Multiculturalism

 

A couple of days ago I read a very interesting article in JP, the title is “Literature boosts Gus Dur’s spirit of pluralism” written by Setiono Sugiharto. In short, the article tells us that reading literature can maintain the idea of pluralism proposed by – one of pluralism scholars in Indonesia – Gus Dur.

The article reminded me of one class I joined when I was in college “American Multiculturalism”. The professor assigned us to read various kinds of literary works – mostly short stories and poems – written by many American authors from different tribes, such as Native American (e.g. Leslie Marmon Silko’s “Yellow Woman”), African American (e.g. Zora Neale Hurston’s “Sweat”), Mexican American (e.g. Sandra Cisneros’ “Woman Hollering Creek”), Chinese American (e.g. Amy Tan’s “Two Kinds”), until one poet who was born in Indonesia, Li Young Lee; we discussed his poem “Persimmons”. We absolutely also read works written by white American, such as Joyce Carol Oates’ “Where are you going? Where have you been?” The main objective of this class is to provide the students how rich American culture is, and of course also to respect those so-called marginalized authors’ works. America is indeed multicultural.

Going back to Indonesia. After the fall of New Order regime, we can find more various kinds of books – read it novels – written by authors from different ethnic as well as religious groups. It means Indonesian people are more exposed to their own country’s multiculturalism. (However, this ‘freedom’ has recently been stained by the banning of books. SBY followed his predecessor’s way to maintain his position?)

However, we must not forget that in Indonesia books are still considered very expensive so that not all people can afford to buy books. Besides, the interest in reading among Indonesian people is still very low. Not to mention if teachers at school do not read a lot. How can they suggest what books to read by their students? Moreover, if those teachers are not ‘plural’, or do not respect multiculturalism.

Absolutely Setiono Sugiharto’s idea is very good. The implementation needs work hard. Schools as well as public libraries must provide more various kinds of books. Teachers of ‘Bahasa and Sastra Indonesia’ must increase their readings so that they can suggest their students which books to read to increase their awareness of the existence of multiculturalism in Indonesia. Media must help by providing articles written using point of views which support pluralism.

PT56 21.51 24.01.10

Ta-na-e-ka

In one session of LIBRARY class, I assigned my Junior High School students to read TA-NA-E-KA, a short story written by Mary Whitebeard. My main reason to choose this story was I myself enjoyed reading the story. There are some reasons why I love it; first, the main character was a smart girl that could outsmart her cousin, Roger; second, TA-NA-E-KA as a ritual ceremony for Native American people who enter teenage period is very interesting; I opine that it will be a plus point for my students to know new kinds of ritual ceremonies from other cultures. That my students are also around the same age as the two main characters in the story, hopefully, will make them understand how difficult it is for Mary and Roger to undergo such an ‘extreme’ experience. Besides, I expected that they would not consider it as something too ‘far in the sky’.

The fact that most of my students are Chinese Indonesians whose parents perhaps do not really introduce them to the ‘indigenous’ cultures made me open my eyes that they do not think it important to maintain traditional ceremonies. This is my conclusion after reading their answers to the question “What is your reaction to the way Mary participated in Ta-na-e-ka? Is important to maintain traditional ceremonies? Or perhaps it was because they are still very young to understand that it is important that we maintain our cultures.

Here are some answers of my students to the abovementioned question.

Maxkent:
Cheating. She borrowed money for evading bad food.
Sometimes it is. But not if we are in danger; survival first, and culture is next.

Ivana:
My reaction to the way that Mary participated in Ta-na-e-ka is surprising.
In my opinion it is in between important because even though the traditional culture practice is yucky but as the young generation, Mary needs to preserve traditional culture which has been passed down from one generation to another generation.

Nezsa:
I am surprised because she is only a little girl but she is brave to live outside her house and survive in the forest.
It is a bit important to join maintain traditional culture practice because we can give this knowledge to other people and if we get situation like this, we are already prepared.

Rorie:
I was surprised that Mary didn’t really participate the tribe’s activity she was supposed to do honestly even though she said she was brave to do that.
In my opinion it is sometimes important but sometimes not because if we want to learn the past history of the Ta-na-e-ka culture and ritual. Somehow, it is disgusting when we are told to eat grasshoppers.

Stephen:
My reaction to the way that Mary participated in Ta-na-e-ka is quite impressive and surprised because she was so smart.
In my opinion it is not important because sometimes it is very dangerous.

