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Page 2. JULY 1953

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FROM THE UNESCO NEWS ROOM...

* Korea : Libraries in Korea will soonbe receiving the first shipment of a totalof 50, 000 new books which are beingpurchased for them by the UnitedNations Korean Reconstruction Agencyunder a book replacement programmefor educational institutions that lostmost of their school supplies and equip-ment as a result of military operations.The book programme was undertakenwith the help of Unesco which sent aplanning mission to Korea.* Belgium : The 12th annual BelgianInternational Art Week organized bythe country's Ministry of Education willbegin on July 30. This enables visitorsfrom many countries to inspect, underexpert guidance, Belgium's ancient andmodern art treasures. This year eightcountries are organizing similar"ArtsWeeks"in collaboration with the Bel-gian authorities.* Netherlands : Though still strugglingto regain land lost to the sea in therecent floods, the Netherlands continuesto supply experts to help other coun-tries. A group of Dutch engineers andtechnicians has just planned a ten-yearscheme for Syria that will turn aboutseventy-five thousand acres of marsh-land in Northwest Syria into a fertileagricultural region capable of support-ing sixty thousand people.* Mexico : The first exhibition on thehistory of books and engravings inMexico is being organized with the co-operation of both official and privatecultural organizations. The exhibitionwill record the impressive developmentof book production and engraving inthis country, from the time the firstprinting press was introduced to Mexicountil today.

* Italy : The island of San Giorgio,opposite the Piazza di San Marco inVenice, is being transformed into aninternational centre of culture and thearts. Artists and scholars from manynations will be able to stay in a guesthome in San Giorgio's famous abbey.Two modern schools have also beenbuilt for children from the poorestVenetian families. Buildings are beingtransformed into a hostel for Italianand foreign students. An amphitheatreto seat 1, 400 spectators is being built forspecial theatrical performances.* Pakistan : In the past during mon-soon storms, lightning has many timesstruck radio transmission lines at Dacca,East Pakistan, cutting off broadcasts forseveral days. Now Mr. S. A. Azziz,"RadioPakistan's"research engineer, andMr. W. C. Lee (New Zealand), a Unescotechnical assistance expert, haveinstalled"protection tubes"whichprevent electrical charges from beingbuilt up on cables during these storms.Radio listeners now hope to enjoyuninterrupted broadcasts throughout themonsoon season.* Ireland : Art critics from manynations are to meet in Dublin thismonth for the Forth InternationalCongress of Art Critics. The Congresswill deal with matters of professionalinterest, and at the same time will studythe relationship of a work of art to theculture of its time, the relations bet-ween art and science, and also art cri-ticism through the medium of films.* Burma : British books are now reach-ing people in even the most isolatedparts of Burma thanks to a book-box

scheme which the British Council hasintroduced to widen its library servicesin this South East Asian country. Fromthe British Council library in Rangoonboxes of books go out by rail, river andsea on five routes dividing the countryinto regions, each of which has four orfive stations or borrowing points.* Portugal : The Portuguese Govern-ment has launched a vigorous campaignagainst illiteracy-a campaign that mayaffect as much as forty per cent ofthe population. Primary education willbe compulsory for all children betweenseven and thirteen. Army recruits areto. be released from service only aftercompleting educational courses. More-over, beginning in 1955, no company willbe allowed to hire personnel who failedto complete their primary schooling.Government courses are being organized

* France : Children's literature usuallyis written by adults, selected by adultsand published by adults, but a newFrench literary jury will give the chil-dren themselves an important voice inthe matter. The jury, which will awarda prize for the best children's book of1953, will be made up of ten youngstersbetween the ages of ten and fourteenfrom primary and secondary schools inParis and the suburbs.* Unesco : More than twelve thousandpublications received as gifts andexchange offerings from governments,libraries, publishers and private indivi-duals were distributed through Unesco'sClearing House for Publications tolibraries in fifty-five countries duringthe second half of last year. Ninethousand additional volumes wereexchanged by libraries among them-

FRANCE TO APPLY UNESCO"FREE FLOW"AGREEMENT

France has put into effect the Unesco-sponsorec/international Agreement whichabolishes import c/uties on a wide range of ec/ucational, scientific anc/cultural materials.A bill for ratification of the Agreement has been preiented to the National Assem6ly,anc/penc/ing formal ratification a c/ecree has been issuec/authorizing provisional appli-cation of the convention.

The French Government' c/ecision was announcec/on the first anniversary of theAgreement's coming into force on 21 May, 1952. Fourteen nations are alreac/y portiesto it.

The convention eliminates c/uties on books, newspopers, magazines, music scores,works of art anc/articles for the blink. Also exempt are newsreels, ec/ucational films,filmstrips, sounc/recorc/ings anc/scientific equipment if consignec/to approvec/institu-tions. In odd/tfon, governments unc/ertake to grant import licences anc/foreignexchange for publications requirec/by public libraries.

The Agreement is alreac/y being appliec/by Cambodia, Ceylon, Cuba, Egypt, Israel,Laos, Monaco, Pakistan, Philippines, Swec/en, Switzerlanc/, Thailanc/, Vietnam anc/Jugoslavia.

Seventeen additional nations have signed but not yet ratifies. A number of themare acting to obtain ratification. The Unitec/Kingc/om anc/Iran, for example, havepresentec/bills calling for porliamentary approval.

throughout the country for both chil-dren and adults.

* Venezuela : Local authorities of theimportant oil town of Maracaibo havedecided to organize a system of schoolby radio for children unable to leavetheir homes. The radio courses laterwill be extended to adults who cannotattend evening schools. A special ma-nual is being prepared to instruct theteachers who will be responsible for thebroadcasts.* Denmark : The Danish InternationalStudent Committee is again organizinginternational archaeological work campsthis year lasting three weeks. These willbe held at Fyrkat, near Hobro in Jutland,where students will help the DanishNational Museum excavate a vikingfortress, and on the island of Bornholdwhere they will work on a fortress dat-ing from the Iron Age, and rebuilt inthe Middle Ages, and on some EarlyIron Age habitations. Students will besupervised by archaeologists from theNational Museum, and will visit placesof historical interest.* Israel : The first of many Israeliinternational work camps planned for1953 has now ended. For two weeks,volunteers from Switzerland, the UnitedStates and Great Britain joined withfifteen Israelis and Arabs to constructterraces, gardens and playgrounds at aVillage Home for young delinquents.The work camp idea was introducedwith great success in Israel last summer.

selves, following encouragement fromUnesco.

* Nepal : The Government of Nepal hassigned and deposited the instrument ofacceptance of the constitution of Unesco,thus becoming officially Unesco's sixty-seventh Member State. Nepal's applic-ation for membership had been approv-ed by Unesco's general conference atits Seventh session in Paris last Novem-ber.* Yugoslavia : More than two hundredYugoslav students will engage in specialstudies abroad this year, while onehundred and forty foreign students visitYugoslavia under a recent agreementwith the International Association forthe Exchange of Students. The Yugo-slav students are to spend from twoto four months in one or several ofeleven countries.* International : On June 1st, aninternational agreement sponsored bythe International Labour Organizationcame into force granting social securitybenefits to forty-five thousand barge-men on Europe's Rhine river. Underthe agreement, signed by Germany,France, Belgium, Holland and Switzer-land, the barge-men and their familieswill receive benefits no matter in whichcountry they find themselves-andwhatever the flag under which they aresailing.* United Kingdom : This month theBritish pharmaceutical industry will

adopt the metric system for weightsand measures. By doing so, it will sim-plify the present system and bring itinto line with measurements used byscientists in most other countries.

* United Nations : The United NationsPostal Administration has issued acommemorative stamp honouring thework of the Universal Postal Union.The new stamp's design shows a globewith an envelope superimposed. * Theemblem of the United Nations appearsin the middle and the abbreviation"UPU"at the lower right.

* Norway : King Haakon of Norwayhas opened a nation-wide campaign tofinance Norway's new Aid to Indiascheme. The project involves technicalassistance to India, under a three-wayagreement between the United Nationsand the Governments of Norway andIndia. Funds will first be used to sendexperts and equipment to help modernizefisheries in the Indian state of Travan-core-Cochin. The United Nations willalso contribute assistance.

* Austria : An international congressfor the professional training of musi-cians will take place this month in BadAussee and Salzburg. Some eightydirectors of conservatories, universitiesand music academies in many countrieswill participate in the congress. Theywill strive to co-ordinate the differentmethods of musical education and toelaborate what would be an ideal peda-gogic programme in the realm of music.

* United Nations : Sculptures to deco-rate the outdoor site of the UnitedNations building in New York are beingsought by the Organization. Thoughmany gifts have been received for theinterior of the Headquarters, only twostatues have so far been given to standin the grounds. One is Greece's giftof a statue of Zeus, and the other asculpture in wood of a young girl fromDenmark. Two more outdoor sites havebeen prepared for stone statuary and sofar only one offer has been received-Yugoslavia has promised a Bronze eques-trian statue.

* Haiti : As a preliminary to a majorplan for agricultural development inthe Valley of Artibonita, the Govern-ment of Haiti has launched a demons-tration project"Bois Dehors", for therational exploitation of more than, 1, 500acres of land, which will be devoted tocultivation of rice, vegetables, pastureand kenaf. To stimulate the co-opera-tive spirit of the farmers, adult educa-tion, sports, educational films, as wellas all types of recreational and socialactivities are given a prominent placein the programme. The results obtainedhave already shown the strength of thefarmers'determination to improve theirway of life, according to the authorities.

* International : Under a five-yearinternational Art Exchange programme,the work of modern artists will be exhi-bited in many parts of the world.Thanks to this programme, financed bya grant from the Rockefeller BrothersFund, American painters and sculptorswill be able to show their work in Pans,Tokyo and Sao Paulo, Brazil : whilstexhibitions of Japanese architecture andcontemporary Italian architecture anddesign will be shown at the Museum ofModern Art in New York.

; OURIER JULY 1953. Page 3

DANGERS IN TECHNICAL CHANGE

ALL the great civilizations of the world arehybrids. No matter how far back we go inhistory we find that most of the changes

that have taken place, even in the most primitivecivilizations, have had their roots in contacts withother peoples. The greatest civilizations havebeen those which were flexible enough to absorbthe largest possible number of foreign techniquesand ideas.

But whereas in the past changes were, as arule, slow and new techniques were blendedharmoniously into the existing order of thingswithout causing serious upheavals, the changesin our time are more brutal and the repercussionsswifter and deeper. Instead of the formerharmonious process of evolutionary change weare witnessing revolutionary changes broughtabout by the engulfing sweep of modern techno-logy.

In the past 500 years, the rhythm of technicalprogress has been amazingly accelerated with therapid development of the means of commu-nication. And today, our industrial civilizationis reaching out into every hidden corner of theglobe.

The United Nations programme of TechnicalAssistance is a systematic attempt, on an in-ternational scale, to bring to the economicallyunfavoured countries the technical knowledgeand methods that will enable them to raise theirstandard of living and to share in the progressof the highly industrialized countries.

The present gap between the living standardsof the industrialized and the under-developedcountries is a threat to peace. Not only does itencourage an inclination to rebel, but the povertyprevalent in large areas of the world is a handicapto the more fortunate countries in that their levelof production is directly affected by the economicweakness of potential customers.

The changes that Technical Assistance seeks toachieve in the under-developed countries has beendefined as"a cumulative process where agri-cultural improvements, health, education, socialmeasures and industrialization are introduced ina gradual interplay".

