Aubrey Keeler, Brigham Young University
This project will present personal ethnographic research, which is the investigation of a culture through thorough study of its members, from my time among the Himba, a remote native tribe in Namibia Africa. This project will help provide a different perspective on suffering so that Western cultures might obtain a more empathetic view toward different cultures and societies. This research will be most beneficial for humanitarian organizations that are working in third world countries. For many generations, humanitarian organizations have had an attitude that all third world countries are suffering and the only way to help them is to provide modern technology from more developed countries. There is a discontinuity between the ideas of these organizations and the desire and needs of the people they are helping. This project will help reinforce the idea that most of these third world countries are not suffering or helpless, but instead are in need of support to achieve their own goals. The majority of humanitarian projects have failed after the first couple years because of lack of planning. They have also failed because of the mentality that the aid providers are the saviors of these helpless societies. If the mentality changed to see these societies as people rather than lesser, underdeveloped societies, then more good would actually be accomplished. The way that the word 'suffering' is used disconnects people rather than connects them. Joel Robbins, in his recent published article, Beyond the suffering subject: toward an anthropology of the good, expressed the flaws of this perspective of suffering. I hope to elaborate on his idea and present practical approaches on how we and organizations should perceive suffering and support third world countries. Many humanitarian organizations use this idea of suffering to make a false empathy that unknowingly assigns these societies thoughts, beliefs, and behavior patterns that the organization has which the other society does not share. This new outlook would help people be empathetic towards third world countries and see the world from the point of view of that country so that they can receive the proper support that these countries need to achieve their goals.