Introduction
The focus of the present paper will be the article “Tribal Wisdom”, written by an outstanding cultural anthropologist and ethnologist, David Maybury-Lewis. In the article under analysis, the scientist tries to answer the question posed at the very beginning of the article: “Is it too late to reclaim the benefits of tribal living?” Our task is to analyze the concepts introduced by the author and to present comparative analysis of communicational styles from the point of view of historical perspective and global perspective.
The beginning of the article
In the introduction to the article, the author offers a definition of vital importance for correct understanding of subsequent information. It is a definition of tribes: “small-scale, preindustrial societies that live in comparative isolation and manage their affairs without a central authority such as the state” (Maybury-Lewis 68). In the introduction, the author also poses a question that a reader should answer to him/herself on reading the article. The question is if present society has chosen the best road to travel from tribal community (Maybury-Lewis 68).
Differences between types
The subsection “Strange relations” focuses on the relationship between people in two types of societies contrasted. The main difference determined by the author is that in traditional societies “people are valuable resource” while in modern society “things are the valuables” (Maybury-Lewis 68). The author identifies the historical epoch that becomes the border between traditional societies and modern societies, it is the Renaissance that introduces individualism, a concept considered antisocial in traditional societies.
From Maybury-Lewis’s point of view, individualism is responsible for technical advances, desire to accumulate wealth, and hunger for personal achievement (68). It can really be observed in our society where human resource management is built on competitive basis between employees that strive for individual career advancement. The author also contrasts two types of societies applying the example of family that gives a modern person freedom at the cost of loneliness and traditional family that restricts freedom but guarantees support.
Differences between the societies
The author also dwells on the key differences between the societies: upbringing and maturation. If the right to bring up children in our society is the privilege of parents and teachers mostly, traditional societies make the right of upbringing a universal privilege that unites the members of society (the Xavante system). The advantage of traditional societies is tribal initiation that draws a strict line between childhood and adulthood, gives a boy strong sense that he is a man and shows the power of women to a girl. Absence of such initiation in contemporary society causes prolonged period of transition of teenagers to the world of adults. This also causes the phenomenon of stay-at-home kids widely spread in our society. It shows psychological immaturity of physically mature people.
The subsection “A moral economy”
The subsection “A moral economy” tells us about the status of a gift in two types of societies. Still, the author’s explanation of the concept of gift is not very clear. He says that gift is something that makes traditional society work and this function is rudimentary in modern society. It is clear that a member of traditional society is considered rich not by the amount of wealth but by the net of social ties he has (Maybury-Lewis 72). In this relation, the example of market exchange is not clear, it is based on moral economy but the way the importance of a gift can be applied to it is not clear.
The subsection “An ecology of mind”
Further, the subsection “An ecology of mind” manifests the application of the concept of global if the previous subsections were devoted to the concept of local. It explains main differences of interrelation between people and environment, stressing the sense of dominance of modern people and the sense of reciprocity between people and nature typical of traditional societies. There are numerous examples to mention to describe ecological concept of today.
We can mention ecological problems, total industrialization that can be observed everywhere in our society. Absence of reciprocity with other species can be shown by the example of poaching and extinction of numerous species caused by our activity. Thus, we reduce global concept to a local one, paying no attention to global consequences of local activity.
In the last but one section, Maybury-Lewis stresses secular character of modern society (76). It is really so, as religion offers us distant deity that can be approached at the cost of life, only after death. This is the pattern of modern religion. Thus, the concept we apply in this relation is also local while traditional tribes think that they are the part of the greater whole (Maybury-Lewis 77).
Finally, the last subsection questions the role of state in modern society as the body that should be aimed at protection of social order. Instead, it can be accused of tyranny and anarchy. In traditional societies, every member was responsible for social order instead of shifting responsibility onto the state. Our political system needs transformation so that citizens could see “the source of peace” in it (Maybury-Lewis 79).
Thus, the main difference of communicational styles of the two types of communities in total isolation of an individual in modern society and freedom of communication that was typical of traditional society. Principal difference can be observed in the motivation of communication between the members of these societies: if in modern society communication is subjected to the aim of individual enrichment and advancement, communicational style of traditional society is, so to speak, altruistic. It is communication for the sake of the tribe and common good.
As for the differentiation of societies into traditional and modern ones, it is possible to state that today there are societies with evident belonging to particular type of society, like those mentioned in the article. Still, there are societies that incorporate features peculiar for both types, such as European societies with their attitude toward family that resemble traditional attitude and developing individualism typical of modern society. This is the perfect example how the concepts can be interwoven in one society. Still, it is evident that the concept of family will gradually be ousted by the concept of individualism. The latter concept also ousts the concept of environment, making nature a subject of a person instead of maintaining reciprocal relationship.
Conclusion
Drawing a conclusion, it is possible to state that there are lot of evident differences between the two types of societies described. Individualism and isolation of a modern human being are the main factors that stifle harmonious existence of contemporary society. Wrong upbringing, communication, and inadequacy of state as the guarantee of order are the features of modern society that spoil our life. Traditional societies are presented as the source of natural wisdom, communicational styles, and global vision of human being in the world that should be followed in modern societies.
Works Cited
Maybury-Lewis, David. “Tribal Wisdom.” Utne Reader (1992): 68-79.