Class Five
25Jun09
In Class Journaling:
- Last time, we talked a lot about the writing process. In particular, we focused on where and where we write and also what the proofreading process entails. We are going to come back to that issue today.
- You are here with a revised copy of the Cultural Analysis paper you had with you on Thursday.
- I want you to spend the next 10 minutes reflecting on the specific process you followed to improve this draft.
- You are to identify at least five specific steps you took as you revised this work. You should be describing in detail what you did, and comment on whether or not you think these changes have improved your writing.
(10 mins)
Group Work:
- In groups of three, I want you to come up with two statements to share with the class.
- Topic 1) What is a practical writing environment for you?
- The next topic I want you to consider is as follows:
- Topic 2) How long do you think it should take to write, revise, and proofread a three-page paper for a University-level course? (10 mins)
Class Discussion of Group findings (5-10 mins)
Mini-lecture:
Nuts and Bolts:
- Your writing “style” and audience
- The point of a sentence for an academic audience.
- The point of the paragraph for an academic audience.
- Specificity
(10 mins)
Mini-lecture in action:
- Let’s take someone’s paper and find five poorly-written sentences and one poorly-written paragraph.
- You are to do you best to comment on what is wrong with the writing, and then the author is to correct these errors in a journal entry, which will be shared with the class.
(15 mins)
Today’s Reading:
- For today, I asked you to read and annotate up to page 100 in Ancient Futures.
- Let’s take a few moments to look over our annotations, and in your journals I want to write a few sentences for yourself about the topics you found to be most interesting in the reading. (5-10 mins)
Group Discussion of findings (5-7 mins)
Class Discussion of findings and categories (10 mins)
Homework:
Read and annotate: Futures, 101-130
- Write one page on an important cultural category that is represented in this portion of the reading, post this response directly to the blog.
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Alex Behzad
While I was reading the next section of the book I came to the
conclusion that there are some very important cultural events that happen. The
Ladahk people are beginning to feel out of place in there own homes and villages
due to all the new travelers and visitors. Their once humble towns are now
becoming built up and full of people that aren’t from there land and are now having to ask for money to work and not just doing it to help someone out because they need money which was never there before. This need for money has driving to the point where they are starting to become greedy and will ask for a higher price even if they know the person an example is for work and to sell to a store for tourists . All of this is due to the western way of expanding land for money and the need for it. Ladahk men and boys are starting to feel inferior to the westerners because they think they are poor and cant compare to the men they see in the movies and see in magazines. Their culture is changing before there eyes as they expand and grow and they cant do anything to stop it from happening . The need for the animals is taken by the bus’s and cars the need for helpers is gone because now they are asking for money. Everything they were once used to has changed for the worse for them. The world is changing for the ladahk people , they used to pay with barley and now its with rupees and they are having to sell things just to get by and survive. If a family isn’t able to produce product to sell at the market they have no money , if they don’t have any they cant eat and will starve because no one is helping each other anymore.
The Ladakhi people take their work very serious. They do not take any vacations, or holidays
during harvet season. The children are expected to work the fields just as the adults do. They do
not have any time for what we call entertainment, it is all about survival for them.
The Ladakhi people seem to be very happy people. They do not judge or categorize people, nor
do they hide behind fear. They all seem to be very happy people who so litte to no emotion
towards sadness. They are not as emotionally dependent as we are in an industrial world. The
Ladakhi people do not seem to be as attached to anything like we are, they have the ability to
adjust to any situation.
The Ladakhi people do not have the same spending habits as we do. We may spend in one day
what an entire family would spend in one year. One cannot assume that money plays the same
role as it does for us. It is not uncommon for them to make only a few dollars a day. To us we
could not survive, but for them that is a decent wage.
Jay Murano
Joel Riemersma
Rhetoric and Composition
Mr. Crowley
9/16/09
Before modernization, the social structure of the Ladakh people was very different that what it is now. Teenage boys had no problem showing affection towards their grandmothers, and the entire community was extremely tight knit. It was this way because the entire community acted as one entity because they all relied on one another. They were self-sufficient, unashamed race with almost no ties to the outside world, needing only to trade for salt and metals. Then the tourists came and with it, their western ideals and influence. This changed the Ladakh people’s perception and their reality changed because of it.
