A Cultural Vacuum

During a recent lecture I presented on the role of art and literature in Pakistani society, a gentleman asked what we can do to stop influences from across the border. “Don’t leave a vacuum” was my response.

This is an age of influences. Like King Canute realized, we cannot halt the tide. In fact influences are not only to be expected but encouraged. Humanity has always learnt from the experiences of others. However, being able to choose what influences one wishes to adopt requires a filter.

The filters are created by a number of factors including belief systems, collective societal values, family, language, educational systems. These evolve over time and are protected, refreshed or added to in a considered way and normally embedded in cultural expressions.

However, we are living in an age of disruption. The custodians of cultural transmission fall silent. Culture is a series of organized  events, rather than a seamlessly assimilated continuity.

As the architect Ole Møystad writes in his article “Rapid Change and Cultural Vacuum”, “A precondition for living a life is the capacity to live today as a continuation of the near past, and that tomorrow can be counted upon. When one’s life is under constant threat, one develops a pathological relationship to time. Every need, every wish, every intention, is directed to the immediate present.” When rapid change is a consequence of factors beyond our control, daily routines don’t evolve, but “ dissolve” . Society loses its resilience. Administrative infrastructures go into crisis management mode and cease to work for the ordinary needs of citizens. “Socio-cultural vacuums give rise to pockets of highly unstable meaning. This instability in turn unleashes a ‘race for meaning’ ”

In a Pakistani context, that ‘race for meaning ‘has turned to religion on the one hand and consumer  placebos on the other.  The diversity of religious allegiances are mostly oppositional rather than simply diverse . Consumer practices are equally divisive in the economic polarities of Pakistan. As David Wells writes, “Vacuums may be empty, but they are highly destructive.”

If one looks at two communities that have faced near annihilation yet have a strong sense of cultural identity, Native American tribes and Australian Aborigines, the one central factor of their cultural survival has been the transmission of narratives.   It has ensured the distinct identities of 600 tribe nations in Canada and 562 in USA in a combined population of merely 6.5 million. The Aborigines with a population of just over half a million have 700 distinct ways of telling stories depending on  people and region.

For both, storytelling is a key component of a child’s education. Children are taught knowledge of everyday survival, spiritual beliefs, heritage and laws and pass these on when they reach adulthood . It is an oral tradition communicated through narrations and folklore, dance, music and art.

The African proverb “It takes a village to raise a child”, is widely quoted.  What is “the village” for Pakistanis? Given that Pakistan is increasingly urbanized, if we look to the notion of the village as a concept, it would imply a nurturing environment that is collectively responsible for enabling  new generations to carry forward cherished values and customs. Other than religious training, there is a deafening silence.

Schools are no longer places for the social development or even character building of a child, but focus on grades and examinations. Television, that other powerful influencer, has no programming for young children.  There is no ‘neighbourhoods’ despite city people attempting to live in ethnically defined localities. The nuclear families busy with livelihoods and housework sit their children in front of cable TV or thrust a phone with game apps in their hand.

Adult city dwellers tend to socialize at night or work late hours so no bedtime stories are told. Ironically the world’s fables and children’s stories are said to originate in this part of the world. The  Panchatantra  known later as the fables of Bidpai translated into Arabic as Kalīla wa Dimna and from there entered Europe, eventually influencing the Grimm Brothers,  famous for their fairy tales. The fables with animal characters convey important life lessons about friendship betrayal and the wise use of power.  In ancient Greece , the Turkish slave, Aesop’s fables also employed animal characters to teach moral lessons.

Few children today would know of Alif Laila, Aladdin,  Sheikh Chilli or Amir Khusroe’s riddles or pahaliyan and  for most, language has lost its beautiful subtle nuances, metaphors and proverbs.  Children’s stories have what Perry Nodelman calls  the “hidden adult” where societal values are embedded in in “apparently simple and innocent texts”. We are in a continuous process of re-socializing without the prerequisite process of socializing. A “kati patang” or cut kite becomes  easy game for anyone to capture.  

Durriya Kazi

November 27, 2017