I Cannot Let This One Slip Past
Anne Applebaum published a terrific article in yesterday's Washington Post.
However much I agree with her assessment of violence and violent impulses -- of course they are universal human characteristics, horrific ones we need to come to terms with as a human race -- she is (unintentionally?) slandering Rwanda.
Ok, slander might be taking it a bit too far, but the implication that Rwanda is a "primitive" culture, while Cambodia is an "ancient" one is ridiculous. "Primitive" and "ancient" are arcane, sloppy, and relative terms which should not be applied to human societies.
Yes, Rwanda is economically underdeveloped. Yes, Cambodia has been inhabited for tens of thousands of years. And vice versa.
Lesson of the day: qualitative comparisons of societies are generally fallacious. Societies are self-contained entities that are not reliant upon external measures of "good" and "bad."(1)
(1) See Your Anthropology 101 textbook.
However much I agree with her assessment of violence and violent impulses -- of course they are universal human characteristics, horrific ones we need to come to terms with as a human race -- she is (unintentionally?) slandering Rwanda.
Ok, slander might be taking it a bit too far, but the implication that Rwanda is a "primitive" culture, while Cambodia is an "ancient" one is ridiculous. "Primitive" and "ancient" are arcane, sloppy, and relative terms which should not be applied to human societies.
Yes, Rwanda is economically underdeveloped. Yes, Cambodia has been inhabited for tens of thousands of years. And vice versa.
Lesson of the day: qualitative comparisons of societies are generally fallacious. Societies are self-contained entities that are not reliant upon external measures of "good" and "bad."(1)
(1) See Your Anthropology 101 textbook.
<< Home