Preface My tuticsin anthropology had not entirely prepared ne. ew hours ter ou rival on Nukuoro, an aol inthe Pacific where we wero do thre yeas offeld research, we were sted inthe best house on the land, the house of wood and corrugated ion that belonged tthe thi. Thenextmoming, awakened eal by sense ofthe unfaia, T dcovered thal the chet had lepton the verandah lor" protect ‘ur posession,” he told me he had prepared eof for us and had washed our baby’ diapers. The anthropologist in me did not express “tonshment onl thanked him forhiskndnes, The next morning, ‘the same scenarios the following dy a well, No mater how rch | rofeted, he cotinued to wash the diapers, despite the evident sr ‘ive ofthe other Nukuor. He semed, moreover, to want to drew tention 0 this uncommon atv, since he had gu to do this ‘ashing in the midale of the dy, in fall view ofevenone in the Wilage ‘Then the che, who spoke English ent, asked me, with astern look, iF had clipped sy babys Fngerals thereupon performed thistak, under his attentive gave. He began to watch my every move, but onyinsoarasit concerned the baby. As our daushter, aconing tothe Nukuoro, was the fist white baby that most of them had ever seer or touched, she wasa olbsiy, and [was not ove suprise by the exraodinary attention the chi! lavished upon her. But the ith diy, 26 Tas ving my daughter some baby food under the same ‘matcfal eyes, the chief ealmly announced that he had decided actually upon ourartval, that he would tke her in adoption, and that hee the time had come to tll me, From something theoretical and exiting, anthropology abruptly ‘came something dificult to live. That diy, Tundertod ther tency and distes of certain intreltural exchanges.x Peeve tai case, however, the dict mas ot nuemountble the sivaton wa et athe msundewtnding wa a east wise, fecal, apart wae herefore oly a tater offing an ‘loqate sponse, which L did, of coun, once the ist moment of se had pas. rater disoovered how much ‘greater were the consequences of shovel msndetdng ht only salam bingo My fieldwork hx ot oped sinc. 1 I, i ft invade —and addy daily ite “The present work might be presumptuous iit were not, fist of al, look at mysel, “eating of sel" It's the product of a plyeultaral childhood and youth, ofan ntercltual mariage, of anthropological Studies and research, of teaching my language and iterate in 3 foreign county, of hetero: and homocultural iendships ina foreign county. Calta analysis has allowed me to domestiate this con- Stanly reinforced schizophrenia, to accept it fll, and, finally, to Savor i sichnes and creatveness. Tinanid an American, an anthropologist by trate. My culture, his culture, intercltra misunderstanding, the comedy of eros, the pain of incomprehensible sags, the constantly renewed awareness of flep and facinating dierenes, the interpretations, theories, and impusioned and pasionately iateresting discussions have, fr over twenty year, been everyday occutencs ‘sy teaching, in several American universes, has drawn ts form and perspective fom a etm in the com ten faced with any type of French txt (whether cultura, iteray, Tings, cinematographic, or musical) I find itsort of weird,” or dae “It was very bizare,” and similar variations on this theme In ‘td to mate them understand such a tet i ede to make them Tove it | fist had to understand the stagenes of what I had found ‘beaut and had never had to question to subject toa new ype of analysis cultural analysis Expeviences of this kind led me to do fieldwork in rance and in the United Stats, just as had done for thre years on Nukuoro, the Polynesian atoll in Micronesia to which I alluded eae: field research, with ll the customary interviews, tape recordings, observa tions, and Bld notes ‘Over the past ten summers, I interviewed informants in Nor Price ad ‘mands, Pars (and environ), La Rochelle, Tours, the Tar region (in patcuar in one very small vilage), and the Midi. V interviewed French people ofl or, from a famous writer toa nine-year-old foumer waits. The ll granted interviews withthe same grace. In the United States, I Saw reflections of my behavior in that of ether French people, whom I met in lage numbers. French people of all sors: longtime resident, some alspled, some uadaptable, some tight off the boat, some celebrities om tour, sme fist-ime vistors, some habitual vistors people ofall ages, some pasing through, some ‘who knew itall and some who were eos, some who were enthus ssticandsome who werebas French men and French women, Some initated me, some (at times) embarrassed me, But they all eniched me with thei (conscious or unconscious) testimonies they all gave me the git of thei presence—-an inexhaustible source of “Tivng texts." I woud ket thank dem for dat hee ‘AS for Americans, they have been all around me for more than ‘vent years, always present, sine I lve in their country. They too Ihave been constantly interviewed, recorded, observed