CROSS CULTURAL
ANTROPOLOGY
Part 44
Re-edited for Africa by Robert Simiyu Kakai and C.B. Beekhuizen
2
CROSS CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
AND
COMMUNICATION
A MISSIONARY TASK
MR. ROBERT SIMIYU KAKAI
The Church as God agent for sending out the Gospel
3
DEDICATION
This book is dedicated to my Family and the whole body of
Jesus Christ Worldwide.
The Right of Mr. Robert Simiyu Kakai to be identified as the Author
of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the
Copyright. Bible verses are taken from the Simple King James
Version, Christ on Disk {c} D. Reynolds 2002 version 1.0
Foundation Adullam Kenya, Africa
Dir. Robert Simiyu Kakai
P.O. Box : 2806
Code
: 30200 Kitale, Kenya
Mobile : +254 (0) 723 711 915 or +254 (0)718 0 43 256
E-mail
: kakairob999@yahoo.co.in or kakairob@gmail.com
© Robert Simiyu Kakai. 20/5/2010
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted in any form, or by any means,
mechanical, electronic, photocopying or otherwise, without the
prior written consent of the publisher. Short extracts may be
used for review purposes.
4
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
My first acknowledgment goes to our
Almighty God who enabled and inspired
me to write this book. thanks goes to my
Dear Wife Caroline for her advise,
contribution,
vital
comments
and
consistent Prayers. Thanks goes to the
Board Members and worldwide Sponsors
of Dutch Foundation Adullam International Holland for supporting
this book to be written and Published. Thanks goes to my Parents,
Rev. Philip and Margret, for their encouragement to write more
books and lastly to all Adullam Foundation Kenyan Students and
Board Members who stood with me in Prayers.
ABOUT THE BOOK
This book looks and give vital insight at the tremendous growing
involvement of Cultural anthropology that provides the
conceptual tools necessary to begin the process of missions. It
aims at bringing missionary's concerns more directly, effectively
and efficiently into abroad mission process, and achieves an
improvement in to mission fields in our rapidly changing world.
The role of missionary's therefore, as they prepare and plan to
enter into another culture for oversea missions, first they must
understand peoples world views and enter the culture. When
one leaves their own culture with its familiar customs, traditions,
social patterns and ways of life, the individual quickly begins to
feel like a fish out of water. Missionary's must either respond to
the new culture with empathy, acceptance and identification
which will result in Adjustment and success, or respond with
culture shock, and ultimately failure to fulfill God's mission
mandate (Mat.28:18-20)!
5
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1: Introduction to Missions
7
CHAPTER 2: Major Historical period of Missions Activities
17
CHAPTER 3: What is Culture?
26
CHAPTER 4; Communicating Christ Cross Culturally
37
CHAPTER 5; Communicating and Social structures
59
CHAPTER 6: Linguistics
60
6
CHAPTER: 1 INTRODUCTION TO MISSIONS
What is Mission?
Mission is the Church as God agent for sending out the gospel
to people lost in sin:





Reaching people with the gospel
Spreading the word of God
Going out and making disciples of Jesus
Representing Christ to the unreached
Work assigned by God to draw people to God from the world.
A mission is sending ‘off’ or forth’.
Missions - the local and (national) church sending out selected
and trained believers to the lost people with the gospel (good
news)
Mission involved:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Evangelism
Church planting and growth
Discipleship programs for growth to maturing (fruitfulness)
Wholistic ministries.
The Theology of Missions
The biblical basis for missions
Principles and practices of missions
They all comprise the ministries of the church
7
Basic concept of missions
1. The word “Mission” is NOT in the Bible but the concept is
there; Acts 13: 1-3.
2. The mission of the church is to glorify God. by bringing
people to God and building them up in Christ Col 1:24-29.
Mission is the purpose of the church through glorifying God
and to bring lost people to the lord (evangelism) discipline
them and bringing them up in Christ through plantings
growing churches and carrying out Wholistic ministries e.g.
Education, building schools, health services e.t.c. salvation is
to the whole man in Body, mind, soul and spirit.
3. The church must be self supporting, propagation,
sustenance/financing, governing. missions is that part of
mission purpose(goal) of the church which sent out specially
selected and trained spiritually mature Christians to lost
people:
(a) To evangelize the lost disciple believes.
(b) To establish local churches in church planting and growth.
To the Saved People
1. To encourage and strengthen existing churches and to also
equip and train pastors and church leaders for the work of
ministries or services.
2. The word mission comes from a Latin word which means “to
send”
The four missions refer to:
 The process of sending out.
 The people send out (missionaries).
 The programme of send ministries performed by the send
ones 2 Cor 5:16-21.
8
3. All believes are to be witnesses for Christ, but not all are
called, or directed to be missionaries in the technical sense.
But even so one could logically conquer that, Every
witnessing Christian is a missionary – at least a “sent one” in
the sense of being an Ambassador for Christ in the world.
4. The church has gone too far in making missions a specialized
ministry for professionals missions-they do translation –
U.B.S- major health M.A.F.
5. While evangelism and discipleship are full especially courses of
their own, they constitute what missionaries do in missions.
6. Church planting is an integral part of missions Acts11:19-27
(church growth).
7. A church that is not actively involved in local and foreign (crosscultural) missions is outside the will of the God. missions, then,
are the heart beat of both God and the local church.(evangelism,
preaching, missions, discipleship throbbing with life, pulsating
with life, vibrant church (1saiah 6:8).
Mission is still/ then, the church sending out believers to:
evangelize the lost every where.
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
(e)
(f)
encourage and strengthen new believers.
Every heart prayer furnace.
Every family a prayer altar.
Every city/town a prayer tower.
Every community a prayer cell.
Every nation a prayer net work. Rev. 8:3-5
1.
2.
3.
4.
Evangelize the lost every where (Dan 12:3).
To encourage and strengthen new believers (Prov. 27:17).
Mission is to establish, plant churches and train leaders (2Tim.2:2).
