Tezenlo Thong
Lately, an increasing number of Nagas seems to be awakening to the fact that our cultural practices and values need to be reclaimed and revived not only for ourselves but also for posterity. This is not in contrast to a global trend of shift toward a more informed, enlightened and favorable perception on indigenous cultures, which took a hard hit beginning with the first interface between the indigenous peoples and Western colonizers.
Along side this welcome development, there seems to be a strong inclination to commodify and commercialize our culture for economic benefits. This provokes some serious questions: How do we understand our culture? Do we see it as a cash-making commodity that can be sold and bought like any other items in a capitalist economy? Or do we perceive and talk of our culture as our indispensable heritage and a vital part of our life and identity? For many Nagas, the talk on reviving our culture is almost always intertwined with the former, if not for the sole reason of generating funds. Given the perceived widespread poverty and a high unemployment rate among the Nagas, one can understand such an ambition. Nevertheless, there is a high risk of Nagas ending up in paying tremendous cultural and social costs if we misstep in our approach to cultural “renaissance”. Therefore, we need be careful in avoiding the degeneration of our culture because of commercial interests.
Often, our people are upbeat about the annually held Hornbill Festival and the prospects for growth of tourism industry and money pouring in. The likelihood of their negative social and cultural impacts on the fabric of Naga society is rarely considered or discussed. In our desperate attempt to attract tourist money to improve our economy, we should not overlook the social and cultural costs that are associated with tourism industry around the world. I’d like to make a few observations and suggestions in relation to the touted Hornbill Festival and anticipated boom in tourism industry.
To begin with, let us ask, what has the act of clowning to do with Hornbill Festival or prostitution to do with tourism industry? First, let us consider clowning and ask the following questions: During the annual Hornbill Festival, why do we engage in the performing of our traditional songs and dances? And for whom do we perform them?
A clown is someone who temporarily alters “its” appearance and performs for monetary benefits. In other words, a clown is paid to entertain others, and so it performs to entertain. A clown is not what it is. It is not real or genuine but fake, and anyone hardly takes it seriously. A clown is perceived as good only for entertaining the Other. A clown, therefore, represents someone or something that is used or misused for a brief moment of fun and entertainment. Its opinions, wishes and rights do not count much to others – good only for its amusement value at a minimal price.
The idea of performing to entertain and make money is a foreign concept to our foreparents. The commodification and selling of our culture began with the unwanted intrusion of colonial culture and capitalist economy. Much as a clown must be transformed to don a different outfit and appearance to entertain someone and make money, I am afraid the purpose of our performance is entertainment for economic gains, rather than a joyful and exuberant celebration of our cultural heritage and unique identity. Our foreparents performed and sang, not because someone wanted to be entertained, let along paid for by somebody. At the least, they did so to entertain themselves. Therefore, our culture should not be commodified and then sold and bought, nor should we perform our traditional dances and songs for someone, but for ourselves. In other words, our dancing and singing should be done not because someone wants to have fun, but for our own entertainment, to honor our tradition and to maintain its sanctity and continuity. Simply put, we need to see our culture beyond its mere monetary returns or values.
As colonial subjects, we need to understand the exhibition of our culture for entertainment in the light of colonial history. During the hay days of colonialism, global or world fairs were organized in major Euro-American cities, and the display of indigenous peoples from various colonies formed the salient feature. Exhibition of native peoples and their cultures for white people who wanted to experience exotic sensation, the “fantastic” experience of a sense of cultural distance mixed with physical proximity, drew huge public attention. Besides bringing them for literally exhibiting in fairs and museums, indigenous peoples were made to sell their products, perform exotic dances and rituals and serve their native food and drinks. In our long colonial history, we have being performing, singing for and entertaining British colonial officers, Indian Prime Ministers and Members of Parliaments, military dignitaries, and even our own state legislative members, sometimes even when visiting their own village folks. Having been complicitously performing or clowning for more than a century and a half for our colonizers and beset by economic wants, it is no wonder that we are prompt to think of converting our cultural heritage into entertainment and a money-generating commodity.
What, then, has prostitution to do with tourism industry? Tourism is often characterized as an “internal export industry,” and what are sold are the various ‘attractions,’ be these natural or cultural attractions of the land and the people. In many cases, especially in impoverished or economically deprived countries, the ‘selling of attractions’ to tourists includes prostitution or flesh trade. So literally speaking, it is a foregone conclusion that, among an increase in many other vices, tourism promotes flesh trade, and much can be said about it.
However, here I am thinking metaphorically or figuratively and would like to consider the kind of tourist attraction we are trying to promote as prostitution of one’s culture. Reclaiming or reviving one’s culture for the sole reason of its entertainment value and selling and making money is a classic example of prostitution of one’s culture. We need to be extra-cautious in becoming complicit in the planned execution and destruction of our land and the prostitution of our culture when organizing festivities like the Hornbill Festival or any other event that aims to sell our culture and attract tourists.
Tourism is often associated with leisure, fantasy and pleasure, and just as a prostitute is paid and used as an object to satisfy the lustful pleasure and fantasy of a person, the exotic ‘primitive’ culture and pristine forests of ‘backward’ people have often served the fantasy and pleasure of the ‘civilized’ person. Also, tourism industry is almost always perceived and hailed as an opportunity for ‘civilizing’ and ‘developing’ a people whose ways of life are perceived as backward and uncivilized. At the end, just as an old and dilapidated prostitute is abandoned and left to nurse her guilt and wound for the rest of her life, it is well documented around the world that tourists abandon and leave after exhausting native resources, polluting air, water and environment and degenerating hosts’ cultures and values.
Among various Nagas tribes, observance of a major festival at the end of the cycle of a harvest year was a major component of our collective culture in the past. Such traditional festivity has its own underpinning values and philosophies, focusing on thanksgiving, communal sharing, joy, rest, recreation and rejuvenation. In contrast, a planned commercial oriented modern festival, like the Hornbill Festival, has a different set of values and goals. It tends to promote an exaggerated aspect of pleasure of the festivity, which is or could be seen as a festival of orgy and unrestrained indulgence in physical pleasures, having nothing of spiritual and cultural values. No doubt, the aspect of pleasure has to be promoted aggressively and unashamedly if the goal is to attract tourists and make money. This desire to adapt or cater to the taste of tourists is responsible for the transmutation and degeneration of indigenous cultural practices in many parts of the world, affecting the values of and perception on the culture that is being represented.
In conclusion, let me concisely make a few suggestions. First, if we truly desire to revive and reclaim our cultural heritage, start teaching cultural values and meanings to our kids, e.g., in schools, church, etc. A cultural form without its content is at best a travesty. Second, limit the number of tourists according to the carrying capacity of our land. Efforts needs to be made to accommodate ‘eco-tourists,’ activists, scholars and others who are genuinely interested in learning from interactions with people of diverse cultures. ‘Hippies’ and pleasure-seekers need to be discouraged or, if possible, restricted. Third, ensure that extended use and depletion of local resources do no occur, e.g., water – our precious commodity. Fourth, promote tourism to empower villagers and let them take charge over it and have the maximum benefit. Otherwise, tourism will serve only to accentuate further the gap between the rich and the poor. Measures need to be in place so that the poor are not coerced to subsidize the rich and their opulent and extra-vacant lifestyle. As for instance, gullible and innocent villagers are asked to perform on eventful occasions, but are they being adequately compensated? Fifth, train our unemployed youth to become guides for visitors and guests and to disseminate our history and culture in their right perspectives.
Courtesy: kuknalim.com