With them 00 have chatted, talked serious, laughed, eid, loved, eflsted— shared evrything thank them ll here too, (Onbeth sides, the same remati boutthe other culture were epested witha compelling regularity which eae for tention, Sometimes it Seemed asi the misunderstandings were so ingrained tha the Ares ‘ansand the French would never beable to undertand each other Yeton bth sides found the same desire to wnderstand the other, 5 ‘was appatent in the interest shown whenever I proposed my in- tereetations. In fact, I began writing this book bate thor with ‘whom I shated my analyses constantly encouraged me to do 2, asuringme that these analyses had been wef to them and would be for others. Iwas struck repeatedly by the fequeney of interultral rmisundestandings, principally in our clos intereronal rela- tionships, bythe numberof wounds, deep and superficial, that were essentially due to the profound diflerences i our eultural premise, cused on these misunderstanding, between the French and “Americans. What interests me hete isnot to compe “American culture” to “French culture," which san immense, fnatimposibe, tack, but to identify areas of contact, meeting points between the 40 cultures where theres, so to speak, ith that ito say, Thave tedwh Pre to enti the contestn which cultural misunderstanding ean arise Ofcourse, a misunderstanding is nok nessa going to anise each time the sting ie right. But ii important tobe able to recognize ‘hove area in which eltral misunderstanding an easily occu and ‘amense pai, because they are not ecognized ascultual—as owing {odiferenes in cultural presuppsiions of which we are unaware, 0 impli ideas we harbor within oureves unknowingly, tthe way we seethe world, one which was lame but which seems ous “natural” for “evident,” or which appear to “go without saying” il return to ‘his matter inthe introductory chapter. ‘Clealy, if maintain that our iterpesonal relationships ae in- formed by ou cultural expectations, then the same is treo the loge that informs my analyses, which, n tar, become cultural texts sus ceptible of analysis, Indeed, its not by accident that certain people {eel the need to analyze certain things ike cultural misundestand- ings) while others donot In conclusion, I would like o thank those who have elped me in so ‘many ways during the research fr, and the writing of his book. The faethat Lam expesing my grate in the tadtional form inno way diminishes ts sincerty. We may writin solitude, but no one writes alone. T would ik to thank sincerely ll those who had the patience and Kindness to allow themselves tobe interviewed, Ther identities have, ‘of couse, been carefully dingused. If we Se ouseiesin them, iti because we ae them as much a ourselves thank Oberlin College for having supported my research, and the Foundation Pranco-Amerieain, in Pars, fo having given me access to ther fils, Finally, Thank my many elleagues, my stadens, ny fiends, and my family, on both sides ofthe Atlantic, for having ceatelalylitened and read, for having encouraged, supported and ‘ited me, For the time they devoted to my manuscript 1 thank Patricia Bowdoin, Piene Bourdieu, Tama Carl, Ress Chambers, Iudey Cohen, Dolly Eade, Cliflord Geert, Remo Guidi, Bemadete Hogan, Magdeleine Hous, Simone Kelman, Jacqueline Leiner, Maie-Thérse Nel, Michal Piensens, Claudine Raynaud, Francine Roure, Rober Soucy, Pere Tabatoni, Aleandra ‘Teherepennikova, Visiane Vaels, and Laurence Wie, Last but Price xl ‘ot lest, I thank Vern Carll, without whom I might never have Alscovered anthropology, and without whom I would probably never Ie doe the ptt cotton of ctl ania tual intercultural experience.Introduction Inthe following series of essays 1 have attempted to discover the sources of some fequent cultural misundentandings which ooo between the French and Americans in several important areas of interpersonal relationship. My intention i #0 provide a point of Aepartue, to indicate a pathway for those who would lik onder stand what separates us. This stadia fom exhastve. By its very nature, infact, this type of study ean never be complete. Nothing ils this at better, in my opinion, than the story that Clifford Geertz relates in his book, The Interpretation of Cultares ‘There an Indian story—at last 1 head it san indian sory— about an Englishman who, having been told that he world etd ‘on pltorm which sted on the bac ofa elephant which reed in tum on the back of a tue, asked (peshaps he was an th isthe way they behave), What dd the wale rst on? le. Ad that turtle? “Al, Sabb, fe tht sti tutes all the way down.” ‘Thisis indeed the way cultural analysis presents itself. The more one docs, the more there isto do and, mote important, the more one ‘ans tod, forever seeking the tre beneath the ttle (Ofwhat docs this cultural analysis consis? This question brings to my sminda Raymond Devs sketch i which he complains ofthe absence ofan announcer