Do wealthy cultures have an obligation to support impoverished cultures? Moorpark College Philosophy Professor John Birmingham suggested one would have to define wealth and culture for an answer.
I personally get a little squirmy when financial means is the only measure used to define a person or a group of people, so I was interested in the discussion.
Birmingham admitted that the first thought goes to money but money is just a tool to buy and sell items and has no conscious or cultural meaning. Though in today’s western world, the wealth of a person is usually evaluated in monetary holdings.
“So, money, even though we often think of wealth as kind of money, it hasn’t always been that way,” Birmingham said. “There are things other than money that can make somebody or some group wealthy.”
As part of the 2011 Multicultural Day at MC, this discussion forum led by Birmingham provoked banter in the 30 students in attendance.
Birmingham encouraged the attendees to find other sources of wealth. Suggestions included landholdings and agriculture, resources like oil or precious/non-precious metals, technology, intellectual knowledge, family, religion and cohesiveness of a culture.
To define the term “culture,” Birmingham offered this explanation: a cohesive group of people that live by shared traditions and produce certain types of merchandise including dance, music and art.
From a western point of view, “undeveloped societies” may appear to be impoverished since they only wear loin clothes or have no shoes. However, as a culture, they consider themselves wealthy; they don’t have a need for western clothing or shoes and their worth lies within their cohesiveness and stability as a unit with rules and regulations.
“The US is a very generous country as a group and as individuals, but a lot of people resent us,” Birmingham said. “We tended to view cultural wealth and poverty through our own lenses. Unintentionally we turned other groups into us. We inevitably changed them into something else.”
Haley Rockefeller, a 20-year-old history major, had her own ideas of what defines a cultures “worth.”
“I could honestly say, just the question of what makes a culture wealthy, makes me think of combining instead of just opposing a culture,” said Rockefeller. “Maybe giving some, [then] getting some.”
Her friend, 20-year-old art major Jumberto Poncheko, declared the topic “very cool” and was impressed with Birmingham, regretting not being in the discussion from the very beginning. “I think [Birmingham] has a really good grip on understanding the material he was covering,” Ponchenko said.
So do we have an obligation to help other cultures if we think they need it, or is our help an intrusion into their established culture? I believe that we have a need to help, even if it is only to make ourselves feel good.
But our help, in my view, should only go as far as basic needs like food, medicine, shelter, etc. Real help would be to give them knowledge (if they desire it), so that they can help themselves without violating or abandoning their own traditions.
