1995 Global Cultural Diversity Conference Proceedings, Sydney
Arts, Culture and Identity
Associate Professor Alice G. Guillermo
College of Arts and Letters, University of the Philippines
From the recent upheavals we have witnessed in the last years, we can only agree that one of the most urgent, political perceptions of our time is the regard for cultural diversity as a positive value crucial to human survival. It is the realisation that ethnicity, race and culture, rather than functioning as divisive factors, can contribute to create a rich human situation, multicultural and polyethnic, that is beneficial to all. The full acceptance, indeed appreciation, of global diversity will free people from prejudice, intolerance and fear and bring us closer to the basic human ideals invoked centuries ago as liberty, equality and fraternity.
This century now coming to a close has been marked by a tremendous tension between constructive and destructive forces. In many parts of the world, destructive energies have been unleashed in bloody ethnic strife and in the unrelenting plunder of the natural environment. On the other hand, creative energies have been channelled into advances in transportation and communication technologies, as well as health research. But the gains in global communication and the flourishing of the arts along with the recent progress in regional and international exposure will become of limited value if they are not supported by a universal drive for beneficial human exchange that comes from a greater understanding and appreciation of cultural diversity.
Yet, while the valorisation of cultural diversity is indeed of pressing importance, it is necessary to examine the underside of the concept. For multidiversity may easily convey the ideological perception of equally-weighted elements, forces or groups in the body politic. This is an illusion, however, for in reality these various groups enter into a given structure of power relations. In these, dominant interests continue to marginalise groups which suffer from a structural disadvantage both on the national and the international levels. If the rubric of cultural diversity will only function as an ideological smokescreen to conceal more sophisticated forms of politico-economic domination and racism, then certainly it will prove beneficial only to some but deleterious to the interests of large, dominated populations in different countries all over the world. It thus becomes imperative that the valorisation of multicultural diversity be accompanied by the political will on the part of governments and the people to translate it into concrete social programs that will eliminate the political and economic disadvantages of traditionally marginalised groups and prepare the ground for their empowerment. Indeed, the ideal is a global situation which respects diversity in race, culture and religion, and transforms it into a life-enhancing value for all.
From the foregrounding of diversity, one goes a step further to problematise the related concept of pluralism. Like diversity, the concept of pluralism also conveys the ideological impression of equally weighted elements in the political arena, but the particular nuance in pluralism is its stress on the political and cultural values that are proffered by the different elements, forces and groups, and that it is these values that are given equal weight. But, again, these values are not discrete and neutral entities, for they are interest-linked and inserted likewise into a system of power relations in which the dominant groups possess the political apparatuses to choose and disseminate those values which will best serve their interests. Thus, we are only too well aware of state-sponsored value-orientation programs in the school system which serve to maintain and strengthen traditional privilege by reproducing ideological subjects that neither question nor challenge the prevailing social relations. On the other hand, there are political and cultural values that foster the emergence and liberation of traditionally subordinate groups, classes and ethnicities. And at this point pluralism drops its mask of neutrality. The massive project of the liberation of subordinate and marginalised groups and classes will go on with even greater fervour, on the national and international fronts, notwithstanding the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the revisionist states of Eastern Europe.
Pluralism also places emphasis on the tolerance of cultural heterogeneity stemming from the various ethnicities in the national and global arena, but the terms are defined by the superior perspective of dominant groups. One must go beyond mere tolerance,which is more often only the attitude of "letting them be",to the recognition and acknowledgement of the valuable and distinct contributions of the different groups on the national and international levels. Ideologically, pluralism glosses over the rifts, dissensions and conflicts in the national and global contexts in order to convey a lulling sense of harmony. At the same time it also gives the impression of a wide liberal range of social and political choices when, in fact, these may be reduced to a small few which, moreover, are not radically different in their agenda and thus do not involve real choice.
As such, pluralism conveniently lends ideological support to the new imperialist strategies of economic zones, such as the NAFTA, AFTA and GATT, led by powerful countries, mainly the United States, in order to create a semblance of equality among the players. In reality, these economic aggrupations function not only to create open markets favourable to the dominant economies but also to contain the efforts of Third World peoples to mount a political and economic struggle for independence and self-determination, based on national interests, against neo-colonialism.
In culture, the current global efforts towards the formation of zones and regional aggrupations are accompanied by the downgrading of nationalism and national sovereignties, along with a conceptual loosening of territorial boundaries to give way to a fluid situation. These ideological manoeuvres politically extend the post structuralist theories of the decentring of the human subject viewed as fatally entrapped by inhuman and impersonal structures. However, such theories negate the revolutionary impulse of Third World peoples. As Brook Thomas wrote in his essay on "The New Historicism and Other Old-Fashioned Topics":
"... it may be more than an irony of history that precisely at the moment when women and ethnics ... sense the possibility of emergence and the establishment of a somewhat autonomous self, a theory is imported from the still predominantly white, male European academy declaring that notions of emergence and a centred self are bourgeois and reactionary."
