Kulturbrille : Glasses you should not always need.
The world seems to be ready to go up in flames anytime now if the global intolerance on display today is any indication. And we seem to be happy to see the sparks disappear, not realizing that burning embers can still start a fire.
Which makes me think if a lack of understanding of 'culture' is what it is all about. Perhaps, an understanding of modern anthropology might help, especially of the work of Franz Boas, a German Jew who migrated to the US in those heydays of intolerance.
Nothing is more striking than the idea of 'Kulturbrille', literally culture glasses. These are glasses that you and I wear depending on where we come from and how we are brought up.
These lenses help us perceive the world around us and interpret the meaning of our lives, thus providing a tinted vision of the world, which we take to be absolute if we are not aware of it.
To quote a typical example from Anthropology to illustrate Kulturbrille (Monaghan and Just)
Let's see how a traditional Hindu and a member of the Dou Donggo might see each other. The Dou Donggo are a tribe on the Sumbawa island of Indondesia. A typical Hindu might be reluctant to accept a traditional delicacay of the Dou Donggo, bee larvae just as much as the Dou Donggo will be to have onion soup for a meal.
It would be a mistake to look at the Dou Donggo, taking Hindus as absolute, something you are likely to do if you are wearing glasses tinted with the 'Hindu' vision of life.
Similarly, taking Islam as absolute and labeling non-believers as infidels would be a mistake too. And so would it be if other communities were considered less civilized than the one in the west.
If differences in eating habits strike too simple a note, there are several other that come to mind.
Marrying a cousin for instance, while unthinkable in Europe and the US is common place in India and the Middle East.
Arranged marriages are yet another example, suggesting that romantic love is never as important as the well being of children in societies in India as against those in the west.
For Telugu and Tamil readers, the movie Abhinandana in which the protagonist (played by actress Sobhana) is asked to marry her deceased sister's husband by her own father so that his grandchildren can be taken care of is an example, such an idea is unpalatable even in the cities of India today but offers a reflection of one now non-extant cultural trait.
To go further, it would not be wrong to suggest that she would have married her brother-in-law without much thought if she had not fallen in love with someone else, showing that it was as a rule, acceptable for a girl to marry her sister's husband, Sobhana being the exception.
So what do you do to help in this world of ever interacting cultures, looking for an opportunity to clash?
Push those glasses above your head, and look at yourself as being just as one of several groups wearing different brands of Kulturbrille, none more precious than the other.
Which makes me think if a lack of understanding of 'culture' is what it is all about. Perhaps, an understanding of modern anthropology might help, especially of the work of Franz Boas, a German Jew who migrated to the US in those heydays of intolerance.
Nothing is more striking than the idea of 'Kulturbrille', literally culture glasses. These are glasses that you and I wear depending on where we come from and how we are brought up.
These lenses help us perceive the world around us and interpret the meaning of our lives, thus providing a tinted vision of the world, which we take to be absolute if we are not aware of it.
To quote a typical example from Anthropology to illustrate Kulturbrille (Monaghan and Just)
Let's see how a traditional Hindu and a member of the Dou Donggo might see each other. The Dou Donggo are a tribe on the Sumbawa island of Indondesia. A typical Hindu might be reluctant to accept a traditional delicacay of the Dou Donggo, bee larvae just as much as the Dou Donggo will be to have onion soup for a meal.
It would be a mistake to look at the Dou Donggo, taking Hindus as absolute, something you are likely to do if you are wearing glasses tinted with the 'Hindu' vision of life.
Similarly, taking Islam as absolute and labeling non-believers as infidels would be a mistake too. And so would it be if other communities were considered less civilized than the one in the west.
If differences in eating habits strike too simple a note, there are several other that come to mind.
Marrying a cousin for instance, while unthinkable in Europe and the US is common place in India and the Middle East.
Arranged marriages are yet another example, suggesting that romantic love is never as important as the well being of children in societies in India as against those in the west.
For Telugu and Tamil readers, the movie Abhinandana in which the protagonist (played by actress Sobhana) is asked to marry her deceased sister's husband by her own father so that his grandchildren can be taken care of is an example, such an idea is unpalatable even in the cities of India today but offers a reflection of one now non-extant cultural trait.
To go further, it would not be wrong to suggest that she would have married her brother-in-law without much thought if she had not fallen in love with someone else, showing that it was as a rule, acceptable for a girl to marry her sister's husband, Sobhana being the exception.
So what do you do to help in this world of ever interacting cultures, looking for an opportunity to clash?
Push those glasses above your head, and look at yourself as being just as one of several groups wearing different brands of Kulturbrille, none more precious than the other.
posted by Mohanakrishna C at 2:22 PM
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