BLOOMBBURG UN I VERt: I TY
Bloomsburg
Pennsylvania
ANTHROPOLOGY NEWSLETTER
Vol. 15, No. 3
Nov-Dec 1990
Anthropology & International Business:
Increasingly we live
in a multinational, multicultural world. With the advances
continuously being made in communications and transportation
and with the world/s financial and political
interconnectedness, we can be sure that we will be
interacting with people from different cultures than our
own. Dr. Ernest Boyer, President of the Carnegie Foundation
for the Advancement of Teaching said in 1985, "We cannot
survive in · an interdependent, complicated and dangerous
world if we remain ignorant about the geography, the
history, and the traditions of the cultures of those around
us, and on whom our destinies will depend."
Boyer/s warning ls especially important in the world of
business. American firms and businesses are finding that
they need to deal with and know about a great many different
cultural traditions in order to do well. The following
points help to illustrate the need for a global awareness ln
the business community:

*

One in every six manufacturing jobs In the U.S. ls
dependent on exports.

* Forty percent of all American farmland ls used for
export crops.

* Approximately 1/3 of all U.S. corporate profits come
from international activities.

*

Direct foreign investment in the U.S. has increased
over 10 times in the last decade. Japanese
investments alone amounted to $30 billion in 1988.
At the same time, Japanese banks and institutions
hold 40% of our national debt.

*

Developing nations owe U.S. commercial banks over
$150 bi 11 ion in outstanding loans.

In the past, say twenty years ago, American firms would have
viewed the above statistics with satisfaction, knowing that,
for al 1 practical purposes, Americans were the only show in
town; we knew the world had to come to us for technology and
services. That ls no longer the case. Many nations are now
effectively competing with American firms for business
world-wide. A few examples will prove this point:

*

When a new American embassy was built in Riyadh, Saudi
Arabia in the late 80/s, American construction firms lost

2.

the bid on the project to a Korean company.

*

In France, Motorola lost out to the Japanese when France/s
Thomson group chose Oki Electric to expand the group/s
semi-conductor business.

* The world/s premier container shipping line is now
Evergreen Marine Corporation, a Taiwanese company.

*

Canada/s Olympia & York Development Ltd. has become
the world/s largest real estate developer.

*

Increasingly the technology used in American military
aircraft is made in Japan; says Michael Chinworth, a
researcher at MIT/s Japan Science & Technology Program,
"If you knew how many of the (computer) chips in the
F-16 fighter jet and in our other advanced weapons came
from abroad, you would be terrified."

*

Even Hollywood is feeling the pinch of international
competition; foreign countries are showing a growing
preference for films of their own culture and are
shunning American-made movies.

American businessmen are learning that their products will
not sell themselves; they need to actively compete with
foreign concerns that are much more attuned to differences
in culture than Americans are. Ethnocentric Americans have
generally taken the approach that they didn/t need to know
much about local cultures. Dr. Howard Perlmutter of the
Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania
has said, "If you have a Joint venture with a Japanese
company, they/II send 24 people here to learn everything you
know, and you/11 send one person there to tell them
everything you know ... " No wonder that the American share
of free-world exports has dropped continuously since 1970.
Research has shown that failures in overseas business most
frequently result from an inability to understand and adapt
to other ways of thinking and acting rather than from
technical or professional incompetence.
Some of the cultural blunders American b~Jsinesses have
made overseas are almost humorous - until you consider the
potential consequences. For instance, American businesses
often rely on advertising campaigns designed for American
markets, assuming that ads can be directly translated into
another language without losing or gaining any meaning. For
example, "Body by Fisher," a General Motors ad, translated
out as "Corpse by Fisher" in the Belgian language of
F 1em i sh . S i mi 1a r 1y , 11 Come A1 i v e w i th Peps i 11 , once
translated into Chinese, became "Pepsi brings your ancestors
back from the grave." One airline firm lost business in
Malaysid because its ads were in green; green symbolizes

,..,
..)

.

