Page 69 - Essencials of Sociology

42 CHAPTER 2 Culture

Cultural Diversity around the World

Dancing with the Dead

At last the time had come. The family had so looked
forward to this day. They would finally be able to take their
parents and uncle out of the family crypt and dance with
them.
The celebration isn’t cheap, and it had taken several
years to save enough money for it. After all, if the dead saw
them in old clothing, they would think that they weren’t
prospering. And the dead needed new shrouds, too.
And a band had to be hired—a good one so the dead
could enjoy their favorite music. ancestors hadn’t lived and taken care of us, we wouldn’t be
And friends and relatives had to be invited to the here.”
celebration—and fed a meal with meat. Like many people around the world, the traditional Mala-
The family members entered the crypt with respect. gasy believe that only a fine line separates the living from the
Carefully removing the dead, dead. And like many people around
they tenderly ran their fingers the world, they believe that this line
across the skulls, remember- is so fine that the dead communicate
ing old times. After sharing with the living in dreams. The primary
the latest family news with the distinction is probably the famadihana,
dead, they dressed the dead a custom that seems to be unique to
in their new shrouds. As the Madagascar.
band played cheerful tunes, In a few years, the living will join
they danced with the dead. the dead. And a few years after that,
The dancing was joyful, as the these newly dead will join the living in
family members took turns this dance. The celebration of life and
twirling the dead to the fast, death continues.
musical rhythms
Everyone was happy, in-
cluding the dead, who would In this photo, taken in Madagascar, the body, exhumed For Your Consideration
be put back in their crypt, not and wrapped in a new shroud, is being paraded among ↑ How does the famadihana differ
to dance again for another other celebrants of famadihana. from your culture’s customs regarding
four to seven years. the dead? Why does the famadihana
This celebration, which occurs in Madagascar, an island seem strange to Americans and so
nation off the west coast of Africa, is called famadihana ordinary to the traditional Malagasy? How has your culture
(fa-ma-dee-an). Its origin is lost in history, but the dancing shaped your ideas about death, the dead, and the living?
is part of what the living owe the dead. “After all,” say Sources: Based on Bearak 2010; Consulate General of Madagascar in
the Malagasy, “We owe everything to the dead. If our Cape Town 2012.

about how to treat animals, ideas that have evolved slowly and match other elements
of our culture. In some areas of the United States, cock fighting, dog fighting, and
bear–dog fighting were once common. Only as the culture changed were they gradually
eliminated.
Cultural relativism is an attempt to refocus our lens of perception so we can appreci-
ate other ways of life rather than simply asserting, “Our way is right.” Although none
of us can be entirely successful at practicing cultural relativism, look at the photos on
page 44 and try to appreciate the cultural differences they illustrate about standards of
beauty. I think you will enjoy the Cultural Diversity box on the next page, too, but my
best guess is that you will evaluate these “strange” foods through the lens of your own
culture.
Although cultural relativism helps us avoid cultural smugness, this view has come under
attack. In a provocative book, Sick Societies (Edgerton 1992), anthropologist Robert
Edgerton suggests that we develop a scale for evaluating cultures on their “quality of life,”