Professional Documents
Culture Documents
My purpose here is to alert you to how culture is loose on the streets of Norway as indeed in much of the rest of the world. The expression loose on the streets is not mine. I take it from the anthropologist Paul Bohannan1 who thus characterises a phenomenon of our times. Culture has run astray. And it is now being used helterskelter to promote all kinds of special interests.2 But can a concept that has gone awry function as a tting frame for the encounter between immigrants and Norwegians? My own answer is no. And I shall propose an alternative that can better facilitate mutual respect and understanding.
57
amenable to use in defense of all kinds of special interests. Whoever can gain credence for the claim that this is my (or his/her) culture, has an upper hand. This is precisely what is happening in Norway. Culture has become politicised, unhinged, hollow; it has entered the public arena in ways that erode the well-being of a great many people; indeed, in my view, of society itself. Our common welfare suffers from a misappropriation of culture that masquerades as respect whereas it actually serves, much of the time, as a subterfuge for self-interest, power abuse and racism. This is not to throw the baby out with the bath water, but to draw attention to serious misuses that warrant close attention.
A collusion of powers
Why would immigrants reappropriate a reductionist model of them? The answer is complex. Sufce it here to note a peculiar t between the self-interest of many, especially men, and ofcial policy in the new home country. Blinded by what they can gain, personally, materially and/or politically by presenting themselves as culturedriven, many immigrants are naturally willing to do so. The government encourages the strategy. Committed to a policy of respect for their culture, immigrants are perceived as uniform carriers of culture conceived as a static object. This paves the way for eloquent spokesmen to enter the arena and proclaim in truth what is the culture. Thus government agencies and immigrants collude in perpetrating a version of culture and a view of man that works to the detriment of the welfare of especially weaker members of ethnic minorities but also of immigrants in general.
58
UNNI WIKAN
59
Welfare colonialisation
I have drawn a picture of immigrants in Norway as generally marginalised. But there are signicant differences between the different minorities. Take employment as an example: about 80 per cent of Tamils are employed as against only about 10 per cent of Somalis and Vietnamese. With regard to education, Indian, Vietnamese and Polish children do very well, as against Pakistanis, Maroccans and Turks in general. I do not have space to address the possible reasons for these differences here, nor do they
3 The study focused on refugees who had been in the country seven to eight years. When I generalise about the immigrant population, it is, rst, because the majority of immigrants in Oslo have arrived over the past ten years; and, second, because other studies point to a similar picture.
60
UNNI WIKAN
matter much in this context. The point of my argument here is to highlight the general features. I have used the terms marginalisation and relative deprivation to sum up the Norwegian case. Welfare colonialization4 should be added for it points to the fact that the situation is not the result of negligence and ill-will. It is the outcome of an active policy of benevolence practised with the immigrants best interests in mind. It is a matter of doing harm in the name of charity. Why did things go so wrong ?
61
way was paved for power abuse and cultural fundamentalism (Wikan 1995b). The critical question who denes what for whom and whose interest does it serve? was not asked. And thus the goverment and ofcials came to serve as liaisons of particular political interests rather than serving the common good, as they intended. Losers in particular were women and children.
62
UNNI WIKAN
should learn and grow. Again, it is a matter of racism performed in the name of charity. Anthropologists have been criticised, rightly in my view, for being dealers in exotica (Keesing 1989). My own work, not just in Norway, convinces me that an exoticised view of persons may easily become a dehumanising one (Wikan 1990; 1993). To counteract racism and further integration it is necessary in my view not just to speak against a notion of culture as difference, but to include sameness in the model. Completely different, exactly the same, is how a Balinese priest envisions the human populace (Barth 1993). Would that anthropologists would broadcast the message, so as to help furnish that bridge without which cross-cultural understanding can scarcely take place.
63
naive mistake placing the problem in the hearts and minds of people. I dont deal with feelings, I deal with problems, said the Israeli Premier, Yitzhak Rabin on the eve of receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. Let him have the last word. Preaching good feelings is important, but practising policies that address problems in the political economy is more conducive to the attitudes that make for a good society.
Unni Wikan Ethnographic Museum University of Oslo Frederiksgate 2 0167 Oslo Norway
References
Barth, Fredrik. 1993. Balinese worlds. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Brox, Ottar. 1998. Policy implications of the settlement patterns of immigrants. Some Norwegian experiences and viewpoints. In OECD Proceedings: Immigrants, integration, cities. Exploring the links. Cohen, Anthony. 1994. Self-consciousness. An alternative anthropology of identity. London: Routledge. Das, Veena. 1989. What do we mean by health? Unpublished manuscript. Hagen, Kre og Anne Britt Djuve. 1995. Skaff meg en jobb. Levekr blant yktninger i Oslo. Oslo: FAFO Harris, Nigel. 1995. The new untouchables. Immigration and the New World worker. London: Tauris. Keesing, Roger. 1989. Exotic readings of cultural texts. Current Anthropology 30(4), 459 69. Lavelle, Robert (ed.). 1995. Americas new war on poverty. A reader for action. San Francisco: KOED Books. Lien, Inger-Lise. 1997. Ordet som stempler djevlene. Holdninger blant pakistanere og nordmenn. Oslo: Aventura. Nader, Laura. 1988. Post-Interpretive anthropology. Anthropological Quarterly 61: 149 59. Wikan, Unni. 1990. Managing turbulent hearts. A Balinese formula for living. Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1993. Beyond the words. The power of resonance. American Ethnologist 19(3): 460 82. 1995a. Mot en ny norsk underklasse. Innvandrere, kultur og integrasjon. Oslo: Gyldendal. 1995b. Kulturfundamentalismen. En trussel mof frihet og menneskeverd. Samtiden. Forthcoming. Generous betrayal. Norways venture with culture and identity politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
64
UNNI WIKAN