Page 32 - Reading Between the Sign Intercultural Communication for Sign Language Interpreters

2

The Study of Culture

If we can accept the paradox that the real humanity of
people is understood through cultural differences rather
than cultural similarities, then we can make profound
sense of our differences. It is possible that there is not
one truth, but many; not one real experience, but many
realities; not one history, but many different and valid
ways of looking at events.
—Jamake Highwater
The Primal Mind
Jamake Highwater’s proposal represents a challenge to the popular,
well-intentioned sentiment that down deep all people are basically
the same. Actually it depends on how deep is “deep.” Certainly we
are all made of flesh and bones, we all need to eat and sleep, and
we seek shelter and safety. After those similarities have been es-
tablished, however, most of the rest of our beliefs, attitudes, and
behaviors are at least to some degree culturally determined.
To ignore the reality of varying cultural perspectives is to dis-
count the infinite variety of our humanness. To insist that we all
share the same goals and desires is to refuse to humbly admit
that our way is not the only way. Highwater, himself a Blackfoot
Indian, gives an example of a Navajo family, who, when entering
their newly built government house for the first time, may rip out
the toilet. “[Anglo] people come away from the Navajo Reserva-
tion expressing their sorrow in finding that ‘the poor Indians do
not have indoor plumbing and live in terrible, primitive condi-

17

02 MINDESS PMKR 17 10/18/04, 11:22 AM