Reflection on Borges and Davis Talks
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
In Global Ethics class, we watched two TED talks. One by Phil Borges called Documenting our Endangered Cultures and the other by Wade Davis called The Worldwide Web of Belief and Ritual. I will focus mainly on the talk by Wade Davis because it appealed to me more.
Both Borges' and Davis' talks were about endangered cultures and the disappearance of our ethnosphere. Borges talked about a program that links indigenous kids with the US kids in order to expand the insular views of the US. Davis talked about a myriad of different cultures and their viewpoints on life, the purpose of life and providing possible answers to the fundamental question, "What does it mean to be human and alive?"
The different cultures Davis spoke about really intrigued me. For I had heard of some of these cultures before, yet I had never really taken the time to understand their philosophy, or their outlook on life. Davis, in his talk, using only a few examples of different indigenous cultures, really struck me. I began to discern, and understand the different views of the world. I had never given much thought to the different cultures of the world for I was ignorant and selfish. Growing up in a so-called "advanced" society, I thought of nothing but myself. I did not know much about cultures other than our own; I did not care for cultures other than our own. I had a vague understanding for different cultures, but I had never thought them important enough to pay attention to. But after listening to this talk, my eyes were opened. I was, and people like the "old" me are, the reason that these amazing cultures are disappearing, unknown and unappreciated.
Some believe that we are all brothers and sisters. As Davis put it, "All people are merely cultural options, different visions of life itself." This brings up the idea that different peoples and societies choose to pursue different things. For example, in the west, we choose to pursue technology; we choose to advance our race. However, some indigenous people choose not to pursue such technology or advancement, rather, they spend their time in nature, appreciating its beauty. We chose to pursue knowledge that will put us out into space, while the Polynesians chose to pursue knowledge of the sea. We all began the same; we just made different decisions that led us towards separate paths. Who are we to judge these indigenous people if we are all interrelated?
We made our choice, and in the same way, they made theirs. Just because they chose to pursue things different than our own, we think of them as inferior and "unadvanced". This is such a falsified belief. When you strip us down, back to where we started, we are all the same. We all feel, we all go through life, wondering and searching for our purpose. We just chose different ways to find the answer to this question, subsequently creating different cultures. We are but a small part in the world. We may consider ourselves advanced but what about the indigenous people? They are, in their own way, advanced also. They just chose to pursue different aspects of life, aspects of life we have neglected. We see these people as primitive and inferior but we do not even consider that they do not do the same to us. Some of them even pray for us, we who have harmed our world. They forgive us for our wrongdoings to them and the world. But we are so vain and ignorant as a people that we do not understand that they too, deserve respect. Davis said that these cultures are not "failed attempts at being us or being modern." Rather, we should take on the perspective that they are just unique answers to the question of what does it mean to be human and alive?
Every two weeks, a language becomes extinct. Of the 6000 languages spoken in the world, only 3000 are taught to children. The world is losing its diversity. Cultures are either being assimilated or lost completely. We are losing what makes us a world.
In the end, it all comes down to choice. Our choice to pursue advancement, knowledge and technology has led us to where we are today. The indigenuous people's choice to pursue things different to us has led to the diversity in the world. We may choose to continue living the way we are, unaware of the dying ethnosphere. We may choose to learn, understand and appreciate cultures we have never heard of before. We may choose to think of the indigenous people of the world as inferior and primitive. We may choose to see them as our equals, and learn from them. Every choice leads us towards a different road, a different journey for us to travel. There is a way, a way to treasure the diversity in the world and it starts now. We need to begin to take small steps in humbling ourselves. We need to go back to the beginning, to the time when we were all the same. We need to go back to this time and learn. We need to learn from these cultures, not only that, we need to learn to help preserve these cultures. They are what makes our world the way it is, a rich tapestry.
Labels: global ethics