To equip those churches to continue with the process of
missions-the reproductive process continues.
5. Missions focuses on sending out people for :
 Evangelism.
 Discipleship.
 Church planting and growth.
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THE BIBLICAL BASIS FOR MISSION
The Bible teaches that missions was NOT an after thought by
God but an integral part of the eternal plan of salvation.
Every part of the Bible supports missions. For God has always
been concerned for the lost nations and He commissioned on
plan for redemption long ago (Rom8:5).
God intents for his name to be known, so people every where
will call him as one and true God.
God’s commitment to missions in the Bible
1. In Gen. and through Noah (Gen 6-8) and (2Pet 2:5).
2. Through Abraham Gen (12: 1-3), (Gal 3; 10-18).God called
Noah to preach the gospel to the lost and the picture
salvation through the ark and then He called Abraham to be
His instrument. Through whom salvation will come available
to all man kind through Christ.
3. In the law-through Moses and Passover, (Exo 3:7-11), (1Cor
5:7), (Heb11:28), (Exo9:13).In discovering Israel, God
pictured and punctual salvation by faith Jer 16:14-18.
4. In Israel history recounts mission as God has assigned them
Joshua 4:19-24. God used Joshua to make his name known
to the nations.
5. In the Kings 1King 8:56-60, Joshua 4:24. Here God through
Solomon communicated that he alone is God.
6. In the psalms - Ps 9:7-11, 33:5-15, 67:1-7, 96:1-13, 117:12.God is sovereign God of the earth as all nation , and
deserves praises from all people.
7. In the prophets- Isaiah 9:1-2,5-7, 40:3-5, 42:5-9,45:1822,49:1-6,61:1-3, Jer. 1:5-10, Eze. 18:1-3, 19:23,32 36:22-23,
Amos 1:1-2,3:1-6 Gods plan has always included Israel being
a light to the gentiles so that salvation can be brought to the
ends of the earth.
8. In the gospels Matt 9:35-38, the lords prayer appeal.
 Real prayers Jn 17:11-23, 20:21-23.
 Prayer model The Lords prayer Mk 10:42-45, Lk 2:25-32,
4:16-27, 9:1-6, Jn 3:16-21
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Jesus came to die for all men and sent out his disciples to
preach the good news to the lost.
9. In the Acts of the Apostles – Acts 9:15, 10:34-45, 13:46-48,
14:1, 26:20. The gospel in the book of Acts went out to Jesus
and gentile.
10.In the Epistles – Rom 1:14-17, 2Cor 4:3-7, Titus 2:11-14, Heb
9:26-28,1 Jn 2:1-2
The purpose of the church is to clearly preach the gospel and
evangelize and disciple the lost people every where.
11. In Revelation 5:9-10, 14:6-7, 21:22-27.
12. In Christ – Lk 24:25 -27, Acts 7:26-38.
Christ himself is the real of subjects of scriptures which bear
witness to Him. It’s his gospel that must be preached. Indeed, its
Gods desire that his name be known.
All Jews/gentiles are alike so that men everywhere may know
God as His Son so that they may be saved.
And Gods name is made known through missions.
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God’s commandments for missions
In the N T we have five clear passages. this passages contains
the commands related to mission.
Five versions of the great missions
Passage
1.Mat
28:18-20
Commands
Mission
emphasis
and Of all nations
Go
make
disciples
2.
Mk To preach
16:15-20 the
good
news
3. Luke As
24:44-49 witnesses
proclaim
repentance
and
forgiveness
of sins
4.
Am sending
Jn17:13- you
23,20:21
-23.
5. Acts Be
my
1:8
witnesses
Focus
Purpose
going,
baptizing, teaching to
obey
Unto all the To all creation with
world
confirming signs
To all nation
personal witnessing
to the messages
Into the world Personal
and not of the representatives
world
In Jerusalem, Power of the Holy
Judea,
Spirit for enablement
Samaria and
to the end of
the earth
Can there really be any serious questions about God’s
intention?
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It’s God’s purpose to use Gods people to proclaim Gods plan of
salvation in Gods power to lost people to all nations. The only
real question for the church is; why are we not being obedient
?!!!
We need the whole church witnessing for Christ to the whole
world.
How does a local church implement missions?
First it needs to see mission in action. in the NT. times in acts
and in church history then it needs to consider and apply the
basic principles and missions. and while God clearly selected
Israel as his chosen instrument through which he would carry
out his plan of redemption in the world (Exo19:4-6, Rom 9:11,
16:18), Israel has been temporally rejected by God Mat 21:4243, Rom 11:1-2, 25-32, and the church is now Gods interim
chosen instrument (Col 1:24-29 ; 1pet 2:4-24; and the great
commission passages.
Is there real motivation of mission?
The need of the lost for salvation or Gods command?
Why is this important!
A brief overview of the history of mission Acts –NT period- 33-62
A.D from Christ resurrection to st. Paul 1st Imprisonment in
Rome.
This short period but very productive period provided the church
with the biblical foundation for and excellent example of effective
missions.
In acts we see the beginning of the fulfillment of the 5 versions
of the great commission. Four pillars of great east African
revivals are: Brokenness, Repentances put things right, walk in
the light.
13
From
Mathew
Activity
Fulfillment
Mankind disciples of all nations
-Baptism
-teaching
Acts 14
Churches were planted and missions were completed Mark
preaching the gospel. With confirming sighs
Acts 13
- To all creation
- Every person
Luke
Personal witnessing
To the massage to all nations
Acts 3
John Personal representatives of Christ to the world
Acts 24
Acts
Acts 6
Power of the Holy Spirit for witnessing
And the mission church in Acts 1-7 was characterized by;
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
prayer.
Power.
preaching the gospel boldly without fear.
purging from sin.
proclamation of the truth.
Persecution.
Mission was an essential part of the early church because it
knew its mission!!!
Comments about and on mission in the book of Acts
1.
2.
