Know Yourself

In order to be able to understand the cultures of others we must understand our own.  In the first year of my degree, we had a social anthropology paper, in which we looked at the iceberg model of culture, created by Edward T Hall in 1976 (in Devarakonda, 2013).  For those not familiar with this model, here's a short video:

(ConstantForeigner, 2013)

As you can see, there is very little about any culture that is openly displayed, and what is on display can be difficult to interpret without an understanding of the psychology and philosophy that is beneath the surface.  For this paper, we also had to create our own version of the iceberg.  For my analogy, I used a river delta.  I chose this as my model because I connect to the sea, it is very important to me spiritually.  Maori are a Polynesian people, a people of the Pacific Ocean, seafarers and voyagers.  We came to this land via the sea, we are a nation of moderate-sized islands, and in most parts of the country, are no more than a few short hours from the sea.  In my model, pictured below (Brown, 2011), the river is the seen behaviour, the tidal flats are the marginal areas that some observant people may notice, and the sea itself is the unseen.  The river is clear-cut, the flats diversify and become more difficult to follow, and the life in the sea is almost entirely below its surface.  At the delta, the tide goes in and out, allowing what is unseen to feed what is seen.

(Brown, 2011)

Without a sound understanding of our own cultural norms, we cannot see the ways in which our behaviours, psychology, and philosophies may impact upon those from differing backgrounds to our own, and we cannot see how this may impair our ability to engage with such people in a therapeutic way.

References

Brown, M.L. (2011, November 3). River delta [Image]. Personal collection.

ConstantForeigner (Producer). (2013, June 5). Edward T. Hall's cultural iceberg [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6aeqXaXOSg

Devarakonda, C. (2013). Diversity and inclusion in early childhood: An introduction. London, UK: SAGE Publications Ltd.