KEYS TO UNDERSTANDING THE BASIC VALUES OF BELIEFS AND BEHAVIORS OF CONTRASTING CULTURES
Several years ago Clyde and Florence Kluckhohn along with fellow anthropologist Frederick Strodtbeck, gave the world a unique tool for assessing values. They looked at how people analyze the answer to five basic questions in life: (Kohls, p. 22-26, 1981)
1. What is the character of innate human nature? - Their human nature orientation
2. What is the relation of Man to Nature? - Their Man-Nature Orientation
3. What is the temporal focus (time sense of human life? - Their time orientation
4. What is the mode of human activity? - Their activity orientation
5. What is the mode of human relationships? - Their social orientation
1. Human Nature Orientation - In collectivistic societies people usually do not have any trouble in believing Jer. 17:9 which says, "The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, who can know it." Perhaps this is one of the reasons why the early missionaries went first to the village communities to do evangelism. They found the people quite receptive to the idea that they needed forgiveness for their sins. The rural people responded to offers for deliverance from judgment. It became obvious that many Africans believed in man’s propensity to do evil. Many accepted the idea that the only way to overcome evil was with a greater power of good through Jesus Christ. It is also this concept that leads many Africans to pursue power in various forms in a quest to overcome the evils that surround them. There are numerous examples of Africans simultaneously seeking the power that comes from God while at the same time secretly consulting with spiritists for intercessory power on their behalf. This had led many to syncretistic beliefs seen both in the private and public lives. Without a clear understanding of the nature of man through the scriptures and a Biblically interpreted anthropology, people will continue to look in the wrong places for answers to the problems of human evil.
In contrast many sophisticated urbanites believe that sin is a relative term. They value the inherent good in man and his capacity to overcome his limitations. It is for this reason that independent cultures tend to be more optimistic when it comes to believing the best in every person. To the urban mentality, man is innately pre-disposed to good behavior. It is the society, environment, and one’s circumstances that eventually corrupt the person. These individualistic cultures tend to favor the value that humans can overcome their shortcomings if given enough effort, educations, and problem-solving ingenuity.
A third school believes in the mixture of both good and evil in man. They believe that man has tendencies to practice good or bad depending upon the situations he faces. They are of the mind set that man is possessed with the dual capacity for constructive or destructive activities, depending upon the kinds of influences he is exposed to. This kind of thinking is usually found in a pluralistic society that has learned to appreciate the strengths and weaknesses of both of the above perspectives on human nature.
2. Man-Nature Orientation - In more individualistic cultures man is seen to be in charge of all that he surveys. The urban individualist has a desire to control his environment and society. Man can control one’s destiny if given enough education, discipline, and cunning, says the urban - western oriented person. By the use of ingenuity, man is expected to control his surroundings as well as his circumstances. This is often seen in Westerners strong reliance on scientific technology to cure many diseases, political, and economic problems. It also is reflected in missionaries who enjoy using computers to try to solve African problems of disease, population, and educational deficiencies.
However, the rural - collectivistic oriented society says the opposite to this issue. They tend to view that man is driven and controlled by spirits, fate, or outside forces that are beyond his control.
The rural man generally succumbs to the outside powers of his surroundings, culture, and spiritual forces that are too great for him to overcome. He resigns himself to being subjugated by the forces all around him.
He says, "That’s the nature of life, there is nothing I can do but just wait on the will of God to be carried out to its conclusions." Here there is an attitude that we must simply resign our mentalities to the fate that our circumstances dictate. It is often seen in fatalistic attitudes that excuse men from their responsibilities to make the most of every opportunity. This passivity often leads to irresponsible behavior that lies at the root causes of many human suffering.
The third school tries to find a middle ground between the mastery over nature school and the subjugation of situation perspective. This group says that man has little power to counteract the forces of one’s circumstances, but he can modify his attitudes and behaviors toward them. These are the people who feel that even though circumstances may be against them, they can manipulate their friends, family, or personal outlooks to adapt to the struggles around them. In a real way, these people have taken on a harmonization approach to their situations which allow them to live at peace within seemingly impossible trials. Example of these peoples can be seen in Japanese culture.
