[Reader-list] Re: Problematizing Definitions

[zainab at xtdnet.nl]

Dear Mr. Reddy,
Reading your email, some questions come to my mind:
a). Is there anything as universal rights? What constitutes universality?
b). How do we define culture? What acts constitute culturality?
c). What is the relationship between culture and lifestyles?
Regards,
Zainab


> It is not so much about definitions as it is about
> conceptualizations--cluster of concepts, which are part of some theory.
> And
> such a theory filters what you experience of.
>
> In the first case, it sounds like there is only one way of describing, or
> like the rights-talk (or its variants) is the best way of describing.
> Here,
> the debate is not so much definitions, but to what extent theory of rights
> does captures the experience of the natives? If one denies the
> rights-talk,
> one is not denying the phenomenon, that is, a coarse description competing
> theories accept.
>
> Abt the second case. Surely the ragpicker's experience is different from
> yours. Do your and his experiences share any common structures? Assuming
> that a common structure is being shared, the only way to defend such a
> possibility is linking it to 'collective culturality'.: again, people
> resort
> to their pet notions of what culture is.
>
> Idem for the third case.
>
> All these cases share one thing: does whatever is seen in some place
> constitute culturality? Those who answer in the affirmative share this
> claim
> as well: every practice is cultural; and such claims do have nothing to
> say
> about cultural differences, except that cultural difference is a
> difference
> in beliefs. The explanatory relation between practice and belief is
> defensible only within the ambit of semitic theologies.
>
> Best,
> Reddy, V.
>
> On 12/15/05, zainab at xtdnet.nl <zainab at xtdnet.nl> wrote:
>>
>> There are some of these days when I think about 'definitions' and I am
>> bothered 

