Case Study One:
I don’t think it is too unusual to encounter a culture that has the same word for two different things. This occurs overwhelmingly in the English language. However, I completely understand the display of frustration on the part of the friend and the farmer.
Case Study Two:
It makes sense to me that the USAID planners would encounter problems with the indigenous population’s beliefs. That is a factor that many don’t take into consideration when trying to “help” a foreign people. Aid workers tend to have a closed mindset as they try to accomplish THEIR goals, and don’t take the wishes of the natives into consideration.
Case Study Three:
I find it interesting that the introduction of a new type of old tool into a culture could influence that culture so drastically. It’s amazing to think that a culture’s economy, class system, and foreign relationships could all be based on a tool that many people rarely use today in the U.S.
I agree with all of your comments for all three case studies. I do feel that for case one, there are many words that have more than one meaning. I also think that it is even easier to have confusion when two different cultures interact with the same language because they could both have different views of the meanings of words. In case three, I think that it is amazing to think of what a difference the steel axe has made in the lives of the Yir Yoront people’s lives. This item, which is nowhere near the best of what societies can produce now, drastically changed the social roles and the living habits of these people. (ENGR 103)
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