African Friends and Money Matters, Second Edition. David E. Maranz

Читать онлайн.
Название African Friends and Money Matters, Second Edition
Автор произведения David E. Maranz
Жанр Культурология
Серия
Издательство Культурология
Год выпуска 0
isbn 9781556713644



Скачать книгу

themselves and having a right to privilege.28 In other words, these are cultures of high power distance.

      27 Ibid., 5.

      28 Etounga-Manguelle 2009.

      Individuals from high power distance cultures accept power as part of society and regard power and authority as facts of life. With low power distance cultures, laws, norms and everyday behaviors make the power distances as minimal as possible. To low power distance societies hierarchy is an inequality of roles established for convenience; subordinates consider superiors to be the same kind of people as they are and superiors consider their subordinates the same way.

      The Kamba culture of Kenya, like many age-graded societies, exhibits a high power distance, especially in the relationship between the old and the young. Young members of the society must observe all protocol while addressing elder members of the society. Elders have power over the young; any elder from the society can punish any child or youthful member of the community found engaging in inappropriate behavior irrespective of whether he or she is the biological parent. In high power cultures leadership is normally limited to those who are accepted as leaders.

      29 Ibid., 5.

      30 Thornton 2005:25.

      31Ibid.

      Respect in this context can be thought of as a kind of capital or disposable resource. When a respected person moves into a higher office, he in effect does so by “spending” his capital. In this culture if a person of wealth wants respect, he must distribute his wealth. Although this dynamic may be pronounced in South Africa, it does seem doubtful, however, that this generally results in a loss of respect.

      Stratification

      Everyone is a sheep to someone and a lion to another.

      32 Sylla 1978:96.

      Another way to look at power and influence in society is to consider how it is organized on social, economic, or kinship levels, that is, its stratification. This approach is concerned with the ways in which people perceive their relationships with classes of others, rather than those that are individual-to-individual. Three types of organization will be looked at briefly: authoritarian, individualistic, and collective.

      33 Samovar, Porter, and McDaniel 2007:157.

      The second type of organization is individualistic. American society is generally referred to as individualistic. There, it is believed that all people should have equal rights and equal opportunities. To hold an opposite view is to disregard the constitution, and some would say, violate the will of God and the dignity of fellow man. Probably few if any African societies could be identified as individualistic, at least not to a significant degree, although people are free, or even encouraged, to express themselves individualistically, such as the way they paint their houses, decorate their personal items, invent personalized victory calls, and so forth.

      34 Ibid., 158.

      35 Mani 2010:12.

      36 Pennington 1990:130.

      The way the local society is organized—whether authoritarian, individualistic, or collective—will have profound effects on how Westerners should go about establishing rapport with local people, and with project planning and execution. Many specialized publications dealing with these issues are available. This discussion only touches on some of the considerations involved.

      Respect

      The dignity of a man is without price.

      37 Sylla 1978:91.

      Respect is a critically important consideration across Africa. It is probably present, if just below the surface, in most interactions. This applies whether