>Replying to LO4615 --
John N. Warfield said:
>After lo many "interventions" by well-meaning consultants and government
>"helpers", the Tarahumari (having done their own structural models with
>the help of the IM team and the IM process) had made a startling
>discovery. The discovery was that the reason the help from many outsiders
>for many years had been relatively ineffectual was that the outsiders did
>not understand enough about the Tarahumari culture and thought patterns to
>know what they needed to know in order to help. But even more exciting
>and fundamental was this: The Tarahumari recognized that in order to
>enable the outside well-meaning helpers to help them, the Tarahumari
>themselves had to provide the necessary foundational patterns to the
>outsiders and explain these patterns to them, before the outsiders could
>understand what was important.
As one of the council members of our Keetoowah (Cherokee) community in
NYC, a council made up of PHDs, writers, artists and a former editor of
Business Week I would like to second what the Turahumara elders stated.
As a musician and an Indian I have always had to deal with the issues of
context and culture (in musical styles). As a musician and an Indian I
teach our community that it is our responsibility to communicate our way
of being with the dominant culture. It is the dominant culture's
responsibility to listen.
Not to speak for the Turahumara, but I was once told that if they needed
something they would simply go to a house and ask for it. If it was given
they would accept it by turning away, for to give is to have the power to
give and needs nothing more than to know that it is so. I tried that on
some of our opera company donors and they didn't give anything else.
-- Ray Evans Harrell mcore@soho.ios.com