3. Activity Orientation - The rural - collectivistic society will tend to stress the importance of being rather than doing. These folks are most concerned about the quality of a man’s character. Once they are confident that you are a person of upstanding character, they are willing to trust you regardless of your educational level. It is for this reason that spontaneous bursts of feelings, emotions, and desires are considered good in many rural societies. They are considered true revelations of one’s personality. The more outgoing and forthright one can be with this people, the greater respect, receptivity, and openness can be generally anticipated. Missionaries who have shown this trait in Africa have usually found greater response from the people. In like fashion if many rural people want to criticize someone they will go after one’s character deficiencies. They are sure that if they can undermine someone’s character trustworthiness, others will discredit them subsequently. This is a common technique throughout rural Africa when one finds someone waging opposition against an enemy. By using all means possible, enemies will try to undermine one’s credibility in the eyes of important people in the community.
However, the individualistic - urban man is more action-oriented in his values of beliefs and behavior. He tends to prize those people who are busy, productive, and possessed with the desire to make the most of the time. Keeping busy, useful,and deliberately hard-working are esteemed values for a western - oriented man. Often the business of the urban man is seen as dust stirring vain activities by the rural man. Yet the urban man sees the rural man sufferings as basically a result of his own laziness. In contrast the rural man looks at the urban man as superficially concerned about quantity actions over qualitative characteristics of love, patience, courage, respect, authority, and kindness. To him, these are elements that determine the real value of life.
The middle group sees being in becoming as the quintessential goal of life. By engaging in activities that allow one to develop the best character qualities, one is reaching the highest ideals. There is an emphasis on developing the whole man like the classical Greeks. They were concerned about pursuing the ideals with the mind, body, soul, emotions, and will in synchronization. They believed that to be a complete man, one had to take all the major dimensions of life into balanced and proportional growth. Perhaps, this is the context in which Paul wrote Col. 1:28 which says, "And we proclaim Him admonishing everyman and teaching every man with all wisdom that we may present everyone complete in Christ."
4. Time Orientation - The rural-collectivistic culture tends to value what the elders have brought them from their historic values. They are concerned deeply with the historic legends in how their people came to believe and act the way they do. To many rural Africans it is not that important to know what will happen in the future as much as what happened in the past. Change comes very slowly in rural areas as the past is considered sacred and worth contemplating. Learning from one’s history is essential for the rural man to gain a sense of identity, security, and a fixation about the established responsibilities for each person. The more conservative approach will tend to get a greater response from these people than a fast paced progressive one.
The western man is quite the opposite considering the future to be far more important than the past. To him the values of his father probably are not going to be relevant to his needs. To many westerners time is constantly changing along with the needs, desires, and tastes of people. He is often obsessed with the notion that time is money. He tends to be optimistic about the possibilities of the future and is predisposed toward accepting change and innovation easier than the rural man. Equating change with improvement, he is far more concerned with progress than traditions. Out of this obsession with making the most of the time comes an aversion for those who "waste time". This is seen in lack of patience in relationships or failure to show compassion to visitors in need. Time is often seen as a priceless commodity that once spent can never be recouped. This explains the western man’s passion to find time saving devices, techniques, or methods that amplify values of efficiency in work.
The middle group concentrates on the present. They focus on the immediate needs of those who are closest to them. If you are working with people who come from a present orientation, spend a great deal of time with them during times of critical decision-making. Realize that their concerns are centered around the most pressing concerns "at the time". Usually the last person to influence this person before a pressing matter will be the one who has some of the greatest impact on their decisions. Since the past is given little attention and the future is largely unpredictable, this group becomes almost existential in its outlook. Even Jesus took this mind-set at time when He said, "Do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will take care of itself, each day has enough trouble of its own. Even the sparrow does not sow, reap, or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds him. How much more are you worth than they!" (Matt. 6:32,34)
5. Social Orientation - The rural - collectivistic group tends to respond better to authoritarian leaders than democratic ones.
