discovering missions - Southern Nazarene University

245187 Disc Missions ins 9/6/07 1:04 PM Page 99
context. For example, to the Christian, the Cross is a form whose function is to
evoke reflection about Christ’s death. Jehovah’s Witnesses argue that Christ
died on an upright pole or stake rather than on a cross. In this case, the function
is the same (both the cross and the stake were instruments of execution),
but the form is different.
Sometimes form and function are closely related, sometimes not. For example,
the relation between the form and function of a Styrofoam drinking
cup is very obvious. Other relationships between form and function are not always
so obvious, with many having been subjectively chosen, as is the case with
the trademarked swoosh logo of the Nike company. Although that form or design
is widely recognized, its relationship to the function it performs has been
arbitrarily assigned. There is nothing inherent about the swoosh drawing that
says “Nike” or even “footwear.”
The different functions or meanings assigned to the same form can evoke
different reactions in people of different cultures. For example, the hand gesture
that signals “OK” or “superb” in the U.S.A. and Great Britain has vulgar
and offensive meanings in Brazil and Russia. In southern Europe and Japan,
that very same circle made with the thumb and forefinger means “zero.” The
form of the gesture is the same in all three cases, but the meaning or function
varies greatly, producing very different reactions in different contexts. In many
cultures, nodding one’s head up and down is a nonverbal way of saying “yes.”
In Slavic countries like Bulgaria, a similar up and down head movement means
“no.” In some cultures, “picking up the check” (i.e., paying for someone’s meal
at a restaurant) is a magnanimous signal that says “I’m taking care of you.” In
some southern European cultures, the most important person at a table must
never be the one to pay the tab.
How does a guest signal to the host that food at a meal has been good? In
some cultures, the form of the signal is a completely empty plate. In Armenian
culture, an empty plate signals that the quantity was insufficient. People in that
culture must leave some food on their plates to signal that there was enough
for them to be completely satisfied.
Do Missionaries Destroy Culture?
How Culture Affects Mission 99
Some early cultural anthropologists such as Paul Erhard Eylmann claimed
that missionaries were destructive to culture. They could point to things like
the tragic burning of the Maya libraries in 1562 by Spanish priest Diego de
Landa. They could point to the treatment a century ago of Native Americans
in some mission boarding schools where American Indian children were forbidden
to use their mother tongue. They could point to the imposition of