Thoughts on Inculturation gathered by Xavier James.

 

Inculturation

Inculturation of course will have to go farther than picking up and putting together some broken pieces of culture. M Gandhi, “ I must follow them for I am their leader”.

1.If someone wishes to take leadership in any cultural process he/she must keep close to the cultural group which he/she is trying to serve.

2.He/she must listen & learn

3.Must think with the people & look at things the way they do.

4.Must catch their inner rhythm, acquire their manners of expressing their thoughts and feelings, their love, loyalty, religious devotion.

5.Must discover the beautiful and the great in the ordinariness of their lives.

6.Must learn to pray with them and make his/her own than way of giving a concrete form to their invisible world of faith.

7.He/she will greatly benefit from watching carefully what is known as popular religiosity.

It is interesting to look at the world with the eyes of the average man in whom the culture of his community is alive. He is the educator of the inculturator.

Inculturation is an ongoing process.

Every community has its own set of conventions and presuppositions that follow no rule of logic.

Look into seeds of time and say which grain will grow which will not. (Shakespeare in Macbeth)

I don’t want my house to be walled on all sides and that my windows be blinded. I want all cultures of all countries to come into my house. But I refuse to be wiped away by any culture what so ever – M. Gandhi.

What casts a cloud over the marrow are not merely repetitions of individual incidents of violence, but the fact that historic memories are being reviewed, salt is being applied to ancient wounds, myths are being built up to add weight and volume to the already heavy load of collective prejudices.

It is possible to heal collective memories to build bridges and establish happy and collaborative relationships. It is for us to make a definite choice of this alternative.

Culture: Discovery of our times. Concept of culture, Total manner in which a human society responds to an environment.

Psychological distances between communities are called communal tentions.

One understands one’s own culture better by watching alternative expressions in another culture.

Ethno centralism is considering their own culture as the absolute standard not necessarily inferior.

Material culture – Inculturation – Liturgy – Dance

Culture unconscious cultural self-awareness not dress, food habits, but diversity in etiquette organization, perception of time judgment of values.

Different people have different signs to communicate one’s yes may mean no to another community.