Ron, I don't think anyone here, with some exceptions, believes ANY cultural group (no matter the level of focus) to be so monolithic as to be lacking variance. Nor do I think anyone here does NOT understand that such abstract generalities, be they good or bad, are simply a pragmatic way of seeing larger trends and metaphors for understanding.
Pirsig's account of the "self-evident truths" draws from the broad acknowledgment that it derived from the intersection of two fundamentally different cultural-metaphorical perspectives, and how these perspectives influenced each other leading to larger cultural changes in the respective societies at large. He goes on to demonstrate how this cultural interactivity shaped the language, unconsciously, of the "West" and how this language shift would later lead to a cultural schism within the larger "American cultural psyche". Of course, the more one immerses oneself in "another culture" (be it a New Englander moving to Wyoming or an American moving to an Inuit village just over the Arctic Circle), the more "accurately" one understands the broader, AND locally salient, cultural trends, values and meanings ascribed to daily activity. Wittgenstein says something parallel when he says, "Language is the House of Being". To fully "know" a cultural group (at ANY level of focus) one HAS to "speak the language". This is not to say that we can't know anything otherwise. We can make, for example, accurate descriptions of the German diet without speaking German, we can say "the Lakota hunted with bows" without speaking Lakota, but to truly understand the "other" we simply MUST delve into their language. Indeed, to be truly understood by others OUR language must be learned. This is why I said, to the dismay of the talk-radio fools, that the best philosophy to govern multi-cultural understanding is "embrace your mother-tongue, and learn the words of others". Again, I say that "levels of focus" are critical. A broad comment about German diets will not capture the salient distinctions between the northern (Prussian) diet and the southern (Bavarian) diet. Nor will a comment about northern German diets capture the salient distinctions between coastal and inland residents, nor the distinctions between those living closer to the Netherlands and those living closer to Poland. As Ian says, it is a pragmatic and understood decision to illuminate broad trends with the understanding that there is, always, conceptual "slippage". Of course the "Indian" label is absurd to describe the intricate, nuanced, contextual meanings of peoples living across an entire continent. Hopi culture is as different from Delaware culture as German is from Slovak. And even within these cultural fields, as you focus down, you will find variations between tribes, between villages, between people. On the same note, I am still waiting to hear what "Hispanic values" will "destroy America" by replacing the "values indigenous to North America". Because I am leaving for a vacation this week, and it would be great to have know which "Hispanic values" I should fear whilst traveling. And while Ham fears that his progeny may have to one day speak a language other than English, I am confident my German ancestors not only applaud my multilingualism, but that I do them honor by it. Because let's face it, we live in a world where it has never been easier to learn about, interact with and travel to places outside "our box". We have a freedom of mobility that should not be taken for granted. And, to bring this back to Pirsig, this is exactly why the motorcycle trip from ZMM resonates so strongly with me. When you travel by cycle you are "in the scene" and not a passive observer, he writes. William Least Heat-Moon, in Blue Highways, describes a trans-American journey (by truck) very similar, where rather that "sight-seeing" he spends time and interacts with the people who inhabit the various and numerous subcultural contexts of the United States. As Ian reminds, it is the Dusenberry-thing. To really understand, one must "be". Arlo Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