The promoters of Technical Assistance are fullyaware that economic development is bound toaffect all aspects of a people's life to varyingdegrees. Food, health and education are themain fields in which they wish to introducechanges and they are persuaded that"given awide and equitable distribution of its benefits, itis likely to result in a substantial increase in thesecurity of the individual and in social stability".

But there is one basic principle which mustguide all forms of planned economic development.It is an extremely delicate one ; it amounts toguiding the transition from one form of cultureto another in order to avert the disastrousconsequences that many countries of the worldhave suffered from such changes in the past.This is the task which the U. N. TechnicalAssistance Programme has now begun to allot tothe social scientist.

Progress, in the form in which the UnitedNations seeks to propagate it throughout theworld, must inevitably destroy many forms oflocal culture still surviving on several continents.

These cultures have their defects, no doubt, butthey are none the less the outcome of a longadaptation to local conditions, and their followersfind in them a satisfaction for which even themost advanced technology cannot always com-pensate. The members of a village communityoften enjoy a measure of protection that theywill lose when swamped in a proletarian society.The leisurely well-ordered rhythm of country lifehas all too often been replaced by joyless, soul-deadened toil.

We have learnt by now that no culture hassucceeded in bringing into play all the poten-tialities of human nature, and that some of thehumblest forms of culture have solved problemsthat baffled the more highly developed. Higherstandards of living, industrialization-these willinevitably destroy such values and thus tendtowards the impoverishment of the human race.

The choice lies not between guns and butter,

FEW of us change long-stranding habits very easily. Even in a highly-industrialized country where changes from the old tothe new are constantly taking place, it takes a good while before people accept these changes. In non-indus-trialized countries, where changes are usually much slower, it is not surprising that resistance tc change is even more

deeply-rooted.Today, under the Technical Assistance Programme of the United Nations and various governmental and voluntary

agencies, great transformations are taking place in the life of millions of people in Asia, Africa and Latin America.New techniques to increase food production and conserve resources, new methods of nutrition, new health practices, neweducation-all of these are being introduced into communities whose way of life has, more often than not, changed littleand slowly for hundreds of years.

This rather sudden impact of technological change has posed critical human problems to technical assistance expertsworking around the world. They have come to realize that it is not enough to move into a country with tractors andbags of fertilizers and simply tell the people to use them if they want better crops. The reasons why these people havedone things in their own way must first be understood and respected. If they are not respected, then the naturalresistance to change and interference will only be strengthened.

So a new aspect of Technical Assistance is taking on supreme importance. This is the study of a people's culture- by which the social scientist and the anthropologist mean not only religion and philosophy and the arts, but the smallintimate customs of daily life, how people cook and eat their food, how they manage their children and run their homes.

Cultural anthropology and the other branches of the social sciences have much to offer for the guidance of thetechnical assistance expert, for his task is not only to transfer knowledge but to have it take root. Unesco has nowpublished such a guide-an absorbing study called"Cultural Patterns and Technical Change", edited by Dr. Margaret Mead,the noted anthropologist and psychologist, and prepared by a team of social scientists in co-operation with the WorldFederation of Mental Health.

Although primarily designed for the technical assistance expert, the new volume makes fascinating reading for thelayman. (It will be available end of August at Unesco Sales Agents at $2 ; 11/6d ; 550 Fr. Frs). On the following pageswe are happy to be able to present highlights from a few of the chapters of this book.

Dr. Alfred Metraux, of the Social Sciences Department of Unesco which is devoting increased attention to the humanproblems of technical change in under-developed countries, speaks out frankly and bluntly, below, with an anthropologist'sview of some of the dangers which he personally sees if the human problems involved in technical assistance are notclearly understood and taken into account.

by Dr. Alfred Metraux

but between butter and certain forms of art,certain religious or philosophical traditions. Thedanger of standardization is largely theoretical,for it must be remembered that requests fortechnical assistance and fundamental educationare being received from countries where de-velopment is in full swing and which have to agreat extent broken with their past traditions.

No reasonable person could suppose that itwould be possible to turn vast areas of the worldinto preserves for the protection of native cultures.Even if, for sentimental reasons, we might wishto do so, the representatives of the cultures

concerned would undoubtedly be the first to wishto escape from their traditional way of life andto denounce our efforts as unjust and dis-criminatory. It must be remembered that theinitial impetus towards change and developmentcomes from the governments and peoples of theunder-developed countries.

And they are travelling along the path ofprogress faster than their advisers had expected.Many are trying to go ahead too quickly-at adangerous rate. If any attempt is made to checkthem, they raise the cry of'''reaction'', or assertthat they are being made the victims of a sinisterimperialism. Heads of missions find that one oftheir most difficult problems is to restrain ill-timed enthusiasm and curb the impulse towardspremature innovation.

Nowadays H is the most highly cultivatedrepresentatives of the coloured races who protestmost vehemently when white men advise them tomaintain their traditional customs. They eventend to regard anthropologists as the agents ofan insidious imperialism which, under the cloakof respect and affection, is striving to perpetuateits supremacy and to debar the coloured racesfrom all access to power and happiness.

It cannot be denied, however, that too high aprice is often paid for the introduction of in-dustrialism, and this might perhaps be avoided.The impact of mechanization is appalling in itslevelling-down effect. Anyone who has evervisited a mining camp or a sugar cane plantationcan bear witness to the degradation broughtabout by the transfer from the tribal way of lifeto that of the hired labourer.

Our own society has passed through a similarcrisis, and, the wiser for our experience, we mightperhaps be able to save other cultures frommaking the same mistakes and enduring the samesufferings as ourselves. When the transformationis on a vast scale, the original culture may beshaken to its foundations or even destroyed. AsDr. Bowles so aptly remarks :

"The tragedy lies, not in the disappearance ofa culture, it lies in the replacement of afunctioning society with a mass of disunited in-dividuals who, as victims of circumstance, canfall easy prey to exploitation of one sort oranother."

It all too frequently happens that the plansmade for assisting economically backward peoplesmake no allowance for the tastes and feelings ofthose who are to benefit from the so-called im-provements. Economists and technicians, becausethey deal in statistics and handle practicalproblems, become imbued with an alarming self-confidence. They seldom have any inkling of therelationship that exists between the variousinstitutions of a group and fail to realize that itsculture cannot be altered piecemeal.

It requires the experience and acquired instinctof the anthropologist to foresee what re-percussions any slight change may have on asociety as a whole. It is the far-reachingconsequences of an apparently desirable reformwhich, when perceived by the members of aparticular society, give rise to opposition forwhich the technicians and economists can findno explanation. Hygiene and literacy are not inthemselves a source of happiness and prosperity.On the contrary they may even, in certain cases,have a disintegrating effect.

Any educational system which is not suited toa particular form of culture will tend to un-dermine its intellectual and moral foundations,replacing them by standards which are not itsown. As a result we find these groups of uprootedmaladjusted individuals, who are a dead weightand a danger to peoples at the transitional stageof culture.

All changes imposed from without, even whensupported by a central government, inevitablymeet with opposition, varying in intensity fromone country, background and social class toanother. The apathy for which foreign expertsso often blame indigenous workers is due in manyinstances to a latent antagonism which remainshidden until, suddenly intensified, it breaks out inopen revolt.

Indifference may also result from a lack of in-centives. Customs and institutions which to usseem harmful and incompatible with ourconception of human happiness may neverthelessrepresent, to the members of certain groups, asource of satisfaction for which they are given nosubstitute. This applies particularly to im-provements that require a period of years inwhich to make themselves felt.

No change will be accepted, or produce a lastingeffect, unless it is based on a system of values.The chief task of the anthropologist in technicalassistance programmes will be to discover thepsychological motives underlying customarybehaviour. If a culture is to be transformed, theinnovations introduced, while meeting the wishesof individuals, must not clash with attitudesdeeply rooted in that culture.

Page 4. JULY 1953

oASHOT ! N THE ARM

FOR HEALTH IMPROVEMENT

IN many cultures throughout the world manis continuous with his environment. He is nothealthy unless his environment is"healthy,"

or, conversely, the well-being of his environmentdepends upon his acts. For example, a bereavedKgatla spouse of a fruitful union needs purifica-tion before he can step on the earth because histread scorches the ground ; he injures the people,the cattle, the crops, and causes a drought.

To break connection between the body and theland that is continuous with it may be hazardousor disastrous, irrespective of whether the peopleare sedentary or not, whether they depend on"the fruits of the earth"through agriculture.This continuity is expressed in a wide range ofways, from the Eskimo desire to die where hewas born to the belief of the cattle raising Nuerthat if a man permanently settles away fromtribal land he will get sick unless he takes someearth with him to drink in water mixed withgradually increasing amounts of new land. Thedistance a man will travel for treatment maydepend on which is more hazardous, lack of treat-ment or continuity with his land.

Again, the body is continuous with the otherbodies of the social unit, and in this lies thestrength and the weakness of the unit, inasmuchas when one body suffers, it exposes the wholeunit to danger.

Western medicine has a name for this : it callsit contagion and explains it scientifically. Themedicine of other groups recognizes a differentorder of contagion or pollution, and acts accord-ing to a different conception. So the AustralianMurngin will psychologically cut off any one oftheir members who is known to have been magi-cally attacked ; they stop treating him in termsof his place in the balanced system of structuredroles ; the mother does not act as his mother,the brother does not relate himself to the manwho is magically stricken as his brother. Thestricken one is"isolated,"and the social unitthus protects itself against his contagion. Sucha conception of continuity of body with landand society underlies the way in which medical

treatment and hygienic measures are acceptedand worked out.

The image of the body depends to some extenton these concepts of continuity. In many socie-ties it has no sharp boundaries. Different partsof the body may be stressed in forming the linkof continuity. In Greek culture, for example,lineal continuity with the descendant is envi-sioned as a continuity of the internal organs, thesplanchna, and"compassion"in Greek is derivedfrom this word. A mother, ready to do anythingfor her child, will say,"He is my splanchna."The lateral relationship, however, is one of blood :my sister is"my blood,"and blood brotherhood

is reported to have been created between friends,at least until recently, in remote sections. Theorgans of communication, the windows of thesoul, are the eyes among the Greeks, and alsoamong the Russians, as well as in Latin America.In Mediterranean countries and the Middle Eastevil flows through the eyes when an individualadmires and covets.

Certain parts of the body are often more highlycharged with emotion than others. We findmany regions, in the Middle East, the Far East,and the Pacific Islands, where the head is extre-mely important, often sacred. It may have tobe covered, or there may be regulations againstallowing anyone to step over it, or even over theshadow of another's head.

It is not here our intention to list all thedifferences in the emotional weighting of partsof the body, but to point out that these exist andshould be taken in consideration in the appli-cation of health measures. For example, if atreatment is to be applied to feet and the head,it might be expedient to introduce it throughtampering with the less valued area first. Ifskin is to be grafted and it is unavoidable thatit be applied from the lesser to the higher area,this differential in value should at least beknown to the worker. The advantages of cuttingoff the hair should probably be weighed againstthe disadvantages resulting from doing so.

In many societies the body is not considered

A patient in England submits calmly to special"wind tunnel"test for loss of salt from body by temperaturevariations. In technologically advanced countries people are more accustomed'0 accept innovations inmedical science. In communities less accustomed to change, introducing a new attitude to disease or anew medical practice can disrupt whole social order and produce deep psychological troubles (COI Photo).

to be complete at birth, Man has to add to it,to increase it in maleness or femaleness orpotency or effectiveness, or sheer adequacy. InBurma a girl traditionally could reach woman-hood only when her ears were pierced. To betruly male, a boy was tattooed between knees andnavel. The body of its own accord was notcompletely potent ; many Burmese and peoplefrom the hill tribes inserted coins and othercharms under the skin to enhance the person.

