Is “primitive” better?
Aug 23, 2002 Parenting
I was reading Shannon’s blog where she explains why she thinks attachment parenting “qualifies as cultural appropriation” and it was very interesting. I agree with her and I think that cultural appropriation can be dangerous and disrespectful.
It has always disturbed me when people automatically think, “Well, the Yequana Indians do this so it must be what we’re all meant to do.” I can see the temptation of thinking this way and I do think there’s great value in examining other “primitive” (or a more appropriate word: basic) cultures. However, for better or worse our culture isn’t very basic and that means that what works for them may not work for us. Also I don’t believe that one culture is inherently more “moral” than another culture. I don’t think that we — those of us who live in the United States — are bad because we do bad things. I don’t think the Yequana Indians are good because they do less bad things. They are not automatically right, we are not automatically wrong.
As Mike points out in his review of Our Babies, Ourselves, we have to watch it when we start putting other cultures on a pedastal:
It’s difficult to read this book without being reminded of the Rousseauian ideal of the Noble Savage. Just as Rousseau saw primitive society as being attuned with nature and thus better for human life than modern society, Small sees primitive society as being attuned with evolution and thus better for human life than modern society.
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There are serious problems with the Noble Savage theory, of course. In particular, I don’t believe that individual facets of a culture stand or fall in isolation. Cultures are by definition a collection of practices. While some of the practices of people such as the Ache Indians or the !Kung San may strike us as exemplary and useful, I doubt that any of the readers of this web page would wish to join those cultures. Western industrialized life includes, for many children, detached parenting — but it also includes antibiotics and access to a rich intellectual heritage. Are there connections between the two? I don’t know, but it seems clear that one cannot simply identify a part of a culture that’s not working well and substitute an interchangeable-looking part from another culture. Feminists and anarchists have long experience with the cultural inertia that makes such change difficult.
Perfect. I’m so glad he said it so that I don’t have to try to.
(As an aside, on my brother’s enthusiastic urging, I read Ishmael and really didn’t like it. I don’t remember it very well — I read it about four years ago — but I do recall thinking it was too stepped in the “noble savage” thinking. Justin (my brother) keeps trying to get me to read it again but I don’t know if I can make my way through it a second time. But like putting cultures on pedastals, I think it’s a bad idea to start demonizing cultures — including our own. Thinking critically, however is important.)
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