Traditional cultures need bridge with modern world
Traditional cultures need bridge with modern world
JAKARTA (JP): Unless traditional cultures are made easier to
grasp for modern society, they will vanish, Minister of
Environment Sarwono Kusumaatmadja said yesterday.
"Anthropologists, social workers and other groups working with
traditional communities must help to build the bridge with the
modern world," Sarwono said.
Establishing clear marks on territories and documenting them
to support traditional land claims, for instance, would greatly
help community members meet demands for evidence from the
National Land Agency.
"Marks alone may not be enough proof for land ownership, but a
document is at least better than nothing," Sarwono said as he
opened a seminar on Culture, Traditional Wisdom and Conservation.
Numerous conflicts between authorities and traditional
communities have occurred after communities say their age-old
land rights have been taken away unfairly, while authorities say
the claimants lack evidence.
The discussion, at the Centre for Strategic and International
Studies (CSIS), was organized by Sejati, a non-governmental
organization, which studies traditional societies.
Economist Mari Pangestu of the CSIS is also among the
Sejati's founders.
Sarwono noted that as traditions are passed on orally, they
have a slim chance of surviving in a world demanding evidence in
every field.
"When people say traditional communities have a rich knowledge
on preserving the environment, of health and healing, we ask,
what is the proof? I think such cultures, which are passed on
orally through generations, cannot survive long in an age of
advanced technology," said Sarwono.
While the modern world needs to learn from traditional
wisdom, Sarwono acknowledged the difficulty in making possible
every form of traditional culture applicable in modern life.
"Traditional wisdom in maintaining harmony with nature has
developed in subsistence economies; community members may have no
interest in exploiting nature for an economy like ours."
Nevertheless, efforts to link modernity and traditions would
prevent "a repetition of the mistakes of other countries where
their traditional communities are left behind and isolated,"
Sarwono said.
Speaker Mansoer Fakih, a director of the Indonesia office of
the Britain-based Oxfam, said it is modern ideologies which must
be understood, to comprehend the cause of conflicts to the
disfavor of traditional societies.
"Knowledge used to be considered neutral, but now, knowledge
is linked to power," he said.
After labeling a community as "backward," "primitive" or as
"nomadic farmers," authorities and activists carry out their
perceived obligation to "lift" a community out of poverty. But
this leads to the deprivation of their systems of economy,
politics and culture, Fakih said.
To illustrate local wisdom in environment conservation, Abdon
Nababan of Sejati cited agricultural practices among the Dani and
the Kimaam people in Irian Jaya; the Negeri Haruku in Central
Maluku; the Mollo of East Nusa Tenggara; and other traditional
communities.
The seminar concluded with the screening of a film and opening
of an exhibition entitled Rhythms of A Nation: Tradition and
Development in Indonesia, which will last to Aug. 15.(anr)