Kiky:
My reaction to the way that Mary participated in Ta-na-e-ka is quite surprised and interested. Well, it doesn’t come to my mind that Mary would do such a thing. And it was exciting.
In my opinion, traditional cultural practices are done depending on the age and time. If it is no longer necessary, then it becomes less important to maintain

Toni:
I feel that Mary is smart but she is also cheating the way of Ta-na-e-ka.
Yes, I think it is not too important to maintain traditional cultural practices because some people don’t really want it. Only people who want it should take it.

Dion:
My reaction to the way that Mary participated in Ta-na-e-ka is: she is smart and brave.
It is sometimes important to maintain traditional cultural practices because it is hard to do and it is not really important.

Nicole:
Well it is good that Mary participated in the Ta-na-e-ka but still she should follow her cousin, Roger, to live in the wild for five days, not eating hamburger and milkshake and live in a good place. Even eating grasshoppers is disgusting, it is more natural to the culture if she doesn’t want it that way, she should refuse it hard from the very beginning.
In some culture it is important to follow / participate in the culture, but it is not always, because sometimes the culture that made our ‘people’ unique.

Vincent:
I got no reaction how Mary participated Ta-na-e-ka.
Not really for me. Sometimes I think it is important but sometimes I also think it not really important because it is boring while some are boring but very appreciated it so I take it as an important thing.

Jasper:
I was kind of shocked and … well, she was smart on using the restaurant but she should have done what her cousin, Roger, did.
It is important to maintain traditional cultural practices but it is sometimes ok if you want or do not want to do.

Retno:
I think it is okay to do what Mary did because they were supposed to survive and they did.

Vanya:
With the Ta-na-e-ka, what is the use becoming a warrior? You’re not gonna make money and it certainly isn’t going to help you look for a job, so I agree with what Mary did.
It is not important to maintain a tradition that has existed for far too long to continue. It is absolutely primitive and out-of-date.

Jennifer:
What Mary did was wrong but it was because she did not want to participate in it at the beginning. She thought that practicing Ta-na-e-ka was not important.
I think it is important to maintain traditional cultures because it is what makes our family special and different from others.

John:
I wouldn’t want to participate in such a practice.
It is not really important to maintain cultural practice if it involves pain because it will not really help people except in spirituality.

Kenny:
I will support her to do Ta-na-e-ka that way.
I think it is important to maintain traditional cultural practices because culture is the main idea to develop the personality of someone.

Caroline:
Mary survived Ta-na-e-ka in her own way by living in the other’s house. I think she is smart.
We should have our tradition but we shouldn’t do it in the way that makes us difficult.

Marco:
If I were Mary, I would go out of that place and never join something like that.
I think it is not important to maintain traditional cultural practices because that is just an old tradition.

Additional information:
I did not do anything before and after the task to read the short story; such as to have pre-reading discussion to lead the students to the topic, or post-reading discussion to find out their reasons why they came up with such answers. I haven’t done anything either to analyze the result.

LLTbl 13.53 300509

Feminism: a western culture? (2)

 

When I was in the elementary school, the second half of 1970s, I used to find many girls getting married after graduating from elementary school. Don’t imagine that they were around 11 or 12 years old when graduating though. For some reasons, many went to school at a later age (not around 6 or 7 years), so that it was possible they were already 15 years old or older than that when graduating from elementary school. In that decade, especially in the environment where I lived, it was common for girls around 15 to get married.

I was lucky because my parents didn’t just adopt such a “culture” so that they didn’t think of marrying me to anybody after graduating from elementary school. They let me continue my study to junior high school. And as a rebel, I didn’t continue to Muhammadiyah school, I chose a state school instead. It means I did not conform to the “culture” in my family. I went to a state senior high school too.

In a narrow sense, in that decade, it was a culture for women to get married before reaching 18 years old. (According to Children’s Convention, anybody who is under 18 years old is still considered a child that needs to be protected by the parents, society, as well as the country.) Women stopped getting a higher education after elementary school was also a culture at that time.

However, the condition is not really as “bad” as like that nowadays, although there are still same cases similar to that. Mentioning this, I want to remind my blog readers that to say culture is something dead, moreover culture is created by God, instead of constructed by society, is absolutely mistaken. Nothing doesn’t change, wise people say.

Referring to my previous post, “Feminism: a western culture?” in this writing, I want to give another simple example to counter people’s accusation that feminism was just a movement from the west that was not suitable for the easterners. It is right that the term ‘feminism’ was coined for the first time in 1891 in America (Bauer, 1998:33). However, the most important thing is that the struggle behind this term—feminism. To me, feminism is to give women freedom to choose what they want to do in their lives, without any limitation only because they were born with breasts and vagina plus womb.

