EAST-WEST CENTER MAGAZINE
SPRING-SUMMER 1976 X EAST-WEST CENTER MAGAZINE SPRING-SUMMER 1976
Page 6
CONTENTS
Bicentennial Voyage of Rediscovery 1 The East-West Center Contribution 3 Steering by the Stars 6 "Star of Gladness" 8 Teaching Materials for Culture Training 10 An Exercise in Culture-Relative Intelligence 11 One Son and An Irish Setter 13 Transformation in the People's Republic of China 16 English in Three Acts 18 Inouye and the Jefferson Fellows 20 The American Revolution: Its Meaning to Asians and Americans 21
Published quarterly by Office of Publications
and Public Affairs East-West Center 1777 East-West Road Honolulu, Hawaii 96822
Robert B. Hewett, Director
Mark E. Zeug, Editor
Arnold Kishi, Photojournalist
Bob Wernet, Feature Writer
Mary Connors, Designer
About the Cover:
Hawaiian artist Herb Kawainui Kane's vision caught the Hokule'a on the crest of a wave shortly before sunset. The painting was used on a poster of the Polynesian Voyaging Society to bring attention to the voyage. See story on facing page. Launched with careful attention to religious tradition, this re-creation of an ancient Polyne• sian voyaging canoe plies the waters of the South Pacific in an effort to duplicate the supposed route of Hawaii's discoverers more than HUU years ago.
Bicentennial Voyage of Rediscovery
By Mark Zeug
It is more than an adventure, more than an exper• capture the navigational skills and spirit of old iment in seamanship. It is a planned voyage into Hawaii in a dramatic experiment in cultural re• the past in perhaps the most ambitious single trieval. The Society was founded on the belief that event commemorating the United States Bicen• Polynesia began with the canoe more than 3,000 tennial. years ago.* From these canoes we can learn much While events across the country are drawing about those who built and sailed them centuries huge Bicentennial crowds who wish to catch a before European ocean exploration began. glimpse of the heritage that is America, a 60-foot Society President Ben Finney, an anthropologist double-hulled voyaging canoe is plying the soli• and East-West Center research associate (see tary waters of the Pacific, somewhere between "The East-West Center's Contribution", page 3), Hawaii and Tahiti, to document a giant piece of has been dreaming of such a voyage for over 10 that heritage. Without charts, compass or other years. He said the voyage is a planned "experi• navigational instruments, the crew of the Hokule'a mental approach to one of the most intriguing and (or "Star of Gladness," the Hawaiian name for the disputed questions in Polynesian history; how star Arcturus that guided early voyagers to Ha• were the many islands of Polynesia first dis• waii) is attempting to duplicate the supposed covered and settled?" Was it an accident, or was route of Hawaii's discoverers more than 800 years it deliberately planned? ago.
At the same time, the Polynesian Voyaging So• 'Archaeological evidence, indicates much of Polynesia was ciety, which designed and built the giant canoe settled before the age of the Vikings around the tenth cen• (see "The Star of Gladness", page 8), hopes to re- tury A.D.
SPRING-SUMMER 7976 7 While many people have believed for years that it was the result of planned two-way voyaging, the opposite view received substantial impetus in 1956 from New Zea• land scholar Andrew Sharp. According to Dr. Finney, Sharp maintained that the Polynesians did not have the means to sail out to distant and unknown islands, and then retrace their course home again so that colonizing voyages could be organized. That is, for distances beyond a few hundred miles, Sharp believed any voyaging was the result of straying off course and drifting helplessly to landfall, or of exiled groups intentionally sailing off into the unknown in the hopes that land would be encoun• tered. Once they had encountered land, they could not return to their home, since they did not have the naviga• tional skills, or canoes of sturdy enough design, to make such a return voyage. Finney asserts that Sharp's essentially negative assess• ment of Polynesian voyaging skills, and any other posi• tive or negative judgments, are traceable to a lack of reli• able data on ocean canoe performance, navigational capabilities and relevant human evaluation. Writing on "New Perspectives on Polynesian Voyaging" which ap• peared in Bernice P. Bishop Museum Special Publication 56 (1967), Finney notes that "until recently the only sources available on such points have been the sketchy and often ambiguous reports by the first European visi• tors to Polynesia," reports which can be selectively quoted to support either side of the issue, he says. He argues that the only way to get reliable data on ca• noe performance and navigational capabilities was to build a replica canoe and study its behavior. It was with this in mind that he, with the help of three friends, built and tested a 40-foot double-hulled forerunner of the Hokule'o in 1966. From these experiments he concluded Kane
Photo by David Hiser (C) National Geographic Society Even before the May voyage began, the Hokule'a had become the inspiration for other voyaging canoes in Polynesia. Maui islanders consecrated the first last fall, the 42-foot Mo'o/e/e, or "Flying Lizard,' and other canoes are being planned on Kauai, Hawaii and Oahu. And the Tahitians may complete a similar canoe in time to return to Hawaii with the Hokule'a in Aligns/.
Hokule'a takes to the waters of Kaneohe Bay with a rumble and a rush, beginning a sfory that will eventually he told to national television audiences through a "National Geographic Special."
l^lllMHIMfflllMilllP 2 East-West Center Magazine The East-West Center Contribution
An authentic voyage into the past is not possible Physician-mariner David Lewis of New Zea• without the expertise of different people from dif• land, author of the University Press of Hawaii ferent places. Getting them together has not been book We, the Navigators, is a Senior Fellow in the easy. Culture Learning Institute. Lewis has spent many However, the East-West Center has taken a ma• years researching the principles of non-instru• jor role in facilitating this important aspect of the ment navigation in the Pacific, and briefed the voyage, using its mechanism of supportive grants crew on its rudiments before the voyage. He also to be involved in one of the largest local cultural worked with master navigator Pius "Mau" Piailug activities of the decade. In addition to the staff of Satawal Atoll in Micronesia on the star courses commitment of two institutes, the Center has pro• of the Hawaii-Tahiti route. Lewis is taking part in vided eight-month fellowships to two of the prin• the voyage both as physician and as navigation cipal resource people, and awarded professional researcher. He will write the National Geographic development grants to three others playing prom• story about the voyage itself, and is completing a inent roles in the voyage. monograph on indigenous navigation systems of Major Center input is organized through the the Pacific for the Center. East-West Technology and Development Institute and its Regional Development in the South Pacific Professional Development Participants project. This project is directed in part by Re• Piailug's participation was made possible search Associate Ben Finney (who also holds a through an eight-month grant from the Culture joint appointment as professor of Anthropology at Learning Institute. He hails from one of the last the University of Hawaii), one of the principal areas of the Pacific where non-instrument navi• organizers of the Polynesian Voyaging Society gation is still practiced as a way of life. As a vet• and its president for the past three years. Further eran seafarer and navigator in the Carolines but a Center input is organized through the Cultural virtual newcomer to Hawaii-Tahiti waters, Piailug Identity subdivision of the East-West Culture worked long hours with Lewis in "mapping" out Learning Institute, and limited staff commitment Hokuie'a's route. He also supervised much of the from Research Associate Gregory Trifonovitch lashing required to rig the canoe for the voyage, and Program Officer Kenzi Mad. and is sharing this lore through the Institute's museum management project. Senior Fellows The Center also provided an eight-month pro• Two people who, with Finney, have made major fessional development internship to Rodo Tuko contributions to the voyage are currently on eight- Williams of Tahiti, a veteran sea captain with month Senior Fellowships at the Center. Herb many years experience piloting schooners and Kawainui Kane, a renowned Hawaiian artist and fishing boats through the treacherous Tuamotu expert on Havvaiiana, is a Senior Fellow in the atolls and reefs that lie across the route. His grant Technology and Development Institute. Kane, was provided through the Technology and Devel• along with naval architect Rudy Choy, designed opment Institute. the Hokule'a and supervised construction. In ad• A similar grant was awarded to Kimo Hugho. dition, he has written several articles on the cul• Honolulu fireman and veteran canoe racer who tural significance of the voyage (the latest ap• assisted with crew training, and will be one of the peared in the April issue of National Geographic leading crew members on the voyage. Before the Magazine), and has made similar presentations to mid-April departure, he lectured extensively local schools and community groups. He will col• about the project and its cultural significance to laborate with Finney in writing a book about the Hawaii school children. He also serves with Fin• journey later this year. ney, Lewis and Kane on the Board of Directors of the Polynesian Voyaging Society. East-West Center Vice President John Brownell estimates the Center's commitment to these par• ticipants and their activities at about $26,000 in grants alone, plus additional costs in staff time.* "The cultural significance of the voyage, along with the scientific nature of experiments involved, makes it a natural concern of the Center," he said. "It is multi-national, multi-cultural and multi-dis• ciplinary. And it involves extensive institutional and community cooperation. All these add up to increased cultural understanding, and that's what we are all about."