Money didn’t matter to the Ladakh people until very recently because of their lifestyle. That changed quickly, from 1974 to 1984, the number of tourists rose from a handful to 15,000 a year. The tourists spent in a day what a Ladakh family made in a year. This led to more and more Ladakh youth leaving their homeland for schooling, so they could make more money. When money started to matter, the Ladakh people turned on one another. They started to become stingy when trading with one another, as if complete strangers.
That is how money and westernization affected the Ladakh people. They started to compare themselves to western standards and tried to imitate the western culture they saw in the tourist’s actions and in the movies. The contentment turned into resentment. Wool and yak skin would suffice, but instead they crave Abercrombie and Nike. Western culture has corrupted the Ladakh.
In this section of Ancient Futures, it discussed in great length how technology, money and many of the other modern ways have really affected the Ladakh people. A culture in which had everything they needed to satisfy them and make them happy, were now becoming dependent on devices and machines, instead of real human beings. The one thing I immediately picked up on was the lack of kinship that was being represented by the Ladakh people. What use to be an atmosphere of friends and family working together had somehow vanished. These close friends and loved families had been replaced by strangers and laborers. This was not the behavior that I was expecting at all from the Ladakh people.
The Ladakh people use to work as equals and friends helping one another. Now it seems the concept of money has completely taken over. Before, the people of the villages provided everything they could need without money. They learned and gained skills such as growing crops at high altitudes, managing yaks and other animals and building houses with their very own hands and minimum resources. The use of money was limited and was used mostly for luxury. Money for the Ladakh people was becoming so much of a priority that it was practically forcing the Ladakh people away from each other. Right behind money was education. School for the Ladakh children became a place to become a part of a technological society. Instead of learning about old cultural traditions and practicing them, these skills are to be forgotten and looked down upon.
The Ladakh people always depended on one another. Whether is was through work, needing assistance farming or in need of a friend, or just plain help, they could always count on each other. They took care of each other constantly. Even if you weren’t immediate family or best friends if something was wrong, you knew that the Ladakh people would welcome you and make things better. Now it seems as though you need simply each others existence, however you no longer need each other directly as friends, neighbors or family. Some Ladakh children have become so distant from their parents and grandparents, that they even speak a different language. The bond between the young and the old that was once so tight and close, has been broken. There is now a large gap that has come between not only the young and the old, but male and the female and the rich and the poor.
Due to the new dependence on technology, life’s speed is much faster. Things are being done a lot simpler and quicker. This however is putting a damper on the close relationships that have forever existed between the Ladakh people. Relationships have become more superficial and brief , the close connections between people are greatly reduced. The men who used to love and show affection towards their family and friends, have gotten a sense of being “macho men”. They have been sucked right in by technology, this is resulting in them leaving their families. They are becoming a part of a technological based life. The term traditional family has been erased and is now known as the nuclear family.
So in conclusion the category of kinship has dwindled down so much that the aspect of “family” barely exists to the Ladakh people at all anymore. The times that were filled with relatives friends and neighbors are over. Now the important things in life are materials, machines, money and technology in general. The Ladakh people have fallen so pray to all these modern practices of “kinship” or the lack there of that they are ashamed of the practiced polyandry. It has reached the point where young people and children reject the old family structure. I found it very interesting how the Ladakh culture has really taken a toll to the use of technology, the spending of money and the gaps in relationships.
Katie Durgin 9/1709
Cultural categories are categories that describe a culture, such as values, traditions or materials. As reading the assigned reading I noticed some important cultural categories inside of the text.
This culture has a good amount of traditions, the traditions include; dancing, singing and participating in theater. All people can join in on the theater even the dancing and singing. There is many people joined in as a group around the fires dancing, even the toddlers dance with the help of the older children either their siblings or older friends.
The reason why this is important to the culture is because it is part of a tradition and with every culture tradition is extremely important with the development of the culture.
Materials are important in every culture. The people in this culture are nice and are not materialistic. For example there was a man that retraced his steps and found his walking stick and said to the author “you probably need this more than I do” with a smile. There was a man that was holding on to his cigerates and his whiskey and was holding them so he would not lose them.
The reason why this is important is not only does it show that the people in this culture is not materialistic but it shows that the people in this culture are generous. They care about the other people in the community. But on the other hand there has been people that do not let go of their stuff so that way they know that they are not going to lose them.
Important cultural facts have been in this whole text. The cultural categories can be found on every page. It is easy to find details about the categories. While you look for the categories the specific details stick out and help you understand the culture more. This culture seems to be unrealistic.