Not only women in the west can make decision for their lives; women in the east can do that too. Women are also human beings, as men who have enjoyed their being superior for centuries. It does not mean that I want women to be superior though. LOL. Equality is more beautiful.

In my own life, by claiming myself as a feminist (though it is not really important), I want to emphasize that I adore making decisions for myself.

Please stop abusing the term ‘culture’ only to keep the status quo of the patriarchal society.

PT56 13.45 220108

Feminism : a western culture?

“Feminism is western lifestyle. Therefore, as eastern people, we are not to follow it because it is not our culture. It can be added too that feminism is against Islamic teachings. Consequently, as eastern Muslim, we are forbidden to give green light to feminism to “intrude” our way of life.”

How often have you read such a statement? Or probably, how often have you stated such a doubt about feminism?

To counter such a doubt (I just got such an accusation at my blog at http://afemaleguest.multiply.com) in this writing, first of all I’d like to cite the definition of culture I took from “World Book 2005” (the digital version).

“Culture is a term used by social scientists for a way of life. … People are not born with any knowledge of a culture. They generally learn a culture by growing up in a particular society. … Therefore, one of its characteristics is that culture is acquired through learning, not through biological inheritance. Children take on the culture in which they are raised through enculturation.“

Hundred thousands years ago, our ancestors moved from one place to another place. They could move from the east to the west, or on the way around, from the west to the east. They would bring their habits (read => culture) wherever they would go. When the era of ‘nomad’ ended (this started especially after women invented agriculture), they would develop their culture in their respective place, based on their way of thinking. Different places absolutely would create different ‘culture’.

Meanwhile, gender bias has been on men’s minds since immemorial time. The “invention” of some celestial religions would strengthen it since those religions were “invented” by men. Therefore, no matter whether one culture was developed in the east or in the west, apparently those cultures had one similarity, the marginalization of women.

Perhaps you still remember the glory of Islamic nations with their ‘cultures’ many centuries ago. Muslim scientists invented many things. However, the fight among three Abrahamic faiths (to win “the prize” as the most righteous religion) made those nations left behind. I assume that it was due to the unnecessary fight. Therefore, when the western nations progressed with their sciences, way of thinking, advanced inventions, etc, the eastern nations were even in the dark age.

Related to that, it is very understandable when women in the west started to question why they were marginalized first while women in the east were still ‘dumb’. However, to say that feminism ideology is ‘western’ and that it is not appropriate for the eastern women, with reason that it is not our culture is very shallow.

Started with the first women summit in Seneca Falls in 1848, American women (read  western women) began struggling for equality. The printing machine and publishing companies obviously were more developed there rather than, in Indonesia let’s say, in that era. Although those women were attacked by the cult of true womanhood (where one of its tenet was that women were not allowed to write because writing was men’s sphere), they still produced writings to protest.

In Indonesia, around the same era, very few women got their chance to get education. It is understandable then if they could not pour out their protest in a form of writings. However, we have one very good example of it, R.A. Kartini with her letters to her Dutch friends. She protested why she could not continue her study to a higher level. She also questioned why her fellow women citizens were not allowed to get education at all. I believe many other women also questioned similar things, only their protests were not recorded appropriately.

It is also underestimating to say that women in the east are not supposed to follow the struggle for equality. In other words, it can be said that those women cannot perceive the unequal treatment they get from the society, using ‘culture’ as the tool. (e.g. by saying “feminism ideology is just not eastern culture.”)

At the beginning of its ‘birth’, we know that feminism was proposed by white, middle class women so that it did not really represent the whole women in all nations. Therefore, to accommodate this lack, more kinds of feminisms appeared, where one of them is multicultural feminism. Their emergence apparently has made feminism ideology something down to earth, something very common in women’s lives for women living in the developing countries.

Culture is often used as a scapegoat to refuse a new thing. It is ‘abused’ in a form that human being is not a free creature to use their awareness to value something. As I have cited above, culture is acquired through learning. There is no wrong when someone has different way of thinking, or different value as long as they do not harm the society. They have different ways to view culture through their learning, using their common sense, and not just passively follow what the crowd considers as ‘culture’.

To end this writing, whether feminism ideology is western or eastern ‘culture’, it is no longer important. The more important thing is that using our common sense and awareness to view a piece of culture is appropriate for our lives or not. Afterwards, respect other people’s values in the hope that they will respect our values too.

PT56 13.35 210108