'Only one oilier individual or institution has contributed more to the Hokule'a project than the Center: Penelope Gerbode-Hopper of San Rafael. California, and a mem• ber of a prominent island family. Other substantial con• tributors are the Hawaii Bicentennial Commission and the National Geographic Society.
cdd/m/" ci /^/^^/fCD IQ-7C that two-way voyaging to Tahiti was possible under sail, but that extensive paddling on such a voyage would have to be ruled out. Finney cautions that his experiments do not prove or disprove the historical supposition of two-way voyages, merely that they were possible. Even the successful (or unsuccessful) voyage of a larger oceangoing canoe to Tahiti and back would not prove (or disprove) that suppo• sition, but it would certainly dramatize the possibility and reawaken a sense of self-esteem among Hawaiian-Amer• icans. That's where the Polynesian Voyaging Society came in• to the picture. In mutual discussions with Hawaiian artist Herb Kawainui Kane and Honolulu scientist-surfer C. Thomas Holmes, who both shared Finney's ambition, the idea developed for the formation of a non-profit society that could solicit the support needed for building and sail• ing such a canoe to Tahiti and back. These three char• tered the Society in 1972 and began to plan the voyage and solicit membership. As background for the experiment, they analyzed Fin• ney's previous trials, and studied a computerized simula• tion by University of Minnesota scientists. By computing ocean current and wind directions, the Minnesota re• searchers concluded that a drifting canoe from either the Marquesas or Tahiti would not reach Hawaii—tradewinds and currents would push it far to the west. Reaching Ha• waii from the south requires deliberate aim, they stated. Further, the Society members noted archaeological and linguistic evidence which supports the theme of many Hawaiian and Tahitian chants that this two-way voyaging actually took place some 500-800 years ago. Polynesian voyagers were settling in the Marquesas and Society Is• lands around the time of Christ, according to Kenneth Emory, Polynesian anthropologist at the Bishop Museum. From these islands, in great double canoes like the Ho• kule'a, the ancestors of the Hawaiians "discovered" these islands and established settlements here—from the Mar• quesas around 500-750 A.D., and from Tahiti around 1300 A.D. An ancient Hawaiian tradition, which refers to two-way voyages over a span of generations, tells of a voyaging departure through a passage known as Ke-ala-i-kahiki— the route to Tahiti. (The southwest point of Kahoolawe still retains this name, though there is no evidence that more than one voyage may have actually left from there.) Even the name Hawaii is Tahitian in origin, derived from Havaiki, the old name for the second largest of the Soci• ety Islands, Raiatea. This island seems to have been the cultural center of the Societies during the time of the Tahiti-Hawaii voyages, according to Kane. Now a Senior Fellow with the East-West Technology and Development Institute, Kane asserts that the voyag• ing canoe lies at the heart of Polynesian culture—without it there would be no Polynesia. The Society Islands lie
(Top] Captain Kawika Kapahulehua, n veteran catamaran skipper, received official leave from Western Airlines to supervise renovations and pilot the canoe to Tahiti and hack. (Center) Kenneth Emory, dean of Polynesian anthropologists, watches (he Hokule'a launching with Sam Ka'ni, who models a rain cape of dried pandanus leaves. (Bottom) Physician-mariner David Lewis gives an impromptu lesson on non-instrument navigation to crew members. ili^u^^iii^iiiMiii^iii^iii^iii^iii^iii^iii^ini^i 4 fast-West Center Magazine Piailug Trouble beset the Hokule'a on a training cruise from Kauai to Oahu last fall, when one hull swamped in choppy seas. Crewmen struggled to save the canoe by lashing all movable near the Center of Polynesia (or "many islands"), deck objects to the opposite side to prevent capsizing. The "fortunate accident" was followed by extensive a triangular area of the Pacific from New Zealand renovations before the May departure to Tahiti. to Easter Island to Hawaii. In huge voyaging ca• noes, some nearly 100 feet long, designed by men who had no knowledge of metal, Hawaii's fore- bearers completed the settlement of this area, communication in order to inform the public about which Dr. Emory asserts began around the 12th Polynesian voyaging, and to make available data that century B.C. in Tonga. might be useful to scientists and others engaged in By the time European explorers reached the maritime endeavors. Pacific, they found to their astonishment a viable Even before the voyage of the Hokule'a began society on every habitable island in Polynesia in April, the Society's members were well on their whose members paddled out to greet them. When way towards accomplishing both goals. Before considered in the context of the time, Kane be• departure, the Hokule'a had logged over 1500 lieves the skills and know-how of these path• ocean miles on limited maneuvers in Hawaiian finders were comparable to that needed to land a waters. More than 100 Hawaii islanders learned to man on the moon today. sail as their forebearers did on these maneuvers, Kane notes, however, that the impact of Western making the Hokule'a a "floating classroom in technology, with its metals and gunpowder, dealt Hawaiiana," a role she will resume upon return a fatal blow to Polynesian self-esteem and led to from Tahiti in August. the disintegration of Polynesian culture. Emory, Various aspects of her exploits have been writ• dean of Polynesian anthropologists, pointed out ten in publications throughout Hawaii, and the that lack of confidence in their culture has caused National Geographic Magazine has twice focused Hawaiians to abandon features which played a on Polynesian voyaging (December, 1974 and significant role in their lives. When an important April 1976). A complete written account of the central object, such as a voyaging canoe, is al• voyage will appear in National Geographic Maga• lowed to disappear and be forgotten, all useful zine this fall. In addition, the National Geographic culture associated with it disappears as well, he Society is filming this voyage in preparation for a says. "National Geographic Special" to be offered for It was this frustrating situation which prompted nationwide television screening. the founding of the Polynesian Voyaging Society. These accounts will contain results of the many Its charter states its purposes: experiments involved, from the proficiency of the 1) to sponsor or conduct, or both, research on the crew to the efficiency of the many traditional manner in which Polynesian seafarers settled Hawaii foods that were taken along, the live animals and and other Pacific Islands by investigating through plants and the success of non-instrument naviga• experimental and other means the canoes, navigation tion. Finney, Holmes and David Lewis will be systems and other technical and cultural factors that enabled the Polynesians to undertake successful voy• closely monitoring these factors. ages of discovery and settlement, But most of all, the voyage will chronicle a per• 2) and to disseminate the resultant research findings iod in Pacific history when men and women coped by producing or publishing, or both, articles in scien• with an appallingly meager environment to ac• tific journals, books, films and other instruments of complish one of the greatest feats of mankind. •
SPRING-SUMMER 7976 5 Tevake of the Santa Cruz /.stands, one of the las! Polynesian navigators, was one of David Lewis' fafors. In 197(J. sensing fie would soon become a burden to his family and friends. Tevake bade them farewell and paddled out to sea in a small canoe. He was never seen again.