and af the dificult of intodcing oneself, beatae “if Lill them my name, they say they already know t, and if don't tell them, the'lay, "whos he?” Thave the same feeling concerning cultural analysis Twill, nonetheless, vik an explanation "There may be at many dfitions of eultral analysis as there re 12 nvolucton anthropologists 1am therefore not going to get entangled inthe history of ealtoral analysis orna comparative ty ofthe French and ‘American conceptions oft [wil simply explain as clearly a possible ‘that Lean byt. Very plainly, Ise cultural nalss aa means of peeing as “noxmal” thing which intally seem “bizare” or ange” among people of «culture different fom one’s own, To ‘manage this, Tiust imagine 2 univers in which the “shocking” act fan lake place ad scem normal, can take on meaning without even ting noticed In other words, T must uy to enter, for an instant, the calla imagination of the oes "The vad leading t ths point, however, is long and trick. From thestat weareeaughtin whatscemsto bean nslvable problem. On the one hand, since we know more about the word (thanks to an {hwopology. revel, cinema, television, tourism, immigration, wars of independence, and enic and cul ights movements), we ate aware ilifference, and we fight forthe sight to maintain thes diferences (On the athe hand, the (tified) fear of racism and ts hideous feonsequences ints us to maintain forcefully that we ate al the ‘Sine, universal human being We constanly fll into the tap of ‘wanting to reconcile these two ths; we are caught between the {esr to deny differences (ve areal human] and the dsitetoempha- Sie them the sight to be diferent). Yet this problem exists nly rom anetical perspetve. Its nde when we ty to make both ofthese truths it into the hierarchy of ou value stem that we find oursees ina dificult position, “The problem disappears, however, fom the perspective of utara analy which doesnot concern il wth vale judgements. OF our, we at all human, But we speak thousands of different ln fguages, which makes us no les human, and donot find it inconceivable tolearn a varety of oeign” languages. Yet we refuse to accept the dea that we communicate with thes though some- thing simular to language, "languages" of which weare unaware— our cuilures despite the fact that we speak a geat deal today about calural differences, Inded, if am a cultural being, where i my individuality? Where is my fee wil? Am Ta conditioned and com ‘pletely predictable being. ike laboratory af? inorder toi ourselves fof thes ansetes, we ust acept, once afr the trath ofthe following statement: the fit that we ae cultural Beings iv 0 way implies tat we are mere numbers ina sere, iano way denies our Intact 8 Aifferences within a common cultural fame of reference, Just as we ‘may speak the same language but never in the sme way, 50 can We prticipate in particular altura maliew and maintain our ind ‘duality and our personaly. Indeed, my cltre she logic by which I give order to the word ‘And Thave been leaing this lope ite by litle, since the moment 1 sas bor, from the gestures, the words, and the care of those who ‘urtounded me; fro thee gaze, fom the tone oftheir voices: fom the noes, the colors, the sells, the bd contact fom the way Las raid, revarde, punished, held, touched, washed, fe from the ris Iwas told, fom the books ead, fom the songs Isang in the street, at schoo, at play; om the telationshis I witnessed betneen| ‘then, fromm the dgments | eatd, fom the aesthetics embodied cveryher, in all hings ght down tomy sleep and the dreams 1 Team to dren and recount Teamed to breathe this loge and to forget that Tad learned it 1 find it natural. Whether I produce meaning or apprehend i it unde all my interactions. This does rot mean that ust age with ll those who share my culture: do rot neces agree with ll those who speak the same language as 1 Ao, But as diferent as their discourse may be from mine, ts for me Familiar teritory, it recognizable. The same is tue, in a certain sense, of my cult Pat of this logi tact invinle, and this is the most important part consis in the premise from which we constantly draw our Conclisons, We are not conscious of these premises becanse they ae, forus, vere, They are everything which "gos without saying” for tas and which is therefore transparent altal analysis is necessary only Because my cltre i not the only oncinthe word. Assoon as there icone with anther culture (and this has always been the eae), there is potential fr confi. Tnded, when Imet someone rom aculluediferentfrom my ow, lchave in the way thats natural ome, while theater bekavesin the that is natral to him or her. ‘he only problem is that our natural” ways donot coincide. Mest ofthe time, though, we gt slong wel, beease the fact hat ou “ert” do nat coincide docs ‘ot mean that they necessarily conflict. "The problem ony ates, in fac, when theres 3 confit Bu sinc tis in he very nature of a seri