Before modernization in the Ladakhi culture, things were much different. People prayed every day, sang, held festivities and were said to always have a smile on their face. No one thought they were better than someone else and whenever anyone needed help, the entire community was there as back up. Crops were grown and harvested by hand, clothes and food were homegrown and the time of the day was told by the angle of the sun. Well, things have changed. This way of lifestyle is long gone for the Ladakhi’s and it is amazing to see how modernization has affected the way they act towards each other and live their everyday lives.
Almost every cultural category has taken on a new role. The Ladakh people never used to consider money as a way to obtain food, property and clothing. Now, it is a competition of who can have the most. They are no longer using trading as their system, rupees have taken over. People have been growing apart due to the constant bragging about who has more of the new technology. The book explains how whenever something needed to be fixed, the entire community would pitch in and help. This system is long gone. Now, no matter how bad the problem may get, they sit and wait for the government to come fix it. The Ladakhi’s are starting to dress the way people dress from the Western Civilization and if they are not up to style, they feel ashamed and embarrassed. Since the radio has been brought to Ladakh, people have stopped singing, because why sing when you can listen to the best voices out there.
All of their traditions have slowly been fading in to the background and now it has become survival of the fittest. The population has doubled in a short period of time and children are learning in schools, instead of by their parents. Years before modernization, fighting and violence was unheard of, but now it is just a normal scene.
It is hard to understand how the Ladakhi’s would want to follow the roles of the western civilization when they knew we had so many problems. The author raves about how happy they were before technology came, so why change? People are now struggling just to get by day to day. There neighbors are no longer there for them when they need help. People must defend for themselves and find a way to come up with money just to feed their family. It is sad to see a culture that was once so down to earth and close knit, fall apart and become something that it never wanted to be.
The Ladakh people used to live what seemed to be a happy-go-lucky, smiling and joyful life. They used to complete small amounts of trade and use only the facilities that surrounded them. Since the arrival of people from a Western culture, things have taken a dramatic change.
The Ladakh people are now relying on the amount of money they receive which used to be a forgotten thought and one of the minor worries. More and more tourists are coming to see the way they live which they are charging for people to see. They are earning more in a single day than what they did in a year. This is showing a difference within their priorities which is changing their community. There are more arguments within the community which did not used to happen. Instead of thinking and looking after each other, they have now become individuals and only looking after themselves.
The rise in the amount of technology used is far greater to what they used to have; the change from natural resources to man made creations is now beginning to increase rapidly. To get the technology however, you require money. This is becoming a vicious circle to what we as a Western culture are already in. The demand for the latest technology and lust for money is starting to be infectious to the Ladakh people which is altering their normal ways. However, I feel that as money was not a priority to them, they are taking the chance to receive more money than they are used to. This is causing them to rely on money and income which is a bad idea for the poorest people as it is becoming harder and harder to survive with an extremely little amount of money. If we had a chance to spend more money, it is a definite that we would do the same thing. This is why we buy more up to date clothes and other luxuries that we do not necessarily need but to look like the role models in magazines and on television. As the Ladakh people never had the technology or seen such celebrities, they had no ambition to be like them until now. This shows that money is a corruption to everyone when there is a chance for more money to be made.
In reading the next section of Ancient Futures, there are many important cultural categories that stick out. One very important topic that I took note of was the fact that technology had taken control of society and now affected the everyday life of the Ladakhi people. Technology, when in reference to cultural categories, should be put under the category of materials. For years, the people of this region depended on their irrigation system, their farm animals, their limited farming tools, and most importantly, each other. But as time moved on and many different changes occurred in the country, the people started to move away the tradition they had for so long lived with and accepted. They had come to a point where everything that they had so strongly held on to, was now no longer a priority in their lives.
The people of Ladakh were a very happy people. Everyone got along with no problems to speak of. But then there came the day when tourists started to fill the country. Constantly there were foreigners invading the daily lives of the peaceful, secluded people. Because these tourists were always around, their culture started to rub off on the Ladakhi’s culture. Everyone was impacted greatly. Soon, everything that once was in Ladakh, now was no more. Everything became industrialized, modernized, and criticized. One of the biggest examples of industrialization was the way the Western world technology began to shape this culture and society. No longer did people use farm animals, but instead they relied on machines, which they could have no relationship with. People no longer sang and danced together, but instead they would listen to or watch one of the big starts perform on the radio or television. This practice only made the people feel inferior to what had been introduced to them.