Steering by the Stars:
At a time when Europeans were still deathly afraid of venturing too far from unknown territory. Polynesian Rediscovery pathfinders were fearlessly exploring 3 the length and breadth of the world's largest ocean. When the European of a Lost Art explorers arrived in the Pacific, the Polynesians paddled out to meet them. How did these tall, brown-skinned people manage to colonize every habitable island within a 15 million square mile area without the use of metals, compass or navigational charts? The true an• swer was very nearly lost forever. For decades scholars have speculated about the navigational ability of the Polynesians, but no definitive study was ever con• ducted on how non-instrument navigation was accomplished. Phy• sician-mariner David Lewis of New Zealand set out in 1965 to find out how they did it many centuries ago. He found, to his astonish• Adapted from National Geographic Magazine ment, that there were still a few present-day practitioners of the with permission ancient art left in the Pacific, primarily in Micronesia (probably because it felt the impact of European inventions nearly a century after the South Pacific). European contact had caused seafarers to turn to the compass and other navigational instruments of re• cent development. Yet Lewis knew that no navigational instru• ments or artifacts of any importance are recorded as ever having been used at sea in Oceania. Lewis' search took him to the Santa Cruz Islands where he met Tevake, and to the Carolines where he met Hipour, two of the half dozen men who would become his tutors in non-instrument navi• gation. The classroom was the open ocean, with all charts and in• struments locked up and unavailable. The test was his ability to see and feel the naked environment as his tutors saw it. Lewis compiled the results of nearly 10 years' research into a book entitled We, The Navigators (University Press of Hawaii By embarking at sunset, a navigator could set his 1972). In it he details an ancient art known only by a few, for the course by keeping two mountain peaks in line navigational secrets were kept within respected families of old astern—drift away from the alignment would tell Polynesia. These navigators knew the rising and setting positions him direction and strength of current. As dusk on the horizon of more than 150 stars, and used them as a compass. fell and these landmarks faded from view, the They knew the behavior of the ocean so well they could sense dif• navigator turned to steering by the stars. ferences in ocean swells literally through the scrotum. Living close to nature and being sensitive to all natural phenomena, they epito• mized the Polynesian view of the sea, not as a terrifying adver• sary, "but the friendly bosom of one of their god ancestors, Tanga- roa," says Herb Kane. Writing in Canoes of Polynesia, (Island Heritage Books, 1974), Kane noted that "while other men feared to leave their coastal waters, Polynesians faced the open sea as their own and only world. Their gods were gods of nature, man's own ancestors who bestowed strength and success on those who trimmed their sails—and their lives—in harmony with natural forces. In this primitive ecological point of view, the European fear of nature and obsession with a 'conquest' of nature would have seemed arrogant beyond comprehension and certain to bring disaster." Kane and Lewis, now East-West Center Senior Fellows (see Navigators steered toward stars known to rise "East-West Center Contribution", page 3), have collaborated on a over their destination, a process usually compli• number of Polynesian voyaging works, and the following have cated by wind and current. Once the wind and cur• been compiled from those works. Drawings are taken from art by rent were known, however, the navigator would "correct" for this drift by selecting a star (a) to the *From the titles of the first two chapters of We, The Navigators left or right of his destination (b) at approximately by David Lewis (University Press of Hawaii, 1972}. the angle of drift.
l^lll^lll^fll^lllMlllMllll^lll»-411l»H 6 East-West Center Magazine .1 4% ^ NORTHEAST TRADEWINDS
NORTH To reach Tahiti, the Hokule'a «•-- •-- *-- must first sail southeast, with ... x \f- EQUATORIAL CURRENT the prevailing trade winds and 1 1 current to port. As it reaches * the equatorial doldrums (calm «—— *"•" K ' V\ winds), the equatorial counter- —4 *. —* \\ \*s — current probably will carry it
* Lqualor further east until southeasterly - - - \\IfJ trades fill its sails near the equator. It can then sail at right /i SOUTH N EQUATORIAL angles to wind and current on /': CURRENT toward Tahiti, through the treacherous Tuamotu Archipe• r\ - SOUTHEAST lago until the navigator obtains TRADEWINDS a zenith star position on Sabik. Whereupon it can turn down• < / ? \ wind and make landfall. A simi• lar strategy in reverse will be Raiateai-^ '•'}•}' \ followed on the return trip. Tahiti*"**'' •• %
Kane as detailed in a December 1974 supplement to Notional Geo• graphic Mugnzine entitled "Discoverers of the Pacific." adapted here with permission. Unlike the modern navigator whose instruments allow him to fix any position without reference to place of depart lire, the Poly• nesian navigator's system is home-oriented. He keeps a mental record of all maneuvers and elements which affect position, and retraces these in his mind so that at any time he can point in the direction of home and estimate the time required to reach it. By departing in late afternoon, and keeping two mountain peaks or offshore islands, or even two signal fires, lined up with the stern, the navigator could switch to starpath navigating about the Generated by distant winds, great undulating time his home island dropped from sight. Then by keeping a suc• swells pulse the ocean for thousands of miles, al• cession of stars, rising or setting on the horizon, lined up with the lowing the navigator to maintain direction by bow, he could continue to move in a desired direction. As each keeping the degree of pitch (a), roll (b), or combi• star rose too high to be useful, or set out of sight, a following star nation of the two (c), at a constant ratio. would be selected. By not moving from his station, an experienced navigator could keep his canoe aimed at a constant heading, com• pensating for current and wind almost automatically. As the last star laded, or the sky became overcast, the navigator would take note of the ratio of pitch and roll caused by dominant swells, maintaining course by keeping the ratio constant until another celestial bearing could be taken. Determining latitude (distance away from the equator) utilized perhaps the most constant aspect of non-instrument navigation — zenith star sightings. As the earth rotates, certain stars pass directly over certain islands at a given time of the year. The early navigators knew the zenith star identities for every major island or group. Once latitude had been determined, a canoe would be Stars which pass directly over certain islands when turned downwind to make landfall. at their zenith gave voyagers an island's latitude. By looking for land-formed clouds, island-based fishing birds, By approaching upwind until a zenith star was di• different sky and water colors, and the intersections of ocean rectly overhead, the navigator could then turn swells reflected from islands, navigators could expand their land• downwind to his destination. fall target 30 miles or more beyond actual land sighting. Since nearly all Pacific islands are part of larger island groups, a navi• gator need only aim at the center of the group and, after sighting familiar land, change course to a specific island. Using these me• thods the Hawaiian Islands present a north-south target of nearly 700 miles, the Society Islands (Tahiti) nearly 400 miles. On its voyage to Tahiti, the Hokule'a will be seeking latitude alignment by the star Sabik (Tahiti's normal zenith star, Sirius, is not visible during the night this time of year). As the Hokule'a re• turns to Hawaii and obtains a zenith star alignment from Arcturus, it will turn downwind and, using a series of tacks to expand its landfall area, probably sight the unusually high cloud patterns which surround the big island of Hawaii—sometime late in July. As he moves downwind, the navigator will be look• The 6,000 mile round trip represents the longest voyage by a ing for reflected ocean swells from the yet un• vessel designed for experimental archaeology, that is, the recon• sighted island. By detecting the angle of the re• structing and testing of ancient technology. The Hawaii-Tahiti flected swell, he can turn to that angle and make route itself represents the longest two-way navigational route of landfall. old Polynesia. • IlMUllMillf^^ SPRING-SUMMER 7976 7 '/'Ik; Hokule'a shows her size and stature as she returns to water after renovation.
of the waves against the hulls is absorbed by the cross- "The Star boom lashings. The stability of the double hulls allows for more accurate navigational sightings and considera• bly larger carrying capacity than single-hulled craft. A great deal of research went into the design of the of Gladness" 13th century re-creation in order to make its perform• ance as close as possible to what the early Polynesians probably experienced, Kane says. The principal design features have been derived from details of voyaging canoes observed and described (and sometimes drawn) There is nothing primitive about the design of the vnka by early European visitors to Polynesia. Other bits of laurua, the Polynesian double-hulled canoe. information about hulls, sails and design were com• Designed by Polynesian seafarers over 800 years ago, bined into the Hokule'a. the double-hulled canoe can hold its own with modern The canoe has an overall length of 60 feet, a beam of sailing vessels of similar size, according to the designer 15 feet, and each of the two hulls is three and a half feet of the Hokule'a ("Star of Gladness"), Herb Kawainui wide by five feet deep. Ten crosspieces, each 17 feet Kane. Kane says his admiration for the ancient inventors long and weighing 185 pounds, and many thousands of of this craft "is beyond measure; for with few materials feet of quarter-inch line, hold the two hulls firmly but and no metal whatsoever, they built seaworthy vessels flexibly together. The canoe weighs about five tons and which were sophisticated far beyond their time. On a can carry up to seven and a half tons of people, food, reach off the wind, the Hokule'a is faster than single- water and supplies. At this load the hull draws two feet hulled conventional yachts of equal length, though the of water. latter may be carrying twice as much sail. Being without The canoe hulls were made primarily from modern a jib, she is slower going to weather, and she may be materials, except for the upper gunwale portions, which slightly slower on a run than a yacht with a big spinna• were made of fitted and lashed planks in a manner ker, but that has not yet been tested." similar to tradition. However, in size, shape and weight, In addition, Kane asserts that the 60-foot replica of the hulls duplicate what Kane believes are the basic early vnka taurua rides very smoothly because the shock characteristics of ancient hulls. Thus, when it comes to UrSJlLl ll»^ll^lll^llll>^[||»^lll»^lll»^lll»^lll»- As