problems of culture and cultural values in the contemporary...

Problems of culture and cultural values

in the contemporary world

unesco

The authors are responsible for the choice and the presentation of the facts contained in this book, and for the opinions expressed therein, which are not necessarily those of Unesco and do not commit the Organization

CLTIMDl2 @ Unesco 1983

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

CHAPTER I - Cultural values, tradition and modernity byFr. D. MBUNDA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

CHAPTER I1 - Cultural values and new life-styles by Philip BOSSERMAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

CHAPTER I11 - Cultural values and scientific progress byRenCHABACH1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

CHAPTER IV - Culture and communication in Latin America by Oswaldo CAPRILES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

CHAPTER V - Individual and collective creativity by Kazimierz ZYGULSKI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

CHAPTER VI - Cultural values, dialogue between cultures and international co-operation by Prem KIRPAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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INTRODUCTION

During the last ten years there has been an upsurge of interest both in industrialized and in developing countries in problems relating to the preservation and development of cultures and of the values which they express.

The subject of 'values' and 'cultural values' is an extremely vast and complex one. Cultural values may be defined as 'the symbolic relationships which hold together a given society or a group, maintain and enhance the sense of belonging of its particular members, perpetuate the wealth of its social and spiritual heritage, provide a sense of wholeness of life and furnish the criteria of the meaning of individual life'.(l)

According to M r Makagiansar, Unesco's Assistant Director-General for Culture, values and, by extension, cultural values denote 'the broader standards of a shared symbolic system of behavioural orientations and expressions', which, thus conceived, 'serve to integrate as well as to guide and channel the organized activities of the members of a society'.(2)

C. Kluckhohn regards cultural values as affective or cognitive symbols inasmuch as they formalize a conception of the desirable which influences the forms, means and aims of action. (3)

Cultural values, thus defined, have been the object of particular attention in the United Nations General Assembly and in Unesco, on account of the importance attached in the last ten years or so to problems of overall development in contemporary societies and its endogenous aspects .

Unesco's work in the field of cultural values has focused on the relationship between cultural values and the overall development process, education, science and technology, communication, the quality of life, artistic creativity and international co-operation.(4) The studies in question show how and to what extent cultural values determine activities in these fields or, on the contrary, are determined by them during the period of change and transition which both developing and industrially advanced societies are undergoing at present. The studies show that there are several reasons why the preservation and full development of cultural values should henceforth be one of the prime concerns of the

During the last few years for example,

organs and other authorities responsible for channelling the efforts of the international community designed to promote a more harmonious existence.

THE CULTURAL DIMENSION OF DEVELOPMENT

Any inquiry into the specific role of cultural values in modern society raises the problem of cultural development structures and their relationship to the global development process.

The idea of a mode of development which gives particular prominence to cultural values stems from awareness of the limits of purely economic approaches. The shortcomings of a conception of development focused solely on economics are reflected increasingly clearly in the structural illogicalities, inequalities and conflicts which can be seen both in the life of individual nations and in international affairs. The loss of credibility of such a conception has given rise to a new multi-pronged approach making it possible for a people's culture and history to be fully reflected in its overall development process, and has consequently revealed the significance of culture in economic growth and trans- fers of technology.

enous development must therefore first have an awareness of its distinctive cultural values and embark on appropriate action to assert its cultural identity.

In this context, in which cultural values are recognized as an essential component in the complete development of individuals and: communities, the notion of cultural policy takes on its full significance. The essence of a cultural policy is that it draws on the collective experience accumulated by the different social groups within a given community in order to enhance what, in this heritage, can give the men of today confidence enabling them the better'to enter into their common destiny and build their future.

Any change is in principle a move from tradition to modernity. But modernity can only lead to a better quality of life if it springs from the inner vitality of a culture, not if it is the result

Any people that sets out to achieve endog-

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of applying imported and imposed models. Mod- ernization should not be seen as the mere transfer of a Western country's development model to a Third World country. It must not become a historical repetition of the Western model, resulting in 'reproducing in developing countries the same system of technology, a similar form of organization of space and identical ways of organizing production and labour'. (5)

It is now evident that development is a total, multirelational process, involving all aspects of the life of a community, its relations with the outside and its self-awareness. According to the Director-General of Unesco, 'the benefit from development must be of advantage to man from every point of view. The raising of the standard of living first of all is, of course, fundamental, but an improvement in material conditions is not enough . . . Development must therefore be aimed at the spiritual, moral and material advancement of the whole human being, both as a member of society and from the point of view of individual fulfilment. . . . Far from subjecting people to some form of external discipline, or alienating them by the attraction of foreign ways of life, it should help in emancipating them, enable them to seek their own way, and safeguard their dignity as free and responsible beings'. (6)

view of economic growth is gradually giving way to the richer concept of integrated development, cultural values are taking on their full importance. Development is presented from this standpoint as an 'organic process involving a number of constantly interacting and overlapping, economic, scientific and technical, social and cultural factors'. (7)

This gave rise to the idea that each country must devise a form of development which would correspond to its own cultural values, i. e. an endogenous development. If development does not take extra- economic values, and especially cultural values, into account, it will never attain its objectives. 'Although economic growth is a fundamental factor in development, it is really policy decisions of an essentially cultural kind which determine the direction it will take and the use that will be made of it in the service of individuals and societies, with a view to satisfying their most legitimate needs and ambitions. ' (8)

In the world today, where the quantitative

CULTURAL VALUES AND EDUCATION

In all societies, culture and education, of which the rudiments are provided by the family environment, foster the harmonious integration of individuals and groups in the community. These factors making for socialization can be seen to be basically complementary. Economic and social development is in fact determined to a large extent by the prevailing world view of each society, a view which is itself influenced by the values transmitted by education systems and the sensitivity and awareness which they help to create. Education is thus by its very nature

suited to serve as the repository of the cultural heritage.

ill-adapted to the real situation, aspirations and needs of individuals and groups. A new form of education is needed, which would start from a quite different conception of economic and social life, of culture and the future of society. This form of education would be deeply rooted in local realities, and education systems would have to be reoriented so as to reflect more fully the most significant values of national cultures and civilizations.

The school, although retaining its leading role in transmitting knowledge and developing the personality, is no longer regarded as the only source of education. seen to be a lifelong process which provides each individual throughout his life with constant opportunities for updating and enriching his knowledge and which thus involves' the whole educational potential of a society. Modern education must therefore be closely related to the specific characteristics and needs of the society in which it is dispensed. Those responsible for education must therefore give increasing attention to the need for educational contents to correspond to the needs and aspirations of local communities and of the nation as a whole.

If education is to take into account the most significant values of national cultures, attention must be given to traditional techniques, which are of great value in renewing cultural systems and asserting cultural identity. School curricula already include a number of local elements, through the teaching of history and geography, but their content should be extended to include art education, crafts and oral traditions.

content of ancestral educational traditions from the point of view of the use that can be made of it to remodel educational and cultural systems; is also desirable to study present trends in education in the light of socio-economic and cultural developments, in order to clarify the links between cultural action and educational action on the one hand and, on the other hand, cultural policy and educational policy within the context of lifelong education.

part education plays in socialization and reflecting on how the education system can be geared to the socio-cultural and socio-economic realities of the basic communities, and on the extent to which their cultural values correspond to the overall development needs of the society.

Since family values make a powerful contribution to the socialization of the individual, education systems should be reoriented so as to reflect more fully those features of them that are most significant from the cultural point of view.

Gearing education to social realities would narrow the gap which separates the culture of the elite from that of the masses. The notion of continuous training is organically linked to that of a global education through which the individual, having received a balanced and comprehensive

All too often, education systems are still

Education is increasingly

It is important therefore to study the cultural

it

A further task consists in highlighting the

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training, would be able to play an active part in the political, economic, social, cultural and artistic life of his society, and would gain a better understanding of other customs and cultures.

CULTURAL VALUES, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

It is now recognized that science and technology can no longer develop in isolation from cultural values, as the influence which they exert on a given society probably constitutes the most important element to be considered, but also the most difficult to pin-point.

With this in view, Unesco has carried out major studies on the impact of science and technology on ethical and aesthetic values, ways of life or the social and cultural environment of societies, so as to contribute to the promotion of endogenous scientific and technological development. The introduction of any new technology is a cultural phenomenon which has a direct or indirect effect on the living environment, the behaviour and the cultural values of societies.

and "technology" is not uncommonly presented as one of direct interaction. On the one hand, cultural values are seen as a determining factor in the choice and impact of technology; on the other hand, technology is conceived as potentially transforming cultural values. This is particularly true of the analysis of the relationship between values and technology in traditional societies. In this type of analysis it is often assumed that values determine social behaviour (assumption of causality), that values form a coherent system shared by the whole of a given society (assumption of homogeneity) and that values constitute the core of culture and lend it creativity and capacity of resistance.

This kind of analysis, too closely associated with cultural determinism, takes order as the central feature of (traditional) society, and views social change as essentially evolutionary or incremental. By contrast, technological determinism assumes that technological innovation is the driving force behind social change, imposing its own logic on the social actors and their relations. The debate on development has reflected these opposed views. '(9)

It is more and more widely recognized that the transfer of a technology deriving from the industrialized countries cannot in itself serve as a basis for development unless any adaptation of the technology that may be needed in the developing countries is based on the socio-cultural conditions actually obtaining. The transfer of technology thus becomes a question of establishing a rational balance between outside and inside, between world culture and the national heritage.

Emphasis must also be placed on the developing countries' need for a diverse range of technologies (modern and traditional, high-, medium- and low-level), so that they may be suited to local resources, to the needs of the population and to the socio-cultural environment.

I The relationship between "cultural values"

It is also

essential to analyse the possible specific consequences of the introduction of new technologies on the behaviour and values of the social actors concerned.

'In this context, it would be useful to distinguish the impact of two kinds of technological change. On one side, there are those that have a geographically and socially rather limited incidence (although these may profoundly affect the work and life of those directly involved, e. g. the mechanization of mining operations, the construction of a dam in a rural area, etc. ). On the other side, there are much more diffuse technological innovations affecting society at large.

Let us elaborate this distinction briefly. In the case of specific technology, as a set of operations introduced deliberately in a delimited context, frequently with the aim of solving a problem (e. g. low output in agriculture or mining) or of producing a new commodity or service, some agent--public or private--must have made a decision to introduce it. Diffuse technology is typi- cally a commodity or a service offered for use through the market to the public at large. tedly, what now appears as diffuse technology, pervasively present, may have been introduced deliberately at an earlier stage. Typical examples of currently diffuse technology, connected to specific development projects in the past, are public transportation and the sewer- age system. specific technology is relevant for the analysis of their consequences. Specific technology, for instance the electronic processing of banking operations, directly affects a circumscribed group of people, in this case certain categories of bank employees, although their number may be large. Also, specific technology is generally imposed on a group: its members have not much choice but to adopt it in one way or another. By contrast, access to diffuse technology is in principle open to an unlimited number of people, though in practice its use is restricted, through the mechanism of price, social discrimination, and so on. At the same time, those who have access may choose whether or not to use it, and, if so, to what degree.

a transformation of social relations affected in a rather immediate way, in particular of the social organization of work, while diffuse technology offers options for alternative social behaviours.!( 10)

The real problem however still remains autochthonous knowledge. There is an increasingly wide measure of agreement in recognizing the importance and value of this culture-specific knowledge and the fact that it is functionally geared to the socio-cultural and economic environment of each society, in contrast to modern scientific and technological know-how which reduces everything to uniformity and strips the various cultures of their personality. In this connection, M r MIBOW, Director-General of Unesco, observes: 'Once it is seen as global, development can no longer be the direct extension to the whole world of the knowledge, ways of thought, life-styles or experiences specific to a single

Admit-

The distinction between diffuse and

To summarize, specific technology induces

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region of the world; each local development must be related to its own values and culture. It is not enough to transfer the sum total of the knowledge available in developed countries to the developing countries; to do this excludes the possibility of any genuine implan- tation of science and technology in the countries at the receiving end. It favours the "brain drain" and even slows down the general advancement of knowledge by depriv- ing the creative imagination of access to more varied sources than those on which the existing system drew!. (11) The transfer of knowledge should aim to

achieve a harmonious synthesis of modern technology and the specific characteristics of the various peoples, so as to encourage endogenous scientific and technological development. This is directly linked to the assertion of the cultural identity of each society, since the impact of science and technology on ethical and aesthetic values can no longer be ignored.

CULTURAL VALUES AND COMMUNICATION

The proliferation of exchanges today facilitates the interaction of the different civilizations. How- ever, the total volume of data passing from the industrialized countries (which account for one- third of world population) to the non-industrialized is at least a hundred times that flowing in the opposite direction. The communication industries and their networks are moving towards increasingly marked transnationalization, which involves the export of ideologies that bring in their train foreign values, models and forms of behaviour. The impact of these foreign influences is such as to cast a shadow over the future identity or cultural sovereignty of the peoples concerned.

The mass media exert an influence on the aspirations, needs and behaviour of all social strata. Modern technology has entirely trans- formed both industrialized societies and developing societies and lends a new dimension to the possibilities for exchange and communication which determine their evolution. In recent years, the MacBrideReport(l2) has thrownagreat deal of light on these issues.

National and international communication policies have been elaborated, and it has been suggested that their effects are such that they should be linked to cultural policies, as twin facets in the integrated development of individuals and societies.

However, despite recent efforts to explain and analyse the problems, the relationship between the communication system and cultural values remains somewhat ambiguous and requires further clarification.

Further work is needed on investigating the relation between the forms and contents of communication and information and the contexts in which these are produced and disseminated, and on identifying the factors which could promote

the Id emocr atiz ation! (and d ec onc entr at ion ) of communication or on the contrary increase inequalities and dependence in this field.

Special attention should be given to the different aspects of communication problems (social, cultural, economic, political, ideological etc. ), and it is necessary to define the new role which the media are playing or could play in fostering the development of cultural values and increasing their use in collective education, in fostering creativity and expression, in improving international relations, in disseminating scientific knowledge and in keeping the general public informed (especially concerning the effects of new technologies, e. g. nuclear power and informatics).

An examination of the problem of the significance, constraints and scope of information and communication involves identifying the positive and negative effects which the standardization of opinions and taste, advertising propaganda and the manipulation of public opinion have or could have on ways of life, cultural values and the cultural specificity of individuals and groups. also involves drawing attention to the danger (if danger there is) resulting from the gradual disappearance of traditional forms of communication and the adoption of modern forms of technology without having forecast their possible consequences on social relations and cultural values.

Following on from such an analysis, it would be interesting to indicate the significant factors which might be useful for conceiving and elaborat- ing communication policies that were closely linked to cultural policies in general and to cultural values in particular.

It

CULTURAL VALUES AND CREATIVITY

The question of the relationship between creativity (especially artistic and intellectual creativity), social life and cultural values is raising increasing interest among researchers and men of action.

Modern man seeks to achieve the enrichment and advancement of living values through free creative activity. Each man in a way is a creator and wishes to be recognized as such. What has to be done is to give back to everyone, groups and individuals alike, an awareness of their talents and possibilities for participating in creative activity; what has to be done in fact is find a solution to the problems of our times by transforming inner attitudes and outward behaviour.

For this purpose it is only right to turn to the creator, the artist, from whom we must constantly seek guidance, for he plays an invaluable role in the transformation of society. It has been said that of all human activities, it is artistic creation which best expresses a civilization. Those who create carry in them forms of expression and vision which make them both the custo- dians of cultural values and the inspirers of new values, harbingers of a future they dimly pres- age and for which they pave the way. Instead of losing himself in a reductionist universalism, the artist of today seeks recognition through his specific identity. It is therefore important to

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study the status of the artist in modern society and to inquire into the responsibilities that stem from his function as well as the rights that should be recognized as accruing to him.

gramme to stimulate artistic and intellectual creativity, a complex process which depends not only on the latent creativity of the socio-cultural environment and the combined action of artists, public, institutions and authorities, but also on international exchanges. The Organization's activities cover the various fields of artistic expression and include interdisciplinary research on creativity, by various mzans including audio- visual media, the aim being to preserve and promote artistic values and use a great variety of means to encourage creative research and strengthen the links between the artist and society.

In this field, however, much remains to be done. to give priority to defining the notion of artistic and intellectual creativity on the conceptual and epistemological planes, from the point of view of philosophy and the social sciences, and identify the attendant difficulties;

to determine the status and functions of art in modern society, highlighting in particular its influence on cultural and aesthetic values and on the development of the individual personality and society as a whole;

to make a study on the main aspects of the 'latent creativity' of the social and cultural environment and spell out the status of creative artists and the ways in which they can influence different segments of the population and various public bodies and authorities. The Recommenda- tion concerning the Status of the Artist, adopted by the General Conference at its twenty-first session, held in Belgrade, constitutes a major step forward in this direction; (13)

to elucidate the dialectical ambiguity complemen- tarity characterizing the relationship between artistic creativity and technology.

Unesco has endeavoured to develop its pro-

In particular it is necessary:

QUALITY OF THE ENVIRONMENT A N D C U L T U R A L V A L U E S

Many individuals, groups and social movements are mobilizing their efforts today in defence of the environment and are actively involved in safeguarding their cultural and moral values and their cultural and natural heritage. A similar trend may be observed in regard to the activities and studies that are being carried out in the field of theory and research.

that it is impossible to separate environment from the way of life or the way of life from the concept of life. human environment are too often taken without sufficient knowledge of the interaction of the many elements of social life in different contexts, the deep needs of the human beings belonging to specific cultures, the interactions between the attitudes or specific behaviour of human groups

The global notion of environment assumes

But social decisions concerning the

or the changes affecting their environment, in short, the adaptive or creative capability of the cultures concerned. Not enough is yet known of the nature and effects of the many tensions to which man is subjected in the modern world, particularly in the major urban areas, where the inhabitants cannot always count on even a mini- m u m of hygiene and security. And by the year 2000 it is estimated that 51 per cent of the world population will live in urban areas.

There is a lack of criteria for creating human environments in which individuals and groups can create and seek new values without risking cultural disintegration. can one develop a concept of a quality of life which does not accentuate the gap between rich and poor, but which is sufficiently broad to satisfy the basic needs of those groups that are most disadvantaged and often cut off from their roots?

To ensure a better quality of the environment it would be necessary: to improve individual and collective behaviour

How for example

and attitudes towards the human environment and the cultural heritage, made up of the monuments, oral, musical and choreographic traditions, folklore, art, etc., inherited by a people and a society;

to formulate hypotheses concerning the dynamic relationship between man (and his values) and the environment in contemporary societies and hence throw light on the ecological bases of the environment as a setting in which cultural values are able to flourish;

to define norms for creating environments which encourage the harmonious development of the individual.

INTERNATIONAL CULTURAL

BETWEEN CULTURES CO-OPERATION AND THE DIALOGUE

As a product of our time, which is one of sweep- ing changes, international co-operation brings together the different social groups, peoples and nations. Culture plays a fundamental role in these changes in so far as the changes which affect economic development also affect socio-cultural development. that the cultural dimension should be taken into account when envisaging the future of societies and cultural values regarded as something which all peoples hold in high regard.

ticity depend on its enjoying cultural sovereignty, so that cultural development and international co- operation alike presuppose the recognition of cultural sovereignty. Any failure to respect this principle gives rise to a form of aggression or attempted domination. Peace in the world and peaceful coexistence are directlylinked to respect for the cultural and political sovereignty of peoples.

cultural specificity is wholly compatible with cultural pluralism. must be enriched by national cultures and regional

For that reason it is now accepted

But a people's cultural identity and authen-

It goes without saying that the assertion of

For that reason world culture

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cultural values, through a lasting relationship based on equality.

Living cultures are linked together through knowledge and it is now possible to gauge the cultural diversity of the world. The result is to relativize cultures and reject any absolutist claims. is through the universal acquisition of modes of expression, whether written or audio-visual, and this interaction is essential, for an introspective culture which rejects outside influences eventually ossifies and becomes incapable of further development. It is by rubbing up against each other that different cultures mutually help each other to develop. Some cultures, however, although not ossifying, are not strong enough to resist outside influences.

given to the concept of culture in the study of international relations, whereas cultural diversity is one of the most obvious aspects of human development. Intercultural understanding depends on group ideology as much as on the specific features of the individual, for in the most widely different cultures, men's view of the world reflects the images acquired within their group.

tantamount to maintaining that the dialogue between cultures can still leave both sides to the dialogue with their identity intact and rejecting models such as those which the proponents of cultural evolutionism habitually present as the only ones possible.

Such are the themes developed below. They reflect the efforts made by Unesco to define a new approach to development and indicate its ultimate aim, namely to endeavour to promote integrated and harmonious development which is both just and truly human,

The means by which cultures interact

So far, only a very limited place has been

To argue in favour of cultural pluralism is

ACTION BY UNESCO

Let us summarize briefly Unesco's work during the last ten years to promote the preservation and development of cultural values.

The first time the Director-General of the Organization expressed his views on this question was in 1973, in response to the request put forward in ,resolution 3026 A entitled 'Human rights and scientific and technological developments', adopted by the United Nations General Assembly at its twenty-seventh session.

Subsequently, the United Nations General Assembly, in resolutions 3026 A (XXVII) of 18 December 1972, 3148 (XXIII) of 14 December 1973, 31/39 of 30 November 1976 and 33/49 of 14 December 1978, again drew attention to the problem of the preservation and development of cultures and of the values which they express, and also heard statements by the Director- General of Unesco introducing the reports he submitted to the Assembly, summarizing the work accomplished by Unesco and its projects in this field.

the General Conference of Unesco at its eighteenth In accordance with the decisions taken by

andnineteenth sessions (Paris 1974, Nairobi 1976), the Organization convened a Committee of Experts on the Preservation and Further Development of Cultural Values, which met at Warsaw in October 1977. The terms of reference for the meeting were to contribute towards the preparation of the report to be presented by the Director-General of Unesco at the thirty-third session of the United Nations General Assembly (1978). The meeting, organized in collaboration with the Polish Minis- try of Culture and Fine Arts and the Polish National Commission for Unesco, brought together experts invited in their personal capacities, coming from different geocultural areas and belonging to different socio-cultural disciplines.

Resolution 4.131 adopted bythe GeneralCon- ference of Unesco at its nineteenth session (Nairobi) stressed the need 'to implement a programme relating to the integrated cultural development of Member States with a view to contributing to the affirmation of cultural identity and fostering the full development of cultural values, as factors in the endogenous development of nations'.

The Organization's Medium-Term Plan (1977- 1982) stressed that development can only be translated into concrete and meaningful terms if it takes account of the social context to which it is applied and in particular the cultural values of the society in question, which alone make it possible to appreciate the importance of the human factors in development. lighted the cultural dimension of development by placing economic action in its social context and by revealing the links between technological change and human behaviour. The objectives of Unesco's Medium-Term Plan and the resulting activities in the field of preservation and full development of cultural values have in fact revealed the full significance of global development, as well as pointing to the sources from which it draws its strength and indicating the lines along which it should be directed.

Conference adopted resolution 411.215 in which it again recognized that cultural values play an exceptional role in the development of all nations and in international co-operation.

In 1978, the Special Committee of Unescols Executive Board examined an in-depth study on 'Strengthening of cultural values and cultural policy making', submitted by Eugenia Krassowska of Poland. (14) In that study the author indicated that 'if cultural values are an integral part of social life, it seems necessary to place cultural policy in the wider context of general state policy'. (15) She showed how this concept had been further clarified since the Intergovernmen- tal Conference on Institutional, Administrative and Financial Aspects of Cultural Policies, held in Venice in 1970, followed by the Intergovern- mental Conferences on Cultural Policies held in Helsinki in 1972 for Europe, Yogyakarta in 1973 for Asia, Accra in 1975 for Africa and Bogota in 1978 for America and the Caribbean. (16) The author concluded that questions relating to cultural values occupied an important place in Unesco's programmes.

The Plan high-

At its twentieth session, in 1978, the General

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Also inresolution4/1.2/5, theGeneral Con- ference of Unesco, at its twentiethsession (1978), invited the Director-General to prepare, for the Second World Conference on Cultural Policies, in 1982, a publication containing information on studies, experience, achievements and proposals in the field of the preservation and development of cultural values in all regions of the world.

project was launched in January 1980. The outcome of this preparatory work is this series of

In preparation for this publication a research

six studies by authors from India, Lebanon, Poland, Tanzania, the United States of America and Venezuela. These studies together form a multidisciplinary analysis of the place and role of cultural values in modern societies. They illustrate the fact that it is on the level of cultural values and cultural expression that societies will best be able to affirm their own identity, while at the same time co-operating harmoniously with the rest of the world.

NOTES

1.

2.

3.

4.

5. 6. 7.

8.

9.

10. 11.

12.

International Thesaurus of Cultural Devel- opment, Paris, Unesco, 1980. p. 19. MAKAGIANSAR, M. 'Preservation and Fur- ther Development of Cultural Values' in Cultures, Vol. VI, No. I, The Unesco Press and La Baconniere, p. 11. KLUCKHOHN, C. 'Values and value; Orientation in the theory of action . . . in Toward a general theory of action. Parsons & Shih Ed. Cambridge (Mass. ), Harvard Uni- versity Press, 1962. W e based this introduction mainly on the following documents: A/31/111, August 1976 - A/33/157, September 1978 - A/35/349, September 1980 (United Nations) - CC-614/2, August 1977 (Unesco). United Nations, document A/35/349, p. 16. 'Thinking Ahead', Unesco 1977, p. 85. International Thesaurus of Cultural Develop- ment, op. cit., p. 25. Unesco: Intergovernmental Conference on Cultural Policies in Africa, Final Report, p. 58. ACKERMAN, W. 'Cultural values and social choice of technology', in International Social Science Journal. Vol. 33. No. 3, 1981, p. 447. Idem, p. 460. Moving towards change, Unesco, Paris 1976, Appendix, para. 15. Many Voices, One World, Report by the International Commission for the Study of

Communication Problems; Kogan Page/ Unipub/Unesco, 1980.

13. Recommendation concerning the status of the artist, adopted by the General Conference of Unesco at its twenty-first session (Belgrade 1980). Records of the General Con- ference, Vol. I, Resolutions.

SP/RAP/Z, Unesco, 16 August 1978. 14. KRASSOWSKA, Eugenia, document 105 EX/

15. Idem. 16. Intergovernmental Conference on Institu-

tional, Administrative and Financial Aspects of Cultural Policies, Venice, 24 August- 2 September 1970; Final Report (Paris, Unesco 1970). Intergovernmental Conference on Cultural Policies in Europe, Helsinki, 19-28 June 1972; Final Report (Paris, Unesco 1972).

Intergovernmental Conference on Cultural Policies in Asia, Yogyakarta, 10- 19 Decem- ber 1973; FinalReport (Paris, Unesco 1974).

Intergovernmental Conference on Cultural Policies in Africa organized by Unesco with the co-operation of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), Accra, 27 October- 6 November 1975; Final Report (Paris, Unesco 1975).

Intergovernmental Conference on Cultural Policies in Latin America and the Carib- bean, Bogota, 10-20 January 1978: Final Report (Paris, Unesco 1978). .

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CHAPTER I

Cultural values, tradition and modernity

by Fr. D. MBUNDA

'Of all the crimes of colonialism there is none worse than the attempt to make us believe w e had no indigenous culture of our own, or that what w e did have was worthless - something of which w e should be ashamed, instead of a source of pride. (Nyerere, 1973: 186).

tural variety reinforced by the results of a more scientific and objective search for reality contra- dicts the famous empty pot theory applied to the African culture during the colonial period.

One cannot read without fascination Evans- Pritchard's description of the Nuer social complex (Evans-Pritchard, 1967) or Lucy Mair's 'African Societies' (Mair, 1974) which analyses eighteen African cultures in a way that reveals how rich and resourceful African societies are (Bascomandi Herskovits, 1975). Archaeological excavations by famous scientists like Dr Leaky point to the yet undisputed cultural contribution Africa has made to human progress since its early beginnings (Cole, 1964). These small- scale but detailed studies of African communities have highlighted the complexity of the so-called simple, pre-literate communities, and have aroused a tremendous interest in the 'art of survival' of these societies amidst harsh natural environments and human rapacity during the slave trade and subsequent colonial domination.

The diversity of African cultural patterns makes it difficult, if not impossible, for any attempt to analyse adequately the African phenomenon in a few pages as this chapter will try to do. The discussion will therefore be limited, to an area narrow enough to highlight some of the specific cultural achievements in traditional African communities with special reference to Tanzania. The advantage of this approach is that the author will be discussing an area familiar to him. Such a discussion can also lead to certain general conclusions of tentative universal applicability (Hughes, 1976: 128).

are many similarities that these communities share among themselves and with other human groups elsewhere in the world--as ethnographic studies show (Mair, 1968).

Tallensi in Ghana or Beidelman's description of

The view that Africa is a continent of cul-

Given African ethnic differentiations, there

Fortes' work about the Ashantis and the

the Kagaru of Tanzania have general points of contact with Malinowski's description of the Trobriand Islanders, or Benedict's work on the Indians of the north-west coast of America and Mexico. These 'global' similarities of simple societies tend to be closer among African institutions, especially those which claim the same ancestral origin or inhabit the same geographical region. Thus social units in Africa north of the Sahara would share certain social patterns more closely than with communities south of the Sahara.

institutions of the traditional communities analys - ing their structures, systems and the beliefs and values that link the whole social fabric into a meaningful scheme, The ancestral cultural values will be analysed as well as their links with ancestral education processus.

An evaluation of socio- economic and cultural nature during the colonial and post-independence era will attempt to show the extent to which the education system interacted with or against these traditional values. Consideration will be given to education at the grass-roots level in the rural and urban situation in contemporary societies. tors favouring or hindering preservation of grass- roots communities and affecting the broadening of educational experiments will be dealt with. Finally, the chapter will suggest how adult education can contribute to the full participation of all in socio-cultural life, and point out possible educational innovations from the African traditional experiences to enrich the evolution of the African personality.

Let us, therefore, take a closer look at the

Fac-

I. CULTURAL VALUES IN AFRICAN SOCIETIES

1. Methodology - small-scale approach

The first step is to investigate the content of the culture among the communities in Africa with special reference to Tanzania and how this affects the process of social reproduction. But there is a methodological difficulty here. There is no single genuine traditional ethnic group in Tanzania today that has not come into contact with modernizing influences. All are in the process of change.

13

How can we reconstruct the situation as it pre- vailed before the establishment of colonial rule? This problem is made more acute for these ethnic groups lack documentary literature. How- ever, the problem is not entirely insoluble.

It is not unusual in a community to find a Christian convert living a dual life: prayerful member of his church, and believer in the ancestral beliefs. Bascon and Herskovits make the same observation about stability and change in African culture. 'Despite the intensity of Christian missionary efforts and the thousand years of Muslim proselytizing which marked the history of various parts of Africa, African religions continue to manifest vitality everywhere. ' Further on they note that the tenacity with which the religious aspect of African life has maintained itself can equally be applied to other cultural aspects (Bascom and Herskovits, 1975: 3). In spite of the modern and Western influence in African societies, deep down the African 'ego' may have been only superficially touched. Given the proper study and approach one can reach a fair reconstruction of what traditional society was.

Another problem in investigating African cultural phenomena is the idiom of communication. People see and interpret the external world through the percepts of their culture. The codes w e use to describe a phenomenon are defined subjectively by our culture. It becomes a problem particularly when an observer has to deal with an unfamiliar situation involving human activities and institutions. These are further complicated by the fact that man acts from certain motives which may be manifest or latent (Morton, 1957: 51). To discover the real meaning of a human set of behaviour patterns, one has, as it were, to get into the ideas, perception and interpretation of the actor and see the phenomenon the way the actor sees it and expresses it.

community life in traditional Africa. W e shall therefore start with the social organization, then proceed to the economic organization and finally identify the cultural contents that constitute the heritage to be transmitted through the social process we call education.

But before w e enter into the discussion proper, with special reference to the Tanzanian case, let us have a look at the theoretical problem dealing with our study.

When a powerful people come to a locality and conquer the indigenous people, the conquered group's culture usually disappears, and that of the dominant group becomes the culture of the new social entity. To use Bourdieu's phrase, there is a kind of 'symbolic violence' in the fact that the dominant class (conquerors) imposes itself on the other. Their way of life is presented as the only valid universal and reasonable way of engaging life. 'reasonable! alternative but to internalize these values and legitimize the new way of life by accepting it as 'their culture!. Yet, even the ensuing dominant culture must continue to negotiate its legiti- macy against views competing for accommodation.

Briefly, w e are attempting to reconstruct

The subordinate group has no

Societies, seen from the structural-conflict- theory point of view are always in constant change making it possible for them to develop, whereas the structural functionalist approach tends to por- tray societies as static and conservative.

These two schools of thought are useful in our analysis of education in traditional societies. Many social anthropologists have unfairly defined traditional African societies as conservative and lacking dynamism, societies where custom and tradition stifled all personal creativity of individuals.

