Cultural understanding cannot replace relational insight

Cultural preparation is ephemeral, individual relationship is concrete.

At the conclusion of Livermore’s extensive research of ten global cultural clusters, he reminds us that individuals have unique mixes of cultural and sub-cultural values. Cultural preparation, no matter the quantity, is useful for general predictions only and one should “move as quickly as possible beyond broad cultural stereotypes” (Livermore, pg. 89).

For example, the hippie movement of the 1960’s was a collectivist, cooperative movement in a culture renown for individualism and competitive spirit. A visiting German who generalizes all Americans as self-centered and argumentative will, upon meeting a hippie, find his cutural model gives him no accurate prediction to the hippie’s behavior.

The longer a generalization remains unconfirmed in a relationship, the higher the danger of misunderstanding. This is because people aren’t exact imprints of their culture, but unique amalgamations of culture and personality. Even where they follow the mores of their cultural heritage, there reasons for doing so may differ from the generalizations. Therefore it is important to leave generalizations behind in order to understand individuals.

For example, some friends recently wrote about their Christmas experience in a Muslim country. To their surprise, the celebration of Christmas is welcomed and encouraged by Imams across the land as a way to promote unity! When they asked their friends why they celebrated Christmas, however, they soon discovered no one connected the holiday with Jesus. Only with much discussion did they explain that they celebrated the Christmas holiday to remember Jesus, and that the various symbols remind them of him.

My friends began with a generalization, that Muslims wouldn’t celebrate Christmas because it is a Christian holiday. Despite the similar appearance of the holiday in this Muslim country, when they got to know individuals they understood why this custom was widely accepted, because Muslim leaders encouraged it to build unity. Finally, their friends began with a generalization, that Christians celebrate the holiday for the same reason Muslims do, and discovered the underlying differences through relationship.

Because generalizations are a starting point only, and may soon become a barrier to understanding when they hinder further inquiry, I will take care to maintain a teachable attitude towards the people I meet. Despite the value of generalizations to supply a framework from which to understand the decisions of groups of people, they are a poor substitute for the question, “Why do you do such-and-such?” When I am generalized because of my faith without any additional effort to understand my decisions or actions I feel misunderstood. What’s more, I feel others don’t want to bother to understand. It’s a rare person who asks, “Why do you think that?”, or “Why do you do that?” Such a person opens the door for deeper relationship, while the one who remains in generalizations ends up building a wall of generalizations between themselves and others.

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