Another big issue that developed involving technology was the fact that the peaceful, quiet region of Ladakh, became invaded with machines, new buildings, vehicles, factories, and waste. They let the culture become completely engulfed in industrialization. No longer was farming considered an occupation, but instead it was looked down upon. Children grew up only to leave their home in the country, and move to the city and forget all about where they had come from. Because these people felt the need to become like us in the west, their society was turned upside down. The end result was a culture infected by technology and a brand of new, unheard of ideas, which crushed the old, traditional ones. Everything that once was, was forgotten because they no longer relied on one another, but on technology. They had lost the compassion for another. Instead they chose to place all their strength in greed and success. The problem was that this society could not meet the expectations of the west, thus they suffered in poverty. This poverty was not only prevalent in an economical sense, but also cultural sense.
Tradition, a value of Ladakhi culture, is represented in there dances, festivals, singing, and the party’s they have to celebrate their way of life. The influence of western civilization on the culture has shown great influence on the younger generations. Money, something once useless in their eyes has become more important, and an object of desire to the growing generations.
The new technology that has made its way into the culture, and has captivated the attention of the younger generation, has led to the rise of a whole new way of life and economic up rise. The value of a dollar to their community has increased, and it’s less about helping, and more about gaining. The younger generations of Ladakhi children used school as a gateway to the new technology. Also school made them more away and more inspired about the western way of life, business and money.
With the increase of tourists into this remote culture, money became a key factor in life, as the tourists would pour money into the area. Businesses intended to get money out of westerners were popping up from the Ladakhi’s. The way technology, money, and the western way of life entered their culture is mostly our fault. With all the money being brought in, it didn’t give the Ladakhi’s a choice but to adapt and make what they could out of the new business coming.
I personally found it sad that a culture that once believed in kinship so much, and was always happy has been corrupted by our culture. We come from a way of life that we wouldn’t trade for theirs; but when you read about how happy they live, and how close their families are, it’s sad to see money, fueled by tourists being a major reason for the changes they have over gone.
In this section of the Ancient Futures, it’s discussed the difference in culture sense the westerners arrived, and the Ladakh people started taking on the western ways of living. In the old Ladakh ways people had everything they need to satisfy them. They had little money, using it only to make trades for salt, or things they couldn’t use. They now are consumed in the need for more; they need more money, technology, and don’t want to do work. People have forgotten friendships, family, and the need for the small things. They want to pay small wages, for a great deal of work. People are moving to the cities in order to find a job. Money has become the center object to everyone. People deepened entirely on money were as before; they relayed on the land, hard work, and made everything from scratch not letting anything go to waste. They used to work hand and hand together, giving a helping hand to whoever needed it, but now if they aren’t getting anything out of it; they want nothing to do with it. People are charging friends, and family members for rides, or homemade items, the same people who used to take the shirt off their back to help anyone that needed it. Other than money the next big change would be education. The ladakh children are attending school, not learning about the past culture, or things that would be useful to them such as; farming, religion, or family. They are learning about the western ways, and things that will never be useful.
Every family wants the best education for their children, they want them to leave and do something better with their lives. Family is no longer the way of the culture. Kinship has disappeared, for the technology, money world. Families no longer show affection, males in the family especially. They have taken on the tough guy perspective. They have been sucked into the technology world. They are leaving their families behind, not worrying about what it’s doing to them. The older people in the society can’t believe the drastic change in the culture, things are no longer important to the younger generation. The traditional family does not exists anymore, people have distant themselves from each other, people are consumed in what they are getting out of the anything. They have made sectors in the culture for people who want to be modernized, and for people who want to live in the traditional ways. Energy, health care, food, buildings, and clothing have all been affected by modernization. They no longer make their own, or use little energy, and take care of themselves through old medicine, and living of the land.
People are hooked on the ever so fast political, economic developments. Culture has changed dramatically for these people. Money, technology, has ruined families, neighbors, and people in general. Everyone is out for no one, but themselves, people care about what they are going to get out of things if they help you, children are not learning about the traditional ways, families are broken apart. Some kids don’t talk to their parents, or grandparents, they don’t respect them, and don’t want any traditional values. The Ladakh culture has taken a toll by technology, modernization, and money has made gaps between old friends, and families.
