Monday, March 31 What is the cultural significance of such prosthetics as wigs, hair plugs, etc. How taboo is it to put such things on record in talk? How do you know how off limits something prosthetic like this is for talk with a given individual?
Animal metaphors --how do you know what characteristics are attributed to various animals in a given culture? And then what aspects are being attributed to a person when you call them that animal? Pig: selfish, greedy, dirty, perverted (chauvinists?), China and Japan: just means 'ugly' Dragons are always the bad guy in Western literature, but in China they are the good, the mother of Chinese civilization? Chicken means prostitute in China, not coward as it does here.
What is the main problem for cross cultural communication in using animals as metaphors for various human personality characteristics? What other sources of metaphor might be subject to the same pitfalls? How would you go about eliciting information from a native of a particular culture that would circumvent misunderstandings based on animal (or other) metaphors?
Treatment of Animals, their role in society. . .How you treat animals, the Pomeranian that the Korean family I tutored for. What animals are considered a legitimate food source? What cultures share expectations for what animals can be pets and what the role of pets in a given family is? Dog soup in Korea, eating live monkey brains (Tracy, from China, brought this one up and described it), Philipinos served missionary family a feast on their return from furlough-- served them their own family dog, which I believe they dutifully ate, to demonstrate their appreciation for their hosts.
Hospitality, This leads from the role of animals in a culture to the importance and definition of hospitality in various cultures. Kimberly A mentioned anthropologists in - Somoa, a legend they are proud of, this man served his guests his wife for dinner, that's just how serious he was about hospitality.
The commitment in oriental cultures (which tends to extend to the Middle East and Africa) to serve strangers (who might be angels in disguise). OT stories of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis, and the Benjamites in Judges, where they offered their daughter, concubine in place of the angels when gangs of men wanted to abuse the travelers sexually. The sacrifices people make for their guests in other cultures. A chicken could be a month's wages for a family, then imagine if you didn't eat it! I ate the brain soup in Turkey. . . because I loved my hosts and I didn't want to be the selfish ugly American. And maybe because I didn't want to look like a wimp.
The temptation people so often have to laugh at others' customs; you really have to try to get inside the experience of the other--that's pretty much the crux of life in general. my sheltered Turkish student laughing scornfully what Christians believe in contrast to Muslims, not a good way to win friends and influence people. . .but kind of an automatic response for many people. . .The long road to intersubjectivity. . .
Anomie- alienation in community, the feeling you don't belong in your culture or your family (ever pray you were adopted?) (: Power/solidarity- distance/affiliation, independence and involvement Anomie can work for you if it makes you adjust to another language and culture more easily because you didn't feel at home in your own. If you are really well integrated in your home culture it may make it more difficult to integrate and adjust to another culture.
A huge frame conflict between Japanese and American companies: Japanese companies are organized like a big family.There are benefits and detriments to all sides. I doubt that there is any value in another culture that is completely nonexistent in all others. It's all a matter of ranking priorities of different values, using different forms for the same functions, doing those functions in different contexts.
Arranged marriages--not forced on you usually, even in Iran, Japan, etc. . . There is some value in having your family weigh in on big decisions. Africans have said that Westerners who marry for "love," put a hot pot on a cold stove and it grows colder, whereas Oriental cultures put a cold pot on a hot stove and it grows hotter.
This East West tension is a kind of tension between the rights and choices of the individual versus the collaborative decision making style preferred in oriental cultures. Do not both values exist potentially in each? Is the main distinction just a very strong, prevailing preference for one over the other in a given culture? What do you make of the fact that the cultures that prefer the "love" based mate choosing have astronomically higher divorce rates?
No comments:
Post a Comment