to be self-evident and not tobe challenged, [wil ot atibuate the tneasines or hurt fel ina confit situation to an eroneous4 traduction interpretation on my part. Instead, 1 will atbute this dct to ‘one, of some, ofthe other’ inherent characteristics. Tha is os, following an intercultural experience which bothered or annoyed me ‘without my truly knowing wh, oF even without my bengaware of my ‘iscorfort, will have # tendency to say things ike, “The French fre" or "Americans ae - "In ater words, if stereciypes ae hal, tisnotbeeause they contain a ran oftuth butrather because they express and elt the eutieofthase who espouse them. Thus when Ia French peron-—s3y, “American children ae spoiled and Jmpolit,” Tam no expressing basi tt but refering her tothe French conception of child asing, which I unconsciously learned to regard as truth, wheres itis merely my (French) uth, When Ian ‘American —siy, "French people ate rade, they dont et you et a ‘von in edge, they interrapt ou all the time,” Tam merely ‘eferring tothe implicit ules of American conversation, But inorder to understand thie, I must fist Become avare of my reading, ofthe interpretation [ring to the cultural ext, ofthe filer through which f leamed to perceive the world. In other words, before learning to tnderstand the ele ofthe other, must become aware of my own culture, of my cultural presuppositions ofthe implicit premises that infos my interpretation, of my verits. Only afer taking this sep, which is infact the most dificult one, ean begin to understand the Cultural presuppositions ofthe other the implicit premises which Jnform a formety opaque tex. The da that my gaze tansouns what I sees very familiar tdsy, list alice. Unfrtnately there isa great distance between know Jing that my gaz transforms and becoming avare ofthe waysin which ‘ny gaze transforms. Moreover, even if Lam ready to recognize the filer which my gre (aken init broadest sense) inserts between the worldand mye, wil pobably atsbute ito my artisiesense, ory originality, ormy “le,” omy way oflookingat the word rts wth ‘which [am pleased, or even tomy mood (conceiving oft heefore as temporary) hereby afrning and confirming my individuality "The dificult thing forme to acept is that my gaze is alo dceply French (or American) andi therefore similar to other French gazes and recognizable as such, Of couse, | know that French table man hers ae ferent fom those ofthe Americans orth Chinese. now that in certain societies itis polite to burpalters meal, know thatin ther societies beast go uncovered but no highs. Ive read, [ve london 8 sen, Ivetravced Ive heard—in short Lama daughter (orson ofthis ‘century, But even with that, haves long rood to travel before Lean ‘sccep that [am a cultural beng in my way of loving (nt only of making love) and of hating, in my enships, my dreams, my fa tases, my anger inal tht makes me a human being ie all oer human beings ‘Along this oad, two major obstacles. The fst, mentioned eater, isthe fear of thinking that Lam contolle by an exterior force (which lake tobe the culture), that am transformed intoan automation. This fearidispeled asoon aI realize (a that my clues ot something external tome, rete jst it rates met sno more ouside me than my thoughts it produces me and 1 produce it (b) and that cultural propostions, the premise of which ar invisble to me, exist, ft such ese! ofabmction ast allow for and include avery wide range of variations atthe level of experience. In ater word, to people can actin very diferent ways ad athe same time raf the ‘sme cultural proposition tthe level of production of meaning, This wil be illustrated inthe essays that follow. “The sccond obstacle completely diferent fom the fist. Indeed itisno anger a mate of restance but of tecnique: assuming that want to become aware ofthe cults being that am, that want to become aware of my “invisible eres" inorder to undewstand those athe other an to avoid interculual misunderstandings, how can | sp about it? How can Tacky doa cultural analysis? ‘Several anthropolgits, Gregory Bateson, Vern Cal, nd Cliford Geet in particular, have provided medcls for cultural analysis 0 which I subsebe, although these models differ on many points "Those who would like to aequte farther knowledge of such a the ‘tctcal anthrpologigal orientation should read thee wodks. Kor those who simply) want to avo interultral misundestandings, | provide a recipe which is eflective yet es to follow. "The ist step consists of clearing the deck, $0 to speak. 