Asley Martin
In the book “Ancient Futures” by Helena Norberg-Hodge, there are a few chapters that
talk about the social structure of the Ladakhi people and how it is being ruined by the western
world. The Ladakh came from being a peaceful people where they worked all day and night
farming barley to support their families. They were well connected with nature to the point
where they can sense the slightest change in the weather, and were able to find their animals in
the midst of other wild animals. They were well respected by their neighbors because they gave
respect. Now since the modern western world took over, the Ladakh are always going to the
city to work and they do not have time for their families. In one chapter, it shows how the
adults in the Ladakhi culture feel about having to hire work so they can pay for their land. “Now
unable to pay larger and larger wages for farm hands, some are forced to abandon the villages
to earn money in the city.” (page 103). Another chapter shows how the youth of the Ladakh
are being affected by the western culture. “Who needs monks?” (Ladakhi youth, 1984 page
105) The youth are less concerned about the religious practices of the Ladakh because the
western modernization has “corrupted” them.
Development in Ladakh has some very negative side effects. Money and technology is changing the way of life for the Ladakhi people as they accept the Western way of life and leave behind their traditional ways. Everything that made Ladakh a wonderful and cultural place to live is diminishing. Religion, education, kinship and social structure that made this place unique is gone. All that is left behind is the beginning of a Western Civilization.
In Ladakh, currency was seldom needed for survival. Now as it is developing, more and more people are struggling to get by because lack of money. The Ladakhis lived off the land and what they couldn’t make for themselves they traded and bartered. The development has made them dependant on money for important needs. This preoccupancy on money has also created greed. People are fighting for good paying jobs and are becoming money hungry. This intense competition over jobs and money is ruining the once perfect community. The love and sense of belonging between the communities is gone. Everyone is trying to beat the other in this economical rat race. The Ladakhis are trying to live like wealthy Westerners but can’t afford the lavish lifestyle. Poverty is also becoming a hindrance. Many older people are not educated for any job and farming has become impossible in the bad economy. The once simple and organized way of life had been turned upside down making their lives a complete struggle.
Religion was once a very treasured aspect of their culture in Ladakh. Their lives revolved around Buddhism and the teachings. Families are sending their children to schools where they learn about Western ideas and their way of living. They are not learning about farming and how to survive in Ladakh, nor practicing their religion. These children are raised to be ashamed of their roots and have no chance at survival in the difficult village. These children inevitably have to move to the city and find jobs and leave their traditions behind; they are not raised to live in their surroundings anymore. The push for a useless education is creating more problems at home and within the community than it is doing any good.
The development in Ladakh is ending the traditional way of living at a fast rate. The community ties and family ties are breaking. Ladakhis are become carbon copy Westerners in an environment not fit for that way of living. By emulating the Western Nuclear Family is causing stress and unhealthy living. By trying to become something you’re not it makes you question yourself and your identity. The cultural Ladakhis way of life Westerner’s appreciated is disappearing.
Modernization of the world is changing Ladakh, and not for the better. The entire culture of Ladakh is changing. As a result, the people are losing their culture and trading it for one that mimics the west. This is evident through their relations with each other, also known as kinship.
In the past, everyone in the community was like family. They would all work together, talk, sing, and help each other out in times of need. The whole community was like a family and as a result, the Paspun would take care of the family as much as the immediate family took care of each other. There was no fighting or arguments. Instead, they would just say, “What’s the point?” and move on. Alternatively, they would have someone mediate the discussion for them.
Now, the pace of the world for the Ladakh people is speeding up. Money has been introduced along with new types of jobs. A completely new culture has been established. As a result of this changing culture, kinship is changing as well. Instead of being a close-knit, loving, helpful community, they do not even get to know each other because of their fast-paced lives. Many would not even ask their neighbor for help if they were sick. Instead of helping others out, and being polite and caring, people will now push through other people to get what they want. There is also a great increase in fighting. Because of the pressures of the new culture, and the fact that the community is not as close as they once were, disagreements rise more often and people, who care more about money that people now, will fight and argue with other people instead of trying to settle it in a civilized manner.
