A Response to Levi-Strauss

October 25, 1996

John Muir Kumph

21L830 Global Culture

The lust for the exotic and primitive in western culture is apparent everywhere in our culture. We see examples from such things as primitive African art and the popularity of National Geographic, to the appeal of Disney's "Aladdin" and the "Mosquito Coast." The idea of the primitive man is closely tied into what is considered the natural man. And when one considers the west's ubiquitous desire for the natural, one starts to wonder why we don't consider ourselves as natural. If we consider primitive to be associated with natural, then its understandable that a modern society would not consider itself primitive and natural. But why is western society not natural? And why do westerners have such a desire for the primitive and the natural? Levi-Strauss tells us that the world is becoming modern and that the last vestiges of the primitive and natural world are being over-run by our mono-culture of boring industrialism. He claims that westerners seek to avoid the reality of our boring culture by living vicariously through primitive peoples. His claim that we seek to escape the boredom of our lives is a dubious one. Clearly westerners are fascinated by the primitive and exotic and view themselves as somehow non-natural. But the reason why is associated with a dissatisfaction with their own economic and spiritual state as westerners, not boredom. Westerners yearn for a life where they work less and enjoy life more, so they flirt with the concept of primitivism. Westerner's find difficulty in reconciling their supposed superior life style with that of the primitive. In the end the citizen of the industrialized nation finds a way to justify his life as better, not because it is actually better, but because he is simply trapped in his society and must reconcile his position as superior to that of the primitive.

What is it that westerners are fascinated by in this context of natural/primitive/exotic? Levi-Strauss points out in 1955 that the earth is rapidly becoming industrialized and westernized into a mono-culture. He says that westerners are escaping the boredom of the mono-culture. This is partly true. The world is indeed becoming more industrialized. The use of petroleum is up in every country around the world; world food production and processing is increasingly reliant on machines; more and more nations find themselves as homes to manufacturing plants for everything from tires to computer chips. Even Islamic fundamentalists in Sudan, Turabi, sees the future of a spiritual relationship via the use of computers. But while the world is more industrialized, it is questionable whether the world is becoming one culture. There are suggestions that it is. The Power Rangers have made it around the world, and so has the O.J. Simpson case. But Euro-Disney failed. Agreeably, centuries of cultural imperialism and colonialism have seriously crippled once thriving cultures, but it is simply arrogant to suggest that all the peoples of the earth are becoming western. Yes, they may have western goods and hear western music, but they are not western. They have their own interpretations of western culture that are distinctly their own. The appropriation and manipulation of western symbols by other peoples of the globe is not simply a matter of them being acculturated to the west. Trobriand islanders play their own game. Levi-Strauss explains the fascination of the primitive as an escape from the insipidity of western culture. Westerners seek excitement in the illusion of the pristine primitive, he explains. Something is lurking about that draws the west to the primitive, but it is not boredom with an insipid monoculture. In trying to understand what the lure of the primitive is, simply understanding what is meant by the word helps.

His suggestion that somehow there was ever an untouched wilderness that contained natural people is an illusion in itself. The suggestion that westerners are not natural is strange, they are certainly not super-natural( in fact super-natural is often considered 'natural' these days). Westerners are natural in the literal sense. Even the computer I am writing on is natural. What Levi-Strauss, and many others, mean by unnatural is a certain industrial-ness to everything these days. He means that the world is now mass-produced and that we are somehow overcome with the sameness of the mass produced world we live in. But while some products are mass produced, the westerner has a more exotic culture than ever before. Rather, than a growing sameness of western culture, their is a growing diversity. The number of exotic restaurants in American cities has rapidly increased to allow not just the spare French, German, Mexican, or Chinese/Polynesian restaurant of the 50's 60's and 70's, but now it is possible to sample Ethiopian, Indian, Cuban, Brazilian, Thai-French, Japanese, and the list goes on and on... Music has also diversified from the 50's rock'n roll, blues, jazz, and classical to a rainbow of musical genres and sub genres, such as Hip-Hop, Alternative, Punk, Heavy Metal, Thrash, New Wave, Pop, Blues, Jazz, World Beat... etc. And genres in America find themselves out of key with genres of the same name in other countries. While there is MTV around the world, it is not the same broadcast. The idea that westerners are bored with a sameness of industrialized life, must be questioned when one can select from over one hundred different chocolate bars at convenience store. Westerners do not have monoculture, they have an overwhelming set of choices. What is it that Levi-Strauss says is the same, when one looks at western culture? When compared to the European's of medieval times, who rarely, if ever, traveled more than a days walk from where they were born, westerners have a far more diversified and changing culture. In fact westerners seem ready to absorb the latest exotic fad. Westerners have a lust for the exotic. Whether its strange food or strange music, they suck it right up and make it their own. They never seem to be satiated with the exotic primitive. Westerners have a very diversified culture that can be called somewhat cannibalistic for its desire to incorporate other cultures into its own, but is certainly not insipid. In fact a westerners thirst for the exotic, comes not from a lack of exciting culture, but rather for a profound unhappiness with her own state. The grass is always greener... A cliché worth noting.