sleek and graceful as a modern-day racing yacht, the Hokule'a measures 60 feet long. 15 feet wide1, and weighs four and a half tons. SPRING-SUMMER 1976 9 Judge no man until you've walked in his moccasins for at least a year. — American Indian Adage Teaching Materials for Culture Training By Richard W. Brislin* are largely determined by the experiences of peo• ple in various cultures, and the behaviors that the cultures value as important. To understand behav• One of the goals of some college educators is to ior in various parts of the world, then, a person has increase the amount of international-oriented sub• to discover what behaviors are valued in those cul• ject matter presented in courses for late high tures. Often, this process of discovery leads to the school and early college students. The feeling is conclusion that some behaviors in a person's own that few students are being exposed to ideas based culture are not valued in another culture, and may on a world-wide perspective, a perspective that even be considered malfunctional. Further, behav• takes into account the views of numerous world iors considered unimportant in a person's own cul• cultures. Further, the feeling is that students leave ture may be prized elsewhere. college with a limited, overly-nationalistic point of view which deals only with issues as they are An example is a cited situation involving direct seen and interpreted in one country—the one in confrontation between two people who are argu• which they were born and received their educa• ing in a meeting with many others present. In the tion. Such an education ill-prepares students for United States, such behavior is valued as debate, interaction in a world where people are becoming since the goal is to put all opposing views out in the increasingly dependent on each other. open for all to examine. But in some Asian coun• In view of this need for a more international ori• tries, most notably Japan, such behavior would be entation in college curricula, the International malfunctional since a more important goal would Studies Association is coordinating development be to maintain harmony among people and to of materials for use in undergraduate classes.1 By avoid confrontations. In Japan disagreements are organizing teams of geographers, political scien• handled in private before an open meeting; in the tists, sociologists, economists, anthropologists United States, however, such private meetings and psychologists, the Association is focusing on might negatively be labelled "cloakroom decision culture learning in an interdisciplinary way similar making." The same behavior is valued differently to that of the East-West Center. in the two cultures. This author, together with Marshall Segall of The process of examining such behavior vis-a• Syracuse University, has been involved in develop• vis culture leads to a relative point of view: people ing materials within the discipline of psychology. in various parts of the world cannot be judged on Its title gives an overview of the contents: "Cross- the basis of standards set up by someone in anoth• cultural research: the role of culture in understand• er country. People must be understood in terms of ing human behavior." their own culture. If this point of view becomes more widely accepted than it is at present, inter• What determines intelligence? national negotiators will be more likely to propose We tried to introduce the basic idea that many decisions that benefit people all over the world aspects of everyday behavior, such as perception, rather than those in only one country. The culture- cognition, and what has been called "intelligence," relative point of view would force an examination of how a given decision would affect various coun• tries since the basic notion, that the decision will have different consequences in different coun• 'For information, write Consortium for International Studies tries, would be a starting point for any interna• Education, Canter for International Studies, University of Mis• souri—St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, 63121. tional negotiations. *Richard Brislin is a psychologist and a research associate in In attempting to communicate this point of view the Last-West Culture Learning Institute. in our own undergraduate teaching materials for a 70 East-West Center Magazine course most likely to be taught out of a psychology ercises, the measure of intelligence is somewhat department, we as developers faced a difficult different than that normally perceived by students. problem. Undergraduate students, at least in the United States (our major target audience) rarely Possession of information have experiences with cultures other than their Two other exercises prepared by Segall and the own. Thus any attempt to communication culture- author relate to treatment of culture and intelligent relative behavior in essay form would be meaning• behavior. One asks the student to examine items less. Our approach was to devise exercises that on a standardized intelligence test used in the would both interest the students and encourage United States, and to explain why a person who them to think through problems on a culture-rela• might be valued as "intelligent" in his/her culture tive basis, building upon existing experiences of might answer the question incorrectly. This exer• undergraduate students as much as possible. cise encourages students to take a relative view of To begin with, we felt that all students could re• the most common indicator of the label "intelli• late to the concept of "intelligent behavior" since gent," the formal test. they had all been exposed to "intelligence tests" A final exercise guides the student through con• throughout their schooling. We noted that intelli• struction of an information test that measures gence tests measure behavior that is valued in the knowledge commonly held by members of a given American culture, especially that part of culture culture or sub-culture. Since everyone values the related to formal education. But this is not the only specific information they have taken the trouble measure of intelligent behavior. We then encour• to learn, the possession of this information is often age the students to consider the broader concept mistaken for intelligence. In actuality, what people of "intelligent behavior" as those behaviors are know is dependent upon what the culture to which valued in relation to different tasks in different cul• they belong values as important to know. tures. And we develop exercises based on how dif• Our hope, in developing this set of materials, is ferent characteristics are valued, and thus used that students will develop a relative view of intelli• "intelligently," by different people. gence, rather than an absolute view based on one One exercise, developed out of work by the au• standard, i.e., what they happen to have grown up thor with Pacific Islanders studying at the East- with in their school system. This relative approach West Center, involved putting the student in the to the analysis of behavior should transfer to other position of a community leader in Western Asia courses in which culture can play a part—e.g., eco• around 2000 B.C. (see "An Exercise in Culture-Rel• nomics, geography, or educational administration. ative Intelligence,"page ll.JThe task was to select Our general feeling is that if students can learn to participants for a voyage to far parts of Polynesia take a relative view, and can learn to take into ac• using only rudimentary information known at that count the viewpoint of people in other cultures, time. A companion exercise involves a 1976 set• the chances of better international understanding ting in the United States, where the task is to select will increase. At least that was the thinking of a group of successful insurance agents. In both ex• America's earliest citizens, the American Indian. An Exercise in Culture-Relative Intelligence EXERCISE: TWO CULTURES, TWO TASKS, AND select must know those ways. One is to navigate according ONE SET OF CHARACTERISTICS to the position of stars at night and the position of the sun For your first task, assume that it is the year 2000 B.C. during the day. Another is to read wave patterns as they "bounce back" from islands. One can judge nearness of and that you are the leader of a community in Southeast land by the presence or absence of land-based birds. The Asia. From knowledge gained by a few exploratory voy• navigator must keep in mind that sometimes these and ages, you know that there are many uninhabited islands many other cues can lead to a slightly different judgment to the East, but you don't know exactly how many or ex• if one were used as opposed to another. Thus, when he re• actly how long it will take to reach them by boat. Your task ceives two or more cues, he must be able to consider all to is to select a group of people who will have the greatest make correct navigational maneuvers. chance of being successful at navigating throughout the Pacific and settling the many islands. Here is information Area to be explored: as far as Easter Island off the coast of South America, over 10,000 miles. [Here a map of the you have on the enormity of the task learned from leaders Pacific would be provided). of the exploratory voyages. The boat: the fastest boat available can sail only 50 Necessary Information: Task 1 miles a day at the very most, and of course much less if There are a number of ways to navigate without the in• there is little or no wind. The boat can hold 50 people. struments found in technical societies, and the people you People: the people would have to be able to live on the boat for long periods of time while sailing between islands. [Condensed from "Cross Cultural Research: The Hole of Culture in Under• Other constraints: your people do not have a written standing Human Behavior," Learning Resources in International Studies, system for storing and preserving knowledge, but instead 60 E. 42nd St., New York 10017. 