Personal early human life experiences
I was five when a nanny from Thailand joined us. Shortly after her arrival, I observed my parents making new arrangements for the prayer area inside the home where the nanny was not expected to step in. The home adjustment was sudden with no prior planning. It was obvious to me that the nanny came from afar, where people spoke a different language, but I did not understand why that would prevent her from entering our prayer room.
My mother said to me, “We are Muslims, and she is Buddhist. She is not aware of the importance of tahara (the state of purification through the removal of physical impurities) in our worship places. We do not judge her beliefs. We are only accountable about the way we treat her as a human.”
The nanny had a necklace with a pendant of a Buddha statue. I found the idea of the visible God strange and rather amusing. I repeatedly asked her, giggling, “Where is God? ”. She always replied by pointing to her necklace. My parents did not reconcile with the discomfort of imposing their cultural rituals. The nanny left our home within a month.
Albeit short, the experience I had when I was young was profound and a lifelong lesson. There I learnt that varying ways of life do not contradict the definition of an equal human. Languages and religious beliefs, however, could create discordance between humans living together. The latter, I later learnt, may not be an important aspect.
A new nanny from the Philippines arrived, and there were no adjustments inside the home. She communicated with me in English and introduced me to new vocabulary. When she took me to bathe, she sang to me, “This is the window, this is the floor, this is the ceiling, this is the floor.” She wore jeans inside the house all the time. I was sad when she left after a short period.
When I grew older, I learnt that she was Christian, and according to my faith, the people of the book, called Ahlul Kitab, are considered ritually pure. She, however, had different cultural expectations, such as going out with a boyfriend and having a social life, which would be viewed as inappropriate in our community.
With those experiences at the home where I grew up, in addition to others, I realised that the world is big and wide, and people’s lives vary within and across their cultures. I was trained to avoid labelling people, as that could blind me from seeing the humans inside them. This was an iteration of a religious quote: “People are of two types; they are either your brothers in faith or your equals in humanity.”1
Social categories impeding human relations
In the dictionary, humanity refers to human attributes such as kindness and understanding, including all people collectively. It encompasses “the qualities, faults, and feelings that people have, as opposed to goods, animals, or machines.”2 Communication, a key universal value, can facilitate human interactions.
Literature reports that universal human values have developed throughout world civilisations. They serve as a means to connect a person to his or her society and create a unity between a man and the world.3 Contemporary cross-cultural research shows that cooperation, communication, and kindness are the main values that are needed to bring nations together.3 When one or all three values are lacking, people’s interactions may become devoid of humanity.
Being orientated to be equal to other humans, I was intrigued by how different sociocultural norms and beliefs shape people’s lives. When I was pursuing my degree in sociology, I often had transparent conversations with classmates, who later became friends, where we discussed our different cultural views. One of them, a hippie, invited me to a summer festival in her small hometown in BC. I arrived early in the morning, and she received me at the coach station. As we were driving to her town, she stopped by the lake. “I’ll have a dip; the weather feels very nice. Oh! I don’t have my swimsuit with me.” I went to change and wore my burkini, and she jumped into the lake naked. It was spontaneous. We both enjoyed it. In the evening, we reflected on the experience and laughed.
She hosted me in her home for a week. There was another guest working inside the home while her father and she were busy all day at the festival. She dropped in at lunchtime to check on me. She looked very apprehensive.“I’m worried that you cannot manage alone here.” To which I replied, “but I had been on my own for years, and my family was on the other side of the world.” The next day she was at ease.“The assumption I had that you were shielded was wrong,” she reflected.
My friend became biased due to the information she was exposed to about my home culture. The images of women as subservient to men and indoctrinated through patriarchal values concealed her from seeing the true person I was. In the end, her wits overruled her former judgements.
The evolution of knowledge on human lives
Theoretical knowledge we pick up may come from both formal and informal sources. The latter include films, TV, and online media, and according to scholarly analysis, the portraits of people of colour in Western media outlets are repetitions of negative stereotypes.4 Knowledge based on scientific evidence, on the other hand, stems from two methodological traditions: quantitative and qualitative.
Quantitative research can be defined as systematic, objective, experimental, and deductive strategies to problem-solving.5 It explains phenomena by collecting numerical data that is analysed with mathematical and statistical techniques. This method was originally developed within the natural sciences (e.g., physics, math, and biology) and considered more reliable.5 Most scientific disciplines of today employ quantitative methods. According to this paradigm, the laws of human behaviour and social life could be discerned through the natural sciences’ mode of inquiry.5 Quantitative methods were developed in modern times with the positivistic framework (i.e., cause-and-effect relationships and accepting or rejecting theories). This is in contrast to the constructionism of the qualitative approaches.
