Untitled - Awaken Video

Chapter 1. World Views 7
Occasionally, there are problems associated with one worldview clashing with
another. The mildest of these is what is normally termed culture shock where one
person begins to interact with a culture that is slightly different than his own, such
as moving from one area of the United States to another. Moving from Kansas
or Michigan to a small town in Arizona will make clear to anyone that there are
distinct, albeit subtle, regional differences in accents (dialects), slang vocabulary,
the types of jokes people tell, customs relating to gender differences, cooking/ eating
habits, styles of dress, acceptable color coordination for homes, styles of furniture,
leisure-time activities, etc. ad infinitum. The reason for the existence of cultural
differences should be obvious and predictable, but how each individual will react to
such differences is not. The individual can view the differences as curious points
of interest, something to write home about, or might be quite incapable (without
assistance) of understanding and accepting the differences between cultures to the
point where cultural differences can become a source of disgust or even hatred,
in some extreme cases, leading to pathological behaviors or hate crime: racial or
cultural discrimination, assaults, cross-burnings, hate speech, even murder. The
ease with which an individual can move from one worldview to another is part
of that individual’s make-up and is highly correlated with socio-economic status,
cultural background, behaviors learned as a child, and religion/ education.
A worldview is not only made up of things/ concepts fit into a matrix or a
mental filing system but is also made up of how these things relate to one another.
In some cases, relationships are obvious and require little thinking. In Michigan,
kielbasa (a form of smoked sausage), Polish culture, and farming communities are
closely correlated; in New Mexico chiles, Hispano/ Native American culture, southwestern
cooking are all easily related. However, the blatant extermination of owls
by members of the northeastern New Mexican culture is not easily explainable nor,
even after it is explained, is it easily accepted by foreigners, especially 20 th century
Anglo-Americans from an urban background. The fact is that owl in this area of
the country is associated with the fact that witches (brujas) fly around the small
communities in the dark of the night spying on innocent Christians and casting
malevolent spells resulting in sickness, madness, and in some cases, death. For the
people of the northeastern New Mexican culture, the evil reality of the owl is just
as much a reality as viral infections are for the modern physician. For these people,
the equation, owls = brujas, is true.
It is relationships between events and objects, in other words the personal interpretation
based on a cultural worldview, which create the most complicated differences
between cultures. For the average American, an owl is a night-flying bird
of prey which in many areas of the United States is on the endangered species list.
Possession of live birds, feathers from dead birds, and causing the death of any