The Big Easy: Literary New Orleans and Intangible Heritage

Culture

Students must have a strong understanding of the culture-related terminology that will help them with the understanding of a culture and its application to their own culture. The complex nature of culture is looked at from the viewpoints of many social scientists: geographers, anthropologists, sociologists, and psychologists, among others. Each of their perspectives may be somewhat different. In this case, with my students, we will view culture from the human geography perspective which is defined as "…the specialized behavioral patterns, understandings, adaptations, and social systems that summarize a group of people's learned way of life." ⁷ All that encompasses a person's way of life is a way to simplify this for my students. Culture can be divided into a hierarchical relationship of four levels: Trait, complex, region, and realm. Students will benefit from understanding this as it will afford them an opportunity to connect, visualize the connections between the four hierarchical terms. "A particular group's individual skills, customs, and ways of doing things are called cultural traits." ⁸ Some of these elements are visible and can be equated with the physical characteristics of a place. Examples of these physical characteristics include houses, bridges, food, and clothing, amongst others. Students will have an easy time with these types of cultural traits as they are more concrete. However, much of what would comprise a culture is invisible, not able to be seen, such as "spiritual beliefs, ideals, ideas about right and wrong." ⁹ Providing students with a graphic organizer, a list of the universal cultural traits will assist them in the creation of visual representation of places in their minds. For them, the ability to list examples of cultural traits such as language, religion, dress, technology, architecture, government, cuisine, economy, dance, gender roles, grooming, music, sport, law, education, medicine, agriculture, land tenure, and kinship system ¹⁰ will allow them to "put together" these pieces to form a whole picture of a place. The next level of culture is referred to as culture complex. These are "individual cultural traits that are functionally interrelated" ¹¹ An example from Fernandez Salvador is potato farming. From this information, one can understand about the people's diet and wealth. How much land does one own for potato farming informs others of a family's resources. The third level is Region, which describes an area that "shares common cultural characteristics." ¹² Ecuador, Peru, and Colombia share the Quechua language of the people native to the area. Region will be most familiar for my students as we consider it the fifth theme to our study of geography. Lastly, at the top of the hierarchy – the big picture – is culture realm. It is a "set of culture regions showing related culture complexes and landscapes." ¹³ Latin America is an example of this level.

"In many respects, your culture defines your essence, and yet you tend not to think about it until perhaps, you find yourself in a geographic setting where your culture either doesn't work, or marks you as being different from others." ¹⁴ This begins for my students as they enter the country and our schools. Their struggle to maneuver between the two cultures is evident. Often, geographers refer to people adjusting to their new environments as adaptation, a difficult process, for certain. As a Peace Corps volunteer there was some instruction regarding this acculturation process during our training period. As stated, during my time in Fernandez Salvador I would experience unconscious incompetence in which I was ignorant of the cultural norms such as sipping a "traigo" (the equivalent of grain alcohol). Instead, I drank each cup as it came my way becoming quite intoxicated in a very short time period, of which the townspeople never let me forget! The next stage, conscious incompetence, was the time period when I became somewhat aware of some of the cultural differences but still had very little understanding as to the why. An example of this stage was when I would go to the Casa Comunal (Community House) for our Mother's Group meeting. I would sit around for over two hours, waiting for the women to show up to the meeting. Sense of time is very different in my town of Fernandez Salvador! Conscious competence is the beginnings of understanding cultural differences and specific "behavioral adjustments". That was when I realized the time differences we had and told the Mother's Club members that I would be at my home and when they had convened at the Casa Comunal to send a messenger and I would come over for the lecture and demonstration regarding that week's topic. and, lastly, unconscious competence without knowing, automatically following social and cultural norms without actively thinking about them. ¹⁵ I knew that I had reached this stage when my friend came to visit from the United States. My students follow a similar path during the process of cultural awareness. Additionally, people's response to them follows along this pattern as well.

"What is it about New Orleans that makes it more than just the sum of the events that have happened there? What gives it a meaning and a soul so that it is known throughout the world as a place to visit to revive the spirit? What is it about the spirit of the people who live there that could produce a music, a cuisine, an architecture, a total environment, the mere mention of which can bring a smile to the face of someone who has never even set foot there? What is the meaning of a place like that, and what is lost if it is lost?" ¹⁶

This quote from Why New Orleans Matters, resonated with me when I reflect on my Peace Corps experience and those of my students. For me, I think about when I first arrived to Fernandez Salvador. I kept a huge wall calendar in which I listed how much time I had left to serve. At the beginning, I remember looking at the calendar and thinking, "What? How can I survive? I have 23 more months here." Over time, when it was nearing the end of my tenure, I remember thinking, "What? Only two more months left. How can I leave?" Time, adjustments, cultural understanding changes many things including one's perspective. For them, I think about this from two perspectives. One, I want to be certain that my young adolescents have an opportunity to express their feelings through oral and written language about what is special about their homeland. For those whom never return, it may be the only recording they have for remembering their intangible heritage years from now. If it is lost, it is part of themselves that they lose. Two, I want them to have an opportunity to do the same for where they are now. For them to see that there is a place for them here, they can/do belong and that this place also holds a specialness that they can appreciate.