Constructionism means that knowledge is generated through individuals’ understanding and interpretations of phenomena within historical or social contexts.6 Qualitative research emerged during the 17th century when Western colonial ethnographers attempted to observe and understand the customs, norms, and behaviours of ‘other’ societies.6 Modern Western scholars of various disciplines contributed to formalising and developing qualitative methods. Reality in this paradigm is constructed through individuals interacting and creating a meaning of their social world.6 Social and psychological research questions may not fit in quantitative designs, and qualitative approaches are criticized as less evidence-based and biased with researchers’ subjective views.6 Subsequently, a mixed-methods paradigm has emerged to address the diversity of human life experiences and counter the reprisals against qualitative methods.6
In short, modes of scientific inquiry have been evolving attempting to address a knowledge gap that is due to limitations of two distinctive cultures of research methodology.4 In social research, it is not always possible to grasp the meanings of human life experiences or feelings through mathematical coding. Methodologies of interpretative and textual analyses could be used jointly with statistical approaches. Scholars of scientific methodology suggest collaborative and interdisciplinary research to better understand the complexities of our social world.6
Conservatism versus liberalism across cultures
Sociocultural settings can be very heterogeneous and incomparable across cultures. In the very small town where I visited my friend, I was visible among the tourists, mostly white Caucasian from the US. When my friend introduced me to people, some were amazed that I was living there alone.“She came from a liberal family,” my friend said. During my cross-cultural interactions, I found myself being referred to as conservative or liberal simultaneously. These political terms have no sheer equivalence in my home culture.
The term conservative was introduced during the French Revolution in 1815. Conservatives adhere to social traditions and social order. They view religion as a divine system that aligns with the ‘natural’ hierarchy of social roles.7,8 Traditional family systems in their views accord with patriarchal values. Conservatives may question and resist social change.8 They are commonly viewed as ‘old-fashioned’.8
In contrast, liberals believe that social change is essential for progress and reform. Liberalism dates back before the 19th century.7 The term liberal was generally used to describe social or individual attitudes to freedom.8 Some sources mention that liberalism as a political party was first introduced in 1812 in Spain by an opposition to a conservative king.8 Social liberalism centres on improving society and seeking social justice, equity, and equality. Hence religion contributes to conserving past traditions; liberals tend to be less religious, adopting secularism.8
The cultures of the Arab and Muslim worlds date back to ancient, diverse social and historical contexts. Although the birth of Christianity was within the borders of the Islamic world of today, Christianity crossed the world and converged with the values of Western cultures. The same can be said about Islam.
Following the death of Prophet Mohammad, the empire of the Caliphate (632–1258) conquered regions in Southwest Asia, North Africa, and Spain.9 In those regions and countries, people spoke other languages and had different cultures. Some learnt Arabic and adapted to the traditions of their new rulers; however, they continued to preserve their cultural customs and societal norms.
Generally speaking, universal ethical values and human rights do not contradict Islamic principles.10 Progressive liberal values such as social justice and equity and equality are integral to the teachings of Islam.10 The epistemology and application of these concepts, however, vary according to the schools of thought within and between Muslim sects.
Muslim societies are expected to strive for positive change that is beneficial to all groups in the society.11 Contrary to the view of social change that is based on Western values stemming from the sociology of Comte, Durkheim, and Max, social change in Islam is conceptual called ijtihad.11 Intellectual scholars of Islam use authentic sources of Islamic law as references of ethical principles to make a reasoned judgement on social change and innovation.11
With regards to traditional norms and values of patriarchy and hierarchy, Arab and Middle Eastern people have them embedded in their cultures before the advent of Islam.10 The Arab pagan culture treated women as oproperties to men and the brith of a girl was shameful.10 After Islam, women’s situation was reformed with their rights to inheritance, education, marriage, social inclusion, and highlighting their significant roles in their families and societies.10 Women’s roles are not any less than men’s. Gender equity is emphasised to meet the needs of the family and society.
Although women in early Islam until modern times did not take a share in the financial burden, conforming to traditional gender roles, Islam does not prevent women from going to work. Neither it specifies professional or educational fields for women to pursue. According to Islamic jurisprudence, when women decide to work, they are not required to participate in the household income. Nowadays, a lot of women go to work and contribute to the economy.
Compared to the conceptualisation of liberalism versus conservatism, Islamic views can be presented as a middle ground. Scholarly interpretations of Muslim clerics, however, vary and may align closely with their cultural traditions. The diversity of intellectualism and perspectives in the Islamic scholars could mirror individual and sociocultural differences within the Arab and Muslim worlds.