14
Missions in acts started on “home” with evangelism to Jew
and foreigners in their midst Chap. 2.
Missions in acts were focused on preaching of the gospel
especially the resumption in the power of the Holy Spirit.
3.
Mission was over flow of supportive a fellowship of believers
– Chap. 2
4. Mission were not stopped by persecution Chap. 5.
5. Mission in acts was fueled by persecution which caused a
scattering and furthering of the gospel Chap. 7-8.
6. Mission was directed by the H/S Chap. 10:16.
7. Mission included the out reach to gentiles as well as Jews
Chap.11.
8. Missions involved planting churches e.g. (Antioch)which
were encouraged and strengthened by the mother churches
and other mission teams Chap.11.
9. Missions required believers to give and support the
churches Chap.11.
10. Mission focus on teaching the word to the believers e.g.
teaching to believers and preaching to non- believers
Chap.11.
11. Mission centered around the church in Antioch where the;
i.
ii.
iii.
H/S selected Paul and Barnabas for the work they were
called.
Where the local church sends and supported them.
The mission activity moved beyond the direct influence and
the geographical limitation of the local church into direct
areas and cultures Chap.13.
12. Missions majored on the making of disciples and the
establishment of new churches and appointments of leaders
and elders Chap. 14.
13. Missions included disagreement as to strategy doctrinal
issues e.t.c Chap.15.
14. Mission involved effective team ministry with men of
different gifts and talents Chap. 16.
15. Missions resulted into great persecution and suffering.
16. Missions produced mixed responses to the gospel some
believed and some rejected Chap. 17
17. Mission start up local unrest and opposition for Jews and
gentiles Chap.18.
15
18. Missions required leadership training and encouragement
Chap. 20.
19. Mission reached as far as Rom Chap. 28. so in Act of the
Apostles, we see missions, involving ;
1.
2.
3.
4.
Evangelism.
Discipleship.
Church planting and growth - Wholistic ministries.
Teaching to build the church, health, education, peace,
justice, good governance.
And mission was effective in Acts because in the power of the
Holy Spirit.
They:
-
16
Preach the gospel.
Produced disciples.
Planted churches in the obedience to the great commission
despite severe persecution and personal sacrifices.
Missions is the mission of churches.
CHAPTER: 2 MAJOR HISTORICAL PERIOD OF MISSIONS
ACTIVITIES
1. From 33-70 A.D- The Apostolic period. This shows the initial
fulfillment of Acts 1:8 as the church obediently shared the gospel
and focused on missions.
2. From 70-100 A.D- The post-apostolic period. following Acts,
missions Activity do not first moved further west, towards
Europe, than to Rome (other than perhaps to Spain) but East
and South primarily around the Mediterranean sea and into
North Africa. Jerusalem temple was destroyed by the Romans in
70 A.D. and Antioch in Syria became the sending center of
Christianity.
3. 100-500 A.D- Apologists, apostolic/church fathers. This
period saw the establishment of the universal “Catholic church”
although, it ended with 2 main branches:
1.
2.
Western version in Rome.
And Eastern version in Constantinople (Turkey).
Missions activity was not fervent and most of the churches
energies was directed to theological disputes and to refuting of
heresies. so there were some movements of Christianity into
Syria and America and from it was probably introduced into
India. In this period hordes of Barbarians invaded the Roman
Empire from the North and East and many of these tribes were
converted to Christianity as a group or the leader.
Some missionary efforts by Roman monks resulted into the
gospel spreading all the way to highland and over much of
Europe.
4. 500-800 A.D-This period was characterized by the Roman
church trying to consolidate its hold on Christianity through the
Pope and attacks by barbaric hordes. Again there were some
17
mission activities by monks. This period also saw the founding
of Islam by Mohamed. The Muslim faith would largely nullify
most of the church’s missionary progress in the Eastern Greek
world around Constantinople.
5. From 800- 12,00A.D- The first of this period saw the Holy
Roman –Empire develop in Europe with a wedding of religious
and political powers –unfortunately the church was mostly
ritualistic and secularized while same classify the crusades as
missionary outreach ,(1012-1200 A.D) They were religious
political wars than “holy crusades” in effect the Roman church
tried to retake control of the Holy land from Muslims, much of
the real motivation was economic and political, it was bloody an
barbaric, ineffective and resulted in few genuine conversations.
In fact, the crusades so alienated Muslims and Christians, that
the adverse effects are still being felt today. Missions
accomplished with a sword but Not in Biblical way and brought
no real fruit towards the end of the period. Some missionary
efforts were made by orders of the roman monks-The Dominions
and the Franciscans.
6. 1200-1800.A.D-Exploration and early “colonialism” served as
tools to carry Christianity to India and China, France and
England and all took turns as colonial powers which promoted
their own brand of Christianity however, many significant
missions efforts took place during this period and Christianity
was spread over most of the known world. But it was the
protestant Reformation which:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Put the scriptures into the hands of the people again.
Returned to biblical theology- salvation by faith alone.
Spurted renewed interest in preaching the gospel
Reemphasized a personal conversation experience.
Caused the church to consider spiritual matters again.
Even the Catholic counter-Reformation produced significant
missionary efforts by the Jesuits in the 6th century even if it was
Roman Catholicism which was promoted.
18
1800-1946 A.D- The “Great Century” of Christian missionary
activity came between 1800-1900 A.D. as a late Developing
result of the protestant reformation, which was primarily in
England and in the USA.
A renewed interest in the Bible prayers and dependence of the
Holy Spirit put the church back on track.
This was the era of the founding of both denominational missionary Boards and independent missionary societies and
agencies.
Real revival spurted a flood of missionary activities around the
world. And with colonialism at its peak the means for doing so
were in place. Traditional patterns of missions’ strategies
developed in this period as Christianity seriously penetrated into
India, Asia, Africa, Japan, China (the Pacific).
The end of WWII (1945) marked the high point of mission’s
endeavors from Europe and North America. Since this date the
center of Christianity has been shifting towards South America,
Africa and Asia.
