'The Pasho' by Paolo Bacigulpi (novelette, Asimov's 09/04)
'The Pasho' is a story about cultural identities. It's also a story about the interactions between scientific/technological knowledge and culture. It's about trying to find a way to move into the future while at the same time respecting the realities of the past.

The Pasho of the title is Raphel, a young Jai man who has just returned from ten years of studying to be a Pasho in Keli. Pashos are Keli's version of some sort of priest or wise man; they are keepers of the scientific and technological knowledge that, it's implied, led to some sort of catastrophe centuries before. The Pashos job is to learn the knowledge and use it wisely, passing it out only sparingly, applying it only at the right times, in the right ways. Raphel's family and community back in Jai are somewhat suspicious of him now that he is a Pasho. It is as if he has been tainted by the Keli knowledge that he has learnt, and the time he has spent in Keli. He is literally shunned for his first week back in Jai, according to ancient traditions that used to have a scientific purpose (disease prevention) but are now superstitious custom.

The central conflict in the story is the battle of wills between Raphel and his Grandfather. The Grandfather is a great Jai hero. He keeps to the old ways, and is intensely critical of his grandson's new role as Pasho. He feels Raphel is betraying his Jai heritage by accepting Keli knowledge. He thinks that the Keli knowledge will encourage Raphel to begin to do things differently, and that if the way things are done changes it will cease to be a Jai way of doing things and become Keli, since the changes will be due to Keli knowledge. Raphel's attitude is that although he is using Keli knowledge to bring about changes for the Jai, the changes will still be Jai changes, because he is a Jai, so whatever he does is Jai and however he does it will be a Jai way of doing things.

According to the Grandfather, the Jai's cultural identity is in their rituals, their customs, their clothes. It's in the details of how they live, the facts of their day-to-day lives; what they eat, how they dress, how they make their living. For the Grandfather, to change any of this is to cease being Jai. Raphel's position is that the Jai's cultural identity is composed of all these practical things, but that it transcends them too. Perhaps the Jai's cultural identity is in the fact that they have done all these things and lived this way in the past, but for Raphel that doesn't mean that have to continue to do so in the future. Raphel honours the old traditions, but is not bound by them. He is trying to find a way to be Jai and to move forward, to change the way things are done, to improve how things are done even. He's trying to find a way of maintaining his Jai identity while implementing these beneficial changes.

'The Pasho' is more than just idle speculation about some far-future cultures. It's addressing very real conflicts and tensions that exist in many cultures today. How do we maintain localised cultural identities in a world of scientific, technological and commercial globalisation? That's the question that is facing Raphel and his Grandfather, and the story in 'The Pasho' is the playing out of the battle over how to answer it.