When I moved to Lusaka, I heard a lot of people asking me if I was excited moving back to "civilization". At first I felt a little indignant over the question. What made the people in Lusaka any more civilized than people in the village? Murder rates are actually higher in the capital - doesn't that point more to barbarism than to civilization? Before attempting any satisfying answer, I realized I really didn't know the meaning of civilization. If I was going to become all emotional over the issue, I realized that I should probably look it up.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines civilization as "a relatively high level of cultural and technological development"; it goes as far as to cite barbarism as its antonym . The Oxford dictionary defines it as "the stage of human social development and organization which is considered the most advanced"; it goes on to simply include "society, culture, and way of life".
Obviously, this did not make things any clearer. Was I to consider the people in my village uncivil because they didn't reach the most advanced stage of social organization? Or was I to focus on the technological development - look more at the state of infrastructure and communications? Obviously the larger macro developments were not there, but were they able to organize and mobilize themselves on a smaller scale? Well, yes and no. While they were able to come together on traditional issues, many internationally funded and supported projects died due to major problems with community management - but did this qualify them as uncivilized?
Merriam Webster cities cultural development as a component of a civilized society. Previously, I never considered whether a culture could actually be "developed" - the whole idea seemed extraneous, even ethnocentric. I always considered culture a definite and definable phenomenon. Either there's a group with constituent and regularly interacting members - or there isn't. That was my thought at least. Based on Merriam Webster's definition, there's a scale as to how advanced a culture can be. Whether that refers to moral or ethical development isn't explained. Nonetheless, what I remembered most about my experience in the village was not the lack of electricity or running water, but rather the cultural events that dotted the (figurative) community calendar. From the larger events, such as funerals and weddings, to the more routine, lunch and dinner, daily life was abound with cultural tradition - tradition that took hundreds and hundreds of years to develop. Tradition that adapted and absorbed western culture and Christianity (for better or for worse). Tradition so complex that two years can only allow an outsider to understand how intricate the entire culture is - not the intricacies themselves.
In short, yeah, I like my water heater and I like my microwave oven. I even enjoy zoning out to my satellite tv. But I wouldn't call it a return to civilization. Every morning when I wake up, I am no longer greeted by my neighbor's two year old son, but rather by the sound of morning traffic and the smell of yesterday's burning trash. Every evening when I eat dinner, I am no longer accompanied by my 82 year old host father and his long, rolling stories of post-colonial Zambia, but rather by Sam Waterston and the fast-paced stories of Law and Order.
Life is different here. I wouldn't call it worse, I wouldn't even call it uncultured. It's just different.