Let us now try to link our analysis of culture to traditional African communities. Our discussion about the organization of traditional societies refutes the allegations that Africa has no culture of its own. W e have in fact been able to show just the opposite. had developed their own political and religious organization. Justice was administered through defined systems of social controls, rewards and punishments.

in the world around. effect was applied in magic, divination and in the whole system of the world and life beyond this visible one.

African societies had also developed their own technical know-how to cope with natural forces. Some of these skills, for instance iron smithery, were quite sophisticated, and there were a lot of rituals attached to it.

herbs for all the maladies people brought to them. Hunters had an immense stock of knowledge about wild life.

whereby it ensures its continuation. existence is sustained through procreation; culture through its socialization education process whose main functions are to conserve and reproduce the ideology of the dominant group which all sectors of the society have been conveniently conditioned to assent to and accept.

It is not a simple issue to explain how social consciousness comes about and how people eventually adopt the ideology of the dominant group in a community. Sociologists of the structural functionalist school (Coulson and Riddell, 1979: c. 3) argue that societies in a way operate like a machine.

The purpose of the individuals in society is the maintenance of order, which is the condition of advancing towards the desired goal. Of course, the dominant class would determine in the ideology what the goal is. The pattern of the behaviour of individuals can be explained by analysing their functions. This view tends to emphasize the power of 'SOCIETY' written large, over the individuals, who in fact are the only reality in society. It reifies society.

existence in a culture of subcultures which negotiate coexistence with the dominant culture.

Hence there is another school of thought that attempts to explain social change differently from the structural functional school.

African traditional societies

African societies attempted also to see sense The principle of cause and

The medicine doctors knew by heart all the

No society can survive without a system

its Its physical

Structural functionalism fails to explain the

This theory is

14

known as the structural conflict theory. Accord- ing to this theory, culture and social change cannot be entirely explained in terms of the over- whelming and forceful imposition of the ideas of a dominant group over their subordinates; rather, it is a complex product of the interaction of competing groups/individuals within the societies negotiating for group identity in the social interaction. According to these theorists, the dominant group's cultural hegemony is never complete.

2. Social organization of African traditional societies

The most fundamental concept in organizing traditional societies is kinship. Kinship is a social relationship in a biological idiom, to use the adept expression of Rivers. It establishes a grid of socially related members who trace their descent from a common ancestor in a patrilineal society or a common ancestress in a matrilineal community. The common ancestor may be real or mythical. Although the kinship view of human relations is based on 'common blood', what is important is its sociological significance. What do the people themselves think about those kinship networks? What meanings do they attach to these terms? One ought to understand this conception of relational positions as seen not by the observer from outside but by the participant himself in the drama of actual life in a particular community (Beattie, 1976, Chapter 7: 75). The kinship categories are not mere empty words to the members of the group. They define corpor- ate units as the basis for mutual support, defence and claims to the productive resources of the group, whether these be land for cultivation, pasture or hunting, or claims to cattle, nets or boats for fishing. They define a member's social status, his pattern of behaviour, his duties and rights, his rank and his share in the rituals that regulate his relation with the supernatural forces and social well-being. It confers on the m e m - ber the right to inheritance of the lineage resources. It is important to note that the same kinship term may have different social significance in different societies. The 'load' of meaning attached to 'father' among the Makonde in Tanzania is quite different than that which is attached to it by the Matengo. The Makonde are matrilineal; while the Matengo are patrilineal. To carry that point further, in African societies, unlike Western societies, a term like 'father' or 'mother' encompasses more than just the biological father or mother.

This conception underlies the significance of social solidarity in traditional society. One assumes a social role on behalf of the kinship group. When a male member dies without offspring, his groupmates can still bear him children and continue his lineage just the same. This strong sense of belongingness to the family, lineage or clan is very characteristic of African tradition. The group tends to bulk larger in the social life than the individual. This is also underscored in the characteristic network of co- operation to maintain the social good rather than that of the individual.

At the root the kinship system links up m e m - bers in one household. a lineage and lineages link themselves into a clan with a common ancestor. social linkage 'Ujamaa'--a social consciousness of belonging together.

clan develop strong feelings of solidarity about their group. Upon this is based their sense of mutual, social responsibility (Kenya Government, 1965: 3-4) and sense of sharing and co-operation for the good of the clan or lineage. attains full significance only inasmuch as he reciprocates adequately in the constant interplay of duties and rights attached to his social roles.

A very significant aspect about social roles is their egalitarian perspective. A member can aspire and attain to many complex social roles some of which may seem unreasonable in the mentality of the Western logic. Among the Chaggas in northern Tanzania, the first male child is regarded as and named after the grandfather on the father's side. child develops a dual attitude towards him in his daily life--in one sense the child is his son, but in another he is his 'father'. Consequently, respect is socially developed around him as the 'grandfather's alter ego'. This conception has significant pedagogical usefulness in the character formation of children in traditional African homes. Parents appeal to these 'assumed social roles' when they require them to do some rather difficult tasks.

Who is the successful member in such a society? Longevity alone does not make a successful life. The decisive factor is the number of successful social roles one can fulfil compe- tently in one's lifetime.

For instance as a sibling, then uncle, hus- band, father, grandfather, one assumes a constellation of titles as one grows older. Social recognition arising from performance of the individual roles confers social status and social meaningfulness, ranking and prestige. Social rejection is the most feared sanction traditional society can inflict on any member. Social approval more than wealth or political power was the 'social good' avidly sought by members in traditional society. A highly respected member was not necessarily the wealthiest man in the village (Nyerere, 1973: 165).

The unity of the kinship system is maintained by a number of mechanisms. of them. regard by the members of the clan as a symbol of their unity with special rituals which symbolically cement and reinforce the solidarity of the group.

totemic species. clan is named after their totem--the Mbundamilia- - the Zebra. So this family name identifies a clan- mate and sets him apart from other clans (Freud,

Certain taboos may be enjoined on clan m e m -

The households join into

Tanzania terms this

Kinship is an important code. Members of a

The individual

The father of the

The totem is one It is an animal or plant held with special

The kin group may also be named after the Among the Matengos the Mbunda

1960: 2-3).

bers: marriage within the clan is a taboo in many traditional societies; the eating of the totem species is also a taboo in certain cases.

15

Then there are clan rituals connected with major events in the life cycle of its members such as birth, marriage, funeral or ancestor worship, planting or harvesting rituals. What values do all these play in the African view of society? First, certain tasks, e. g. defence against outsiders, wild animals or natural disas- ters necessitate clan efforts. The unity of the members is symbolicallyreinforced in the totem, taboos and clan rituals.

Affinity as a mechanism of social organization is closely related to kinship. The affinity relationship is based on marriage. Most African societies marry outside their clan. This is not only a way of reinforcing their own unity by minimizing sources of possible competitions and the ensuing conflicts among close relations, but also a way of expanding social relationships beyond their own kin. Group feuds and group debts were often settled peacefully by marriage between the parties concerned.

bers in traditional society mainly because it was a symbol of personal maturity and self-reliance and the source of offspring. There was also a social and cosmological reason behind it. unmarried man, however old, was regarded as a 'child', and one who died without a child would be 'helped' to raise his 'seed'. Otherwise he could not be honoured among the ancestral spirits--the highest social honour (Mair, 1968: 84-85).

Polygamy was an accepted pattern of marriage. The role of the mother in the upbringing of children cannot be overemphasized. Marriage was largely entered upon as a social undertak- ing, it was the corner-stone of the household which was the basic social and economic unit in a community.

sets. This institution receives more emphasis among pastoral communities. The question of the distribution of power and social defence is generally argued as its functional role.

The Masai in northern Tanzania, like many cattle herders, live on constant raids for cattle, and scarce resources of water and pasture land. Their society is divided into youth for herding and defence, adults for warriors and elders as the seat of'authority and wisdom. Commenting on the Karamojong in Uganda who live in a similar situation, Davidson argues that the utility of the age-set system defines an individual's position, that his response to a challenge in any place and any time is readily structured (Davidson, 1969: 87). Specific statuses, rules and duties are associated with each age. ally the young graduate into adulthood through a rigorous ritual that dramatically symbolizes death to life of youth and a resurrection into a new life of adulthood (Beattie, 1976: 145-147).

The position of elders needs some special comment. In most African societies, elders hold a highly respected place, far beyond their capacity of economic production. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, in a pre- literate society, the older person grows, the

Marriage was the highest aspiration of mem-

An

A third way of social organization is age

Norm-

more he becomes the main depository of knowledge, skills and experience useful in the daily life of the group. He becomes the living source of information treasured by both youth and adults.

Secondly, the right of disposing of the clan's communal wealth is vested in the elder members, who have enormously contributed to the public wealth during their younger years. President Julius Nyerere has this to say about the place of elders in traditional societies as regards the obligation to work. 'Even the elder, who appeared to be enjoying himself without doing any work . . . had, in fact, worked hard all his younger days. The wealth he now appears to possess was not his, personally. . . . He was its guardian. . . . The respect paid to him by the young was his because he was older than they, and had served his community longer' (Nyerere, 1974: 4-5).

Thirdly, elders are regarded as links with the world of the ancestral spirits. They do the divining for the community, and exercise ritual rights over the community. In this respect, the biblical conception about the elders is not different from the typical African view. father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land' (Exodus, 20: 12).

Finally, a respectable grand old age, sur- rounded by many grandchildren and great- grandchildren is the apex of youthful aspiration, the last step in this world, before one becomes an ancestral spirit ones elf--to whom the rituals of the clan will be directed.

These imposing claims by the elders in society guarantee their respect, authority, and final security in their declining years.

Age-set grades were open to all members, characterizing the egalitarian spirit of traditional society.

unity and identity.

ing way of assimilating aliens or even former enemies into one's social group for community support. The joking relationship (utani in Kiswahili) has also a very significant educational purpose. The Ngoni and Hehe in southern Tanzania had been drawn into an indecisive war for a considerable time. warring indefinitely they established utani between their clans: now they scorn, boast, and ridicule each other in words rather than on the destructive battlefield! Indeed, many tribes in Tanzania claim such utani relationship to enlist required support from an otherwise foreign community in times of funerals or disaster. Nyamwezi of west Tanzania are well known Watani of many tribes in Tanzania. they have been great caravan travellers in many parts of Tanzania. These trips were long, tire- some and risky. The way to obtain free passage through these areas was to establish utani relationship with the local communities.

when a mother is untidy, the Mtani (party in the joking relationship) would jokingly talk to the

'Honour thy

One essential factor of kinship system is its

The 'joking relationship' is another interest-

Rather than continue . -

The

Historically,

Utani is also a subtle pedagogical method:

16

child ridiculing the shortcoming and the mother would hardly miss the lesson! And she is not expected to take it ill!

Thus traditional communities were socially organized through kinship, affinity, age, adoption, blood-relationship and utani. These were essential ways of organizing their daily lives in order to live securely and happily.

3. Cosmological organization of traditional society

W e must also attempt to explain one of the most misunderstood areas of African tradition and culture, namely the African religious outlook. Western scientists, adventurers and mission- aries all have had their fair share in grand 'myth-making' about the primitive man's religious beliefs. Evans-Pritchard argues ably against misguided conceptions of such people in his book: Theories of Primitive Religions (Evans- Pritchard, 1965).

or illogical, as a man like Sir James Frazer would like us to believe. Religion is such a universal social phenomenon that it refuses to be treated in such a perfunctory manner. However, if the African 'visible' social world had been so badly misinterpreted, what else could one expect when these nafve minds presumed to penetrate the African's invisible world? The Africans' contacts with the 'metaphysical' world has been described in derogatory language and nafvely labelled as 'animism', 'ancestor worship', 'totemism', 'fetishism'. In missionary terms, Africans' attempts to come to terms with the invisible world has been roundly condemned as 'superstition, satanic, devilish and hellish', to use Mbiti's expression (Mbiti, 1971: 10).

Human interaction is coaxed into a system of symbolism designed to convey a message and establish a dialogue between the parties concerned. The most obvious symbolic action takes place by means of language. Through language man can communicate with his fellowmen in order to share what they have and induce action.

In the kinship system people interact within the framework of their language to solicit support in their activities. But through experience man eventually finds out that some of his needs and aspirations cannot be met by his fellowmen.

A traditional African religion is not only the fellowship with the departed ancestors; desire to enter into social communion with all the spirits, and ultimately with the Supreme Being. This supreme encounter is essentially man-centred, and it is necessarily expressed in mundane terms of success, welfare, abundance, many and healthy children, and so forth.

The most important condition for an amic- able relationship with the world of spirits is the observation of the kinship ties and their consequent duties. are thought to continue 'their union' with their living members (Mbiti, 1971: 9). The African tends to unify his experiences, even those

The African religious world is not childish

it is a

The departed members of the clan

seemingly contradictory ones. as one force revealing itself in many ways.

most unifying element in African traditions. Religious rituals mark all the essential steps in man's life cycle: in times of crisis and emergency even the so-called westernized African may be seen to revert to his 'indigenous religiosity'. No wonder, since religiosity was one of the most effective moral powers in the maintenance of social order. 'Another fundamental force in African traditional life was religion, which provided a strict moral code for the community1 (Kenya Government, 1965: 4). The same official document emphasizes the role of religion in restraining elders in power from abusing their authority (Kenya Government, 1965: 3). Indeed, many African nationalists would strongly argue that African socialism is not Marxism because it is fundamentally religious.

He sees the world

The concept and practice of religion is the

4. The human economic activities as forminp an integral Dart of social life

Traditional society had a unique approach to the question of production. Economics deals with the balancing of scarce resources with human basic demands. Unlike modern society, traditional African communities have a holistic view of life. Work is the basis of a member's right of access to community services. 'No man can live for himself alone, least of all in the arduous condition of many of the simpler societies, and the bonds of economic co-operation may form the very foundation of social life' (Beattie, 1976: 186).

festation of the reciprocal nature of kinship relationship. It served as a sort of life insurance during bad times. A sickly family would have its farm cultivated by other groups in return for their previous co-operation.

life. Songs sung by

the farming groups, by the rowing team or by a team of young people rounding up a herd of cattle were meant to lessen the drudgery of labour, stimulate personal interaction and give the sense of unity to the group.

ness in work. self-reliant in their basic needs. duced, they consumed. There was no need for marketable surplus as there was little exchange business among most African subsistence communities. This is not to say there was no trade at all among some of the African communities: trade did exist among the West African states, and the inland tribes in East Africa traded with the coastal settlements. demand created through human communication. Most African communities were physically isolated and transport between them was very limited.

limited too. rain-makers, priests and blacksmiths did not

Indeed, economic co-operation was a mani-

Work was an essential part of traditional

It had a deep human element.

There was a sense of pride and meaningful- Villages or settlements were

What they pro-

Trade is stimulated by

Within a community, division of labour was Even specialists like medicine-men,

17

live exclusively from their profession. In a farming community every able bodied person had to grow his own food, set up his house and man- age to secure his body cover (clothes). Skills to secure these basic necessities were basic requirements in all adult men. Certainly, there was division of labour based on sex.

Just as social values dominated the production activity in traditional society, so did the distribution and consumption of labour. the view of society that wealth accumulated collectively ought to be consumed collectively. Its distribution pattern was primarily based on the principle of kinship patterns, the principle of reciprocity and hospitality rather than on purely cost-benefit analysis. Capital accumulation in individual hands was assiduously avoided by such levelling mechanism.

It was

11. EDUCATION PROCESSES AND COMMON GOALS

The general aims of traditional society in educating its members was its own reproduction and continuity. Metaphysical philosophers say every being essentially tends towards preservation of his unity and identity. Rather than dwell on all aspects of education, we may deal here with those areas where traditional education seems to offer some innovations in our present crisis of educational content and methods.

The basic goals were common, as society itself was hardly stratified on the basis of economic or political power. The egalitarian nature of the society and its communalism in ownership of basic resources of production called for a common curriculum so as to foster equality and co-operation. underwent the same training about their cattle, neighbourhood, war and marriage. All the girls in a Matengo community would learn the same housekeeping lessons. All Makonde adults learnt, among other things, how to co-operate in community festivals, funerals, religious rituals, etc.

Traditional society had a comprehensive curriculum, its clientele embraced all age-sets, and its sco,pe included all areas of knowledge necessary for role fulfilment in societies. was not prepackaged, as the modern school curriculum is. between the subject-centred school curriculum which he calls 'curriculum as fact', and the traditional curriculum he calls 'curriculum as practice' where the emphasis is on the need of the learner to master a life situation which pro- vokes the learning process. His attempts to make sense out of curriculum are life-linked, and he treats learning as a life activity integrated with productivity,

Self-reliance was a vital quality of a member in these small-scale communities. development of basic social attitudes so as to be able to cope with social situations appropriate to one's social grade, and development of technical skills for basic needs as a necessary

All Masai youth

It

Young makes a useful distinction

It implied

requirement for all the members except the old, the handicapped and the children.

gain access to the culture of the community was his birth into the community. est of the group to equip and help realize the potential of its members, for the capacity of the social unit to survive lay in the extent to which its members were adequately brought up in its stock of knowledge, skills and values.

In other words, there is no dichotomy in the learner between learning and living, between learning and work. When Nyerere declared 1970 ~

as the Adult Education Year in Tanzania, he had this appeal to make to the prospective adult learners: . . . That, then, is the message for 1970 . . . To live is to learn; and to learn is to try to live better' (Nyerere, 1973: 141).

The only qualification for an individual to

It was in the inter-

1. Education as a lifelong activity is not a new idea to traditional community . . .

I. . . it will be found that education begins from birth and ends with death. The child has to pass various stages of age-grouping with a system of education defined for every status in life' (Kenyatta, 1938: 96). Seen in this perspective, traditional education was relevant, designed to meet specific developmental tasks in the life cycle, hence inherently self-motivating. Highly individualized, the interaction between learner, reality and teacher was immediate and stimulating. One had only to watch the little girl accompanying her mother to the river to fetch water. match her physical ability; yet it is a real pot: she actuallybrings water home and will feelmore important when her father drinks some of her water. She was not playing! Her learning, which is equivalent to work, born of a real need for water, meets an actual need. Each step is adapted to the ability of the learner. Faurels term, traditional education was a learning-to-be process.

education enjoyed the widest dispersal to ensure ample availability to the learner. On the whole, there was less emphasis on professionalism. The basic responsibility lay with the household unit; the older male members taught the boys, while the womenfolk the girls.

She carries a relatively small pot to

To use

The institutions or agencies of traditional

2. Life experience and education for self-reliance and African socialism

Self-reliance was the aim of traditional society in upbringing and educating its members. Edu- cation was primarily meant to actualize the learner's potential so that he could meet his existential role. the skills appropriate to them at their age. cation was not so much a preparation. not primarily future oriented, but 'nunc oriented'. By consolidating existential developmental ability, the learner was assumed to be simultaneously laying a firm foundation for the skills, knowledge and mental attitude required in the roles he would assume later in life,

Children learned by acquiring Edu-

It was

18

As we have seen, most of the educational requirements were of a practical nature, relevant and suited to each member of the community. It is not surprising to find that failures, if any, were rare. There was intense motivation on all sides--the learner's survival depended on the mastery of basic requirement at every stage in his life. wanted to marry, he had to prove that he possessed the required indicators of self- reliance. against a lion successfully? Let him kill one single handed! Does a Matengo boy wish to marry? Has he built his hut? Has he been able to till his own plot? Has he a mat in his hut? Does he behave himself respectfully in social life?

question: what was the underlying philosophy that informed the whole curriculum? It is the question of what curriculum developers would call the hidden curriculum of traditional education.

The basic values that underlined and perme- ated the whole process of education were solidarity, a sense of co-operation, mutual responsibility, reciprocity and democracy through consensus. All this is expressed in the Tanzanian term I Uj amaa' .

When a young man in a Masai tribe

Was he able to defend a herd of cattle

This leads us to a fundamental pedagogical

111. FROM THE RAPE TO THE REAWAKENING OF AFRICAN CULTURAL VALUES

The rape of African culture began with the systematic establishment of an overseas slave-trade. Brutal inhumanity marked slave-trade in Africa and intertribal wars destroyed village communities, depopulated vast areas, and so destroyed the roots of African cultural values.

period.

comitant social relationships became the model for the African transformation. The traditional economic life was converted to capitalist production and introduced to higher technology, social organization and Western ways of life and tastes.

Large administrative cities, as well as big business centres were created, detached from the surrounding areas. These large enterprises had large capital resources, fairly high technology and were dominated by a relatively small number of foreign and local workers who enjoyed high income, modern social services and luxuries of a modern consumer society which the rest of the community could hardly afford. was the socializing factor that affected the local workers, cultivating in them tastes for a West- ern style of life, its philosophy and culture.

omenon emerging on the African scene: social stratification and differentiation based on achievement and an economic basis rather than on affiliation and kinship.

industrial centres, give rise to urbanization, and

The second rape came with the colonial

The mode of Western production and its con-

Education

W e have then a very disturbing social phen-

The administrative foci, commercial or

indeed, over-urbanization. Masses from the surrounding rural areas flock to these centres in hope of an easy life and employment, but find themselves living in slums characterized by land- less uprooted migrants, unemployed youth, violence, corruption and despair.

Another emerging feature in traditional African communities has been the rise of the proletariat who sold their labour for money. Work and man's labour have become commodities on the African scene.

The Westernized elite's education in Western technology, administration, tastes and values, sets them apart from the other 'natives'. surface, this sector of the African community appears to have assimilated cultural values of the Western consumer society, but the African reality remains underneath (Hoogvelt, 1978: 113).

While the impact of the capitalist mode of production was transforming African social and economic structures in the urban and industrial areas, the rural sector had its fair share of social transformation and cultural discontinuity. Where traditionally social prestige was gained mainly through kinship status, now a whole range of influential posts could be secured by educational qualifications, The traditional significance of the clan, lineage, kinship as the source of unity and the economic survival of individuals, the special importance of elders as the source of knowledge, rituals connected with beliefs and religious life were viewed negatively under the influence of the new ideas and values. Formal education then beca.me the key to success in life.

The dominant spirit among the new generation of Africans was no longer co-operation and reciprocity, but life and death competition for the scarce educational opportunities that led to economic power over other people.

tion for these radical changes was ill designed and ill implemented. were contrary to the traditional culture which believed in egalitarianism and solidarity.

been an adequate tool to solve the new problems, the newly introduced education system was a distortion of the African personality. Colonial education was designed to meet the needs of the industrial world rather than the development of indigenous populations. Western Europe rather than Africa that decided the type of education given first, in the primary schools, and later in the secondary schools and universities in Africa.

be limited to a few individuals mainly around urban centres. lar cash income and a smattering of Western life- style were one of the significant social stratifica- tions caused by unequal educational opportunities to Africans.

tion, only school education counted as education, contrary to the view held in traditional society where education was a lifelong social process of accommodation, running from birth to death.

On the

Unfortunately, the mechanism of socializa-

The values of the new order

While the traditional education might not have

It was the interest of

By its very nature formal education had to

These few Africans with a regu-

According to the colonial concept of educa-

19

The undue reverence accorded to formal schooling was only matched by the scorn poured on informal traditional education. 'The legitimation of education by schooling tends to render all non-school education an accident, if not an outright misdemeanour' (Illich, 1971: 109).

In spite of a limited capacity in its intake, the values and aspirations promoted by school education had a contagious effect not only in the urbanized areas but also in the rural ones. The spill over effect of school education on the adults has not changed considerably in developing countries as the World Development Report, 1980, notes: 'Yet they (adults) learn about the possibility of a better life from direct observation, from friends and relatives, and perhaps from small improvements in their circumstances; and they hope that their children will somehow be able to climb out of poverty' (World Develop- ment Report, 1980: 33).

tion of African culture in colonial education. Local dances, music and ancestral cults were roundly condemned as being unworthy of an 'educated' African. The ensuing sense of inferiority has been summarized by Illich: 'In the colonies, the school inculcated the dominant classes with the values of the imperial power and confirmed in the masses their sense of inferiority to this schooled elitel (Illich, 1971:

There was no place for respect or apprecia-

119). This attitude on the part of colonial educa-

tion brings us back to the quotation by President Nyerere at the beginning of this chapter. deny a human community its cultural heritage is equivalent to denying it its human capacity for development--it is a crime against humanity itself.

The above description of the disastrous encounter between the West and Africa over- shadows some good effects that this historic phenomenon had brought to this continent. A number of useful crops, articles of trade and ideas have enriched the Africans. Literacy and numeracy was widely introduced, transport and communication systems have improved the dis - semination of information. In other words, while development indicators in Africa bear the characteristics of a consumer society, the ideological superstructure is torn between the two uncom- promosing systems: a capitalist and an egalitarian orientation.

Such an absurd situation has been rejected by most African nationalists. For them, capitalism is a model that glorifies economic patterns of behaviour which destroy those very values most prized by African societies.

The promoters of African socialism believed very strongly that there are three per- ceptions of traditional African life that could Successfully regulate, enrich and organize African development in a modern society, as

To

they had successfully sustained community life in precolonial and small-scale societies.

socialism were:

of livelihood. would ensure equitable distribution of national income if development was largely the concern of the government and public sector;

(2) the egalitarian character of society: the importance of building a society with a low degree of stratification, one in which gaps in income are reasonably tolerable, in such a way as to ensure human equality and dignity;

bilities which leads to a commitment to co- operation and mutual obligations.

view that state interest is superior to that of individuals, a view which can easily be exploited by powerful but unscrupulous groups by project- ing 'their' interest as 'national' interest.

more, is faced with some practical problems, for those 'simple' African communities were not entirely devoid of rudimentary social stratifica- tions. tain areas, yet in others we had the ownership of 'communal' land vested in the elders of the founding clans resulting in a quasi-feudal relationship between the founding clans and the others. Women also occupied an inferior position in the social life of the communities.

The Africans who had tasted the 'sweetness' of a consumer society were not too eager to give up personal ambitions and advancement in the interest of the backward masses of unemployed in towns and the subsistence farmers or herders in the rural areas. Even Africans who were not rich materially, had, through Western contacts and education, developed quite a strong taste for a Western life-style and individualistic ambitions.

The European model of development which alienated man from his own activity was an unsuit- able solution to African problems, hence the need for an alternative developmental model where man was the initiator, the agent, and the purpose. Economic and technological progress must promote human fulfilment and dignity, and human values must play a key role in making decisions about development plans. Development must serve man and human values -(Nyerere, ICAE 1976).

many social and physical challenges, through the cohesiveness of its egalitarian ideology, so modern African states can brave the challenges of modernity within the framework of African traditional values guiding the application of technology towards the improvement of the quality of human life.

The three principles underlining African

(1) communal ownership of the major means Post- independenc e African states

(3) an extensive network of social responsi-

Moreover, socialist organizations take the

The socialist approach to development further-

Domestic slavery was practised in cer-

Just as traditional African societies survived

20

REFERENCES

Beattie, J. Other Cultures, Aims, Methods and Achievements in Social Anthropology. Rout- ledge and Kegan Paul, 1976.

Cole, Sonia. The Prehistory of East Africa,

Coulson. Margaret and Riddel. Carol. Amroach- Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1964.

ing Sociology, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1979. c. 3.

Evans-Pritchard, E. E. Theories of Primitive Religion, Oxford University Press, 1965.

Freud, Sigmund. Totem and Taboo, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1960.

Hoogvelt, Ankie M. M. The Sociology of Dcvel- oping Societies, Macmillan Press, 1978.

Hughes, John A. Sociological Analysis: Methods of Discovery, Nelson, 1976.

Illich, Ivan D. Celebration of Awareness, Anchor Books, N.Y. 1971, p. 109.

Kenya Government. 'African Socialism, Ses- sional White Paper No. lo', 1965 - African Centre, 1965.

Mair, Lucy. An introduction to social anthropology, Oxford University Press, 1968.

Mair, Lucy. African Societies, Cambridge Uni- versity Press, 1974.

Mbti, John S. African Religions and Philosophy, Heineman, London, 197 1.

Nyerere, J. K. Ujamaa, Oxford University

World Bank. 'World Development Report', Press, 1974.

August 1 9 8 0.

21

CHAPTER I1

Cultural values and new life-stvles

by Philip BOSSERMAN

Concern for the quality of the environment has had a long history in the United States of America. Henry David Thoreau in the middle of the nineteenth century wrote with sensitivity about what was happening to the natural world of his time in the face of industrialization. He described a type of citizen emerging from urban, industrial society. To be sure, these features were just coming into focus, but he saw the potential damage to both the natural and social environments. There were others such as John Muir, at the turn of the twentieth century, who influenced President Theodore Roosevelt in fighting for the conservation of wilderness areas. Thorstein Veblen commented on the interplay of technology and human character in a sardonic and prophetic manner. Rachel Carson, in her celebrated book, The Silent Spring, written in the early 1950s, warned of the destructive poisons pouring into the environment from industrial waste. These voices were, for the most part, ignored. They were lonely figures crying in the wilderness for protection of wilderness regions and personal freedoms.

Yet some segments of society heeded their warnings. 1950s and 1960s included a few who urged protection of the environment. particularly important to the younger people. They urged a life-style very different from the dominant one that had surfaced in the post-Second World War period. Some of their experimental life-styles laid emphasis on simplicity, small scale, the sacredness of the person, the importance of intimacy, and 'the re-enchantment of the world', to use the felicitous phrase of Serge Moscivici. The thrust of the youthful counter- culture was a general attack on the society of technocracy which razes the landscape in the name of economic, scientific, and technological progress, damages the human spirit and will, and obliterates the fragile interdependence of the ecosystems of the natural and social worlds. The first part of this paper will outline what the social sciences have to say about life-style, social class and social status, and their relationship to values. Next w e shall see their impact and the implications of modern life- styles for the quality of the environment. Finally,

The social movements of the late

This theme was

we shall conclude with a review of certain trends and what they might mean for the future of society.

I. MEANING AND METAMORPHOSIS OF LIFE-STYLES

1. Life-styles and social class; status situation

The concept style of life was probably first employed by Max Weber (Gerth and Mills, 1958) to describe the distinctive pattern of living belonging to a status group. Weber carefully distinguished between 'status group' and 'economic class'. Weber is close to Marx's view of class yet differs in that he does not see classes as real groups but merely aggregates of persons who share the same economic situation. There is no consciousness of class membership.

The status group is something else for Weber. It turns on the idea of honour. Honour is a scarce resource and therefore is differentially divided among people who live in diverse as well as the same economic circumstances. Status groups are normally communities and as such are aware of the honour that they share with others, or what they do not have that others in different status situations possess. They are conscious of those who are either higher or lower than themselves in terms of deferred or conferred honour. It is the status position which shapes life-style. Conversely, such a style of life denotes membership within a status group or community. In content, status honour is normally expressed by the fact that above all else a specific style of life can be expected from all those who wish to belong to the circle. Fixed withthis expectation are restrictions on 'social' intercourse (that is, intercourse which is not subservient to economic or any other business 'functional' purpose). The restrictions may confine normal marriages to within the status circle and may lead to complete endogamous closure (Gerth and Mills, 1958: 187-88). Weber makes the summarizing observation

that '"classes" are stratified according to their

23

relations to the production and acquisition of goods; according to the principles of their consumption of goods as represented by special "styles of life"' (ibid. : 193).

Technological repercussions and economic transformations threaten status arrangements. Epochs of radical transformation in the economy are characterized by naked class situations. Status structure develops only during periods of quiet when the role of social honour becomes most important (ibid. : 194).

status situations have become confused as the modern work-force has moved increasingly out of production and into consumption. The 'titles of consumption' (income, wages, welfare, earned interest, income from and rent, etc. ) have become more available for greater numbers in advanced industrial nations, thereby making it possible to fulfil the economic requirement to consume. Also, the time available for such consumption has expanded enormously.

have become mixed. As a result contemporary sociologists, social psychologists, economists and the like when using the term style of life no longer make the precise distinction that Weber employed in separating class and status group.

Life-style is now used to imply a number of things all at once. Most generally the term connotes class differences among peoples' attitudes and behaviours. It is clearly a part of popular jargon, appearing frequently in advertising and the mass media. term life-style in a pejorative way.

whereas "status groups" are stratified

However, we would suggest that class and

To reiterate, class and status situations

Daniel Bell and others use the

The central point is that--at first, for the advanced social groups, the intelligentsia and the educated social classes, and later for the middle class itself--the legitimations of social behaviour passed from religion to the modern- ist culture. disciplined purpose, to an emphasis on 'personality', which is the enhancement of self through the compulsive search for individual differentiation. In brief, not work but the 'life-style' became the source of satisfaction and criterion for desirable behaviour in society (Bell, 1976: xxiv). Implicit in Bell's statement is the practical

possibility that each person can search for an individual expression which is his life-style, his raison d'&tre, that pattern of behaviour which sets him apart. The elements essential for such an exploration are affluence, free time, and a panoply of choices.