1976,] must depend upon oral tradition, that is, knowledge pre- SPRING-SUMMER 7976 77 served and handed down by word of mouth from one gen• of long chants, and anthropologists are still fascinated by eration to the next, usually by chants, songs or poems. the memories these people have for such chants. Since the accumulated wisdom regarding the selling of Necessary Information: Task 2 insurance is easily available in books, there is not the same pressure to memorize for insurance salesmen. It is For your second task, assume you are personnel director advisable for these people, however, to have good mem• of a company in the United States, during the year 1976, ories for names and faces of people they meet since a po• that sells insurance. Your task is to select a group of suc• tential customer might be insulted if the salesman forgets cessful insurance salesmen, that is, people who will sell a his or her name. Note that the content of what is useful large number of life insurance policies. You would at the to remember is very different in these two cases. same time want people who will, after they sell the poli• cies, keep their customers from changing to another in• MAINTAINING CLOSE SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS surance company. Hence the salesmen you select should be able to help keep the customers paying their insurance It may be surprising that this is included in a discussion premium year after year. of intelligent behavior, but it does deserve consideration. Here is a list of traits that relate in some way to intel• Pacific settlers had to be able to get along with each other lectual functioning, that is, the ability to successfully solve on their boat during their long voyage. This factor con• problems that a person has not seen before. Some of these tinued to be important after settlement of an island. Many are valued as part of intelligent behavior by some cultures, of the islands are very small and people were in face-to- others are not. "Success" for the people you select would face contact practically every day. There was literally no be settlement of the Pacific (for Task 1) and the selling of place to go for a faction dissatisfied with events, and fight• a large number of insurance policies (for Task 2). Your ing would not be wise since too many deaths would mean job will be to think through these traits and to decide fewer people to reproduce and populate the islands. Fur• which are important, and in what way they are important, ther, since there is no writing system, people must learn for each task. from and depend on others and hence must get along. Salesmen also must get along with their customers and the best salesmen probably have reputations as "nice Factors that may people" in their communities. It is useful for salesmen to be related to be invited to parties because they might meet potential intelligent, or customers. valued behavior Short Description Memory Ability to recall material learned previ• INDIVIDUAL ACCUMULATION OF WEALTH ously without any visual aids such as This factor, for the Pacific settlers, relates to the impor• books tance of social relations considered earlier. If the primary Maintaining close Ability to get along with other people and social relationships to minimize stress in relations between importance of social relationships is accepted, then indi• people. vidual accumulation of wealth does not mesh well with Weight, body build Amount of fat on body. social relations, and an individual fortunate enough to Individual accumu• Amount of money an individual acquires come upon wealth would choose to reinforce his or her so• lation of wealth and can control. cial relationships by sharing the wealth. With such a cus• Ability to integrate Success at combining bits of information tom (which indeed continues in present day Pacific Island knowledge to make one summary judgment as to the societies), an individual who accumulates wealth and does one best response to a problem. not share would be considered a deviate. Strength, stamina Ability to work hard for long hours. Talkative vs. quiet, How much does a person talk during a For salesmen, of course, the situation is quite differ• reserved given unit of time? ent. In the United States it is considered good and a sign Relation to elders Respect for the advice of elders, in con• of success to accumulate wealth, and there are no strong trast to a tendency to downplay such ad• social pressures that encourage a person to share—if there vice. is "sharing" with some charity, there is also an income tax deduction. One of the factors that has made the United States a leader in world business is that there are a large Your job, then, is to think through these factors and number of citizens who work for individual wealth, and write a sentence or two on each in relation to their impor• work hard even after they make an amount more than suf• tance for the Pacific and Insurance tasks. Ask yourself this ficient to have a comfortable life. That is, a family of four question about each factor: "Is this factor important for can live very comfortably on $50,000 a year, but the the task, and in what way is it important? Would I want United States has a large number of people who work and to select certain people because of their tested score on achieve more than this amount. At this point, the money this factor?" Do your own work before reading the fol• itself is not as important as what the money demonstrates lowing. Your analysis may be quite different from the fol• —that a person is successful according to society's values. lowing evaluation, and yet very reasonable, since there is no one correct set of answers. RELATION TO ELDERS Since there was no written system for the Pacific set• (Users of the materials were then given an opportunity tlers, much information was held by the elders and hence to write down their analyses for each trait. They then these people were respected as valuable and indeed cen• could compare their suggestions with those prepared by tral to the maintenance of society. They held honored us. A sampling follows.] places in society. In the United States, in contrast, infor• mation that an older person might hold is almost always MEMORY in a book that can be read by someone desiring the infor• Since the people who settled the Pacific had no writing mation. Further, since the United States is such a fast system, they had to have excellent memories to store all moving society, it is easy for young people to dismiss the the information they had learned both through experience information elders might hold as "out of date" and useless. and from elders. Information was often memorized as part • 72 East-West Center Magazine "My only life—never again—and I feel I misused it. My lover and I married, much to our own sur• prise and dismay. Neither of us wanted children- all I desired was an Irish setter. But I felt as if I would be cheating myself, my one life, if I did not experience parenthood. Oh, Dr. Spockl" (Female) One Son "My yearly salary shot up to $75,000 per year- enough to satisfy anyone's needs. The family moved to Beverly Hills, California. The new house consisted of split levels surrounded by two tennis And An courts, a swimming pool and a nine-hole, golf course. We had two Cadillacs and three golf carts." Irish Setter (Male) "/ suppose / am still looking for the 'perfect lov• er' but I am not looking for a house to decorate and children to take care of. I don't see where I'll ever have time for it. And I have fears for the en• tire institution of marriage—I fear it warps people, women especially... I'd rather just avoid if. (Female) What Some Undergraduates Think About Their Futures By Bob Wernet The above three statements represent the imag• inary lifetime projections of sample undergradu• ates at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. The 166 students who committed their futures to paper were responding to sociology re• searchers' requests that they write their "future autobiographies," imagining as they wrote, in 1974, that it was actually about 2035, and they were describing their lives from the other end, covering their high school days to their 80th birthdays. The results of the study appear in East-West Population Institute Paper Number 38, "Future Autobiographies: Expectations of Marriage, Chil• dren, and Careers," by Nancy E. Williamson, As• sistant Professor of Sociology at Brown University and an East-West Population Institute Fellow in 1975, * Sandra L. Putnam and H. Regina Wurth- mann, graduate students in Brown University's De• partment of Sociology. The 29-page paper reveals the extent of sex differences in the expected fu• tures of the 166 anonymous undergraduates. Some of the anticipations are humorous, some unfulfill- ing and others sad. But they are indicative of youthful contemporary thought and make interest• ing reading. The researchers were after answers to many questions: how free of sex role stereotypes are U.S. university students? Are there striking sex differences in expected futures for men and wo• men in college today? Are the men anticipating SPRING-SUMMER 7976 13 their roles as primarily breadwinners with few tion to the rest of the world and still less to pos• childrearing responsibilities? Are women expect• sible problems they might encounter during their ing interrupted careers? How many children are lives." Reflected in the Brown essays was the desired and in what sex combination? What ac• American Dream of upward mobility, of doing tivities are foreseen in middle and old age? Are anything you want to do and being anyone you students optimistic about their futures in these want to be. But the young people could not visu• times of relatively high unemployment, inflation alize themselves as being either middle aged or and shortages? elderly. Students in one Brown class on sex roles and the The researchers found no sex differences con• other on the family provided some answers. They cerning the expectation of getting married. were asked to write their "future autobiogra• Eighty-eight percent of both women and men phies," against which the results were compared mentioned marriage. Eighty-five percent of the to an earlier British study using a similar ap• men, but only 53 percent of the women, expected proach. But the main purpose of the Brown study, their marriages to be perfectly happy. Extreme according to the sociologists, was to investigate optimism, reflected in the following excerpt, writ• the nature and degree of sex differences in the ex• ten by a male, was more characteristic of men's pected futures of the U.S. students. than women's essays: The students in the sample came from predomi• "I found a mate I truly loved and by her efforts, nantly middle class or upper middle class. Forty- I became a full man. I gave my life to her and she six percent came from families with incomes to me. I suppose I am as happy as a mortal could greater than $20,000 per year. Almost all were possibly be... I suppose my life became com• Caucasian and most had grown up in the suburbs plete when I met my mate. Nothing meant any of New England or the Mid-Atlantic states. value except her. I breathed to be near her: with• The researchers found the Brown essays to be out her I was lost and helpless. T gave my life to optimistic in tone. "This is not surprising," they her; and she to me.' What more could I ask?" said, "since it is unlikely that the young authors The researchers discovered that many of the would wish bad luck on themselves. Few obstacles students had different conceptions of the division stood in the way of their expected futures." Most of labor to be experienced in marriage. They clas• students expected a post-graduate education, then sified attitudes as egalitarian, neotraditional, and a good job or a successful small business and mar• traditional. A female wrote, "My husband riage with a highly suitable person, and several achieved the same success in his field as I did in children who turned out very well. "There were mine and we remained equals, the key I think. We no retarded, unattractive or unwanted children. traveled, had a child (now a writer in New York) The essays provided little detail about middle or and continued to work until ten years ago." old age. Generally, they portrayed life as happy A neotraditional-minded female wrote: "Soon and fulfilled." after, I got married, and began my life in the mold Their concerns were first with careers, then that had been left for me to fit: that of a housewife children, then marriages. "They gave little atten• and a mother. I still worked but somehow I didn't 74 East-West Center Magazine get as much enjoyment, because