8. 1946-Today- The focus has been less and less on Traditional
missions activities. more and more on mass evangelism via
crusade, TV, Radio etc. The battle of money and numbers has
become increasingly difficult.
Note: The two greatest periods of missions Activity in church
history were:
* The Apostolic period (33.70 AD).
* The great 19th century (1800-1900 AD) both of which were
propelled by prayer, Bible study and the power of the Holy
Spirit.
19
The status of missions in the world today.
Where does this leave the church today?
Some observations.
* Europe is essentially “Pagan” with less than 5 % of the
population Christians. It is no longer a major sending and
founding force in world missions, Europe is in a “Post –Christian
era”.
* America Christianity is in a mile wide, but an inch deep and
hopelessly lost in secular materialism.
Fewer missionaries are getting out and less funds are being
given, relative to the need. perhaps, 50% or more of the
American population claims to be born again. But it’s difficult to
tell by looking at America lifestyle. Church attendance amount to
about 25 % of the entire population on any Sunday. commitment
is sorely lacking and Godly thing is mostly missing. overall there
is very little missions impetus.
* Many are of the opinion that the world has been evangelized
and concentration is on finding hidden people Groups within the
world population with whom to share the gospel.
* But in view of the world’s over 6 billion people, the statistics are
staggering. Less than a half of the world’s population has been
evangelized.
Less than 1/3 of the world’s population is even nominally
Christian. There are perhaps thousands of hidden or UN
reached people groups in the world who have never heard of the
“Gospel”.
There are almost a billion Muslims in the world, 20 % of the
world population.
20
And yet if the great commission had been taken literally and
each new Christian had won one more person to the lord, then
the entire world could have been evangelized in a few years.
It is an incredible Geometric progression: 1,2,4,8,16,32,64,
128,256,512,1024..............etc.
Why has the church failed to fulfill the great commission in
almost 2,000 years?
15 Reasons why the church has failed in missions.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
By being disobedient to the Great commission (Matt 28:1820, Mk10:5-19, Lk24:44-49, Jn17:13-20, 22, Acts1:8) and
disregarding prayer and the ministry of the world in Holy
spirits, power and provisions.
By concentrating on evangelism to the neglect of Discipleship
i.e. making converts and not Disciples.
By too small part of the church being involved in missions,
by praying, giving and going.
By focusing on social/physical needs and neglecting
spiritual needs and sin.
By meeting spiritual needs while ignoring physical/social
needs.
By failing to identify with respect and relate well with and to
the culture of the people to be evangelized, i.e.
(contextualizing the gospel).
By missionaries doing the work of ministry and not involving
and equipping the Nationals (when the missionary leaves,
the work usually stops).
8.
By concentrating on buildings, facilities and equipments
instead of Relationships, Build up people and train
leadership in the power of the Holy Spirit.
9
By forgetting that missions are God’s Business in which the
church is to be involved.
21
10. By not translating the Bible into Native languages.
11. By emphasizing Numerical Growth, instead of spiritual
Growth.
12. By lack of adequate financial funding for the church.
13. By refusing to modify traditional missionary methodology.
14. By contextualizing the message instead of the method of
communication.
15. By neglecting to share the full true Gospel and teach
obedience to all the word of God.
The result has been:
Too few missionaries ministering the Gospel to too few people in
a few places.
This fact coupled with failure to make disciples who could
reproduce themselves has doomed missions to its present
condition.
The basic principles of biblical missions
Both Acts and church History make it clear what should be:
1.
2.
3.
22
The means.
The message.
The method of missions.
1. The concepts of Biblical missions
Foundational concepts.
Means:
1. Prayer.
2. Power of the Holy Spirit Lk 24: 46-49.
Missions will never be accomplished unless it is done with God’s
enablement.
Missions done in man strength produces man-made institutions.
A mission done in God’s strength produces spiritual fruit that abides.
Message: Romans 10:6-17
1. Preach the Gospel Mk 16:15.
2. Proclaim the truth by teaching all scriptures and emphasizing
obedience. Matt 28:20.
2. Method:
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
The plan of God is accomplished through the Disciples of
the lost Matt 28:19.
The purpose of God is accomplished through the principle
of multiplication of Disciples (1, 2, 4, 8,16,32,64,128.........).
Participation in ministry by All Acts 6:1-7.
Personal encouragement, Training and strengthening. Acts
11:19-30.
Prerogative of the Holy Spirit in calling and the past of the
church in confirming. Acts 13:1-3.
Practice of making Disciple and putting leaders in place
Acts 14:21-27.
The preparation and the equipping of people is essential
Colo 1:28-29.
23
3. Functional concepts
We have already touched on most of the functional concepts of
mission.
In summary:
Biblical missions is the sending forth of designated people to
preach the gospel, make Disciples and plant churches among
lost people Groups both close at home and far away.
Assumptions of Biblical missions
A biblical mission assumes:
1.
That the Holy Spirit works to call or direct certain people to
respond to the missions mandate Acts 13:15.
2. That God in response to prayer will send forth missionaries
in this Harvest Field. Matt .9:37-38, Jn 4:33-38; 15:16.
3. That the local church should be primary-sending Agency.
Supporting Base for missionary work Acts 13:3-5, 14:2627.11:27-30.
4. That mission is mandated by God’s command Matt 28:18-20.
5. That mission is motivated by love for God and the lost
people 2 Cor 5: 14-20, Rom 5:8.
6. That the whole church should be involved in missions
ministry. Acts2:42-47, Philip
1:3-6.
7. That when the gospel is preached, spiritual fruit is produced
and many will become disciples Acts 14:21.
8. That persecution and mixed responses to the Gospel will
become common and should be expected Acts 13:48-51,
Acts 17:1-9.
9. Great amounts of times should be spent on teaching the
word of God to build-up, train and mature the body of
Christ. Acts 15:30-35, 11:26-28.
