tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8573382596442861899.post862617738054305179..comments2023-11-02T01:55:28.254-07:00Comments on A Canuck Amuck: Replacing Rites with RightsGlennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766968264733510251noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8573382596442861899.post-24138075859014503302012-07-09T10:22:34.875-07:002012-07-09T10:22:34.875-07:00Second Comment: while I find the process and appro...Second Comment: while I find the process and approach as described very laudable, I also find it very Western in its organizational structure - phase 1, phase 2, phase 3...and now we will do this, and then we will do that, and then we will have this meeting with this speaker and share these experiences...and teach people to behave in such and such a way. There is a systematic logic here, and indeed as a process it reminds me of what we would do in business to deal with a difficult situation. But will it work in Cameroon? Is it Afric-centric as a process that will lead to a long-lasting potential solution in Cameroon? I am not questioning the need or even the intended goal. There is a need: something must be done to end this cruelty. I am not questioning the goal: something must be done to end this kind of ritual or at least replace it with a less cruel ritual. But is there any intent in this project as outlined to "keep the practice" but delete the cruelty? Or is the intent ipso facto to eliminate a cultural and seemingly ancient practice? if so, have we considered that there may be a purpose [even a valid purpose] to this ritual - buried somewhere in ancient lore and custom? Can we somehow recapture the original intent of a "widowhood ritual" in a less cruel incarnation? The cultural roots are deep and that leads me to think that weeding out this practice entirely may not be possible. But eliminating the unremitting cruelty may be possible, while keeping some kind of ritual that re-instates the widow into society. There are some very critical issues inherent in this situation: on the one hand, what outsider group has any right to interfere with the practices of another group? on the other hand, is inherent cruelty necessarily integral to any practice to begin with? Can we separate the ritual associated with widowhood from the cruelty of how that ritual is currently practiced? I know I may be using Occam's razor here to split hairs, but there is a part of me that wants to see an effective solution and not just an imposed solution to this situation. I fear that an imposed solution will be short term at best, if it is achieved at all. My process teachers always told me that (a) you must follow process from beginning to end to get to a valid solution or be condemned to relive the process if you fail to deal with each process step in its entirety, but (b) you must apply the process appropriate to the situation without imposing one that may be foreign to that situation. None of this is easy... I just wonder if the process contemplated in this project will be effective in Cameroon. Consider this the wisdom of an armchair observer in the comfort of his Toronto office. I will never condone cruelty no matter what the cultural context, but I can see value in ritual if repurposed for the good of all members of the community - especially if it is meant to bring comfort to the grief stricken and eliminate any status as outcast in society. In many Mediterranean societies even today, the widow wears perpetual and unflattering black both as a sign of never ending grief and as a status symbol of being an outcast - no longer able to marry. In some villages, it is bad luck to marry a widow because you may end up being her next dead husband, even if not her actual victim since she is not the causer of death. Cameroon is not alone in such cruel practices...how do we eliminate cruelty and make someone whole again even in their grief? VictorAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8573382596442861899.post-64488326711007175062012-07-09T09:36:43.324-07:002012-07-09T09:36:43.324-07:00What makes anyone unclean after the death of someo...What makes anyone unclean after the death of someone else? As the King would say to Anna, It's a puzzlement. In the most superstitious contexts, I can almost fathom someone causing another person's death in mysterious ways - even to the point of admitting "if looks could kill" they would - hence, I could almost see how the widow could somehow be accused of causing her husband's death simply by being the widow/survivor [guilt by association and by not dying instead of the husband - strange but somehow "understandable" in a twisted Kafka sort of way]. And I can see where pollution could come from handling the dead body - both physical and even possibly spiritual/social pollution - after all that's why we have undertakers isn't it? But what is the uncleanliness associated with simply being a widow or widower? In some societies, grief can be so overwhelming that a widow can die from it, and may even be expected to die from it, but this is not the same thing. One the one hand, this is about contagion. Are people afraid of becoming widows or widowers if they come in contact with the survivor of a recently deceased spouse? Is widowdom somehow catching or contagious? One the other hand, this is about revenge - getting even with the survivor for having survived.... The whole issue of contagion takes on many meanings when one has to ritualize the post death experience of the survivor because of some notion of pollution now experienced by them simply because of their survivor status. What is equally unclear in these descriptions is whether there is any remediation involved in these rites: is the widow somehow cleansed because of such rites and rituals and therefore accepted back into the social structure? or is this simply a way to be abusive towards a person, and in particular a woman, without much benefit to anyone and especially to the woman? Has cleansing been replaced by ball-faced vengeance...and hence the unremitting cruelty of it all. I can see rites/rituals having a purpose if cleansing or some kind of amelioration is intended, but these widow rites as described seem to be simply acts of cruelty. Isn't being a widow cruel enough for anyone? why inflict so much more pain? to what end? Picking up on the blood pollution theme, in some traditional Christian churches, there is/was a post partum ritual called "churching" where the new mother was ritually received back into the congregation through a form of "cleansing" rite. It seems to have come from a post partum Jewish temple ritual described in New Testament scripture where Mary went to the temple after the birth of Jesus to be cleansed. If memory recalls, it became a Candlemas celebration. Again, a ritual cleansing to overcome pollution from blood experienced during the birth event. Cleansing and readmission to the general congregation were the intent - beneficial to say the least, even if insulting to women who were considered unclean because they gave a man a son. Minimally, these rites did not intentionally cause physical pain, even if they were emotionally and socially abusive in that they set women apart as polluted by blood. This is my first comment - one of puzzlement and reminiscence of possible similar rites in other contexts. I have a second comment to make but in another section...VictorAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8573382596442861899.post-55253586166870624962012-07-09T08:46:02.707-07:002012-07-09T08:46:02.707-07:00Wow.
Good luck on this, Glenn. Clearly work that ...Wow.<br /><br />Good luck on this, Glenn. Clearly work that needs doing so 'wish you every success as you proceed.<br /><br />Gcochranehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07463052946521321116noreply@blogger.com