As modernization has advanced in a society like the United States over the past century, there has been a diminishing loyalty to groups like the family and an increasing centring on personal happiness and life satisfaction. However, there are significant losses in that alienation, anomie, and dereglement strike profoundly at the life- centre of these newly liberated individuals. It is an ancient tale, the balancing of community and freedom (Zablocki, 1971).

Bell sees modernism (the cult of personal

And with it here was a shift in

satisfaction) as having run its course and something else being in the offing. This largely negative criticism of Bell's does not appreciate the fact that life-style experimentation is a predictable outcome of a society that lacks value coherence or meaning (Zablocki and KanTer, 1976; Berger, 1967).

Joseph Bensman and Arthur Vidich (1971) essentially offer the same type of analysis as to what life-style means in modern society. They make a distinction between 'authentic' class culture and spurious life-style. 'In our term, an "authentic" life-style is one that exists as part of the "natural" and "inevitable" environment of the individual. The individual without reflection assumes that he has been destined for the way of life which in fact is his. H e takes his way of life for granted and acts it out without self-consciousness, defensiveness or irony. '(121) The authors conclude that 'present American life-styles are self- conscious creations which permeate almost all aspects of American life . . . '(122)

The creation more than likely has come from the media and been adapted by the individual, giving the impression of being apersonal achievement.

time from work, and an awareness of a plethora of life-style choices from which to choose makes the stratification system less clear. Instead of a person being born into a style of life, appropriate to a particular status position, he is free to adopt and adapt other ones afloat in the social world. Often he invents his own. There is impermanence in this process. this is the source of much malaise and alienation, since status anxieiy is heightened by this situation. There most certainly is considerably more status inconsistency implicit in such a fluid and changing circumstance.

The minorities, then, have become an under- class of poor, inner-city residents who are effectively sealed off from the white suburban ghettos. They in turn adopt life-styles which enable them to cope in their living situations. Finestone describes a 'cat culture' which exists among blacks. Bensman and Vidich (1971: 120) summarize Finestone's findings:

The combination of relative affluence, free

W e suspect that

The artificial cat culture was maintained by the conscious effort of those involved in it. Black youth in the cat culture deliberately cultivated a style of living and playfully changed and restyled, elaborated and extended it. These black youths are well aware that this

is an artificial style they create. live it fully within the dominant culture of the white man. Finestone notes, 'He has to make a place in his scheme of life for police, lock-ups, gaols and penitentiaries, to say nothing of the agonies of withdrawal distress' (ibid. ). H e is forced to back off from the game he is playing, to look at himself and in ironic bemusement acknowledge the social forces which limit his game. His resources, in other words, are severely limited. As one goes out from this inner city ghetto to the encircling rings of the suburbs, the life chances expand, but one could say the game is just the same. The life-styles seem

They cannot

24

spurious and artificial. such as Seely, Sim, and Loosely's Crestwood Heights (1958) describes how people in suburbs look at themselves in a detached manner, analysing what it takes for them to 'get along' in a place like Crestwood. They carefully acquaint themselves with what is appropriate behaviour while assessing whether the alternatives would work or not. 'Newcomers to the community display a facility for picking up the cues and quickly adjusting themselves to the Crestwood Heights style' (Bensman and Vidich, op. cit. : 122). How- ever artificial and spurious they appear, we would underline once more that they are inevitable to a society undergoing critical change in which old patterns of life no longer seem appropriate.

Studies of suburban life

2. Life-styles as a pattern of consumption involving preferences, taste and values

Experimental forms of social organization are no longer emerging from the factories and offices as they did during the period of mechanization and unionization. Rather, new forms of organization are emerging from a broadly based framework of leisure activities: T-groups, new political involvements, communal living arrangements, organized 'dropping out', etc. 'Life-style', a generic term for specific combinations of work and leisure, is replacing IoccuDation' as the basis of social relationshiD formation, social status and social action. (Emphasis added. ) Dean MacCannel (1976: 6). This statement encompasses a novel idea.

Life-style combines both leisure and work as the basis for differentiating among status groups. Leisure and work life-styles are becoming a competing measure of social class status members hip.

Consumption is the principal economic activity of modern working people. bers have sufficient amounts of both the titles of consumption (income) and the time to do it. As we noted, the economy's dynamic changes over the past 125 years have reduced work time while increasing income so that more people would consume.

Since consumption has become the dominant mode of behaviour for advanced industrial society inhabitants, w e straightaway find ourselves confronted with the concept of life-style. Life-style is a pattern of consumption involving preferences, taste and values.

There is today what appears to be a plethora of alternative, invented life-styles that function in place of traditional subcultural ways of life firmly rooted in class and status situations.

viding for these new 'service workers' a new rhythmic pattern to their daily, weekly, yearly work and total life-span. Leisure became amajor factor for consumption along with other items in the consumer society. was especially ripe for such an emphasis on free time and leisure pursuits.

Large num-

Work time became allocated differently, pro-

This new middle class

Their consumption

patterns and leisure behaviour subsequently became models for the lower classes.

3. Emerging culture and alternative life-styles

James Schuster (1978) has observed that life- style is a promising basis for analysing social behaviour. 'It is a combination of roles based on s ocio- economic st atus char act er is tics (place in) the family life-cycle, and cross-cut by age, sex and race. There is no generally accepted operational definition, but the components often included are activities and interactions' (the author's emphasis). third component, location. What people do, - how they interrelate and where this takes place are the characteristics of life-style. William Michaelson (1971: 1075) writes that 'studies have graphically demonstrated that the occupants of different areas of cities exhibit markedly different activity patterns and interpersonal relations. tions, which reflect differential weighting of roles, each of which has activity and interaction components, are often called "life-styles '''.

particularly interested suggests a life-style typology organized round the concepts localism- cosmopolitanism. He takes this from Merton's usage (1957) but adapts it considerably to correspond with the purpose he has in mind. 'The significance of this life-style distinction lies in the different kinds of networks it contains' (Schuster, 1978: 21).

In the first instance, locals have many close, personal, and long-term ties within a restricted geographic area. These relationships are complex and elaborate. 'They emphasize home-based familistic activity; much of their movement behaviour is a series of frequent, short-range trips all beginning and ending at the home. Their greatest participation in optional activity is in parties/suppers at home. Participation in other activity forms, while present, is low: formal associations, movies, cultural and educational events' (ibid., 21-22). They stick close to home only venturing into fraternal clubs which are loaded with acquaintances who come from a small geographic area.

of cosmopolitanism. tion 'more mobile, with contacts and experience in more distant places . . . Many of their network ties are based on specific interests, and the organizations they join are predominantly functionally specific to specialized interests and skills' (ibid. ). Their networks of interactions and organizations go well beyond the confines of the local region. Many of the activities and interactions are tied to professional involvements and not to where they live or even a spatial location of any sort. 'Cosmopolitans are the persons whose life-styles verge on "placeless interaction". Every activity must be some place, but the implication is that these activities are scattered over an entire metropolitan area or even among several such areas' (ibid. ).

Schuster himself adds a

These varia-

The location framework in which Schuster is

They are locale oriented. The other end of this polar typology is that

Cosmopolitans are by defini-

25

Schuster's three dimensions of activity, interaction and location would seem to be arbitrary additions to Weber's initial work on the concept of life-style but upon closer analysis of just what is meant and implied by life-style as it is related to status honour, these three frame- works make sense. Patterns of consumption involve social interaction, some kind of activity and a location some place. Such dimensions contribute to making the term more precise which is one of the things w e note the concept lacks.

A second approach to the notion of life-style is that of Zablocki and Kanter (1976). They believe there exist cultural differentiations as to tastes and preferences. These tastes are neither completely determined by economic status or totally an individual matter. 'Tastes are determined in part by relative position in the markets for wealth and prestige, in part by individual choice informed by education and experience, and in part by voluntarily chosen, collectively held standards that determine life- styles. Life-style differentiation takes place both inside and outside the markets for wealth and prestige and hence cross-cuts them. '(269) The authors take an interesting theoretical position by stating that taste is the dependent variable influenced by both socio-economic status and life-style or an interaction between these variables. W e find this confusing in that it seems much clearer to conclude that life-style is a pattern of consumption involving tastes, preferences and values.

that culture and subculture are distinct from life-style. Culture implies 'a degree of consensus with respect to meanings that is not always approached by the sharers of a life-style. How- ever, during a period of cultural transition, life- styles will proliferate more rapidly than cultural systems of values. Therefore, widespread and enduring life-styles may profitably be studied for clues as to the direction of emerging culture' (ibid.: 271).

This is an intriguing idea which w e have already mentioned and we shall want to consider later as we think about the influence that some of these alternative life-styles could have on the patterns of life in advanced industrial societies facing seriQus threats to social, cultural and physical environments. Suffice it to say that we recognize the presence of alternative life-styles which are unassociated with traditional class and status situations. They are for the most part invented, transient, impermanent and oriented to the basic activity of consumption. They are status spheres, to use Wolfels term. Because this is true, there is a question as to the real differences among the alternative life- styles. They may be very close to each other, or very circumscribed by the dictates of the market. This is a conjecture at this point in our discussion. Before taking up this idea we need to look at the ways in which life-styles have been categorized into types.

The authors make the further observation

11. TYPOLOGIES OF LIFE-STYLES

1. The new middle classes, their life and their values

The first typology centres on the suburbs, the milieux of the new middle classes of the post- Second World War period. W e must describe that suburban milieu before proceeding to a description of the different types of life-style.

W e are aware there is a certain myth about suburbs which developed along with their importance. The stereotyped picture presented them as all alike, demonstrating 'a stultifying, homogeneous conformity. . . bedroom communities, residential outposts of the white, educated, affluent middle class for which Scarsdale has become the nationalbyword' (Fava, 1977: 109). W e recognize that there is not one suburbia but many, that considerable pop sociology has stereotyped the manners and morals of suburbanites since their first appearance in the 1920s. consequently over-s implified.

were a direct outcome of at least three factors:

Our remarks are

Historically, suburbs in the United States

(a) The growth of the central cities

Though immigration from overseas had slowed enormously by the 1920s, the technological changes under way in industry and in manufacturing encouraged an internal migration. rural-to-urban migration had been going on since the industrial revolution took its hold in the late 1800s, but was spurred immensely by the production demands of the First World War. These migrants came from the rural south, midwest and west. They headed for the cities, attracted by the promises of good-paying jobs, and a new start. the 1930s and 1940s.

Such a

This great rural exodus continued through

(b) The middle class relocation

The emerging new middle class, having become more affluent during and after the Second World War, sought other places to live. They felt the pressures of the in-migration. these newcomers. To them they were rough hewn, rude and not the sort of people with whom they wanted their children to associate. Endur- ing racial animosities were also a powerful force pushing the whites out as the blacks'and other minorities arrived.

They did not like

(c) Large-scale development of suburbs

Suburban areas burgeoned rapidly under the impetus of land developers and real estate people after the Second World War. These living areas were widely advertised in order to encourage affluent, white-collar and some blue-collar workers residing in central city and in the apartment dwellings ringing the business district to move to 'the country'.

26

The suburb represents a continuation of the division of labour in modern societies. nineteenth century the industrial workplace, became separated from the home. This 'division of labour' went hand in hand with the growth of the factory system and suburbanization went hand in hand with the take-over of American culture by the automobile dating back to the 1920s. The post-war period of the late 1940s and 1950s assured that the automobile would remai.n at the centre of American life. Automobility particularly suited the emerging new middle classes. Their suburban life-styles were dependent upon the car culture remaining intact. The new suburban integration was only possible with the automobile.

suburban life-styles. Wendell Bell (1958) attempts to make sense out of life-style varia- tions within modern urban societies. People now have what Bell calls social choices which pre-industrial societies did not, and present underdeveloped societies do not, have. These social choices are best illustrated by the example of a couple choosing how many children to have. Modern technology, the urbanization of great portions of the population, the possibility of selecting many other things to have and to do, all make having children one choice among many. As Dennis Wrong notes, 'the transition from a way of life in which few restrictions were imposed on fertility to a new era of birth control in which having children has become subject to voluntary choice is a momentous one . . . I

(1956: 63). A range of preference patterns emerges

which Bell calls familism. uDward vertical

In the

Now, let us describe the types of urban-

- I

mobility (or careerism), and consumership (1958: 227). These constitute three typesof life- styles: Familism. New industrial societies have greater wealth, leisure and energy to expend on other things besides raising a family. In fact family living has become an end in itself, not just a utilitarian preoccupation to produce the future generation. 'By familism, is meant high valu- ation on family; marriage, child-centredness, and other such characteristics being indicators of familism. More than this, however, are the norms of consumlstion--the closelv interwoven set of activities and possessions--that are correlated with and become symbols of those who are representative of the familism preference pattern. which is appropriate to and symbolic of familism' (ibid. : 227-228).

one's time, money and energy on a career. Such an emphasis often results in a person moving into actual positions of greater power, prestige and property. The bottom line is that such persons choose career-relevant activities at the expense of other kinds of involvement. Their style of life is marked by these social choices.

tinctive.

There is a "style of life"

Careerism. This life-style includes spending

Familism and career styles of life are dis- A person who chooses to spend time

with his or her family often sacrifices the opportunity to move up in one's career. And an individual who spends time, energy and resources for the career detracts from family life by delaying marriage, postponing children, being separated from one's spouse, etc.

Consumership. Consumership has broad implications forthe family and career options. can't have your cake and eat it too.' Conse- quently, to opt for consumership as a life-style is to detract from either familism or careerism or both. Obviously, there are some persons who can

combine these three types of life-style. Some can sample from all three because they have the resources. Others have no choices as such because of being poor, lacking education, being in poor health, etc. However, for the most part people who reside in urban-industrial societies choose one or other of these three patterns.

thetical and general types of life-styles: 1. Familism--great emphasis on familism,

little emphasis on either career or consumership. 2. Career--great emphasis on career, little

emphasis on either familism or consumership. 3. Consumership--great emphasis on consumer-

ship, little emphasis on either famdism or career. 4. Familism-Career--emphasis on familism

and career about equally divided, but little emphasis on consumership.

familism and consumership about equally divided, but little emphasis on career. 6. Career-Consumership--emphasis on career

and consumership about equally divided, but little emphasis on familism.

Familism- Career- Consumership- - emphasis on familism, career and consumership about equally divided. rather than 'all of one'.

becomes periods for enjoyment of simpler activities related to friendship, visiting, entertaining, making gifts, exercise like walking and jogging, participating in human growth groups and creative endeavours involved in solving hard problems like energy, pollution and care of children and the elderly (Starr 1980; Yankelovich and Lefkowitz 1980; Malenfant 1980). Ironically, this consumption time is also being devoted to less 'industrious' activities such as television viewing and sleeping (Robinson 1979).

istic of life-style as consumption based on voluntary choices and related to the new availability of 'lumps of leisure time'. gest an extension of this typology as it relates to demographic changes since the 1960s in the United States.

'roshiak Izeki, has developed a typology of life- styles resulting from his studies of Tokyo. range from open-minded innovators, to anti- est ablis hment malcontents .

'You

Bell (ibid. : 229) suggests the following hypo-

5. Familism-Consumership- - emphasis on

7.

An attempt to have 'some of all'

The consumption time, i. e., leisure time,

Bell is correct in seeing the model character-

Later we want to sug-

On the other hand, a Japanese sociologist,

They

27

a, h

d

+

m I a, Ccl

2 h

m a, cd > V

3 :

a .d

m L

3

28

The term life-style means (Izeki 1975: 7+4): Patterns of dailylife whichthe actor volun-

tarily and deliberately places and develops daily, weekly, monthly, yearly and throughout his life:

(i) in solving some tasks and functional pre-

(ii) motivated and controlled by his own

(iii) guided by his values, beliefs, life goal

(iv) selecting and utilizing the resources,

A.

requisites for survival and development,

need-dispositions,

and life design,

facilities and opportunities which culture and society supply,

(v) limited or circumscribed by the wider cultural framework. B. (It) is not a passive way of life that is

involuntarily and automatically learned and formed. C.

hold budget, housing and clothing habits, time allocation to such psychological factors as central life interests, expectations and aspirations, worries and concern.

manageable number or carefully chosen variables. The sheer magnitude of Izeki's efforts is

admirable. The concept life-style in his hands came to represent a new order of stratification combining class, status and cultural variables. The concept is much closer to current research being carried out in socialist countries under the general rubric of 'way of life'. Such a use does not distinguish it from culture or subculture which is the approach of the next typology we propose to examine.

Zablocki and Kanter (1976) first discuss classic forms of life-style differentiation related to socio- economic status determinants. There are three basic types of life-style according to Zablocki and Kanter: (a) property-dominated, (b) occupation-dominated and (c) income- or poverty-dominated. They correspond roughly, but not completely, to conventional designations of the traditional upper class; through working classes; or the poor'. (272) Theupper class elite patterns of taste are largely determined by the ownership and/or control of 'material, institutional and symbolic property' (ibid. ). The upper middle class through the working class style of consumption are shaped by their occupation, its work schedule and the rewards of that occupation. Dif- ferences in consumption styles come from 'distinctions in work situations : and world views offered by different relations to the means of production, the time constraints and pressure of work, the spillover of work demands into private life and the consumption levels made possible by the income generated by a job'.

this class status level more than it does the others. typology which we cited above. relations are not as important to this stratum. Though the children inherit the class situation of their parents, they do not inherit their occupations.

(It) is an organized whole covering house-

D. (It) can be described and measured by a

upper middle and the lower class

the opportunities

The isolated nuclear family style dominates

This agrees most explicitly with Bell's Extended kin

Kanter (1976) argues that the particular occu-' pation is a shaper of life-style, a position with which Wilensky agrees (1961). The variables that seem most important are: 'absorptiveness of an occupation (the extent to which it directly demands a life-style, involving the occupations' private time and implicating their close relations); reward and resources (the kind of resources made available by the occupation); tional culture as socializers and teachers of values); and emotional climate (the personal experiencing of self and world made possible by the work environment' (Zablocki and Kanter 1276: 276).

variable is especially powerful as a shaper of life-style. The occupations that are highly absorptive influence the family life, leisure time. and other consumption patterns 'directly, immediately and routinely'. The extent of this and the quality of the overlap of workplace and hearth, etc. are unknown. Research has not been done on this problem which could help to determine social policy for the future.

life-styles, Zablocki and Kanter emphasize an intriguing factor which was missed in their previous analyses of upper and middle classes: the importance of voluntarism. marginally located in the economic system do not have income or job security which allows them a latitude of choices as to what to consume. Choice is the basis of consumption and hence, to patterns of preference, taste, i. e. life-style.

Within this poverty-dominated life-style, if it can be called a life-style, we note 'the reliance on a kin network and modified extended family to meet daily domestic needs' (Zablocki and Kanter 1976: 278). Descent lines are blurred to extend the kin network as much as possible for purposes of survival. Marriage does not have the same importance as it does for the other strata, sex segregation of activities and social networks in common. 'Pre-marital chastity and marital fidelity may not be valued to the extent they are in other classes where they serve necessary functions' (ibid. : 279). Fertility rates are high and there are relatively large numbers of children in relation to adults. Children are often important sources of help in the home and outside for earning wages. Generational differences are not very important. A child tends to repeat the life of the parents unless the cycle of poverty is interrupted in some way.

The poor have a present time orientation, a sense of fate and luck. There is little encouragement in their situation to look to the future. Hence, the adolescent-youth stage is most valued. During that time they are relatively free of responsibility, have the greatest attractiveness and physical prowess. Life seems most glamorous. They may even have their highest earning potential during this period 'coupled with the few- est responsibilities and peer society may be the most relevant and available' (ibid. ). Peer group gangs and families are the most important networks for individuals but they may be touched significantly by other parties such as extended

world view (occupa-

Zablocki and Kanter note that the absorptive

When considering the poverty-dominated

People who are

30

kin, the school, police and welfare agencies. Guillemin (1975) underscores the large cadre of bureaucratic officials who feel they must have a say in the lives of the poor. then are circumscribed even further as a result of their situation in poverty.

Their life-styles

2. Alternative life-styles as a type

Zablocki and Kanter next discuss alternative life- styles as a dimension of the current scene in America. They see these life-styles as shapers of taste preferences of consumption. Let us ignore this aspect of their theory accepting rather, that alternative life-styles are patterns of Consumption. The important p o i z n their discussion is how and why the alternative patterns have come to be.

They argue that the plethora of alternative life-styles present in contemporary American society is a result of value incoherence. They agree with sociologists like Wilensky who see social integration and consumption patterns as no longer flowing from occupation or economic location. Certainly the very poor and the most wealthy do still find their ways of life circumscribed by their economic situations. is that 'middle mass' which Wilensky calls it (1961) for whom consumption stands relatively independent of one's role in the productive system, and for whom the career role is less likely to provide an automatic place in the system of social integration. 'The emergence of the counter- cultur e and life- style experimentation have taken place among people for whom occupa- tional and economic roles no longer provided a coherent set of values and for whom identity has come to be generated in the consumption rather than the production realm, and affluence has permitted a choice of goods from which to make up a life-style package' (Zablocki and Kanter 1976: 280).

Middle mass people are searching for a new value coherence, that is, an identity and meaningful place in society from which they gain a sense of belonging and security. When the old value orientations no longer work, there is stark ter- ror at being in a sea of normlessness or anomie. They then seek to construct with others a nomic world which makes sense, which has meaning (Berger 1967). Zablocki and Kanter put it this way: 'New life-styles arise in a society to the degree that members of the society cease to agree on the value of the currency of the markets in commodities and prestige or at least come to recognize other independent sources of value' (1976: 281).

transition. Breakdowns in cultural traditions occur during these periods. One of the sure signs of such a transitional era is the proliferation of life-styles. A study of these alternative life-styles is at base the study of the decrease in the power of the traditiocal economic and status zones to place social actors in ranked hierarchies of taste and reward in such a way that they find their social positions acceptable

But there

Current society is going through rapid

and understandable. These rank orders break down in transitional periods. Experimentation and invention ensue. Etzioni is cited by Zablocki and Kanter for his four kinds of response to value incoherence (Etzioni 1972).

1. Regression--a return to earlier, less differentiated stages of socialization and culture. 2. Etherealization--the substitution of sym-

bols for real things as the relevant objects of value.

3. rediscover a community of values through emotional investment. 4. Collective behaviour--direct response to

charismatic stimuli in the attempt to crystallize ephemeral states of value coherence into permanent ones (Zablocki and Kanter 1976: 283).

These four types of response fit the functional prerequisites of an integrated culture. They are in turn: 'well-defined roles, a symbolic framework, a sense of community and the legitimation of authority' (ibid. ). Regression is the attempt to find simple, concrete definition of roles in a world grown too complex; etherealization is that effort to recover a shared meaning system which is the basis of any culture; community is the search for a network of direct, primary relationships which provide security and balance and, finally, collective behaviour is that openness to a charismatic figure or group who provides a new sense of order; this in itself signals the breakdown of the former traditional and/or rational legal orders of authority (Weber 1958).

Community--the attempt to re-create or

111. LIFE-STYLES, VALUES AND THE ENVIRONMENT

W e have come to an end of our survey of the meaning and application of the concepts life-style and cultural values. unsure, certainly uncharted one. Our intention has been to make greater sense out of these concepts as they are currently used, thereby setting the stage for a consideration of present-day life- styles and their relationship to the environment, W e can summarize the main points of what we have found: Life-style is a pattern of consumption. Consump-

The journey has been an

tion is the dominant expectation of economic and social actors in an advanced society like that of the United States. Citizens are, for the most part, called upon to consume as much as they can, with less and less of a role in the actual productive enterprise of the economy. The increase of non-work, leisure time is a time for consumption; leisure, not work, is the main focus and shaper of life-styles.

Life-style is less and less associated with occupa- tional roles or economic positions. This is especially true of what we have called the middle mass, or the new middle classes.

W e are going through a transition period brought on by rapid social changes. comitant breakdown in value coherence which

There is a con-

in turn encourages experimentation and invention of new life-styles and status spheres.

31

This inventiveness is possible because of affluence and discretionary time.

1. The lack of value coherence

The analysis of life-style is important, for it allows us to understand the current ways in which contemporary persons are experimenting with institutional patterns, looking for combinations that make sense, that form a clustering of coherence.

A persistent question is whether there are types of life-styles, i. e., distinctive patterns of taste and preference which have as much salience as class levels in predicting social behaviour.

Our survey above uncovered at least three typologies which seem to show variance among different life-styles. More research is necessary to rework and refine these categories.

How does this survey of life-styles contribute to our understanding of the central question concerning the quality of the environment? In order to probe the roots of this problem w e need to consider the nature of the forces that shape contemporary life-styles.

shaper of current life-styles is the advanced industrial economy. As we previously said, the encouragement to consume comes from advertising. industrial economy requires advertising to ensure that buyers will buy the products the big corporations make, or the services they give (Galbraith 1979). The expense of researching and developing a new product or service is so huge that these giant controlling firms must have assurances that a profit will ensue. Such assurance comes from advertising which is a way of managing what people will buy and when. The end result is an economy that encourages waste, throw-away behaviour, and the endless consumption of much that is unnecessary. economy must continue to grow.

(consumer) to produce as much as he or she is capable of doing in tandem with an ever: increasing technological sophistication which actually keeps that same worker from putting in as much time on the job or expending as much physical energy as before. Consequently, the worker-producer has more free time from work with greater energy available, both of which enable him/her to perform as consumer. cycle of production and consumption is a vicious circle leading to a decreasing quality of the environment. sumption has to be broken if there is to be an enhancement of the quality of the environment.

Workers are breaking deliberately with work. modern economy is make-do, boring, uncreative, unfulfilling drudgery. This is increasingly being documented in unemployment studies which show that many are deliberately not seeking work, and in studies of the voluntarily unemployed (Yakelovich and Lefkowitz 1980; Chantal

It is our observation that the principal

The technostructure of the large-scale,

The

That same economy encourages each worker

This

The cycle of production and con-

They do so because much of work in the

Malenfant 1980). This is a negative response to the consumption-production cycle. Such withdrawal from work deprives society of potentially creative activity from which it deprives its nourishment.

The economy is powerful in its determination to mould the consumer into an insatiable consumer- producer. All evidence now seems to point to a boundary or limit beyond which consumers in the future will not go. Human beings are Promethean actors, that is actors who have a sense of history. They remember. And they can look ahead. The very existence of any civilization is testimony to this fact. Human beings are the makers of history. In that sense, they plan, however uncertain and tentative their plans may be at times. When watershed intervals occur, such as the one we are now experiencing, certain characteristics are present: value incoherence, discontinuity in institutional forms, a sense of uprootedness, a breakdown in the meaningful order of things, an awesome sense of crisis. When this comes about, as we have tried to point out above, alternative life-styles arise by which modern folks experiment with and invent new institutional systems or orders of meaning which take them beyond the crisis in cultural values. coherence and consistency. all those things that seem to be coming loose. They would meet what seems to be impending danger with different actions.

There is another way the cycle can be broken.

They seek They would tie down

2. Emerging life-styles which cluster around the idea of communalism

Periods of discontinuity are characterized by certain indicators (Tiryakian 1967). Among those which are now present we can note: sudden spatial shifts in population, the rise of cultic, mystical religious groups, altered mores in the regulation of sexual behaviour and the rapid decline in systems of art. Beale (1975) has studied the movement of urban dwellers into the non-metro areas. Numerous researchers have documented the cultic religious phenomenon (Zablocki 1971; Etzioni 1972; Tiryakian 1974; Andrew Greeley 1974; Hargrove 1980). The changes in sexual behaviour have also been effectively studied (Reich 1969; with the Frankfurt School. See Jay 1973; Bell 1976). come to the attention of a number of scholars recently (Bell 1976; Tiryakian 1967; Hugues 1980). these indicators : the population shift, cultic religious phenomena and alteration in sexual behaviour.

life-style. The attitudes of couples have changed. There are many more working career-minded women. Having children is not one of the main goals of marriage for many young Americans. Affluence, greater time away from work and other kinds of obligations and marriage for meaning and happiness in an atmosphere of recreation and leisure combine to create new life- style choices.

those connected

The failure of modernism in the arts has

Communalism encompasses a number of

Familism is no longer the only choice of a

32

There are strong economic reasons for this population movement with the location of many industrial and commercial firms in these non- metro areas creating possible employment. Yet, the strongest factor seems to be that people want to get away from the city and they like the small town in a rural area. There the pace of life is slower; there is a sense of having more intimat e, face- to- fac e contacts and acquaintances ; fear of crime and property destruction is less; thenatural world is muchmore readilyaccessible and there is a genuine appreciation of it.

There seems to be a growing awareness of consciousness of the need for limits to production and consumption. Yankelovich and Lefkowitz (1980) in a review of recent studies of attitudes see Americanpeople in a 'working through' phase as they confront the new reality of limits to growth. Their attitudes have markedly changed from the optimistic years of the Eisenhower presidency in the 1950s. From the 1950s to the late 1960s Americans believed that the present was better than the immediate past and the future would be even better than the present. In 1971, this pattern changed. past as being rosier than the present but antici- pated the future would be better. By 1978, .this h.ad changed completely. Americans were nostal- gic about the past. It was better than the present and the future does not brighten. This is a clear shift away from the traditional optimism of the .American people. Yankelovich and Lefkowitz (ibid. : 10) further learned that Americans see shortages and limits to growth as 'being good for you'. They discourage waste and encourage conservation and simpler life-styles where there is less emphasis on material things. For example by a 79 per cent to 17 per cent margin, 'Americans would place greater strength on learning to get pleasure out of non-material experiences than on satisfying "our need for more goods and services"'. The communalist life-style is consciously reflecting these new moral values.

This alternative life-style also includes those attributes which Zablocki and Kanter (1976) note fallingunder the four different types of responses to value incoherence: regression, etherealization, community and collective behaviour. Some of the current forms of communalism indeed are regressive, hedonistic, self-serving, present- time oriented, illustrating 'a culture of narcissism' (Lasch 1979). 'The communal groups emphasizing human potential, boot-strap psychology, 'look out for number onel, and hold to what feels good as the ultimate authority are short-lived except for those who have a fundamental philosophical underpinning which seems to give them some permanence. Scientology is a case in point.

Other communal expressions are ethereal in that they seek new symbols of meaning by experimenting with religious ideas that have an ancient past in American culture, such as the Judaeo- Christian tradition, or those ideas which come from other cultures, especially the Eastern religious philosophies of Buddhism, Taoism and Hinduism (Cox 1977; Clock and Bellah 1976).

Americans then saw the

There are those communal life-styles associated with community itself, the search for roots in a world increasingly plagued by psychological and sociological uprootedness (Tiryakian 1981). Ethnic awareness is a part of this phenomenon. As society has become more complex, life in an urban-centred world of large-scale organizations is more uncertain, the desire to get in touch with family and traditions has increased. This same reason prompted many in the last two decades to establish rural and urban communes where recovery of the sense of family might be possible. This certainly was a prime factor in their establishment, whether they lasted or not (Kanter 1972).

Collective behaviour organized around charismatic figures or groups also has a communal cast. Their goals are the same; they search for political solutions to the problems of an age of discontinuity. struction seeking adherents for their causes. Examples are to be seen in the various environ- mentalist movements. This in turn fosters attitudes and behaviour supporting anti-nuclear power, natural foods, reduced consumption and simplicity.

Communalism as a model life-style points to a new form of solidarity, following Durkheim's use of the term (1933). Durkheim was interested in the social bonds of modern society. He saw them as being different from those of pre- industrial, small-scale societies. What we are suggesting is that communalism is a new type of bonding in the making for post-industrial society which is distinct from the organic type of solidarity Durkheim found to hold good for an industrial world. If the thesis we have argued above is true, namely, that w e are experiencing a watershed period in which a discontinuity in one type of society has become patently clear and a new form is emerging, then the post-industrial type must contain a novel genre of social solidarity or bonding (Bosserman 1980). Communalism is the basis for many of the alternative life-styles that w e have referred to above. The communalistic solidarity emphasizes a limit to growth and size; the community as the unit for living; the sacredness of nature and the person; the expression of the unique and the particular which highlights individual creativity and self-development. The main focus of this form of solidarity lies in a combination of leisure and labour, with leisure time now the senior partner of the two.

