lbo-talk-digest V1 #4729

Miles Jackson cqmv at pdx.edu
Sun Aug 12 13:32:01 PDT 2001


On Sat, 11 Aug 2001, kelley wrote:


> you're still not understanding that it has nothing to do with a seminar.
> people give reasons in other cultures. Why doesn't it rain? The rain god
> must be unhappy. How was the earth created... yadda yadda.
>
> These are reasons, are they not?
>
> Rationalization has to do with bringing things that we take for
> granted--norms, mores, cultural beliefs, ideologies--into the open for
> inspection, questioning, challenge.
>
> these happen in other cultures. i don't know if i want to say not as much
> as in this culture be/c i don't know and it sounds awfully eurocentric to
> say it. so, if you know of cultures in which no one ever questions the
> taken-for-granted in their culture, perhaps you have an example?
>

I guess you're missing my point. Why is rationalization, as you define it above, assumed to be a universal good? Many hunting and gathering societies have leaned heavily on tradition: we do things this way because... this is how we do things!

Now, my question is this: imagine I live in a hunting and gathering society and, by tradition, I am expected to marry my first cousin. Using the principle of rationalization you point out above, I could challenge that tradition, rather than accepting it. But in what sense would it be better for me to follow JH's standards here? If I challenge this tradition, I am likely to be ostracized, I would be likely to cause antagonism between families, discord in my community, and so on. If I accept this tradition, I participate in specific social relations that help to create and sustain families and a specific way of life.

At this point we can jump in, saying people shouldn't blindly accept tradition, we should rationally challenge taken for granted beliefs, and so on. But I think it's important to keep in mind that rationalization--even as Kel defines it--is not a necessary or even constructive component of human societies. --And to treat rationalization as something that all humans everywhere aspire to (or should aspire to) is, to me, pretty crass ethnocentrism.

Miles



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