the second notion of culture as been creative and joyous response to the way we relate to our selves, (bee it in our customs, religion, or cultural activities that help us to gain better livelihood). Hence we become people of the future (developed) supports the work of Taylor’s’ (2004) political theory based on self-recognition “The politics of Recognition” as well as “Practice Theory” Appadurai, (2004) on the collectives horizons that aspires “The Capacity to Aspire” our selves with regards to our culture. One more explanation of
The second term of “collective” with small letter “c” represent Mass Identity within the society. This help to shape the way we, society see things and develop a discourse, and position our selves in to the broader group of our societies. Such as accepting Collective cultural Identities, such as the poor, the homeless, the third world, the women, the intellectuals, the scientists, and so on. Cultural processes inform our society in the way we understand our selves collectively through the constructions of social structures over time.
Therefore, as we have seen in the first term of Collective (individual) identity practices, it could have relatively small interest in to public actions. But when the same practice is either repeated to different places and gain popularity or performed by many, it response and possibility of bee source of public discourse is greater. And it is in this sense that I use the collective with little “c” to present essential element that is a product of local cultural processes that this paper is trying to illustrate its importance if is to be taken in to consideration as partner in public action to fulfill the desire for social transformation, in this case development. It is this collective that dominate public actions.
Join me next time when we look on what happen to the two young women from West Africa on their progress and the Indian cultural experiences on development. You are welcome for comments, input, and dialog.
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