In sum, there is a turning away from consumption for its own sake which will eventually lead to a breaking of the production-consumption cycle that now has such an effect upon the quality of the environment in all its aspects: psychological, social and cultural. There are new value clusterings emerging which seem to be best expressed in the idea of communalism. They give cause for cautious optimism. New directions are being probed by American people. They have come to the awareness that the old system of doing things no longer works. W e believe, after all, that suicide is not the desire of human beings. They choose life and in so doing they realize that the direction they have most recently been following is leading to an

They ready programmes of social recon-

physical,

33

ultimate destruction of the various environments in which they live and have their being. sure, contradictions abound in such an age of discontinuity and dereglement. There are starts to be possible. and stops, explorations of dead. ends and false

directions. But the net result will have to be a new social solidarity that is consonant with the realities of a post-industrial age if survival is

To be

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35

CHAPTER I11

Cultural values and scientific progress ~

by Re& HABACHI

Man at the heart of the problem

Instead of taking man as the starting-point for an understanding of the sciences, we have takenthe sciences as the starting-point for our understanding of man. This catastrophic inversion, characteristic of a century dominated by science and technology, has brought about a disparity in regard, on the one hand, to the forms of knowledge represented in the 'leading cultures'(1) of present- day history, and, on the other, to the levels of culture found in modern societies as a whole.

as history is concerned, the fact that the part is substituted for the whole means that man and his values are in danger of being dismissed as an ir- relevant absurdity over against the weight of science and i.ts technological extrapolations. And the least industrialized contemporary societies seem no less, and for the same reasons, indan- ger of losing their souls.

Within cultures which act as 'leaders' as far

Everywhere, the mainloser is man. Directly or through the intermediary of technology, it is he who suffers, every time. Far be it from us here to condemn science or to put scientific endeavour once more on trial. The only reason why the sorely needed fruits of scientific genius now seem to threaten us is that science has broken away from man and his culture. Taking itself as focus, it has consigned man, fascinated by its power of attraction, to the periphery. Instead of integrating with man, it has in this way dis- integrated him. Medieval theocentrism was succeeded by Renaissance anthropocentrism, and now twentieth century scientocentrism is blowing both to pieces.

How can we be surprised, then, that man is everywhere in the process of weakening? In the industrialized societies he dies of surfeit. Inthe others he dies of frustration. Thehungry denounce the betrayal of the pact of human fellowship and point a helpless finger at those responsible.

The world with its folds and hollows, in its network of international relations as much as in its geographical physiognomy, is the reflection of man himself. It simply spreads the internal disequilibrium of man beyond him. And this results from the dialectic between man and his societies, societies and nature.

The moralist rushes straight to remedies-- if it is not too late or too ambitious to consider treatment. Before him, it would be up to the sociologist to draw up an account of the full extent of the damage. But ethics will seem arbitrary and unconnected to the facts, sociology complacent and ineffective, unless both are accompanied by a philosophy which, connecting the remedy to the sickness and the sickness to its deepest cause, indicts man above all. Northernmanand southern man. Man of the industrialized cultures and equally man of the other cultures.

read no further. H e who agrees to it will find in these pages: the crux of the problem,i. e. the self-image man has developed, which is both the source of the disequilibrium and the place where treatment has to be applied;

a rehabilitation of the honour of science and technology, once these are integrated with culture;

a description of the dangers which science and technology entail for values by, however gradually, breaking away from our cultures, be they 'leading' cultures or 'led' cultures;

the main principles for an attempt to give back to man his mastery over his culture and values-- and, consequently, a conception of the sciences in terms of man, and not of man in terms of s ci enc e.

Anyone who recoils from this endeavour should

It is not at all surprising that we should dealwith the first of these themes at some length, since it constitutes the heart of the problem and its possible solution. It is predictable that it should also be the most philosophical: otherwise we should have to pass on directly to sociological descrip- tions and ethical recommendations which would, as a result, seem purely ideal and theoretical.

their efforts. They are prevented by the material wealth of the industrialized countries, whose peoples' behaviour has become structurally ag- gressive, and above all by their culture, carried forward by its scientific and technological impetus. They are equally prevented by the poverty of the

Our various civilizations are unable to unite

37

inhabitants of the developing countries, who either succumb to this aggression, losing in the process what distinguishes them, or else clinging to these distinctive characteristics as something immutable- -and therefore barren. Will we have the courage to question the image both types of culture have created of man, of his faculties, of his relations with natural resources and with the products of these relations--in a word, of the values which give him something to live for? Whoever is unwilling to delve into these fundamental questions condemns himself in advance to finding only provisionally reassuring and, in the end, hopeless solutions.

T o pose the primary problem of man does not necessarily imply turning to elementary or obsolete notions. Since the question is posed equally for all cultures, we can benefit from using the data of the advanced sciences. This is a tribute that must be paid to science: by driving man up against the wall, it has none the less endowed him with a better knowledge of his own nature. A s we will say again and again in these pages, the reader must not expect an apologia for non-learning. It is not the project of science that stands accused, but the place man has given it, at his own expense, within his culture. Once and for all, it is man who has been caught red- handed in the act of squandering his faculties and the powers that result from them. Man himself is in the dock.

coming about, and is thereby, rich in contradictory potentials and unpredictable achievements, this is first of all the coming about of a 'certain mode of being'. H e is a 'certain mode of being' in the making. This 'certain mode of being', this nucleus which can develop further in an infinity of ways--as is proved by the history of the civilizations today in conflict--suffers reductions (biological, economic, linguistic, etc. ) which incontestably limit its capabilities and are incon- sistent with what is mankind's essential distinguishing feature.

Let us not imagine that these reflections draw us far from our preoccupation., That would be to ignore the gravity of the problem we are dealing with. Why is science, man's creation and strength, today turning against him? Has he not lost, in the face of science, the sense of his own interiority and the practice of his freedom? Only a 'human' culture could save him. But what is 'culture'? And how does it happen that a culture becomes 'inhuman' ?

If man is in the process of becoming, of

I. CULTURE ANDVALUES

1.

There must be a weak point somewhere in culture, something for us to find and seize upon. Culture suggests growth, so what is it that first makes it interfere with man's development?

Even if man resides in that interior space which keeps him apart from the world, his own states of consciousness included- -that space which

The genesis of the act of culture

is in short, only a possibility as it is not a ready- made thing--he can develop only through culture. From the moment his consciousness awakens, even before the child becomes aware of himself, this possibility which is man feeds on its relations with its surroundings- -the family circle steeped in the national environment, itself immersed in the world environment. These relations, set up by himself or received from his education and heritage, form a network that progressively defines his vision of the world. Man is born 'in situ' say the personalists, 'committed to being' according to the existentialists, what Pascal called 'embarquk', 'already in the world' we are told by Heiddeger, held in a 'combinatory set of structures' claim the structuralists.

possibility that is man is established in an exchange with the world, which he transcends at the same time as he derives nourishment from it-- even though, as possibility, he is anterior to it; (b) the act of culture is contemporary with the birth of man as man, that is to say the realization of his possibilities, and not once, once and for all, but at each moment of his development.

sions from this: (1) the diversity of cultures is a fundamental fact since men are born into different spatio-temporal conditions; (2) man in his development is thenceforth inseparable from his culture; (3) to be assimilated and integrated with endogenous development, exchanges between cultures must necessarily be established on solid foundations; (4) any contribution not assimilated in this integral fashion will remain a peripheral graft with very little chance of taking root, and very likely to remain separate, encysted, per- verting endogenous development until it falls into disuse or is violently rejected.

There is no point in embarking on an analysis of these conclusions, which relate to a strategy for development. For the moment we will only re- tain those factors which are from the outset inherent in the dynamism of culture.

undefined resources; it is equally true that man brings to nature in exchange his need to realize his potential humanity and his powers--powers dependent on the organic environment which is his body, but set in motion by the metaphysical need which constitutes man as 'man'.

to transcend the visible through belief(2) interpret the things of the world, establish relationships between them, institute a language to name them and signs to evoke them, order social functions so as to organize group life and work seeking through all this a 'meaning' which for him takes the form of 'value'. Value is what urges man to live at the level of man and to realize his possibilities because it responds to his fundamental search: his search for an interiority which has to be con- tinually distilled from the extekiority it cannot do without, and his search for a freedom which enters into all the determinisms of this exteriority in such a way as to make use of them and not be engulfed by them.

The important points for us are that: (a) the

W e could immediately draw certain conclu-

In culture, nature can be said to offer man its

His senses, his intelligence and his capacity

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These relative values however fall into cer - tain broad categories that are to be found in any culture, since their structure, is constant, even though appearances and combinations may vary. The True, the Beautiful, the Good do not appear only in Graeco-Latin and Judaeo-Christian culture. They are equally to be found in the Islamic, Asian, Latin-American and African cultures. Must they not be universal to emerge in all cli- mates, even if under different names? And does not this universality show that they are so deeply rooted that where the being of man is concerned it necessarily realizes itself through them? They thus take on a metaphysical nobility far more authentic than utility values and consumer goods, whose sole purpose is the bio-psychic survival of man, and whose diversity stems from the tran- sitory urgencies of particular situations.

This ensemble of values is rooted in the nature of man as w e have tried to define it. They concern his fundamental being. They confer 'meaning' and take on 'value' because they make the space of his interiority live and impart to it the breath of his freedom. What is the True--the true of all scientific, philosophical and religious knowledge--if not man!s discovery of the conformity between nature and his own being when lie deciphers in the world the unity and interiority which dwell in it just as they dwell in him? What is the Beautiful if not the creation of a coherent pattern of relations, and thus of a harmony--in lines, forms, colours, sounds, movements, words--conducive to the exercise of human freedom, allowing man, through the restfulness that comes from contemplating them, to be better present to his interiority? What is the Good--as distinct from the 'goods' of utility--if not the action by which he comes to his deeper being, realizing him more fully and at the same time helping to realize to that extent, because he is part of it, the full potentiality of mankind?

to stress that these capital values, emerging from the same depths of man, spring simultaneously from one and the same regard upon the world. The distinction between them comes a posteriori, as an accident of history, whereas they are ori- ginally so intimatelylinkedas to seem inseparably intertwined.

typify our cultures, each in its own particular history, results in stoppages in the progress of each and violent clashes when they come in contact--since each is coloured by its dominant value. In the present clash between cultures, as inthe internal crises of each one--for the problems donotallarisefromWesternculture--it is values that are the protagonists, and the conflict between them provides the metaphysical drama we must seek to unravel. To treat the question at the level of institutions is simply to cheapen it.

questions before us take form--questions posed (i) by the culture of the industrialized countries dominated by the scientifically 'true' and the technology that flows from it, and (ii) by the

W e only revert to these primarydefinitions(3)

The unequal development of these values which

That is the background against which the

impact of science on the values of the non- indus trializ ed cultures.

If our approach is accepted so far, there are four clear conclusions that should emerge:

(1) Man really does lie at the heart of the problem we are dealing with--man and the images of man constructed by all the various cultures.

(2) Responsibility for the destructive impact of 'scientific truth' on values lies with the 'leading cultures', which are moreover its foremost victims.

(3) This responsibility is however shared by the 'led cultures', whose values have also undergone pathological development and malfunctions. (4) So the treatment is not a one-way pro-

cess: while the disorder is today historically tri- gerred by the leading cultures, for whom an agonizing reappraisal is necessary, the led cultures will remain especially vulnerable to the extent that they too do not adopt their own endogenous form of treatment.

2. The rehabilitation of science

A consideration of the function of science and technology in the 'leading cultures' requires us to deal with science first of all as a value, and then to describe the process by which it becomes an anti- value threatening the other values of the cultures in question.

works, taken as ready-made products, one is tempted to contrast them, because their results do indeed enter into conflictual relationships. Do w e not have the atom putting the existence of humanity in peril, the genetic code opening the way to interventions affecting the human species and the mass media relentlessly pursuing man in his intimacy to the point of exhaustion?

its offspring technologies as if one could stoptheir progress. (4) Others propose a double reading of the world in the form of two cultures, scientific and humanist, thus sanctifying the split between them. Others hope that after a period of scientific over-expansion the balance in our culture will restore itself, while in fact the springs of the human are already at breaking-point. Others lastly, appeal to codes of scientific deontology, as if these could resist armed violence in periods of international tension and the seductions of the industrial corporations in times of peace.

or derisory toying with solutions; but they must be taken into account, for they result from an awareness which is, alas, not at all illusory. Their error is not to take their analysis far enough, and to try to reconcile final products when what is needed is to turn to the productive source.

Why cast discredit on science and its technological derivatives? Have we not seen that all they do is to carry the search for a value over into time and space? Is the scientific 'true' not one aspect of the truth? Certainly truth is also

If one looks at science and culture in their

There are those who turn against science and

All these views represent so much dangerous

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philosophical, and for some religious. But history has shown not only that the philosophical 'true' and the religious 'true' are stimulated by the scientific 'true' but that, what is more, they cannot do without it--so that attempts to put a brake on it have resulted in blocking civilization. This demonstration through history would not stand up to criticism were it not consistentwith man's nature.

man respects in his scientific construction? W e speak wittingly of 'construction' because the way in which he dissociates phenomena which are in fact interdependent, his ever more powerful and sophisticated instrumentation (but an artificial instrumentation, and subject to interpretation on the basis of his own theories), his language, quantitative and meticulous but often reductive--all these are the projection of his inventive subjectivity. Nevertheless, he works on what is 'other' than himself, and which finally has the last word and holds the verdict deciding success or failure. Empirical endeavour is in fact the fruit of a wedding between human faculties and natural resources. In it, objectivity and subjectivity interpenetrate, even though the scientist only finds in nature what he is looking for, despite the other possibilities she holds, and the fact that he himself is not surprised to find her ever more inexhaustible the more he hopes to exhaust her. This is why idle notions of slowing down scientific progress or of saying to it 'so far and no further!' are so inane. Why humiliate reason in one of its flights most representative of man?

finest titles of nobility characterizing human genius. Its epic recounts the glory of Prometheus unbound, who stole fire not from the gods but from his own thirst for truth.

Must we recall here the degree of objectivity

Science has a legitimate claim to one of the

11. SCIENCE AND THE CRISIS OF VALUES

1. How science turns against values

But is this thirst for truth entirely quenched by science? Is the scientist's preferential choice not reductive of the truth? It is precisely around this point that scientific truth turns against man.

first pays the price for the damage caused by this reversal, and philosophical truth consequen- tially. Finally the damage results in the whole structure of culture being shaken, for the following reasons:

First of all science gets split up and loses sight of the unity of man. The multiple needs of society call urgently for the attention of research, which specializes to suit them. (6) Instead of advancing on all fronts of knowledge simultaneously, it fragments, relegating certain specialities to the second or third rank, confronting problems rendered all the more difficult by their isolation from the rest, and abandoning whole areas. It

It is science itself, on its own ground, that

1.

then offers a landscape in which peaks of discovery abound alongside chasms of ignorance. More generally, is it not the predominance of the industrial scheme of things which has led to a grave ecological deterioration?

have hidden from man the sense of his own unity. Standing dizzily between the infinitely large of astronomical research and the infinitely small of electronic perspectives, between the solitude of industrial self-sufficiency and his dependence on an ever more anonymous social fabric, he has seen all his reference points shift, his professional life chopped up between several continents, his social attachments broken at an ever faster rate, (7) and himself lost in the whirlwind of events. Like flotsam toyed with by currents coming from he knows not where and throwing him forward he knows not where, with no fixed points to guide him to a coherent view of manls place inthe scheme of things, somewhere between the extremes, how could he not be victim of anguish and confusion? So he multiplies his travels and consumes to excess to forget the emptiness in his life. (8) The multitude of travel agencies in the big cities of the West organizes this flight behaviour and hides its meaning. Man plunges into exteriority and strong emotions to sidetrack the vacuity of his interiority. His freedom in turn, no longer supported by that interiority which was its foundation but led astray by the profusion of artificial desires sprung mushroom-like from the desire to live, splinters into merely facultative freedoms.

Twentieth century man is said to be 'fragmented'. Each fragment proliferates separately, like a cancerous tissue, in false needs not controlled by any internal standard or by the behaviour of the whole. A philosopher asks: ' Does man exist? I, (9) and replies that he seems not to exist, and that w e are still only at the prehistoric stage of humanity. At the moral level he is right. But at the level of the biopsychological equilibrium w e may ask ourselves if man's existence in the industrialized societies is not already over, if he is not already dead, leaving behind a soulless scarecrow worked by the latest computer born of his scientific intelligence to rule over a world of science fiction become reality. Partial scientific reason has stifled human reason, making any renaissance of man improbable.

should spread through the culture as a whole? Concentrating his attention on the isolated phenomenon, the scientist cuts it off from the ensemble of interwoven phenomena. The meaning that dwells in this totality escapes him. Not only the scientist's points of reference but the whole place of man in the world goes astray.

fects of scientific progress, has exchanged its prophetic function for that of the belated chronic- ler of industrial acceleration. Guided by intuition, art once announced new times--sometimes from such a distance that it remained long misunderstood. Today it belatedly discourses on worlds on which science has already left its mark, as if towed along by industrial progress,

2. These distortions of the scientific 'true'

3. Is it not then predictable that the sickness

(i) The aesthetic field, severely hit by the ef-

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The arts of space--like architecture, sculpture, painting--the arts of time--like music, dance, cinema--plastic Or literary expression, all aesthetic works feed to such an extent on the world produced by science and the technological forms it engenders that they are no longer able to attune themselves to man's regard and his thirst for interiority. The world is so encum- bered by strange objects that man finds himself as if submerged, and the artist is no longerable to breathe freely and creatively. He no longer humanises the world: he reflects a world become inhuman. Nothing is left to him but to show the incoherence that surrounds him or, at best, to acknowledge the decomposition and human misery produced by the break-up of this environment.

Olivier Cl&ment( 10) has noted the disappearance of the human face from the majority of aesthetic expressions. This disappearance is a symptom which is in no way belied by the obses- sive presence, in Bergman's films, of faces full of solitude, despair and the horror of death. One will seek in vain for such backward glances at the human in those who substitute anonymous bodies for faces and reduce these bodies to organs which, separated from the unity of the person, are totally de-Joid of human significance.

Not that all grandeur is absent from modern aesthetic expressions: the sincerity and objectivity to which the artist applies himself--sometimes painfully--lacks neither genius in the painting of disaster nor lyricism in the description of ugliness. There is grandeur too in these tentacular cities where human lives amass in industrial anthills in spaces that are virtually unlimited but in practice cellular. However, a bird's eye view is needed, not the human viewpoint, in order to find in them a harmony of numbers and spatial forms. A human life islived on the basis of its singularity and interiority-- and this however the social tie is viewed that welds it into the community.

ant because less the preserve of an &lite-- governed as it is by what is scientifically 'true' and the power of industry, the balance of forces embodied inthe Great Powersisthe corner-stone of the moral system of nations. Threat andself- defence prevail. Nothing's to be had without ask- ing for it--loudly. Do anything that is not forbidden; but the forbidden is only defined after the event, when it reveals its cause--the failure to recognize the totality.

Who formulates a right before it is denied? What nation goes to meet justice halfway unless it has already been trampled underfoot? But above all, what practice dowe have of gift -giving? Of the disinterested gift, with no other aim than the good of the community, which should be found routinely at the basis of all international co-operation?

where it has become strange and inopportune, the truth that if man is, above all, interiority and freedom, his natural language is that of hospitality and free giving. Hospitality which

(ii) In the field of ethics--far more irnport-

For we have long forgotten, to the point

opens up the space of that interiority, and free giving which expresses the play of freedom. They form the only operational principle for human compenetration- -from within- -while the law backed by force stands sentinel, holding man back at the gates of his exteriority, glued to his collective or individual self, incapable of giving himself the lightness and mobility men need in order to live happily together. Is it necessary to illustrate this hardening of man? It would be enough to recount the list of conflicts of the last twenty-five years, dominated by the mutual incomprehension of !North! and 'South'.

In brief, the fact that the scientifically 'true' has cut loose from the gravitational pull of values means that its future development is governed solely by science and technology. These, indispensable to man, finding no commensurate ethical or aesthetic norms outside themselves, create such norms out of their own momentum, endowing themselves with a 'scientific morality' and 'func- ti onal a e sth et i c s ~

The more scientific truth testifies to the genius of man when it forms an integral part of the set of values within a culture, the more it becomes demoniacal and the more power it has to damage both that culture and inter-cultural relations once it hypertrophies and turns against values. The subversion of values leads to their inversion.

2. The 'led' cultures

As we predicted, we have not been able to deal with the leading and led cultures together. To consider the led cultures, we shall restrict ourselves to Arab culture and the fate of its particular values. The connecting point between them today is precisely this misunderstanding about man and his values.

cultures of the validity of their own singularity if they submit to the same distortion which gives a privileged place to the scientifically 'true' and if they show themselves incapable of offering a dynamic, valid image of their own development?

W e know that in Eastern cultures the true and the good are so closely connected that they sonie- times engender each other. In Mahatma Gandhi's Hindu thought for example, truth springs from the practice of the good (non-violence: ahisma). In Arabic, the true connotes the right, the just (al-haq). A s to the beautiful, it either tends towards the decorative or is ritual and imbued with the sacred. Thus in some cultures these values are not articulated in the san?e way as in Western culture, in which Graeco-Latin culture has clearly distinguished them. Moreover the Renaissance in the West articulated these values on two levels, one ending with man and the other opening up to a religious absolute, while Eastern cultures are as if magnetized, above all, by the religious, their yardstick an absolute which bestows on them a sacred character that is only sporadically reflected in man.

How can the led cultures convince the leading

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3. a spiritual and the temporal

It would be fascinating to pursue this typology of cultures further, but this would take us too far from our subject. Our sketch of them is enough, however, to show worlds which are profoundly different , though not ne c es sarily antagonistic.

The great divide between these two worlds is precisely that in regard to the distinction between the sacred and the profane, the religious and the secular--often translated, though in a very approximative fashion, by spiritual and temporal.

Western culture underwent an internal rupture at the beginning of the Latin Middle Ages, atthetimewhenit cameinto possession of Greek philosophy (from the Arabs, to be exact)--although the importance of this was not evident until the age of the Renaissance and the Reform- ation. This rupture released reason from the grip of a theology which had tended to keep it in subjection, and recognized man's autonomy and central place inthe order of the universe. Whence the distinction between the sacred and the profane, the religious and the secular. This distinction was not established through any internal development--as might have been the case--but through an insurrection against the authority of the religious and the sacred, felt to be over- oppressive.

W e have seen, however, that since the nineteenth century the excessive growth of the scientifically 'true' has ended by subverting this fragile order, and that the disequilibrium in regard to values has led to a pathology within the leading cultures.

above all in Arab-Muslim culture, sacred and profane have a different relationship; and our remarks onwestern culture were designed merely to throw more light on this difference.

'Islam is religion and state'--that is the translation of the Arab tenet 'a1 islam din wa dawla'. (1 1) Islam is at one and the same time a religion and a system of organization of the temporal community. The community of believers- - the 'ummat- -is theologically rooted, and the Moslem faith is the matrix of their unity throughout the world. The Koranic prescriptions received by Muhammad are at the same time spiritual and temporal. They invest the whole of the believer's life with sanctity, and religion affects everything: daily ritual and prayer, food and the prohibitions regarding food, marriage, the layout of ceme- teries, and also the 'holy warl--the 'jihad'-- either against the unbeliever or that 'great jihad' which is the believer incessant war with himself to become a better Muslim. The orientalist Louis Massignon rightly speaks of a 'lay theocracy':( 12) 'theocracy' because the codes of individual and social life emanate from God, Muhammad being only God's messenger, and 'lay' because the application of these codes is incumbent on all believers, without any category of consecrated men to play a preponderant role in it--for there is no priesthood in Islam.

In the led cultures, on the other hand, and

Sheikh El-Maraghi, Rector of the University of El-Azhar, was able to say in 1939: 'As to the famous precept "Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's'', it has no sense in Islam'. (1 3) And yet this precept does not imply a rupture, since Caesar is also a creature of God and responsible to Him, but points to two different orders, autonomous but not independent of each other.

A fortiori, the distinction between spiritual and temporal has no analogue in Islam, where it is interpreted quite simply as a divorce which snatches from the religious what belongs to it by right. Even so, the reaction of young North Afri- can teachers was quite legitimate when at a symposium held in Beirut in 1980 they expressed their astonishment, not to say indignation, at hearing a 'confusion of the spiritual and temporal' attributed to Islam. How can these contradictions be explained? How can the separation and distinction be denied without admitting confusion? Is the reality more complex than orientalists in general think? It will doubtless be remembered that East- ern Islam is not identical with Western Islam, and that their dissimilarity is due to the Mediter- ranean, a geographical fact which is also a historical process capable of loosening the bond between spiritual and temporal. If this is not enough to elucidate the question, it may none the less show that spiritual and temporal do not connect in the same way in Christian-inspired cultures as in the Muslim-inspired, and that if Christianity can adopt the distinction between them, Islam can reject it, without for all that confusing the spiritual and the temporal. W e would obviously not have given so much importance to this articulation of our analysis were it not para- mount, explaining as it does why the scientifically 'true' and technology, in their sudden explosion during the nineteenth century, could pose a problem to Arab-Islamic values as a whole and threaten'' to subvert them.

4. Arab science and values

Science and technology could not in themselves have created a problem for Arab-Muslim culture: what does so is their present-day intrusion into the cultural field made up of values that have been frozen rigid over four centuries. This accordingly brings us back to the distinction between the 'true', the 'good' and the 'beautiful', which has already enabled us to diagnose the pathology of the leading cultures.

The scientifically 'true' is familiar to Arab- Muslim culture. It appears alongside famous names in the international heritage. To convince oneself one has only to glance through a standard en- cyclopedia, the study by G. Sarton( 14) or the more recent articles byAli KettaniandG. Anawati. (1 5) The Koran encouraged knowledge through its precepts: 'On earthare signs for men of firm belief, and also in your own selves: will ye not then be- hold them? t (LI, v. 20 and 21). A Hadith, a saying of Muhammad, makes it an obligation: 'Knowledge is a duty for every Muslim, man or woman'. And then there is the piece of advice: 'Go seek science,

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even in China', which must obviously be situated in its own time. (1 6)

After the Greeks, knowledge came from the Arabs, as much in the humanities as in the sciences of number, figure and movement--arithmetic, algebra, geometry, astronomy--the sciences of matter--physics, chemistry, geology, geography-- and the life sciences--biology, anatomy, surgery. But the applied sciences (our technology of today) could also point to remarkable achievements-- irrigation, hospital development, pharmacopoeia, observation instruments--as could the industries makingluxuryand other goods for trade: leather- work, ceramics, paper, woven silks, carpets, damascened weapons.

E. Gilson, historian of philosophy, recognizes that this scientific contribution had no little bearing on the European Renaissance and the experimental method of Francis Bacon and Galileo, who were to inaugurate the rise of science in Europe and the future technology which is today flowing back to the Arab world. (1 7)

There are so many names w e would prefer to cite none. But can one refrain from recalling, along with our scientific terminology so loaded with Arabic roots, (18) Khwarizmi's name in connection with algorithms and trigonometry, that of Avicenna whose 'canon' was taught in all the faculties of medicine of the West right up to the nineteenth century, that of Biruni, the first geologist who also preceded Galileo by six hundred years in the field of mechanics, and that of Ibn-Khaldun, recognized today as the father of sociology? All this leads G. Sarton to speak of the 'miracle of Arab culture'. In spite of that, he argues, Arab-Islamic culture knew a dynamic equilibrium in which all its values blossomed proportionately. Once that was lost, all fields of knowledge, including science, were inevitably affected, and ethics and aesthetics fell apart, and ultimately became incapable of further development. The 'true', the 'good' and the 'beautiful' have never since ceased to repeat themselves in their formulations and expressions. Ibn-Hanbal had 'closed the doors of research'- -ijtihad--and the modern Reformists of Islam are unceasingly trying to reopen them, in conditions which have, alas, become progressively more difficult. Thus the crisis of the West is echoed by a corresponding crisis in the Arab-Islamic East. (19)

5. The Arab resurgence of values

As with the pathology of Western culture, we will avoid introducing political factors here, though these are not unrelated to the pathology of Arab- Muslim culture. But we cannot fail to note that the scientific predominance of the West over the past four centuries has disadvantaged Arab culture by virtue of a paralysing military and economic aggressiveness. Already weakened by their internal problems, Arab-Muslim values were left with no choice other than simply to initiate themselves or else to march in step with Western values.

nessing today reaches beyond the simplypolitical. The awakening of Islam which we are wit-

Foreign observers are slow to recognize this. In fact it is a question of rehabilitating Arab-Muslim values which have been masked by foreign hegemony and internal ossification. The danger is that in so doing one may fail to separate out the values one wishes to save.

For, since the fifteenth century, the theologically 'true', which already had a tendency to dominate philosophical reason, has stagnated in- cessantly, finding no material with which to renew itself.

the profane, which were already very closely interwoven in Islam--and, as w e have seen, in an original way--become welded together to the point of seeming to merge. And this is why insufficient- ly enlightened believers, like the orientalists who have failed to grasp Islam from within, are led to speak of a confusion of the spiritual and the temporal.

This depreciation of values in the field of the 'true' could not but have its echo in the fields of the 'good' andthe 'beautiful'. W e already know that 'good' and 'true' are two dimensions of the same reality. While ethics slumbered, it was natural that only traditional legalism should persevere to provide solutions to situations which were themselves new. The practice of social and international law is thus nourished by principles which could not entertain the idea of alterations to the family unit, to the social laws concerning women, to industrial labour laws or to relations between states.

Aesthetics, on the other hand, in the absence of any new forms springing from its own domain, becomes ever more decorative or else degenerates into turgid eloquence. Neither town planning, architecture, painting nor poetry, that favourit e child of the Arabs, have invented new procedures, new tools, or renewed rhythms. Thus both the 'beautiful' and the 'good' repeat the past, turned in on themselves by the retreat of truth. And if w e have fully understood the depth to which culture is mingled with the breathing of a consciousness, w e cannot but regret the time lost. Whoever may be responsible. And the treatment for a historical sickness must be a historical remedy.

W e have no intention of belittling the attempts made this century- -sometimes successful attempts- - to modernize culture and civilization. But the important point is to distinguish, within this 'W estern-style' modernization, between that which is a juxtaposition of imported ideas and forms and that which is endogenous evolution. The first is condemned to sterility and even to becoming an obstacle, unless it is taken over, taken in cgarge and remoulded by the other in an original development of its traditional values.

The life-style of manufacturing or productive industry--break-up of the family, womenls liberation, migration towards the centres of economic activity, participatory democracy- -do violence to the old order without suggesting a viable new order.

With values in such disarray, the dominant reactions were predictable. Either adopt the rhythm and the ultimate goals of the 'leading cultures' and lose one's own roots; or else cling,

So we cannot be surprised that the sacredand

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barnacle-like, to what differentiated one and suf- focate. There was a third reaction too, consist- ing in an attempted but precipitate reconciliation between the modern and the fundamental, a reconciliation which is not entirely valueless but which has been too hasty to be creative. There is in fact a logic connecting these reactions, and it is important to bring it to light; w e may thus avoid false trails from now on, and correctly situate the problem of values as it is posed today in the Arab-Muslim world. (a) The first reaction is that of the governing

classes at the time of the first national libera- tions. More or less attuned to the West, they adopt its culture and for their private use benefit from its scientific progress. Able to deal with the West on equal terms, they push refinement to the point of adding an Eastern charm to the Westernism they import. But this imitative reflex cuts their cultures off both from their past and from the masses, left trailing far behind in a slough of medieval backwardness and pQVerty. Greek doctors, Italian architects, French teachers, stars and artists of renown thus create oases of comfort and elegant ease which jar against the now archaic surrounding culture.

Arab culture itself. And since Eastern luxury likes to be seen, it stimulates the popular dis- satisfaction, which will end by crushing it to dust in a crisis of national anger. The palaces of the old Egyptian regime, the festivities of the former Iranian regime, are of unforgettable symbolic value: they provoked a revolutionary reflex that went as farasto erasetheverynamee of the streets. And it is pointless to impose on the masses a culture in which they cannot recognize themselves. W e have seen quite clearly that in the end they will get rid of it.

of the first. Rejecting an earlier situation established on the basis of a betrayal, the new wave turns in on itself politically. breaking all cultural ties with the outside world, 2nd even to extirpating the beneficial contribu- tions it had absorbed into its own body. Perhaps this withdrawal into self around what essentially distinguishes it springs from a strategy of some value for the resurgence of an identity which has been abused. While politics draws some provisional advantages from it, the religious leaders, alas, get the most out of it. And the culture of the masses finds itself so stifled--and with it national productivity, despite being confronted with a demographic explosion--that the vice will simply have to be loosened. The importation of manufactured values will be renewed, with the demand that they be rendered perfectly aseptic, free of all contamination derived from their source.

