Many of us grew up in a communist country, so I can’t say I’m unique that way. But on top of being constrained by nomenclature, I was also born to a small ethnic group that spoke a different language and kept traditions a little different than the surrounding majority. As a child, I quickly learned to accept that this group’s culture was validated only by insiders. In our family bubble we would talk about anything and listen to my grandmother’s striking stories from her past, but as soon as we walked out we knew we had to change and readily fit the mainstream. Just like a chameleon. We were taught not to bring-up our culture, native tongue, or religion in conversations set outside the group. Today, looking back at those moments in time and trying to re-organize my life experiences, I see how people’s understanding around what’s acceptable and what’s not can be uneven and it often bends with the majority. With very few exceptions. It took years to move on and leave behind everything I could leave behind. It feels like it happened in a different life, yet that’s a baggage I carry. I’ve learned to understand and love the place I call home today. It’s good to be able to embrace harmony and live in a safe place. A place where several different cultures and traditions coexist, share, and mix their values.
I like to think we now live in an era of cultural relativism. If agreed, all we need is to understand the culture of a people before applying a label to an action or an affirmation belonging to someone whom identifies with that group, because every standard is culture-bound1. The same applies to any cultural or ethnic group. If we favor this argument, would then the truth become relative and reliant on one’s cultural environment? For example, if a woman does not have a say in deciding her own path in life, because her traditional culture would rather have others decide for her, then the truth would be that she isn’t deprived of any human rights, but merely following her traditions. Of course, many argue the truth will always be absolute and, while cultural diversity is a beautiful concept to share, certain practices oppose each other and quite frequently have a hard time co-existing with those preserved by other cultures or religions. And soon enough we will be notified of big moral conflicts and turn for help to the universal declaration of human rights. I’m always amazed by the number of people who haven’t read it yet.
All around the world, most issues connected to culture are relative. This makes cultural and religious diversity a slippery and rather difficult to navigate matter. Rooted in a certain culture or religion, traditions may at times interfere with basic human rights or collide with simple safety requirements. Or frustrate political views. We’ve all seen, on occasion, duplicitous practices hiding behind a cultural or religious tradition. There are issues we don’t often want to discuss, or talk about over dinner, because they are uncomfortable topics and there is too much we don’t know and we don’t want to be ‘culturally’ wrong.
Usually very careful when it comes to accommodating people belonging to other cultures (small ethic groups, refugees, new immigrants, foreign workers, international students) we want to ensure they feel accepted and included. We make a number of supporting services available and consider they have a fair shot at learning about their new local culture and people’s values. But what about those of us who live here? Do we have access to support services or educational programs? What’s available to us to support our understanding of the process our newcomer neighbours are going through while trying to integrate? The effort cannot be the same on both sides, by all means, there is a fine balance and we all know that the big lap has to be covered by those who came in last.
Yet, I’m wondering, how many workshops on “The Cultures and Religions of the World” have we recently seen to be offered? It would be refreshing to see a community college teaching a course on this topic. We live in an era where the study of cultural anthropology, the study of first nations’ arts and history, the study of world’s mythology, are all at fairly incipient stages. My intent is far from ignoring those who have been deeply involved in researching these topics at an academic level, but we need to acknowledge that they are only a handful of people and they are not riding the bus.
When we think about what do we know about legends and traditions of other people, we realize it’s not too much. This is quite understandable when considering that nowadays a degree in arts or history won’t pay someone’s mortgage and people know better than that, they cannot afford to waste time and money on unnecessary cultural or mythological nonsense. They have to make money. And that begs many other questions, but I will stick to this one: if we see ourselves as a tolerant people, and agree that other cultures are not ‘wrong’, but ‘different’ then isn’t it time that we start offering more accessible tools to support a growth in our understanding of all the cultures around the world?
1 John J. Tilley, Cultural Relativism, Human Rights Quarterly, Johns Hopkins University Press, Volume 22, Number 2, May 2000, pp. 501-547