>>
>> 15th December 2005
>>
>> I have suddenly discovered the camera and am making pictures everywhere
>> I
>> go (these days).
>>
>> Yesterday afternoon, I was walking past the Grant Road Bridge, making my
>> way to Lamington Road. Grant Road Bridge is the home to many pavement
>> dwellers and drug addicts. At one point, I saw a child screaming and
>> crying, drawing everyone's attention. The legs of this little boy were
>> tied. He may have been about three years old. Next to him was his little
>> sibling. She was a new born infant, deep in slumber, inside a pen. For a
>> moment, I was shaken by the wailing of the little boy. For a moment, I
>> was
>> moved by the cruelty of the act of tying his feet. But when I brought
>> out
>> my camera, I decided not to moralize the picture, but to show one more
>> aspect of street life in one part of the city. I did not have the
>> courage
>> to make the picture from forward. So I decided to go back and make the
>> picture. I photographed. A little commotion ensued. A woman came running
>> and she came up close to me saying, 'No photos', 'No pictures'. I was
>> frightened. I decided to show her the picture I had made and delete it
>> in
>> front of her eyes to reassure her. She grabbed me by my arm and pushed
>> me
>> away, 'go away from here'.
>> My guess was that the woman was mildly mentally deranged. She was very
>> aggressive when she pushed me. I began to wonder why the child's legs
>> were
>>
>> tied. My only guess is that maybe its mother did not want it to wander
>> around the road in her absence; so this was a good way to keep the child
>> put – basically safety of the child.
>> The lady who pushed me may have been the mother. And again I guessed –
>> perhaps she did not want me to make the picture, thinking that if I were
>> a
>> social worker type, I would take away her children thinking that she is
>> a
>> cruel mother and put them in foster care – I am only guessing here!
>> What interested me about the experience was the definition of rights –
>> are
>> rights truly universal? In the context of lifestyles and cultures, do
>> rights take on relative meanings? For instance, in the case of this
>> child,
>>
>> there may have been perfectly legitimate reasons for tying his legs in
>> the
>> context of their lifestyle and culture – does the rights' framework then
>> do unintended violence to such people and cultures? Does it give power
>> of
>> definitions (in the Foucaultian sense) to certain groups to intervene on
>> behalf of the greater good (greater good questionable in this case)?
>>
>>
>>
>> 10th December 2005
>>
>> My classmate in the photography class is discussing a project idea. His
>> project is to photograph garbage. He has been an NRI (Non-Resident
>> Indian)
>> and was irked by the sight of garbage when he came to India. He wonders
>> how people can be so insensitive to something which is so evident. He
>> wants to project garbage in a way that will make people want to do
>> something about it.
>>
>> I had an interesting experience this morning. I was walking by the
>> bridge
>> on Byculla when I saw a rag picker picking up an orange fruit from the
>> trash lying on the road. It was his breakfast. He ate hungrily and was
>> reasonably satisfied as the pleasure of the fruit drew to an end.
>>
>> I wondered about garbage that evening. What is trash to me is food to
>> someone else; trash irks me because I want a clean city, yet, that trash
>> is food for someone else. Who defines dirty? Who defines clean? Are we
>> Foucaultian here again in our everyday lives and practices?
>>
>> While re-picturing the rag picker picking fruit from the trash heap, I
>> wondered, what are the points of negotiation between one group's ideal
>> of
>> a clean city and another group's city which exists through trash?
>> (Perhaps
>> trash is what makes up their city 
)
>>
>>
>>
>> 8th December 2005
>>
>> Visiting Imambada has become a regular jaunt. I sit in Khushali Tea
>> Café,
>> a Muslim Irani Tea Joint to understand the notion of public space. This
>> evening, as I was wading my way through the crowded and busy street of
>> Imambada, I wondered about locality and lifestyles.
>>
>> A city is an agglomeration of different lifestyles, each emerging from
>> local histories. In the process of creating the global city (Shanghai,
>> Singapore, Hong Kong, King Kong!), we are either wiping away locality or
>> are commodifying (read culture-izing) it through alluding to its 'unique
>> culture', making it yet another Moroccan Birdcage as Jonathan Raban
>> spoke
>> in his book 'Soft City'.
>>
>> While wading through sweat and dust and grime (and experience), I was
>> disturbed by the definition of public space and the image/s which the
>> term
>> 'public space' evokes. Maybe public space is what is clean, well
>> maintained, a park, a garden, an open space, etc. In my worldview,
>> Khushali Tea Café is a public space, one which is interesting and yet
>> has
>> problems of its own. One of the problems with Khushali is that it is a
>> male centric public space. Imambada is a Muslim neighbourhood; women
>> rarely come to Khushali on their own (and in this respect, my position
>> as
>> a researcher in the café is disturbing to me and to the store owner as I
>> am constantly being watched 'as a single, lone woman'). If women come to
>> Khushali, then they are largely accompaniments (read appendage) to the
>> men. Yet, Khushali is a critical space where locality is produced and
>> reproduced. It is a gathering space, a meeting space. Tea costs Rs. 3
>> (and
>> I bet it is the most fantastic and simple tea you would have ever had!
>> Try
>>
>> with salt and lemon and the definition of tea will change 
). The store
>> owner, who is the tea maker and the space creator, has no pretensions
>> about his existence – drink your tea if you like; don't drink tea; sit
>> if
>> you please without wanting to drink; do what you like! – and then he
>> grumbles about having to wake up early and customers pouring till late
>> at
>> night – I have a 12 hour job, he grumbles, I have to wake up in the
>> morning to run the water pump and I am functioning ever since then! Do I
>> have a life? – and he goes on grumbling and making tea!
>>
>> Public space huh? Whose the public? What is public? Where is the space?
>> What is the space? Why is the space? 

>>
>> 

>>
>> Definitions huh?
>>
>> 

>>
>> I am bothered 

>>
>> 

>>
>>
>>
>> Zainab Bawa
>> Bombay
>> www.xanga.com/CityBytes
>> http://crimsonfeet.recut.org/rubrique53.html
>>
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>


Zainab Bawa
Bombay
www.xanga.com/CityBytes
http://crimsonfeet.recut.org/rubrique53.html



Zainab Bawa
Bombay
www.xanga.com/CityBytes
http://crimsonfeet.recut.org/rubrique53.html