Posted by Estella on August 7, 2006, at 19:48:12
In reply to Re: people in Rowanda... Dinah, Gabbi-G, Phillipa » Estella, posted by Jost on August 7, 2006, at 13:57:08
> Estella, I have two thoughts about your comments on the happiness index, etc.
> 1. How else can we think about happiness, other than in our Western way, since we are members of a Western civilization?We can learn about other cultures. About how they live (or lived) their lives, about the things that were important to them. About the things that made them happy yes, and content as well. Hence... My posting a link about Maori culture. What sorts of things did the American Indians want / need to be happy? How about tribes in Africa or in the Pacific Islands and so on and so forth. What do people in India consider one wants / needs in order to be happy / content? How about China?
It is a Western invention that formalised schooling, formalised medical care (where giving birth is considered a medical condition lol), and how many american dollars one has, and how many different varieties of spaghetti sauce one gets to pick from contribute significantly to happiness.
Witness the boom of therapy and psychiatric medication.
I'm just saying that we can learn a little about what humans need as humans by finding what is common to all cultures (what is pan-cultural) and it can loosen the grip on what the media tells us we must have in order to be happy...
> 2. Is it possible that post-structuralism, or post=modernism, or whatever, is itself a "Western" idea--Yep. But I think those arose out of feminism which is a significant change in a Western culture that used to be (and still is) fairly male dominated. But ideas that arose out of Western women who have been living in that Western culture under male domination for a number of years...
I wonder what people from Japan think about happiness and contentment?
How about Alaska?
> ie the idea of cultural relativism--or the notion that 'our" way of thinking about things is limited, not necessary, and culturally-conditoned, is itself much more a Western idea than anything else?
The more you learn about other cultures and consider things from their point of view...
The more you are in a position to evaluate similarities (thus what may well be universal to human beings) and differences (thus what is culturally specific)
This applies to the study of emotions as well...
Some emotions are pan-cultural (found in the majority of members across cultures). They are also displayed from a very early age (that is interesting, what does an infant need to be happy / content?).
Others vary considerably. The first are more likely to have a hard-wired biological basis, the second are more likely to play a social functional role. To be social constructs basically.
poster:Estella
thread:674015
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20060806/msgs/674652.html