Why Must ChangeOriented Programmes Avoid Ethnocen Essay

Why Must Change-Oriented Programmes Avoid Ethnocen Essay, Research Paper

For many decades the Western world has looked at underdeveloped countries and tried to solve the social and economic problems that these countries face. We have all seen the harrowing media coverage of natural disasters, such as the cyclones in Bangladesh and the drought in Ethiopia leading to hundreds of thousands of people starving to death. It is admirable that many richer countries have set up administrations that look towards these third world countries with aid and development in mind, even though that the overall welfare of the populations within these countries may not be at the heart of the governments objectives who advocate development. Development programmes and funds allocated are subject to political pressures and it may be that some governments may link tied development assistance with, for example, profitable import returns, arms deals, or political allegiances within the developing countries borders. The administration that is responsible for funding or maintaining a particular development is then looking at the developing country at a macro-level , that is, looking at the country from all angles from a political perspective, rather than from a perspective from the indigenous peoples cultural, or micro-level . I will investigate the type of approach that most developers have taken when planning and implementing change and the anthropologists role within development programmes, find how this model in itself may be ethnocentric, offer an explanation of ethnocentrism and problems that have been caused because of this lack of understanding of other peoples cultures when implementing change or introducing development. The model generally used by development agencies is described as the modernisation approach, it assumes that, if these underdeveloped or developing countries as they are known at present, must, if the poverty gap is to be lessened, follow the rest of the developed world along the route of industrialisation and capitalist economy. The assumption is that if these countries have an orientation towards the future rather than basing their economies on what may seem as backwards traditional methods, they will increase their wealth per capita G.N.P, increase food production and export, leading to increased wealth and less reliance on development aid from overseas. Interestingly, the twenty poorest countries in the world already rely on agricultural or primary produce in the form of raw materials as their main export. It is to the importing countries benefit if these primary products are imported in this way, as prices are kept low for consumption by the people of the western world. To give an example, Ethiopia exports coffee beans to corporations in the west who use this raw product to create an instant coffee drink, making a profit. They would be quiet disturbed if Ethiopia started to refine their own coffee and exporting the finished product, good for Ethiopian economy but not for large coffee corporations. It is argued that capitalist multinational corporations have hijacked global resources leaving many countries in permanent debt. Developers then have argued that to stop increased dependence on development assistance from over-seas, industrialisation of the recipient country is the most effective method of increasing economic strength. This then means a whole new type of socio-economic structure within the community subject to this change, they are persuaded that their traditional methods of, say, agriculture are wrong and the new methods are better to increase yield. Development projects may be on a large scale for instance, dam building, or on a smaller scale, educating people to boil water before consumption. This is where the anthropologist comes in. The anthropologist, who may be employed by large multi-national corporations to smaller charity groups such as Oxfam, by nature of his/her work investigates the community under development, looking at power relations, kinship systems, economic structure, gender issues and a host of other social and economic aspects of that culture to find if any change implemented affects the cultural norms and to find any repercussions of change, over a short or long term time period. Developers because of their specialist approach may not be educated in social or anthropological issues and their methods of introducing a change oriented programme may be fine in an industrialised country but perhaps not for some developing area of the world. The anthropologist seeks to avoid this problem of ethnocentrism, the judging of other cultures actions on the basis of our own cultural norms or the introduction of practices to a different culture, based on our own industrial or economic values, to avoid any complications or the total failure of that particular aid programme. The anthropologist must look at not only ethnocentrism from the point of view of the developer but of the subjects of development also. Many aid programmes have failed already, some leading to more increased poverty, discomfort and even death, then leading to suspicion of local peoples, to western practices. It is then important for the developers to listen to the target population and perhaps for the anthropologist to act as advocate for these people. Here are some examples of how aid and development programmes have failed or have had implications for the communities directly or indirectly relat