Oral Culture and Oral Preference

Bernd Weber weberb at gmx.at
Thu Sep 19 22:57:36 PDT 2002


Chris,
Thanks for kicking me out of the simple
literate-non-literate bi-bolarity

Bernd

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weberb at gmx.at, on 20.09.2002 at 07:56:14 (GMT/UT + 02:00)
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On Thu, 19 Sep 2002 10:33:30 -0700, Chris Corrigan wrote:
>I remember years ago reading Edward T. Hall, the anthropologist who
>wrote "Understanding Culture" in the 1950s.  If I recall correctly,
>he used the terms "high context" and "low context" to describe a
>continuum of cultures.  High context cultures are those in which
>there is a tremendous amount of information in a shared "field,"
>meaning that explicit communication is somewhat redundant.  These
>are cultures in which subtle body language and knowing looks are all
>that is needed to communicate.  "Low context" cultures require a
>great deal of elaboration to get messages across, because there is
>little in the way of shared and common context in which to embed
>every day communication.
>
>I always thought of this as an interesting counterpoint to the
>"Oral/Written" designation.  It seems to me anyway, that writing,
>talking and sensing are all communication strategies, and while
>certain cultural contexts will select some strategies over others,
>all strategies are available to everyone, even if reading is a skill
>that has not yet been learned by individuals.
>
>What put me in mind of this was my exposure to the
>Visual/Auditory/Kinesthetic learning styles work (more at:
>http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/learning/styles.html) as well as
>the fact that most Aboriginal people I know claim to be part of an
>oral tradition, but tend to describe themselves as visual learners.
>When I work with Aboriginal folks, I always set my default note
>taking style towards the visual, and I use mind maps, pictures, flow
>charts and squiggles to record and order information.  So how is it
>that self described "oral" cultures in North America tend to rely so
>heavily on visual learning strategies?
>
>Well, in fact here on the West Coast, you probably have heard of
>totem poles and potlatches, which are elaborate ceremonies and
>cultural products that are as much about the visual pageantry as
>they are about the content.  And within these things is a message
>that is transmitted orally, although the reminders are all visual
>and kinesthetic: dances, masks, carvings, and so on.  All of these
>things "carry" the story with them.
>
>What is happening here in fact, is that there is a very high
>context, in which the culture operates, and relatively small numbers
>of representations are able to animate the entire culture.  Nothing
>happens in a potlatch that doesn't have about 5 or 6 meanings, and
>everyone nods knowingly when certain dances are danced and certain
>foods are served.
>
>So this has some interesting implications for being culturally
>sensitive when working with information.  A high context culture may
>require little more than reminders to help people recall all that
>has been talked about and dealt with over the day, what Bernd gets
>at by asking people to "recall in mind" rather than "reading the
>news."  Low context cultures, in my opinion, tend to be less
>comfortable with the limited information that sometimes comes out of
>Open Space small groups, where people have been too engaged in the
>process of conversation to write down much of what was said.  This
>can lead to some people expressing absolute joy at the conclusion of
>an OST meeting while others will appear to be completely flummoxed
>by what just happened, and reading the reports in no way helps to
>explain to them why it was such a high for so many people.
>
>Of course this is a somewhat tangential discussion to the one about
>literacy.  Very often, illiterate learners will compensate for their
>inability to read by being strong in other areas, but it is often
>true that illiterate learners are very visual people too, and able
>to employ their right brains phenomenally.  A friend I work with,
>Brent Cameron, (http://www.wondertree.org) has had a lot of success
>facilitating these kinds of folks to learn read by helping them to
>see words as pictures and encouraging them to become elaborate with
>the language.  Other learners who are more kinesthetic can learn to
>read by making letters and words out of tactile substances like wood
>or metal and actually manipulating them into words.
>
>In designing any kinds of process, attention to learning styles is a
>huge part of my preparatory work.  It's not that I try to guess who
>learns in what way, but by covering lots of bases and having lots of
>options available to people, I try to make sure that everyone is
>able to find a comfortable way of learning and contributing.
>
>The recent discussions about ways of recording OST events are
>marvelous, and contribute a lot to my own learning and thinking
>about how to do this.
>
>Chris
>
>
>---
>CHRIS CORRIGAN Consultation - Facilitation Open Space Technology
>
>Bowen Island, BC, Canada http://www.chriscorrigan.com
>chris at chriscorrigan.com
>
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