A Right To New Cultures?
Internet and digital video camera's could be one of the greatest resources that we have seen in bringing the world closer together like telephones once did. Now we can watch documentaries about lost tribes and strange cultural actions we wouldn't dream of here. But at what cost?
I remember a show 'Who Dares Wins' that dared a person to partake in a sacred ritual that has been dubbed the 'birth of bungy jumping' by leaping off a huge bamboo structure with vines strapped to their feet. The day after this aired there was an article in the paper about how dangerous it was and what we should do (here in NZ) to stop these people doing it.
Recently I saw a documentary about the last cannibal tribe in the world that they got to on many boats with small digital cameras. They documented the people eating their fellow tribes people if they believed they were consumed by the devil and the latest person to be blamed, a small boy.
On YouTube there has been a proliferation of videos of strange cultural acts from Asia and south America where people partake in ritualistic sacrifice or fights etc and someone is holding a camera phone.
As I watch in mild disturbance at these actions and find myself agreeing with the white people on the scene that want to stop it I find myself thinking "who are we to judge?". We invaded their culture, we disturbed their peace. So why do we have the right to dictate their culture and beliefs even if we find it inhumane or contrary to our own western beliefs? All because we have the technology to capture it on film? Just because we can post it on the internet and a lot of rich people will get annoyed with it?
If we showed them videos of mass bombings in Iraq and they asked "what's it for?", what would their reaction be when we said "well, oil mainly".
I remember a show 'Who Dares Wins' that dared a person to partake in a sacred ritual that has been dubbed the 'birth of bungy jumping' by leaping off a huge bamboo structure with vines strapped to their feet. The day after this aired there was an article in the paper about how dangerous it was and what we should do (here in NZ) to stop these people doing it.
Recently I saw a documentary about the last cannibal tribe in the world that they got to on many boats with small digital cameras. They documented the people eating their fellow tribes people if they believed they were consumed by the devil and the latest person to be blamed, a small boy.
On YouTube there has been a proliferation of videos of strange cultural acts from Asia and south America where people partake in ritualistic sacrifice or fights etc and someone is holding a camera phone.
As I watch in mild disturbance at these actions and find myself agreeing with the white people on the scene that want to stop it I find myself thinking "who are we to judge?". We invaded their culture, we disturbed their peace. So why do we have the right to dictate their culture and beliefs even if we find it inhumane or contrary to our own western beliefs? All because we have the technology to capture it on film? Just because we can post it on the internet and a lot of rich people will get annoyed with it?
If we showed them videos of mass bombings in Iraq and they asked "what's it for?", what would their reaction be when we said "well, oil mainly".
posted by Ben McMahon at 9:15 am
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