Haiti Post 3: Thoughts on Haitian Culture
Dec. 3rd, 2011 12:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
labingiHaitian People/Culture: A Very Glancing Exposure
Haiti is considered a somewhat dangerous country, as a result of which, when you go there for an adoption process, they ferry you around almost as if you were in protective custody. I, therefore, can't claim to have experienced much of the Haitian people or culture in my brief visit, but here are my impressions.
My Impression of the Haitian "Tone"
I don't know where I picked up the stereotype that led to expect a lively and very outgoing people. Was I thinking of media images we get from Jamaica? All I know is that I was anticipating a kind of loudness, of expansive gestures, big emotions, music everywhere, etc. I was surprised to find the people quite the reverse.
My impression of Haitians broadly speaking is that they are culturally calm and rather low affect. The vast majority of the time, they seem to mind their own business and look right past each other as they walk along the busy streets or sit by their stalls. Aside from the evening of a holiday, I heard almost no music. I saw almost no disputes, nor heard raised voices. There wasn't much laughter either, at least not very loud. When I think about it, this makes sense for an extremely crowded country where people are constantly pressing on each other. There is no physical space, so they create a social space, a polite unseeing. (Or so it seems to me.) This reminds me a little bit of Japan.
Even the vendors who tried to sell us their wares were calm and not pushy--though this may also be related to our encountering them near the grounds of an upscale hotel that is doubtless somewhat monitored. We did, however, all observe with amusement that prices are constantly changing. The drinks at the hotel varied from $2-$7 (USD) somewhat whimsically, though there was a menu that gave the "real" prices. One vendor who sold one of our party a painting marked it up from $5 to $20 in about 10 seconds. This makes perfect sense, of course, for their economy. It definitely a haggling economy.
People move briskly and methodically, without rush and without time wasted, except for the inevitable traffic jams and administrative stoppages. Since these stoppages are many, people are also very patient. We witnessed waiting and waiting and waiting some more. Even the kids were good at it.
The best example I can think of is trying to get into the Port-au-Prince airport for my trip home. I had never been in such a press of people before. I literally had four people physically pressing against me; I was almost knocked off my balance and had to put out a hand to steady myself against a wall to keep from tipping. But it wasn't scary. Everyone was quiet and waiting their turn. There was no sense of anxiety but rather a sense that everyone would get through the door sooner or later and we would all be patient there together.
Meeting Haitians
Except for the airport, the only Haitians we interacted with without some mediation were the locals around the hotel. Our interactions were fairly limited to "good morning" and "good afternoon." "Good morning" becomes "good afternoon" quite early in the day (10:30 o r 11:00?), and it seems to be said to each individual in a party. We were consistently greeted politely and with smiles and no other particular show of interest. (These folks are used to living next to a hotel.) The kids, however, were very eager to take candy from us strangers, a fact we joked about a lot.
Physical Appearance
Haitian clothing, particularly the women's, is beautiful. The men wear fairly standard khaki pants or jeans and t-shirts. Despite the heat, few are in shorts. The women favor flowing, form-fitting, colorful skirts and dresses of about knee length. There's also a difference in hairstyle between girls and grown women: girls wear small braids all over their heads. Grown women generally pull their back into a bun or ponytail. Many women and some men balance phenomenally heavy objects on their heads in a way I associate with Africa. It's very impressive.
The people are beautiful: lovely and trim and fit. This is partly because the population is very young (due to a high birthrate and low life expectancy). Middle aged people are a smallish minority on the streets, and it's rare to see an old person out and about. The majority look to be in their twenties or younger. The appearance of good health doubtless also comes from the necessity of lots of exercise (heavy labor, walking, etc.) and smallish quantities of food, freshly grown. No doubt many of these people are going hungry. One of our guides told me they catch and dogs when times are lean. Fat people are rare, and I'm told, being portly is a sign of health and status.
Gender
In our superficial exposure to the culture, it seemed that men and women, aside from dress, worked and behaved in very similar ways. I didn't see obvious gender inequality, though there were some billboards advertising services for battered women or advertising the problem of violence against women. One of the judges we saw was female; we even saw a woman in army fatigues.