In Africa and Oceania the teeth had to befiled or knocked out or broken or blackened,before the body was complete. In many parts ofthe world, the body had to be scarified and someforeign substance rubbed in. This completionwas not, however, for the body itself alone, butalso symbolized the continuity with the socialunit.

The'a) arm c ! ock'that buzzed

IN certain cultures clothing seems necessary tothe completion of the body. A Greek villagegirl may never see her naked body, and may

never try to see her naked baby. She delights inthe clothed baby, and particularly in festive arraywith embroideries and jewels. Petal skin or rosycheeks have no part in her lullabies or dirges ;she sings of costly silks and jewels, and of thefestive trappings of the young brave.

In many parts of the world, clothing is not"shelter"as it is classified by Western society, butpersonal enhancement, even completion. Forthirty years missionaries among the Chagga triedto introduce change in their clothing habits, soas to combat the scourge of respiratory diseases,without any success. The Chagga said thatthese diseases came from evil spirits, and thatclothing had nothing to do with them, since itsfunction was that of adornment.

These are some of the concepts relating to thebody which are relevant to the introduction ofhealth measures, either in the field of medicineor that of hygiene. Hygiene, in one definition,tells people what they should do and tries toprevent the spread of disease. Medical care hasas its purpose the relief of suffering and tellspeople what they should not do.

The two fields, however, often overlap. It isdifficult, for example, to place the DDTcampaign in either category exclusively. Under-taken under medical auspices, it has alsodestroyed pests and vermin in the area ofHygiene. In Iran, a farmer was heard tocomplain that it had an adverse effect uponfarming ; the flies, mosquitoes and bedbugs whichhad been counted upon to wake the farmers fromtheir afternoon siesta are now gone, and thefarmers do not wake up in time to put in suffi-cient work before sunset.

Conceptions of what constitutes cleanliness,uncleanliness, and dirt vary throughout theworld. In many societies death and. graves arecontaminating, making relatives or people whohandled the dead unclean until they can bepurified or until a certain period of time haselapsed. It is not safe to assume that, becausea people are given to washing often, they can betrusted to wash their hands before embarking onan undertaking which may be highly vulnerableto infection.

What the eyedoesn't see...

'wtrTHEN villagers in an Iranian village com-plained that their water tasted and smelledfoul, a filter was built for it under the

auspices of the Near East Foundation. Thefarmers were told all about the dangerous micro-organisms and urged to avoid them by drinkingonly the filtered water. But they needed nourging ; they drank of the pure water because itwas cool and clear, and tasted good, though notbecause of the absence of micro-organisms. Avariation of this attitude, as Margaret Mead haspointed out, is prevalent in the United Stateswhere people avoid that which looks or smells ortastes dirty as unhygienic, whereas actually thedangerous germs have neither taste nor smell andare not visible to the naked eye.

Patterned cleanliness, not because cleanliness assuch is important, but as part of a way of life, iscommon in many cultures. A good housewife, asamong the Spanish Americans of New Mexico,may be one who always keeps her house clean ;the people may always wash themselves, morningand evening. But among these people, this isthe way to act, part of the aesthetic picture ; ithas nothing to do with hygienic ends. The ideathat a person they love or familiar objects andsurroundings can contaminate them, is rejectedby this group.

In Colombia cleanliness was introduced in theschools as an aesthetic measure. In Indonesiaand the Pacific Islands there is frequent bathingby immersion throughout the day, apparently forrefreshment. In Indian villages there are oftentanks where the villagers can immerse themsel-ves before a meal. The Burmese villager bathesafter the last meal for refreshment and as partof the ritual of making himself festive for theamusement of the evening. Burmese wash theirmouths after every meal, the Hos clean theirteeth with a twig every day after their first meal.

UNESCO I

. COURIER JULY 1953. Page 5

A new aspect of Technical Assistance is taking on supreme importance. It is the realization that new techniques must be introduced with proper regard for theexisting culture and with as little violence as possible to the folkways of the groups concerned. In public health it has been discovered repeatedly that innovations inchild and maternal care, hospitalization and the distribution of drug remedies for a disease may have serious effects neither intended nor expected. (COI photo).

Cleanliness, again, may be a ritual, as withMohammedans and Jews. Orthodox Jews mustwash out mouth and hands upon arising andbefore eating and after elimination ; the handsmust be clean before they help to wash themouth. The water must be flowing or must bepoured.

From the viewpoint of other peoples, manyWestern habits are dirty. The British, whoregarded the hill tribes of Burma as filthy fortaking almost no baths, were in turn considereddirty by the Indonesians for bathing only once aday. Our Western handkerchief used for pock-eting mucous is found revolting by a numberof other societies.

There has been confusion among people ofWestern culture as to the meaning of dirt andcleanliness, and the extent to which they arerelated to hygiene. And where new habits havebeen pressed upon other cultures without plan,they have often reflected this confusion. Cow-dung, for example, is important in medicationin some groups such as the Kgatla, and in someIndian villages where it is used in poulticing andfor the treatment of burns. There is no disgustconnected with it, and disgust expressed by aforeigner may meet strong opposition. Cleanli-ness in Western culture is often merely anaesthetic quality, or is associated with virtue,despite the use of hygiene as a sanction.

Hygienic measures have been directed towardteaching people cleanly habits, better housing,better ventilation, and the destruction of vermin :

but the most concentrated attack since thebeginning of this century has been against soilpollution and water pollution. Where peopleeliminated on the surface of the gtound, in nospecific area, and went about barefooted, theyexposed themselves daily to hookworm in manyareas where this is present. Rains washed para-sites from the excreta into streams and exposedpeople to dysentery and other intestinal disor-ders. Flies settling on exposed excreta carrieddisease from person to person. The paramountneed then was for the building of deep pitlatrines.-

The attempt to educate people to the needfor latrines and to persuade them to buildand use them was undertaken by the RockefellerFoundation for the Oceanic areas, by the NearEast Foundation for areas in Greece and theMiddle East, and by various governments andcolonial administrations. The need was wide-spread and still is. In 1948, after fifteen yearsof an intermittent campaign for the introductionof latrines, 98 per cent of the Greek farmers werereported to be without latrines. And this was ina country where the only resistance came fromthe people's contentment with the habitual andfrom seeing no need for change.

It is no easy matter to introduce latrines inthe different regions of the world. Sometimes, asin the Netherlands Indies. the very idea was socurious that people could not believe that theyhad understood correctly. Sometimes, as inIndia, it was ridiculous. With all the space

universe-that is, for psycho-somatic health.

Among some groups disease is aContinued on

next page

around the village, why should the people troublethemselves to bore holes for latrines ?

The attempt to introduce more hygienic hous-ing has also met with various resistances. Oftenpeople lived in crowded quarters because theyliked to live that way ; the hope that a betterincome would mean better housing for the Mexi-can villager, for example, or for the SpanishAmericans of New Mexico, was ill-founded. InUganda the resistance was based on the religionof the people and was found to be almost insur-mountable. Here in many areas the houses haveno windows and very low doorways, admittingminimal quantities of light and fresh air, andthus also allowing no opportunity for the workingof the evil eye, which is responsible for all illness,poverty, and death.

The concepts of health and disease are part ofman's view of the universe and his place withinit. There are people who believe that the goodis normal and inherent, and only man's misdeed,carelessness or sin allows evil to intrude. Amongsome Indian tribes of the southwestern UnitedStates evil, and specifically disease, can enterwhen man has allowed his relations with theuniverse to become disharmonious, or the loss ofharmony itself is a disease. So, among the Hopiand the Papago, it is imperative to have goodthoughts, to avoid quarrels and aggressive acts,for the maintenance of good relations with the

Page 6. JULY 1953-

HEALTH MEANS DIFFERENT THINGS TO DIFFERENT PEOPLES

(Continued from previous page).punishment for sin, mainly against society ; it wastherefore an important factor in the maintenanceof social order. Among the Saulteaux Indians,and the Manus of the Admiralties, where con-fession was necessary before cure could beeffected, disease actually brought to light andclarified a number of hidden matters. The wholeprocess of getting ill and being cured was amainstay of society. To introduce a new conceptof disease, and penicillin instead of confession, topeople for whom illness has a significant place inthe universal order is often impossible, ordangerous to psychosomatic health.

It is common to attribute disease to themachinations of witchcraft, evilly disposed peopleor spirits, the evil eye, or blackmailing deitiesdesiring to be bribed. Weak tsav potency amongthe Tiv, a low kan among the Burmese, makesthe individual vulnerable to such attack. Frightis a major causs of disease in Mitla, and itseffects may be manifested years later. Againsta background of such beliefs, workers found ithard to introduce hygienic measures.

Attitudes toward treatment rest on the concep-tion of health and disease. The Navaho maytake treatment to relieve his symptoms, but heknows he will never b2 truly well until he reco-vers his harmony with the universe. Wherehealth is defined as an existing average, not anideal to be achieved, much ill health will beaccepted before treatment is sought. Workersamong fellahin in the Middle East foundthat trachoma and even partial blind-ness, were part of the picture of health,since these things had always beenpresent and anyway they were from God.

Reports from Latin Americans andfrom the Spanish Americans in theUnited States indicate that there, too,the picture of health contains a"normal"amount of disease. This is the con-ception among the Tiv where tsav wasneeded for super-normal health. It isthe attitude of rural Greeks, who learnto put up with a certain amount of ill-health as a matter of course. It is onewhich has made the teaching of newhealth measures very difficult, since the ;people have first to be taught to re-cognize ill-health as abnormal and un-necessary.

The idea of infection itself frequentlydoes not have to be taught since it ispresent in many cultures, but the agentsof infection, the routes, the kinds ofthings which are communicable, areusually completely different from thosewhich Western medicine accepts.

There are many kinds of measurestaken for the prevention of the spread ofan infection. To prevent the spread ofdeath, the home of the dead is oftenburned or deserted, and his belongingsburied or destroyed. In many parts ofthe world the near relatives of the deadare isolated, and are not allowed to mixwith others until they have undergonepurification. From the viewpoint ofWestern medical practice, these measu-res often are actually good precautionswhen the death was from an infectiousdisease.

In many cultures where the individualis continuous with, his unit, the isolationof the ill is completely unacceptable.Dr. Carl Binger reports that when he wasdealing with a typhus epidemic amongthe Greeks of Macedonia at the end ofthe first World War, the family wouldhide its sick under piles of clothing or inthe cellar rather than show them to aphysician who might take them to ahospital, though they know that to keepthe sick with them might mean deathfor the family. This attitude is reported4-..... h^,..,....,....""......... 4- i-...... Mn'u' ̂ 1",,,"h... i-..."ni--i"""rr- +1-...... 1"10....to be present today also, obstructing t. he campaignagainst tuberculosis. People do know the dangerto which they are exposed, but they feel that toisolate the sick individual, or to take precautionsprotecting the rest of the family would be toreject a member of the family. In West Africa"the whole family would rather contract diseaseand die from it than part with the infectedmember."

Spitting out the snake

WHEN a Burmese villager is ill, it is he whoimmediately sends for a physician, fordrugs, for treatment. When a Greek is

ill, he does not exhibit any need for care, does notgo to bed unless he is incapable of standing up,thus exercising fortitude. When a Navaho is ill, itis his relatives who decide what is to be done andmake the necessary arrangements. It is not muchuse to try to persuade a sick Navaho to go to thehospital, since it is his family who will actuallymake the decision for him. It is cruel to tell aGreek that he must stay in bed and do nothingfor himself ; it is much kinder to say this to hiswife or other relatives, so that the sick oneshould not have to be put in the position ofasking for this pampering.