It springs from an intelligentsia recruited among the dilettantes and marginal intellectuals of the first reaction who have played with the liberal spirit, and among the academics of the second reaction, happy to testify at last to their cultural commitment. A n intelligentsia cultivated enough

This varnish is thus not an attainment of

(b) The second reaction is often a consequence

Now it is led to

(c) W e will dwell longer on the third reaction.

tohave drawngenerous ideals from the international revolutionary experience, but not cultivated enough to know that ideals cannot be transplanted unless they correspond to the historical circumstances that gave rise to them. Revolution, democracy, socialism and economic infrastructure in the field of ethics, cubism and surrealism in the field of aesthetics--these are all notions which, to demon- strate their fruitfulness, need to find favourable conditions. In the absence of such conditions they produce misunderstandings which are not of their own making:

1. The odds are not, theoretically, entirely against a reconciliation of Islam with socialism and democracy. In practice, Islam includes a social thinking which can develop, and a principle of popular consultation--the 'shaura'--valid for its time; but it does not in the least allow of a socialism denying private property, and popular consultation presupposes citizens much more experienced than those of the first centuries. Other- wise, the collectivities in question dress up in a professing socialism which can resemble state capitalism, and in a purely nominal democracy.

ries and Islamic faith? Reference to the atom has been sought in the Koran. But why mix the order of revelation with that of science? It is enough that they do not contradict each other. To confound a trans-historic message with one tran- sitory stage of a science subject to contradictions is surely to put this message in peril. The modernity of a faith dwells not in its deciphering of the universe but in the orientations it suggests to man in the face of this universe with its changing interpretations. (20)

sopher: 'It is because they ontologize science a little too fast that so many of our thinkers, and some of the most brilliant, get ridiculously side- tracked into seeking an explanation of the Upani- shads or the Koran in Newton, Fresnel, Einstein, Darwin or Lamarck. They do not understand what it is that separates gnosis from ontology and that in the one case it is a question of a reduction of the world, in the other of wisdom and values'. (21)

Marxism-Leninism and monotheism. Since they are constitutionally antagonistic, one or the other must necessarily be deformed. In a certain recent republic, where an austere economic socialism seems to be practised, the project draining most public funds is, paradoxically, the building of a mosque, What relation does that have to Marxism- Leninism if not that its representatives are taking advantage of all and any confusion? Those who baldly flaunt their atheism before the believers are more logical, But, thenit is all over for Mus- lim values strictly speaking, and the brave mili- tants prepare themselves for a new cultural colonization.

Hoping to secularize the Arab nation under the pretext of modernizing it, the most audacious attempt consists in basing the 'umma' on a community of destiny and on the fact of being Arab rather than on faith. To declare the separation of the spiritual and the temporal has been thought a

'

2. D o we need to reconcile scientific discove-

W e cannot say better than the Tunisian philo-

3. Even more absurd is the juxtaposition of

4,

44

revolutionary act. Faith, it is said, is a matter for the individual, and civic life a collective af- fair. This current not only seems to allow a confusion of the spiritual and the temporal which dates from before its intervention, but, what is more, it breaks the unbreakable structure of Islam which is at the same time a religion and a community. This separation--which is in fact more a demand than a reality--would be suicidal for the values it isolates since it leaves eachone to develop by itself, to the detriment of the principles of Islam. (22)

These modernization attempts in the field of ethics have their counterparts in that of aesthetics. W e have referred to cubism in painting and to surrealism in literature: two visions of the world which could, in the Arab culture, give back to art the prophetic function it has lost in the West.

Were popular sensibilities ready for the schematization of forms and colours, could they accommodate themselves to the surrealist imagination? The fact remains that those responsible for the innovatory works whichhave so far proved a success have as a result found themselves stuck in the camp of the Western artists who canappre- ciate them, rather than being thereby helped to find a niche within their national culture. Here again, the leap is too abrupt from the fundamental to the new for any continuity to be established. A sculptor like the Egyptian Mahmoud Mouktar is better served by his inspiration when he develops the striped lines of Pharaonic works, as is a painter like the Lebanese P. Guiragossian in his Byzantine hieraticism; the same is true of other Egyptians like the painters Mahmoud Said and Mohamed Nagy, so different in style but so alike in their sense of the truth, (23) whereas a major Arabic poet like the Alid Ahmed Sard (Adonis) remains remote from the masses and even from the average reader, but is appreciated by orientalists happy to findin him the reflections of their own literature.

For us it is not a question of denigrating these attempts at renewal. Perhaps they are storing up treasures. One day they will become fruitful. And we have laid emphasis on the third of these reactions only because its very uncertainty and the confusions it carries with it reveal both an impatience to see things happening now and a blossoming which is full of promise. For the moment, Arab-Muslim values do not emerge from it any more clearly defined. But in confronting the values of modernity they intensify their own need for change. At the same time, they learn to discern better the border between the reconcilable and the irreconcilable, thus seeking their own line of fidelity. For there is no question of modernity reducing to sameness what should remain full of variety. What we have here is a sort of cultural upheaval whichis Waiting to settle down in the context of a new equilibrium.

Butwill Arab-Muslim values--and, like them, those of all the 'led' cultures--discover this equilibrium without a return to their own principles, without determining the moment at which those principles ceased to operate? As long as they do

5.

not have the courage to make this effort, the pathology of the 'led' cultures will be as irreme- diable as that of the 'leading cultures'.

111. MAIN PRINCIPLES FOR AN INTEGRATION OF SCIENCE INTO OUR CIJLTURES

Given perspicacity, it should be possible to discover the underlying reasons for the present obstacles to the North-South dialogue. More than economic and social, these causes are cultural. Cultural in the widest sense of the word, since culture begins with man, is inseparable from man, at the source of each human community and distinctive to it. And that means that these obstacles are structural. That is why they raise again the whole question of the nature of man and how it is seen by the 'leading' and 'led' cultures. (24)

what distinguishes the human species, that is to say man's interiority and freedom. A n inviolable interiority, yet open to human solidarity and to the world. A conquering freedom, liberating itself from the determining factors of nature and society, but also freeing itself from its internal determining factors, which tend to turn it in on itself instead of fitting it into the totality. C n condition that we respect mankind, in ourselves and in others, values give meaning to culture, nourish the growth of each culture and, at the same time, the exchange between cultures, according to their authentic needs.

For that, it would be enough that the 'true', the 'good' and the 'beautiful' hinge around man as their end, total man and humanity in its totality. Rut let this constellation of values once begin to disintegrate, and the 'true' itself break up--producing a hypertrophy of the scientifically 'true' and in consequence an atrophy of what is true from a philosophical (and religious) standpoint -- or let the true break up to the benefit of faith and at the expense of reasoning reason, and there will be an immediate disruption of the ensemble of values, sparking off a crisis within each culture and at the same time creating blockages in the dialogue between cultures that can be overcome only with difficulty.

in the pathology of the 'leading' cultures and in that of the 'led' cultures.

The final aim of culture used to be to develop

This is indeed what w e have recognized both

1. A new image of man

A philosopher has branded the collapse of subject into object 'the decline of being into havingt.(25) Man seeks to compensate for the draining away of his being by multiplying his possessions, just as his freedom turns into merely facultative freedoms today as he despairs of any true liberation.

Today the 'leading cultures' are all marked by economically-determined structures centred on the greed for productivity and consumption.

The 'led cultures' for their part--and Arab- Muslim culture amongthem--only began to degenerate from the moment when, under the destructive

45

impact of the 'leading cultures' or by an endogenous slowing down, and no doubt because of the two together, their constellation of values fell apart. There was a rupture of truth within these cultures, to the benefit of the philosophically 'true' orthe theologically 'true'--or of 'wisdom'-- and at the expense of the scientifically 'true'. This rupture instantly froze the progress of truth and precluded any fresh developments in ethics and aesthetics, so that today they have become anachronistic. The dignity of the led cultures, put to the test by the leading cultures, willmake an idol of the scientifically 'true' and the technology they lack, an idol to be conquered at any price. They too see their previous image of man sinkinto the background behind the myth borrowed from theleading cultures and stamped inthe image of science. And science takes on a magic power because they have not livedthe process that leads up to it. The important thing for the led cultures is to possess the modern object so as to profit from its beneficial powers. But it is basically the same fantasy as that of the industrialized countries that looms on the horizon of the developing countries; a fantasy stemming from what they do not have rather than what they are, the reverse image of 'the other' in fact, and which they make it their task to realize, at the risk of forgetting what has become for them an outmoded personality. The led cultures objectify man in their own way, the way of frustration. A s if a human interiority couldlive inanimaginary space that does not spring from its own relations with the world, and as if its freedom too were not going to be reduced to merely facultative freedoms in the possession of a borrowed modernity, a modernity not engendered by its own becoming.

Just how long will these cultures accept such abuse? How will they sustain a disparately divided personality, half in an opulent past and half in a wretched present? Just how far will they persist in their hasty and disordered efforts to make a sterile connection between the essential and modernity? They urgently need a new image of man in which the 'true', the 'good' and the 'beautiful' may join in a dynamic equilibrium where their interiority and their liberty can both breathe.

2. What treatment for the 'leading cultures'?

How can the leading cultures and led cultures develop a new image of man consistent withtheir identity, open both to their endogenous progress and to dialogue? This is the question that remains' to be considered before we end. As we have already seen, the answer must revolve around a number of elements--what it is that distinguishes man, as species, the values that go to make up his culture, and the influences and changes these values have experienced through different histories. It remains to put these elements to good account.

What catastrophe will awaken the 'leading cultures' from their philosophical slumber? Philo- sophical, yes, because in it the sense of man is deadened, extenuated by his technological powers. A philosopher of the thirties, Emmanuel Mounier,

in praying for a revolution in the West such as would revolutionize individuals, not only communities, said his dream was to 'remake the Renaissance'. T o remake, not to repeat: to do it differently. For though the Renaissance sounded the great call to arms for science and well-being, it ended by giving the scientifically 'true' free rein for every folly and so killing man, man of the totalitarian states and the bourgeois democra- cies alike. When a modern economist like L. J. Lebret in the sixties warns the West in his 'Manifeste pour une civilisation solidairel, (26) that over-indulgence spells death for peoples no less than individuals, he is saying the same, but in terms of consumption and production.

These appeals fall hopelessly on the ears of man, deafened as he is by the clamour of his desires, so weighed down by his self, that egotistic and demanding object, that he can no longer hear the voices from within himself any more than the voices of others. Some, like Gabriel Marcel and more recently Maurice Clavel, call for a new Socratism so as to give man back his transcendence, his critical sense, that is to say his interiority and his freedom. This is no reason to ignore, for all that, the achievements of science, especially those of the human sciences. Although these have for some decades past tried to supplant philosophical discourse, their 'thingification' of man--who is reduced to a conscious or unconscious structure, to a machine with desires, to an object-- leaves him so unsatisfied that today we see his purely subjective dimension reappear. (27)

without any value to impel him out of and beyond that self? It is up to the information sciencesand their ethics to make him conscious of the appeal of two-thirds of the world, as J.J. Servan- Schreiber(28) has recently emphasized. If he can regain his balance on that slope down which his interiority is fleeing, objectifying itself, he will at once become more attentive to the other cultures and their irreplaceable singularity. No longer objectifying them, he will cease to be insensible to the human interiorities expressed in them. The breath of the human will once more pass through all those consciousnesses that close themselves off only because they have relaxed the ties that bound them to the wider social fabric.

To entice the leading cultures not only out of but beyond themselves implies a reference to values that transcend man. And that depends on what is 'true' from the philosophical or religious standpoint, a way of seeing it that has never been entirely lost in certain cultures, even though buried under scientific accretions. But science itself is having to reckon more and more with the metaphysico-ethical question. Symposia like that recently held in Cordoba, 'Science and Conscious - ness: the two readings of the world', (29) show scientists' positivism opening up of its own accord to a trans-positivism which is not necessarily a turning back to the religious, but is no longer a rejection of everything beyond man. This 'beyond' bears other names than those already known, is approached by other paths than those already trod, but its reality remains that of a pole of

But can man detach himself from his self

46

attraction and communiontowards which consciousnesses converge in an infinite movement.

The restructuring of the 'true'--scientific, philosophical and religious--thus paves the way for its reintegration into the constellation of values. It marks an astonishing leap forward for ethics and aesthetics. Not only will mannothesi- tate before the moral solutions called for by the newness of the problems at hand, but his works of art too, instead of belatedly recording aworld broken by science, will rediscover a 'memory or the future', (30) and their prophetic functionwill be stimulated, as by a magnet, by all that the world can be--and of which poetry has recently had so little to tell us.

Thus the reintegration of science at the heart of an all-embracing truth, the development of the good and the beautiful in harmony with the true, would naturally result in participation in the continuing dialogue between cultures. It is not a question of putting the brake on science or calling a temporary halt to technological progress, but of their evolution within an organic context which will lead them to espouse the dynamic of the human, a humanness which is unintelligible without international co-operation. It is a question of vision, then a question of education. A prolonged effort. And mutual aid between these and the other cultures- -also called on to become 'leading' cultures--will no longer be experienced in terms of being asked to make sacrifices and contribute funds but as something giving anentirely different character to development plans and structures of production, so as to make them serve both self- development and development of others. (3 1)

3. What treatment for the 'led cultures'?

The 'led cultures' too must be remoulded. How can they enter into the dialogue of cultures as valuable participants unless they carry out their own internal revolution? If they do this, theywill be fully promoted to the ranks of the 'leading cultures'.

tical--orof 'wisdom'-- has held some of these cultures back on the beaches of the sacred, far from the tides of science that wouldhave vitalized them, or that others, once stimulated by the theologically and spiritually 'true', are now weighed down by it to the point of being immobilized--as is the case of Arab-Muslim culture--at a level of growth once enviable but today archaic, all this at once indicates what is needed in order to re- activate growth. Whatever the impact of the age of worldwide colonization, it is evident that as things stand today it is the philosophically and scientifically 'true' which holds the key; it is the exercise of rationality that must be liberated, though without bringing as corollary any mistrust of the sacred or spiritual.

directly, not through the distorting prism of the 'leading cultures', this would give them back the self-confidence they need to cross the threshold of science without making it an idol and without

The fact that the attractive power of the mys-

If the 'led cultures' looked at themselves

going down on their knees to it. (32) They are traumatized by the technology of the leading cultures and by the need they feel for that technology, so much so that they are now tempted to 'mar- ginalize' their own heritage and turn away from it as if it were a shameful garment. Science, according to Max Weber, takes the magic from nature; well, they must now take the magic from science, strip it of the magic halo that surrounds its ever more powerful and complex products. And the best way to demystify science is to practise it oneself, approaching it not from the outside through its manufactured objects but fromwithin, through that spirit which animates the process of discovery. (33)

cultures can profit from the aid given by the industrialized countries to start once more climbing the ladder of science, beginning at the bottom mng, bymeans both of +he mass media and of formal education, until the day they develop their own structures for the purpose.

In order at the same time to keep hold on the 'wisdom' or mystic content of the led cultures-- i. e. the philosophically and spiritually 'truet-. -it would suffice that in thus turning, as it must, towards the scientifically 'true' reason should operate within the particular context of each culture, according to its own capacities, its particular needs, without imposing any foreign model from outside. These cultures will themselves ex- plore ways in which their mystical and 'wisdom' traditions can contribute in the ethical and aesthetic fields, distinguishing in these traditions those aspects worth reactivating from those which are only waiting to die. The important thing is to save, in this indispensable remoulding, the' dynamism of their endogeneity.

This approach, valid for all the led cultures, requires particular adjustments in the case of A rab-Muslim culture. The sociologist J. Berque speaks of 'the inappropriateness of an ethic, even a revealed ethic, for constructing and organizing, unless it agrees to periodic updating'. (34) H e is not alone in this thought. Many Muslims have preceded him in their will to reform. But reformism is not enough. The philosopher Mohammed Arkam sees more clearly, in our view, when he wants to reawaken reason, as one would inject a nerve at its root, at the historical moment when theology and the law schools succeeded in lulling it to sleep.(35) Yes, w e must go right back to that point, though without remaking our whole history.

So it is up to Arab-Muslim culture itself to beginafresh on the basis ofthis nexus of the sacred and the profane of which w e spoke earlier--and which some wouldlike unceremoniousl-- toliquidate-- giving it back a flexibility it is now i - clanger of losing for good, as the result of its internal in- hibitions and the weight of the historical process it has undergone. In short it is a question of saving the substance of faith, or at least saving it more effectively, by allowing it to become explicit through the changing phenomena of history.

Elsewhere w e have suggested that impetus could be regained this century, starting from the modern idea of the 'person'--which is not the

Until the new order is established, the led

47

'individual' of individualism - -never named in Islam but implied throughout, if only in the believer's initial act, the 'Shahadat, which begins every act of prayer. (36) A North African philosopher, Lahbabi, has demonstrated this in his treatise on a 'Muslim personalism'. (37)

This reactivation of rationality throughout the whole diapason that runs from the scientifically 'true' through the philosophically 'true' to the spiritually 'true' will suggest its own ethi- calandaesthetic implicationsintheArab-Muslim context. At the level of ethics, rather than dres- sing itself up in foreign ideologies or indeed defending itself from them, rigid behind a bar- ricade, it willweavefromits ownbeinga network of general maxims relating to the personal lives of men and women, family life, economic, social and international life.

At the same time, in the aesthetic field, new art forms, untried themes, rhythms never yet heard, a renewed art of living will see the light of day; they will not be those of Western modernity any more than a harking back to the Eastern past. The already recognized successes in architecture, painting or literature will find their place among them as precursors, but starting from an inspiration--or an aspiration--con- tinually and bountifully replenished at the fountain-head.

It is up to the men of culture in the Muslim world to take the initiative and put rationality in the saddle, loosening the ties of the spiritual and temporal but taking care not to break them. A s Anwar-el-Jundi says, 'Let it be clearly understood that this progress can come only from ourselves. (38) He is right. But there is no longer any excuse for delay. The time is past when the Arabs' attention was, out of duty, entirely absorbed by political liberation; this can no longer be a pretext or an alibi. Men of culture must now liberate themselves from politics, in order to conceive of the true renaissance which will enable them to take part in the dialogue of cultures as a 'leading culture' in their own right.

4. A two-pronged treatment, enabling cultures to communicate and universal and specific values to be knit into an integrated whole

1. A therapeutic treatment for cultures onthe basis of science and technology necessarily has two aspects, It carries the problem and the remedy for both sides at once, the leading cultures and the led cultures. All are called upon to develop into cultures which will drive history forward. They can challenge each other without causing offence.

T o avoid the perversion of the first due to the predominance of science and the inflation of technology that follows from it, and to preserve the others from the backwardness due to an atrophied reason: these in brief are the imperatives that emerge from our analyses.

to themselves, does not imply any retreat, any regression, any rejection. It is a forward

T o convert the one and the other in this way,

conversion, reabsorbing the scientifically I true' and the exercise of reason into an all-embracing search for truth, and keeping this within the field of attraction of the 'good' and the 'beautiful' so that the culture's values all progress together, in a self-regulating manner.

sources. But if this exchange is located at the level of their products, they will reduce it tomere trade, with all the after-effects, this kind of operation has.

The only way a culture can enrich itself from others is to repeat, when it meets with them, the founding act of culture within itself. Just as an object only has meaning for a culture on the basis of an interiority of consciousness which seeks to realize itself by multiplying its links with the world, so all acculturation implies reliving in oneself the genesis of object, word, life-style and value. Otherwise all these factors of civilization become exotic museum items.

So a discipline is necessary. To sympathize with the conditions of a given culture is only a preliminary. W e must go further and see the object in terms of its origin and its ultimate purpose. When one thinks how much the intuition of time and space varies from one culture to another, universal co-ordinates though they be of all experience even at the most elementary level, one sees at once the impossibility of transporting an object from one culture to another without trans- posing it. (39) So what can we say when it is a question of the ultimate purpose to which the object's creation was a response? The historian spontaneously places things in their situation in this way when he tries to re-create the context of an event. H e who remains outside the circuit that leads from ultimate purpose to need in order to create the object condemns himself to objectifying cultures other than his own, and often his own culture too. H e gives up the attempt to understand them, or he imitates them and is drawn out of his own orbit.

3. This methodology, valid for science as for morality and art, i. e. for the values of ethics and aesthetics, entails one consequence with indubi- table advantages. When a product does not yield up its ultimate purpose, it becomes useless and insignificant.

results in concealing true values. This prolifera- tionthus callsfora process of self-regulationonthe part of the culture, which must, on painof death, rediscover the golden rule oftemperance. The only cultures destinedto survive are those which keep their constituent set of values, 'true', 'good' and 'beautiful', constantly in balance.

try to help in the self-regulation of a culture, by imposing or proposing exogenous models, even if these are accompanied by auxiliary technological props. Any value, be it in science, ethics or aesthetics, which does not draw its meaning from a human interiority is destined to weaken that interiority--by excess or by default--and so to sterilize it. Starting as a non-value it will become an anti-value.

2. E n route they may obviously exchange re-

But multiplying the insignificant eventually

4. It would be vain to acculturate, that is, to

48

O n the other hand any value that does spring from interiority, or awakens echoes in it, con- duces to freedom and its capacity to liberate itself. For freedom only emerges in so far as it accompanies a creative interiority, and only liberates itself progressively to the extent that it is no longer solely concerned with the (facultative) freedoms it generates, though if it does not generate any this will imprison it just as much, since it will keep it clinging to the need from which it cannot break free.

5. It is indeed man who is at stake in both 'leading' and 'led' cultures. All threaten him equally, as we have said often enough. It is not the development of science in itself that is dangerous but its abandonment of the field of values, its pretention to steer a course for mankind as it evolves. Traditional forms of spirituality do not in themselves have an ossifying effect; what does is their marginalization of rationality, their presumption in seeking to make man without recourse to the travail of reason.

In brief, the crisis facing our cultures took shape in the field of the 'true', bringing with it at the same time a desynchronization and an ossification of the 'good' and the 'beautiful'. A n analysis of what culture is was thus essential. And,

as underlying culture, an analysis of the various ways in which the image of man can be refracted. It is at this level that it seemed to us best to inaugurat e the debat e. 6. A civilization of the universal will thus not

be a mosaic of incommunicable cultures, nor a reduction of all diversity to the homogeneous by means of science. It will result from a communication from within, at the depths at which wefind the interiority and freedom which are man's distinguishing feature, universally present in all men; for communication to be at this level, each culture will have to relive its founding act so as to enter into dialogue with the others in their meanings, through their products, and not by means of their products cut off from their meanings.

each culture, far from diminishing, grows by taking on the colour of the others, and reflects it in its own way, with a faithfulness to itself which is the pre-condition for faithfulness to others.

The universal is one dimension of the singular. Only the singular can open itself, through its roots, to the sap of the universal. So there will be no more 'leading' or 'led' cultures, only cultures 'in concert'.

A qualitative osmosis in which the spirit of

NOTES

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7. 8.

9.

'leading cultures', 'led cultures': we have adopted these expressions for the industrialized and developing countries. There is nothing strange in this transcending of the visible. It is based on what already transcends the visible in human nature. Be- cause his roots lie inmetaphysics, manseeks for himself metaphysical finalities. These finalities are irrepressible. In social systems that are reductive of man, they reappear in the form of ideologies, objects of faith. W e discuss them here because the True is the matrix of science, philosophy and theology, the Good that of ethics and the Beauti- ful that of aesthetics. On the relation between science and technology, see Jean Ladrihre's thoroughly- researched study, The Challenge Presented to Cultures by Science and Technology, Unesco 1977, page 19 et seq. Gaston Bachelard's critique in L e nouvel esprit scientifique is now recognized by most scholars ~ Just as there is a tendency today towards interdisciplinary studies, medical specialities have felt the need to return to man as a Sio- psychological unity, Alvin Toffler, Future Shock, Bantam 1971. Jean Brun, Les vagabonds de l'occident, Desclke de Brouwer, 1967. M. Zundel, L'homme existe-t-il? Editions ouvri&res, 1967.

1-0. Olivier Clkment, Questions sur l'homme,

11. On this subject see Louis Gardet's fine chap- Stock, 1972.

ter inIslam, religion et communautk, Desclke de Brouwer 1970, p. 273 ff.

himself from this definition. 12. The orientalist Jacques Berque dissociates

13. Quoted by Louis Gardet, op. cit. p. 279. 14. G. Sarton, Introduction to the History of

Science, Vols. 1-111, Baltimore, Willial and Wilkins 1931-1 947.

15. AliKettaniandG. Anawati, Impact of Science on Society, Unesco, Vol. 20, 1976.

16. Vincent Monteil in Cl6s pour la penshe arabe, Seghers, 1974, devotes a succinct but very informative chapter to Arab s ci e nc e.

17. Etienne Gilson, Histoire de la philosophie au Moyen-Age, 2 Vols., Payot.

18. Inchemistry for example, al-kimya = chemistry; al-ambiq = alambic; al-kuhul = alcohol; al-qalawi = alkali; al-zirnikh = arsenic.

19. W e have tried to portraythis tensioninorient, que1 est ton Occident? L e Centurion, 1970.

20. Regarding the important question of orders of knowledge and their relations, see Jacques Maritain, Distinguer pour unir, Desclke de Brouwer.

21. A. Boudhiba, inhis contributionto the Unesco symposium in 1971, and again in L a science et la diversitk des cultures, P. U. F. -Unesco, 1974, p. 258.

49

22. This is in fact the principal plank in the programme of a political party which is today quite active. Schuster, 1981.

lished in Arabic by Alif Bahnasi, DPr a1 Junub lil Nashr and Unesco, 1980. 30. This wonderful exuressioncomes fromNietzsche.

28. J. J. Servan-Sch-reiber, The World Challenge: OPEC and the New World Order, Simon and

See alsoA. Toffter 'The Third Wave', Morrow, 1980. 23. See Modern Art in the Arab Countries, pub- 29. Science et conscience, Stock, 1980.

24.

25.

26.

27.

'North-South communication will be less and less easy in the coming five to ten years. Why? Because until now all the effort at the cultural level, in regard to adaptation and comprehen- sion of the other, has come from one side. It has always been the leaders of the Thirdworld who have made the effort to understand the other.. . without any effort in the reverse direction coming from the industrialized countries', says M. Elmandjra in the review Futuribles, July-August 1980. Gabriel Marcel, Etre et avoir, 2 Vols. Aubier, 1970 edition. L. J. Lebret, Manifeste pour une civilisation solidaire, editions ouvrikres. A n excellent critical expos& of these tendencies is to be found in J.M. Domenach's L e sauvage et l'ordinateur, Le Seuil, 1976.

31. M. Elmandjra, 'Rapport de la Commission Brandt', in Futuribles, No. 34, June 1980.

32. See A. Boudhiba, op. cit. 33. The most intelligent study we know of on the

relationship between intelligence, science and technology is Jean Ladrihre's in The Challenge Presented to Cultures .. .. . , op. cit. p. 26.

hier - demain, Buchet-Chastel, 1978.

34. J. Berque, LfIslam au d&fi, Gallimard, 1980,

35. Mohamed Arkoum and Louis Gardet, L'Islam,

36. Mhlanges 14, cited above. 37. Abdel-Aziz Lahbabi, Un personnalisme musulman,

38. Quoted by J. Berque in op. cit. p. 84. 39. Culture and Time, The Unesco Press, Paris,

P. U. F., 1967.

1976.

50

CHAPTER IV

Culture and communication in Latin America

by Oswaldo CAPRILES

IN TR ODU C T I ON

This analysis deals with the problems considered most relevant to the subject proposed by Unesco: 'Information systems and cultural values', and presents, as its main theme, the group of questions arising from tlie web of connections linking c omniuni ca ti on, information, culture, education and society, as these relate to society's reproduction processes.

Although this chapter sets out to be comprehensive, it cannot be denied that the experience of Latin America is outstanding. In our opinion, Latin America has been a setting of particular importance in that it has made certain countries more aware of the significance and role of the media. Furthermore, although scientists, researchers, investigative journalists and academics have cont,ributed much to our understanding of the role played by socio-cultural processes, there have been innovative practices, in various countries and with varying results, which have brought changes in the machi.nery of horizontal and part;cipative communication. As far as our own specific field of study is concerned, we believe that the relations between communication, information and culture should be interpreted in terms of socio-cultural processes.

For clarity's sake, we should indicate the difference between the concepts of information and communication. According to Pasquali, the term 'information' denotes one-way processes, without any inversion of the poles between which messages are transmitted; the term ' communication' is reserved for two-way human and social interchange. In this interchange process, the real content of the messages and the motivation behind them are culture--culture being the total of all human social undertakings, their outcome and the patterns that they follow.

The interrelated concepts of culture, communication and ideology, corresponding to different aspects and levels of these socio- cultural processes, give us a better understanding of the phenomena of cultural domination and ideological indoctrination. Three types of process wdl be discussed here: information and communication; production and reproduction; culture and ideology (the production, assimilation,

absorption, rejection, etc., of meaning, by means of signs and symbols). This will make it possible to locate socio-cultural processes in the wider context of social processes as a whole.

causing a shift towards a reign of signs', symbols and myths that belong to an expanding ideological sphere in which consumerism seems to complete the cycle of production and productivity, meanwhile strengthening and accelerating the tendencies of the indoctrinating machinery of information (advertising, the media, fashion and consumption) to such an extent that qualitative changes are occurring.

This chapter will attempt to show how socio- cultural processes are connected with the current machinery of the media, how that machinery is influenced by economic factors, and how, looking to the future, we should bear in mind that coni- munication policies cannot be discussed without reference to cultural policies. Conversely, cultural alternatives cannot be divorced from alternatives in the sphere of communication.

Indus trial society's rapid transformation is

THE STRUCTURES OF THE MASS MEDIA IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN IN AN INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT

In this section we shall give a brief account of the various phases and stages in tlie development of mass media systems in the region concerned: firstly we shall analyse the fundamental relationship between advertising, the media and large-scale transnational industry; secondly, the concentration and growth of transnational corporations, and; finally, capitalism's great leap forward in the field of information technology.

Advertising. the media and maior industry

The United States of America was the first home of advertising, and the place where its role in modern societies began to acquire the substance and characteristics that have made it a typical phenomenon of our century. features of the American political system, the commercialization of the press from its early beginnings, the economic structure and the

The distinctive

51

'liberal' approach to legislation fostered the development of a private commercial service which, first through radio and later through television, became the prevailing model for a broadcasting' system. This model, slowly at first after 1930 and then at a rapid pace from 1950 onwards, influenced the establishment of similar systems in Latin America.

The model originated with the relationship between advertising and the new form of mono- polistic, capitalist reproduction, which at that time was becoming transnationalized. Advertis- ing began to serve increasingly as an intermediary between production and consumption, triggering a complete change of life-style, and creating, in countries of the Latin American region, an ever greater phenomenon of dependence, in four areas at once: news and information (predominance of American and other Western news agencies), advertising (predominance of transnational advertisers, sponsors and advertising agencies), finance (through capital investment) and content or programming (supply of canned' programmes).

The study made by Peter Schenkel, in 1973, mentions the similarities found in five countries (Colombia, Chile, Argentina, Peru and Mexico) in the power structure of the mass media, as well as in the common trend towards the concentration of ownership in the hands of a few, and the political influence gained by the owners as a consequence of the media's ideological power.

media system was built on the American model (partly due to the influence of American capital in the national economy) was studied by Patricia Arriaga, who observes that, in that country:

ment of foreign capital, constitutes the market for the services advertised by the mass media.

2. The media, for the most part in the hands of national businessmen, constitute the market for the services of news agencies, film producers, etc.

3. Both national and foreign news agencies sell iheir services to the media.

4. Programme producers, both national and foreign, sell their products to the mass media.

5. The consumers, who in a peripheral coun'try like Mexico do not make up the large majority of the population, constitute the market for the goods and services advertised.

6. The programmes produced or imported are used by the media to catch the consumer public's attention and to attract the custom of advertisers, just as in the United States of America.

In Venezuela the problem seems to reside in the organization of the private sector of the media, i.e. the way the media, agencies and advertisers are interconnected. tem here takes the form of a pyramid of power, the apex of which (advertisers in industry and trade) is linked to the state which, directly or indirectly, supplies resources, and has connections with various transnationals (see graphs in Annex I).

This pattern has much in common with Brazil, although the latter has some special

The situation in Mexico, where the mass

1. The consumer goods sector, with theinvest-

The media sys-

features, observed by Camargo and Noga Pinto. These authors state that radio is the most important medium in Brazil, with 944 transmitters, even though the ratio of radio receivers to inhabitants is lower than that of other countries. ever, 'market research has shown that, in the cities, even low-income families believe that television is indispensable. to the television set above any other domestic appliance. . . I . \

study of Brazilian television, in which he examines the popularity of this medium in the 1960s, with reference to the influence of Janio Quadros, who attempted to reduce concessions to private broad- casters and thus provoked resistance on their part which, in the author's opinion, contributed to the downfall of the government. the Abert lobby became more influential and obtained wider concessions.

Similar trends towards mass cultural dependence, may be observed all over Latin America. The work of Heriberto Muraro, on the Argentine situation, serves only to confirm the observed trend. Cuba and the current efforts in Nicaragua are exceptions that prove the rule.

It should be added that the work of Pasquali and Mattelart has made an essential contribution to our understanding of the structuring of dependence in the face of the complex military, economic and informational powers wielded by the United States of America.

