ACCEPTING DIVERSITY: AN INTERACTIVE HANDBOOK IN PROGRESS
Introduction
by Umberto Eco
What is Accepting Diversity?
It is a manual directed at those who intend to educate young people to accept diversity. These may be school teachers or people who wish to organize a training course on diversity. The minimum and maximum age groups of thechildren have not been set, as the choice must depend on the educator, in accordance with the place and circumstances in which he/she works.
Why “in progress”?
In two senses. First of all, what you are now reading is the first chapters of the manual, and more chapters should follow (see index). But according to the reactions we receive on line, the forthcoming chapters might be more or less numerous than initially planned, and other thematic areas could be identified. Secondly, the chapters you are reading are themselves in progress, since it will be enhanced as you gradually send us your experiences and/or your suggestions.
Why is it interactive?
Because the editors’ task is only to offer hints, suggestions, and examples. Individual educators, depending on the situation in which they are operating, will have to invent their own solutions. If these solutions prove interesting and produce good results, please let us know about them. In this way, every chapter will be enhanced on a day by day basis, as we incorporate your suggestions (or synthesize them, should they be too numerous to be put on line, or if several suggestions coincide).
Why do we only suggest examples?
Because this manual is aimed at educators all over the world, and a specific problem or didactic experience may be suitable for an African child but not for an Asian child. Educators will have to adapt our examples to their own cultural situation. However, it will be useful to find out about everybody else’s experiences. It might happen that an educator from country A, on reading about the experience acquired by an educator from country B, will pick up a useful hint on how to adapt it to his own situation.
Provisional index of the manual
1. Different yet equal
2. Religion
3. This is my place
4. Male and Female
5. Handicap
6. Graftings and melting Pots
7. The Golden Rule and the Intolerable
(We repeat: according to the reactions we receive on line, the above chapters could be more or less numerous than initially planned, and other thematic areas may be identified.)
How are the chapters structured?
Each chapter is subdivided into various areas:
- The BASIC IDEAS express, in very simple language, the fundamental concepts that have to be transmitted to the children.
- From BASIC IDEAS you can access the MORE ABOUT… sections, which expand the elementary concepts into more complex arguments, referring the reader (where necessary) to first-hand QUOTATIONS (which offer further insights into the arguments). The younger children may find the MORE ABOUT… sections too abstract and difficult: the educator might use these sections to conduct debates, without necessarily expecting the children themselves to read the in-depth analyses. We believe, however, that such sections are very important for educators (as well as for older students), in that they help them organize the structure of the arguments in favour of the BASIC IDEAS as well as stimulate group discussions.
- Each BASIC IDEA gives rise to a series of (multimedia) EXAMPLES which are sufficiently generic and international to function in different cultural contexts. It is up to the educator to collect local material in order to adapt the EXAMPLES to the specific context.
- The aim of the EXERCISES is to involve the children in group activities and in role games which reinforce the sense of the BASIC IDEAS by giving them a concrete form. Since this manual is in progress, we are asking the educators to send us reports of tried and tested cases of didactic experiences (this is the fundamental function of the CONTACT section), which we could then decide to insert in this section.
- The QUOTATIONS provide passages of various lengths which enhance or reinforce the sense of the previous parts. They include philosophical quotations, anecdotes and stories, research reports, etc.
- Finally, the CONTACT section allows the educators – as well as the children themselves – to send some feedback to the editors, in the form of specific examples, exercises of proven usefulness, or helpful comments. A part of such material will be inserted in the other sections.
How can you participate?
As we have already said, by communicating more ideas and recounting your experiences. You may also suggest more QUOTATIONS.
Don’t worry if you feel that your experiences, or the quotations that you suggest, may be of specific interest only for children who live in a certain continent, or in a certain country, or speak a certain language, or belong to a certain religion. First of all, let the others decide whether your experiences may provide a source of inspiration to invent solutions suitable for their own continent, country, language, and religion. Furthermore, if we were to receive many suggestions that seemed suitable only for the children of a certain continent or religion, we would open some specific subsections (for example, texts suitable for Muslim kids, etc.)
Whom should you contact?
The two editors of our site are Valentina (English and Italian versions) and Myriam (French version). They will keep in touch with those of you who write back to us. But if you look up the Home Page of the Académie Universelle des Cultures, you will see that the members of the Académie include writers, artists, and scientists from all over the world. If you wish to receive an opinion, a suggestion, or a word of advice from one of these members, Myriam and Valentina will transmit your request to them.