There are definite patterns of treatment in thevarious cultures. Where disease is inflicted bythe intrusion of foreign matter, of spirit arrowsor snakes or fish, sucking is a common form oftreatment. In Papua, native doctors are foundsucking out the spirit of the hookworm andspitting it out in the form of a miniature snake.

Where there is contact with Western medicine, itis usual for the native medicine man to be calledfirst and for the Western practitioner to besummoned only when all else fails.

Burmese take mainly solids as medicament,and have solids introduced into the body. TheNavaho depend largely upon anointing, and use avariety of greases. They use pitch as a sort ofpoultice, and when a herbal concoction is used,it is first rubbed ritually over the body and thenthe remains are drunk.

The Western practice of going to bed when illis not present everywhere. In some societies,such as the Zuni, one goes to bed when one isready to die. Sending such people to bed maybe very disturbing. The Navaho, used to movingabout freely, find it terribly confining to stay inbed in the hospital. Where beds consist of matson a draughty floor, moreover, they may not bean ideal place for the ill.

A difficulty encountered in treatment is thatdiagnostic measures are often taken as the cure.In Sikian, in Malaita, and the Cook Islands, itwas found that the use of the stethoscope andtuberculin injections were considered correctivemeasures ; the people could not understand whythey should submit to further treatment. Andin general, one application, whether diagnostic orcurative, was considered a cure, so that in thetuberculin test, people could not be persuaded toreturn for further injections or for inspection.The Spanish Americans of New Mexico felt that

These New Guinea medical aides take proper precautions againstinfection before performing a minor surgical operation, but in manyareas many psychological hurdles must be overcome if modern conceptsof disease, germs and microbes are to be understood and accepted.

(Australian Official Photo.)

an X-ray examination was a cure in itself, andthat there was no need to return to the phy-sician.

Where illness and health are determined byancestors or deities, prevention often takes theform of periodic rites. When Western practicesare introduced, it is found to be necessary to firsteducate people in Western concepts of theagency of disease. It is very difficult to explainwhat we mean by germs and microbes. Dr. Hei-ser found that people in the Philippines wereready to attack germs with a bolo, since a germrepresented the enemy.

Workers in India found it effective to presentgerms as poison ; this made sense and circum-vented the neces. sity of determining whether thegerms had true life or not. Control throughelimination of insect carriers met with resistancein Buddhist societies ; some groups, however, mayagree to destroy life if they are made to do soby someone who will assume the responsibility.

In the destruction of plague-infested rats wefind that, though such people will be unwillingto take life, they are ready to abandon a villageuntil all the rats have been forced to leave, orthey will lift the roofs off their houses so thatthe light forces the rats to leave. Africans andGreeks were delighted with the dramatic elimi-nation of mosquitoes and vermin which accom-panied the DDT campaign. Iranian farmersworried because pests were Godsent, and Godmight now send worse ones.

Inoculation and vaccination are sometimesentirely acceptable. Some societies have thepattern of introducing potency and resistance to

unless the patient makes some payment.This conception is quite prevalent, andmay be important in ensuring thepatient's faith in the treatment given bya Western physician. In Africa theBritish administration, attempting topersuade the people to seek treatment bymaking it both valid and free, announcedthat the people had already madepayment through their taxes.

People to whom it is important thatthe body should be complete, perfect,find surgery insupportable. The SpanishAmericans of New Mexico resist havingany cut made into the body, and preferto deal themselves with such ills asappendicitis. An operation means thatthe body is damaged forever ; theycompare it to a pottery vessel which,however carefully mended after breaking,will always present a damaged appear-ance.

Amputation presents a somewhat dif-ferent picture. It is not merely surgery ;it changes the individual into a kind ofcripple, and in many societies thecrippled are despised, or at any rate, are.a source of uneasiness. The Navaho feelthat the cripple is out of harmony withthe universe, and close contact with himmight bring disharmony into one'sown life. And infants who are borndeformed, among these people who havea great love for children, are sometimesabandoned to die, or taken to a hospitaland left there.

In Burma Dr. Seagrave found that theKatchin were ready and even eager foroperation when they sure that this wasdesirable. At one time a man offered agreat sword for the incision by way ofpersuading the surgeon who was hes-itating over the advisability of operatingon the abdomen, saying that he wouldnot hold the surgeon responsible if theoperation failed. The need for surgery,however, was not usually recognized bythese people until it was too late. For ayear, everyone undergoing appendectomydied, since the patients came only afterrupture ; yet they did not hesitate tocome, even though they knew that noone had survived this operation. InAfrica also, Dr. Schweitzer found that

.. 1.,. T, .. o.. o., r1<&gt; fn., nnnr, f o"wrrn, " n, rnr, fhofthe people were ready to accept surgery, even thatinvolving amputation, and were impressed withthe dramatic cure erected. At one time a manwalked three hundred mile. s to be operated on.

The effects of change, and of regulations in-tended to bring about change, have sometimesbeen unforeseen. Pure water campaigns, direct-ed at the elimination of enteric disorders, haveactually reduced malaria through removing thesource of the swamp, and have resulted in betterroads, as in a village in Egypt, or a village park,as in a Macedonian village. A hut tax in Africa,and the scarcity in timber resulting from indus-trialization, have brought about overcrowdingand possibly an increase in ill-health. The in-troduction of medicine has meant a loss of faithin the known, and when new medicines provedtoo expensive, people found themselves withoutany medicine at all.

Industrialization and the migration of labour,as well as the opening of roads and the esta-blishment of improved transportation, have meantthat local diseases have been spread to areaswhere there was no immunity.

Industry, which has been responsible for muchill-health and disruption, has also been respon-sible for many health programmes in colonialareas, since people in ill-health or low healthmake wasteful workers. And the economic moti-vation for the introduction of health measureshas been reported from rural areas also, wherepeople have been persuaded to control food-waters which formed breeding places for malarialmosquitoes, only when they discovered that thesealso damaged the crops.

evil by the introduction of substances under theskin. The practice of pricking the skin with aneedle is also often present. The Burmese didnot resist injections when these were first intro-duced, for tattooing was prevalent here, as wellas the practice of introducing charms and medi-cines under the skin. In Oceanic regions wheretattooing is prevalent, Dr. Lambert found thatpeople came to him demanding the"needle."

On the other hand, great resistance to inocula-tion was encountered among tribes in northernBurma. People deserted their villages in panicwhen they heard that he was coming toinoculate against a raging epidemic of plague.

'Use my sword, doctor'

THERE are certain requisites for the acceptablephysician. Moslem women-except wherechange has been carefully induced-will not

allow themselves to be examined by a male phy-sician. In West Africa, physicians younger thanthe husband cannot look at or treat a wife, butthose older can do so without bringing harm.

In many cultures the physician's right to treatmust be validated, perhaps by supernaturalsanction, perhaps by payment. Among the Tiv,a"physician"could not treat a patient effecti-vely unless he had paid for the knowledge andalso for the right to give that particular treat-ment. Often the treatment itself is ineffectiv8.,...,

COURIER

FROM TILLAGE TO FACTORY

BY UNEASY-STAGES

C IVILIZATION in the last centuryhas meant increasing indus-trialization in Europe as well as

in the United States, and in thecountries with which they came incontact, and which, courted or coercedinto commerce with them, also becameprogressively industrialized. In theWest and East the process was, forlong, unplanned. The people in res-pomible positions had, as a rule, noview of the total picture, and no sus-picion of the eventual results andtheir ramifications.

Even now, after long experience, andwith all our awareness and intensiveinvestigation of the concomitants ofindustrialization, we are astoundedwhen we see the far-reaching resultsof the introduction of money into abarter economy, or of a new tool assimple as the kerosene lamp or awooden-wheeled wagon.

Industrialization is with us to stay.We may decry its effects, as did aVenezuelan editor recently, appalledat the hidden poverty of rich, indu-strialized Caracas. Yet,"The demo-graphic consequences of industrializ-ation constitute a powerful propulsivetoward further industrialization... Itis not a reversible process."

Life with father

OTHER countries, still primarilyt t agrarian, are now drawn into theprocess of industrialization as a

result of contact with Western civi-lization. Sometimes, in introducing aprogramme of industrialization, or thebuilding of great public works andlarge factories, such countries haveintroduced radical change in thestandard of living, drastically curtail-ing consumers'goods. Usually theeffects have been much more far-reaching and costly in human welfarethan this statement implies.

The areas of agricultural changeand industrialization overlap in cer-tain respects. Large plantations,usually owned and operated by peopleof Western origin, use large numbersof labourers as does industry, and,seeing the process merely as one ofmoney-making, often exploit land andpeople. In Africa, plantations areoften near the labourers'native vil-lages, so that there is no accompany-ing disruption of the family andvillage life, as there is in connectionwith industry ; but in New Guinea,where labourers were brought fromgreat distances, there was such dis-ruption, as well as demoralizationamong the large groups of men livingwithout women and without familiesor villages.

In addition, mechanization itself,whether in agriculture or in industry,separates man from the traditionalprocesses and techniques of his socialunit, from the skills which he learnedas an aspect of his belongingnesswith his family, or of identificationwith his father and his line of ances-tors. Finally, even on small farms,where cash crops have been introduc-ed, the effects of the new moneyeconomy have often been of the samekind as with the introduction ofindustrial wages.

From pitcher to pump

GOVERNMENTS t. hroughout theworld have done away with themore obvious ills of industrial

labour. But the implications of indus-trialization for mental health are notcovered by the new laws. For example,when it wa. s proposed to a group offellahin that a village pump be ins-talled as a labour saving device forthe women, they said,"You say thatthe pump will save our women effortand time. If that happens, what arethey going to do with themselves allday long ?" And it is not merely aquestion of occupying time. This isone of the components of womanhood ;a woman carries water from thefountain. When Arab pictures aremade for the tourist trade, they oftenportray a woman with a waterpitcher.

So also, among the Tiv, as well asthe Burmese, women were identifiedwith the pounding mortar ; and thewife, whom the Tiv, Akiga, pictures,was one who spun and wove for herhusband. What happens to thewoman, and to the man's relationwith her, when she ceases to fulfill herrole, to fit the picture of womanhoodand wifehood ? When work is neithervirtue nor necessity, but merely a wayof life, what happens when"labour"is. saved ? what happens when indus-triousness is one of the highest virtues,as it is with some American Indians ?

Such factors must be taken intoaccount when and if industrializationis to be introduced without unduedestruction. Forexample, the Fay Continued onmission found that next page

JULY 1953. Page 7

Page 8. JULY 1953

HUMAN PROBLEMS OF INDUSTRI

(Continued from previous page)

Greece must be industrialized and must changeto a predominantly cash crop economy if it is to beable to support its growing population, and to raiseits standard of living. This would mean that alarger market for industrial products should befound at home. It is suggested that women in thevillages be persuaded to buy factory woven cloth,and to send their clothes to the laundry and tosupport processing industries in general. Yet thelaundering on the slab by the village fountain, oron the rocks by the stream, is a time of enjoyablesocial intercourse ; one of the beloved songs of theround dance tells of such a laundering group.

Again, visitors bring away a happy picture ofthe mother weaving under the grape arbor in thespring, now and then stirring the cooking pot,while her children play about. Good mothersstart weaving for their daughters almost frombirth. Factory woven cloth is in use to someextent, but can all home weaving disappear withoutimpoverishing the life of the individual and of thefamily ? And if it does, can industry provide anequally meaningful occupation to take up thereleased time ?