A provisional summing-up might list the following important points:

The media in Latin America are connected, firstly, with their own economic systems through the advertising industry and the big advertisers, which are usually companies connected with the transnationals; secondly, they are linked at every level with their American transnational counterparts (advertising agencies, media, record and film producers, etc. ); these links finally add up to the general dependence of the system, which in turn produces, at each of the various levels, interconnections of a political and ideological nature.

So the economic dependence of commercial media systems, sponsored primarily by advertising, ensures that their potential for ideological and cultural education is repressed and made to fit the dominant stereotypes of an intensely consumer-oriented society. This situation goes hand in hand with a general scale of values that are self-centred and narrowly economic, being not only an accompaniment to the system of economic dependence, but also a factor in perpet- uating it, characterized by the deepest and most unjust social inequalities.

How-

They give priority

Luis Fernando Santoro has made an important

Consequently,

Transnational concentration and growth

This second stage, which is one of rapid concentration of the industry that produces mass information and of its distributors, is marked by the increasingly close and seemingly inevitable links binding together the media, advertising and the business world.

52

The concentration process was initially related to the development of the American branch of the strategic-military industry, and especially to the sector of information technology, the process grew in intensity and scope in the 1970s and took various forms, including trade agreements, distribution, advisory services, supply of programmes, etc. This made it possible for a certain way of life to predominate, imposed by the media and centred on the major entertainment, news and advertising industries.

Concomitantly, the narrowing down of interests turned the advertisers into purveyors of news, and put the big transnationals at the head of the world news network. The economic implications of this phenomenon should be considered, since the logic of production entails growing consumerism ruled by semiotic processes which establish codes, censor any messages that depart from the norms, and rule out any possibility of interchange. This economically determined structure is in fact the basis for ideological manipulation rather than the other way around, and on this point we disagree with the position of those authors who stress the ideological-manipulative aspect as a premedi- tated influence of cultural imperialism. basic purpose is to bring all forms of interaction under the control of the dominant capital.

The

Capitalism's great leap forward in the field of information technology

The reports by Marc Porat and Erwin, and the French Nora-Minc report, point out that the scale of information and communication activities has surpassed that of the service sector, both in value added and in employment and investment totals. W e shall refer to the information- communucation sector as the 'fourth sector', covering everything from informatics to the mass media, and including consumer research services, auditing firms, information centres, all types of circulation networks, telecommunica- tions and news or programming services.

In 'peripheral' countries, the tightening grip of the fourth sector makes it virtually impossible for the press, cinema or television to remain independent in outlook or cultural stance.

phenomenon of multimedia synergy which calls for study of the complex relationship between the many-sided attack by the media and advertising campaigns and their cultural impact' which is increasingly analogous to the impact of consumer goods, through the commercialization of ideology and culture--to an even greater extent than might be expected from the influence of mass culture--and which is tending only to aggravate the situation in dependent countries.

It should also be pointed out that there is a

PROGRAMMES AND PROGRAMME CONTENT

In this chapter we shall deal with the present state of broadcasting systems in Latin America and the Caribbean, on the basis of the most

significant findings of the studies and surveys carried out in the region. There are so many examples that we can do no more than list them briefly, area by area, with comments on the most significant cas e s.

News

Amass of reports, not only describing the present situation but also looking to the future, has joined the conventional research on the imbalance of news in the region, especially following the growing convergence of the themes of a new inlerna- tional information order and the movement stemming from the Bogota and Costa Rica conferences on national communication policies. The Insitituto Latinoamericano de Estudios de las Transnacionales (ILET) in Mexico has published several studies and collections of articles on these subjects. Mention should also be made of the works of Reyes Matta, Somavfa, Schiller, Ord66ez, Encalada, Luis A. G6mez, Bonilla de Ramos, etc.

Venezuelan situation attempted to determine the role played by gatekeepers, and among his conclusions he pointed out the conditioned image that Latin American countries have of others, owing to the type of news that they receive; this usually takes the form of 'news flashes' which, being brief and shown out of context, do not give an accurate picture of the situation in various countries. This practice of showing virtually nothing but 'news flashes' is allegedly part of the policy followed by international agencies, most of which are American.

draw on a range of sources, and for their inade- quate processing of the information that they receive, which is an indispensable factor in achieving balanced news, and which would reduce dependence on American sources.

The research by Luis A. Gbmez on the

G6mez criticizes the media for failing to

Advertising

This subject has already been discussed from various points of view in other chapters and consequently we shall mention only a few additional aspects here:

ing in the region of Latin America and the Carib- bean is, according to many sources, in the neighbourhood of four thousand million dollars for the 1980-1981 period. But the statistics fail to indicate that the cost of advertising is added, in each country, to the price of the products, so that the consumer pays for it. Since many of the articles advertised are popular items of mass consumption, it is in fact the people as a whole who ultimately pay for this expenditure.

the market structure in the case of products with a high rate of value added as a result of advertising.

in Pasquali' s theory regarding ' centrifugal acceleration of cultural contamination'. Pasquali

The increase in total expenditure on advertis-

A significant factor is the concentration of

A further effect of advertising is dealt with

53

claims that the undesirable phenomena of mass culture are worse on the periphery of a capitalist system than in its centre.

Radio programmes, records and cassettes

Latin A m e ri ca posses ses thous and s of low- power transmitters. The trend towards concentration is apparent in the phenomenon of affiliation to chains', circuits' or 'associations', these being different methods of control used by the large companies of the oligopoly. The record industry took root in Latin America once a consumer market was established by branches of international companies, and thereby helped to create a world of mass culture.

Television and video

Television is undoubtedly the pivot of critical discussion on information and communication, in view of the importance of this medium and the amount of attention it receives from the general public.

the process whereby television has established itself in various Latin American countries, together with references to several reports on its effects. There is, for example, the report by E. Santoro analysing the effects of television on children.

A survey of 880 schoolchildren in the Caracas metropolitan area, regarding their perception and appraisal of reality as affected by television viewing, yielded the following results: almost 81 per cent of the children watch television daily;

foreign expressions and mannerisms in speech account for as much as 63. 04 per cent of the vocabulary used in this sample;

the 'good guy' or hero is American for 86 per cent of the children interviewed; only about 8 per cent think of him as Venezuelan (depend- ing on the message);

(82 per cent);

In later chapters, details will be given of

the children see the hero as English-speaking

the hero is definitely American for 66 per cent; in 72 per cent of the cases, the 'goodies' are

the 'baddies' are seen as poor by 41 per cent and

whites are regarded as good by 84 per cent, blacks

rich;

rich by 15 per cent;

as good by 4.4 per cent. There have not yet been any reports on the

influence of video systems in Latin America, but we know from advance information and estimates that in Mexico, Venezuela, Panama, Colombia and Brazil their use is proliferating among the wealthiest classes, and is tending to spread to the middle classes. systems and their message-markets on the traditional market for cinema and television may lead to conflict-provoking economic and cultural consequences, as is beginning to occur in the United States.

The influence of these new

The film industry

The situation of the film industry is similar in all countries of Latin America: it is dominated by transnational distribution, usually accompanied by screening monopolies. creating a national film industry seem characteristic of this region.

This collection contains personal statements by Latin American film-makers and intellectuals who refer to specific cases (Mexico, Peru, etc. ) and ad hoc attempts at national film production.

Difficulties in

Experiments and attempted innovations

Among the experiments to set up less alienating

pendence, self-reliant development and Latin American unity, the case of Cuba deserves a mention; it has unique features that sets it apart from other countries (no advertising, the revolutionary ethic, etc. ). Nicaragua should also be cited, since it has waged a major literacy cam- paign which is changing the cultural scene.

Peru, in the 1970s, made the most ambitious attempt to reform communication systems, processes and media, by using the machinery of state capitalism and interventionist policies. Its proposals may be defined as the most ambitious and concentrated effort ever made in Latin America to break up private monopolies.

In contrast to the Peruvian situation, that of Chile was distinguished by a radical reform in the economic and political spheres, which failed--or did not have time--to spread to the field of communications. The others, like the initiatives taken since the Costa Rica conference, may all be considered as part of the drive to achieve a new information and communication order. Examples are: ASIN, the Caribbean News Agency and ALASEI.

cultural industries', committed to national inde-

THENEW SYNERGETICACTION OF THE MASS MEDIA, ADVERTISINGAND THE MARKET. CULTURE OR INDOCTRINATION?

No investigation of culture can afford to ignore the transformation of the symbolic environment. Of primary importance in this process of change are the aspects outlined by Baudrillard when he claims that at present 'goods are produced as a sign, or valuelsign, and signs, or in other words culture, are produced as goods. . . This means that 'goods' as a form is no more than an omni- present projection of real goods into all human transactions in capitalist society, to the extent that the goods-production process can reproduce itself in the time dimension only through the symbolic power of the signs which transmute the goods, and which are, in their turn, converted into goods

An example is Walt Disney, who within the apparently neutral sphere of children's cinema produced apowerful chain of symbolic goods (dolls, games, watches, etc. ), taking advantage of the re- inforcement naturally provided by the modernmedia.

54

It should be stressed that although the various media went through an intensely competitive period, they came increasingly to complement one another by dint of specialization, and developed strategies to increase their impact by aiming at specific audiences and selecting messages and programme schedules accordingly.

This dovetailing was the first step towards a cultural industry, and prepared the way for multimedia campaigns and the appearance of new conglomerates in all branches of the service sector and the fourth sector, thus bringing about a transnational concentration of inputs and sign production, which goes hand in hand with the concentration of signs/goods and goods/ signs.

into another medium, or signlpiece of merchan- dise (becoming 'what' wears the E jeans, Adidas running shoes, Superman T-shirts, etc. ).

Consideration of the relationship between mass communication machinery and the workings of popular culture shows that the latter are at a serious disadvantage since, under the influence of the media, they are ceasing to be a dialectical interchange and are instead becoming a one-way process. The environment of signs is tending to replace human contact by entertainment, which is an imitation of it, and which, by making people spectators and preventing them from being participants, diminishes the possibility of any cultural independence.

It is interesting to note that the new style of consumption took its origin in a new kind of product that created its own market and operated on a 'democratic principle', viz. that one should stop trying to get ahead of others and instead get together with others in relation to something tested and reliable. Blue jeans are a good example of such democracy, in their wisespread acceptance; later, a hierarchy of qualities crept in.

From the cultural viewpoint, the growing interaction of media, messages, fashions and consumers (as both goods/signs and signslgoods) is strengthened by their omnipresence in everyday life, and by the fact that to form any relationship free from the reifying influence of consumerism is impossible without a conscious effort, which comes to seem so abnormal and eccentric that it, too, finally inhibits the natural development of the most straightforward relationships; likewise, in cultural terms, the social environment is reduced to mere simulation.

defined as multimedia synergy (which supports and fosters the hyperconsumption of goods and signs, by means of internal synergy of the form and content of the messages) and cultural synergy (forming a smooth-surfaced culture which is the result of the overlaying of countless infinitely small influences on the recipient, as Abraham Moles sees it: the mass public). action is part of the process of ownership concentration of the media, increasing the transnationals' power over national information and communication systems.

In short, 'synergetic action' influences the

In this process, the public itself has turned

For this reason we refer to synergetic action,

This synergetic

public (by a 'synergizing' of objectives) in the following ways:

amounts to the creation of new selected or specialized markets for new messages/goods and, hence, new goods/objects for sale (for example, a fashion, a taste in music, and an eroticized world inseparable from such fashions and tastes spreads first to teenagers and then, in its second phase, to pre-adolescents under fourteen years of age).

total environment is created reaching far beyond the concrete effects of commerce, produced by the overall effects of all the media, independently of any urge to buy. This is the most serious aspect: the inherent synergy of communication systems or ma.chinery, tending to create a way of life in which the real structure is hidden under the mosaic of its ideological surface, fragmented in time and space; this overriding vision reproduces not only capital but also social classes and social relationships, which are ever more deeply and intensely defined, to the point of pure alienation.

The anxiety involved in consuming, or being unable to consume, and the pseudo-satisfaction obtained through the mimetic and cathartic effect of advertising are, in these circumstances, simply the natural reference of one to the other, in that they are mirror images of the same phenomenon.

Ultimately, the peoples of the Third World suffer the loss of their cultural independence and dispossession of the environment in which they are accustomed to communicate and relate to one another, brought about by the combined forces of the mass information-communication- culture industry under the system of the capitalism of dependence. This, perhaps, is the gravest in- fringement of human rights.

Gradual expansion of markets, which in fact

Consequently, an all-embracing, intense

BRIEF R E M A R K S ON ALTERNATIVES IN THE FIELDS OF COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE

National communication policies

The importance of this subject lies in the relationship between communication policies and the so- called new information order, which implies putting together possible models of new intranational and international relations. Moreover, the relationship between the research community and the decision-makers has shown that there is a need to redefine the role of both research and researchers.

The need for an official definition

Since proposing policies entails seeking a com- promise between what is feasible and what is desirable, a broad definition should be adopted, formalizing the basic characteristics of the concept. 'An explicit, systematic and organic body of principles and criteria governing organization, control, evaluation and consequent ad jus tmen t, designed to direct state activities towards the

55

best possible social utilization of processes, systems and forms of communication, especially the mass media and the major information systems, in a specific political context and in keeping with a particular model of socio-economic development'.

Definition of a process

Various difficulties arise when an attempt is made to derive practical guidance from a formal definition: one of these is the question of participation and democracy in decision-making. Assum- ing that access and participation are based on the'right to communicate' (a human and social right involving social interaction and democratic sharing) we find that three criteria determine the difference between a democratic national communication policy and one that is not democratic : (a) the use of human interaction as a structural

criterion in communication processes: i, e. communication policies should guarantee collective decisions regarding institutions, systems and processes of communication, and participation in the use of mechanisms and media, at all levels;

(b) communication should be defined as a process directed towards democratic participation in all important affairs of society. In other words, the basic social function of communication makes it a democratic political process; (c) furthermore, national communication

policies should be directed towards achieving society's cultural independence; this means that the free production, circulation and interchange of everything connected with being a member of society must be guaranteed. The socio- cultural structure must certainly not be isolated: on the contrary, it must be made capable of deciding on its own links with other cultures and features that differentiate it from them.

Practical DroDosals on a historic occasion: the conference of San Jose

The intergovernmental conference held in July 1976 on communication policfes yielded concrete recommendations on how to give practical content to concepts regarding national communication policies; however, as was indicated by the follow- up in Panama, the results were not as far- reaching as had been hoped.

The lessons to be learned from policies Researchers and decision-makers

Research carried out in Latin America reveals two factors of primary importance: (a) very few countries, especially in the SO-

called Third World', possess homogeneous and organic systems of rules and guidelines regarding social information and communication that might reasonably be described as 'national communication policies'. A glance through the series of publications that Unesco has issued under this heading reveals--inmost of the national reports-- that coherent and well-organized policies are lacking;

(b) the second conclusion to be drawn regarding the application of the theories on national communication policies is that it is very difficult to find evidence that the principles governing ideal form or content have been, or are in the process of being, applied to any real situation, at least as regards the principles of socialpartici- pation at all levels and in all areas of decision- making on issues of information and communication, or as regards the actual use made of communication systems, networks and media. Examples are few and far between, and tend to be forms of fringe or 'alternative' activity rather than real, state- defined policies.

Alternative communication, horizontal communication, alternative use of the media, participative communication: Which is the paradigm?

Undoubtedly, a constant theme of discussion in both industrialized and dependent countries. The polemic originated in criticism of the failure of the present form of transmission-reception of signs to avoid working almost exclusively to make the indiscriminate assimilation of technical know- how and technology respectable, with the result that it has reproduced a power structure, both in and through communucation, which trivializes the latter by reducing it to entertainment.

A certain ambiguity surrounds the terms 'alternative communication' and 'new', alternative' or 'alternative use of the' media. As we see it, so-called alternative communication' should provide a model that departs from the authoritarian and manipulative one of the relentlessly spreading mass media and should oppose bureaucratic control of media and communication processes; it should, instead offer permanent dialogue and spontaneous and continuous participation. More over, collective deci sion-making and the socialization of production and its fruits are the sine qua non of any democracy.

Accordingly, the definition of an alternative form of communication should have certain basic premisses, including: equality of status of the participants; the permanent and de facto possibility of reversing the transmission-reception poles, and the freedom to communicate with anyone and on any subject (this last lending a social dimension to what is communicated).

attempts at creating unconventional alternative models in the form of countersystems, which are by definition opposed to the dominant system. In such cases they put themselves deliberately beyond the pale, a state of affairs which may lead either to a real effort at consciousness-raising, or to empty dilettantism. Paulo Freire provides one of the most interesting examples of an attempt at consciousness-raising.

The combination of theory regarding a new type of communication and practical experiments with alternatives has produced the concept of communication policy as a macro-alternative characterized by maximum democracy in experiments in participation.

another kind of communication' is

These principles sometimes give rise to

In Latin America,

56

In a new world order, any national communica- tionproject should be designed as an integral part of an overall national democratic strategy, which, when defining cultural policy, gives priority to restoring dialogue within the community, and

seeks to develop direct, creative and self-managed cultural activities. This will be feasible to the extent that communication is given pride of place and so becomes a real driving force for change.

RE F E REN C E S

Arriaga, Patricia. Publicidad, economia y ____._

comunicaci6n masiva. CEESTEM, Mexico, Ed. Nueva Imagen, 1980.

Siglo XXI, 1974. Braudillard. Economia polftica del signo. Mexico,

Capriles, 0. El Estado y 10s Medios de comuni- caci6n en Venezuela. Caracas, Suma, 1976.

Colomina, M. El huesped alienante. ULA, Maracaibo, Centro Audio-visual, 1968.

Dfaz Rangel, E. Pueblos sub-informados. Caracas, Montekvila, 1976.

G6mez, L. A. L a circulaci6n de informacibn ____ noticiosa, el cas0 de Venezuela (under contract with Unesco). Caracas, ININCO, 1977.

MBrquez de Melo, J. (co-ordinator). Populism0 e comunicasao. Brazil, Cortez ed. - Intercom.

Mattelart, A. and M. D e l'usa-s media en ______.___ temps de crise. A. Moreau, Paris, 1978.

Muraro, H. Neocapitalisrno y comunicaci6n de -_ masa. Eudeba, Buenos Aires, 1974.

Pasquali, A. Comunicaci6n y cultura de masas. Ediciones la Biblioteca, UCC, Caracas, 1963.

Santoro, E. La televisi6n venezolana y la forma- ci6n de estereotipos en el &. UCV, Caracas, 1969.

Schenkel, P. La estructura de poder en 10s medios de comunicaci6n en 5 paises latino- americanos. YLDIS, Chile 1973. _ _ _ ~

See also the works of: Camargo, Noya; Paulo Freire; Gonzaga; Parker, E. ; Pasquini, J. M. ; Ramos, E. ; Rodriguez Abelardia; Schiller, H., mentioned by the author.

See also the following reviews and publications: Communication Policies. Unesco, 1975. Comunicaci6n .y Cultuz, No. 5. March 1978, Cine a1 Dia, from 1973 on, and the reports of relevant Unesco conferences in Latin America. __.____

57

CHAPTER Tr

Individual and collective creativity

by Kazimierz ZYGULSKI

1. Historical background

As is usually true of concepts in the human sciences and studies of human behaviour, there is no single, generally accepted definition of creativity.

In ancient times, attitudes towards creativity were formed by a widely sharedview of the world, based on the belief that, by its very nature, the 'Cosmos' was eternal andimmutable, while everything created was changeable, finite and transient. The ontological significance of each and every activity, including the act of creating something new, was considered less valid than the quest for true learning and the wisdom to be found in the con- templation of life everlasting (W. Tatarkiewicz)( 1) ~

Artistic creativity '' was therefore inconceiv- able to the ancients. they thought, but undesirable. Art is a gift, the gift of achieving certain things; it presupposes a knowledge of the rules and the ability to work within them; those who recognize those rules and can turn them to advantage are artists. This interpretation of art rests on clear -cut foundations: nature is perfect, and man in his activities must become one with it; nature obeys certain laws, and man has to discover those laws and comply with them, instead of seeking a freedom that will easily lead him astray from the optimum he is capable of attaining in his activities.

Judeo-Christian philosophy adopted 'crea- tionism', i.e. it acknowledged that God had created the world from nothing.

cations for man and his activities, posits the role of the will as a force distinct from reason, the characteristic features of the will being moti - vation, choice and decision. In contrast to reason, which analyses what already exists the will is concerned with those things that have not yet come into being; it is a generative, creative force. In the Christian pnilosophy of the Middle Ages, and principally in the ideas of Saint Augustine, a Christian philosophy of history therefore arose in which man figures as an active participant in the realization of the Divine will. Man, however, is not capable of creation on his own, for that is God's prerogative. Renaissance ideas differ from those of the medieval period in that they endow man, and first and foremost the artist, with the

It is not only impossible,

This theory, which has philosophical impli-

power to create. That is why one often finds in Renaissance thought the idea that 'Man creates in imitation of God'.

From the Renaissance times onwards, many philosophers saw man as the creator of language, customs, technical skills, art and history.

At that time, interest in creativity was focused on the artist: he was said to 'imagine' his works, to shape them according to his idea, to arrive at forms not present in nature, to 'invent the non-existent', to create new things: he was a demigod.

The concept of creativity assumed a very important role during the Romantic era. The high value attached to creativity, and the resulting cult of the genius, have left an indelible impression on European culture.

Since the turn of the century, the concept of creativity has undergone a radical change, growing ever-wider in its scope. When the newness of a work is considered to be the hallmark of creativity, there is no longer any reason to regard works of art as the sole embodiment of creativity. The term 'creativity' is now increas - ingly used with reference to the fruits of intellec - tual labour, as well as to scientific, technological and organizational achievements. This wider concept of creativity has obviously given rise to new problems, including those that have to do with cultural values.

All the same, philosophers have not always agreed on whether the quality of creativity is confined to human activity. Some have argued that it is also applicable to a universe that goes beyond man and nature.

Henri Bergson's ideas, vital pantheism and theories on 'creative evolution' and the '6lan vital' are good examples of the latter view. Bergson extends the concept of creativity to e m - brace every aspect of reality, both human and non-human. In his view, the ground of all being

- -

:: Although artistic creativity did not gain acceptance until fairly late (the Renaissance), the role of literary creativity went from strength to strength down the ages, and even today it figures prominently among our cultural values.

59

is the principle of creativity, which is very close to that of freedom. Accordingto W. Tatarkiewicz, (1) the history of the concept of 'creativity' can be divided into four stages:

(1) For nearly one thousand years, the term 'creativity' did not exist in philosophy, theology or (European) art. (2) In the course of the next millennium, the

term was uniquely employed in a theological context: 'the Creator' was a synonym for God.

(3) Not until the nineteenth century did the word 'creator' enter the language of art, but here it referred exclusively to art (in the humanworld): 'creator' became a synonym for 'artist'. New words appeared- -not needed hitherto- -such as the adjective 'creative' and the noun 'creativity'; these were used only of artists and their works.

had come to be applied to human culture in all its aspects with expressions such as 'scientific creativity', 'creative politicians' and the 'creators of new technologies'.

(4) By the twentieth century, the term 'creator'

2. Creativity: its place, status and role

With the advent of the Renaissance, the 'cult' of the artist became more pronounced, for the artist was considered to possess the qualities of a creator. The social position of the artist-craftsman depended primarily on his membership of a guild, which often prescribed in detail the manner in which the artist's profession was to be exercised. The general cultural role of the artist-craftsman was usually related to the higher values prevalent at the time; these were primarily religious values. The same was also true of the intellectual professions of the Middle Ages, for these, too, were ruled by the predominant religious ideology, in their corporative organization. For centuries, the main feature of creativity as we understand it today, in other words, its freedom, which is first and foremost interpreted as freedom of choice- -of theme, medium, style and philosophical approach--was virtually non-existent. Further- more, in the medieval period, certain kinds of artistic activities, today considered creative, were scorned and even relegated to the fringes of social life. This is attested by the legal restrictions placed on actors and players, not to mention travelling circus artists, especially on their participation in religious life.

Social and cultural distinctions, as well as denominational differences, led and still lead today to divergences in the creative process. The cultural ascendancy exercised by certain milieux such as the urban aristocracy of the Renaissance period, meant that the encouragement of creativity was narrowly determined by patronage.

For several centuries, folk art was not regarded as a form of creativity; it was usually the anonymous output of people working either for themselves or for the restricted market of the village. Interest in folk art began to grow during the nineteenth century (the Romantic era) with the publication of a discourse on creativity as a universal phenomenon, equally present, therefore, among the rural population, although the latter

had been despised for centuries from a cultural point of view. As industrial civilization developed in Europe, destroying the old structures of the artist-craftsman class and imposing new cultural forms and values, certain European thinkers (John Ruskin in particular) began to per- ceive cultural values in folk art and in the creativity of rural dwellers.

I. CREATIVITY, INNOVATION AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE WHOLE PERSON

Seeking similarity between Marxism and Confu - cianism, the Chinese philosopher Dow Tsung-I makes the following comment on the concept of creativity : 'It is on this anthropoligical notion of creativity as the full self-realization of the person, and the development of the whole range of the person's creative functions as an end in itself, that we can see that Confucians seem to come to the same goal and values as Marxians'. (2) J. P. Guilford, (3) in his analysis of the psy-

chological aspects of creativity as a multidimen- sional human phenomenon, indicates that creativity should be regarded as:

(a) a product with specific characteristics; (b) a psychological process; (c) a phenomenon linked to the human

individual.

positivist psychologists see creativity as an activity concerned solely with invention, its aim being to solve a particular problem in a new and original way.

1. The criteria of creativity

Newness and originality are two criteria by which one may decide that one particular piece of work is the product of creativity, and another that of imitation.

While the phenomenon of creativity is indeed valued for producing something new, not every new invention should be classed as a form of creation.

sense of the word--indicated its relationship to the period. In an era, of mass production, new items are constantly being produced which are slightly different from those of yester-year. That does not mean, however, that we regard them as the result of creativity. Newness is a quality governed by a hierarchy in which the latest arti- cle appears new in comparison with earlier articles. This phenomenon is clearly noticeable in the history of art and in the evolution of its shift - ing conventions. Creativity may thus be said to exist in periods of transition, when newness - - stylistically speaking- -is still only feebly expressed. To quote W. Tatarkiewicz: 'Generally speaking, newness resides in a quality that did not previously exist, even though, in some instances, that newness is nothing more than a quantitative increase or the result of a hitherto unknown combination'. (4)

Thinking along these lines, many neo-

The newness of a product--in the widest

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The tendency to narrow the range of criteria of creativity often prompts recourse to other criteria which are given arbitrary preference and are equally one-dimensional.

According to Donald W. MacKinnon, for example, the product of creativity must: solve the problem; constitute an aesthetically valuable and elegant

change the conditions of human existence; break with tradition; constitute a finished product.

These criteria refer also to the social function of creativity and to its social consequences, the latter being onlypartly the result of the nature of the product.

solution;

2. Creativity as a means of individual and collective self-realization

Creativity is, then, a form made to serve the ideas which the creator has, and which he wishes himself to serve. This is not, however, an indispensable requirement: the factors stimulating creativity may be of a strictly personal nature. Creativity is also a means of attaining other goals to which man aspires, especially when creation becomes a profession on which a person's social and material position depends. Lastly, creativity can be a way of testing one's own strength and expressing one's own inner impulses: it may therefore be a means of self-realization.

Some people regard the actual process of creating a work as being simultaneously a process of self-creation, for by creating something new, man discovers the unknown within himself. As a rule, man owes much to his education and to his knowledge of the achievements of the past. Andrk Malraux wrote that 'Art is born of life only through the art of the past', but in order to create a new and original work, the 'creative' individual must conquer the past, detach himself from it and even challenge it.

Creativity is always, in some sense, a form of protest, a revolt against present circumstances. This aspect of creativity brings to light the complex relationship between society and the actions of those who create. It is, indeed, beyond doubt that the intensity of creativity, and the criteria used to define it, change according to the social and historical context, the prevailing level of development, and the political and ideological climate. Each and every one of these factors may favour or jeopardize the emergence, encouragement and flowering of creativity.

Various researchers, such as I.M.B. Edwards, think it meaningful to talk of 'collective creativity', i. e. the creativity, not only of small groups, but of whole institutions. In the worldof art, the concept of collective creativity is, moreover, indispensable, even though attention is traditionally focused on solo performers, especially those whom we label geniuses on account of the outstanding features we see in them. In ballet, m u - sic and the theatre, however, collective creativity is both an established fact and a necessity. By the same token, one may well argue that there is

a greater need for this form of creativity in modern cultural life than there has been in the past.

3. The social demand for creativity

In any discussion of the social function of creativity, consideration must be given to social demand and to the social machinery of presentation, acceptance, support and stimulation of creativity.

The social demand for creativity is most evident where changes are afoot, where there is determination to achieve development, and where there is positive appreciation of the latter; in other words, in societies where groups ofpeople are interested in change and development and generally maintain a positive attitude towards creativity. When it goes beyond the scope of previous experience, traditions and customs, however, creativity inevitably invites criticism and sometimes even incomprehension: the history of Europ - ean art in the nineteenth century andthe first half of the twentieth provides many examples of this. The new trends in literature, painting, theatre and sculpture were apparent in only a few places, often outside the official institutions designed to support the arts; their activities formed part of various autonomous networks of creative work, most of them informal. In such a setting, anything new or original was bound to kindle public opinion: enthusiasts proclaimed the beginning of a new era, while critics spoke of_decadence, ex- cesses and ephemeral fashions. -.

A mechanism analogous to the process of creation is at work here. In order to create, the artist must oppose and conquer the culture of the past, otherwise he will remain no more than a slavish imitator. By one means or another, the younger generation must oppose their elders, shaking off their influence and finding their own way. Withouth embarking on further analysis we can say that, for the past two centuries, Europ- ean youth has formed the social group with the strongest needs for artistic and intellectual creative expression. That is why writers try first and foremost to win the support of young people, sometimes addressing them directly in their works. It would be a mistake, however, to overlook the social and cultural differences that divide the young. In practice, it is primarily young people in favourable social and cultural circumstances who can make their needs known in the creative field, i. e. students whose period of social maturation lasts longer and who are centred in the big cities, or in universities and art s chools.

Cultural and scientific periodicals, and critical articles in particular, play an important part in making creative work better known, as

:g In the history of art, the violent reactions to cubism are a good example. Although later accepted and admired, in its early days cubism was treated with irony and contempt--even with hatred by some male- volent critics.

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well as giving it a social function. Works ignored by the critics are unlikely to be accepted by society, or at least any rate by certain social circles. The destiny of creativity, and indeed of creators themselves, is often decided by the reception given to a published work (short story, poem or essay), criticism of a painting or piece of sculpture, reviews of a film or a play, or the acceptance for publication of the findings of empirical research or theoretical discussions in national and international periodicals.

Finally, there are the competitions introduced in the twentieth century, the festivals, and the prizes--among them the famous Nobel Prize-- which ensure that creativity and creators receive a form of special recognition and distinction. There are also local and regional prizes awarded by municipalities, local associations, authorities, organizations and newspapers, as well as national prizes distributed by governmental or international institutions. The variety of such awards provides a clear illustration of the interest that society takes in creativity.

An examination of the ways in which these prize systems operate, and, above all, the criteria by which they are awarded, helps define the values of creativity that are held in the highest esteem: in other words, those which make it socially respected.

4.

The final point to be discussed in this section is creativity as a factor giving rise to conflict, tension and social difficulties, and, as a corollary, the question of freedom and social control with regard to creativity.

ty and change; it clears the way for new ideas, disturbing the existing order and so triggering conflicts. While the strength, scope and nature of these conflicts may vary, it is impossible to ignore them when considering creativity's effects and its functions in society.

In many instances, socially committed creativity chooses one side or the other of the political, philosophical or nationalistic fence; it attacks the existing order, either directly or through artistic metaphor, gives rise to intellectual debate and is, today as in the past, a subject of contro- versy and a cause of confrontation.

This phenomenon is particularly well illustrated by the history of satire, both in the theatre and in the graphic arts.

The way in which a society deals with the question of creative freedom, the limits of that freedom, and methods of controlling creativity, are highly indicative of that society's attitude towards creativity and those who create. In the socialist system, for example, creativity is approached from two different angles: on one hand, it is seen as an important instrument with which to shape the awareness of the people as they construct a new order, or, indeed, to mobilize them to perform strictly practical and clearly defined ad hoc tasks; on the other creativity must be one

Freedom to create and social control

By its very nature, creativity produces novel-

of the essential goals that the new social system has been constructed to attain.

The right of authors to exercise free choice over their medium of expression, methods and style has been recognized by cultural policy in Poland since 1965. At the same time, however, there has been a tendency to give preferential treatment to certain areas of creativity, to the detriment of others.