death in Malaysia, and no Malay wanted to be on those
airplanes.
Part of the problem is, of course, language.
Americans
are fiercely monolingual by comparison to other countries.
Only 15% of American high school students study a foreign
language, and the U.S. is the only modern nation in which a
student can graduate from college without having studied a
foreign language.
Senator Paul Simon of Illinois puts the
competitive advantage of foreign language study quite
simply:
if you have two firms with roughly equal products,
and the salesperson from one speaks your language and the
other doesn ✓ t, to whom are you going to give the contract?
But language is not the whole story, since the knowledge
of a foreign language will not by itself prepare someone for
the myriad of cultural behaviors that need to be understood
in order to proceed well in a different culture.
A passable
knowledge of Japanese will not prepare an American for the
fierce loyalty of a Japanese salaryman for his firm, nor
will a knowledge of Arabic help much when you are being
arrested in the United Arab Emirates for having alcohol in
your possession.
Even English isn/t much of a help in
England, when an American ls trying to comprehend the
intricacies of a worker/s tea break or the idea that CEO/s
don/t have their own offices, separate from their workers.
Here is where cultural anthropology has come to be in
increasing demand in American business circles. Cultural
anthropology seeks to understand how and why contemporary
peoples of the world differ in their customary ways of
behaving, on the one hand, and how and why they share
certain similarities, on the other.
Cultural
anthropologists study all aspects of behavior; we have found
that every nuance or gesture, no matter how seemingly
insignificant, can be important in forging or destroying
communication across cultures. As an example, as simple a
gesture as nodding the head to mean "yes" can cause problems
in Turkey or parts of India or in several other cultures
where the exact same gesture means 11 no. 11
Even a smile can
be misinterpreted; in China a smile in public often means
the person smiling ls intensely embarrassed.
Cultural
anthropologists can promote intercultural communication and
understanding so that the American businessperson is not put
at a disadvantage from the beginning.
30 Centuries of Mexican Act by Tom Aleta.
The Metropolitan
Museum of Art in New York currently is exhibiting a show
entitled 11 Mexico: Splendours of Thirty Centuries."
This is
the largest and . one of the most ambitious special
presentations in the history of the museum.
This
comprehensive show fills 18 contiguous galleries.
It begins
with the monumental sculpture of the Olmec culture, which
had its origins in the tropical lowlands of Veracruz and
Tabasco ca. 1000 BC, and ends with canvases of the great

Mexican painters of the 1950 / s. Along the way i t presents
sculpture, pottery, metal work and mural painting of some of
the best known prehistoric cultures; the Mayas and Aztecs
are represented well. But it also introduces the art of
Izapa, Monte Alban, Teotlhuacan and El Taj(n, cultures
unfamiliar to the majority of American museum . goers. These
cultures offer a view of an aboriginal world completely
isolated from European ideas and the western tradition of
art. Deities are portrayed as scowling, fanged~earth
monsters and undulating feathered serpents. Piety is
revealed in blood sacrifice.
The viceregal art of the colonial period records the
introduction of Spanish culture and modes of artistic
expression to Mexico. Militant Catholicism in its myriad
theological, social and political manifestations replaces
the indigenous. Barely a trace of precolumbian Mexico can
be seen in the ecclesiastical and civic architecture, church
paintings, scuplture and domestic furnishings that make up
this portion of the exhibit. Native Mexican faces appear
only occasionally, either in romanticized depletions of an
Indian way of life that never existed or in paintings of the
racial castes that defined social position and possibilities
in the 17th and 18th centuries.
The 19th century was a period of external influence
over Mexico. The US invaded; the French invaded;
Maximillian was emperor; European culture washed over the
country. The art attains an even strong~r European flavor.
A number of academies were established to teach the current
continental techniques and aesthetics. Nowhere are these
tastes and values better displayed than in the majestic
landscapes and formal portraits that typify the period.
Only toward the end of the 19th century does a vision emerge
in modern art that can be cal led truly Mexican, something
more than a trans-oceanic transplant of European
sensibilities.
In his engravings depicting everything from
political leaders to the Common Man as skeletons and
cadavers, Jose Guadalupe Posada gave expression to the
fatalism and fascination with death that helps shape the
Mexican identity. His work, which reached a large popular
audience, set the stage for the great painteLs and muralists
of the 20th century.
The work of the 20th century artists reflects the
turbulence and political upheaval that characterized the
period both inside Mexico and on the world stage. The
Mexican Revolution, the rise of world communism and the
menace of fascism are the themes that dominate the work of
Clemente Orozco, Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueros.
Although steeped in the European painting technique and
tradition, their visions gave rise to works that are truly
Mexican in character. Much of this corpus is public art frescoes adorning government buildings and museums - meant

for a popular audience.
Indians and indigenous themes
appear in these works with a dignity not seen since the
pre-Hispanic period.
The pieces on display in this exhibit
are canvases that, while on a smaller scale than the murals,
convey the power and mastery of this famous trilogy.
Other
canvases by Frida Kahlo and Rufino Tamayo that offer another
view of uniquely Mexican sensibilities close the show.
Although one might quibble about some of the selections
in the show and wish that there had been a focus on the body
of indigenous folk art that gives modern Mexican culture
such a rich flavor, the exhibition represents a prodigious
effort to make Mexican art available to an American audience
unfamiliar with the natlon/s 30 centuries of creativity.
The exhibition runs through January 13, 1991 before moving
on to San Antonio.
The Anthropologist/s Cookbook: The Yao people of northern
Thailand make a dish called Tong ka sui or Sour Chicken
Soup.
The following recipe will serve 4 to 6.
half a chicken
1/4 tsp powdered ginger
2 cups chopped Chinese cabbage