The predicament of the westerner is not a happy one. While the success of the west in terms of life expectancy and child mortality is unquestionable. Westerners often wonder if there are societies with greater respect and equality between people. Feminists search primitives for a greater respect for women as persons. Marxists search for a uniform distribution of capital in primitives. The average worker in the west wonders why after working a full week he has little money. If the west is so wonderful, why is it that parents must work and hardly ever see their children? Why do families have so much difficulty staying together? Westerners look to primitives for answers to their woes. They seek to compare their life with the primitive. With the assumption that the primitive is the untouched natural human, if she were to shed the repression of western culture she could become the primitive.

In a recent article in National Geographic, called "The Last Place on Earth", a remote portion of Africa is pictorialized and essayed. Ndoki is a portion of the Congo that the NGS (National Geographic Society) found to be one of the last places on earth....well they never say, but one can guess that they mean... to be civilized, industrialized, and processed. With fantasy style pictures, the article invites us into a world which is exactly like what Levi-Strauss' describes: "the perfumes of the tropics and the pristine freshness of human beings" and the NGS warns the reader of how this world will be "corrupted by a busyness with dubious implications"(Levi-Strauss' words, but a paraphrase of the NGS article). In the Ndoki article, we see a world with a myriad of animals, where the camera-men relax and enjoy the scenery and is complete with a tribe of pigmies who are very friendly. Of course, the text warns us that the life style of the jungle is horrible and not conducive to westerners. Leeches, mosquitoes, and malaria are everywhere, and only NGS photographers can survive the adventure. We seek to leave our lives as secretaries, engineers, and school children, and live with the pigmies. Not because we find our monoculture boring, but because we see a world filled with beauty who's inhabitants live with each other in apparent harmony. It is a fantasy world created on the pages of National Geographic. However the text of the magazine lets us know how good we have it in the civilized world. Complaints of disease and insects as well as cries of desire for consumer goods familiar to Americans are heard. In the end the reader of the article is forced to come to the conclusion that its better in America, not just because the magazine says so, but because the reader is fully aware that this magazine piece is simply a flirtation with the idea of the primitive. The westerner is married to her industrialized world, and may toy with the idea of being uncivilized simply to escape the reality of stress, low-wages, disrespect, long work weeks, high expenses, little personal worth, or any of the personal ills westerners have. In the end she knows she will go back to her spouse.

This is the allure of the primitive. It is the fantasy of a better life. When one reads about the equality of the sexes among the San in Africa, one feels that a sense of relief that somewhere it has been done, but one also realizes the complete incompatibility of their life style with the west's. The story of primitives reads like the story of little gardens of Eden; innocent peoples who can live truly. But their honest way of living has a price according to this mythology. They must suffer. The west is filled with the people who have sinned and have been thrown out of the garden. At best, westerners can gaze and wish that they could go back. In the end, they see the benefits of modern life and conclude that they have given up equality, freedom, and respect for all the conveniences they enjoy everyday. Levi-Strauss said that travel books "create the illusion of something which no longer exists, but should exist." But that illusion is simply the mirage of utopia. The westerner looks up from the desert of the modern world, feels sorry for himself and imagines a happier people who have less. It is the perfect way to feel better about oneself. Simply imaging those who have less, yet are happier about it. That is the allure of the natural primitive.