1 must, boveall, avoid al attempt at discovering te dexp-seated reasons for the cultural specifiy of ch-and-such a group. That sto say that ‘mst avoid the temptation of prycholgial at psychoanalytic expl- rations ("because American mothers. -," "because French people can't stand author.) T mus also avoid the temptation of txplanations that are cologial ("because Mh X ak protein), geo© ntodton graphical ("because they live inthe thin, mountain ai Ineteroogical “because ofthe abundance of rain", o demographic (because ofthe opposition between ty and county”) Emus oid the temptation of economic explanations ("because they are eap- italise), of religious explanations ("the French Cathal,” “the American Pitan) of istrical explanations he role of invasions, tar or even of soiclogical explanations ("the American Ely i sch because people move around alt), and soon, This is no to Sues that these explanations of diferent types of analyses, ate inferior cultural analysis simply means that they do wot deal with tule, that they belong o another domain, as closely connected as that domain may be to culture, Indeed, Tam not using ealtal analysis find out why things ate as they areor to ncove thei deep footed atte "what they ar”) Rather, seek to ndentand the System of communication by which meaning is produced and re- ved within a group. [sec to dicover what things—whether a ‘mode of conduct, an expetation, ora pattem of dscourse-—mean TMheome back wo this. ‘The second sep consists of beng onthe lookout. rust, in ict, litem tomy own discourse and eam to recognize the value judgment Tinlad when sincerely believe Tam imply describing something "The easiest ones to recognize tke the form mentioned above: "The French the Amercansfthe Japanese) are...” followed by an ae tive acount,” “vlga,” “cel When Id this(and wedotatan increible pace, Tam not describing something but asigningcharae- teristics of iy chosing tothe other. eis, fat, the same ting 35 saying" find theXstobelik this ork that," but the aston “The ‘Xvare takes the convincing form ofa general truth, ‘Once can easly ident sentences ike these, Tmust watch out for phrases ike "The French the Indians!the Americans) ave no sense tf, "don't know how fo,» .” or other negative expresons which sugges ala. Indeed, inthis case, the only shortcoming for Which Lam reproaching these X isthe absence of my cute. What 2m ying, in fc, that the Xe do not have "ny" sense of whatever ‘Assoon as we are consciously eady to dose, itbicomes easier and easier to noice these statements, The proces actually winds up be- coming automatic ‘Once I become accustomed to operating this level of awareness, Inndcton 7 {can turn to the analysis ofa cultural text. What cultural text? Ian take almost any form. Linguist dificulis aie, 1am faced with cultural text when I get a “stange”feling upon being colronted with an opacity that T cant disipate without fling back on the ‘explanation “The Xs ate..." which, 25 we have sen, i anything ‘but an explanation. This can happen to me upon seing a foreign fin, ot ean pop up in my dail ile, be part aa ived experience. How, then, can discover the logic that will render this opacity transparent? st ofall, by emembering the experience in dtl, by seing “in slow mation This requtes some elo, bocaue we ae generally ted to remembering the broad features ofan experience, and for the ‘most par we remember them at we ave alseady interpreted ther. In ‘the beginning tight be useful o jot exerting down, thereby enhancing memory and allowing or greater detachment. i even more effective to set aside for @ while the “ext” thus constucted and to pick up again later, allowing more and more detail to be emembere "Now that Ihave the text before my eyes (whetherlitrally or not it {scleaer tome why I found the experience bizateor unpleasant (it rmay even have been painful) Putting all hat aide, I must ty to ‘magne a contest in which this experience i no longer shocking or ‘unpleasant, ty to imagine a universe in which what was “bizare becomes "normal." Of couse, its not a matter of fining just any interpretation that comes tomy nin and which different from the ‘tginal one. mst find an interpretation the val of which an be ‘wee, thats to ty, acutural proposition that sasrted elsewhere inthe sme culture, though perhaps ina very diferent form, Here isan example. One day in Nukuor, [gave my neighbor a sila beat piece of ath. This neighbor was ar old woman who ‘was important in the community because of er knowledge oft ons tales, and legends, and ofthe native medicine. There was nothing surprising about my atonal kinds of gifs are exchanged lnast every day wil never forget, however, the way in which my tilt was received on this oceason, The woman trew my Beal eee of fabs aside, then began itera to “bawl me out” for having ‘ivenitto her. [wentback omy house, very shaken ad closet teas, “Aprecen which Thad taken such caren choosing, thowsands of ies fiom thisiland whereallIthoughtone could buy wascopra. . . My© tnveducton fist reaction was to wonder why she was upset with me, what Thad done to anger her, in what sesious way Thad tansgresed common practice (vith which though aswell acquainted) Then I decided that my reaction was probably ethnocentric, that | ad to look ese where. Athat point eau have imagined al Kinds of explanations