The First Step

The Daoist philosopher Lao Tzu said that a journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step. As we’ve seen in class, sometimes this first step can be the most difficult. The allure of an unfamiliar culture is often undeniable. We want to experience, to come into contact with this other, but as Westerners, how do we see beyond our cultural constructions of the other’s identity? After all, doesn’t the notion of a distinct concept of “The West” itself depend upon its differentiation from the rest of the world? We could sit up in our ivory towers and try to deconstruct identity endlessly. We could come to the conclusion that it’s better to remain pent up in our own cultures rather than risk disrespecting another’s ways by our presence. But I doubt that any of us want to live in such a cage. We can gain insight into approaching the other through the travel accounts that we have read.
 
In the account of Herodotus in Egypt, we observe one of the West’s first historians doing his best to represent a culture that is foreign to him. Herodotus is admirable in that he attempts to record things exactly as they appear to him rather than in relation to Greek culture. Of course sometimes he makes a value judgment, but he remains admirable for oftentimes admitting the Egyptian’s superiority in a certain field, such as the construction of their labyrinth. It is difficult not to assume that your culture is somehow the best and should be used as a benchmark for all other cultures. Herodotus does surprisingly well at breaking away from this mindset and attempting to see the environment for what it is.
 
In the travels of Ibn Battuta, we see a man whose journeys are motivated by a yearning for knowledge. As an attorney, he wished to trek across Northern Africa and the Middle East, learning from the nobles in each locale. It is clear that Ibn measures different cultures based on his reverence for Islamic law. He is scandalized by naked bathers in one city, in another he swears at a Jewish physician who is standing above Koran readers.
 
Columbus shows us the dangers of assuming that one’s own culture is superior to another’s. One of the main goals of his quest is to convert the Native Americans (or as he thought them to be, the Indians) to Christianity. Even though he knows nothing of their language, Columbus is convinced that the Native Americans are perfectly ripe for conversion. He assumes that they are without religion because he doesn’t observe anything in the Americas associated with Western religion. It isn’t sensible to blame Columbus for all of this nation’s wrongdoings against its native inhabitants, but at the same time the mindset of cultural superiority that we see in Columbus seems to be represent the colonialist outlook.
 
So our first step. It seems that before embarking on our journeys we must do some thorough dusting. We should try to sweep the cobwebs of our native culture that have been developing in our minds since birth. Of course, it seems that total clearness is impossible with anything short of a lobotomy, but we still must acknowledge the relativity of our own culture before we can get anywhere. If we fail to at least try, then we can travel the world but never manage to leave our cages.