The assertion of ethnicity and cultural identity, one's specificity and relative autonomy, one's cultural heritage, common history and tradition of struggle, is a necessary safeguard so as not to be engulfed by dominant interests and so as to be able to put up a resistance against neo-colonial strategies. But ethnic identity, too, enters into the system of power relations, so that ethnicity is seen to overdetermine the more basic ground of economic relations and what may appear as an ethnic issue may basically be economic in nature.
With the large movements of population in the last centuries, there are now few truly homogenous societies. Cultural diversity in many countries has been brought about by colonisation during the period of European expansion in the 16th century, as well as by migration, and global trade. Filipinos, for instance, while basically of Malay stock, have some Spanish and Chinese strains in their culture. Likewise, Spanish and Chinese elements have been assimilated into the general population throughout the centuries of Spanish colonisation and Chinese maritime trade, although the richest Spaniards and Chinese of today form exclusive enclaves. With a total population of 65 million, the population of the Philippines is composed of as many as one hundred ethnolinguistic groups. Of these, the biggest are the lowland Christian peoples comprising 90 per cent of the total population, which include the Ilocano, Pangasinan, Pampango, Tagalog, Bicol, Ilongo, Cebuano and Waray. The rest of the population is divided among the Islamic or Islam-influenced groups, like the Maguindanao, Maranao, Tausug, Badjao and Samal and the animist indigenous groups, like those found in the Cordilleras of northern Luzon, and the islands of Mindoro and Mindanao. Filipinos are predominantly Christian, meaning Catholics, Aglipayans, Protestants or Iglesia ni Kristo. Catholics account for about 85 per cent of the entire population; the remaining 15 per cent may be divided into the other Christians, the Muslims and the animist groups. The composition of the population today is largely the result of Spanish colonisation which drove a wedge between the Christian and the non-Christian groups. The dominant Filipino groups are those which were Christianised, and the rest were those who strongly resisted colonisation or withdrew into the forests and hinterlands.
Given this ethnic diversity, a satisfactory balance must necessarily be struck between the various ethnic identities and the national identity. In a situation of diversity, how is national identity to be defined? This becomes a sensitive issue because, from the way that it is defined, the national identity can become an instrument of hegemony and domination, of inclusion and exclusion by ruling groups. Thus there can, in fact, be conflicting definitions and concepts of national identity in society. For on one hand it is defined by the power bloc, the ruling elite often backed by foreign interests. On the other hand it is also defined by the people, those among them who have achieved a high degree of socio-political consciousness through progressive grassroots people's organisations and institutions. The dominant definition by the ruling political/economic elite has the effect of marginalising, oppressing and diminishing the rights of particular groups, thereby perpetuating inequality. Because of this, the definition of national identity is attended by a long struggle, a struggle which can form part of a larger revolutionary process.
But what should the true definition of national identity consist of? It first of all presupposes the development of national consciousness, the consciousness of a common cultural heritage and history, and given this, the acceptance of a common national interpellation,for instance Filipino or Australian,as a national identity. For the Filipino people, the essence of this concept is national integrity and sovereignty vis-a-vis foreign political and economic strategies of domination. Then, too, the interpellations of the diverse groups, the ethnolinguistic groups such as the Ifugao, the Maranao, the Cebuano, Ilocano etc and the religious groups, such as the Christian, Muslim etc, while maintaining their distinctiveness, must be articulated into the common national identity: Filipino. But this would imply the prerequisite that these diverse groups enjoy equal rights in the body politic.
The arts in the Philippines reflect this ethnic diversity. There are the traditional arts, including folk and "ethnic" art, and contemporary art. In the Spanish colonial period, the indigenous artistic traditions assumed two forms: one, the folk art of the lowland Christianised communities usually associated with Church festivals; and the other, usually referred to as "ethnic art" because of the distinct ethnographic character, associated with unhispanised groups with little or no Western influence. Folk and ethnic art are grassroots productions and the distinctions between them are often blurred. Although Spain succeeded in converting most of the country to Christianity, what later developed was a syncretic Christianity rich in folk elements and expressions. Furthermore, the indigenous artistic traditions were continued by groups which vigorously resisted colonisation, such as the Northern Cordillera groups and the Muslim groups of Mindanao, as well as by the many tribes which removed themselves from the path of proselytisation by withdrawing from their coastal settlements to the mountains and forests. These groups preserved the ancient Malay traditions, with their values, symbols and technologies, as practised before the advent of colonisation.
A renewed attention to these traditions came after the granting of formal independence to the Philippines at the end of the Second World War. Defining Philippine culture and identity became a political and intellectual concern among writers and scholars. That this project was fraught with problems was seen from the intense debates that ensued. Some defined Filipino identity in the pre-colonial past; others placed emphasis on the Propaganda Movement and the anti-colonial Revolution of 1896. However, such efforts tended to show that the national identity is not an absolute essence that can be excavated in the past. On the contrary, it is developed with the historical process, particularly with the popular struggles against foreign domination, and with the emergence of the different ethnicities contributing to the national identity.
