Columns:: Worth repeating

since 12/15/98

Columns::September 29, 2003

Worth repeating

Mary Catherine Bateson, Robinson Professor Emerita of Anthropology and English at George Mason University,
gave a public lecture called “Culture, Conviction and Lifelong Learning” here on Sept. 15. Some excerpts:
“I’m interested in the fact that not only do we differ in our beliefs from each other, within a given community, but that they change over the course of a lifetime. And so the whole set of issues around how we respect the convictions and commitments of others have to be rethought as we become increasingly a people that learns steadily and changes. . . .
“There are many, many cultures that teach children a set of stories, moral rules, which they are expected to abide by. Sometimes they’re expected to continue to believe in them until the moment of adolescent initiation when the young boys of the pueblo learn that the masked dancers are their neighbors, that those who work ceremonially are not gods but relatives. And I think it’s important to take a new look at the pace and the process of believing and then disbelieving as a way of increasing our access to respecting other people all around the world. Part of the problem with the discussions of ‘diversity’ is they miss the most basic kinds of diversity, including not just the fact that there are real differences and real lack of understanding between the people who eat breakfast together and sleep together and live in the same house. Often enough, you wake up in the morning, and the person you see in the mirror is a stranger that you have to figure out how to get along with. I’ve believed for a long time that if we could deal with this in ourselves instead of projecting puzzlement, strangeness, alienness outward, we would approach each other differently.”

--Beth Roberts

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