Simple Common Sense

A few notions on why social and human science is relevant for the contemporary world. This is only a few rough outlines of some thoughts and I will one day make a more detailed description of the importance of anthropology. I have also added 4 pictures I took earlier today while I was walking around London East End (Columbia Road, Brick Lane, Virginia Road etc). The area is one of the most multi-ethnic in the world and is often, by Londoners, called ‘Bangla Town’.

First of all, lets define culture and how I will reflect on the term in this posts. Culture, as Eldridge and Crombie (1996) states, refer to ‘the unique configuration of norms, values, beliefs, ways of behaving and so on, that characterize the manner in which groups and individuals combine to get things done’. These are all easily interpreted with a little help from some simple common sense. The importance of the cultures, norms, beliefs, and behaviors using your common sense, might take you a long way, or even as far as the famous ‘armchair anthropologists’ went - but the finale conclusion will always be individual: Anthropology gives you an insight to cultures, whether it is punk cultures, maroon societies or English upper class. This insight can either be thrown away or you can start making your own interpretations. However, importance of culture is relevant to the ones who challenge the separation of modernity from traditional and rationality from superstition. An example I find interesting for this understanding and study of other cultures was when anthropologists started out researching the Caribbean. One of their first notions were that the people and society were problematic, primitive and too ‘free’. These firsts ‘anthropologists’ (he was really more a colonel observer), Thomas Simey et.el, were all Christian, English middle class with nuclear families. To restore their thought of the right way of living they started campaigns to get people married as Simey interpreted the relations as being too casual, promiscuous and transitory.

Casual, promiscuous and transitory was not exactly how he thought a society should be; and so was The Mass Marriage Movement introduced. But it was introduced to be canceled shortly after. No progress was shown and they had to conclude that a change in cultural norms requires more than a campaign made by an ‘outsider’.

With this said, it is easy to mirror it to a western society. Imagine a country run by politicians, with no significant understanding of the mixed races, religions, interests and behaviors. This would not only result in depriving people’s freedom but also end up in a massive misunderstandings on how to incorporate people into the same laws, policies and systems. Take for example the debate on how Muslim women should be allowed to wear their burkha or chadri at public offices. I believe this shows a sort of disrespect as well as lack in cultural understanding as their religious customs are highly different from the Western. And what about imagining Jamaicans going to an English middle class society and try to introduce matrifocal family strategies? Not really appropriate, I guess!

Social science and anthropological studies are, for me, generated as an appreciation of humankind. In detail, ethnographies inform us of the various customs, mixed interest and high number of different norms found in throughout the world. And understanding this will make one generate an appreciation of humankind and its diverse and many spectra. This is the where the basis is for our world society. If we can live among each other with an appreciation and understanding we can hopefully create a better consideration and more prudent deliberation.

All pictures above are taken and copyrighted by Christian Halsted ®