Creative activities in these favoured areas are better adapted to certain clearly defined requirements such as the following: they must be accessible to a wide public, and particularly to the working class;

their subject-matter must have a bearing on people's everyday lives;

they must militate politically and ideologically id favour of the forces working for the construction of socialism in Poland, their ideology and their programmes. The state authorities therefore prohibit pub-

lic manifestations of creativity which might undermine the foundations of the socialist system and programme, or which criticize them from a standpoint alien to socialism.

11. CREATIVITY, SOCIAL UPHEAVALS AND INCOMPATIBILITIES IN CULTURALCHANGES

1. The need for creativity and the disparities in human creative potential

Scientific creation is carried on in cities and universities, where it is based on traditions that reach back a long way into the past; in order to develop, scientific creativity must be encouraged on a sufficiently large scale, as well as suitable material and social conditions. The centres of scientific creativity in which, over the past few decades, scientific progress, new discoveries, ideas and inventions have been observed, are not evenly distributed geographically. Generally speaking, the siting of these centres coincides with that of industries and cities, most of which are in the northern hemisphere. Changes in this field over the same period have been closely linked with industrialization, ur - banization, territorial expansion and the development of university-level institutions.

tific personnel- -is extremely common today. Gifted scientists are lured away from their native land towards rich and powerful centres, universities and laboratories, which shower them with prestige and material benefits. Such centres offer lavish equipment and salaries, and hence opportunities for intensive research with no strings attached; the fame of these centres ensures that the scientist can more easily attain an eminent position, and can often win international acclaim.

As a result, intellectual creativity faces the basic dilemmas of the contemporary world: the inequality of that development to which everyone

Migration of 'creators' --especially scien-

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aspires but from which only the lucky few can benefit, and the opposition between the powerful countries, which exploit creativity for their own ends, and the weak countries, whose creative potential is constantly drained, despite their need for creativity. There is incompatibility between, on one hand, the humanist value attached to scientific creativity and its moral responsibility, and, on the other, the universal practice of exploiting such creativity for purposes of war, violence and manipulation.

Lastly, there is a conflict between the belief that creativity is the strongest driving force behind development, having shaped our era and endowed mankind with well-being and power, and the conviction that the very same creativity, through its foreseen and unforeseen effects, may be the cause of the dangers and difficulties currently besetting the societies of the late twentieth century.

2. A first example: scientific and technological creativity and the arms industry

The development of the arms industry, and its growing influence on the world economy, as well as on political and economic rivalry and competition, threatens to have serious consequences, especially in the fields of ethics and culture.

This point was clearly made in a special issue of the Unesco Courier (April 1979) in two articles (entitled 'New Technologies for Overkill' and 'Human Want--the Spin-off from Military Waste', respectively) which clearly draws attention to the dangers threatening mankind through the arms race.

The following passage is taken from one of these articles:

'It is in the field of scientific and technological capability that the diversion of resources to military ends is most massive. It is estimated that at the present time some 25 per cent of the world's scientific manpower is engaged in mili - tary related pursuits. It has been estimated that, of total cumulative research and development spending since the Second World War, some 40 per cent has been directed at achieving military ends. By far the largest part is spent on the development of equipment which has no conceivable civilian use.. . In the developing countries enormous needs, unexplored in almost every respect, are waiting to be dealt with in the systematic, large-scale and purpose- oriented fashion which has so far been the almost exclusive prerogative of military research'. Tremendous potential and effort are current -

ly being expended by a vast army of scientists and technicians on the arms race, as well as on the improvement and stockpiling of weapons capable of extermination on a massive scale. This fact is causing deep concern throughout the world, and casts a heavy shadow over every aspect of modern science and its achievements.

It is impossible to predict the cultural and social fall out from this form of scientific creativity, which, when directed towards military ends, seems to be pushing mankind straight towards an

atomic apocalypse. More and more scientists have announced that the subordination of their efforts to destructive and military ends is difficult to reconcile with ethical and aesthetic precepts. Outside scientific circles, and among the younger generation, there is increasing scepticism concerning the value of scientific creation when used as a tool for domination, violence, manipulation and even the destruction of human life.

There can be no denying, however, that part of today's intellectual creativity is directed towards non-military ends, in other words towards economic and organizational activities. The universal trend towards rapid economic development calls for constant modernization and for the introduction of innovations, improvements, techniques, technologies, new ideas and concepts. The economic value of scientific and technological creation is increasingly determined by the general economic principles of development and by the principles governing today's major socio- economic systems.

3. A second example: scientific and technological creativity in radio and television

Radio broadcasting brings together a large number of artists, authors and programme organi- zers, and new forms of artistic expression and creativity are emerging. It has attracted mil- lions of listeners at home and abroad, and has become a major factor in the development and dissemination of national culture, as well as an important means of drawing attention to creative achievements and new events in the world of art. In certain areas, such as music, both light and classical, radio has become a prime outlet for the transmission of debates on music, festivals and concerts. The performance of works on radio is an extremely valuable method of presenting and even enhancing creativity. The reception given to a musical work by radio listeners, confirmed by contacts between the listening public and programme producers, is an important form of social acceptance of creativity, sometimes bringing international fame and prestige to composers and performers. At the same time, radio broadcasting is constantly in need of inventions and new techniques in order to ensure that it advances on the technical front.

Radio-technology is an important sector of modern inzstry.

The development of technology, the ability to record and transmit sounds and images over any distance, and the cheap reproduction of these on a large scale, using specially designed equipment, has changed the face of contemporary culture.

widened tremendously, and new media of expression, as well as new artistic genres, have come into being.

In social terms, moreover, the development of television has had an even greater impact than radio. New fields of specialization have been created and new theories devised to account for the artistic possibilities and the unique qualities

The scope for creative possibilities has

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of creativity in radio and television. Drama, film and ballet have all been adjusted to meet the requirements of television. The tremendous social demand for arts programmes has unleashed a corresponding demand for artistic works of every kind to meet the expectations of a varied audience, which includes children, teenagers, adults and senior citizens.

The effects on creativity produced by the development of mass broadcasting and of the various cultural industries, and by the limitations imposedupon, or freely accepted by, artists, are among the main reasons for the severe criticism that is levelled at mass culture. Such criticism has increased in many countries since the late 1950s, and in some cases constitutes a reaction against the triumphal onslaught of television. It springs essentially from the view that if creativity is to be worthy of the name, it should not be limited in any way, should pursue only artistic aims, and should introduce new and original aesthetic values.

ized and their programmes broadcast free of charge, their whole raison d'Qtre is to reach a very large audience and win social acceptance for their content. That is why creativity within the media must be geared to public demand. It is of course possible to argue that the main factors limiting creativity- -namely, the degree of cultural sophistication, the demands, the expec - tations and the tastes of the public--are not inva- riable, and that, among other things, the aimof free and ambitious creativity should be precisely to steer cultural changes in the desired direction. In fact, however, such changes occur only slowly in the public as a whole, with the passing of gen- erations rather than years; any creativity which is difficult to grasp, communicates little or is too original, does not usually play a part in cultural change: it is quite simply rejected.

Even in places where the media are subsid-

4. Money versus culture?

Vaen creativity is subordinated to purposes of selling--in other words, when it is commercialized- -it is confined within extremely narrow limits. It is condemned to flaunting an ostensible originality, gimmicks and flashy innovations, meanwhile choosing alluring models, ideas and conventions' at its basis, for the sole purpose of marketing artistic products.

The conflict between creative trends and the commercial demands of the culture industry is one of the fundamental features of contemporary culture.

vity is by no means confined to the media, mass culture and the culture industry: it has also affected folk art and rural life. The growth of tourism and the hotel trade, motorization and urbanization have brought profound changes in the culture of the countryside, even where social, economic and community structures have remained intact. The traditions of crafts, customs and ritual creation preserved in rural areas are becoming a tourist attraction in the form of mass -produced 'souvenirs' or performances of all kinds.

The commercialization of culture and creati-

Moreover, the sometimes exaggerated cult of newsness or originality, going hand in hand with an aversion from set rules, has led to the virtually total disappearance of objective criteria by which to distinguish between artistic and non- artistic creation. In some cases, the situation has been reversed so to speak: it is not thework created by an artist and accepted by society that makes him a creator, but rather the artist's act of presenting himself as a creator which encourages people to acknowledge a work as proof or evidence of creative ability. The same applies to the setting; an object placed on display at a museum of modern art is ipso facto treated by certain critics--followed by a section of the public--as a work of art, without any reference to other criteria.

5. Scientific, intellectual and artistic creativity, and the emergence of modern man

Let us begin by noting that the character of modern man is shaped by numerous factors which condition attitudes towards creativity. In many parts of the world, major and minor religions survive--and are even being revived- -which determine the world view of their followers, as well as the values underlying that concept. At every turn, national, ethnic, professional and regional traditions exercise a considerable influence. The emergence of new nations is often linked to a renewed assertion of traditional creativity and the desire to perpetuate that creativity in present-day conditions.

arise when it comes to deciding just what conditions enable man to develop in his role of 'homo creator'. In spite of these, however, the foundations of two philosophical and social concepts (expounded by H.L. Parsons, 1978 and D. Riepe, 1978)(5) are built on the belief that dynamic, active development of the personality is both necessary and possible.

This outlook is not only optimistic and dynamic but firmly directed- -in theory at least-- towards change, progress and the future, for creative uncertainty cannot allow man to stand still. Seen from this angle, creativity occurs not only in writing a novel, painting a picture or solving a scientific problem, but also in reading a book, looking at a picture or studying a scientific document. In all these cases, man's personality is undoubtedly enriched by new elements. In this connection, W. Tatarkiewicz uses the term 'pancreationism', and rightly claims that this is an exaggerated, unwarranted extension of the notion of creativity. In his opinion, it makes no sense to regard every single intellectual activity as a manifestation of creativity.

existentialist philosophy, creativity is independent of the world of values; it is also a means of justifying and intensifying individual existence.

Whether practised oneself or perceived from outside, creativity, regarded as a social phenomenon, is a current of energy running through

Divergent and even contradictory opinions

From the point of view of contemporary

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life, bringing changes, uncertainty and conflict, and raisingproblems. Creativityis always future- oriented. This view is held, for example, by the Polish philosopher, B. Suchodolski: 'When nothing important and valuable exists any longer, when the world and life are absurdities and culture is a pantheon of dead gods, there only remains the myth of creativity as a momen- tary intensification of existence'. (6)

111. CREATIVITY AND NEW SOCIALIST CULTURE: THE EXAMPLE OF POLAND

1. The patronage system and the encouragement of creativity

The socialist transformation of the Polish economy in the early post-war years placed creativity lastingly in a new context, especially from a material point of view. The nationalization of cultural institutions and publishing houses, the establishment of a Ministry of Culture and Art with a broad range of responsibilities, the disappearance --or at least the distinct limitation- - of the private art trade, the banishment of the former world of art -buyers, property-owners, protectors and patrons, and the rich bourgeoisie- - all these quickly created a new system which was already something of a certaintraditionin Poland. Indeed, from the 1920s onwards, the role of the state as patron of the arts and culture had continued to grow. Nowadays, the socialist state, acting as the administrator and organizer of social life, fulfils the functions of principal pro- tector, patron and financial backer of creativity. Its role has been diversified and strengthened over the years. It is to the state that the creative artist now looks for various benefits, ranging from the expansion of art schools and the grant - ing of scholarships, to legislation to provide creative artists with social security allowances and retirement pensions. This being so, one of the main functions of creative organizations is to maintain permanent negotiations with government officials in order to obtain various forms of aid for artists. The state is not, however, the only patron to foster creativity. Other institutions also do so, especially the Church, which is today almost entirely Roman Catholic, and which is still a major patron in certain areas of creative activity. Through its interest in religious art, the Church is both an inspiration and a benefici- ary with regard to some of Poland's creative activity. Catholic lay organizations also patron- ize the arts, especially literature. In the past decade, patronage by trade unions, and even large firms, has grown considerably; the latter lend assistance to authors and seek to encourage them in their activity.

2. The professionalization of creative activity and professional associations of creative artists

In the socialist system, there are several factors conducive to the professionalization of creative

activity, an important one of these being the increasingly formal requirements for entering various professions, after study at vocational training schools which grant certain rights and award diplomas. In turn, the socialist system that creates professional posts for graduates of these schools requires that creative activity be treated in the same way as any other professional activity, since only by this means can employment be secured for those whose qualifications are sanctioned by a diploma, and only then can they be sure of favourable conditions, both when they obtain a permanent post and when they sign job contracts.

In Poland, one of the most significant events of the past thirty years has undoubtedly been the founding of creative artists' associations; these are professional organizations pursuing extreme - ly varied activities, the nature of which is not always very clearly spelled out. They are the successors to the professional societies of creative artists which already existed prior to 1939, and as such they continue to defend the interests of creative artists. So membership of one of these associations is for the creative artist a sign of social acceptance and is to his advantage in various ways.

It is no exaggeration to state that the organization and functioning of creative artists' associations are a crucial influence in determining the methods, conditions and possibilities of cultural creativity in Poland.

monopoly. Other organizations that in their own way help to encourage creativity in Poland are relegated, as a result of this discriminatory process, to second place, for their members can take Ieffective' action only if they are also members of a creative artists' association.

The official associations have virtually a

3. Amateur creativity and activity in the Polish tradition

From an ideological point of view, the roleof amateur activities is fundamental. '' These are rooted in folk creativity and have some of the features of the crafts appropriate to the domestic economy to be found in rural areas.

Another form of amateur creativity springs from the institutionalization of the network of centres for the dissemination of culture, such as the arts centres. These serve as a base for the activities of amateur societies and often provide amateurs with models, instructors, stage producers, and community leaders who organize competitions and festivals, mount exhibitions, publish magazines, etc.

by making it possible to promote youth organizations. They inspire, protect and direct creative activities.

Schools also encourage amateur creativity

-1_----

%k There are at present some 20,000 amateur societies, covering choral singing, drama - tics, the plastic arts, photography, dancing, poetic theatre, cinema, etc.

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Over the past fifteen years, the role of the professional trade unions and the cultural institutions that they head has grown considerably. Every year, they organize various events not only na- tionally, but also in the regions, voivodeships and communes.

Since the late 1950s, amateur activities have become a particularly important part of the culture of the younger generation. This is borne out by the student theatrical movement, which to a certain extent influences even the professional theatre. This is, however, an exception in the field of amateur creativity as a whole.

4. Strategies for the development of creativity in a context of revitalized cultural aolicv

Assuming that development - -rapid if possible- - is and will be a requirement for every society in the coming decades, we must conclude that every society should encourage creativity in all its forms. Furthermore, if development is viewed as a universal process, encompassing not only material production but culture as well, not only community life but also individual education and human existence in all its aspects, it goes without saying that creativity must be seen as a universal phenomenon necessary to development of this kind.

This being the case, cultural policy must create suitable conditions for the enhancement and social acceptance of creativity. It is extremely important to help young creative artists in the early stages of their career. Excessive concentration and monopolization of cultural life seem, in this respect, particularly harmful. Cultural polycentrism and pluralism, especially with re - gard to criticism, increase the number of ways in which creativity can develop.

Although it still appears in a local, regional and national guise, creativity is nowadays a worldwide phenomenon of worldwide significance. Cul- tural policy can play an effective part in the

NOTES

1. Tatarkiewicz, W. L'histoire de six notions: l'art, la. beaut&, la forme, la cre/ativit&, la reproductivit6, l'impression esth6tique. Warsaw, 1976, p. 295. Dow Tsung-I. 'Creativity as the self-realization of man's potential--the supreme value of man: Marxian and Confucian' in Dialectics and Hu- manism. The Polish Philosophical Quarterly.

2.

Vol. V, NO. 4, 1978, pp. 33-34. 3. Guilford, J. P. 'Creativity'. American Psycho-

logist. 5:444-454, 1950.

exchange of information and ideas concerning creativity.

To defend his interests effectively, particularly in view of the technical progress achieved in the recording, reproduction and duplication of works, the creative artist today needs specific legal protection. It was to provide him with such protection that the Recommendation concerning the Status of the Artist was adopted by the General Conference of Unesco at its twenty-first session (Belgrade, 1980).

A major problem that arises in many countries is the relationship between creativity and the cultural heritage. Cultural policy must approach the problem in dialectical terms, for although it is true, in a sense, that creativity always dis- tances itself from the heritage of the past, and may even oppose it, it is equally true that it needs that heritage for its development.

While some people today regard creativity as valuable for its own sake, as a form of human activity or, indeed, as a form of human existence, this attitude remains confined to a minority of creative artists and beneficiaries of creativity. For the vast majority, creativity is directly bound up with the values that are socially and individually desirable. This bond, linking the creator and his work to the world of values, is fundamental; if creativity ignores values, it loses its social significance. The different branches of creativity, especially artistic creativity, are a direct result of the diversity of cultural values in today's world. Unfortunately, however, experience has shown that creativity can also take its origin in philosophies and attitudes that are far removed from humanism; it can glorify war, rape, violence, racism and the contempt of man for his fellows. Cultural policy therefore faces a difficult but necessary task: not only must it protect the freedom to create, a sine qua non for the development of creativity; it must also prevent creativity from becoming an instrument of oppression, violence, persecution or corruption.

4. Tatarkiewicz, W. op. cit., p. 303. 5. Parsons, H. L. 'The concept of creativity in

Marx'. Dialectics and Humanism. Vol. V, No. 1, 1978; D. Riepe, 'Creativity in social life: positive and negative aspects'. Dialectics and Humanism, No. 2, 1978.

6. Suchodolski, B. 'Creativity-Reality: Hopes and Doubts'. Dialectics and Humanism, Vol. V, No.3, 1978, p.31.

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CHAPTER VI

Cultural values, dialogue between cultures and international Co-operation

by Prem KIRPAL

INTRODUCTION

Contemporary man stands on the threshold of a planetary civilization which is evident in global prospects and concerns, intruding upon the integrity and privacy of diverse cultures evolved in the play and pursuits of the human spirit in numerous forms through the course of time and panorama of space. The planetary civilization is the product of history, shaped by a dramatic increase of knowledge and its applications, especially in the fields of science and technology. Man's sense of time and space has undergone radical transformation by the accelerating growth of scientific knowledge and the faqtastic technological advances, especially the revolution in communications. The dream of the ancient Indian seer who sang that all the world was his village and all men his brothers is partly fulfilled.

Technological developments tend to make the world externally like a village, but the sense of brotherhood still remains remote and its prospects quite uncertain. the mind has not been matched by the strength of the heart, and man' s power is now far greater than his compassion. gathers momentum from social and economic forces, but compassion and discrimination depend upon moral and spiritual resources and human choices. The wholeness of man and the quality of his life abide in the world of culture which must preserve and reflect its precious diversity; but the externals of a planetary civilization tend to impose uniformity on social organization, on the functioning of the economy and on alluring life-styles. and temptations of a technological civilization may undermine the special character and essence of culture, unless the spirit of man, embodied in his cultural traditions and manifested in the practice of cultural values, asserts itself and takes charge of the power and potentials of technology and the increasing complexity and compulsions of social organization. The balance between the externals of material civilization and the inner life and values of culture is always difficult to adjust and achieve.

The achievement of

The march of technology

The power, glamour

What is really at stake is the very survival of culture in its true meaning and essence in the face of forces that impose a single, all-pervading model of development, derived from the achievements, life-styles and values of Western manand his industrial age civilization. The vision of a planetary society signifies a spectacular advance in the evolution of human consciousness, and the advent of a global order is a prospect of unprece- dented hope and promise. The path to these vistas lies through the strength and realities of international cultural co-operation and the projection of cultural values that would respect the special integrity and specific identity of culture while building and sustaining a new world order.

The preamble to the General Conference resolution establishing a 'Major Project on Mutual Appreciation of Eastern and Western Cultural Values', for a period of ten years, beginning 1 January 1957, gave three reasons for the launching of the Major Project:

1. The understanding between peoples necessary for peaceful co-operation among them can only be built on a full knowledge and appreciation of one another's cultures.

among the peoples and nations of the Orient and the Occident a mutual appreciation of their respective cultural values.

3. A profound and objective study of the radical changes that have recently taken place in the life of both Eastern and Western nations is necessary to a right understanding of their national cultures and to an appreciation of the values inherent in them.

interdisciplinary activities amounted to a bold and novel experiment in the teaching of another culture through all the means at the disposal of education in the broadest sense. developing the earlier concept of international understanding through more expanded knowledge and a larger vision to the mutual appreciation of cultural values involving a deeper experience of the meaning of life derived from both the past and the present of another culture.

2. There is a special urgency to increase

In essence the new Major Project and its

It aimed at

The concept of the Major Project was based on three new ideas:

67

1. From a knowledge of facts concerning other countries and nations the emphasis shifts to the values of another culture. This broadens the scope of education so as to include within it what goes under the name of culture.

which is largely an intellectual process, but appreciation that goes beyond understanding, requiring the use of the moral qualities of sympathy and reverence. Appreciation is a deeper experience than understanding and belongs to the realm of love and identity.

3. The element of mutuality in the process of appreciation calls for equality and togetherness. It also implies an encounter of two great cultures in search of a new synthesis.

Project on Mutual Appreciation of Eastern and Western Cultural Values went far beyond the concept of education for international understanding, becoming in reality a search for' a new humanism based on the wisdom of East and West and a deep concern for human needs and aspirations in a technological world.

2. The objective is not merely understanding,

In its depth and comprehensiveness the Major

The genesis of the Major Project can be detected in the thinking of cultural leaders of Unescols Member States from Asia and the West during the first decade of the life of the world Organization. leaders of delegations and the Directors-General of Unesco at the General Conferences held from 1946 to 1956 reveals nine main factors which determined the choice and character of the Major Project:

matically after the end of the Second World War when Europe lay torn and exhausted and Asia experienced rapidly a process of liberation from its Western yoke. European domination in Asia came to an end, and one by one Asian countries achieved their freedom by peaceful transfer of power or by fighting. Nationalism triumphed in the Asian continent and Asian countries claimed complete equality with the nations of the Western world. heard at the international gatherings conveying a new confidence in themselves and an optimistic vision of the world around.

independent countries of Asia found an especially congenial expression in the meetings convened by Unesco. The ideal of achieving world unity through the intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind appealed to the Asians more than the political role of the United Nations; the programmes and potentialities of Unesco attracted greater attention than the functioning of the political machinery of the United Nations at New York. The possibility of achieving anew synthesis of cultures was the theme of several important statements of Asian leaders in the General Con- ferences of Unesco. In its early formative stage, Unesco received greater support, in general, from Asian countries than from the nations of the West which were somewhat suspicious of international action in the field of education, sceptical about Unesco's role in the field of

A study of the speeches of the

1. The world political scene changed dra-

This is evident from the Asian voices

2. The,hopes and the dreams of thenewly

science and comparatively uninterested in international cultural co-operation. The discussions in the meetings of the General Conference and the Executive Board reveal a desire on the part of the Western nations to limit Unesco's role and confine its functions to the service of the United Nations in maintaining peace and security; on the other hand, the Asian countries, along with a number of developing countries from Africa and Latin America, looked forward to a wide and expanding co-operation among nations in the fields of Unesco and the emergence of a universality of outlook and action to which they themselves might make a considerable contribution.

3. Another reason-for Asian interest in Unesco was the birth of a new consciousness of Asia as a cultural entity that had contributed at least as much to world civilization as the Occident. The Asian cultural leaders expressed pride in their cultural heritage as embodied in the civilizations of China, India and Japan, and the spiritual values enshrined in the great religions of Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity which originated in the Asian continent. scope of Unesco's activities, the Asians manifested a keen desire to meet and to know each other, thereby breaking the isolation to which they had been confined in the period of Western domination. The emergence of a pan-Asian sentiment is evident in the idealistic statements made at the Asian conference convened in India at the eve of its independence. Jawaharlal Nehru hailed the new Asian spirit and expressed his faith in the united role which Asia would play in the affairs of the world. The East-West or the Orient- Occident concept was implicit in this new consciousness of Asian solidarity and determination to match the influence of the West in world affairs.

was rooted in myths and dreams. There was, however, one practical problem of great relevance to the process of change and development, which was shared by all Asian countries and was also the concern of Unesco. This was the problem of traditional cultures and values in Asian countries exposed suddenly to the forces of industrialization and the larger process of change often labelled as modernization. In general, the cultural leaders of Asia valued their traditions and wished ardently to adapt them carefully to the new complex of economic, social and technological change that was overtaking their society. A creative synthesis of tradition and modernization was the cherished goal of Asian countries and this was expressed repeatedly with considerable force and vehemence in the General Conferences of Unesco. The Asian encounter with the West in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries had often produced strong defence and exaltation of traditional cultural values which were thought to be superior to the material advantages of Western technology; this product of the independence movements survived the winning of freedom and the new nation-state in Asia remembered and respected these cherished notions. To the leaders of thought and culture it posed a real problem, requiring meaningful programmes and cultural policies in the context of

Within the

4. A great deal of the pan-Asian sentiment

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rapid change and overall development of the national society.

with their traditional cultures was the groping for a new humanism in Europe that would re- interpret and assert the moral, artistic and spiritual values derived from the heritage of Rome, Greece and medieval Europe, which had unfortunately been weakened by the onslaught of materialism and technology in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. European philosophers attempted to harmonize science and religion and to make technology subservient to the human spirit. The international non-governmental organizations of scholars united in different disciplines gave moral support to Unesco and received in turn a new impetus to expand their own horizons by extending the association of Asian scholars with their work, hitherto centred on Europe.

6. Europe's quest for a new humanism was also motivated by the fear of America, not of its physical might and material opulence, but of its values and ways of life. Those who valued the European idea feared that culturally as well as materially Europe was fast becoming a junior partner with America in the new concept and reality of the West. While European governments flourished on the bounty of the United States in the form of Marshall aid and other types of assistance, their cultural leaders feared the influence of America on the European way of life, which increased almost as fast as the dollar aid. welcomed, therefore, the initiatives of the Asians to develop a broad educational programme for the mutual appreciation of Eastern and Western cultural values.

7. In the early years of Unesco several studies concerning the needs of countries in the fields of mass communication, such as press, film and radio, were launched. These studies revealed the immense gaps in the media of communication between the East and the West resulting in an imbalance to the detriment of the former. It was clear that newspapers, journals, books, radio and films carried ideas and images from the industrialized countries of the Occident to the economically less developed societies of the Orient, and this flow of communication increased rapidly without any corresponding flow of anything like the same dimensions in the opposite direction. values were sparsely received by the West while the latter transmitted its own culture to oriental peoples through the technological media of communication which it commanded. From this imbalance it followed that the intervention of some external agent was necessary to reverse the normal flow to a certain extent and thus redress the balance. And what could be a more suitable external agent than a specialized agency of the United Nations? The Eastern leaders said that it was not only the swelling flood of Western popular culture that came to their people daily through these mass media; in addition, their own educational systems, derived from the colonial period and tenaciously persisting unchanged even

5. Parallel to this concern of Asian leaders

They

Eastern cultural forms and

under freedom, placed a high premium on the knowledge of the West which formed an inordinately large part of the curriculum. Clearly the West was in greater need of receiving the cultural values of the east, and Unesco's intervention in the use of mass media and curricular reform might advance this objective.

8. Technical assistance in the form of aid to the economically less developed countries rapidly became one of the major concerns of IJnesco and of other United Nations agencies. the transmission of Western resources and knowledge for the concrete tasks of economic development in Eastern countries. This form of aid was a new phenomenon in history and frequently the experts sent from the West had neither the understanding nor the sympathy required for their new responsibilities. The need for aid and assistance felt by the developing countries was massive and in response to these increasing needs the technical assistance programmes developed rapidly. A programme based on the appreciation of cultural values could be beneficial to potential experts in the West. To Eastern countries it was psycho- logically of great importance in maintaining the principle of reciprocity in relationships. The feeling that in the realm of culture they had something of value to give to the West that would enrich the quality of life for all and enhance happiness mitigated their sense of dependence for material help on the affluent countries of the West. The mutual appreciation of cultural values made the process of technical assistance more effective and acceptable.

A significant forerunner of the Major Project was a programme of international round tables on Asian-American relations held in six American cities (San Francisco, Minneapolis, Ann Arbor, Louisville, Boston and Washington) during April- May, 1956, sponsored jointly by Unesco and the United States National Commission. The theme of these round tables was 'Human Values in Social Change in South and South-East Asia and the United States: Implications for Asian-American Co-operation'.

From the foregoing analysis of the genesis of the East-West Major Project and the launching of a remarkable spirit of solidarity and enthusiasm, some important portents for the future of international cultural co-operation emerged. Their influence continues to pervade and grow in the context of the larger process towards the establishment of a new world order. Of these trends by far the most important for our purpose was a new concept synthesizing the broader view of culture as a way of life and the narrow view of culture as cultivation of mind and ornament of man's creative activity. stressed the values of culture, both professed and operational, which could be understood, appreciated and shared in a spirit of mutuality, of eagerness, respect and gratitude, thus laying the foundations of the intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind, written in the Constitution of Unesco. The values of other cultures in their diversity could be learnt by all and this process of cultural learning opened new vistas of

This also meant

The emerging concept

69

co-operation to enrich culture, broaden education, construct the defences of peace in the minds of men and attain a quality of life that should be the meaning and essence of development. Cul- tural co-operation calls for reciprocity of exchanges, true understanding of traditions and beliefs other than one's own, and a sustained effort of learning and appreciating other people's ways of life and values of conduct and aspirations. The content of education, the technologies of communication, the rich harvest and potentials Of science, the range and luminosity of the humanities, the free expression of the arts and music, the delights of nature, the depth and savour of human relations and the sense of wonder and mystery of the cosmos--all these marvellous gifts of life could be explored and enjoyed from the knowledge and appreciation of many cultures and their values. Such aprospect of life's scope and quality called for appropriate effort and strong faith to develop cultural co-operation.

and intent that inspired the making of Unesco's Major Project on Mutual Appreciation of Eastern and Western Cultural Values was not matched by the specific programmes and activities that followed at the international and national levels during the decade of its official life-span. The paucity of material resources, complexities and slowness of international action, constraints on an intergovernmental organization acting in the field of culture which is essentially the sphere of the total society and its numerous non- governmental agencies, failure to develop adequate modalities of action, the clash of ideologies, persistence of egocentrism in nations, and above all, the great inequalities of resources of communication and economic development among the partners of cultural co-operation, inhibited action and achievement. However, some significant initiatives were taken and new directions emerged to enrich international cultural co-operation and find paths for the future. It is not necessary to describe various programmes and activities in detail. A brief reference to some highlights of the progress made will serve our purpose of identifying the problems and prospects of cultural co-operation and the relevance of cultural values.

Unfortunately the bright promise of thought

I. THE EXPERIENCE OF THE MAJOR PROJECT'S PROGRAMMES IN THE FIELD OF CULTURAL VALUES

The following orientations are particularly noteworthy:

1. The importance of culture

It was soon recognized that culture and its values and exchanges could promote international co- operation and deeper participation of peoples in the cultural life of their communities. In the developing countries, recently liberated from colonial rule, cultural learning was emphasized after its long neglect in the colonial period. The

relationship of culture to economic development, national integration and peace become evident and led to new explorations. were reflected in the dramatic increase of cultural exchanges and cultural agreements among nations, stressing the need for cultural policies.

These developments

2. The broadening of education

Special stress was laid in almost all participating countries on broadening the horizons of education at all levels, especially in the field of the humanities. The teaching of language, the revision of textbooks of history and geography, new orientations in the curricula, the training of teachers, the creation of new learning materials and a larger movement of students, led to increasing interest in the study of other cultures for better international understanding and for living creatively in the emerging world community. Knowledge of other people's cultural values was often accompanied by the strengthening of one's own roots, and a deeper understanding and appreciation of cultural values projected bright vistas of a new humanism.

3. Cultural exchanges

Both governmental policies and non-governmental action sought a significant increase in cultural exchanges in order to develop friendly relations and secure the goodwill of other nations in the pursuit of political and economic objectives. The value of such exchanges was sometimes ques- tioned and efforts were made to improve the nature and experience of cultural exchanges in an effort to strengthen international understanding and the process of development.

4. Authentic knowledge of cultures

The programmes of basic studies and research were aimed at removing misunderstanding and distortions about other cultures that had crept in through ignorance and prejudice. International non-governmental organizations attempted to build bridges of communication and understanding among scholars, often leading to joint international studies of topics and themes of common interest. The myth of race was exploded and habits and attitudes formed by imperialism and racial arro- gance were gradually undermined and exposed. The pursuit of truth and the transmission of authentic information concerning cultures and cultural values enriched human dignity and helped to implement human rights.

