Sarah Dillon
Personal Community Ethics
Steve DeCaroli
Midterm Essay
Birdsong: An Interaction Between Tuva and Goucher College
"Herein lies the tragedy of the age:
Not that men are poor, - all men know something of poverty.
Not that men are wicked, - who is good?
Not that men are ignorant, - what is truth?
Nay, but that men know so little of men."
- W.E.B. DuBois
Not that men are poor, - all men know something of poverty.
Not that men are wicked, - who is good?
Not that men are ignorant, - what is truth?
Nay, but that men know so little of men."
- W.E.B. DuBois
On October 6, 2009
and I was sitting in a class entitled “Religion, Myth, and Symbol” at the
Goucher College campus. Goucher is famous for promoting a global, liberal
education and having the slogans “Transcending Boundaries” and “Ask big
questions.” During this particular class we were visited by five throat singers
from the nation of Tuva after a concert they had performed at the college the
night before. The purpose of this meeting was to allow the class to hold a
discussion with the singers in an attempt to better understand their culture..
The classroom was set up with six chairs in the front (one for each singer and
one for the translator), these chairs were facing the desks of about 15
students from the Goucher College community. The assigned readings for the week
dealt with discussions of Shamanism and we were hoping the throat singers could
provide us with some insight on Shaman culture. The objective that I took into
my hands was to in a sense remove myself from the class and observe how the
global Goucher community acted in the presence of another culture. Using my observations along with the film Cannibal Tours, and a study of
cultural commoditization, I will argue that the act of “transcending
boundaries” between cultures is not as easy as it may seem. There are endless
complications involved in this, but as I have suggested before it is important
that we move towards a phenomenological understanding of culture and how
several cultures can interact while still maintaining integrity and purposes.
Before we begin to
discuss the classroom discussion, let us first look into the history and
culture of The Republic of Tuva. Tuva is a country in Siberia that is one of
eighty three subjects in the Russian Federation. Despite being under the
Russian Federation, Tuva is also one of twenty one Republics, meaning that they
are allowed to have their own national language and constitution. The three
major religions of Tuva are listed as Tibetan Buddhism, Orthodox Christian, and
Shamanism. From July 1919 until February 1920 under the rule of China, the Red
Army controlled Tuva. However on August 14, 1921 the Bolsheviks established the
People’s Republic of Tuva. Following this in 1930, Russians were granted full
citizenship in Tuva and slowly the Buddhist and Mongol traditions of Tuvan
culture were reduced. Here we begin to clearly see a relationship to the
oppression of the soviets into an indigenous oppression[1].
This slowly eased up in 1944 when the Soviet Union annexed Tuva causing them to
become a part of the USSR. The reason that the Soviets annexed Tuva is still
murky to this day. In 1990 the Tuvan Democratic Movement was created and slowly
the nation began to reestablish some of the culture that they lost. Now let us
take a closer look at the in class discussion.
The professor
began the class with the humble approach. The professor states “I want to thank
you for sharing your wisdom and spiritual feeling with us.” They nod and
proceed to inform us through the translator that in fact none of them practice
Shamanism. We begin to understand that each has a different amount of
experience within the tradition but they emphasize the personal, natural
context of their art. The sounds of nature, hearing them beyond the beauty of
the rest of life becomes the true inspiration
for the art of throat singing. As the lead singer states: “Nature is in our
blood”. Beginning the day and ending the day in song is key to their lifestyle.
During this beautiful story I take a glance around the room and realize that
very few people are looking at the person speaking, they are in fact looking at
the translator or were shuffling through their books/notes. This action is
deplorable, especially in the context of an educational experience in relation
to culture. This in many ways is denying the other any sort of recognition or
respect. This moment is comparable to a moment in the movie Cannibal
Tours that took place in the market of Papua, New Guinea. In the documentary ’Cannibal
Tours’ we encounter a group of ethno-tourists venturing on a supposed
exploration of the native life in Papua, New Guinea. Upon a first viewing the I
initially thought that the travelers remained naïve throughout their journey as
they encountered the villagers in their “everyday lives.”
We find an American tourist and her
guide browsing the craftwork of the natives. While the tourist debates which
piece she would like to purchase, she only talks with her guide and only
addresses the native when attempting to barter the price they were asking for.
The parallel of these two moments comes from the manner in which the new
culture is being treated. In a sense, the other is being recognized only in its
relation to commodity (be it actual merchandise or in the cultural capital
sense).
As the
conversation continued, the students kept requesting the connection between
shamanism and throat singing despite the consistent claim that there is no
direct or necessary connection between the two. Eventually this was met with
reluctance and dislike as witnessed through watching the change in facial
expression and body language of the singers. As in the film, we can see
instances in which discomfort and attachments to preconceptions of another. The
emotion of discomfort is witnessed in a powerful scene of the movie in which a
native is being asked questions about his daily routine while being
photographed by several tourists. The discomfort expressed in the face of the
native is compelling and undoubtedly reflects an ignorance on the part of the
tourist. Another scene in the movie parallels the notion of preconceptions in
relation to another culture. Just as the Goucher students remained attached to the connection between
Shamans and throat singing, tourists (one in particular) in the movie remained
attached to the understanding of the natives as cannibals. Cannibalism was
something that had not been practiced in the New Guinea tribe for quite some
time, yet tourists remained fascinated by the concept. As C. Richard King
mentions in his article, The (Mis)uses of Cannibalism In Contemporary
Cultural Critique, “Cannibal Tours, dwelling as it does on
appropriation, consumption, and incorporation, implicitly argues that the
cannibals of the title are not the natives but the tourists… Their dehumanizing
practices literally eat up these people and their lives”. (King, The (Mis)uses
of Cannibalism…, 112) The gross obscurity created by the perceptions of the
tourists negates the importance of cultural practices.
We, as
‘anthropologists,’ hold so much in awe in the other, that we often ignore what they bring and what
they feel to the world. Towards the end of the conversation they stated that
they feel that they must answer in terms of what we have, implying a loss of
the self in some manner. This meeting should not have been religious at all.
Their craft, why they are here, is not belief based or related but we feel that
their indigenous status automatically gives their lives a spiritual potency. In
times of understanding and exploration in terms of culture we must remember
that people are not empty vessels, they bring an entire wealth of perspective
and experience to share. Somehow, society at large must learn how to let go of
preconceptions towards the world, and not expect the other to so easily meet
them on their terms. There must be a middle ground. It would be all too easy to suggest a solution or
extreme and be done with it. I believe that cross cultural interaction and
influence (negative and positive) is unavoidable, and there must be a shift
towards a pure phenomenological approach culture in order for creative progress
and ethics to be even possible. Upon viewing of the film ‘Cannibal Tours’, I
gained an entirely new insight on the relationship between individuals,
culture, and ethics. We must ask ourselves “What right do we have?” when
approaching a context that is separate from our own. By having an interest in
only certain, small aspects of culture, tourists and villagers, who are part of
the culture, have a hard time understanding what to expect of each other. Such
limited interest in a small cultural detail tends to lead to a misunderstanding
of the whole. The observer in any situation must be careful not to overstep the
understanding of how the smaller aspects of a culture fit into the whole.
[1]
Oddly enough one of the throat singers mentioned during the class discussion
that during a performance Joseph Stalin, Leader of the Soviet Union from 1922 –
1953 did three standing ovations at the end of a performance. The juxtaposition
of this in comparison to what was happening to the culture of Tuva at the time
is fascinating.
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