10. That the entire church will benefit from and rejoice in
missions Acts 14:26-28, 15:3-4.
11. That churches planted on mission trips should become self24
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
supporting i.e. The missionaries should leave after
establishing, equipping and training the Nationals 1 Thes.
1:2-10.
The scripture provides a continuing instruction manual for both
new and existing churches. 1Tim 3:14-15, 2 Tim 3:15-17.
That established churches should spiritually strengthen and
give to financially support new and struggling churches. 2
Cor.8:1
That evangelism and edification should be kept in balance.
Acts14:21-22.
That social and physical needs should meet along side with
spiritual needs Acts 4:32- 35.
That the Gospel message should not be culturally
compromised, but it should not be communicated
appropriately in the cultural context-Acts 17:16-32, 1:1-27.
25
CHAPTER: 3 WHAT IS CULTURE
According to Paul G. Hiebert definition: culture is the more or
less integrated system of ideas feeling and values, and their
associated patterns of belief, behavior and products shared by a
group of people who organize and regulate What they think, feel
and do.
Culture allows people to do things as a group. A redemptive
analogy is a highly held cultural values which has a direct
equivalent in the Bible and is used by the communicator to
reinforce Biblical truths to the people of the culture.
Culture relates to:
-
Ideas (opinions or what you know)
Feelings.
3 values
There are three basic dimensions of culture:
26
In culture we have to think a lot: acculturation being the way of
assimilating the culture of people and staying there to preach
the Gospel.
In learning we have field oriented learners. this are people who
want to work with others and they do things in group and that’s
why tribes are grouped together. But non oriented learners are
people like sociologists, scientist, accountants, Technical
knowledge in culture is showed together.
COGNITIVE DIMENSION.
This aspect of culture has to do with the knowledge showed by
the members of a group or society without shared knowledge
communication and community life is impossible.
Knowledge provides the conceptual content of culture.
Knowledge arranges people’s experiences into categories and
organizes these categories into larger systems of knowledge
e.g. the westerns have divided the rainbow colours into seven
categories of colours. Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue Indigo,
Violate (Richard of York Gained Battles in victory) (Acronysm).
But in another culture people have their own arrangement.
Whereas in India the Rainbow colors are divided into two basic
colors – hot colors (Red-Orange) and cold colors – pale yellow –
violet.
Knowledge also tells us what exists and what doesn't exist e.g
atomic, electrons and gravity. This is according to western
knowledge.
The spirit world e.g. demons, evil spirits, ancestral spirits
(traditional knowledge today not all Africans believe in the
existence of evil spirits but for those who believe, they must
think about them and indeed they exist as a category within the
culture. Similarly Atheists all over the worlds are forced to deal
with the concept of God. But variety is the spice of life. it is also
27
good to do contextualizing the gospel. Context is the people, fit
yourself in the context in order to preach the gospel.
Concepts
It is concerning things / Realities.
Cultural Knowledge
In communication we need to know who Christ is Heb 4:12.
God sent his missionaries with the word of God and he stands
behind them (Jn: 21)
Cultural knowledge is more than the categories. We use to sort
out reality. It includes the assumptions and beliefs we make
about reality or the nature of the world and how it works.
Our culture teaches us how to build houses, how girls are to
prepare food/raising crops. Because our culture provides us with
fundamental of our thoughts, we find it almost impossible to
breathe a way with its grasp even our language reflects and
reinforces our cultural way of thinking.
Much of this influence is deep seated and hidden within each of
us. We are not even aware of it. like colored glasses, culture
affects how we perceive the world, without our being conscious
of it's influence. only when the lenses become dirty or we put on
other glasses. Are we aware of their power to shape the way we
see the world.
The storage of cultural knowledge.
It is stored in many ways e.g. print – literature, book, journals,
newspapers, and various publications, bill boards- in the west
and now all over the world.(In literate – societies)
In non- literate societies.
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Have a great deal of knowledge stored up in stories, poems,
proverbs, songs, dramas riddles, dances and rituals that can be
seen. The Israelite used to keep or store their information (Deut 6).
The Distinction between oral and literate societies and the ways
they store and transmit information is of vital importance to the
missionary and cross-cultural communicator.
2. THE AFFECTIVE DIMENSION.
This has to do with feelings and aesthetics. Culture also has to
do with the feelings people have e.g. attitudes, notions or ideas
of beauty, tastes of/in food and dress, the likes and dislikes and
ways of enjoying themselves or experiencing sorrow.
Cultures vary greatly with how they deal with the emotional side
of human life.
The affective dimension of culture is reflected in most areas of
life e.g in standards of Beauty in tastes of food, clothes, Houses,
furniture, cars etc and other cultural products.
Emotions also play a very important part in human relationships
in our notions of etiquette ( behavior) and fellowship. the key of
human relationships is the love of God. We communicate love,
hate scorn plus hundred other attitudes. People judge us by
apparent therefore we are ambassadors/Christopher's (carriers
of Christ and ministers of reconciliation). Things like facial
expressions of voice and gestures. feelings find outlet in
expressive culture in Arts, literature, music dance and drama.
3. THE EVALUATIVE DIMENSION.
Each culture has values by which it judges human relationships to
be morals or immoral. It ranks some occupations high and others
low. some ways of eating and drinking proper and other
unacceptable. Values judgments – can be broken down in three
types. Each culture evaluates cognitive beliefs to determine whether
29
they are true or false e.g. Europeans in the Middle Ages believed
that malaria was caused by a noxious substance in the air.
Today they attribute it sporozoan parasite. In other cultures
people believe that malaria is caused by spirits that live around
the village in each of these cases the culture determines what
people should accept as true. Each cultural system also judges
the emotional expressions of human life. It teaches people what
is beautiful and what is ugly. What is to love and what is to hate
eg Bagisu culture in Uganda teaches all boys to be tough and
endure pains to grow up into manhood
Finally, each culture judges, values, and determines right and
wrong., e.g in North American culture, it is worse to tell a lie than
to hurt a persons feelings.