Writing
Speaking of billboards, the graffiti of Haiti interested me a lot. My idea of it may be very skewed by my poor abilities with Creole and French, but I saw nothing I identified as profanity (the norm for graffiti here in the US). Instead, graffiti seemed to take three dominant forms: 1) political, most calls for people to vote and some statements of what/who to vote for; 2) corporate: spray-painted ads; 3) positive messages, like love and friendship, and "we are one" and "Jesus is your friend." (I'm making up the exact wording, but that was the idea.) The taxis also list statements about Jesus and God quite commonly.
I wonder if the friendly nature of this graffiti (vs. the US) is in proportion to the hardship of life. In the US, life can be hard, but compared to Haiti even the hard areas are fairly easy. A lot of graffiti--at least in my borough--seems designed to demonstrate that one is dangerous or rebellious in a world that doesn't really have all the much danger or rebellion. Haiti might be something of the reverse. People live on the edge, so perhaps they crave the comfort of words of love and friendship. I don't know; that's just a thought.
The whole society gives the impression of being very literate. I think this is somewhat illusory, but text is everywhere: both Creole and French--and quite a bit of English… even some Chinese characters (in ads). As far as I know French (and English), everything seemed correctly spelled.
Capitalism
Much of this text is ads. Things are being sold everywhere, from mangos by the roadside to vendors rushing up to your car with bottled water (well, not "rushing") to giant billboards for wireless service. If breadth of advertising is any indication, the country appears to be owned by Digicel (cell phone company) with Voila (wireless company) as a decent second. CocaCola and Sprite are also much in evidence. My expectation of rampant poverty was shaken by the prevalence of stalls for cell phones, TVs, DVDs, fancy clothes, beauty treatments, etc. There's also a lot of playing of the lottery, based in little shacks called "banks."
Animals
Folks can't afford fencing, so their farm animals roam free. We saw many freely grazing cattle, horses, goats, and pigs, occasionally walking down the street. There are also, of course, many chickens. The dogs are relatively few and all have the universal mutt look about them. They almost all have the nervous trot of the packless dog expecting to ambushed; I felt sorry for them. I saw no cats. We did, however, get charming little lizards in the hotel rooms. A note asked us not to harass them as they ate the ants, which we also got in the hotel.
And those are some of my impressions of Haitian culture.
Haiti is considered a somewhat dangerous country, as a result of which, when you go there for an adoption process, they ferry you around almost as if you were in protective custody. I, therefore, can't claim to have experienced much of the Haitian people or culture in my brief visit, but here are my impressions.
My Impression of the Haitian "Tone"
I don't know where I picked up the stereotype that led to expect a lively and very outgoing people. Was I thinking of media images we get from Jamaica? All I know is that I was anticipating a kind of loudness, of expansive gestures, big emotions, music everywhere, etc. I was surprised to find the people quite the reverse.
My impression of Haitians broadly speaking is that they are culturally calm and rather low affect. The vast majority of the time, they seem to mind their own business and look right past each other as they walk along the busy streets or sit by their stalls. Aside from the evening of a holiday, I heard almost no music. I saw almost no disputes, nor heard raised voices. There wasn't much laughter either, at least not very loud. When I think about it, this makes sense for an extremely crowded country where people are constantly pressing on each other. There is no physical space, so they create a social space, a polite unseeing. (Or so it seems to me.) This reminds me a little bit of Japan.
Even the vendors who tried to sell us their wares were calm and not pushy--though this may also be related to our encountering them near the grounds of an upscale hotel that is doubtless somewhat monitored. We did, however, all observe with amusement that prices are constantly changing. The drinks at the hotel varied from $2-$7 (USD) somewhat whimsically, though there was a menu that gave the "real" prices. One vendor who sold one of our party a painting marked it up from $5 to $20 in about 10 seconds. This makes perfect sense, of course, for their economy. It definitely a haggling economy.
People move briskly and methodically, without rush and without time wasted, except for the inevitable traffic jams and administrative stoppages. Since these stoppages are many, people are also very patient. We witnessed waiting and waiting and waiting some more. Even the kids were good at it.
The best example I can think of is trying to get into the Port-au-Prince airport for my trip home. I had never been in such a press of people before. I literally had four people physically pressing against me; I was almost knocked off my balance and had to put out a hand to steady myself against a wall to keep from tipping. But it wasn't scary. Everyone was quiet and waiting their turn. There was no sense of anxiety but rather a sense that everyone would get through the door sooner or later and we would all be patient there together.
