Economizing Culture

A professor of archaeology visited us today from the University of Nairobi to discuss the various cultural influences of modern Kenya. He was very smart yet extremely humble when offering his views, believing in the archaeological adage, "Every time someone goes to the field, the story changes." As he spoke of the various tribes of Africa, and the remaining heritage of each, I was lost in a world of possible explanation and the unsaid sections of the stories of these people. I desired to know more about each culture, their views on life and the unique expression of story in their lives. At the same time, the professor was pointing out the general transformation in thinking of the area: the Economizing of Culture.

Many traditional rites, dances and cultural nuances are being lost as people’s focus has shifted away from their own group to the outside world. The primary way most of these people relate to the outside community is through the market, and therefore they ask themselves, "What can I ‘commodify’ to exchange for these things currently beyond my reach?" Certainly this line of thinking is not new since people have been trading for centuries, but globalization’s ‘flattening of the world’ (Thomas Friedman) has made the ‘other’ that much closer. People think more about the larger picture only in how it affects them; they must survive on a daily basis, and therefore make decisions less on the aggregate and more on the immediate. In Ecuador, I saw many cultural traditions only practiced when tourists visited the communities, bringing with them their money in exchange for the ‘spectacle.’ If it doesn’t make economic sense, then does it become nonsense? What ‘olive trees’ are we losing in aspiration for the next ‘lexus’?