In other cultures, however, it is more important to encourage
other people, even if it means bending the truth somewhat. Each
culture has its own moral code and it’s own cultural defined
“sins”. It judges some acts to be righteous and others to be
immoral. In traditional Indian society it is a sin for a woman to
eat before her husband. If she does, a villager says, she will be
reborn in the next as a snake.
4 pillars of the East Africa Revival.
-
Brokenness Ps 51:17
Repentance 34:18
Putting things right
Walking in the light.
In China, a person must venerate his/her ancestors by feeding
them regularly. Not to do so in sin. Each culture also has its own
highest values and primary allegiances each with its own
culturally defined goals.
30
One culture pressures people to make economic success their
highest goal, another, culture assigns top priority to honor and
fame political power, the good will of the ancestors, the favour of
God.
These three dimensions.
- Ideas, feelings and values are important in understanding
the nature of human cultures.
CULTURE AND SOCIETY.
The key- concept in the study of anthropology is culture. Culture
is one of the features that separate man from the lower animals
of all Gods creatures only man is culture bearing.
Cultures are learned and shared attitudes values and ways of
behaving, the material art facts created by the members of a
cultural group.
Sir, Edward Taylor classic definition of culture “that” complex
whole which includes knowledge belief, art, morals, law,
customs and any other capabilities and habits, acquired by man
as a member of society.
Culture is composed of two things.


a.
culture traits
Culture complexes.
Culture traits.
These are the smallest units of culture individual acts such as
wave, a smile, and saying; “Hi”
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b.
Culture complexes
These are clusters of related traits, seen as a single unit e.g. if I
wave, smile and say “Hi” these three make up a culture e.g.
complex which we call a “Greeting”. culture Traits may be mixed
and combined to form any numbers of culture complexes.
COUNTER-CULTURE.
A person or group where behavior is counter to that of the
general culture.
Taylor’s definition introduces another term – society.
What is society?
How does it differ from culture?
Society is a social organization made up of group of people who
share geographical area and culture. society and culture are
dependent concepts. One cannot exist without the other but they
are not the same thing.
Society refer to people and their social organization, culture
refers to the people’s learned and shared ways of life. When we
have 2 or more people interacting with each other we have the
Basis for society.
HUMAN BEING IN CULTURE.
The Culture Concept.
A human being consists of 3 parts -: Body, Soul, and Spirit.
Human beings have also made in the image of God Gen 1:2627. he is amoreness. This “moreness” distinguishes human
beings from animals. He consists of more than a physical body.
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The moreness in human being that distinguishes us from
animals is reasoning.
Artistic and musical creations are some the supreme
demonstrations of human beings superiority over animals and
our closeness to God.
A person knowledgeable about such things as art music and
philosophy is known as cultured. The use of the word culture in
this way is French.
Many English speakers still think of the term “culture” as
referring primarily to artistic or philosophical expertise or even to
good manners and others about upper social classes.
A more technical sense in which the word “ culture” (Germ
kultur) has been employed in Germany from at least as early as
the beginning of the 19th century, This was the usage that the
pioneer Anthropologist E.B Tylor borrowed into English. In 1871
to designate “the total non-biologically transmitted heritage of
man” This usage has become customary in the behavioral
sciences and, increasingly in informed popular thought.
A major reason for the development of this understanding of the
concept is the fact that a whole academic discipline has devoted
itself largely to the study of culture.
Anthropology’s most important accomplishment has been the
extension and clarification of the concept of culture (Kroeber
1950:87) Certainly, the concept of couture endeavors. Luzbetak
1963:59
Education is a life long process. Tolewn we have more from the
known to the unknown.
33
ANTHROPOLOGY: REALITY WORLDVIEW
1.
Anthropology and missions.
As a missionary enter to another culture, first learn the culture of
the people (society) before you start to minister among them
effectively. E.g. an American missionary couple in British
Columbia among the Kwakiutl Indians who consider a persons
name private property. One of their most prized possessions. No
one takes another name unless it is willed to them. or another
missionary building a boat without respect to natural laws. The
same should happen with regard to cultural laws.
2. 4 Ways into which cultural anthropology contribute to
effective missionary strategy (cross cultural communication).
1.
2.
3.
4.
3.
It gives the missionary a good understanding of another
culture.
it aids the missionary in entering another culture.
It facilitates the communicating of the Gospel in another
culture.
It aids the process of implanting the church in another
culture.
understanding another culture.
Mission is the total biblical mandate of the church of Jesus
Christ.
Missions – is local assemblies or groups of Assemblies leading
authorized persons to her cultures to evangelize and plant
indigenous assemblies.
4. Missions – is one aspect of mission. Mission is concerned with
the great commission and mostly Wholistic ministries.
34
Basically, missions are the church in one culture sending
workers to another culture to evangelize and disciple.
1. From one culture to another and NOT from one nation to
another.
2. National boundaries and artificial lines down on maps by
politicians, cultures are realities in geographical localities.
3. These are cross-cultural ministries. If a person is going to
minister in another culture, he needs to be familiar with the
other culture. For one to function in another, he/she must
understand that culture.
4. Cultural anthropology provides the conceptual tools
necessary to begin that process.
Entering another culture.
1.
2.
3.
To minister in another culture one must enter the culture.
When one leaves their own culture with its familiar customs,
traditions, social patterns and ways of life, the individual
quickly begins to feel like a fish out of water.
He must either respond to the new culture with empathy,
acceptance and identification which will result in Adjustment
and success, or respond with culture shock, and ultimately
failure.
CULTURE SHOCK.
Comes to us in 3 stages.
1.
The “Fascination or tourist stage.
This comes when a person first enters the new culture. There
are new exciting sights and sounds. There are exciting things to
see and experience. There are usually friendly people to help
and see to one’s comforts.
The tourist of short term visitor usually never goes beyond this
stage before leaving the host culture.
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2. Rejection Stage.
