Module 7 Lesson Plan 1 - Cross Cultural Psychology

International Culture: 
The First Storytellers with Joseph Campbell

Language Pun

Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, but when they lit a fire in the craft, it sank proving once again that you can't have your kayak and heat it, too.

Review - Group Thoughts

1.  The late Joseph Campbell talked about the hero myth as one that pervades all cultures.  We watched the first 15 minutes of his video "The Hero's Adventure,"  and asked ourselves, Who are the heroes in the 20th century among the various allies and enemy cultures we have faced? 

You'll recall that Campbell is a great synthesizer - one who can find common threads where others fail to discover an underlying pattern.  In referring to all mankind, his video began with these approximate words:

"The heroes have all gone before us.  The labyrinth is thoroughly known.  We have only to follow the thread of the hero path.

And where we have thought to find abomination - (we will find) God;  And where we have thought to slay another - (we will find) Ourselves; Where we have sought to travel outward - (we will travel) to the center of our our own existence. 
And where we have thought to be alone, to be with all the world."

2.  In your homework you asked yourself How could being raised in a particular habitat influence how I see the world?  In Africa you may discover that persons who have never left the forest see the world quite differently from those who have depth perception as the result of living on hillsides and mountaintops.

Class/Internet Activities

 1.  Use a portion of your time together to reinforce your understanding of the homework from Module 6.

2A.  Watch the first 25 minutes of "The First Storytellers."  In the video Joseph Campbell talks about  storytelling, a theme which pervades many cultures.  The function of stories, says Campbell, is to integrate the human mind with what society and nature expect of us.  In other words,  stories are a great way to help human beings make the transition from one stage of human development to another stage. 

2B.  What are some the stories about democracy that we teach our children in our own culture? 

2C.  Are there particular stories which you learned at the knee of  your own family members which you found instrumental in shaping your learned behavior? 

2D.  Watch the beginning of the series "The Africans - Nature of a Continent."

3.  Libraries are good places to do research.  If your time permits, visit the Bassett Libraries.  Across from the main library is a second library that specializes in helping you get started preparing your family tree briefing.

Summary

       1.  The African Country  Team should give its country briefing during the next class session.

       2A.  Our journey from birth to death is punctuated by distinctive life changes.  Teens must ultimately  renounce their childlike behaviors and assume responsibilities of adulthood.  

       2B.  Hunting society required young adults to undergo a transition to adulthood which would prepare them for the work expected of the members of the tribe.  One must live according to the needs and values of one's tribe.  

       2C.  Working adults must ultimately retire.  Retired adults must ultimately make peace with the transition to nothingness, or to life after death.  

        2D.  Joseph Campbell says that the function of myth is to prepare men to make such transitions, by holding forth for each person, if not a hero, then a story about one who has done so before.  This is one possible thread which links differing cultures together.  Women become vehicles of nature, while men become vehicles of the society. Persons without such guiding myths live as barbarians or dysfunctional persons without commitment to values of society or to the guiding elements of nature.

       2E.  The people from Africa, unlike other continents, have seldom gone abroad to conquer others.  Some scientists feel that Africa is the place in which human life began, and that humans emerged from Africa and took humanity to all other parts of the globe.  Other scientists contend that humanity grew up in separate corners of the globe.  The geography of Africa seems to have influenced the culture of its peoples by conferring animism, and an appreciation of co-existence with nature.  Africa was then conquered by outsiders - of Christian and Islamic faiths. 

       3.  The Patrick Henry Community College Library has extensive resources on Africa.  We'll continue The Africans - Nature of a Continent and continue watching the series for a few classes.

Homework

World Capitals

webofculture.com

"All people smile in the same language" ---- Unknown

The great radio-telescopes have begun listening for evidence of life and culture in other planetary systems.