Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Balu: Comparative Anthropology and Moral Domains

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The knife appears to cut both ways: against the background of the western conception of’ethics’, Indian traditions ’chill the blood’.  Against the background of Indian traditions, the West appears totally immoral: Why does it appear so?  What causes this perception?
Posted by Arun at 6:16 PM
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How Do we know · 361 weeks ago

Here is where I disagree - the West is not immoral at all against the background of Indian traditions. We have understood "Indian traditions" the way the Victorians interpreted them for us. "Indian Traditions" revel in acknowledgement and fulfilment of all needs and desires. (I am guessing, of course, that by immoral, you mean sexual freedom). But it is in India that complete sexual freedom for both men and women was possible. Even now, in the kabilas, you can decide to leave your husband and go with someone else, in return for due payment. There is no horror killing. Nor judgement.

Against the background of Western concept of ethics - we have to understand - the West is like the proverbial elephant that has tusks and teeth both. The Western concept of ethics would not have allowed them the sheer barbaric practice that was the norm for over 300 years of colonial rule all over the world. The Western concept of ethics would not have allowed a lot of the events that have occurred in modern times. So the idea of ethics is the same in both cultures, and their practice is entirely different - in both.

PS: Apologies if I completely mis-understood the post.
1 reply · active 360 weeks ago
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macgupta 81p · 360 weeks ago

To put it in a very simplistic way, Western culture has made morality dependent not entirely on what you do. About somebody who does sporadic evil: "he is a good man, he was just not himself when he did those things". Good and evil are essences, and if you have the "good" essence you are good no matter what you do. Contrast with e.g., how the (original, not Devdutt Pattnaik version) of the epics talk about Ravana or Duryodhana.

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