- DIFFERENT YET EQUAL
BASIC IDEAS
1.1. Differences exist.
1.2. We may not like certain differences.
1.3. Differences are positive too.
1.4. Accepting differences is convenient for everybody.
1.1.DIFFERENCES EXIST
We don’t become equal by denying that differences exist. Differences exist and must be recognized.
Every human being is unique. No two people are identical. Therefore, differences exist and are natural. Some differences, like the colour of the skin, the eyes, or the hair, physical type, facial features, and so on, depend on genetic inheritance[1]. Then there are personality traits, which vary from person to person, partly determined by the environment and partly by upbringing.
Finally, each one of us belongs to a determined culture [1.1.1.1] and therefore has a cultural identity.
1.1.1.
MORE ABOUT
1.1.1.1. Belonging to a culture
By culture we mean the way the people of a certain group live and think.
In order to understand concepts of difference and identity you will often have to make use of the concept of culture. Culture is a concept defined by Cultural Anthropology, and it is very important because it makes it possible to overcome very “dangerous” concepts such as those of race or ethnic group. No matter how complex the concept may be, it can easily be explained to children. Each of us belongs to a family and to a territory, and if this territory is the same one as our parents and our parents’ parents were born in, then we will be surrounded by people who speak the same language, dress the same way, eat the same type of food, live in houses built more or less in the same way, share more or less similar ideas about what is good and what is bad, can profess the same religion (or live among other people who profess that given religion, and see places of worship built in a certain manner – churches, mosques, pagodas, and so on), share the same rules about courtesy, obey the same laws, and are taught the same scientific, artistic, and historical notions at school. This set of beliefs, habits, and opinions is what we call a culture.
Sometimes, to make young people aware of their own cultural identity, you have to show them images of people who have a different cultural identity (who speak a different language, dress differently, live in different kinds of houses, and so on). Young people must understand that in this sense we are not talking about culture as superior knowledge, but as a way of life, with the result that both a professor and an agricultural worker can both belong to a given culture A.
You have to show that cultural difference also includes the difference between eating with your hands, with a fork, or with chopsticks [1.1.2.6.]; that using certain tools or means of transport is also a part of the cultural identity, and so on.
There are cases in which cultural identity may be identified with the acceptance of a common tradition. However a culture does not only include traditional elements, but also innovational ones. For example, the motorcar was invented in Europe and did not belong to the Japanese tradition, but it is certainly a machine that belongs to modern Japanese culture, and there are Japanese motorcars with typical characteristics. Pizza originally belonged to the Italian culinary tradition, but has now become a food that belongs to the tradition of many other countries. Once upon a time, silk only belonged to Chinese culture, and the whole world imported silk exclusively from China, which jealously preserved the secret and tradition of its manufacture. Nowadays silk clothes are part of the culture of many countries.
If the students belong to a multicultural environment (that is, if groups belonging to different cultures live next to each other, as for example happens in New York), it is easier to show them both the differences between cultures and the way in which people preserve their own cultural identity, or accept to live in a neutral fashion (for example, Indians living in New York follow their own cultural tradition when they go to eat in an Indian restaurant and accept a neutral model when they eat a hamburger in a coffee shop).
Obviously one can refuse to accept the culture one is living in. One can do that by emigrating, by changing one’s religion, by trying to reform the habits and change the opinion of one’s countrymen. But even when refusing a given cultural framework, one must recognize the existence and understand the “logic” of the culture one challenges
1.1.1.2.
Identity
Identity is the set of physical, personality and cultural traits that make a person what he/she is, in other words, different from any other person.
Identity is at least partly determined by the kind of environment in which we are educated: at birth, each human being is capable of learning any language and absorbing any cultural model. It is only as we grow up that we put down roots in our own society, by developing a set of preferences, beliefs, and rules of conduct that we largely share with the group we belong to (even if we are rebels). No individual lives in a void and, since human beings are social animals that cannot exist without other people, we all identify with our own group of reference, by imitating the behaviour of the people we admire and, generally speaking, by building our identity according to the stimuli that the external environment provides us with. The influence of the cultural environment on our personal identity extends to various aspects of everyday life, including the way we move and gesticulate. [1.1.4.3.] Inthe end, it might happen that we absorb the rules of our group of origin so deeply that we conceive of them as being totally natural, if not the only possible ones.