In my home region, a wide range of social and religious attitudes can be observed. In my family and social surroundings, a devout Muslim could be the second or third generation of non-practing grandparents or great-grandparents. Or siblings being a mix of religious and non-practicing. A traditional, conformist lives together with her ‘trendy, posy’ sister. People may make individual choices in relation to their beliefs and lifestyles or conform to the expectations of their collective groups.
In regions where people are originally nomads, called Bedouins, their cultural norms could be more enforced collectively by their tribes. I encountered women wearing face veil, niqab, to comply with the customs of their tribes but took their whole veil off when they travelled. Other women in public services would wear the niqab at work only. In other words, while the veil, be it hijab or niqab, is regarded as religious, some women wear it merely to convey their cultural conformity or anonymity.
Simply put, the social and historical contexts where the Western terms of political parties arose from do not resemble the sociocultural settings in the Arab and Muslim worlds. Although not all Muslims are religious, people may choose to stick to their societal norms and values, which may not correlate with the introduction of social change referenced from Western cultures. Lifestyles in the Arab and Muslim communities are shaped by history, culture, religion, and individual and social attitudes. People’s life patterns can be complex and do not fit in the descriptions of the two Western political parties.
Concluding remarks: AI models replacing human intelligence
In a nutshell, both the limitations of scientific methodologies and the misalignment of conceptions and values across cultures could have resulted in an inadequate understanding of varying human life experiences. At present, researchers and scholars have begun to utilise artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, such as ChatGPT, in their scientific quest. Evidence shows that ChatGPT could be an efficient program to cultivate knowledge but not without significant limitations. Numerous studies confirm that chatbots may not be culturally appropriate.12
ChatGPT is skewed towards the American culture and features a large gap in adjustment to varying human societies.13 When tested in interpersonal decision-making, it exhibited cultural biases and stereotypes.14
ChatGPT uses data with insufficient understanding of societal norms and contexts globally and across cultures. It is trained to use Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF) lacking human expertise and critical and creative thinking.15,16 Reported shortfalls of ChatGPT include biased and limited data, lack of context, limited accuracy, lack of emotional intelligence, and limited engagement.15 All are important to interpret and understand the fluidity of human life experiences.
ChatGPT receives increased attention due to its potentially weighty role in globalisation and cross-cultural communication.14 Being deficient of intrinsic human traits such as kindness and understanding, would the advanced AI program further bias knowledge on divergent social lives and may hinder cross-cultural interactions? Or would it succeed in uncovering our blind spots due to sparse data and enhance our human experiences?
Date: 22 Jan 2025
References
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2. Cambridge dictionary.
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4. Shaheen, Jack G. “Reel bad Arabs: How Hollywood vilifies a people.” The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social science 588.1 (2003): 171–193.
5. Mohajan, Haradhan Kumar. “Quantitative Research: A Successful Investigation in Natural and Social Sciences.” Journal of Economic Development, Environment and People, vol. 9, no. 4, 31 Dec. 2020, pp. 50–79, https://doi.org/10.26458/jedep.v9i4.679.
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8. Andrea Morales, Andrea. “Social Conservatism vs. Social Liberalism.” Study.com, 21 Nov. 2023, study.com/academy/lesson/social-conservatism-vs-social-liberalism.html.
9. Kennedy, Hugh. “The decline and fall of the first Muslim empire.” (2004): 3–30.
10. Al-Bannay, H. (2021). “Islamic Health Justice for Women in Saudi Arabia.” In ‘Päivänsalo, V., Ahmad, A., Zachariah, G., & Stenlund, M. Faith-Based Health Justice: Transforming Agendas of FaithCommunities. Minneapolis: Fortress Press. P. 208–224.
11. Sardar, Ziauddin. “On Social Change and Islamic Reform | Ziauddinsardar.com, 2018, https://ziauddinsardar.com/interviews/social-change-and-islamic-reform. Accessed 21 Jan.
12. Tuna, Mustafa, Kristina Schaaff, and Tim Schlippe. “Effects of Language-and Culture-Specific Prompting on ChatGPT.”
13. Cao, Yong, et al. “Assessing Cross-Cultural Alignment between ChatGPT and Human Societies: An Empirical Study.” C3NLP, 30 Mar. 2023, https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2303.17466.
14. Yuan, Hang, et al. “The high dimensional psychological profile and cultural bias of ChatGPT.” arXiv preprint arXiv:2405.03387(2024).
15. An, J., W. Ding, and C. Lin. “ChatGPT.” tackle the growing carbon footprint of generative AI 615 (2023): 586.
16. Huang, Jingshan, and Ming Tan. “The Role of ChatGPT in Scientific Communication: Writing Better Scientific Review Articles.” American Journal of Cancer Research, vol. 13, no. 4, 1 Jan. 2023, pp. 1148–1154.
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