I could no longer positive terms." The researchers included sam• devote myself entirely to my work." ples of optimistic and pessimistic attitudes toward A traditional married role was envisioned by old age, each written by a male. this male: "Within three years after finishing med "My wife and I are both living still and I feel as school, I was making about $50,000 a year so Pam though I could live another 80 years." and I decided that she should retire so we could "Although my wife passed away ten years ago, have a family." my children take good care of me. My son is run• ning my business and my daughter is happily mar• ried to a man she met in college. As I look back "J gave my life to her; and she to me. over my life, I can feel proud that I made myself What more could I ask?" someone and I led a basically good life." A pessimistic future was in the mind of this male student. "Here I am eighty years old, tired and rundown and wasted away. I can't hear, my Seventy-seven percent of the students men• eyesight is failing, and no longer can I run around tioned having children, with no differences by and be on the go like I used to be back in high sex. But no one mentioned having children out• school.... Then it was a life full of dreams and side of marriage, according to the researchers. ambitions. The future was the gate to heaven. You The average number of children desired was 2.6 felt you could accomplish anything and now it is for women and 2.8 for men. Women were slightly all behind me. I have nothing to look forward to more likely to mention adoption or having a single and I have accomplished one-fourth of what I set child. Men and women were equally likely to men• out to do. I never thought about dying—there was tion having grandchildren. too much living to do, but now that's all I think "None of the men mentioned taking time off to about." raise their children or even being inconvenienced by children," the researchers noted. "On the whole, the men seemed to acquire children in their essays as one might acquire a sailboat, for "As 1 look back over my life, I can feel enjoyment and as part of one's lifestyle. For wom• proud that I made myself someone . . . en, children were part of a juggling act." I led a basically good life.'* More men than women saw themselves in lucra• tive careers, as one male projected: "There was where I made my fortune. Several brilliant real estate deals got me started. By age 35 I was a very The researchers noted that "over 80 percent of wealthy man." the men and women began or ended their essays Another male student anticipated business end• with some general statement about having been ing his athletic career: "Money was slowly work• satisfied with their lives as a whole. Fewer than 20 ing its way into the number one position in my percent anticipated any major or minor impair• life .... Wheeling and dealing in any way I could ment (mental or physical), with no differences by began to take precedence. Thus my serious ath• sex. We had thought more women than men might letic career had ended and my business career had write essays that included episodes of mental ill• begun." ness, given that women apparently have higher One of the few women who mentioned pursuing rates of mental illness, but this was not the case." a career that would make her rich wrote: "... the Overall, the researchers see their findings as money came in after the art school became well- "exploratory and descriptive." They wrote, "we established, enabling me to give all sorts of schol• did not expect to predict individual future behav• arships and increase my own wealth." The re• ior, however, but were interested in group expec• searchers observed, "as evidenced by the essays, tations by sex." They found respondents to be there may still be a taboo against women expres• unrealistic on many issues "partly owing to the sing the desire to make a lot of money. Perhaps it hypothetical nature of the assignment." is significant that the woman writing the above The authors concluded: "If young people dis• excerpt was black." cussed their expectations before making decisions The sociologists found that the majority of both about marriage, careers and children, they might men and women mentioned being successful in be better prepared for the future. Perhaps men their occupations, but more women than men and women should exchange 'future autobiogra• mentioned being dissatisfied with their degree of phies' before seriously considering marriage. The success. Few women saw sex discrimination as insights thus gained might prevent or alleviate being an obstacle to success. The problem, as potential conflicts." most saw it, was that in managing marriage, chil• dren and a career, the career lost out. "Yes and on and on. We had one son and one The researchers found that "a few students Irish setter, both of which were housetrained. My described their lives at age 80 as almost identical husband had a lucrative practice which made him to age 20 with no limitations of any kind, but in happy—but I felt certain I had missed something most essays aging was described in vague, mildly very crucial. . . ." (female) • SPRING-SUMMER 7976 75 Transformation in the People's Republic of China By Godwin Chu* For centuries the Chinese have dutifully followed the dictates of their ancestors. But today the an• cestors have faded into the shadows and 800 mil• lion Chinese work and live under the towering image of one man—Chairman Mao Tse-tung. In a process unparalleled in history, the ideals and aspirations of this one man and his Party have jolted the Chinese away from their heritage and start by examining its basic premises regarding pushed them toward a life of collective survival the nature of man, the nature of society, and the and development. Many China-watchers have nature of relations between the two. This view is been struggling for two decades to understand shared by Dr. Stephen Uhalley, who emphasized some of the puzzling features of China's social the importance of understanding the Chinese transformation, away from the pre-1949 China Communist ideology in order to make a correct this author knew as a land of toiling peasants and assessment of developments in the People's Re• extravagant entrepreneurs where homesick im• public of China. poverished millions yearned for a quiet family life In a society like the United States, for example, after two generations of war. the individual is placed above the group, and indi• How did Mao and his comrades break the hold vidual rights are preserved at the expense of the of tradition that was necessary to move develop• group. In the People's Republic of China, the ment forward? All indications point not so much group is placed above the individual. Man is not to coercion or technology, but to the skillful use of an individual, but a member of a collectivity. In communication in a process unique to present Mao's view, it is not the individual man, but the day politics. collective man, that is considered capable of It is for this reason that the East-West Commu• breaking the shackles of human bondage. It is not nication Institute began two years ago to study the cultivation of individual aspirations, but the the China experience, focused somewhat early affirmation of the collective will that can achieve this year by a seminar of scholars discussing the the full development of human energy and crea• use of communication in the People's Republic of tivity. The individual cannot free himself from China (see "Seminar Participants," page 17). traditions, but the group can. The participants at the seminar were not sur• Thus the Party began by changing the structure prised by the fact that a social structure can be of rural China through the land reform movement. altered through the use of communication. A so• Communication—informational, normative and cial structure is a structure of communication, and affective—was used to activate latent dissatisfac• therefore it can be changed by communication. tion among the peasants, to build a basis of com• The Chinese revolution demonstrated on a mas• mon identity for them, and to commit them in a sive scale that communication, when effectively class struggle against the landlords. After the re• employed in a group setting, can be a powerful moval of the landlords, a period of interim confu• mechanism for yanking a traditional society out of sion followed during which some of the Party's old routines and planting it on an entirely differ• rural cadres misused their newly acquired power ent road to development. for personal gains. But the Party, through the con• How was this done—that was the concern of the stant use of three communication tactics (Yu iden• Institute, and of the seminar participants—and tified them as tou or struggle, pi or criticism, and what have been the results so far? kai or reform) in group sessions, forced the cadres Dr. Daniel Lerner stated the question most suc• to communicate with the peasants, and vice versa, cinctly at the seminar: In what ways is China and rectify their behavior. "exceptional" to most socio-economic, psycho- With the power of cadres curtailed and channels cultural regularities? How is the conflict between tradition and modernization resolved in accept• *Dr. Codwin Chu. former professor of communication at Southern Illinois University, and an East-West Center Senior able China terms? And by what process does Fellow, has for the past two years been a reseurch associate at China manage simultaneously to (a) release per• the East-Wesi Communication Institute studying communica• sonal enthusiasm and activity, (b) keep these ex• tion in the People's Republic of China. Much of his findings are pressions of energy within desired bounds, and set down in a hook now being published by the University (c) direct these energies toward desired goals? Press of Hawaii. This story is based on those findings and the oral presentations of participants at a Seminar on Communi• To begin with, Dr. Frederick T.C. Yu noted that cation in the People's Republic of China, held March 1-5, 1976 a fruitful way to understand a social system is to at the East-West Center. 