The FAO report suggests that Greeks be per-suaded to invest their money in industry, so as tomake industrialization possible ; but this runscounter to the Greek attitude of trusting only asure thing, the known present. One speculatesabout the future, not in the future. A Greek tra-ditionally likes his money in the form of a lumpunder the mattress, not as so many figures on achart, or a number of shares of stock. And whenpeople love their life on the land so much that thegreatest gift of gratitude they can send to the UNis a jar of Peloponnesian earth, the displacementof the individual or the family from the village tothe industrial centre could bring much distress.All these difficulties are not insurmountable, but toeffect technological change with the least humandestruction, these problems and others of theirkind must be taken into account.

Money was incidental

WE must distinguish between the presence ofmoney in a community and a money eco-nomy. For example, Burma traditionally

had essentially a subsistence and barter economy,although money was in use. Money was not usedto create more money, or to found a fortune, or tomake the individual independent of the family ;and the earning of money was incidental to living,it was not an end.

Linton reports trying to buy the entire stock ofpieces of raffia cloth from a trader in a Madagas-car market town, and of being refused on thegrounds that the trader would be bored throughthe rest of the days if he had nothing to sell. Inaddition, the buyer, being a poor bargainer, wasactually paying too high a price ; yet bargainingis often considered the spice of social intercourse,and this too may have caused the trader to refuseto give up a day's bargaining for the sake of extraprofit. This is not what the Western world meansby a money economy.

Technological change in agriculture, as well asin industrialization, has introduced a money eco-nomy in many regions. For example, the Navaho,who were established by the United States Govern-ment on farms in an unusually fertile strip,learned to neglect their farms so as to work forcash wages. Mothers left their children untended,gave up time-consuming preparation of their tra-ditional foods for makeshift, processed store foods.The health of the Navaho children, it was found,had been maintained at a higher level under theconditions of a subsistence economy.

In Africa, the introduction of a money economyhas usually meant atomization of the individualswithin the family, complete destruction of thestructuring of family relationships, and of thesocial and economic system of the group.

The money economy has meant secession andrevolt, the undermining of parental authorityand the authority of tradition, and thus hasresulted in the rise of the"younger generation"asa class apart. Marriage is often no longer a con-tract between two families but, particularly in thecities, one between a man and a woman. The tra-ditional lab ala, the brideprice, which cemented twofamilies in interdependence and maintainedstrongly structured continuities within the family,is now frequently handed by the boy to the girl.

He convenientiy disappeared

WHERE a traveller always knew he could findready hospitality, he now often has to payfor food and shelter, even to his relatives ;

or he may find that his friend, seeing a travellerarriving, has conveniently disappeared, to sparehimself the expense of entertaining with boughtfood, or food he could sell for cash. In China also,industrialization has meant that"family relationsare more and more disregarded in propertyownership."

Where money economy has not been accepted orunderstood by people living in the midst of thisindustrial society, there is frequently a tendencytoward exploitation.

New tools are being introduced, whether in agri-culture or industry, to save labour or to increaseproduction, or to improve a product, but thechange they effect often involves much more than

this. Where technology is simple, the tool is anextension of the body ; the shuttle elongates andrefines the finger, the mallet is a harder and morepowerful fist. The tool follows the rhythm of thebody ; it enhances and intensifies ; but it does notreplace and does not introduce anything basicallydifferent. But the machine is not body-patterned.It has its own existence, its own rhythm, to whichman must submit.

The woman at her handloom controls the ten-sion of the weft by the feeling in her muscles andthe rhythm of her body motion ; in the factory shewatches the loom, and acts at externally statedintervals, as the operations of the machine dictatethem. When she worked at home, she followedher own rhythm, and ended an operation whenshe felt-by the resistence against the poundingmallet or the feel between her fingers-that theprocess was complete. In the factory she is askedto adjust her rhythm to that of the rhythm pres-cribed by the factory ; to do things according toexternally set time limits.

The changes of processes and tools involved inindustrialization have often brought a shatteringbreak between the living and the all-important,sustaining dead members of the family unit."Tothe Chinese the introduction of power machinerymeant (that)... he had to throw over not onlyhabits of work but a whole ideology ; for, dissatis-faction'with the ways of his fathers in one parti-cular meant doubt of the father's way of life inall its aspects. If the old loom must be discarded,then a hundred other things must be discardedwith it for there are somehow no adequate substi-tutes."

The suggested technological changes are some-times uneconomical, as the labour they save ischeaper than the purchase and upkeep of the newtool. Sometimes they are resisted precisely be-cause they do save labour, threatening to depriveworkers of their maintenance. A Puerto Ricancompany which delayed importation and use ofmechanical and chemical means of lowering pro-duction costs is much admired by the workers,partly because it does not displace them, partly onthe ground that"the cane needs the human touchto grow well,"and because of a feeling that herbi-cide is evil.

Sometimes machines are introduced withoutplan and fail because no provision is made forupkeep or replacement of parts, as when outboardmotors were introduced in Brazil without parts forrepair, and without, or with exorbitantly expen-sive, oil for fuelling. Agricultural machinery isdemonstrated to farmers far too poor to afford

its purchase and upkeep and with farms too smallfor its effective use, when what they need is animproved hoe or plough. In sections of Africa, thesewing machine and manufactured cloth have beenintroduced without the use of the needle. Afri-cans buy clothing made on sewing machines byIndians, but they have no way of mending it, orhaving it mended, since machine mending has notbeen introduced.

The introduction of a new tool which is comple-tely accepted may have unimagined results. Incertain sections of Uganda, the introduction oflamps meant an added fire hazard to thatchedroofs and provided, in turn, fireproof roofing :kerosene tins, which, flattened, took the place ofthe thatching materials which were rapidly de-creasing because of the increasing use of land forcash crops. This affected the health picture, sincethe old roofing had harboured rats which were aplague hazard. However, the next step in effi-ciency has resulted in the sale of kerosene in thebulk, and people now carry it home in coca colaor beer bottles ; the new roofing material has disap-peared, and the administration of Uganda now hasto experiment with suitable roofing materials.

Distaste for wage earning

OBSTACLES to the establishment of an industryare often encountered, arising from the valuesof the culture involved. The Masai, for

example, will not work for wages, since tendingcattle is the only valued occupation, and cattlethemselves, the highest good. In many parts ofAfrica the relationship of obedience to someonewithout traditional authority is lacking. The Zulus,considering themselves a dominant warrior race,think it degrading to accept the discipline of indus-trial labour ; they are ready, however, to acceptdomestic service, since this falls within a differentlystructured relationship. The Tiv say that only boyswho are asocial and who-do not fit into the groupare ready to live away from home earning wages :that is, boys who are essentially maladjusted. Onthe other hand, when the railroad went throughTiv country, groups of people from the districtconcerned worked happily for wages, and revealedqualities much liked by their employers.

The assumption that all peoples have an incen-tive to improve the standard of living, and there-fore of taking on employment, is not justified.Puerto Rican workers expressed a desire to earnenough money to pay the first installment on theinstallation of electric light or the purchase of a

Technological changes are sometimes uneconomical as the labour they save is cheaper than the purchase and upprecisely because they do save labour. Agricultural machinery has been demonstrated to farmers far too poor to bu

In certain parts of the world women are still identified with the pounding mortar. In others they are pictured spinnerher relation to her husband when techniques are introduced to save"Iabour"-when she ceases to fit what was tha

JULY 1953. Page 9

ALIZATION

radio ; yet this desire often does not counterbalancethe distaste for working for wages, so that pay-ments may not be completed, or an individual mayleave his employment when he has some moneyaccumulated.

In the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan when peasant pro-prietors found their incomes increased to unaccus-tomed amounts, they did not know what to do withthe surplus, and spent it hiring others to do theirwork. Their incomes had been increased throughexternal aid, not through internal motivation suchas desire for new goods and services. Or, the in-centive may be present, but not as an incentive toimprove subsistence. For example, in China, onelarge employer of a highly skilled class of labour,not long ago, was moved by the obvious physicalinefficiency of many of his employees and the largeincidence of sickness among them to raise wagesof his own accord. The only result, as he was ableto disern not long afterwards, was that each ofthese men was now supporting an even largernumber of relatives than a person in his positionwas expected to look after.In Puerto Rico, where the pattern of supporting

a large number of dependent relatives is pre-sent along with changing values making forindividualism, men prefer to emigrate alone to theUnited States for wage work, so that, if they aresingle, they can save or spend their money as theyplease with no relatives to claim a share, and ifthey are married, they can send money home totheir wives knowing that it will be used for theimmediate family, since women living without menare not supposed to support dependents.

In Annam it is difficult to get the original inha-bitants to work in the mines, as they fear to disturbthe fountain spirits ; and their fears are supportedby the high mortality in the mining occupation.

In many parts of the world we find that oneworks as necessity calls ; this may be the need forthe day's food, or for preparation for a ceremonial,or it may be the need of the land or the growingplant which must be attended to on that particularday. But the machine has no such insistent need ;so if the worker has enough food or money for hisneeds, he does not see why he has to go to his job.In fact, if he also has a garden, or if the fish arerunning in the stream, he has a valid reason fornot going. This is part of a general attitude whichwe find also in connection with school attendance.And it is an aspect of the different conception oftime as a process rather than as programmatic.

People may operate in terms of mechanical"time-saving"tools-automobiles, radios, tele-graph-but this does not mean that they accept

and upkeep of the new tool. Sometimes they are resistedor to buy it and with farms too small for its effective use.

spinning and weaving. What happens to the woman andNas the accepted picture of womanhood and wifehood ?

the need for speed which these implements repre-sent ; they may only be modern conveniences tothese people. The exact minute may be unim-portant, and the time'''saved''using such devicesmay nevertheless be spent in inactivity ; people"stand or sit doing very little for hours at a time."Industrialization, in the interest of good resultsand human welfare, must take account of suchbasic patterns, either working within them, or elseeducating people in an understanding of theWestern framework of industrial work.

Cultural attitudes often determine the compo-sition and quality of the personnel in an industrialestablishment. Where familial values are of para-mount importance, as in Greece, China, and Japan,a man has to give jobs to relatives, choosing themneither according to ability nor according to merit.And even when the employees are not all relatives,the structure of the organization may follow theiines of the kinship unit. In China, for example,there was reluctance to fire a delinquent em-ployee ; as one punished one's own son for wrong-doing, but did not expel him from the family, therewas an additional preference for punishment, andfor such reasons businesses in China and Japanwere found to lose money. In Japan, when abusiness was losing money and there was notenough work for all the employees, the employerdid not therefore dismiss them ; he was responsiblefor them.

In Burma, the attitude against the accumulationof capital, the tendency to spend much money forreligious purposes, the tenet that a Buddhist can-not make a valid will, all militate against thecreation of capital needed for industrial enterpriseof any major scope. However, small mills andsmall plants in rural areas have been increasingand fit into the Burmese pattern. Under Britishadministration, machinery for agriculture wasregarded with suspicion as another device to raisetaxable capacity, but agricultural shows, wherethey were exhibited, were attended, since they fitinto the pattern of"convivial celebration, with afew side shows such as exhibitions of fertilizersand insect pests, matters to which the governmentattaches superstitious importance."

Time on their hands

THE wast-e in human welfare which came intobeing as a by-product of industrialization hascaused much concern among governments, so-

cial scientists, and foundations. There appears to begeneral agreement that decentralization of indus-try, bringing work to the village or to its vicinity,within the framework of known associations andassociational ties, will make. for less disruptionand, at the same time, will bring the increase inincome needed for raising the standard of living.

