The Indiana Jones media franchise and movie series is one of the highest grossing of all time. The foundation for the success of Indiana Jones is the fascination with: mystery, Religion, cults, ritual, myth, rites, Archaeology, Anthropology, liturgy, trance, artefacts, initiation, aesthetics, Poetics and mimetics. Indeed, these are all the things Safety never talks about when it speaks of culture. Recent works by Cooper, Hopkins and Busch are great examples of avoidance in discussing the foundations of culture.
Created by George Lucas, Indiana Jones taps into the human need for heroes, myths and religion. Indeed, the most successful movies of all time are profoundly religious (Lyden (2003), Film as Religion; Ostwalt (2012) Secular Steeples, Popular Culture and the Religious Imagination). It is pointless to speak the word ‘culture’ without discussing religion. Safety never speaks about its own religiosity although being profoundly religious.
Indiana Jones raises to the surface the centrality of religion as a foundation for culture. And this religion embodies and validates the Hero myth. If you want to identify with Indiana Jones then you identify with religion, mythology and semiotics.
If you are seeking to understand culture and its religious foundation then Mircea Eliade and Mary Douglas are foundational reading. Neither Eliade (The Sacred and Profane) or Douglas (Purity and Danger; Risk and Blame, Essays on Cultural Theory) are sourced anywhere in the safety world in any discussion on culture. Of course, this ignorance and avoidance of Religion opens up the world of safety to be most profoundly religious.
Of course, nothing about the myths of Indiana Jones is true, they are just mythically true as validated by its symbols. Similarly, ignorance about Semiotics also opens up Safety to be profoundly religious.
The lessons we learn from Indiana Jones about culture are to:
- Be profoundly aware of the religious foundations of culture.
- Understand semiotics and the way sign systems and symbols work.
- Comprehend the importance of myths, rituals and artefacts to understanding culture.
- Understand the nature of Historiography.
- Know how rites, initiations, indoctrination, liturgy and the paralinguistics of culture function.
- Give value to mystery in the face of scientism.
You will read nothing about these in any safety text on culture.
If one is seeking to understand culture, the discipline of Religion cannot be ignored. This is why a Transdisciplinary approach is critical for an understanding of culture. One doesn’t have to be religious to study and understand Religion.
Free Module in Culture and Safety
So, for those who are able and willing to suspend their own assumptions and framing in knowing about culture, there are ways of understanding culture that can be learned, outside of the safety paradigm. First, a great deal has to be unlearned (stepping away from engineering and behaviourism) and letting go of the safety paradigm, in order to move forward to a different way of knowing.
The first rule of culture is to make sure you talk about culture; the second rule of culture is to talk about it outside of the safety paradigm.
If this module is of interest and you are seeking an understanding of culture and the culture of safety, Dr Long will be conducting a free Module on Culture and safety in 2023. It’s easy to register for this free program, by just send an email to robertlong2@mac.com and you will be put in the list.
The module will run Zoom sessions every Tuesday at 9am (Canberra time) starting on 21 February 2023 and with 90-minute sessions at 9 am and each following Tuesday at 9 am for 5 weeks. So, this means 5 consecutive sessions on the topic of culture and safety. Each session will be 60-90 minutes in duration. The final session will be on 21 March 2023.
Do NOT register for this program simply because it is free. Register if you think you are ready to let go of safety indoctrination and learn. Don’t register if you don’t want your safety worldview challenged.
Those interested can start by reading Dr Long’s blogs on culture and culture silences:
· https://safetyrisk.net/category/safety-culture-3/
· https://safetyrisk.net/category/safety-culture-silences/
Similarly, it will be helpful to read some of Lotman:
· The Unpredictable Workings of Culture
· Universe of the Mind, A Semiotic Theory of Culture
Or Bachelard:
Registrations close 9 January.
Do you have any thoughts? Please share them below