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Essay submitted by Daniel Anorga Cook
Isolating a single cross-cultural experience is an interesting
challenge in itself. I have been raised by my native Peruvian
mother, with a family spread across many countries, including
Argentina, Brazil, England, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden
and Peru. My life has been defined by cross-cultural interaction
and travel.
As a high school senior I was selected as a Dwight D. Eisenhower
student Ambassador to Denmark, England, Finland and Russia.
During college I studied abroad in five Chilean cities through
The School for International Training (SIT).
As a two-time Fulbright Fellow, management consultant and
executive, I have advised Chilean, Venezuelan, and Mexican
governments, multinational corporations and development organizations
on entrepreneurship and international development. Over the
past 10 years, I have traveled to 30 countries and spent over
four years living in Chile and Peru.
But even with this background, I was unprepared to what I
was discover - and how much I would learn about myself and
society - as I began a month-long homestay with an indigenous
Mapuche family on the Isla Huapi, several hundred miles to
the north of Antartica. I was here as part of the fall semester
of SIT and I was to have no contact with other students or
the outside world for four weeks. As the bus dropped me off
on Isla Huapi, I began an experience that was at once exhilarating,
humbling, challenging and critical to my current understanding
of human and cross-cultural interaction.
Isla Huapi is nearly 100 percent indigenous and one of the
least developed areas in Latin America's southern Cone, accessible
only by a primitive ferry. Running water, electricity, public
infrastructure and basic consumer goods are all non-existent.
Nearly everything consumed on the island was gathered, grown
or built locally with minimal external contact.
Whether or not the "Westernization" of the Mapuche
is inevitable, justified or beneficial, my personal experiences
with the Mapuche represented a major shift in my thinking
about cultural exploration, understand and communication.
In those four weeks, I was challenged to rethink my conceived
notions, personal beliefs and prejudices about a so-called
"primitive" culture.
Latin America has struggled with an acceptance of its own
indigenous roots through self-defeating social jokes, material
exploitation, legal manipulation, violence and other forms
of disparagement. It is often assumed that the indigenous
are comparatively less intelligent or genetically inferior
than people living in more advanced societies. There is an
underlying belief that wide differences in technological and
political organization among developed and developing societies
are based on the innate ability of people within these societies.
Prior to arriving in Isla Huapi, I shared in some of the subliminal
assumptions prevailing about Latin America's indigenous communities.
I benefited greatly from the time I spent at Isla Huapi.
The experience shattered many unfounded notions and catalyzed
a rethinking of my basic beliefs on culture and differences
between societies. I held firmly to a few fundamental guiding
principals that I have formed throughout my life:
Be passionate about learning from and understanding other
cultures:
Listen and ask questions first, communicate and share experiences,
enjoy learning about people's histories, how they think, make
decisions and view the world. Be tireless, objective, open
and fresh in your pursuit of cultural knowledge. Through experiences
at Huapi, this principle evolved my thinking about indigenous
societies and all cross-cultual interaction.
Stay flexible, the unexpected is around the corner:
Dealing in other cultures continuously presents new challenges.
At Huapi, I delivered calf, herded cattle, slept inches from
a flea-infested dirt floor, ate marginally, helped with chores
beginning at 6 a.m., retired shortly after dark each night
and contracted a persistent stomach virus. Without flexibility
I would not have lasted one day.
Always maintain your sense of humor:
Humor is a common and shared human characteristic with the
potential for forming strong bonds across cultures. It is
an ally, tool and bridge between people of unique societies
- don't forget to use it! At Huapi, I spent some of the finest
hours laughing with my family at our differences, cultural
mishaps and misunderstandings.
Most importantly, have fun:
Learning about other cultures is among the most educational,
enriching and rewarding experiences possible. Cross-cultural
interaction represents an opportunity to learn more about
yourself, the history of nations, societies and humankind,
the differences and common values across cultures and the
social forces that have created the world today. If you can't
have fun with this, why travel?
These principles helped me learn valuable life lessons through
my journey to the south of Chile.
I learned that historical, geographic and physical environments
have essentially shaped modern societies and the differences
between people and cultures. The Mapuche's lack of historical
focus on advanced agriculture, technology and complex political
organization is not attributed to their innate abilities or
intelligence but rather to their actual environments and social
needs. They are extremely intelligent in their own environments
and by their own standards (i.e., displayed a deep knowledge
of plants, animals, native land and high levels of inventiveness,
efficiency and ingenuity in survival). After spending time
with a society labeled as "primitive," it was very
clear to me that genetic superiority has not created the power
structures and interrelationships between societies in today's
world.
I also learned that cultural understanding and compromise
is never a zero-sum game. All cultures have their benefits
and problems. While Western societies may enjoy benefits such
as better medical care and longer life spans, we lack in other
areas, such as social support from families and communal relationships.
Regardless of the level of development, all cultures and societies
have lessons to teach - and to learn.
Finally, I learned that people invariably enter any cross-cultural
encounter full of preconceived ideas, values and perspectives
that have been established through their own personal experiences
and isolated social environments. Cross-cultural interactions
will become frustrating, one-sided and ineffectual without
questioning your own beliefs, battling past assumptions, considering
new perspectives and becoming open to that which is foreign.
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