The extent to which the environment influences the formation of personal identity is easier to understand if we imagine what would happen if two identical twins were entrusted to two different adoptive families, in two different countries. Despite the common genetic inheritance, in the end the two twins would turn out to be very different. But, note this well, they would become different even if, within the same family, one of them chose a famous movie star as a model, while the other chose a great athlete. Each one of the two would interpret the stimuli offered by the common cultural environment in an autonomous fashion, selecting the models of behaviour to imitate (or to reject) and elaborating them in a personal way.
1.1.1.3.
Diversity
We need diversity. Yet it is natural that we should notice it.
In social life, we are constantly comparing our own identity with that of other people: for example, one of the first differences that we learn to recognize is that between males and females, and as we define ourselves (« I am a boy » or « I am a girl ») we build our gender identity. The differences we see in ourselves and in other people (physical, psychological, cultural, religious, etc., differences) allow us to classify the world and to carve out our own space within it. All people are capable of defining themselves through a series of attributes which make them similar to some persons, but differentiate them from certain others. When we come across a person from another part of the world or from another cultural background, we are liable to notice this person’s difference much more than we would if he/she belonged to our group: this happens because as well as being individually different, the person is also culturally different from us.
Small children react towards something that strikes them as new or different with a mixture of curiosity and fear: the natural instinct to explore attracts children towards the Unknown, whereas the instinct for protection bids them to mistrust what they are unfamiliar with. The constant swinging between the desire for novelty and the need for certainties, which varies according to the individual’s more or less adventurous personality, can be clearly seen when children learn to walk and, after having made a few steps towards the Unknown, then run back into their mother’s arms.
Hence, when three-four year old children are faced with a person whose skin is of a different colour from their own, or who is wearing clothes that strike them as unusual, or speaks an unknown language, it is probable that they will express curiosity, puzzlement, diffidence, or perhaps all of these feelings together, and will observe how other people behave (especially their parents) in order to receive useful indications as to the appropriate attitude to adopt. Often, the later behaviour of children is influenced not so much by the things adults say as by what they do: for example, it is not enough for the parents to say « we are all equal » if their actions reveal a hostile attitude towards diversity. If children perceive that the surrounding adults harbour aggressive or contradictory feelings towards diversity, they may feel authorized to form alliances with those who seem similar to them while excluding or mocking people who strike them as different.
Our reactions towards cultural differences have struck many writers and philosophers: see, for example, an anecdote related by David Hume. [1.1.4.1.]
1.1.2.
EXAMPLES
1.1.2.1.
Faces
1.1.2.2.
Music
Different people like different kinds of music. But even within the same family you may find out that musical preferences differ considerably, sometimes more so than between members of different cultures. French teenagers are more likely to share the musical preferences of Chinese teenagers than those of their own grandparents.
On the MP3 site you can find thousands of songs and musics of any genre and, in the "world traditions" section, musical excerpts from different cultures.
1.1.2.3. Words
How you say « I love you » and « Thank you » in various languages
English
I love you
Arab
Bengali
Chinese
Japanese
Hindi
Russian
These sounds are very different one another. In spite of these differences they all express the same basic feeling: I LOVE YOU.
On the "I love you" page, you can get the translation for hundreds of other languages. "Thank you" and other basic sentences in many languages on this site.
1.1.2.4. Recipes
Vittorio Castellani
Why not try some of these recipes from all over the world?
DESERT DESSERT (Middle East)
4-5 ripe bananas – 250 g stoned and peeled fresh dates – 300 ml cream or thick Greek yoghurt – orange blossom water - honey – chopped dried fruits (pistachios, almonds)
Place alternate layers of bananas (cut into thin slices) and stoned fresh dates (previously dipped in the orange blossom water) in a big bowl. Pour liquid cream or Greek yoghurt over the mix and leave in the fridge for at least one hour. Before serving, garnish the surface with the chopped dried fruits and a dribble of honey.
CEBICHE DE CAMARONES (Ecuador)
Prawns in citrus marinade
500 g prawn tails – 1 sweet red onion – 4 ripe plum tomatoes – 2 lemons – 1 orange – a few sprigs of parsley – 1 aji green chilli (optional) – olive oil - salt
Blanch the prawn tails in a little salted water for two minutes. Drain and peel them and lay aside. Prepare a marinade with the juice of the citrus fruits, olive oil, and salt. Arrange the prawns in a glass bowl, pour over the marinade and add the cubed plum tomatoes, the finely chopped onion, the chopped parsley and, according to taste, the green chilli chopped into very slim rings, after having removed the seeds. Let the dish stand in a cool place for at least an hour before serving