5. Traditional values and modernity

One area of research and inquiry acquired special importance. The nature, scope and relevance of traditional values and their relationship to change, often labelled as modernization, attracted the attention of scholars and the interest of persons involved in the process of development. cultures were rooted in living traditions and their potential for adaptation to new situations brought

Asian

about by economic and technological changes invited serious reflection and meaningful dialogues between representatives of diverse cultural traditions. The onslaughts of rapid industrialization and obsession with popular aspects and images of modernization threatened traditional cultures and values of old societies, on which depended the health and strength of the emerging national identity of the so-called developing countries. The preservation and renewal of traditional values also pointed the way to developmental models different from the dominant Western model projected by the elitist ruling classes reared in the image of their colonial masters. were tested by the effectiveness of indigenous values as compared with borrowed modes and manners derived from the dominant powers of wealth and technology. In this process it was evident that the traditional values of indigenous cultures had to be strengthened so that the rem- nants of colonialism could be discarded and national identity nurtured.

The claims of tradition and modernity

6. Creation and dissemination of cultural materials

Both for the broadening of education and the learning of cultural values, suitable materials in the form of books and publications, reproduc- tions of works of art, new creations of film, television and radio and educational kits were prepared for wide dissemination among students, teachers and the general public. Unesco's central action was reinforced by numerous efforts of interested agencies and individuals in Member States. rials involved sustained and meaningful co- operation among representatives of different cultures. Established institutions such as uni- ve r sities, museums, publishing houses, broad - casting organizations and cultural academies, as well as new agencies of many types specially designed for co-operative ventures, took part in the creation and dissemination of cultural materials leading to better understanding of other cultures.

Often the process of creating such mate-

7. The use of the media of mass communication

Especially important for wide dissemination of cultural values among large sections of population was the role of the media of mass communication. The success achieved was of mixed character; the media often projected other cultures through commercialism, sensationalism, prejudice and ignorance. The power of the media was not matched by the wisdom and charity of those who controlled and operated them. projection of Eastern cultures in the Western media created misunderstandings and resentments, and the glaring inequalities in the flow of information became accentuated with the rapidity of scientific and technological developments. In this field Unesco's action had meagre influence on the powerful and often highly commercialized

The

establishments controlling the media. Distortions and imbalances continued and led to a growing demand for anew international information order.

8. Respecting diversity

The mutual appreciation of cultural values called for genuine respect for the uniqueness and integrity of all cultures. valued for the sake of the intrinsic value of each culture. and the triumph of nationalism led to the assertion of indigenous cultures which went back to their own roots and resisted the invasion of cultural forms and values of the dominant powers of the West. Respect for cultural diversity called for the practice of moral values and attitudes such as curiosity, sympathy, tolerance, and reverence which were required for the understanding of other cultures.

Cultural diversity was

Liberation of peoples from foreign rule

9. Towards universality

Genuine exchanges of cultural experiences and values led to a universality of outlook and a sense of human solidarity through which contemporary man could share a common humanity and practice common human values acceptable to diverse cultures. The making of a just and humane global order and implementation of human rights called for the practice of human values reflecting the humanity of man and the sharing of a common human predicament. There was no conflict between the particularity of cultural values and the universality of human values. The essence of man's humanity was reflected and respected in the basic values of all cultures and pointed the way to the planetary civilization of tomorrow which science and technology had made possible.

These developments led to a growing recognition of the value of culture for promoting cultural relations and international co-operation. From the experience of the decade of the Major Project, Unesco broadened its own programmes to include international appreciation of the diversity of cultural values beyond the limited encounter between the civilizations of the Orient and the Occident; the community of nations formulated and adopted unanimously the principles of international cultural co-operation; and the importance of the cultural identity of the newly independent nations and the relationship of cultural identity to indigenous development, the participation of people in the cultural life of their communities and improvement in the quality of life were increasingly stressed. A healthy shift from the limited process of material aid to genuine partner- ship and co-operation, from an obsession with the economic factor of development to its overall and comprehensive character, took place. The modalities of action and the scope of cultural co- operation were more clearly defined.

figured prominently the role of the educational systems in their new contents and objectives and the functioning of the media of mass communication, such as press, film, television and radio.

Among the modalities of cultural co-operation

71

The increasing movement of persons and cultural materials often expressed in the form of what came to be known as 'cultural tourism' was reflected in travel and trade. Governmental action was expressed in formal arrangements, bilateral agreements and the formulation of cultural policies. Societal action, mainly channelled through non-governmental organizations, assumed increasing importance. Interna- tional and regional organizations, notably Unesco with its network of co-operative relationships and involvement in things of the mind and the spirit, played their catalytic and co-ordinating roles. The range and scope of institutions and instruments of cultural co-operation became large and impressive in spite of the comparatively meagre financial resources available for cultural action.

The scope and content of international cultural co-operation was comprised mainly of the following five elements which generated numerous activities under the auspices of Unesco and through several bilateral and non-governmental programmes:

knowledge and values advanced through specially designed programmes and also through a multi- plicity of initiatives and efforts on the part of organizations and agencies of several types. Of these some were healthy and creative, contributing to greater understanding, peace and development. Others were well-intentioned but often unproductive and wasteful. exchanges was determined by the motivation and authenticity of those taking part in the process of exchange. They were a complex of altruism and calculated self-interest, curiosity and egoism, truth and deception. On the whole cultural exchanges opened new horizons of awareness and contributed to the adaptation and renewal of traditional values; they also posed serious problems for the developing countries, suddenly exposed to alien models and life-style and greatly handicapped by their helplessness and dependence on the power and influence of wealthier and tech- nologically advanced societies. In the developing countries the gap between the dominant Blitist groups and the passive masses tended to widen, and the differences between urban and rural sectors were accentuated.

2. Learning other cultures through adequate knowledge and better understanding of their traditions, values, contemporary developments and aspirations was another important feature of cultural co-operation, reflected mainly in the content of education in the broad sense, compre- hending both formal and non-formal modalities and the educational use of the technologies of communication. The school and out-of-school activities highlighted by the East-West Major Project were elaborated and strengthened by the growing possibilities of non-formal education, in particular by the educational role of cultural institutions such as museums, libraries, community centres and academies of arts and crafts. Cultural co-operation could enrich education by providing opportunities for the interaction of ideas and values underlying the diversity of cultures.

1. Cultural exchanges of persons, materials,

The quality of such

3. The promotion of dialogues between cultures through meetings of specialists, seminars, symposia and publications gave rise to a valuable form of cultural co-operation, affording scope for appreciating differences as well as similarities and reaching out to new synthesis of cultural forms and ideas. dialogue were not reflected in the functioning of the media of mass communication with their heavy bias in favour of commercialism and propaganda. True dialogue called for reciprocity and mutual respect which were absent in the unequal relationship of media resources available to developed and developing countries and the defective training and motivation of those in command of the media.

4. Cultural co-operation was easier and

Unfortunately the method and spirit of

more fruitful in the process of preserving and cherishing the cultural heritage of mankind, which gathered strength mainly through the initiatives of Unesco. The tasks of preserving, restoring and proj ec ting monuments , archaeological sites and works of art inherited from past civilizations were free from the controversies and discords of the living present. Several co-operative programmes were launched successfully in this field of cultural action. Unesco launched appeals for the safeguarding of famous monuments, such as those of Nubia in Egypt and Sudan, Venice in Italy, Borobudur in Indonesia, Moenjodaro in Pakistan, Sukhothai in Thailand, the monuments of Malta, Fez in Morocco and the 'Cultural Triangle' in Sri Lanka. appeal on behalf of the three monuments of Haiti symbolizing the fate of African slaves and the Island of Goree. The scope of cultural co- operation for the preservation of the cultural heritage is by no means exhausted and both bilateral and multilateral programmes would be needed especially to take care of the monuments and works of art inherited from the old civilizations of Asia and Africa and to restore art treasures amicably to their rightful owners who were despoiled of them during colonial rule.

ducive to the promotion of cultural relations and international co-operation in the service of peace, development and improved quality of life opens up an area of research and action needed for building the intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind, as proclaimed in the Constitution of Unesco. following account of cultural values favouring international co-operation is drawn from the experience of the Major Project and its aftermath, and especially taking into account the developments in India and the neighbouring countries of Asia. The interaction of values and cultural action de- termines the effectiveness of international co- operation among nations and promotes the integration of diverse groups and communities within large pluralistic societies.

Recently Unesco has launched an

5. Lastly the study of cultural values con-

The

11.

Till

THE INDIAN EXPERIENCE: IN QUEST OF CULTURAL CO-OPERATION AND CULTURAL POLICY 1947 India was part of the British Empire,

72

politically subjufled to foreign rule and culturally dominated by influences from the United Kingdom. The rest of the world was practically unknown to Indians, very few of whom travelled outside their country. The foreign relations of India were managed exclusively by the British. After 1947 there was naturally an intense desire to know the world and to receive new influences from everywhere. This new spirit is reflected in the following saying of Mahatma Gandhi: 'I do not want m y house to be walled in on all sides and m y windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all lands to be blown about m y house as freely as possible, but I refuse to be blown off m y feet by any. prison-house. It has room for the least of God's creations, but it is proof against insolent pride of race, religion or colour'. There was a strong desire to receive the cultural breezes from where- ever they blew, from all parts of the world, while keeping at the same time close to the roots of the ancient culture and heritage of India.

This desire to know the world after independence first found expression in a great feeling for Asia, for Asian unity, and for a kind of continen- tal outlook on Asia. as a counterpoise to the might and domination of the West, as a means of preserving the newly won freedom, and as a vindication of the dignity and equality of the Orient in its relationship to the Occidental world. It was in this new spiritthat the first venture of India's cultural foreign policy took place in the year of independence, in 1947, when the Asian Relations Conference was organized in Delhi.

New hopes and aspirations arose out of a new reading of Indian history, in which the expansive urges, the artistic, spiritual and material achieve ments of the past, were highlighted, and India's special mission was believed to be the promotion of certain spiritual values, especially the three values of tolerance, compassion and other- worldliness. were seen to emerge prominently from the religious and cultural history of India, forming its main contribution in the sum total of human culture.

Tolerance was seen as a way of life, arising out of a course of history during which ideas, beliefs and institutions were synthesized continu- ously through a peaceful and non-violent process. Compassion was cultivated as the pre-eminently moral and spiritual quality of the individual and a virtue greatly valued and appreciated by society. Lastly, for want of a better term, what is called other-worldliness comprised an all pervading belief that there is another life apart from the day-to-day life of ordinary action and ordinary living, a deeper awareness providing certain attitudes and ethics as well as a constant motive for transcending one's self. This does not mean that the present life is not worthy or not worth living, although there is admittedly a tendency to degenerate to that kind of negative attitude; it meant that society, as well as individuals, should strive to transcend itself, and in this way other- worldliness signified a quest for transcendence

Mine is not a religion of the

Asian unity was cherished

These were the great values which

or perfection on the part of the individual. pursuit of these values was believed to be the distinguishing feature of Indian culture in its historic role, and this belief, partaking both of reality and myth, provided the leaders of the Freedom Movement with a great emotional upsurge, a radiant image of India's spirituality, revealing a cultural identity that could be projected outside with satisfaction and pride. There was a strong conviction regarding India's special spiritual mission to practise and to spread the qualities and attitudes of tolerance, compassion and spirituality, signifying an expansion of the Indian spirit and seeking a meaningful cultural impact on the world outside. and ideas, derived from a popular view of India's past heritage, there were added two other forces. These were the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi determining the unique character of the struggle for Indian freedom, a battle waged ideologically with the weapons of non-violence and soul-force, and the outlook and vision of Jawaharlal Nehru looking forward to the building of a new and dynamic society in the pursuit of progress, modernization and social justice. While the objectives and ideologies of Gandhi and Nehru differed considerably, both these architects of India's freedom believed passionately that the means employed were as important as the ends pursued, and this conviction helped in uplifting the struggle for independence to a high moral plane.

present-day India is derived from these three sources: the mission of spirituality emanating from the historic past, the principle of non- violence perfected by Gandhi both as a great moral force and as a technique for resolving conflicts, and the vision of Nehru pulsating with the warmth and wonder of new life and reaching out to all the potentialities offered by democracy and science for the enhancement of human freedom, human dignity and human welfare. The Indian people believed that they had a significant contribution to make in the evolution of the humanism of tomorrow, nition of human destiny and a new organization of human affairs. It was believed that in this emerging humanism India had a role to play for the synthesizing of divergent viewpoints and beliefs, and especially in the accomplishment of a new synthesis of East and West. The Indian's consciousness of East and West is strong and abiding in the context of cultural relations; the awareness of an old and continuing encounter between the Orient and the Occident, an encounter sometimes wasteful but often fruitful and creative, continues to influence the search for cultural identity. the synthesizing of tradition and modernization, religion and science, individual and society, the inward life of man and his social duties and obligations.

This was the kind of national image of themselves which the Indians in the first flush of Independence saw and desired to project outside. Another foundation of cultural policy is the practical need to protect the gains of independence

The

To these attitudes

To sum up, the emerging cultural image of

-

uniting all mankind in a new recog-

In this encounter Indians feel a call for

73

and to further its objectives. First and foremost among these objectives was the need to maintain and consolidate national independence, to achieve complete freedom from domination of any foreign power. Along with this quest for freedom, democracy, liberty and social justice were to be realized through a democratic form of government and a socialistic pattern of society.

and multifarious forms of cultural co-operation with other nations, and within the immense diversity of its own regional and subordinate cultures and their interactions, a number of cultural values favouring co-operation can be identified. Prominent among these are the following:

1. Sensivity to culture and the high value attached to its meaning and practice form the basis of cultural life and its values.

2. Receptivity and openness to cultural influences accompanied by keen curiosity and capacity to give and receive in generosity and gratitude enlarge the scope of cultural experience.

3. The practice of tolerance is essential to fruitful and creative cultural co-operation.

4. Respect for other cultures elevates the quality of cultural exchanges and prevents narrow attitudes of egocentrism. when cultural values are derived from religious traditions of a pluralistic society.

5. Rootedness in the best of one's own culture builds assurance and faith for exploration of other ways of life in seriousness and depth of experience.

6. The force of tradition can provide basic values and sure moorings for both stability and change.

7. Attunement to change and adaptability to new forces and conditions is also necessary in order to renew and enrich living traditions and foster the acceptance of new values.

from the diversity of cultural traditions and the fruits of tolerance.

9. Belief in freedom and human rights en- hances the choice and effectiveness of cultural values.

nature leads to a kind of world view strengthening faith, confidence and hope.

11. Humanism and human values are developed from the putting into practice of cultural values, transcending the narrow confines of nationalism and parochial living.

12. Finally, cultural life manifests itself as a balancing force making for equilibrium in the outer world of uncertainties and perils, and under- lines the importance of the inner man in the care of his spiritual personality.

healthy and positive aspects of the process of CO- operation. Needless to say, these values have to contend with the negative and opposing forces that inhibit co-operation and give rise to tensions, suspicions and misunderstandings. The deploy- ment of the right cultural values for fruitful

From the practice of India's cultural policies

It is also essential

8. Permitting dissent and dichotomies follows

10. An optimistic view of man and human -

The cultural values listed above mark the

cultural co-operation calls for sustained vigilance and wise discrimination.

111. CONDITIONS FOR SUCCESS OF

TOWARDS A, CHARTER OF CULTURAL CO-OPERATION:

CULTURAL C 0- OPERA TI ON

From the genesis and experience of Unesco's Major Project for Mutual Appreciation of Eastern and Western Cultural Values, and the increasing recognition of culture as an important factor of development and as a way to peace and solidarity, we may identify some major elements for the success of cultural co-operation, which can also point the way to a charter of cultural co-operation to supplement and strengthen the effectiveness of a new international order. The rapid developments since the middle of the twentieth century in all spheres of man's existence, and especially the vast network of co-operation that grows often unnoticed in the turmoil and tensions high-lighted by the media of communication, point to the need and the possibility of formulating a universal charter of cultural co-operation for the guidance of national societies now groping towards the planetary civilization of tomorrow. The charter of cultural co-operation should go beyond the statement of principles enshrined in Unesco's Declaration of 1966 and several similar documents adopted by the United Nations. necessary to stress the content of cultural co- operation in concrete tasks and activities, appropriate modalities of action, possible resources at both the national and international levels, and the basic human values that can be accepted by all societies and cultures. a universal charter can be derived from many positive elements in the relationships among societies and nations which have grown recently in all spheres of human activity. Governmental policies, cultural treaties and agreements, the network of intellectual co-operation, travel and tourism, the movement of goods and materials, numerous forms of non-governmental actions and aspirations of groups and individuals can contribute to the search for a universally acceptable charter of cultural co-operation. The charter could stress the following elements which are also conditions for the success of cultural c o - operation :

1. Cultural co-operation should extend beyond intergovernmental action and bureaucratic functioning. It should involve societies and peoples, organized freely in all types of cultural activities. The regulatory and co-ordinating role of public authorities should be as permissive and flexible as possible. While institutional infrastructures would depend upon the traditions and resources of each society, their interactions could be supported and encouraged by appropriate forms of instruc- tional organization of both intergovernmental and governmental character. Unesco and its National Commissions for co-operation have a special role to play in developing lines of communication between governments, cultural organizations and

It is now

The ingredients of such

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individuals working in the broad field of culture.

ploited for gaining and exercising power and domination over weaker partners in the process of communication. In particular, the functioning of the mass media needs to be guided by appropriate codes of conduct and improvement of the quality of its personnel and programmes. The latest thinking concerning a new international information order can be helpful.

higher priority in the context of societal functioning and allocation of resources as well as adequate international action. Initiatives like the International Fund for the Promotion of Culture launched by Unesco should be encouraged and strengthened. A suitable proportion of military expenditure and commercial profits should be diverted to cultural co-operation.

improved by better vigilance and discrimination, weeding out manifestations of triviality and vulgarity, and guarding against distortions of commercialism and glamorous life-styles. The reciprocity of cultural exchanges should be respected and ensured by suitable mechanisms and arrangements. dialogue should be observed.

careful nurturing of creativity are necessary for enhancing the value and influence of cultural a c ti on.

6. Cultural co-operation should aim at the heightening of human consciousness through enrichment of cultural values and attitudes by renewal, adaptation and creative synthesis of different traditions and points of view.

7. The spirit of true cultural co-operation and cultural values should guide co-operative activities in the fields of the economy, politics, science, technology and social relations. In this way cultural co-operation can be the ethical and emotional basis of development and realization of life's quality.

peoples' participation in the developmental process and its fruits, stressing especially the elements of equality and social justice. The dominance of elitism should give way to peoples' participation and quality of life for all.

tion by appropriate educational exchanges and development of the concept of 'international education' which is both desirable and feasible. Education in the broadest sense, including the new concept of lifelong education, is the most potent force in the shaping of values, the harmon- ization of the forces of tradition and innovation and the emergence of a modern society through a dynamic process of renewal and adaptation of traditional knowledge and wisdom, especially in the developing countries.

contribute to the building of human solidarity through the projection and practice of human values acceptable to all cultures.

2. Cultural co-operation should not be ex-

3. Cultural co-operation should be accorded

4. The quality of cultural exchanges can be

The method and spirit of true

5. Freedom of action and exploration and

8. Cultural co-operation should promote

9. Cultural co-operation should enrich educa-

10. Finally, cultural co-operation should

Education for human values

From our past of many civilizations, diverse cultures, different religions and conflicting ideologies we are moving towards the unity of mankind, respecting the diversity of cultures and the dignity and freedom of the individual. Many of the traditional values inherited from the past remain valid or dynamic enough to be adapted for the future. Fresh values to match emerging conditions and needs are also evolving. The formulation of a general statement on human values for our times could help the shaping of appropriate attitudes, common beliefs and suitable criteria and content of education for contemporary man.

chief concerns and aspects of man, common to all civilizations and cultures of our time:

Such a statement can be based on the following

1. Man and his own self; the human person; the inner man

In order to take charge of one's life in an uncertain and fast-changing world, the essentials of personality such as physical and mental health, right balance and poise of mind, and moral and spiritual qualities of character should be valued and cultivated. Education and culture need to be directed to the enrichment of character and the pursuit of goodness, wisdom and transcendence. The development of the inner man by the fullest flowering of man's potentials and totality of being should be encouraged in an atmosphere of freedom and security. for a measure of austerity, self-discipline, pursuit of self-knowledge and cultivation of serenity as well as intensity. The luminous and balanced self ceases to be vulnerable. inner self should be directed to love and service of our fellow human beings.

Man's care of his own self calls

The power of the

2. Man and his fellowman; society; human relations

Man's relationship to society should be governed by principles of humanistic morality acceptable to all and reflecting the quality and sensitivity of human relations, based upon compassionate love, mutual understanding and appreciation, and respect for justice and solidarity of mankind. invocation to loving one's neighbour should extend to all inhabitants of the planet. ship between man and his fellowman has to overcome the divisions and barriers of the past and the present attitudes of superiority and smugness arising from inequalities of wealth, power and knowledge. Man's common predicament and basic humanity should be planted firmly in his consciousness and conduct by the fullest and wisest use of resources and potentialities of communication. The exploration and understanding of man's psyche should strengthen his common humanity.

The

Such a relation-

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3.

Contemporary man's habitat extends from his home and local environment to the entire planet, involving the care and nurture of nature and ecology from which he derives great benefits. The resources of the habitat must also be preserved for posterity for which he holds his habitat in trust. The sense of belonging and gratitude generate loyalty, prudence and austerity, and in the care and management of the habitat man learns to live in harmony with others. Narrow loyalties and nationalistic pride and egocentricity lead to conflict and war. to global loyalties.

Man and his habitat: nature; space

These should give way

4. Man and his work

To a large extent man lives in and for his work, and his mental health and happiness depend upon the choice of work, its scope for action,. expression and initiative, its contribution to his creativity, decision-making, pursuit of excellence and sense of self-esteem and dedication. While work affords satisfaction, enjoyment and self- realization, it can also bring obsession for success and lust for power. W e should avoid such temptations and work in a spirit of non- attachment and non-violence. Frustrations and alienations resulting from deprivations of work or its deficiencies warp the individual and dis- tort society. tion can rectify these.

Socio-economic systems and educa-

5. Man and art

All men are endowed with some artistic capabilities in varying forms and measure, and the flowering of these depends upon individual urge and social receptivity. beauty differ but its essence and inspiration are the same. man in his humanity and elevates his cultural life. in work, education and life we should recognize and enhance the importance of the arts and the artistic spirit. Respecting the diversity of art and culture, we can sense and share the under: lying unity of mankind. The quest of beauty and the joy of creation reveal life's meaning and enrich its quarity. should be fed and nurtured all through the life- span. appreciating other people's arts and cultures.

The manifestations of

The pursuit of the beautiful strengthens

The artistic nature of man

People should have the opportunity of

6. Man and technology

Technological advance should be for human welfare and for the enrichment of man's humanity. Uncontrolled mechanization for sheer power and dehumanization needs to be checked. ling and regulating technological advance and the application of science we can improve human welfare and the quality of life. Appropriate technologies should be chosen for practical relevance and efficient productivity, and also for their capacity to humanize life and spread culture. Tech- nology should not be allowed to undermine or

By control-

pervert the primacy of the human spirit which is the source of man's creations and the abiding values to live by. Technology must always be subservient to the ends of a good life and humanism. As a significant reflection of man's relentless curiosity, inventiveness, perf e ction of methods and systems, and mastery over the external world, technology projects important human values.

7. Man and his ideology

Man cannot live by bread alone. Beyond the materials of economy, politics, science and industry, his restless mind and probing spirit need some beliefs to give meaning to life and its goals and purpose. Historical experience and human choice determine ideologies which are incentives to action in the present and guides to the making of the future. emotional and mystical elements of man's consciousness as well as the quest for truth, faith and humanism. Ideologies are reflected in the diversities of cultures and choice of life- styles and systems. They can cause tensions and conflicts and lead to war and destruction. Ideology should be valued for its ennobling influence, its strength and integrity, its dedication to peace and harmony and its commitment to man's humanity.

Ideology caters to

8. Man and time: the stream of past, present and future

In his relationship with time man shares some compulsions and dreams not only with the fellowmen of his own time in life, but also with those who have gone before in history and those who have yet to come. Consciousness in time and the experience of the life cycles lead to contem- plation of the mysteries of life and death and the concept of eternity. hope for the future strengthens man's care of his cultural heritage and pride in common endeavours and aspirations. Man's sense of history is a most precious source and guide to humanistic values, the understanding of human nature, deep humility and compassion; in the depressions and elations of the flux of history man recognizes his eternal self and experiences the brotherhood of mankind.

based values, the complete equality of man and woman is assumed. Any artificial handicap or inferiority attached to sex must be rejected.

Many changes and fresh initiatives will be needed to provide for the effective learning and putting into practice of human values through educational programmes and other modalities. The limitations of presenting knowledge in rigid compartmentalization imposed by traditional disciplines have been evident for long. The recent trends towards learning through the various modalities of formal education, non- formal education, recurrent education, adult education, professional training, and cultural learning mark a welcome shift from the dominance

Respect for the past with

In the above summary statement of man-

76

of disciplines to an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approach in the pursuit of more relevant and meaningful education for the diverse needs, aptitudes and tastes of all kinds of learners.

9. Man and the meaning and purpose of existence

Education for human values such as those outlined above and the scientific and technological developments of our times point the way to the strengthening of the international dimension of education for a planetary civilization and a new world order, more just, humane and harmonious, respecting the dignity and sanctity of human personality and contributing to the advancement of liberty, equality and fraternity in the functioning of society. A charter of cultural co-operation should stress the area of international education along with other concerns mentioned earlier. The imperatives of a planetary order will open up new possibilities for cultural co- operation, especially in the pursuit of international education and an improved quality of life for all. The emerging future may reflect the primacy of culture in the life of man and enable

his humanity to emanate from the particularity of his own culture as well as from the unity of mankind.

of his visit to Unesco Headquarters in June 1980, His Holiness Pope John Paul I1 wisely observed: 'It is through culture that man lives a truly human life. Human life is also culture in the sense that it is through culture that man is distinguished and differentiated from everything else that exists in the visible world: man cannot do without culture.

and "bein,g". Man always lives according to a culture of his own which, in turn, establishes among men a bond that is also, initself, peculiar to them, determining the inter-human and social character of human existence. of culture as the distinctive mode of human existence that the plurality of cultures within which people live is rooted. Within this plurality, man develops without, however, losing the essential contact with the unity of culture as a basic and essential dimension of his existence and his being'.

In an inspiring address delivered at the time

Culture is a specific mode of man's "existing"

It is in the unity

REFERENCES

Aurobindo, Sri, The Foundations of Indian Culture and the Renaissance in India (Birth Centenary Library, 1972)

Abdul Latif, Syed, An Outline of the Cultural History of India (Oriental Books, 1979)

Brgson, Finkelstein and Maciver (Editors) Learning and World Peace (Harper Brothers, 1948)

London, 1959); Values in Human Society (Porter Sargent, 1970)

Chandrasekharan, K. Culture and Creativity (Macmillan, 1969)

Cultural Forum, Vol. XIV, No. 2, January 1972-- Images of India

Cultures, Vol. 1, No. 4--Culture and the Asian Tradition (1974); Vol. 111, No. 4--Culture, Society and Economics for a New World( 1976)

(McGraw-Hill, 1977)

Cowell, F.R. Culture (Thames & Hudson,

Dalai Lama, The, M y Land and M y People

Fradier, Georges, East and West (Unesco, 1959) Indian National Commission for Unesco, Report of the National Seminar on International Under- standing (1965); Nehru and the Modern World (1967)

Cuttat, Jacques-Albert, The Spiritual Dialogue of East (Max Mueller Bhavan, 196'1)

Johnson, F. Ernest (Editor), World Order: Its Intellectual and Cultural Foundations (Keunikat Press, 1969)

Free Press, 1971)

(Sterling Publishers, 1976); Culture and Deve- lopment- -The Incipient Crisis; edited reconsti- tuting The Human Community (Sterling Pub- lishers 1972); The Cultural Foreign Policy of

Jacob, Values and the Active Community (The

Kirpal, Prem, Youth and Established Culture

India; International Cultural Co-operation; Human Values and Development" (New Frontiers in Education. Vol. VII, No. 2, 1977); Books for Quality of Life (Federation of Publishers and Booksellers Associations in India (Sterling); Jawaharlal Nehru and Unesco; National Com- missions for Unesco and International Co- operation (Unesco-Philippines, Vol. IV,

Mookerji, Radha Kumud, Fundamental Unity of India (Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan, 1970)

Radhakrishnan, S., Recovery of Faith (Hind Pocket Books)

Salk, Jonas, Man Unfolding (Allied Publishers, 1972)

Tagore, Rabindranath, Crisis in Civilization (Visva-Bharati); Towards Universal Man (Visva-Bharati, 196 1)

Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre, The Future of Man (Harper Torchbooks, 1959)

Unesco, In the Minds of Men (Paris, 1972); Thinking Ahead- - Unes'co and the challenges of today and tomorrow (1977); Cultural Co- operation: Studies and Experience; The Cul- tural Content of Education: Joint Study No. 9; Orient- Occident Bulletin I( bimonthly periodical, 1958-1966) 52 issues; Unesco Chronicle (19 Studies on the East-West Major Project); Unesco Features (1957- 1966); Proceedings of the General Conference (1956-1968); Reports of the Director-General (1956- 1968)

Vivekananda, Swami, Universal Ethics and Moral Conduct (Ramakrishna Math, Hyderabad)

Yutang, Lin, The Wisdom of China and India (Modern Library, 1955)

NOS. 7-8, 1965)

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NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

CHAPTER I

D. MBUNDA, born in Tanzania in 1932, was educated and ordained there, having studied philosophy for two years and theology for nine at the Seminary of Peramiho (Tanzania). Ireland. For several years he was Director of the Institute of Adult Education in Dar es Salaam, where he took part in decision-making in the field of education at the highest government level. He has also written and presented numerous documents on adult education, and has represented the Institute on many boards and committees. In 1979, he enrolled at the University of Southampton (United Kingdom), where he was awarded a doctor's degree in education this year.

He also holds an M . A. in Education from the National University of

CHAPTER I1

PHILIP BOSSERMAN was born in theunited States of America in 1931. He pursued his university career at the Sorbonne in Paris (M.A. in Social Philosophy) and at Boston University in the United States (Ph. D. in Sociology). researcher for several year.s at the Anthropology and Sociology Department of Salisbury State College. (United States) and has recently carried out research in France on 'the development of French sociology after the Second World War' under the auspices of the National Endowment for the Humanities. His most important publications include: Dialectical Sociology (1 968); Leisure in the coming Post-Industrial Society (1 974); The Impact of Leisure on Social Develop- ment in Modern Societies (1980) and Georges Guwitch et les Durkheimiens en France avant et aprbs la seconde guerre mondiale (1981).

He has been a

CHAPTER I11

RENE HABACHI was born in 1915 in Lebanon. He is currently lecturing in Philosophy and Islamic Studies at the University of Paris VI1 and at the University of Dijon. He has been Deputy Director of the Arab States Centre for the Advanced Training of Educational Personnel (a Unesco-assisted centre in Beirut), and Director of the Division of Philosophy at Unesco. pensee mediterraneenne (4 vol. --Ed. Orientales, Beirut); Commencements de la creature (Ed. du Centurion, Paris); La Colonne Brisee (Ed. du Centurion, Paris); and Orient, que1 est ton Occident? (Ed. du Centurion, Paris).

His most important publications include: de 1'Institut de Langues et Lettres

CHAPTER IV

OSWALDO CAPRILES was born in Venezuela in 1935. Following his university studies, be was awarded the degree Doctor of Laws (Sorbonne, Paris). conducting research on Culture and Communication at the Communication Research Institute of the Central University of Venezuela, where he also lectures in the Faculties of Law and of Social Sciences and Economics. His main published works include: La Responsabilite Civile du Fait des Choses dans les principaux Droits de 1'Amerique Latine (1962); ElEstadoylos medios de comunicacionenVenezuela (1976).

He is at present

79

CHAPTER V

KAZIMIERZ ZYGULSKI is a Doctor of Sociology and lecturer in Sociology at theInstitute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, where, for several years, he held the post of Head of the Research and Culture Department. Bornin 1919, he has been Poland's Minister of Culture and Fine Arts since October 1982. His most important publications include: Sociologie du Film (1 965); Introduction aux problkmes de la culture (1972); and Cultural Values and Patterns (1975).

CHAPTER VI

PREM KIRPAL was born in India in 1909, and completed his higher education at the Universities of Punjab (India) and Oxford (United Kingdom). Secretary-General of the Ministry of Education and Culture of India, Director of the Cultural Activities Department of Unesco, and Chairman of the Executive Board of Unesco.

He has been

He is currently Chairman of the International Education Consortium (New Delhi). His major published works include: A Decade of Indian Education, Cultural Behaviour of the Youth, and Life of Dayal Singh Majithia--A Social Reformer of the Nineteenth Century.

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problems of culture and cultural values in the contemporary...

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