They usually view social relationships vertically as opposed to the horizontal perspectives of the urban man. For the villager to come up to the chief without going through the proper greetings of respect would be unthinkable and dangerous in most rural societies. Similarly in some British circles they are very concerned about following proper lineality patterns. It would be a great travesty for someone in British circles to be seen approaching the Queen without passing through the proper channels of authority. Likewise, this is seen in the British educational system which reflects the need to have so many O & A level credits before qualifying for the next tier of advanced education. The authoritarian system of social orientation reflects a certain value of relationships that is deeply imbedded in various perspectives and cultures. I can even see the difference between the British missionaries in our mission who are concerned to go through all the PROPER procedures and channels before making a change. They are programmed to rely on the authorities to make the major movements in instituting change for an organization and their individuals. The Americans, on the other hand, are much more programmed to launch out on their own initiative, not waiting for the authorities to approved changes. This spirit of innovation and discovery is a prized value for an American, but would be considered insubordination for someone from Britain. Learn how to work through the proper channels of authority in order to maximize your impact in cross-cultural communications.
However, in an individualistic culture, one man’s opinion is a valued as anothers’.
This social equality in the urban arena stands as a primary value that allows the ambitious, clever, and hard-working to ascend the ladder of social status.
It is common for Americans to call their bosses by their first name as a sign of the equality of status, comraderie, and mutual accessibility of their values and beliefs. Similarly, a homeless man’s opinion is often considered as credible as a Harvard Professors by the American news media. They consider one man’s viewpoint to contain bits of truth that are equally valid as one who has an important position, a superior education, and exhibits expertise in one’s vocational field. It is on this principle that a democratic election system is considered essential before Americans feel they can give aid to developing countries. Recently, President Daniel Arab Moi of Kenya gave in to the demands of the Americans to go with multi-party elections or have his U.S. aid suspended. He gave in because he valued the aid more than one party rule. Eventually, the Americans hope that their value of democracy will be embraced by the majority of the Kenyan system. There are natural weaknesses in this individualistic oriented society as well. For example, the family ties in western oriented societies are generally weaker than those of rural cultures for similar reasons.
The middle group tends to view relationships collaterality. At times individuals must subordinate their goals to that of the group or higher authorities. While at other times the individual may ignore the goals or delays of the group and proceed ahead with their own goals and strategies. This symbiotic balance between group goals and individual goals is understood by both groups as having advantages that benefit all. Reciprocity affords both the group and the individual the flexibility of using discernment to know which emphasis will be most advantageous. Horizontal and egalitarian relationships are often seen in extended family relationships. This preserves the unity of the family without forcing exact unanimity of methods by the individual members.
It becomes obvious that each of the three approaches have advantages and disadvantages.
However, the more important lesson to learn is values provide a key to unlock the door to the deeper levels of beliefs in every culture.
By understanding how to approach a person using their value system, you have an insight into the most likely buttons to push in order to gain a favorable response to the gospel. For so long, cross-cultural communicators have been pushing the wrong value buttons in trying to find receptive audiences with their message. By learning to use the above grid to discover the essential heart felt values and needs of a people, you will facilitate the deeper communication penetrations of the scripture.
This is partly what Peter talks about in I Pet. 3:15 when he says, "But revere Christ as Lord of your hearts always being ready to give an answer to everyone for the reason of the hope that is in you. But do it with gentleness and reverence (With a special sensitivity to the value systems of the people - doing what is right in the eyes of the people as far as it is possible being at peace with all men), but maintain a clear conscience so that, in case you are slandered, those who falsely accuse your good Christian conduct may be ashamed; for it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing right than for doing wrong."