Ladakh people are changing, and not for the better. Their whole culture is morphing from one of a loving, caring, welcoming people to once that imitates the brutality and coldness of the west. This is all because of modernization and the introduction of money, which never existed in Ladakh before. Things were much more peaceful and loving in Ladakh in the past. There was more of a sense of kinship. No one in the community was a stranger and they all took care of one another. Now, everyone in the city is a stranger, and they are usually ignored. I believe that Ladakh should go back to the way they were in the past. They should be as loving, caring and peaceful as they once were.
When I started reading this book I was not very excited about it, it did not look
like a book that I would be interested in reading. After the first 10 or so pages I
got into it because I began to learn about the true meaning of the Ladakhi
culture, the way that they conduct themselves, and there Values. But now I do
not like the way that they conduct themselves. They use to have the happy go
lucky way of life that said that they would take care of themselves, never need
money; always only need the materials of their plough and their health.
But now after years of change they have gone away from their original routes and
now they depend on a money system, they have other people work their fields,
they have tourists in town, and they now have more material possessions. They
don’t care about their children as much as they did before either. The way I look
at it is everyone and everything will change over time if you let it sometimes these
changes are for the better sometimes they are for the worst. With this we will
have to see how it will affect the Ladakhi People and their culture, but I believe
that it will not have a positive effect on them because their original way of life was
a much better , easier and healthier way to live life.
Chelsea Husson
In the Ladakh culture tradition and kinship are very important to the people and how things will run in their village. In this reading it talks about how the Western culture is affecting the Ladakh people and the surrounding villages. From agriculture, education, economy, and how people treat each other now. The Ladakh people have never been reliant on money or been greedy at all. They use the materials from their surroundings and barley ever has to trade or go somewhere else to get certain materials. Now that the economy has spread it is having a serve affect on the Ladakh people. Instead of working together and working on the land to finish a task on time they have paid wages and no one is considered equal anymore. Now the person with the most money doesn’t want to spend it on wages for his fellow people. Along with the wages and paid labor it also makes a line between the rich and the poor in each town. This is one of the many problems that are pushing these people farther from each other.
For a while Norberg-Hodge talks about how the technology is setting its way in to Ladakh culture and its causing some huge problems. How the new technology helps with time but by using them it makes time scarce and costly. Instead of using the seasons as a time they feel a lot more rushed and feel like they have no time for their family anymore. The new education system’s now are completely different from what the children have had before. Instead of learning of the environment they have around them, they are taught about faraway places and how to adapt there. The parents feel like they aren’t learning anything that will help them in the future besides bring the younger generations closer to different and new technology.
By doing this it just increases the forming gap between past and present and family and community. In the beginning we were told that the Ladakh people were kind people who always smile and were very close to one another. But with everything forming and changing they are becoming more distant. Sometimes not even caring who their neighbors are and how to treat them. They are concentrating on themselves and starting to be selfish and not caring about anyone else.
Everything from before is changing and it doesn’t seem to be helping or forming in a good way. The beautiful environment is starting to get polluted from mills and smoke and cars driving by. Space is limited and instead of lavish hand-made homes 3 stories high for an entire extended family, there are small 1 person apartments with sometimes a family of 8 cramped inside. Instead of this lovely picture we formed in the beginning of this book it’s starting to sound like a third world country. Its sad to know that Western culture has this big of an effect in a small area and how it can completely change a society of what they have done before.
The main culture category for this section would be materials. Now, in modern life in Ladakh, money and new technology are included in the bare minimum items that they need to survive. Traditionally, money was not needed, or even considered as useful. Money was only necessary for luxuries like jewelry. In modern life, money is needed to survive.
This transformation happened quite fast, and the relationships between people grew apart equally as rapid. “The money becomes a wedge between people, pushing them further and further apart.” (page 102) People used to work together in song and dance and an abundance of smiles, this soon became pushed aside by competition and survival. There is a huge difference between rich and poor now also because of the ways people are forced to live. Money, can now be stored in banks, it has no limit to it, as long as you ’work for it’. There is a limit however to what you can grow and make yourself.
Materials in the modern culture around Ladakh also include machines, what they use to get work done faster. In return of doing work faster, it picks up the pace of how people live day to day, because they now have to keep up with everything around them. Time is money essentially. Ladakhis used to work with animals, who they could form a relationship with. “But machines are dead, you have no relationship with them. When you work with machines, you become like them, you become dead yourself.” (page 106)
Children are now being taught that their old culture is bad. They should be ashamed of their traditions, and they are inferior. The reason for this is, Ladakh people didn’t use the material objects the modern world needs to survive. Now, they are on the “lowest rung of the global economic ladder.”
