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Presentation
The political emancipation of the old colonies made those people become aware of their own way of life and made them value it. Thus, the idea of necessary connection between development and western culture began to be questioned. A new idea of culture emerges, understood as a “set of distinctive, spiritual, material, intellectual and affective features which characterize one society or social group. Besides arts, culture includes ways of life, fundamental rights of human beings, value systems, traditions and believes.” Definition of World Conference on Cultural Policies (MONDIACULT) held in Mexico in 1982. Based on that concept, development is no longer an imitation of western culture but a participative process in which finishing line is not prefixed. According to that new concept of development, little changes and gradual transformations enable people and groups to recreate constantly their boundaries of fulfilment. As a result of this new perspective, development policies must consider not only redistribution of assets to meet social needs but cultural acknowledgement as well. Acknowledgement of hidden capacities, invisible agents, on-going processes, viable but unknown institutional articulations and ways of life and values which are often ignored. Summing up, development policies must recognize culture and must work based on it. Taking advantage of the opportunity provided by the 5th Centenary of Francis Xavier’s birth, -he was one of the pioneers of cultural exchange-, these are our goals for the Conference on Culture and Human Development:
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When development was measured in terms of accumulation of material goods, the connection between culture and development was purely instrumental. A particular culture’s value depended on its ability to create economic development. Therefore, the obvious conclusion was that the western culture was superior to the others.