Can traditional cultures survive in globalized world?
Can traditional cultures survive in globalized world?
By Edi Sedyawati
JAKARTA (JP): Overbearing terms and phrases appear daily in
the media the world over, reverberating the words of political
figures, including, among other things, "democratization", "human
rights", "free market" and even "toward a stateless society" or
"we are now living in a global village".
Those terms and phrases, however, are often used in discourse
that implies compulsory belief. Only some scientific articles and
research reports deal scrupulously with a specific situation,
thus bringing about the understanding that a sense of democracy,
for instance, could be present without having the outward
appearances of a democratic system found in another country.
The term "tradition" is also often misunderstood. Although
modernism was initially a reaction against tradition, it by no
means should mean that traditions should be totally wiped out.
Modernity and tradition should not be seen as encoded by
complementary forms, and, thus, absolutely opposed to each other.
Modern thinking and conservation of tradition should be
allocated their respective fields, hence the two can be
integrated within the life of a person, a community or a nation.
Many have acknowledged that colonization and "globalization"
have led to an imbalance of political power, and of the chance to
make a choice, between the rich industrial countries and poor
developing countries.
The "second revolution" in human civilization --
industrialization -- made its initiators leaders in the ever-
expanding market. The rest of the world tends to be seen as a
potential market and source of raw materials.
The instruments for the protection of their gains from
exploration, exploitation, data organization and innovation have
been designed and promoted intensively.
Some of the "gains", however, were originally owned by certain
nations or ethnic groups. Some protection and legalization
schemes regarding cultural rights favor the industrialists, with
the effect that the original traditional owners lose out. Cases
in point include the legal registration of traditional designs by
Westerners.
Industrialization implies the creation of new needs among
consumers. Many new innovations widen a person's experience, or
ease life's hassles. Meanwhile, products of cultural industry are
most influential since they may transform, or even alter, a
person's taste, preferences and thinking. In the beginning, it
was the book that constituted the most important product of
cultural industry, in its capacity to broaden people's mind.
Next came the technology of sound recording, and, thence, the
business of music records. This began with the contents of
European culture and its offshoots in America. Next came the film
industry, which began in the United States.
The worldwide dissemination of products of these cultural
industries have naturally led to cultural influences, for better
or for worse. Alas, the overwhelming influence in "targeting
other countries" may also result in the alienation of the peoples
of those "other countries" against their own traditional
cultures.
Through the products of Western cultural industries (often
parallel with modern educational systems based on Western models)
the minds of those "target" peoples have become more or less
"Westernized", even to such a level that they consider the
Western model as the only proper and legitimate one in the world.
We can no more speak then of a freedom of choice, since the
choice has been dictated by aggressive promotion and advertising.
The culturally counterproductive effect is the fact that the
dominating, easily accessed cultural merchandise is that of the
popular genre. Consequently, the cultures of developing countries
mostly suffer from lack of exposure, and, hence, a problem of
recognition.
Their own traditional cultural expressions, such as in
literature, visual and performing arts, not to say architecture,
become rarely exposed.
Knowledge and appreciation of those fruits of traditional
culture have become scarce and tend to be regarded as
unimportant, or even irrelevant and disreputable. Moreover, their
own new cultural industries may have been developed according to
the low brow popular tastes cultivated by the originally Western
mass art, resulting in copycat movies and songs.
A people's cultural heritage and historical awareness
constitute the basic ingredients for an identity. Advocacy for
the resurgence and strengthening of such awareness is, thus,
compelling.
This advocacy could only succeed if backed up by a strong
visionary cultural industry in the widest sense. This industry
should consist of not only the production of tangible cultural
products such as books, records and films, but also a system of
production of events for direct cultural encounters, such as
performances, exhibitions, workshops, seminars and so on.
Decisionmakers should realize the deep impact on people's
mental and spiritual life. Such impact should not be overshadowed
by calculations of material and physical gains.
Once a decision has been made to support cultural and
historical awareness raising, the next practical problem is
providing capital.
As primary living needs would be the priority in developing
countries, a system of incentives would be needed, apart from
allocation from the state budget.
As a source of economic growth, industrial and trade companies
in the cultural industry have made themselves more solid and
powerful, more so when they have set up multinational firms.
These economic agents need a free market to develop their
ingenuity. This expression of need is an economic standpoint that
has become a political ideology, hoisted persistently by
governments of countries with great economic power.
The imposing of deals to import products of cultural industry
(including aspects of science, philosophy, arts and sports) have
been, in some way, detrimental to the many local cultures.
More pressing to local cultures is that the ideology of free
market comes hand in hand with that of "free flow of
information".
Again, the exponential leading party within the sphere of this
"third revolution in human civilization" -- the information
system and technology -- is mainly that representing Western
culture.
Non-Western potentials that have risen to take the challenge
are still limited, mainly from the Chinese and Japanese cultural
backgrounds. The abundance of cultural goods facilitated by free
market principles is bringing along a cultural domination.
Indonesia has still to embark upon the raising of awareness
among the population, and capacity building among industrial
professionals. These professionals should speed up developing
their expertise in working with all kinds of media. They should
also be well versed in their own culture, be it part of the
national heritage or contemporary works.
The technology and dissemination systems of information are
indeed developing at an incredible speed. Indonesians need to
master this to use such developments creatively: to discover new
formats and technical possibilities, and to promote our own
culture. Indonesia's unique cultural contents should be used and
manipulated as a comparative advantage. The quality of work, of
course, should be competitively viable.
The media, including the electronic multimedia and especially
the Internet, has become a dominant source of information. The
urgent need now is to empower users to make a good choice.
Experts on culture experts should also be challenged to place
all their selected, high quality information into electronic
media as fast as possible. This needs a national drive, lest we
lose the battle for a national identity.
We must improve our understanding of traditional culture.
Traditions are not something static or stagnant. Cultural
historical facts have revealed that traditions do evolve from
time to time, at a varying pace in different places and in
different eras.
The last 50 years of development in the arts in Java and on
Bali has shown many new creations: not only individual works of
art, but also new genres of art forms, both in the visual and
performing arts.
There is indeed creativity within traditions. Its growth needs
a healthy and honorable forum, tended by the myriad of face to
face encounters between people. That is where the life of a
culture is. And the media should help by disseminating
understanding, sharing values and, therefore, supporting culture
as a vessel of creativity, as a code of identity.
The writer is an archeologist who heads the Research Institute
for Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of
Indonesia.