by Joseph Hayashi
Who is important when it comes to a conflict? Who are the people that need to be talked to during war? Is it just the parties that are directly involved in the conflict? Or are there other parties that should be involved? How close to the conflict does one need to be to be considered part of the conflict? One last question, does that party need to be alive to be involved in the discussion of a conflict?
This last question is what we had to think about during Kathryn Poethig’s presentation on the Ethical Imperative to Talk with The Dead. Kathryn’s focus was on the idea about how the dead should be considered whenever there is a conflict. More specifically, she talked about cultures that consider ghosts or spirits to be important factors in society. There are many cultures that have citizens that are visited by ghosts that talk to them. One think Kathryn said was, “If we cannot listen to the dead, we cannot walk with the dead, and then there is no stopping the devastation of the living.” This idea really stuck with me because the idea of talking to the dead was never an important factor that I thought of when analyzing a conflict. The dead were just the dead and something that I needed to advocate for; not something that could advocate for itself anymore.
I believe talking to the dead was never a thought for me because I don’t believe in ghosts. Growing up in a catholic family, the idea of spirits was always around me but when I stopped believing in religion, my belief in spirits was lost as well. The discussion of the connection between religion and ghosts was discussed in class, and even though most of the class agreed that the belief in ghosts does not have to be connected to religion, I still believe that is where my belief came from. So it was very hard for me to keep an open mind about the usefulness of listening to people that said they talked to ghosts.
And while it was hard to keep an open mind about this discussion, Kathryn was still able to win me over to the idea of communing with ghosts. We discussed the idea of being sensitive to other cultures’ beliefs in ghosts. I believe this was the most useful take-away from this presentation. While I may not believe in the idea of ghosts, I can still do work with societies with these ideas prominently ingrained in them. My beliefs don’t necessarily have to impede my work in another culture. As long as I come with an open mind and make sure to listen, the idea of talking to ghosts could still be useful.