Five months living in Southeast Asia, and I still never dared to drive. Many travellers will agree that for someone spoiled by driving on the well-ordered European roads, Asian traffic can be chaotic, to say the least. When I moved to Indonesia, I made a resolution: no more taxis. I must learn to ride a motorbike, Bali-style.
No one could teach me to drive like a local, better than a local. So I booked a lesson with an instructor, Kadek, a bronze-skinned islander and a kind, laid-back soul.
What is the first thing you'd teach a foreigner taking a driving lesson in Indonesia? If your answer is something like left-hand traffic, you'd be wrong. The first thing Kadek taught me was:
*"In Bali, we are Hindu. We drive the way we live, and we live the way we believe."*
As I was trying to connect the dots between motorbikes and Hinduism, he went on:
*"All the haste and troubles you see on the roads come from foreigners bringing their driving habits. The Balinese never rush. There's no reason to speed up if you're already moving. And we believe in Karma -- if you care about others being safe, you are safe"*
In this article, I won't be educating you on the traffic rules in Southeast Asia. I'll tell you:
- How culture informs people's perception of time and space.
- The different concepts of time across cultures.
- Why understanding these differences is crucial in cross-cultural
communication.
Philosophy of Time
First, let's look back into history. Every ethnic group used mythology, religion and philosophy to make sense of the world around, and their position in it. People ascribed pagan gods for physical phenomena like water, fire, harvest and the sun. They philosophised on abstract notions such as life and death, good and evil, and of course, time and space. Today, we notice how different these philosophical thoughts are across countries, shaping what we call 'mentality' and 'culture'.
Scientists have tried to define these cultural differences, and in his cultural framework, Lewis (1996) distinguished three basic types of time perception across cultures -- Linear, Cyclical and Procedural time.
Linear Time
*Linear time* is undisputed in the West (e.g. in Europe, Britain, North America and Australia). This philosophy has been shaped by Christianity, according to which God created the world for humans to live, make history, and end on the day of judgement. Everything in life follows this temporal trajectory, having a beginning and an end.
Western cultures perceive time as an uninterrupted arrow, divided into past, present and future. The past is gone forever, the present is under control, and the future can be planned for or predicted. This has also shaped the idea of "progress". A person is responsible for a better future, therefore setting goals, scheduling and following the plan are necessary to achieve it.
*"Let me check my agenda".*
A friend of mine, a lady from Russia, started seeing a Dutchman. One day she called me, full of frustration. She complained that she had never met anyone so rude and disrespectful. Astounded, my mind ran through all possible scenarios, when, to my surprise she explained: "When I asked him when we would see each other again, he responded: 'Let me check my agenda'!"
Cyclical Time
Civilisations, including Ancient Greeks, Mayans, Incans, and until today, Hinduists and Buddhists, have thought of the time differently. Having observed the circularity of nature -- alternation of day and night, seasons, moon phases, birth and death, they concluded that, since nothing in the world appears out of nowhere, there can't be an ultimate beginning and an end. Even after death comes reincarnation and rebirth, according to religious belief. Therefore, time is never-ending, like a circle.
*Time in India*
"Never leave that till tomorrow what you can do today" -- the saying, which most westerners learn from a young age, probably won't make that much sense in India. In the Hindi language, both English words "yesterday" and "tomorrow" translate with the same word "kal". This word often baffles language learners, and accurately reflects the Indian philosophy of revolving time.
Procedural Time
This is the most abstract form within this framework. If we can imagine Linear time as an infinite arrow, and cyclical time as a circle, procedural time is not measurable, neither in hours nor in cycles. It is relational and comprised of actual human activities and physical events. In the same vein, when you don't perform any trackable action, time doesn't exist, and therefore, can't be "wasted".
This worldview is still present in some societies that have preserved ancestral ways of living, such as Aboriginal Australian, Torres Strait Islander and some African ethnic groups.
*First Nations*
*"The changes of ageing are measured against the bodies of friends and relatives before they are experienced in personal memory. The yams will be ripe after the rains have stopped and before the creek beds are dry. People have a capacity to measure one event by another and to take one thing as a sign of another.\ Pragmatically, this enables them to be ready for particular events -- to move where food supply is, to plan for seasonal abundance or to anticipate the arrival of the kingfish by making ready the fish spears. It allows the scheduling of events by ordering them in possible sequences and it allows communication about the relative duration of events and placing of people and events in time and space."* (Morphy, 1999)
Hybrid Types
Naturally, not all cultures fit into one specific category. For instance, the majority of Islamic societies blend Linear and Cyclical time. According to Islamic thought, human history rejuvenates in cycles, with the appearance of prophets. However, each cycle moves ahead towards the day of judgement, similar to Linear philosophy.
