The 'ignorance of the West' regarding non-European cultures is based on the one hand on its dominating role as 'leading global players,' a role that is being increasingly questioned as a result of the economic rise of China, India and the former South-East Asian emerging markets. But on the other hand this ignorance stems from a fundamental epistemological disregard for other cultural 'realities' that can be easily reconstructed - historically, socially and philosophically. A significant portion of this disregard is a result of literate cultures' dominance over illiterate cultures and societies. The history of non-European cultures, which were at one time overwhelmingly illiterate, was written in the language of the respective governing colonialists of the period. The written language made it possible to finitely fix western ideologies and dominant undertones into the written chronology of the society. The process of decolonization in the last century, however, marked the beginning of a new interpretation of the historical genesis in all affected societies, and led to new contemporary perspectives, which were based on this 're-writing of history.' However the deep-seated mistrust stemming from the indigenization of historical knowledge still remains present in 'western' thought today. There exists a danger that further interpretation of these societies will disappear as analysis lingers and discussions and debates on non-European historiography, non-European literature and non-European propaedeutics are placed under the status of 'exotic subjects,' instead of generating a new and current understanding of non-European societies.
Click to enlarge: Korwar figures, northwest New Guinea
Source: Quelle: http://commons.wikimedia.org
Every spoken language implies the existence of a living, cultural and social reality, even if it is limited to only a thousand people, as is the case in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea.3 With every language that goes extinct, we are faced not only with the disappearance of a cultural reality but also the loss of a fundamental epistemology. This is the death of a worldview that has guided human beings for centuries and contextualized their social environment. Even if non-written languages were to be put onto paper, the fact that nobody else who speaks this language was living, thinking or acting implies that its underlying culture and Weltanschauung have disappeared.4 It is possible to record an infinite number of dead languages in the archives of 'our' knowledge however the past understanding of these languages will no longer exist. The word that is not living is lost forever.
Click to enlarge: British flag raised on New Guinea.
Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org
A particular challenge for those sceptical about the ability of non-western cultures to override current theories of 'knowledge dominance' is marked by the debate on oral tradition, narrative and the interpretation of history. 'Narrated History's' in oral cultures, even when the 'chronological markers'5 are not coordinated linearly, still impart a wealth of knowledge and information about every-day life, social history, gender relations, religious order, economic relations, attributions of power and powerlessness, and lastly worldview and epistemology. This creates vivid scenarios, that itself define the limits of their interpretability. Those who listen closely to the 'narrative history' will quickly discover what the structures of relevance are that underlie these narratives. This also serves a purpose for those who listen to the stories carefully as they will discover what is important and what is in need of further explanation, what is problematic or trivial, and what is unsettling or liberating.6 If the people themselves who have not written down their 'history' are taken seriously, they are granted the authority of interpretation and thereby another door is opened. As a result researchers no longer search for the already-defined eurocentric theoretical structures and empirical evidence, which may have falsified or verified their own ideas about social genesis and socio-ethnological reality. The result of this sensitive approach is that in the case of the 'narrative history' a new area of description is made available, a proverbial 'new world,' that follows its own laws and structural principles without looking to any pre-defined methodologies or ideologies. The rigid use of the European perception has only grazed the surface of the knowledge and understanding hiding amongst the vast number of illiterate cultures and societies.
The lack of written language in non-western societies also has direct socio-political consequences. Those who cannot write, calculate or thoughtfully present and analyze their situations using universal concepts are still not integrated into the definition of reality that is realized around the world, an idea that runs in the face of the notion of a 'global village'. As a result these societies are to a large extent excluded from political decision-making and from being active players in the making of their 'own history.' At least one-fifth of people living today, including the so-called 'functionally illiterate,' describe and interpret their genesis, their present and future in a-chronological categories. They are principally suspected of having a determined subjective 'narrative' instead of a written 'objective' dominating knowledge and are thereby recognized as being against the definitive setting of valid political, social, and economic reality. Social power and powerlessness are dependent upon the availability of those factual and symbolic techniques, the centralization, accumulation, and thereby the creation of dependencies and per se the promotion of subordination. The contemporary and sociologically inspired view of the relationship between former European areas of colonial domination in non-western regions and the current social reality of the former indigenous societies must be made aware of the immanent 'contradictions' inherent in the solutions to the challenges before them. The opening up of 'new worlds' implies that the acceptance of borders has led to a new orientation of historical and sociological perspectives around a bottom-up knowledge process based on relevance structures and needs of those who had previously been kept from being heard because of being illiterate.
3 In the Highlands of Papua New Guinea more than 800 languages completely different from each other still exist. 150 out of them are already analyzed and phonetically transformed into 'written languages'.
4 Linguists expect that in the coming decades the majority of the languages in Papua New Guinea will disappear due to urban migration and other modernization and social transformation processes.
5 Of course, there are many 'chronological markers' in illiterate societies - biographic benchmarks (initiation), hunting-, harvest-, season-cycles, important and extraordinary incidents such as war and peace making, natural catastrophes, migration movements etc. But these 'chronological markers' do not follow a linear structure of chronological history but a qualitative structure of individual and societal narration.
6 I have tried to share the 'structures of narration' and therefore the 'structures of individual and societal relevance' with many narrators in illiterate societies by recording every-day-stories in 15 indigenous languages over a period of 15 years and by publishing a book based on this ethnographic material. Andreas J. Obrecht: Geschichten aus anderen Welten. Eine Reise nach Neuguinea und Inselmelanesien, Ostafrika, Nepal und in die Karibik. Wien, Weimar 2006
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