Village industries can provide the funds forraising the standard of living, and can fill thegap created when handicrafts give way to manu-factured goods. They can also, in part, be theanswer to the mechanization of agriculture whichoften releases time for which there is no provision.As it is, in many villages in India, China, and thePhilippines, the farmers are actually partly unem-'ployed. In the Chinese villages it is estimatedthat the farmers and farm labourers are unem-ployed for periods of six to eight months a year.

The introduction of village industries is not,however, without difficulties. In India it is foundthat the villagers often do not want to be orga-nized into new cooperative units, or any createdunits.

Havoc in family life

- w N China, in 1935, village industry in the districtof Kiangying was working havoc in family life.Before it was introduced, the women had spent

much of their time helping the men in the fieldsand had raised silkworms ; they had done theirspinning and weaving only during their free time.When home knitting with a hand machine wasintroduced, women knitted late into the night bykerosene lamps, and, since they had to spend somuch of their time caring for old people and youngchildren, they had no time even to eat their mealswith the family, but ate at their work. In timesof crop failure, when the home industry was theonly means of subsistence, the loom had to be busyall the time if there was only one loom in thehouse. This meant that members of the familyhad to work at it in shifts twenty-four hours a day.This was an economic solution, but one that failedon the social level.'There have been difficulties and destruction ;

but through a study of the local situation,through an understanding of and respect forthe existing framework, such difficulties are beingsolved. China's cooperatives have become increas-ingly successful in their social effects. The re-cently formulated programme proposes to carryover into industrialization the traditional coopera-tive relationships of guild and family ; it aims atindustrializing the already present village units.

In India, careful teaching by people who havean understanding of the need for a long period ofinstruction, achieved the introduction of the ideaof village industry. In one village, even the latrinewas incorporated into the home industry scheme,so that many homes now have two latrines, onein use while the contents of the other are beingcomposted for sale as fertilizer. In Mexico andEcuador, some home industries have fitted intoexisting, valued, and enjoyed patterns, with happyresults.

Page 10. JULY 1953

'WE SHALL KEEP OUR WOODEN PLOUGHS ;

THEY ARE MUCH KINDER TO THE EARTH'TH EY AR

TECHNOLOGICAL c h a n g e inagriculture is directed at theresources available for cul-

tivation, at methods of production,and at the organization of pro-duction. These three factors areinterrelated, and whether we dealwith water control, the improvementof land or seed or livestock, basic toail is the work of man, his divisionci labour, his groupings, his tra-ditional procedures, his relationshipto the land. His survival and oftenalso the reason why he wants tosurvive, depend on these. He willbe the instrument of change ; andall change, even in techniques andtools used, will affect his way of lifeand his relations with others.

The immediate need for agri-cultural changes arises from thegreat increase in population inrecent years. Certam generalchanges with specific suggestions forparticular regions are proposed.These include soil conservation, in-cluding reforestation and contourploughing ; livestock improvement ;seed improvement ; pest control ;land improvement ; introduction ofcasn crops ; mechanization.

Non-human as these categoriesappear to be, they actually concernthe life of people at every turn. Forexample, prevention of overgrazingand of the burning of brush meanthat shepherds, abandoning theways of their fathers, have to takeon a strange occupation out ofnecessity, not from choice. Watercontrol may mean that the courseof rivers must be changed, as it doesin Greece, perhaps moving peopleaway from the land of their fathers.Pest control and seed improvementinvolve persuading people that thesemeasures are necessary for a bettercrop. Indians in Mexico, who seeagricultural mishaps as acts of God,often see no reason why they shouldnot sell their good seed, since itbrings more money, and plant theirpoorer seed.

To introduce change effectively, itis necessary to know existing con-ditions. Where it--involves im-plementation by people, it must firstbe accepted. Otherwise the newproposals, however simple, will be

. defeated. When pest control is im-perative, people will neverthelessrelease the rats from their traps.Where immunization of cattle isnecessary, farmers will hide theircattle. And where land reform isintroduced without accompanyingmeasures for a reformed creditsystem, the land will again beconcentrated in the hands of a fewwithin a few years.

Seeing is believing

AND since change is proposed inthe interests of human welfare,it is important to see to it that

it is introduced constructively or, atany rate, with a minimum of dis-ruption and destruction of esta-blished interrelationship and values.Basic attitudes, concepts, and valuesmust, therefore, be considered.

Agricultural activity is often con-ceived of as an interrelationshipwith the cherishing earth. In Indiathe Baiga refused to use an ironplough since this would repay withharshness the generosity of the land,tearing her breasts and breaking herbelly ; they found the wooden hoe

more gentle. We find the Hopiwho do not think of themselves aswresting a living from the arid land,but rather conceive of their re-lationship as one of aid to the landwhich wants to grow the valued cornfor the Hopi, but cannot do sowithout their help.

In many parts of the world wefind cultures adhering to the beliefthat man has no causal effect uponhis own future or the future of theland ; God, not man, can improveman's lot It is difficult to persuadesuch people to use fertilizers, or tosave the best seed for planting, sinceman is responsible only for theperformance, and the divine for thesuccess, of the act.

In many groups we find the atti-tude of doing with what is there,rather than changing it, of copingrather than fixing. Such people seeno reason why"anything should bedone about it."When traditionalmethods produce some crops, main-tain a measure of health, keep someof the soil from running off, or whena cow has some vigour, it is better tocope with these shortcomings, des-pite their inadequacies or incon-veniences, than to effect a disturbingchange ; in fact, it is possible thatadjustment is such an automaticreaction that the inadequacy is noteven noticed. It is difficult topersuade people with this attitudethat reforestation is necessary untilit is too late to do anything aboutit ; they adjust to a poor yield, orto the diminished vigour or milksupply of their cow until thesituation may develop beyond thehelp of man.

. All of these attitudes are, ofcourse, related to the positive valuewhich the traditional way of lifeholds for many of the people. Wherethis is paramount, change is eitherre. sisted or, if accepted, it is keptalong the fringes. Most of thefarmers of the world are notmotivated by abstract ends orspeculative results. Statistics thatshow what will happen if vetch isplanted or fertilizer applied aremeaningless to them. For them,"seeing is believing."

The distru. st of new and untriedways is an obverse of the faith inthe known, that which with all itsups and downs has supported thesociety since time immemorial.Unfortunately, it is also rooted inthe mistakes made by the agents ofchange who sometimes managed topersuade the peasants to use newways which proved disastrousbecause of local conditions. InBurma, deep ploughing introducedby European agricultural expertsbroke up the hard pan that heldthe water in the rice fields. InTurkey, experts trained abroadpersuaded some of the youngerpeasants to remove the stones fromtheir tilled land ; when the grainsprouted, the fields of the old menhad a better crop, since, in that dryclimate, the stones served thefunction of preserving moisture.Mistakes of this sort are acceptableto people who are willing to takethe risk of trying the new ; but theyshake the faith of those who believein tried and proven procedure alone.

Programmes for improvement aresometimes rendered ineffectivebecause of failure to take accountof what the people specifically value.Values may range in intensity from

strong preferences to highly emo-tionally charged attitudes of areligious significance.

We have, for example, the religiousstatus of the cow in India andAfrica. Here we have to find a wayof helping without taking away fromthe people their faith and themeaning of life. If the sacred cowsare allowed to eat the crops un-molested while the people are onthe brink of starvation, the agri-cultural expert can give aid inmaking the land more productiveand introduce crops which cows donot like to eat, as was done recentlyin Mahwa of the United Provinces.

Poverty amid plenty

AMONG those who are pastoral/-\ nomads, there are conditionsdescribed as extreme poverty

in the midst of plenty, since moneyis nonexistent for food and clothing,and cattle will not be killed or sold.Among such people the applicationof veterinary science has resultedmerely in overstocking. Such peoplename themselves after their cattle,compose songs for them, spend theirleisure contemplating them, formpersonal attachments to them. Tointroduce an economic conception ofthe cattle to these people, if thiswere possible at all, would be todestroy valuflnd security. In manyprimitive societies the large amountof time and human energy spent inritual, magic, and other religiouspractices seems to be wasted in theeyes of the agricultural expert. Butto the native, they give him faithin his work, saving him from theanxieties which so often attend thework of the cultivator. It is againstthis background that proposedmeasures should be viewed.

The introduction of mechanizedtools is confronted by an obstacle inthe small size of many holdings.Even so apparently small a changeas that from a wooden to an ironplough may have widespread reper-cussions as in the case of villagesof the United Provinces of India.Here it threaten establishedhuman relationships. A maninherits a relationship to a carpenterfamily whose task it is to make andrepair the ploughs. This family isalways invited to the farmer's feasts,and the women are given saris. Therelationship, the"pay,"and thegifts continue whether ploughs aremade or not.

Perhaps the farmer can be taughtto repair his own plough, but itwould mean personal reorientationas well as a change in the valuedrelationship structure. Again,because of the extremely shortploughing season, it is necessary thatthere be no delays ; an iron ploughwith brittle shears needs frequentrepairs and replacements by expertswho can be reached only aftercovering a distance over bad roads.But the carpenter is in the fieldwith the farmer, ready to repair thewooden plough.

Then too, an iron plough wouldrequire heavier draft animals whichin turn would need more fodderthan is now available. The woodenplough is light and can be carriedeasily from strip to strip, and afarmer has probably five widelyscattered strips to plough. In order tointroduce a heavy plough at all it

is necessary to persuade the villagersto consolidate their holdings. Thegovernment has decreed that whenseventy-five per cent of the villagersdemand consolidation, the rest willhave to accede. Until a few monthsago, only one village had demandedconsolidation of holdings, and eventhen when the farmers realized thatthis meant each would have to giveup strips treasured because of loca-tion or ancestral association, theproject fell through.

In some areas it is uneconomical tointroduce mechanization becausehuman labour is cheaper, and re-mains cheaper because the peoplethemselves place a low valuationupon it : In Indone, sia, the workersfatalistically accept the fact that therate of pay for buffalo labour istwice that of human labour.

In general, mechanization canhave an overwhelming effect onhuman welfare by rupturing thenourishing continuity of man withthe land, with his own body rhythms,and with his traditional past. Incultures such as those of the MiddleEast and Greece and of Latin Amer-ica, where desires and aspirationshave limits, mechanization willprobably mean, not that man willcultivate more land, but that he willwork less, and at a less satisfyingoccupation at that.

Where work, particularly tradi-tional work, is life, this may be aserious matter. It has been foundthat mechanization, such as the useof tractors designed for soggyriceland and the self-propelledthreshers in Southeast Asia, hasmeant the shifting of tenant labourto hired labour and has led to thedislocation of the tenant group,often separating the members fromthe burial place of their fathers,from land which they had previ-ously owned and with which theyand their families had beencontinuous.

o ONE M

THE low level of nutrition in most areasof the world is one of the mainconcerns of our time. Sheer hunger is

prevalent, and there is the hidden hunger ofpecpte who) ive on inadequate food. Wedo not know whether the food supply of theworld was ever adequate everywhere. Cer-tainly with the increase in population whichaccompanied contact with Western civilizationitself, with industrialization and its by-products, the supply has become inadequate,for increase of crops has not kept up withthe population growth.

Again, the increase and concentration ofpopulation has sometimes destroyed the verysources of the food. Overpopulation hasmeant overcultivation, and the poverty of thesoil has been reflected not only in diminishedreturns but also in crops deficient in essentialminerals. It has meant soil erosion and thecarrying away of the top soil as silt.

Not all difficulties in the realm of nutritionare due to contact with Western civilization,however. In the Middle East and the FarEast, for example, nutrition is affected by thelack of methods for preservation. Lack ofadequate transportation has also meant poornutrition. Egyptian fellahin need citrus pro-ducts, but cannot get them even though they

joeUNE :

JULY t953. Page))

'S FOOD IS ANOTHER MAN'S POISON'

grow not far away. In China, a surplus of

food in one area cannot alleviate famine in

another, since the food cannot be brought to

the hungry population.

