I started writing this several weeks ago, and only now have I found the time to sit down and try to finish it. so here is a list of more things you cannot do on an airplane.
- hip hop dancing
- play guitar
- fly the airplane
- touch the flight attendant (!)
Oh my students... They had to make a second list of things you cannot bring on an airplane. One particularly creative group said "people who are die," by which I figured out they meant "dead people." Okay. This actually sparked an argument with another group over whether or not ghosts counted as "dead people" since someone claimed to have seen a ghost on an airplane.
This brings me to an interesting cultural observation. Pretty much everyone in Thailand believes in ghosts and many people will claim to have seen one. During my time here at Payap there have been several sightings and people take them very seriously. Nobody would ever be laughed at for such a claim.
Thailand is a very superstitious country. There is a very sincere belief in the supernatural. People consult monks or perform rituals as a way to interact with these forces. It's very different from contemporary Western culture, where such beliefs would probably be considered childish and unscientific. Not so in Thailand.
While I'm generally a skeptic regarding these sorts of thing, this pervasive belief in the supernatural has given me some food for thought. I mean, I could laugh at such beliefs, but let's face it, I'm a Christian. That means I automatically have some pretty crazy beliefs in the supernatural myself. Coming out of Western culture, I'm more used to the skeptical approach. While it may be that many people believe in God or spirits or "forces" or whatever, not being a hardcore materialist pretty much seems like intellectual suicide. It is often touted as the only "rational" approach to thought, and I suppose I might agree depending on what people mean by "rational." Unfortunately though, by "rational" people often mean "intelligent" or even "sane," as if anybody who believes in anything outside of nature ought to be stripped of all credibility. so while I have found the emphasis on ghosts and spirits a bit unnerving, rather weird and somewhat laughable, it has been interesting to live in a society where the supernatural is still taken seriously.
Here is an article from a local magazine about superstition and the workplace. While I haven't experienced any of the examples in the article (except for hearing news about a need for ghost-protection) it does give you an idea of how different attitudes to the supernatural are here.
http://www.chiangmainews.com/indepth/details.php?id=1406
While I'm generally a skeptic regarding these sorts of thing, this pervasive belief in the supernatural has given me some food for thought. I mean, I could laugh at such beliefs, but let's face it, I'm a Christian. That means I automatically have some pretty crazy beliefs in the supernatural myself. Coming out of Western culture, I'm more used to the skeptical approach. While it may be that many people believe in God or spirits or "forces" or whatever, not being a hardcore materialist pretty much seems like intellectual suicide. It is often touted as the only "rational" approach to thought, and I suppose I might agree depending on what people mean by "rational." Unfortunately though, by "rational" people often mean "intelligent" or even "sane," as if anybody who believes in anything outside of nature ought to be stripped of all credibility. so while I have found the emphasis on ghosts and spirits a bit unnerving, rather weird and somewhat laughable, it has been interesting to live in a society where the supernatural is still taken seriously.
Here is an article from a local magazine about superstition and the workplace. While I haven't experienced any of the examples in the article (except for hearing news about a need for ghost-protection) it does give you an idea of how different attitudes to the supernatural are here.
http://www.chiangmainews.com/indepth/details.php?id=1406
1 comment:
I loved this post. I found my eyebrows rising toward the ceiling at a few of the examples, but not in a "seriously, how can they believe that" way. Our cultural superstitions are not so "in your face," but they are present. I know that sailors/fishermen have some pretty interesting superstitions themselves.
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