During my reading of the assigned passages in Ancient Futures I found my self torn by the effect that Western culture had on the Ladakh people as a whole. The cultures efforts towards subsistence were almost non existent. They so easily accepted the culture being force fed to them. The young people of their culture were drawn to Western civilization like rats to the pied piper. Reacting like lemmings they followed their new influences to death of their own sense of self. Possibly the most disturbing aspect of Western influence is the capitalistic view of the world that Ladakh develop.
As Western civilization enters the remote region occupied by the Ladakh people its influence is instantly apparent. The Ladakh people begin to believe that the life lived by the tourists visiting their region is better than that of their own. A sense of inferiority began to run rampant and permeated through the core of the society, especially the young. This sense of inferiority and the desire to conform to Western norms had began to strip the identity of the Ladakh people. The influence runs so deep that even the time of harvest had become occupied not by the usual festival feel and group effort towards a common goal, but had succumb to the capitalism and paid labor.
The subsistence of Ladakhi culture at this point in “Ancient Futures” Is in question. Their efforts to teach the next generation their way of life and survival have been replaced by the teachings of western pop culture. Tight interpersonal relationships have been replaced by the cold isolation of modern existence. Self reliance and understanding of the surrounding environment has been forgotten in favor of paid labor and monetary reliance. These aspects only go to further the point that advancement has many costs, some of which may be too high to pay.
Some of the values of the Ladakh people are money, education and technology, and who exactly works. Money is something that before they could live without or use it in a certain limited way. Their now becoming more vulnerable to the international money economy. It’s not so different that they are using money more, before “a kilo of barley has been a kilo of barley.” (pg. 103) In a relationship the money starts to get in between the two, pushing them more apart. Making food for a special occasion, since they have to work in the farm, the labor payment is increasing; people complain about the prices and don’t want to pay the high wages. When one wants to sell something in someone’s local store they have to bargain a price, whether it is high or low they have to deal with it.
Education is something that everyone needs, even the Ladakh people. When they want a certain job like being in the government, they have to have some education that has to do with that occupation. Education in Ladakh, is preventing the children from understanding the context of how they live. The children are getting more of aware of what is out in the world, allowing them as they get older to use more resources that are effective and sustainable. Technology is based on their traditional knowledge and used for local resources. There are jobs that do not need any technology like a plow or being a blacksmith, but now they can start plowing with a tractor which uses technology. For the Ladakh people they do not use technology the way we do, they use it when they really need it, we use it non stop. “Technological change also increases the gap between the rich and poor.” (pg. 107)
The jobs that they take and do in Ladakh, is different from what we do in America. There is a gap between the male and female, old and young and rich and poor. The men start to become more familiar with the technology, based on what they do inside and outside, they are more seen as the productive members of society, then the women are. Women do not earn money for their work, as in what they do in the house, so they are shown for not having a “productive” job. But over the years, the women that were starting to become stronger and outgoing, are now replaced with the ones that are unsure of one self and concerned on what they look like. The younger men are being educated on the more modern jobs, then what the younger women are being educated on by working in the house.
Some of the values of the Ladakh people are money, education and technology, and who exactly works. Money is something that before they could live without or use it in a certain limited way. Their now becoming more vulnerable to the international money economy. It’s not so different that they are using money more, before “a kilo of barley has been a kilo of barley.” (pg. 103) In a relationship the money starts to get in between the two, pushing them more apart. Making food for a special occasion, since they have to work in the farm, the labor payment is increasing; people complain about the prices and don’t want to pay the high wages. When one wants to sell something in someone’s local store they have to bargain a price, whether it is high or low they have to deal with it.
Education is something that everyone needs, even the Ladakh people. When they want a certain job like being in the government, they have to have some education that has to do with that occupation. Education in Ladakh, is preventing the children from understanding the context of how they live. The children are getting more of aware of what is out in the world, allowing them as they get older to use more resources that are effective and sustainable. Technology is based on their traditional knowledge and used for local resources. There are jobs that do not need any technology like a plow or being a blacksmith, but now they can start plowing with a tractor which uses technology. For the Ladakh people they do not use technology the way we do, they use it when they really need it, we use it non stop. “Technological change also increases the gap between the rich and poor.” (pg. 107)
The jobs that they take and do in Ladakh, is different from what we do in America. There is a gap between the male and female, old and young and rich and poor. The men start to become more familiar with the technology, based on what they do inside and outside, they are more seen as the productive members of society, then the women are. Women do not earn money for their work, as in what they do in the house, so they are shown for not having a “productive” job. But over the years, the women that were starting to become stronger and outgoing, are now replaced with the ones that are unsure of one self and concerned on what they look like. The younger men are being educated on the more modern jobs, then what the younger women are being educated on by working in the house.