Here the fun and fascination of the new culture begins to fade
away and the new comer meets head on the difficulties involved
in living in the new culture. One may have been used to doing
things in their own culture neatly and logically, but now in the
new culture, their ways of doing things seems to be capricious,
without design or purpose.
The new comer becomes frustrated as he attempts to function in
the new culture by applying the ‘rules” of his own culture. When
these of his own culture do not accomplish the designed result
the person blames the new culture and he begins to reject that
new culture. This rejection takes several forms such as – stereo
typing members of the new culture. Making joking remarks
about the people. Disassociating oneself as much as possible
from the members of the new culture and associating as much
as possible with members of ones own people.
Most people make at least a partial recovers from culture shock.
Those not able to accommodate themselves to the new culture
eventually withdraw (completely from it).
3.
Recovery stage
This begins as the person begins to learn the language or
dialect of the new culture and some to the rules of it. As he
begins to adjust to the new culture, the frustrations subsides and
the process of recovery follows accordingly.
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CHAPTER: 4 COMMUNICATING
CULTURALLY
CHRIST
ACROSS
–
THE ROLE OF CULTURE IN COMMUNICATION
The Cultural Barrier to Missionary Communication.
There is a very real danger that; as our technology advances
and enables us to cross geographical and national boundaries
with singular ease and increasing frequency, we may forget that
it’s the cultural barriers which are the most formidable.
Cross-cultural communication is a very sine qua non for
citizenship in this new world. Missionaries now understand that
much more than a mi-cro phone and increased volume is
involved in penetrating cultural barriers. Unfortunately, inter
cultural communication is as the sum total of human differences.
The word “culture” is a very inclusive term. It takes into account
linguistic, political, economic, social, psychological, religious
national, racial and other differences. Communication reflects all
these differences.
Culture is away of thinking feeling, believing. It is a group’s
knowledge stored up for future use. Is a design for living. it’s a
plan according to which society adapts itself to its physical,
social, and ideation environment. A plan for coping with the
physical environment would include such matters as food
production and all technological knowledge and skill.
Missionary must come to an even greater realization of the
importance of culture in communicating Christ in the final
analysis, they can effectively communicate to the people of any
given culture to the extent that they understand that culture (
language being but one aspect of culture).
Missionaries should prepare for challenges and frustration in the
field but before they can do so effectively, they must study again
37
– not just the language, but also the audience. They must learn
before they can teach, and listen before they can speak. They
need to know the message for the world, but also the world in
which the message Must be communicated.
A Three – culture model of missionary communication.
The discussion and diagram furnish the basis for our
consideration of a “three culture model” of missionary
communication.
As a communicator, the missionary stands on middle ground
and looks in two directions. In the first place, he looks to the
scriptures. The message is not really his. He did not originate it.
He was not there when it was first given. His own words are not
‘inspired” in the biblical sense. He cannot say as could the
apostle, He knows that he must be diligent to present himself
“approved to God.....2 Tim 2:15.
In summary, in relationship to the biblical message, the
missionary is simply a messenger, an ambassador – a
secondary, never a primary source.
In the second place, when the missionary lifts up his eyes and
looks to the field, he sees people millions of them- who need the
message – math 28:18-20. At the primary level the missionary
message is the message of the Bible. It was given by God
through the apostles and prophets in the languages and cultural
contests of the Bible.
At the secondary level, the missionary is a citizen of a quite
different culture. He has been brought up in his own culture and
has been schooled in its language, world view, and value
system. He has received the Christians message in the context
of culture as it was communicated by a source who most likely
was a citizen of the culture.
The missionary’s first responsibility is to study the scriptures, in
38
the original languages if possible, but always in terms of the “
Bible culture context” any sound system of hermeneutics must
take into accounts the cultural context in which the message
was originally communicated, the background and syntax and
style , the characteristics of the audience, and the special
circumstances in which the message was given.
Cultural Differences
Another concern mission strategists faced was the set of
problems arising out of human variation. Among other things,
missionaries had to face the question of religious differences.
How do you relate to non-Christian religions? Are they totally
evil, and, therefore, to be wiped out? Do such religions contain
partial truths on which the missionary can build? Such questions
have led to extensive discussions. Missionaries, like
anthropologists, were confronted with other cultural differences.
People in other societies built different types of houses, spoke
different languages, organized different kinds of families, had
different concepts of right and wrong, and believed in different
values. Such cultural variance causes experiential problems.
39
People who move into a new culture face culture shock.
Misunderstandings arise in missionaries' relationships with
nationals, and missionaries face the long-term difficult task of
learning how to live in a new society. Cultural variance also
raises some knotty philosophical and theological questions. It
appears that all cultures "do the job" that is, they provide a basis
for orderly, meaningful human life. How then can we judge one
culture to be better than another? What criteria can we use to
compare and evaluate customs? What right do we have to try to
change other people? For a time many anthropologists staked
out positions of total cultural relativism, holding that all customs
of all cultures are equally good.
However, such relativism raises equally difficult questions. Are,
in fact, all customs equally good? For example, in curing
diseases, is magic as effective as modern medicine? Should we
refrain from helping people if they desire it or if it is to their
benefit? Are there no absolutes, no biological, psychological,
social or moral principles underlying all human life? Is there no
Truth? Today, few anthropologists take a completely relativistic
position with regard to cultural variance, but there is little
consensus on what the criteria for evaluation shall be.
Missionaries have had to face questions of cultural variance.
Many of them wanted to make people Christians, but does this
also mean wearing clothes, using western medicine, having one
wife, giving up segregation based on caste or race, and giving
up headhunting? If not, where does one draw the line between
Christianity and western culture?
