A movement in the Social Sciences is currently gaining momentum – a movement for a separate and distinct knowledge base for different cultural milieus – even as the international community approaches increased homogeneity and blurring of cultural divides. This movement can be referred to as Decolonization, both of the Social Sciences and of knowledge in general. In this movement, alternative views are on the rise, supporting the expansion of the present dominantly-Western core knowledge of the Social Sciences, in order to better accommodate the cultural and intellectual diversity of humanity. This movement echoes the clamor of the minority in the Social Sciences – i.e., the intellectual community of the Third World and other non-Western nations, as well as their Western intellectual sympathizers – to be free of such things as the use of education for cultural imperialism (Bishop, 1990); education and neo-colonialism (Altbach, 1971); the need for diversity in higher education (Searle, 1994); pagkagapos ng agham panlipunang Pilipino (David, 197_ ); and academic dependency (Alatas, 2003), among others. The Decolonization movement works under the precept that knowledge in the Social Sciences (and in general) in it present form is utilized as an instrument for neocolonialism and neo-imperialism of the West to the (marginalized) Other (i.e. the Third World and the non-Western). The West, in this assumption, remains to hold other nations as pacified captives through subtle yet potent means. Education is one such means, as elaborated upon by Bishop, Altbach, and Searle. The Social Sciences in particular plays a major role in painting a social scenario as it would be seen through Western lenses; it is, therefore, a tool in perpetrating theories, methods, and explanations of social and cultural phenomena that are, in essence, Western in grounding (as discussed by Alatas and David). The power of the Social Sciences in social research and mobilizing policy-making can subtly be a tool for endorsing The Industrial and The Global as ideals and goals for national development, with the Western industrialized nations as the epitome of such a successful society.
Issues. Here we can see, too, that captive nations become, in most ways, alienated from knowledge: they do not own their knowledge and yet they cultivate it. They furthermore juxtapose it into their own cultural milieu. A lot of this alienated knowledge, for example, can be seen in the discipline of Psychology, particularly in the study of abnormal behavior. Western brand of abnormal Psychology is still largely pro-institutionalization, i.e., treatment of mental and psychological illnesses can only be successful by locking up these people in mental facilities. The deficiency of this treatment becomes more pronounced in the face of the advent of de-institutionalization and social re-integration as potent alternative treatments to replace isolation in mental wards. This practice has long been proven by other non-Western societies who traditionally take care of their mentally-handicapped instead of isolate them. In the Cordilleras, for example, the sapo is a shamanistic practice that aids in speeding up the recovery of someone who has escaped reality. Sadly, few efforts are taken to explore the promise of sapo as an alternative to institutionalization and isolation that the West introduced. Another case in point is the little attention given by the academe to the growing number of researches in Sikolohiyang Pilipino. There are such things as sikolohiya ng pagkalalake (with a female counterpart, I suppose), and these studies are only mentioned in passing – if they are mentioned at all – in Psychology courses presently offered in the university.
Recommendations. Bigger than the ramifications of the neocolonized mind is the task of decolonizing it. Alatas (2003) presented specific steps for breaking down academic dependency, while other writers presented their own recommendations, too. Here, I shall present some concrete steps which I believe would be helpful in decolonizing the Filipino Social Sciences.
Centers of social researches in the Philippines, such as the academe, should encourage and fund studies that focus on exploring indigenous and folk knowledge. The aim here is to remove the stigma of primitivism, backwardness, and inferiority attached to Filipino traditional knowledge and practices. Although methods of research would inevitably remain Western in grounding (the West being the developers of methods we apply in research presently), the results of what we would call the first wave of truly-Filipino exploratory researches would hopefully be able to generate theories and heuristic tools that fit the Filipino culture.
Inoculation could also work in decolonizing the Filipino mind. The teaching and dissemination of information regarding neocolonialism and its subtle forms could and would plant seminal seeds of critical thinking among people. As a saying goes, knowing the enemy is a means of equipping one’s self against the enemy. Awareness is the foremost weapon against the so-called captivity of the mind. The presentation of this course, for example, is an effective means of making people rethink the current situation of theorizing and other knowledge-generating activities that our nation is presently employing.
Aside, the study of World History becomes moot when we apply the Decolonization process in secondary-school Social Studies. World History is not the history of the world; it is the history of the West. Equating the World with the West is not a message we would like our youth to subconsciously imbibe. It would be better to introduce the History of the Philippine’s Indigenous Peoples as an alternative to World History (which is being taught to third year students), since we can not afford the youth to know more about Henry the VIII’s eight wives but be unaware of the struggles of Macli-ing Dulag and his people in the 1980’s to prevent the construction of the Chico Dam that threatened to leave them homeless in their own land. The youth knows about the Scots, the French, the English, the Americans… but little knows of the Tinguian, the Applai, the Gaddang, and the Lumads of the South. This brand of teaching is not education; this is merely schooling. If so, then there is a grain of truth in the saying that many are schooled, but few are educated. In a nation that is still in the process of picking itself up from impoverishment and moral degradation, the last thing we need is a horde of uneducated Filipinos.
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Other steps could be secured to ensure that the Decolonization movement reaches the Filipino masses. Surely, these must be done if we are to be free of the mentality that only the West has awareness of and concern for things happening in the society. The Filipino is aware, and the Filipino can make sense of her/his world without needing the presence of the West.-
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