1
1
2
3

red chili pepper
cup canned bamboo shoots
limes or 3 lemons
tbsp pork fat

Chop the chicken up into small pieces. Saute it in pork
fat.
Add the chili pepper crushed, the ginger, then the
cabbage or mustard greens. When all ls well coated with the
pork fat, add the bamboo shoots. Cover with water and simmer
until the chicken is cooked.
Before serving add salt to
taste and the juice of the limes or lemons.
The soup is eaten directly from the serving bowl with a
11
Chinese 11 spoon.
It should be thick.
What/sin a Name?: Tony Hillerman has written a number of
mysteries in which the key figures are members of the Navajo
Tribal Police.
In this passage from his book, People of
Darkness, is getting acquainted with Mary Landon, a young white woman
who is working as a school teacher on the Navajo
reservation:
Mary Landon learned Chee was one of the Slow Talking
Dlnee, the clan of his mother, and was "born to" the Bitter
~ater Dinee, the clan of his father.
She learned that
Chee/s father was dead, that his maternal uncle was a noted
yataalli, and she had been around Navajo country long enou~h
to know about the role of these shamans in the ceremonial
1 ife of the People.
She learned a good deal more about his
family, ranging from his two older sisters through a galaxy
of cousins, uncles and aunts, one of whom represented the
Greasy Water District on the Tribal Council.

6.

"She/s my mother/s sister, which makes her my /little
mother,/" Chee said. "A real tiger."
"You/re not playing the game," Mary Landon said. "I
told you about me. You/re just telling me about your
family."
The statement surprised Chee. One defined himself by
his family. How else? And then it occurred to him that
white people didn ✓ t. They identified thmselves by what they
had done as ihdividuals. He added sugar to his coffee,
thinking nbout it.
"That/s the way we play the game.
If I was introducing
you to Navajos, I wouldn/t say, /This ls Mary Landon,who
teaches at Crownpolnt,/ and so forth.
I/d say, /This woman
ls a member of ... / - your mother/s family, and your
father/s family - and I/d tell about your uncles and aunts,
so everyone would know Just exactly where you flt in with
the people around you."
" You wou 1dn / t t e 1 1

"/This woman/?" Mary Lndon asked ,
them my name?"

"That would be rude. Now more people have English
names, but among traditional Navajos it/s very impolite to
say someone/s name in their presence. Names are just
reference words, when the person's not there."
Mary Landon looked incredulous.
She stopped.

11

I think that's

II

Si I 1y?" Chee asked.
"You have to understand the
system. Our real names are secret. We cal 1 them war names.
Somebody very close to you in the family names you when
you're little. Something that fits your personality, if
possible. Not more than a half dozen people are ever going
to know it.
It/s used for ceremonial purposes: if a girl is
having her ki-naalda - her puberty ceremony - or if you're
having a sing done for you. Then, as you g~ow, people give
you nicknames to refer to you. Like 'Cry Baby/, and 'Hard
Runner,/ or maybe 'Long Hands' or 'Ugly./., . Chee 1aughed.
11
!/ve got an uncle on my father's side everybody cal ls
'Liar./"
11

"How about Jim Chee?

Isn't that your real name?"

"Along came the trading posts," Chee said.
"Along came
the white man. He had to have a name to write down when one
of us pawned our Jewelry to him or got credit for groceries.
The traders started formalizing the nicknames, and before
long we had to have names on birth certificates, so you got
family names, like mine.
I/ve nicknames, too. Two or
three. And I /m sure you do, too."

7.

11

Me? 11 Mary Landon looked surprised.

"How long have you been at Crownpoint? Three months?
Sure. The people have a name for you by now."
"Like what?"
"Something that fits. Maybe /Pretty Teacher. ✓ Or
Girl. ✓" Chee shrugged.
"/Blue Eyes. ✓
/Blond
Woman. ✓
/Fast Talker. ✓ Do you want me to find out for you?"
✓ stubborn

"Sure," she said.

Then, "No, wait.

Maybe just forget

i t • • • II

Congratulations: to Dr. Minderhout who will have a paper
published in the American Anthropological Association/s
Newsletter, the most widely circulated journal in the
discipline; the article will appear in the December issue.
The article looks at the relationship between anthropology
and linguistics. Anthropologists assume that linguistics is
a branch of anthropology, an equal subdisclpllne with
cultural and physical anthropology and prehistoric
archaeology. However, the number of students and
professionals going into linguistics is a tiny fraction of
the interest in the other subdisciplines. Dr. Minderhout
suggests a number of reasons for the lack of interest,
among them involving a survey of how linguistics ls
presented in 17 introductory texts in anthropology.
In
general, he argues that linguistics is so poorly presented
ln most texts that it will never attract much of a student
fol lowing. He also suggests a number of alternative
presentation strategies.
Congratulations are also in order for Dr. Wymer who
presented a paper at the Eastern States Archaeological
Federation ln Columbus, Ohio over the weekend of November
10-11.
Dr. Wymer talked about her work at the Murphy Site,
reviewing the paleobotanical data from the site and using it
to interpret living patterns ln prehistory.