76 fast-West Center Magazine of communication opened to the peasants, the mune is required to manage the use of its own Party began organizing the rural population into resources and, except in emergency, receives lit• groups, progressing in stages from Mutual Aid tle or no help from the state. Teams to People's Communes. This greatly re• While the group can prevent the use of re• duced the sphere of influence of the kinship sys• sources for appreciable personal gain, it can also tem, as Dr. Francis L.K. Hsu noted. plan the use of these resources without having to Dr. Hsu is of the opinion that this does not nec• consider vested interests. Because the distribution essarily mean the weakening of the central web of rewards is also made on a group basis, the of kinship, namely, the link between parents and members cannot afford to permit slack individual children. But it does mean that whereas the spirit performance. of kinship extended far beyond the household be• By utilizing group pressure on the Chinese peo• fore, its influence is now being replaced by the ple for performing the necessary tasks, the Party thoughts of Chairman Mao. Every local group is apparently has been able to plan from above and part of the nationally institutionalized system of leave it to the local groups to work out ways to common labor and collective study of his thoughts. carry out the directives. In the absence of strong These groups are given their own resources and material incentives, it has been able to use com• the responsibility to make the best use of them— munication methods to generate enough social within the Party's guidelines. That is, the burden pressure for maintaining a level of competition is on the local groups to carry out their share of and cooperation sufficient for development. the state's development programs. Everything from puppet shows, shadow plays and Two important features make it possible for the local vernacular shows to Peking Opera have been groups to function effectively. First, the cadres, in effectively used by the Party to transmit the new their catalytic role as agents of the Party and message. state, see to it that the directives are carried out. This is not to say that everything the Chinese They are responsible for making sure the Party's communists have tried has been successful. Dr. basic policies (curtailment of individual interests Fred Hung notes that the system suffers from in• and prevention of revisionism) are strictly fol• accurate information and insufficient feedback lowed. While they suggest general courses of ac• which prompt inconsistent and overly ambitious tion to the groups, they apparently do not have plans. the authority to tell the peasants exactly how to The Chinese system is, as Dr. Doak Barnett as• implement the programs. This limitation leaves serts, a pervasive system with high penetration room for peasant participation and even criticism and intensity. It uses all available channels to of the activities of the cadres. selectively focus on specific audiences for pur• Secondly, group ownership of resources, "inde• poses of instruction, information and definition of pendent" from the state, makes it necessary and values and ideology. Dr. Barnett notes that al• feasible for commune members to rely on them• though the Chinese system is highly effective in selves— they either sink or swim. That is, a com• enforcing conformity and compliance, the degree of real commitment is more difficult to ascertain. An analysis of the mass media can reveal what is China Seminar being communicated, but we do not know what is Coordinator, Dr. Godwin C. Chu, Research Associate, taking place but not being communicated. Communication Institute The major conclusion of seminar participants is that further analysis of communication media will Participants: Dr. A. Doak Barnett, Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution probably not reveal the current major unknowns about Chinese development. It seems evident that Dr. Francis L.K. Hsu, Professor and Chair• man, Department of Anthropology, the kinship system has indeed been curtailed, but Northwestern University, and Visiting how the affective elements that were long nur• Professor of Anthropology, Chinese tured in it, which Dr. Hsu believes are still persis• University of Hong Kong tent and strong, will function in relation to the Dr. Fred Hung, Professor of Economics local groups is very ambiguous. That will be cen• and Chairman of East Asian Studies, tral to the actual process by which communication University of Hawaii proceeds. The participants believe that in order to Dr. Daniel Lerner, Ford Professor of So• further understand these details, research inside ciology, Massachusetts Institute of China itself is necessary. Technology Still, it is evident that primarily through the use Dr. Jack Lyle, Director, East-West Com• of skillful communication, reinforced by coercion munication Institute when necessary, the Party was initially able to Dr. Stephen Uhalley, Professor and Chair• involve the Chinese masses in changing the tradi• man, Department of History, University of Hawaii tional social structure and its material base. While the old social structure conserved tradition, the Dr. Frederick T.C. Yu. Professor and As• sociate Dean, Graduate School of Jour• new social structure now impinges on the Chinese nalism, Columbia University, and Sen• people in some way to cause them to pool their ior Fellow, Communication Institute labor and resources, largely at the dictate of the collectivity. • SPRING-SUMMER 7976 77 Richard Via is a professional man of the theatre who has spent twenty-three years as an actor, stage manager and director. At present he is as• "A book which belongs in the personal sistant professor in the Department of English as library of every teacher of English a Second Language at the University of Hawaii, to intermediate and adult students." and visiting researcher with the Culture Learning Institute of the East-West Center. —Regional English Language Center Journal ISBN 0-8248-0380-9 220 pages, illustrated (6 * 9); paperback $5.95 English OTHER NEW EAST-WEST CENTER BOOKS English in Three Acts CHILDREN in Three Acts By OF THE Richard Via Children of the Dis• DISPOSSESSED possessed by Barry Nur- BARRY NURCOMBE HI combe, a monograph of English in Three Acts the Culture Learning In• is a step-by-step method• stitute, East-West Center. mm The development of in• ology for teaching oral English through drama. telligence in the child The East-West Center has been of paramount book presupposes little concern in the education• or no background in al systems of the West. drama on the teacher's But how does such a con• part. It provides the cept apply to certain teacher with a number non-Western peoples, of self-contained lan• especially in cultures not guage activities that are traditionally concerned with it? both rewarding oral This book introduces the general reader, partic• communication problems ularly the reader interested in problems of educat• in their own right and ing young children, to the history of the concept of which build the student's confidence and ability intelligence in Western culture, its application to to be able to play a part in more and more com• non-Western people, and of some of the flaws and plex and lifelike communication activities. The pitfalls in such application. The author critically culmination of Via's approach is the production of reviews Jensen's hypothesis concerning geneti• a play, which can be an elaborate affair with cally determined racial differences in intellectual scenery and make-up before a large audience, or potential, the concepts of cultural deprivation, an in-class production with the students inter• cultural disadvantage and cultural difference with changing the parts. particular reference to theories of language learn• The key to the success of Richard Via's ap• ing, and preschool techniques that have been used proach to teaching oral English is the fact that it with culturally disadvantaged children, mainly in is really double-barreled: the play provides one the United States. kind of exposure to the natural communicative Focusing on a rural community in Australia and use of language while the use of English in the the part-Aboriginal people who live there, the preparation of the play provides a second kind. In author describes the evolution and results of an order to talk, you have to talk about something. experimental preschool program developed for For Via, the play has the double function of being part-Aboriginal and poor white children. Finally, both an end in itself and a topic for discussion and he provides a theoretical model that encom• analysis which is keenly involving to the partici• passes potential, competence and performance, pants. In short, Via's approach immerses the stu• drawing heavily on the theories of Piaget and dent of English in a series of activities that de• Chomsky, and appraises those areas in the field of mand a rich verbal response. cognitive development that require further eluci• "English in Three Acts is a delightful book, a dation. joyful book which makes the reader feel pleased Barry Nurcombe is associate professor in child to be alive and an English teacher (if he isn't, he psychiatry in the Schools of Psychiatry and Pedi• will want to be), and which imparts a lot of exper• atrics, University of New South Wales. He was a imental courage and the confidence in Via to go senior fellow in the Culture Learning Institute with it," writes Christine Paulston in the TESOL from September 1, 1973 to June 30, 1974. Quarterly (June, 1976). "We are going to try the ISBN 02-803620 drama method in the Institute next term." 288 pages (6 * 9); paper $7.75 18 East-West Center Magazine Studies in Kabuki: Its Acting, Music, and His• metaphysics and the relationship between early torical Context by James R. Brandon, William P. Buddhism and Zen are covered in two appendices. Malm, and Donald H. Shively, a monograph of the David J. Kalupahana is professor and chairman Culture Learning Institute, East-West Center. of the Department of Philosophy at the University Here are three illuminating and lively studies of of Hawaii. kabuki by three experts in this popular dramatic ISBN 0-8248-0392-2 LC 75-20040 art form. 224 pages (6 * 9); cloth $10.00; paper $3.95 Shively presents one of the best short discus• sions yet written on the socio-economic conditions that nurtured kabuki, the spirit of its conception, and its rapid early development. Brandon, who The Japanese and Sukarno's Indonesia: Tokyo- has translated, produced and directed kabuki Jakarta Relations, 1951-1966 by Masashi Nishi- dramas, focuses on kata (form or pattern)—its use, hara. This book treats the relationship between historical development, and aesthetic purpose— Japan—an industrialized nation with sparse na• as a performance style, a specific performance tural resources—and Indonesia—a developing technique, and as an individual interpretation. nation with rich natural resources—from the time Malm, a leading authority in Japanese music, dis• the two nations began negotiating the terms of cusses the musical tradition that became kabuki, Japanese war reparations to the time President its origins in the no theater, its instruments, and Sukarno lost power after the abortive 1965 coup. the function of music and musicians in the plays. The research included interviews conducted in Tokyo and Jakarta with diplomats, government ISBN 0-8248-0452-X officials, wartime officers, correspondents and Approx. 