For Filipinos, indigenous culture has an important role as the foundation of the national culture and identity, even more so because of the country's long colonial past. The indigenous artistic heritage is now being recuperated as a common cultural matrix from which all Filipinos draw inspiration, even as an edifying essence that was always already there. Yet, throughout the colonial period the gap increasingly grew between the national/mainstream and the local/ethnic, as the indigenous or traditional arts became associated with particular ethnic groups and the relation of the national to the local and ethnic became an antagonistic one of domination and exploitation. This being so, the recent project of the articulation of the indigenous traditions into the national mainstream became problematic, because it consisted of the unilateral initiative of dominant groups without regard for the sentiments of the ethnic groups themselves. At the present, therefore, it is only fitting that the articulation of these traditions into contemporary national culture requires the dismantling of the old power structures between the dominant Christianised groups and the ethnic communities and that these latter, along with the development of their political consciousness, should be able to enjoy equal rights and relative autonomy within the national framework, while resisting full assimilation and the consequent loss of ethnic identity. This is an effort that can be consistently pursued, not so much by the government as by progressive people's organisations which have consistently espoused the indigenous communities' causes. It is only on this condition that there can be a harmonious flow and exchange between the national and the ethnic, the traditional and the contemporary, and that, drawing from this deep source, contemporary artists, influenced and inspired by the traditional arts, will not be open to the charge of "foraging" by outsiders.
In defining the relationship of the contemporary artist to tradition, it is necessary that the indigenous arts, much of it consisting of living traditions, such as textile and mat weaving, basketry, woodcarving, and brassware, be viewed in their specific social contexts, in the conditions of production in which the artists/craftsmen of the indigenous communities work. Their populations have suffered centuries of poverty, deprivation and colonial prejudice, with only the barest necessities of life, and without access to education and health services. In addition, they are often grossly exploited by urban entrepreneurs who pay a pittance for their work and are also often victimised by land grabbers and speculators who evict them from their ancestral lands and their sources of food. Thus, before the urban Filipino can appreciate and learn from their splendid productions in good faith, it is necessary to participate in educational campaigns, political pressure, and various forms of struggle towards the end that their populations will enjoy full and equal rights with the rest of the population.
Doubtless it is also only after continuing popular effort in this area has been kept going that the traditions of the indigenous communities can be articulated into the national discourse as part of our artistic heritage as a people. Only in this way can it be accomplished with their consent and participation and not as a unilateral move from the dominant urban groups. Much work in restitution is called for to make up for the long years of neglect and marginalisation. Assistance can be provided to stimulate the production of their traditional arts. Among these efforts is the recognition of their specificity and communal identity and assurance that these will not be swept away. It is also to be hoped that these efforts will foster the raising of the communities' political consciousness from the local to the national level, along with the development of a sense of commonly-shared identity, but, again, this is only possible with the guarantees of human and equal rights.
It is likewise important then that the traditional arts be viewed, not as isolated and catalogued artefacts in a museum, but in their social, historical, political and economic contexts, the living ground in which they are produced. Otherwise, one views them as pure design and form while bracketing their social significance. This would be tantamount to using traditional and indigenous musical instruments only in their function as sound-producing media outside of their social and ritualistic contexts and independent of their original musical structures.
For the contemporary Filipino artist, the present trend of drawing from or borrowing from the indigenous traditions can be a highly sensitive issue. An unsuccessful use by an artist may show disrespect for the original material, leading to charges of bastardisation. This especially occurs when the indigenous production is brought within capitalist relations which reify it into a commodity. As such, it is packaged, glamorised and adapted to the taste of urban consumers, not only local but also foreign. Moreover the borrower may be accused of enriching himself at the expense of the original producers.
Under antagonistic conditions, when the indigenous communities feel themselves victims of urban exploitation they may jealously guard their productions from borrowing. They may insist on cultural purity and isolation, as in music and dance, and require the urban artist who may genuinely appreciate indigenous art, to follow the original without modification or adaptation to the secondary audience. This is because they would take offence at the garbling of the original communal meanings and by the feeling of alienation from their work that such use has put beyond their control. However, in an optimum situation in which exploitation is eliminated and genuine rapport ensues, with artists sincerely sharing their causes and aspirations and proving this through their positive attitudes, actions and relations with them, the communities may become more open to the dynamic interplay between indigenous cultures and the national culture even as they articulate their own ethnic identity into the national identity.
The arts and culture hold an important role today in the framework of global cultural diversity. It is time to open a large space not only for the previously marginalised ethnic and regional arts and artists, but, even more, to encourage and to celebrate polyethnic art interactions and movements, bringing artists and people from different backgrounds to engage in collective art-making activities. Thus, as expressions of ethnic and local identities, their arts will enrich the national identity with their range and diversity of forms; as expressions of the different national identities, the arts of all people contribute to the global culture which sustains humankind as they foster universal understanding leading to the full realisation of our shared humanity.
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