Migration

There was a fascinating article in the Guardian Weekly of September 12 (if they get it up on the web later, I'll add a link), called "The Voyage of Humanity" by Robin McKie, it looked at how DNA mapping can show the routes of the human diaspora from our beginnings in East Africa. Sixty thousand years ago, the first group of sea voyagers crossed the Red Sea in tiny boats and began the human odyssey to explore the Earth. DNA sampling can show the routes taken by different groups in prehistoric times as they moved throughout Africa and Eurasia and on to the rest of the planet.

Moving on into times of which we have historical records, we can also see the importance of travel and migration in human history: the story of Adam and Eve driven out of the Garden must be an early memory of migration. Consider Noah, Abraham, Moses, Ruth, Isaiah: moving from one country to another must have been a regular and common experience for people of the ancient world. Throughout the Bible, "home" is more of a symbol than a lived experience for the Israelites.

In European history, we have a vague idea that until the so-called "Age of Discovery" people just sat around and cultivated their own gardens, but this is not borne out by other stories we know of the Middle Ages. Troubadours, peddlers, missionaries, Crusaders, pilgrims, and other travelers seem to have kept moving all the time. Also, the frequent famines, wars and plagues of the time would have sent refugees seeking for a safe place to live on a regular basis.

In the Pacific, people were making rafts, longboats and sailboats from prehistoric times, and moving around for war, trade, and greener pastures, as archaeological, linguistic and genealogical evidence shows. Indeed, Filipinos were such skilled sailors that within 150 years of first contact, there was hardly a Spanish ship in European waters without some Filipino crew members. Perhaps we need to modify our ideas about the modern nature of the "Global Village" and globalization.

The phenomenon of the "nation-state" with its attendant requirements of citizenship, passports, and impermeable borders is a modern one, its beginnings lie in the late Middle Ages and were originally developed by the feudal rulers who needed more convenient channels of taxation. Apart from that, nobody thought there would be any particular reason to prevent people from moving from one place to another. It is not a privilege, or even a human right, it's just a normal part of human nature to pack up and move on at times.

The phenomenon of the "undocumented" is an even more recent one, and has developed as a result of the increasing gap between rich countries and poor ones. Only in the past 60 years has this gap grown to the point where people in rich countries have begun to see themselves as threatened by "waves" of poor immigrants. To the extent that a problem exists, the solution can hardly be to "secure" the borders. Rather, much more reflection needs to go in to the question of affluence and whether and how we can or cannot "protect" what is "ours". Immigration is not a problem, the problem is fear and greed.

Happy All Saints' Day

Happy November 1! Here in the Philippines, All Saints' Day is as big a holiday as Easter, and even bigger than Christmas Day. All Saints' is a time to go home to the family home town, have feasts, picnics, parties, and catch up on all the news with friends and relatives. And of course, to remember the dead. I don't know about other parts of the Philippines, but here in the mountains, there is no tradition of masks, processions, and certainly no trick or treat, rather, there is a special church service on the First where all the names of people remembered by members of the congregation are read out, our church had about 400 names. Afterwards, candles and pine wood are blessed and then lighted torches, reminiscent of the Light of Christ, are taken to the cemetery and set by each grave. Then the family brings food and has a picnic by the family graves, it's a chance for the living and the dead to get together and share a meal once a year.

It reminded me of Nepal, where the Hindu tradition is that the dead are remembered on the anniversary of their death with a special feast prepared for them. Once, I was with a rather pushy Christian evangelist who demanded of our host whether the spirits actually ate any of the food offered. Undismayed, the old man laughed and said, "They eat the juice of it, and we eat the rest."

I was reflecting today that we of the Western Enlightenment are the odd ones, not believing in spirits. Whether we believe in one Supreme God who runs creation on a scientific basis, or whether we believe in no supernatural at all, the idea that the dead are just gone, and nothing unseen can trouble us puts us in the minority of humans throughout history and around the world today. Most people have been and are perfectly comfortable with the spirits of the dead and other beings going about their business all around us, and sometimes overlapping their business with ours. And why not? Maybe the majority is more in tune with reality than we think!

Whoooohoooooo! Enjoy your autumn!