How they react to the education, technology, money and jobs, are different then how America reacts. In a way, they react better but also worse, they are happy about it and understandable on what they have to live with.
For years the Ladakh people have lived in the way that their ancestors have, relying on the earth around them to provide what they need to survive. They were a part of a close knit community that would help without question and respected everyone around them no matter their economic state or whether they had more land than them. The Ladakh looked out not only for themselves, but for those around them because they knew that if one fell the rest would eventually fall with them. But Western culture has destroyed their once perfect world bringing in parasites such as a changing monetary system and technology.
Money use to be of little concern to the Ladakh people , whatever they had they shared with others around them, they would help to complete chores that were too difficult for one person alone to finish. Nobody thought twice about assisting the people they lived around, as long as the job got done that was all that mattered. Money was used only for luxuries that were carefully thought out because what little money they had needed to be spent wisely. Now as Western culture settles in and begins to form a permanent residence they Ladakh people are starting to care more about themselves and their immediate family rather than the whole community like they use to; their sense of kinship with the others around them has disappeared and been replaced with indifference and ignorance. People who use to be friends are now strangers and worse competition in their new world. Instead of the trading system which was originally the main way to obtain thing that you needed the Indian rupee is now the only way to insure your survival in the ever changing world. The rupee pays for everything now; clothes and food alike. Originally they use to grow their own crops, manage their own animals, and build all of the needed shelters or tools for a comfortable living, but now everything needs to be bought in order to get anywhere in the changing world.
Western culture has also brought in technology, technology that has taken over the simplistic world that they use to care so much about changing their youth more than they could have ever imagined. There is now a chasm between the ages of the Ladakh people, at one point the teens would think nothing of showing affection to their grandparents or others around them, but now the programs and other technological influences have taught them to ignore the ones they use to care about. The young men in particular act strangely towards others; they no longer show any relation with their elders not wanting to be perceived as weak. There once was a time when the Ladakh children would take on responsibilities at a young age and care for those around them, but now all they care about is materials and how they are seen by those around them. The teens are being taken over by the influence of western culture and being transformed into the type of people that the Ladakh people had hoped to avoid.
In the end the Ladakh world is fading, being taken over by the one thing that they feared the most, our culture. And yet they do very little to cease what is happening simply accepting the change knowing that it was bound to happen eventually. Simply, the Ladakh world is changing, whether it is for better or for worse is unknown at the time, but the change is happening.
Throughout Ancient Futures, the author talks about how family oriented and religious based the Ladakh people are. Everything they do and how they accomplished any task was always to appease their religion and with approval from the earth and family. This all began to change when “our” culture, or Western culture, started seeping into the cracks of the Ladakh ways. Little by little their culture became tainted with interracial relationships, material, lavish goods, and the dash for cash. With the West’s ever greedy ways beginning to impact their non-greedy ways, Ladakhi people began to not love their neighbors as much and became less and less helpful. It was no longer about helping out so everyone survived, it became fend for yourself and a race to keep up with the Jones’.
As the author noted; “money becomes a wedge between people, pushing them further and further apart.” (pg.102) and as she noticed, their friendly, festive atmosphere was slowly diminishing and the people who were once neighbors and labored for others in need now were strangers who barely spoke. Along with the loss of the value they held on relationships the Ladakh people loss their easy going ways, and how to farm, it seems they all of a sudden became helpless and could not do anything without money and education. Did they forget the way things were?
Their farms became less important, they no longer held festivals as often, and when they did farm, they relied on machines and trucks with polluted the air, going against everything they believed in for valuing the earth. Ladakh was a spiritual village with friendly people where they relied on the earth and everything was provided by natural means. Now the Ladakh people viewed themselves as “dead”, the relationships they had, the people they knew, the lives the lead all seem dead to them. The ever growing population and spreading “new culture” is taking its toll on the Ladakhi values, religion, farming, family life and the village in general.