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jdh
April 20th, 2007, 11:46 AM
QUOTE

Life Without Chiefs
Are we forever condemned to a world of haves and have-nots, rulers and ruled? Maybe not, argues a noted anthropologist-if we can relearn some ancient lessons.

...

Canadian anthropologist Richard
Lee tells how, through a revealing inci-
dent, he learned about this aspect of rec-
iprocity. To please the !Kung, the
"bushmen" of the Kalahari desert, he
decided to buy a large ox and have it
slaughtered as a present. After days of
searching Bantu agricultural villages
for the largest and fattest ox in the re-
gion, he acquired what appeared to be a
perfect specimen. But his friends took
him aside and assured him that he had
been duped into buying an absolutely
worthless animal. "Of course, we will
eat it," they said, "but it won't fill us
up-we will eat and go home to bed
with stomachs rumbling." Yet, when
Lee's ox was slaughtered, it turned out
to be covered with a thick layer of fat.
Later, his friends explained why they
had said his gift was valueless, even
though they knew better than he what
lay under the animal's skin:
"Yes, when a young man kills much
meat he comes to think of himself as a
chief or a big man, and he thinks of the
rest of us as his servants or inferiors. We
can't accept this, we refuse one who
boasts, for someday his pride will make
him kill somebody. So we always speak
of his meat as worthless. This way we
cool his heart and make him gentle."

...

http://www.morris.umn.edu/academic/anthropology/chollett/anth1111/CourseReadings/Life%20Without%20Chiefs.pdf

UNQUOTE

(I hope this is not an "urban legend", you never know for sure, and I have not taken the time to do additional checking on this story.)

Proverbs 16:32 -- "He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city."

Obviously, in some cases, inborn chemical or wiring errors in the brain or central nervous system can't be completely remedied no matter how great the technological and social resources devoted to the remedy.

OTOH, one might wonder whether some automatic uncritical assumptions of a particular culture tend to make the resolution of psycho-social problems more difficult? For example, would the concept of "self-esteem" seem incomprehensible or ridiculous to the Bushmen?

Is there any legitimate place for education of the emotions in public education in the west? and if so, how to implement it without violation of the US constitution "non-establishment" clause?

I have no formal education or training in the fields of education or psychology, so I am asking this question out of ignorance of the actual current status quo in the educational establishments (e.g. even in USA).

DH

jdh
April 20th, 2007, 12:04 PM
Is there any legitimate place for education of the emotions in public education in the west? and if so, how to implement it without violation of the US constitution "non-establishment" clause?
My tentative answer is that any government approved curriculum might in effect automatically be an "establishment of religion" no matter who or what committee wrote it. Perhaps in the sense that democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others, so also education of emotions by parents/family is the worst such education except for all the others. "Small is beautiful"?

DH

Judy G. Russell
April 20th, 2007, 04:11 PM
Is there any legitimate place for education of the emotions in public education in the west? and if so, how to implement it without violation of the US constitution "non-establishment" clause?There is nothing integrally religious about the notion of teaching people to hold their tongues and curb their anger. How to do it in a time when all that's being focused on is whether kids can pass some test is beyond me.

jdh
April 20th, 2007, 04:20 PM
How to do it in a time when all that's being focused on is whether kids can pass some test is beyond me.
Good point. I wonder if theater would work? I remember seeing a TV documentary recently about an English teacher who was putting on Shakespeare plays with middle school kids in a not-so-privileged school district. And it seemed like the kids were learning a lot and having fun too. I forgot the details.

DH