Poor nutrition cannot, then, be attacked by

the dietitian atone. Agricultural specialists

in Greece are working for nutrition when they

institute reforestation. And in many areas,

public health workers, becoming aware of the

pressing need for better nutrition, find them-

selves in the field of agriculture, advocating

better seed and more efficient methods of

preservation.

It is not enough, however, to increase the

available food supply. What has been supplied

must be considered food, and acceptable food,

by the people. In Africa, the British Govern-

ment supplied veterinary service to cattle-

raising tribes, but this did not increase their

food supply at all, and actually contributed to

soil erosion and depletion. These people love

their cattle and kill them only on ceremonial

occasions ; since the ceremonial occasions did

not increase in number, the saving of cattle

through veterinary aid merely resulted in too

many cattle on the land.

To introduce adequate nutrition, it is impor-

tant to bring about changes that are in

keeping with the established food habits of

the people, and are acceptable within the

framework of their value system.

It is undignified

to eat an orange

FOR example, in the United States in theSouth, mothers cook food the way each

child likes it, compensating for the

poorness and monotony of the ingredients ; and

any change in the preparation of food would

introduce change in personal relationships. In

some societies, the breast or other food is

offered to the child after punishment ; if we

persuade these people to offer the breast only

at scheduled feedings, or teach them that it

is harmful to eat between meals, we have made

ourselves responsible for finding some way in

which the mother can show reassurance and

acceptance to the punished child.

In some societies, where meals end with a

sweet dessert, mothers withhold dessert as a

way of punishing the child ; this results in a

devaluation of that part of the meal which

contains essential elements necessary for nutri-

tional balance, and the child has to be urged

to eat them because"they are good for him".

Yet mothers depend on this form of punishment,

and will resist attempts to change this stress

on the dessert.

Again, where milk and pulped food are

associated with infancy, men will resist the

drinking of milk, or eating of pulped foods

in special diets which call for them. Where

home and food are strongly identified, chil-

dren reject the school meal, and men the

meal art the plant ; and business concerns in

such countries often give their employees a

longer lunch hour, or arrange the work day

in such a way that men can eat their meals

at home.

A study made by the Committee on Food

Habits of the National Research Council in

the United States during the last war has

made workers aware of the importance of the

"rote which learning plays in the maintenance

of a viable dietary pattern. We now ask, not

how we change a people's bad habits into

good habits, but what are their habits, how

are they learned, by what mechanisms are the

self-preservative choices of some foods and

rejections of others, perpetuated".

There are specific preferences and objec-

tions which affect nutrition and health as well

as the introduction of any new food or way of

preparation. West Africans, for example, have

an aversion to food in its raw state, as fit only

for cattle. The older people think it undig-

nified to eat oranges and discourage children

from eating them as oranges will make them

"soft". Greeks like raw vegetables and fruits,

but not all vegetables are considered edible

when raw. Cucumbers can be eaten only raw,

but zucchini squash must be cooked ; green

beans and peas can never be eaten raw ;

cabbage is good when raw, but cauliflower is

inedible. The fact that many leafy vegetables

go into the salad does not mean that any

such vegetable belongs there.

In sections of Africa, meat is eaten raw,

and food is seasoned with mineral salts ; and

both these practices lead to the spread of

intestinal diseases. Puerto Ricans, living pre-

cariously on too little food, often will not eateven fruit which grows wild, as they consider

fruit to be poisonous, or dangerous, or a cause

of indigestion. Among many, there is the

feeling that fruit is"cold", a term used for

something objectionable.

Mistakes have been made in the past,

before we knew the importance of food habits

and the cultural and social context of the

food. We tried to introduce supplementary

nutrients through the medium of cream soups

to people who, though they liked soups, would

eat nothing bland and nothing creamy unless

it also contained pieces offering resistance in

chewing.

The right to a diet

of fried chicken

WE upset dietary balance by persuadingSpanish American schoolchildren in

New Mexico to eat white bread

instead of cold corn tortillas, when their main

source of calcium came from the lime water

in which the corn of the tartillas had been

soaked. We persuaded their mothers to

substitute canned spinach for wild greens, and

when there was no money to buy spinach, the

children went without greens. Hopi mothers

were forced to wean their children if these had

to be hospitalized after they were a year old ;

and when the children came back, the expense

of giving them canned milk out of individual

small cans-since no refrigeration was avail-

able-was sometimes too great for the family

to maintain.

Agricultural experts warn of possible dis-

ruption of dietary balance with the increase of

commercialization. For example, in many parts

of rural India where large amounts of ghee

butter are consumed, the farmer's family

depends heavily on the accompanying butter-

milk ; if butter-making is to become industria-

lized, nutritional planning should take into

account the gap this will leave in the family

diet.

Child care services have often urged new

foods for children, which have perhaps been

good for nutritional adequacy but have made

for strain in family relations. In Greece, where

one nutritionist persuaded mothers to intro-

duce raisin bread and other unacceptable

items into the family meal, this often created

a split between the father's and the children's

food, or brought derision from the father, or

otherwise produced discontinuity in an occa-

sion which is essentially a family communion.

It would probably be equally effective, and

less destructive, to introduce change through

less emotionally important eating situations.

For example, if a Greek child must eat raisins,

these can be introduced into the frequent

snacks,"the passing of the time"in which all

Greeks indulge, as dry chewy raisins, fitting

into an already present food pattern. Cer-

tainly very valuable nutrients can be added

by persuading Greeks to eat more of the

roasted chickpeas they like so well, and which

are so easily and cheaply available. In Puerto

Rico, fruit, if eaten at all, is eaten between

meals, and there would be less resistance if

consumption of more fruit was introduced at

such times.

One commonly practised method of im-

proving nutrition is through supplementary

feeding of children and of expectant and

lactating mothers. This does not attempt to

change or stop existing practices. Such

attempts have met with resistance in the

past, as in an instance when a public health

nurse in a Chinese district was rejected

because she tried to persuade parturient

mothers to eat vegetables instead of a diet

of fried chicken ; these women had been eating

mainly vegetables all their lives, and had

looked to this period when their special status

would be acknowledged by this special diet.

However, in giving supplementary feedings

it is well to remember, in addition, that food

is sometimes the coin of society, of social

ritual, and that much of its emotional suste-

nance is lost when it is not part of the family

meal. During the last war, the Greeks in

Athens voiced a preference for eating cold

food in their unheated houses, rather than hot

food in warm soup-kitchens. UNRRA workers

found 0 similar preference in Germany, also.

Food preferences and aversions have success-

fully been taken into consideration in intro-

ducing change. In nSiam, where there is an

aversion to cow's milk, canned milk did not

evoke the image of the cow, and was intro-

duced acceptably. Wheat products are

increasingly being introduced in the Far East,

either in terms of existing foods such as

noodles and chapattis, or as rolls for snacks,

or bread for an accompaniment to the rice.

Page 12. JULY 1953

Roger van der Weyden. Portrait ofa Young Woman.

Thomas Surly. The Torn Hat.

Tiziano Vecillio (Titian). The Artist'sDaughter, Lavinia.

Lukas Cranach the Younger. Princess Elizabeth of Saxony. Albrecht Dourer. St. Paul and St. Mark(Fragment).

EI Greco. Mater Dolorosa. Pieter Bruegel the Elder. The Land of Cockayne. Agnolo Bronzino. Maria dei Medici.

Tosa School (Japanese). Breaking in a Horse.

UNESCO

COURIER JULY 953. Page 3

GREAT PAINTINGS FOR EVERYONE

FOR those many persons who onlyoccasionally have the chance tosee the originals of great paint-

ings and, even more, for the vastmajority of people all over the worldwho can never hope to see the mas-terpieces in countless galleries andprivate collection, the colour repro-duction is the best substitute. Butmany of the existing colour repro-ductions are of poor quality, andmany paintings of little value arereproduced.

With the aim of making the bestcolour reproductions more easilyavailable to teachers, students andthe general art-interested publicthroughout the world, Unesco hasproduced, with the aid of interna-tional art authorities, two catalogue-lisping more than 1.000 paintings ofwhich high-quality reproductionsexist and can be obtained. Thesevolumes are intended not only tobring art into homes and schools andto foster the understanding and en-joyment of it ; but al so to encouragethe increased production of colour-prints and the improvement ofstandards and methods.

Unesco has just published a newand revised edition of the Catalogueof colour reproductions of paintingsprior to 1860 (1), which replaces asimilar volume issued in 1950 and isthe companion to another Unescocatalogue devoted to paintings exe-cuted after 1860. In the case of eachwork listed, there is an identificationphotograph of the original paintingand a biographical sketch of theartist. The price, size and otherfacts about each reproduction, aswell as the name and address of thepublisher from whom it can beobtained, are also given.

The main critpria bv which theprints have been chosen are thefidelily of the reproduction, thesignificance of the artist, and theimportance of the original painting.

Since the first edition of the cata-logue of paint in prior to 1860 wasissued, publishers throughout theworld, with whom Unesco maintain-ed contact, submitted new colourprints. Of these 130 were chosenfor inclusion in the new edition.Moreover, a careful review of thefirst edition led to the eliminationof 43 reproductions found to bebelow the standard it was possibleto adopt for the new edition.

At Unesco House in Paris and atthe Arts Council of Great Britain inLondon, complete sets of guide-prints are kept so that visitors maysee the reproductions themselves.It is hoped that other countries willprovide similar facilities, so that thecollection of good reproductionsmade by Unesco in the cataloguesmay lead to bringing into hundredsof homes, class rooms and librariesthroughout the world great picturesfrom other countries which other-wise would remain unknown.

On pages 12 and 13 we puhlish afew of the reproductions which havebeen added to the new edition of theUnesco Catalogue.

(1) Price $3, 15/- or 750 Fr. frs.) Hieronymus Bosch. The Hay Waggon.

Jean-Baptiste Corot. The High Wind. Master of the female half figures. Three Musical Ladies.

Page t4 : JULY 1953

GERMANY : LARGEST AND

MOST VARIED PRODUCER

OF BOOK TRANSLATIONS

by Georges FRADIER

THE translation of book titles intoa foreign language often seems toobey certain mysterious laws of

fantasy. From a sales point of viewthe title of a book is, of course, an all-important affair and a lot of hardthought goes into the choice of anytitle.

But when a book is translated intoanother language the original title,even if it lends itself easily to trans-lation into a fresh idiom, may notnecessarily have sufficient sales appeal.Foreign publishers, therefore, often feelthemselves obliged to seek out a differ-ent and more striking one. The result,however, is sometimes quite startling.

One of Emmanuel Mounier's books,for example, which was originallyentitled"La Petite Peur du XX'Siecle"(Minor Fears of the 20th Century) hasnow the English title"Be Not Afraid".Louis Bromfield's"Wild is the River"has become in German,"Traum inLouisiana" (Louisiana Dream). In thesame country, a book whose originalcover page asked"After Hitler, Stalin ?",now bears the title"Von Talleyrand bisMolotov" (From Talleyrand to Molotov).In Finland,"La Reine Margot" (QueenMargot) by Alexandre Dumas became"Herttuattaren Rakkaus" (The LoveAffairs of the Duchess). And then wehave the remarkable example of ascientific work"Beyond the Atom"which in the Netherlands gained a titlepregnant with promise :"Het Lied vanGods Schepping" (The Song of DivineCreation).

