Final paper for part I / MW2110 Intercultural Communication 2008 Autumn, Kristianstad University, Sweden

NAME : Lee, Hunjae

Understanding Diversity: A 4. “Personality and Person Perception in Africa.” pp 135-141 (Questions in page 141.) in Samovar, Larry A., Porter, Richard E. & Mc Daniel, Edwin R. (2006) Intercultural Communication. A Reader. London: Thomson Learning.

Summary[1]

The paper reviews personality and social behavior in Africa. Three distinctive components of the people inhabiting present-day sub-Saharan Africa are identified: (1) traditional persons who are yet little affected by modernization, (2) transitional persons, and (3) modern individuals. The socialization of traditional and transitional persons can be illustrated in the form of a model in three dimensions: the authority dimension (vertical, diachronic, historic); the group dimension (horizontal, synchronic, social); the body - mind - environment dimension. Various personhood attributes are identified along the three dimension such as that the traditional person is socialized primarily by people, while the modern person is socialized primarily by objects. By being exposed to people, the traditional person will develop more social intelligence than technological intelligence.

 

Answers containing blueprint of this article

1. Describe how the six “essential socialization experiences common in African societies” listed by Peltzer can be used to understand the socialization of African children.

Peltzer used these six experiences summarized by Okeke et al.(1999) to analyze the socialization of African children into three dimensions. (a) Close bodily contact with the mother and prompt relief of hunger and physical discomfort : This is a basement for their body-oriented personality. It also bring about the early stage which will make children more obedient. (b) mothering by several adults : It contributes to make them more socially integrated and results from weaning that help children transfer the power of mother to satisfy all needs onto other authorities. (c) systemic inculcation of respect and obedience toward parents, elders. : Children learn, through education and through imitation of respected persons, how to behave toward other people in the framework of hierarchy. (d) rather relaxed and unpressured training toward bodily self-control. : It is applied to the reason that cause more physical activity to learn empirical group works. (e) providing a rather wide scope for exploration of the physical and social environment. , (f) peer groups of children of the same age and gender assuming importance as agents of socializations : These are sources for Africans collective virtues of the family and the group.

 

2. Describe the differences between traditional, transitional, and modern individual as outlined by Peltzer.

(a) traditional : Not yet affected by modernization. Still functioning within the established framework of their culture. (b) transitional : Shuttling between two cultures such as work and home or urban house and ancestral traditional village. (c) modern individual : totally living in the contemporary, industrial or postindustrial world like many western cultures. In this simple trichotomy Peltzer is explaining about former two things to indicate cultural changeness in Africa.

 

3. Explain how these three categories might be used to understand social psychological development in other parts of the world. Would they apply to indigenous people in Central or South America? If yes, why; if no, why not?

Three categories are valid only in the range of admitting predominated modern western cultures. For example, in the case of United States we can’t find as much dramatic change as in that of Africa or Asian countries with these categories. Even in US there are surely some variations between traditional and transitional. But it is just minor things like changes of dwelling style after urbanization, not fundamental things like changes of personality and person perception. In contrast with this, categories are quite fit to explain Central or South America. Most differences have been developed historically from ancient different background like thoughts, mode of life and so on. Blacks, Latin-American and Catholic believers have background similar to Asians’ background originated from ancient agricultural society, opposed to western background originated from ancient Greek philosophy that emphasizes unique personhood, freedom, rationality.

 

4. How do children raised in the traditional mode differ from children in the transitional mode with regard to their value and attitudes toward authority?

In traditional mode children acquire knowledge and behavior patterns which focus mainly on its conduct in the presence of elders. They are expected to show respect to the senior in the every social contexts like greetings, rituals of thanks giving, even control of aggression. Naturally they develop obedience to authority. Seniors serve protection and advises to them in return. It is acceptable for them, getting old every day.

However, children raised in transitional mode now start to bear new hope and value without many elder family members. They are living in nuclear family and imposed other masters, an authority other than that of the ancestor.

 

5. How might the upbringing of children with an integrated sense of dance and rhythm affect their ability to communicate interculturally with Westerners?

  Traditional African children who share all the mother’s movement including dance and frequently involved in rhythm, music are likely to show better rhythmic performance abilities than did Westerners. They are used to communicate with body contact and socialized primarily by people, finally will develop more social intelligence than technological intelligence. In other words it means that they are more communication themselves to others than is the Westerners, who are more dependent on purely verbal means of communication. Therefore when they meet Westerners there will be a chance to encounter difficulties in their warmth that can be regarded as violating privacy by Westerners.

 

6. How does the group orientation manifest itself in the persona of African children?

After weaning children are socialized into the group that replace their parents by siblings and age mates. They are able to identify themselves with relations. Group orientation appears in the individual who has no intrinsic value outside the network of kinship and community, but remains dependent upon the group and its collective virtues, norms, ideals.

 

7. Why might the group orientation of traditional and transitional African be a problem in intercultural communication?

  Simply It is quite contrary to the Individual orientation of Westerners. In case of the business situation group oriented person can be easily fallen in unnecessary bureaucracy or irrational attitude, whereas Westerners can be seen as an self-interest person. Though transitional African has undergone some individuation process, they have somewhat guilt feelings for their tradition. That is why they are still not enough to be middleman between traditional African and Westerners. It is highly probable to make miscommunication when they meet each other.

 

8. What does Peltzer mean by the body-mind/environment dimension?

  Peltzer tried to let his analysis make sense by finding the origin of difference between traditional African and modern Westerners. So he draw the body-mind/environment dimension which is used for explaining different socializations. African’s body-mind unity originated from incessant bodily contact mother-infant relates to their authority and group orientations. And in Western culture nonhuman objects in the environment affects people to develop more technological intelligence and individualism than social intelligence.

 

9. Peltzer uses the term personhood. What does he mean by this term?

“Personhood” is a noun that refers “the state or condition of being a person, or individual human being” in general. And Peltzer uses “personhood” concept of Africa to consider the meaning, “relational and contextual aspects of Africans’ personality” as opposed to the Westerns’ more emphasized on pronounced self concept.

 

10. How does the developed personhood of traditional children and transitional children differ?

  They reveal totally different personhood in three dimension as mentioned above. The transitional person is no longer ruled by the authority and “group person” as the traditional person. Transitional children are living in nuclear family which overcome the authority of many elders and undergoing individuation. Now their mind is more highly valued than the body contrary to that of traditional children. They started to make more internal locus of control.

Comment

  It is sure that Peltzer can serve useful glimpse of African culture for public by this paper. But if we consider this paper as a serious and academic articles, more criticism can be made. As he admit the weakness of this articles in preface, it is too naive to make complex cultural phenomenon into simple categories and dimensions. At first categorization like traditional, transitional and modern is quite comfortable but meaning nothing special. It just describes the ongoing phenomenon. Good scientific sociological research provides factors of phenomenon and predictions. When it comes to dimensions, there is no empirical data like some statistics to set three dimensions like those. This is not the meaning that his analysis is wrong. Still this paper has an importance to introduce not well-known culture to us in basic intercultural textbooks. However the fact that this article is cited only four times including three times of citations by himself from 2002 demonstrates the status of this paper in academic world well. Rather than this, it is highly recommended to read the book titled “The Geography of Thought : How Asians and Westerners Think Differently...and Why” written by Richard Nisbett that lay out historical, empirical truths from the traditional differences between Aristotle of Western and Confucius of Eastern.