200 pages, illustrated (6 * 9); paper, price not set businessmen, as well as government reports, newspapers, popular magazines, biographies and memoirs, academic works and private papers. This monograph is from a series of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University. ISBN 0-8248-0379-5 272 pages (6 * 9); paper $7.50 Buddhist Philosophy: A Historical Analysis by David J. Kalupahana. A major new introduction Japanese Patterns of Behavior by Takie Sugi- to Buddhism, based on a yama Lebra. Much has been written about the comparison of the earli• Japanese, and yet Westerners continue to express est texts, this book ex• amazement and exasperation when they see amines its basic philo• what the Japanese do. To many, the behavior of sophical teaching and the Japanese simply "makes no sense." This book historical development, describes and explains the seemingly contradic• setting forth complex tory aspects of Japanese behavior. and significant ideas in a By examining the beliefs and values generally style easily accessible to shared by the Japanese, the author shows how the the student. The author's Japanese place great importance on social inter• orientation is philosophical, rather than religious actions and relationships, and less emphasis on or sociological; this approach is both the unique• individuality. This cultural theme is used through• ness and the strength of the work. out the book as a key to understanding the way Part I outlines the historical background from the Japanese interact with others, their child- which Buddhism arose and emphasizes the teach• rearing practices, how they see themselves as in• ings of early Buddhism. By comparing the earliest dividuals, and selected features of deviant beha• Buddhist literature in both the Pali Nikayas and vior, pathology, and therapy. the Chinese Agamas, the author has established ISBN 0-8248-0396-5 the common base of earliest Buddhism most free Pages not set (6 * 9); cloth, price not set; paper, price not set of sectarian rivalry. Topics such as epistemology, causality, existence, karma, morality, ethics and nirvana are discussed in detail. Part II examines developments in the history of Papua New Guinea, a publication of the Office Buddhist thought and the emergence of the vari• of Information, Papua New Guinea. The story of ous schools of Buddhism. The development of Ab- the people, their history, skills, arts and way of hidharma is studied through analysis of the vari• life, and the lush and colorful land that is their ous doctrines of the scholastics that comprise home. Lavishly illustrated with 38 color and 33 Abhidharma literature, as is early Mahayana black-and-white photographs, many in double- through the Mahayana sutras. Two chapters ex• page size. amine Madhyamika Transcendentalism and Yoga- ISBN 0-8248-0400-7 cara Idealism. The Buddha's attitude toward 68 pages (8 * 11%); cloth $9.95 SPRING-SUMMER 7976 79 Inouye and the Jefferson Fellows The Communication Institute's Jefferson Fel• U.S. Senator Daniel K. Inouye emphasizes a point as he lows program has a number of unique things discusses the 1976 presidential elections with journalists from about it, not the least of which is the program's Asia and Australia in the Center's Jefferson Fellowship program. ability to attract guest speakers and seminar lead• ers with unusual and stimulating perspectives. Through the course of the four-month program, the fellows this year heard experts on ocean re• ate's Democratic leadership a more vocal and sources, the American presidential elections, the partisan stance than exhibited by Mansfield. Soviet Union in the Pacific, China, the two Koreas The 1976 presidential election provided Inouye and South Asia. with the opportunity to present his opinion of the On March 8, U.S. Senator Daniel K. Inouye en• outcome to the fellows. Although the major pri• tered the conference room of the Communication mary contests had not begun yet when Inouye was Institute prepared to field questions from the fel• addressing the fellows in March, his predictions lows on any subject. It was an opportunity for the have since been close to target. nine fellows present, all from Asia, to relate to and "So far, none of the democratic candidates has question the U.S. Senator from Hawaii. The dis• caught on with the electorate," he observed. But cussion which followed was not a news confer• he predicted that when the New York and Califor• ence, but a give-and-take analysis of various con• nia primaries were held, Senator Henry Jackson temporary political issues affecting both America of Washington would emerge the front-runner. and Asia. Inouye even suggested that, given the mysteries Inouye began the one-hour session by predict• surrounding any election process, the democratic ing major changes in the leadership of the U.S. candidate could end up being someone who was Senate, because of Majority Leader Mike Mans• not even running at the present. field's announced intention to resign from the Inouye also had some things to say to the com• Senate. Inouye said "there will be a profound municators about the effects of television and the change in the leadership of the Senate during the media on election campaigns. "As has happened coming year." He said that whoever is elected to in many past elections," he stated, "this election serve as the Majority Leader will bring to the Sen- may be decided by the media." He noted that the influence of the media is unquestionably great in determining the outcome of an election, or the eventual popularity of a given candidate. He said Senator Inouye provides the Jefferson Fellows with a relaxed that television news is produced by men and atmosphere in which to question him on foreign policy, women, and noted that "Walter Cronkite is a de• the elections, journalism in America and aid to Angola. pendable, stable, God-fearing American and if he says or indicates something favourable about a candidate, it's worth five-percent of the vote." The Jefferson Fellows were interested in hear• ing Inouye's ideas on this year's political issues in the U.S. Inouye said what concerns most Ameri• cans are high unemployment, rising living costs, welfare, foreign trade, and activities of the multi• national corporations. He said overall foreign policy has become less an issue with the American electorate because the Vietnam war, with nightly television reports from the battlefield, has ended and Americans no longer worry about the draft of their sons or the huge expenditures necessary to fund the war. Asked whether the decision of the U.S. Congress earlier this year not to help fund the war in Angola represented a step back toward iso• lationism, Inouye responded: "No, just a massive step toward good sense." • 20 fast-West Center Magazine The American Revolution Its Meaning to Asians and Americans The East-West Center and the University of Ha• waii have joined academic forces to create a unique and interesting Bicentennial commemo• John VV. Warner, fa/king to Dr. John Brownell, Vice- ration. An international conference on the Amer• President for Academic Affairs (Far Left), explains the significance of the Bicentennial Medal which he ican revolution's meaning to Asians and Ameri• presented to the Center in recognition of its Bicenten• cans is slated to convene at the Center from June nial conference on the American Revolution. 28 to July 1, 1976, with Richard B. Morris of Columbia University delivering the keynote Specific themes discussed will revolve around address. Morris is co-chairman of the U.S. Bicen• the American Revolution as an instrument of in• tennial Commission and President of the Ameri• spiration for other governments. The first day's can Historical Association. discussion will focus on the "Historical Contribu• The other participants at the four-day confer• tions of the American Revolution," with U.S. ence include academic experts from India, Indo• historians offering current professional interpre• nesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, tations of the revolution, while Asian experts ex• Pakistan, the PhiliDpines, the Republic of China, plain how the 200-year-old event is understood Thailand and the United States. Each participant and taught in their respective countries. will prepare a paper for discussion at one of the On the second day, the Asian scholars will make three sessions. The papers will later be edited and the major contributions when they examine the published by the East-West Center to provide a "Influences of the American Revolutionary Tradi• permanent record for interested scholars. tion in Asia." They will discuss the impact (or lack of impact) of American ideals and institutions on their Asian nations as they developed their own John VV. Warner, Administrator of the American rationale for freedom and independence. The final Revolution Bicentennial Administration, greets John day will be devoted to "Echoes of the American Amirthonayagarn. Culture. Learning Institute Research .Associate and University of Hawaii Faculty involved Revolution." This will be an attempt to measure in the Center's Bicentennial conference to be held the United States today against its 18th century in late lune. ideals and to assess in what ways Americans have met, exceeded or fallen short of these ideals. U.S. scholars will share in these perceptions. The conference was officially recognized by the American Revolution Bicentennial Administration on March 29, when Bicentennial Administrator John W. Warner presented Dr. John Brownell, Vice-President for Academic Affairs and then act• ing President of the Center, with a Bicentennial medal. "The East-West Center is to be commended," Warner said, "for developing this program, since there can be no understanding where there is no knowledge." The East-West Center and the His• tory Department of the University of Hawaii have combined their expertise to bring this conference about. • THE EAST-WEST CENTER is a national educa• EAST-WEST CENTER tional institution established in Hawaii by the U.S. 1777 EAST-WEST ROAD Congress in 1960 to "promote better relations and X HONOLULU, HAWAII 96822 understanding between the United States and the nations of Asia and the Pacific through cooperative study, training and research." Each year the East-West Center brings together more than 1,500 men and women from the many nations and cultures of these regions. They work and study together while exchanging ideas and ex• periences in cooperative programs seeking solutions to important problems of mutual concern to East and West. For each participant from the United States in Center programs, two participants are sought from the more than 60 countries and terri• tories in Asia and the Pacific area. Five institutes with international, interdisciplinary academic and professional staffs conduct the East- West Center's problem oriented programs. East- West areas on which Center programs are focused include communication across national barriers, culture and language learning, food systems, popu• lation dynamics, and technological adaptation in developmental processes aimed at improving the quality of life. Each year the Center awards a limited number of Open Grants for graduate de• gree education and innovative research by Sen• ior Fellows in areas not encompassed by insti• tute programs. The Center is directed by an international Board of Governors of a public, non-profit educational cor• poration—known as the "Center for Cultural and Technical Interchange Between East and West, Inc." —created by the Hawaii State Legislature in 1975. The United States Congress provides basic funding for Center programs and for the variety of scholar• ships, fellowships, internships and other awards. Because of the cooperative nature of Center pro• grams, financial support and cost-sharing arrange• ments are also provided by Asian and Pacific gov• ernments, regional agencies, private enterprise and foundations. Additional cost-sharing of programs and participants is worked out with Asian/Pacific governments, regional agencies, private enterprise and foundations. The Center is situated on land adjacent to and provided by the University of Ha• waii, which conducts classes and grants degrees for degree-seeking East-West Center students who also are involved in the Center's problem-ori• ented programs. PRINTED IN U.S.A.