Shark's fin soup

PINOY KASI

Shark's fin soup
By Michael Tan
Inquirer
Last updated 01:00am (Mla time) 09/06/2006

Published on Page A15 of the September 6, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

Before he joined the Houston Rockets and shot up to mega-celebrity status, Chinese basketball player Yao Ming played for a group called the Shanghai Sharks.

So, maybe it's appropriate that this former "Shark" has joined a campaign, launched by WildAid, against the consumption of shark's fin soup. Environmental and animal welfare groups claim that sharks are sometimes caught and skinned just for the fins, and then thrown back into the sea.

The campaign against shark's fin soup is a bold move, but it's going to be a long uphill battle. The New York Times notes that in China, Ming's calls to end the consumption of sharks' fins, has gone almost unnoticed.

Tradition

Another celebrity, Hong Kong's Jackie Chan, has spoken out against the use of tiger bones, bear bile and rhino horns for Chinese traditional medicine because it has led to the slaughter of these animals.

Shark's fin soup, tiger bones, bear bile -- all of these are Chinese traditions, and, unfortunately, when you talk about changing Chinese culture, you're taking on values and practices that sometimes go back at least a thousand years.

All too often, we presume that the longer a tradition has been around, the better it must be. Culture is powerful precisely because people begin to believe that the traditions are meant to stay with us, from the beginning of time, through eternity.

It's this assumption that allowed some of the most barbaric practices to be perpetuated. For example, for a thousand years Chinese mothers would tightly bind the feet of their daughters, sometimes as young as 4 or 5 years of age, to keep them tiny. The practice actually fractured the foot bones, and crippled the child; yet the "lotus feet" were praised as the epitome of female beauty and eroticism, and poems were written to extol their allure.

Another example is female genital mutilation. A ritual practice in parts of Africa, it involves the removal of the clitoris and, in a more extreme form, the sewing up of the labia. It is a horrendous practice, yet even women physicians from those countries have sometimes defended the practice, offering to perform the procedure in a clinic, at least with anesthesia, to reduce the chances of infection.

Context

Pierre Bourdieu, a French sociologist and philosopher made waves in the academic world many years ago when he described "culture" using the Latin word "habitus." He pointed out how social structures are so powerful we end up "doing" culture pretty much like a habit. When I first read about habitus I told myself, goodness, we Filipinos have been describing culture as "kaugalian" [habits] for the longest time ever.

But yes, it does take Bourdieu to remind us that habits are powerful because we're not conscious about their power. Like habits, culture insinuates itself into all we do, into our minds and our bodies. I have endless debates with relatives whenever I question certain traditions and always, they try to end the argument by saying: "It's our culture, and
there's nothing we can do about it."

Many practices are attached to beliefs that are accepted without question, like the tiger bones and bear bile as effective medicines. What's sad is that they are totally ineffective.

Culture becomes even more powerful when it is made sacred, sometimes with claims that it is God-given. Advocates of female genital mutilation sometimes claim it's a Muslim practice, yet nowhere is it mentioned in the Koran or in the "hadith" (sayings attributed to Islam's founder, the prophet Mohammed). Similarly, Catholic conservatives like to claim that family planning goes against "natural law," which is supposedly given to us by God.

Fortunately, even theologians now accept that sacred traditions and holy books need to be understood in a historical context. Many cultural practices -- religious or secular -- emerged in response to some social need. Female genital mutilation, for example, is believed to even predate Islam, and may have been practiced because of the inter-tribal warfare at that time, which often led to women being raped. Perverse as it may sound,
the mutilation was intended as a kind of chastity belt, to protect women.

It was also this inter-tribal warfare that led to Islam's endorsement of polygamy, which was intended to find ways to provide for the widows and their children. Mohammed himself took a widow as one of his wives.

Similarly, the admonition against birth control, often citing the biblical call to "go forth and multiply," was understandable in a time the world's population was tiny, and when agricultural societies needed as many hands as possible to work the fields. Times do change, and it's not surprising all the world's major religions, except for Catholicism, now look at the non-practice of family planning as irresponsible, even immoral.

Parties

Besides learning to probe into the historical contexts of culture, we should also learn to dig up -- and question -- many of its practices' latent or hidden functions. Foot-binding in China began in the Sung dynasty, a time when Chinese women were becoming quite independent and assertive. So, for all the talk about lotus feet making the women more
"feminine" with their tiny steps, foot-binding's hidden function was really to immobilize women, keeping them at home and dependent on the men.

Culture is there as well to show off one's status, and this takes us back to the shark's fin soup. Previously a privilege only for emperors and the Chinese aristocracy, shark's fin soup has become a way of boasting of one's wealth, especially for the new rich. A local lauriat without shark's fin soup could get tongues wagging, the host seen as being miserly.

We all need to start thinking hard about the habits of culture, through an ethical lens. It's not just questioning the menu, but also of tackling the very idea of an expensive party and of conspicuous consumption.

Birthdays are big in the Philippines; the government even allows employees to take a birthday leave with pay. Even the poorest of families will splurge meager savings for a child's birthday party. The rationale here is that one should share his blessings -- thank God for another year. I wonder. Is it right to spend money that could have been used for the child's many other needs? And if a family can really afford a party, shouldn't the blessings be shared by donating to the poor?

It seems the banks are now ready to capitalize on culture. Banco de Oro Universal Bank has been running an ad: "For only P63 a day ang saya-saya ng birthday party ng anak ko. Kayang-kaya!" ["For only P63 a day, my child's birthday party was so much fun. I could afford it!"] I read the fine print and realized that was based on a P20,000 loan, payable over 12 months. Now, wasn't there a time banks were there to instill a culture of saving?