These are some of the intriguing factsthat can be gleaned from the latestvolume of"Index Translationum",an International Bibliography ofTranslations, which has just beenissued by Unesco (1). This publicationwhich has now become something of a"bible"for library workers, publishersand translators, was first brought outas a quarterly bulletin by the Instituteof Intellectual Co-operation from 1932to 1940, and after an interruption often years was revived by Unesco.

- 17, 000 translations

SINCE the new series began in 1950,Index Translaticnum has fromyear to year tried to present as

complete a listing as possible of alltranslations published. The latest vo-lume, the fourth, lists more than 17, 000works translated in 44 countries during1951.

The Unesco volume shows that the, Germans are the world's most prolifictranslators, producing more than 1, 300works each year. France, Italy, Japanand the Scandinavian countries followwith about 1, 000 foreign books trans-lated. In 1951, Britain translated some500 books and the United States 450.

Germany, the Unesco volume furtherreveals, publishes translations of worksin practically all major languages.Most other countries draw theirmaterial from very few foreign-lan-guages, usually no more than two orthree. Germany, too, seems to be theonly country which regularly translatesthe Scandinavian output of novels,plays and poetry.

A study of the Index Translationumalso shows the great differences thatexist in translation exchanges betweendifferent countries. In 1951, theGermans translated hundreds of Britishbooks, yet in Great Britain only 12German books were published. InFrance translations were made of 134American and 27 Italian books. Italy,however, chose 128 French books fortranslation but only 54 from America.

In most countries, as a general rule,the best known or most widely trans-lated works of literature are those ofGreat Britain, the United States andFrance. But a good third of the Britishand American books that are translatedinto all languages are detective stories,crime novels or similar works.

The Unesco volume also seems topoint to the effect that politicaldifferences are having on translations.In 1951, only a few scientific works andsome half-a-dozen novels from theUnited States were published in Russia.

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Conversely, only two Soviet works seemto have been published in the UnitedStates during that year, with thenotable exception of the Russianclassics and certain books written byRussian emigrants.

A much greater gap still exists,however, between the occidentalcountries and those of the Orient,between the West and the civilizationsof Islam, India, China and Japan. TheIndex Translationum shows that Eu-ropean language versions are rareindeed of Asian literary works. Trans-lations of Western books in the Orientalcountries are equally rare, with theexception of Japan.

Madame Bovary in Tamil

THE Unesco bibliography shows, forexample, that the most recentIndian translations of French

novels are"The Count of Monte Cristo",in Telugu, and"Madame Bovary"inTamil. In Burma several Europeanscientific works were published, but onlyone work of fiction-George Orwell's"Animal Farm".

In Iraq, translations have now ap-peared of"Robinson Crusoe"and ofTurgeniev's stories. In the Lebanononly two contemporary novels from thepens of Pearl Buck and Jean PaulSartre were published in 1951, althoughseveral historical works were translated,most of them relating to the SecondWorld War. In Egypt, translationswere made of works by Shakespeare,Racine, Moliere, Oscar Wilde and PierreLoti.

Year in and year out there seems tobe little change in the names of thewriters who are most translated. Atthe head of this list are the GreatBooks, new translations of which areconstantly being published. The 1951favourites were Aristotle and Plato,Homer and Euripides ; Shakespeare,Moliere, Dante and Cervantes ; Goethe,Rousseau and Voìtaire ; Dickens, Balzac,Maupassant, Stendhal, Tolstoy, Hugoand Zola. And, as always, the world's"best seller", The Bible. A centuryfrom today, this list will probably stillhold good.

It will of course require expandingwith the names of authors of newclassics-our contemporary writers,though perhaps not all those whoseworks are most widely translated todaywould lay claim to immortality.

Ever popular Pinocchio

ON this score, the Index providessome interesting facts. In 1951 thenumber of translations of works

by eight famous authors were as fol-lows : Gide (5) ; Pearl Buck (4) ; Tho-mas Mann (13) ; Steinbeck and Gorki(8) ; Bertrand Ru. ssell (16) ; Stalin(30) ; Winston Churchill (3),. Duringthe same period dozens of translationswere made of books by Agatha Christie,Peter Cheyney and Leslie Charteris.

Preferences of a national or culturalcharacter seem unchanging. Apartfrom works of literature, history andgeography books are generally themost widely translated. The Germanic,Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon coun-tries, as well as Italy, however, show amarked taste for philosophical andreligious works. Scientific books aremost popular in Spain and in therepublics of Eastern Europe.

Fewer works of poetry, as might beexpected, are listed in the Index Trans-lationum for 1951. Lsrael, Denmarkand Japan translated the largestnumber of poets during this period.Rilke, however, was extremely popularand his works were published in manycountries and to a lesser degree thoseof Lermontov, Heine, Maiakovski andBaudelaire whose poems are nowavailable in Japanese and Hebrew.Among children's books, which get afair showing, Pinocchio always takesfirst place, followed each year in abouta dozen languages, by the Tales ofPerrault, of Grimm and of Andersen,by the stories of Jules Verne, and by"Alice in Wonderland"and"TreasureIsland".

UNESCO

During a three-day workshop course recently, Oju sCience ana ivocational teachers of the City of Manila high schools learnedhow to produce self-made science demonstration apparatusunder the guidance of a Unesco expert in science education.

Converting a light bulb into a laboratory flask is demonstratedto Manila students by Viktor Holbro, Swiss teacher who hasjust completed a Unesco technical assistance mission tothe Philippines to help educators modernize science classes.

An old paste pot or an ink bottle can double as a laboratoryburner with the help of shreds of cotton, a metal tube and someingenuity. This Philippine teacher was one of the studentswho attended a training course conducted by Mr. Holbro.

Philippine school boys cut up old tin cans which will serveas part of their home-made laboratory equipment for conductingscience experiments. Blueprints for making all types of labor-atory equipment are sent to schools throughout the country.

COURIER JULY 1953. Page ! 5

Why does an airplane fly ? With two ping-pong balls and a knitting needle, a Philippine teacher demonstrates Bernoulli's principle. The pressure at the side ofa stream of air is inwards toward the centre of the stream. Pupils can prove this to their own satisfaction ; when they blow on the balls, these come together.

THE ADVENTURES OF A BURNED-OUT BULB

THIS is the story of how a youngSwiss teacher travelled half-way around the world to help

bring science classes to life forschool-children in the Philippines-but it might also be called the in-ternational adventures of a burned-out electric light bulb.

It was in January, 1952, thatViktor Holbro left his native Basleon a 15-month mission for Unescoin the Philippines. In Manila, hejoined a Unesco technical assistanceteam working with the PhilippineGovernment on a nation-wide pro-gramme of expanding education.

As for the burned-out light bulb,it first began its travels in 1951. Itwas part of a"five-dollar labo-ratory"of odds and ends thataccompanied another Unesco scienceteacher, Dr. Ellsworth Obourn ofthe United States, to Thailand.Dr. Obourn had designed his labo-ratory as a way out for schools andteachers whose budgets could notcover the cost of science laboratoryapparatus.

With tin cans, cigarboxes, rubberbands and other assorted materialsavailable in forgotten closets,Dr. Obourn had proved he couldduplicate the experiments of anelementary science course. Themost important item in this kit wasthe light bulb for, with its base filedoff, it could be transformed intoalmost anything from a laboratoryflask to a water barometer.

On his way to the Philippines,Mr. Holbro stopped off in Bangkokto see what Dr. Obourn had beenable to accomplish with the lightbulbs and other cast-off items. Theresults were promising, so much sothat science was already becoming aliving subject for Thai children inclasses where the equipment wasbeing used.

Then, in the Philippines, Mr. Hol-bro found a strange situation.

"At first, I wondered why I hadcome", he recalled in an interviewin Paris after his return from Ma-nila."The Government had de-

by Daniel BEHRMAN

veloped an excellent philosophy ofscience teaching on American linesand they certainly did not need myadvice."

But Dr. Cecilio Putong, PhilippineSecretary of Education, took himbehind the scenes and the picturewas not so bright. Manila's schoolshad suffered heavily during WorldWar II and science teachingequipment had gone up in smoke.A shortage of foreign exchangemade it impossible to replace thisequipment through new imports.

It was then that Mr. Holbrodecided to concentrate simply onshowing teachers how to make theirown apparatus so that science wouldnot remain a dry textbook subject.A workshop was first opened forteachers in Manila's Araullo HighSchool. Then each of the capital'sseven high schools sent one scienceteacher and three teachers ofvocational education to Araullo fortraining.

There, with the help of materialsbrought in by Araullo's pupils in ajunk collection campaign, they wentto work, first learning how toconvert bulbs into flasks, tin cansinto tripods and ink bottles intolaboratory burners.

The rest was merely a question oftheir own ingenuity. By the end oftheir courses, teachers were pro-ducing such complicated pieces ofequipment as manometers-that is,pressure gauges-and steam engines.In all, they were taught to construct50 different models of laboratoryapparatus.

Meanwhile, Mr. Holbro also workedwith the Philippine School of Artsand Trades in Manila, helping to setup a small plant where vocationaltraining students went into pro-duction on saleable supports, clamps,test tube racks and demonstrationequipment. The school is nowworking on its first order to supplyequipment to an educational centre

established by the Philippine Go-vernment and Unesco at Bayambang,130 miles north of Manila.

It is at Bayambang where scienceteachers from all over the islandsare to be trained in the use of thisequipment and in applying it to theirteaching methods. Bayambang isserving as a general training centrein primary, secondary and adulteducation.

Costs of this programme, Mr. Hol-bro emphasized, are being bornealmost wholly by the Philippine Go-vernment. His own work is beingcarried forward by Tomas Tadana,recently appointed by the Philip-pines as the country's Superinten-dent of Science Education, a new postgrowing out of Mr. Holbro's work.Blueprints of the light-bulb baro-meter and other apparatus are nowbeing sent to schools throughout thecountry.

The credit for this new approachto science teaching belongs to thePhilippines, he believes..'Theyknew what to do and what wasneeded", he explained..'It was nofault of their own that they did nothave the resources."

Mr. Holbro Is now returning to hisclassroom at Basle's Madchengym-nasium (Girl's College) where hehad previously taught physics andchemistry for sixteen years. Hesummed up. his stay in the Philip-pines as a period of"mutual givingand taking". As an educator, he wasespecially impressed by the Philip-pines'system of community schoolsin which the school is playing amajor part in raising village living, standards.

"That is one advantage ofteaching in a new country", hecommented."I hate to think whatwould happen in Switzerland if aboy came home from school and toldhis father that the family's way ofraising chickens was all wrong".

These odds and ends are the nucleus of a laboratory which can bring elementaryscience to life in a secondary school. Burned-out electric light bulbs serve asflasks while tripods are cut from tin cans. Bunsen burner is an old ink bottle.

Seven wooden balls were strung from a frame... and physics came to life for these seven Philippineschoolboys (above). This home-made apparatus demonstrates the principle of conservation ofimpulse : when the left-hand ball hits the row, it sends the right-hand ball flying, but the centre onesremain motionless. With the help of Viktor Holbro, a Swiss science professor sent to Manila on aUnesco technical assistance mission, Philippine teachers learned to build this and similar apparatus

from odds and ends. They are now using it to perform experiments in their classe (blow). Mani-. r.-_1 _. ___I_______L--_. L.. _L. _-------la's science teaching equipment was wiped out during World War II and currency shortages prevent the importing of replacements-a situation commonto many countries. Now, with old light bulbs, tin cans and some ingenuity, teachers make simple equipment. (See Pages 14-15). (Unesco photos).

NOT A GAME-BUT

A SCIENCE CLASS

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