Meeting Haitians
Except for the airport, the only Haitians we interacted with without some mediation were the locals around the hotel. Our interactions were fairly limited to "good morning" and "good afternoon." "Good morning" becomes "good afternoon" quite early in the day (10:30 o r 11:00?), and it seems to be said to each individual in a party. We were consistently greeted politely and with smiles and no other particular show of interest. (These folks are used to living next to a hotel.) The kids, however, were very eager to take candy from us strangers, a fact we joked about a lot.
Physical Appearance
Haitian clothing, particularly the women's, is beautiful. The men wear fairly standard khaki pants or jeans and t-shirts. Despite the heat, few are in shorts. The women favor flowing, form-fitting, colorful skirts and dresses of about knee length. There's also a difference in hairstyle between girls and grown women: girls wear small braids all over their heads. Grown women generally pull their back into a bun or ponytail. Many women and some men balance phenomenally heavy objects on their heads in a way I associate with Africa. It's very impressive.
The people are beautiful: lovely and trim and fit. This is partly because the population is very young (due to a high birthrate and low life expectancy). Middle aged people are a smallish minority on the streets, and it's rare to see an old person out and about. The majority look to be in their twenties or younger. The appearance of good health doubtless also comes from the necessity of lots of exercise (heavy labor, walking, etc.) and smallish quantities of food, freshly grown. No doubt many of these people are going hungry. One of our guides told me they catch and dogs when times are lean. Fat people are rare, and I'm told, being portly is a sign of health and status.
Gender
In our superficial exposure to the culture, it seemed that men and women, aside from dress, worked and behaved in very similar ways. I didn't see obvious gender inequality, though there were some billboards advertising services for battered women or advertising the problem of violence against women. One of the judges we saw was female; we even saw a woman in army fatigues.
Writing
Speaking of billboards, the graffiti of Haiti interested me a lot. My idea of it may be very skewed by my poor abilities with Creole and French, but I saw nothing I identified as profanity (the norm for graffiti here in the US). Instead, graffiti seemed to take three dominant forms: 1) political, most calls for people to vote and some statements of what/who to vote for; 2) corporate: spray-painted ads; 3) positive messages, like love and friendship, and "we are one" and "Jesus is your friend." (I'm making up the exact wording, but that was the idea.) The taxis also list statements about Jesus and God quite commonly.
I wonder if the friendly nature of this graffiti (vs. the US) is in proportion to the hardship of life. In the US, life can be hard, but compared to Haiti even the hard areas are fairly easy. A lot of graffiti--at least in my borough--seems designed to demonstrate that one is dangerous or rebellious in a world that doesn't really have all the much danger or rebellion. Haiti might be something of the reverse. People live on the edge, so perhaps they crave the comfort of words of love and friendship. I don't know; that's just a thought.
The whole society gives the impression of being very literate. I think this is somewhat illusory, but text is everywhere: both Creole and French--and quite a bit of English… even some Chinese characters (in ads). As far as I know French (and English), everything seemed correctly spelled.
Capitalism
Much of this text is ads. Things are being sold everywhere, from mangos by the roadside to vendors rushing up to your car with bottled water (well, not "rushing") to giant billboards for wireless service. If breadth of advertising is any indication, the country appears to be owned by Digicel (cell phone company) with Voila (wireless company) as a decent second. CocaCola and Sprite are also much in evidence. My expectation of rampant poverty was shaken by the prevalence of stalls for cell phones, TVs, DVDs, fancy clothes, beauty treatments, etc. There's also a lot of playing of the lottery, based in little shacks called "banks."
Animals
Folks can't afford fencing, so their farm animals roam free. We saw many freely grazing cattle, horses, goats, and pigs, occasionally walking down the street. There are also, of course, many chickens. The dogs are relatively few and all have the universal mutt look about them. They almost all have the nervous trot of the packless dog expecting to ambushed; I felt sorry for them. I saw no cats. We did, however, get charming little lizards in the hotel rooms. A note asked us not to harass them as they ate the ants, which we also got in the hotel.
And those are some of my impressions of Haitian culture.
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Date: 2011-12-04 05:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-05 02:58 am (UTC)