Sunday, September 9, 2007
Developing Other Cultures
When we say that a group of people are underdeveloped or "developing" culturally what do we mean by this? Usually those terms are associated or have the "connotation" that those other people are inferior to us, and that they need help being brought up to speed. For example, Native Americans who live on the reservation live a much simpler life than people like us from the more densely residential areas such as Chicago. In class this week, someone brought up the fact that they're underdeveloped, and that it is our responsibility to help them. Do they really need help though? Maybe it's a little ETHNOCENTRIC to be thinking like that. They're reservation culture isn't necessarily worse than ours, maybe it's just different.
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I completely agree with you that "developed" societies push "underdeveloped" societies to develop. For example, in places where the people were isolated, like a distant island, the culture may still be very simplistic. They might have a leader and other leaders, but nowhere near a government like ours. But the thing is that if this way of life works for them, there is no reason to interfere to 'update' their society. We should not be forcing our way of life on people who don't want the help.
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