Our assignment this week was to write about social structure, how are we positioned within culture?
How am I socially structured, both in my own culture, in Australian culture, and with respect to Aboriginal culture? Hmmm. I’m not very aware of how I’m socially structured within my own culture. Whereas it seems to be an important part of Aboriginal knowledge to understand social relationships and social structure, this is not something I would have been explicitly taught about in my culture. There is nothing explicit taught in American schools about what is the proper way to relate to other people, and how society can be structured so that it works. There are no stories like the Red Meat Ant story [a story the lecturer told in class] that I understand to be about the proper kind of social structures. This is something left entirely to individual parents to teach their children. I learned implicit lessons by example in my culture, about enforcing authority with violence, and about not expecting others to listen. In school we had government classes about how the government is structured formally (and a lot about why it’s the best government in the world), but nothing about how to structure a group or a culture so that it is humanly sustainable. And the culture I come from is not at all sustainable, in human terms, much less ecological terms. People are lonely, alienated, and isolated. That’s considered "normal." We have epidemic rates of depression, and wonder why.
The notion of having to give something first before you take something, and the notion of sharing, given in the Red Meat Ant story, and in another Anangu story I heard at Uluru, is not a part of how American culture lives. The way the U.S. approaches give and take reminds me of [the lecturer's] discussion of yellow and shit. Everything leaves waste behind, and you can tell what’s been there by "reading" its poop. The U.S. has taken from all over the world and continues to, while giving back a lot of garbage, toxic waste, greenhouse gases, and radioactivity. A tracker could look at our planet and say, "Hmm, toxic chemicals, radioactivity, global warming – looks like a take-without-giving culture has been here, a no-relationship culture." But we are never told this as a story in America; I had to learn it myself as I got older.
Our European fairy tales are often pretty bloody, as are Hollywood movies, so I guess I’m culturally patterned to expect social structure to include violence. The deity in the Bible is a nasty piece of work, asserting his authority arbitrarily, forbidding knowledge, telling people they have the right to kill and take over the lands of others who don’t worship the same deity, so there are cultural lessons in those stories too.
Like scientific knowledge, my culture’s knowledge of social structure is all piecemeal. The first thing that came to my mind about myself in social structure was how I’m socially structured in my job: I’m an "expert" on certain topics, students are "novices," therefore I stand up in front of a classroom and lecture the novices about what I know. Then I give them tasks to see whether they remember or understood anything I said. The outcome of those tasks is a grade, and the higher the grade, the greater their opportunities within that system in the future. It’s all about rank-ordering. The outcome is not for me to go, "Oh, you didn’t understand. Let me make sure you do understand before we move on.” (I did do that once at [a univ in the US]; [my current univ] would never allow it, as it would mean deviating from my electronic course profile!) [Our lecturer] mentioned that Aboriginal knowledge isn't given by verbal telling, but by demonstrating what one knows. That is more similar to my relationship with postgraduate students, where I demonstrate my expertise in a research collaboration, rather than telling in a lecture. I’m also an employee, expected to adhere to rules and regulations, and produce things at a certain rate, or else risk disciplinary action or not advancing within my profession.
To another major sector of my culture, I am nothing other than "a potential customer." I have money, companies want my money, so they hound me with advertisements to convince me they have something I should value, so I’ll give them some of my money for it. This relationship is often like an abusive relationship. An abusive partner will try to convince his/her partner that she/he is no good, bad, worthless and that the only thing that can give the victim worth is gaining the abusive partner’s approval. In the same way, most ads try to convince potential customers that they are not good enough – they have bad breath, or wrinkles, or an insufficiently clean kitchen, and the only way to become good enough is to buy the company’s product. Where the relationship with advertisers is not abusive, it’s still a bit like being stalked – hounded by letters, flyers, billboards from companies saying "Notice me! Pay attention to me!" Respect isn’t part of this relationship. This potential customer relationship means I constantly have to have my guard up, looking out for lies in ads and protecting myself from being scammed, or at least just ignoring the constant presence of these messages. I’m culturally patterned not to trust, and that feels terrible.
Once I do buy something, I know nothing of its history, the people involved in creating it, what their working conditions/wages are, whether they care about what they produce. Everything is set up to cut me off from that object’s history. Tracking/mobility is simply not a part of my culture.
It’s interesting/disturbing that the first things that spring to mind about how I’m socially structured in my culture are about my economic place. Nothing sprang to mind immediately about being a woman, being a daughter, being a friend, being a romantic partner, being an aunt and a niece, being a sister. All those close social relationships seem more peripheral to my culture, while the central social relationships are economic and power relationships. Yikes! That’s not healthy. But it shows me some of my cultural preconceptions, and allows me to look at other cultures with some more clarity about my position, where I stand. That’s part of respect and deep listening.
How am I structured in relationship to mainstream Australian culture? Much of it is the same as how I’m structured in relation to American culture. But, in addition, I’m an immigrant, and a relatively recent one. I was so lonely when I came here – I didn’t know anyone or have any family. I don’t know the landscape, history, politics, foods, or slang of Australia, except the tiny bit I’ve learned since being here. I’m an outsider. I’ll never be Australian, even though I’m a citizen. I’ll always be an immigrant. But I’ve lived here, so I’ll always care about the welfare of Australia.
How am I socially structured in relationship to Aboriginal culture? What I know about Australian history, I’ve learned from Aboriginal people, so I’m in a different situation than most Australians, I guess. I’m the first person in my family to live in Australia, so my ancestors don’t have a direct relationship to Aboriginal culture. I had read and listened and thought enough about indigenous issues before I arrived in Australia that I knew I was coming to live on land that was not my own, and I didn’t feel the Australian government could meaningfully grant me permission to be here. I thought that I was moving here permanently, and from the beginning, I intended two things: to ask permission of the traditional owners to live here, and to offer to be a friend and ally, both of which I knew would require building a relationship. I feel that I am living on the surface of the skin of the land, here in Australia, that I do not belong here. I feel I need to come into right relationship with the traditional owners to come into right relationship with the land. I’m taking classes in Aboriginal issues to learn more about what that right relationship is.
My role of de facto spouse, and my life-long connection with the land in North America are calling me to return to the U.S., so I will always be a visitor to Australia, who does not belong here. But I would still like to be a friend and ally, and a welcome visitor, so I intend to continue my relationship with Aboriginal culture. My relationship with Aboriginal people here has made me take a different approach to living in North America, too, where I also want to come into right relationship with the traditional owners there. I have begun this process with the Indians of [state].