The relationship of the Christian message to cultures is
complex. On the one hand, the message must always bee
expressed in cultural terms in a language, cultural symbols and
behavioral practices that will, in part, mold the message. On the
other, Christianity claims that its message is universal and
transcends any one culture. The theological question raised by
cultural variance goes further. The events of the Bible took place
in specific cultural contexts. How do we determine what is the
40
universal message to be proclaimed to all people everywhere,
and what part was addressed specifically to the people and
culture of that day? To say all parts of the Bible apply equally to
everyone is to evade the question. Few, if any, modern
Christians put adulterers to death (Leviticus 20:10), or stone
blasphemers (Leviticus 24:14). Not many practice the holy kiss
(1 Thessalonian 5:26), require women to pray with their heads
covered (1 Corinthians 11:13), or lend money freely without
expecting its return (Luke 6:35).
Finally, cultural differences pose basic epistemological questions
to missionaries and anthropologists alike. How do we relate to
those who believe differently than we, but who also claim to
have found the truth? As anthropologists point out, we must
avoid an uncritical ethnocentrism -- the tendency to
automatically assume our own beliefs and customs are right and
then to use them to judge other people and cultures to be
wrong. Being ethnocentric blocks understanding and
communication, and in the end each only stands up and
declares himself right. So, how do we relate to people if
fundamental differences between us persist? Can we still accept
others as persons and maintain relationships with them?
CHRIST AND HIS COMMUNICATORS CONFRONT CULTURE.
The Tension Between Christ and Culture.
Missionary should understand that every culture has elements of
divine order and satanic rebellion, each has potential for the
revelation of God’s truth and for its concealment or mutilation.
This merits further elaboration.
41
H.R Niebulir has categorized five views of the relationship
between Christ and culture taken by various theologians.
1. Christ against culture – i.e. Christ is the sole authority; the
claims of culture are to be rejected.
2. The Christ of culture – i.e. the Christian system is not
different from culture in kind but only in a quality; the best
culture should be selected to conform to Christ.
3. Christ above culture – i.e., the reception of grace perfects
and competes culture though there is not a “smooth curve or
continuous line” between them.
4. Christ and culture in paradox – i.e. both are authorities to be
obeyed and the believers.
5. Christ the Transformer of culture – i.e. culture reflects the
fallen state of man, in Christ, man is redeemed and culture
can be renewed so as to glorify God and promote his
purpose.
The Gospel mandate (Math 28:18-20) requires that missionaries
teach other men to observe all that Christ has commanded. In
teaching, missionaries touch culture – and happily so-for all
culture needs transformation in motivation if not in content.
In the first place, the missionary cannot communicate without
concerning himself with culture because communication is
inextricable from culture. in the second place, the missionary
cannot communicate Christianity without concerning himself with
culture because, though Christianity is supra cultural in its origin
and truth, it is cultural in its application.
Culturally Relevant Christian Communication.
Various terms have been used to denote the process whereby
the Christian message is made relevant and meaningful in a
given culture – accommodation, adaptation, indigenization,
enculturation and (recently) contextualization.
42
Bavinck disclaims the use of the term accommodation (and by
implication, the term adaptation also) because it “connotes
something of a denial or a mutilation” whatever is indigenous to
a culture is “rooted in” or “native to” that culture.
Enculturation – “the process of disengaging the supracultural
elements of the gospel from one culture and contextualizing
them within the cultural form and social institutions of another at
least some degree of transformation of those forms and
institutions”.
Even though the new word contextualization is widely used, it is
variously defined. It already admits to achieve career, in part
because in the coinage of it established anthropological
terminology covering the dynamics of culture contact and
change was largely disregarded. The term is used with
reference to terms and methods previously used in relation to;
1. enculturation, or making the gospel message intelligible in the
idiom of the language and culture of the receivers.
2. indigenization or the church and its leadership being born and
growing and reproducing within a country or region, and
3. Bible translation and enthrotheology.
Those aspects of contextualizing activities that may not be the
immediate task of the missionary are apart of the larger task.
Therefore, whatever the cross-cultural communicator of Christ
does, all that he does has contextualizing aspects.
The super cultural truth of Christ becomes meaningful within any
cultural system as it takes on the various forms of that system.
Linguistic, personal, social, and ecclesiastical. Contextualization,
after all, judges a culture even as it employs it. Then is not simply
nice. It is necessary. Without it, Gods truth would never have
broken out of the Hebrew community and into the larger world.
But if contextualization possesses great potential, it also
presents certain pitfalls. When Christ is no longer master and
43
culture ceases to be servant, man is thrown upon his own
recourses and truth is lost.
Four categories may be used to indicate the degrees of
contextualizing which are acceptable and what the limits are:
1. The core: revelation and salvation affected in Jesus Christ.
2. The substance: The gospel tradition in apostolic
transmission.
3. The application: The exhortations addressed to particular
people.
4. The expression: Quality of life in a cultural setting. Thinking
back upon our three – culture model of missionary
communication, contextualization can be seen to be
operative in relationship to all three cultures – Bible culture,
the missionary source's culture, and the respondent culture.
Culture change
Planned change is central to the missionary task. In recent
decades, anthropologists have begun to analyze how such
change takes place. Early anthropologists were concerned
primarily with the broad evolution of culture and with the
diffusion of ideas around the world approaches that raised
theological questions but had little to say to missionaries in their
work. Structural-functional approaches tended to view cultures
as static. Change was seen as essentially harmful.
Today, anthropologists and mission scholars are studying the
nature of both planned and unplanned change.
One approach of interest to missionaries is revitalization theory.
This is the study of the rise and growth of the nativistic and
messianic cults that make up one of the most widespread
religious phenomena of our day. Over six thousand have been
reported in Africa alone. Thousands of cargo cults and prophetic
movements have risen in New Guinea and Oceania. Hundreds
of new religions have appeared in Japan and the Philippines
44
since the Second World War. Some are attempts to return to old
religious traditions in a search for identity and stability in the
midst of the confusion created by rapid culture change. A great
many of them, however, are attempts to adapt Christianity to
local cultures with results ranging from orthodox churches to
bizarre syncretistic cults.
Other studies have been concerned with conversion and
individual responses to religious change. What leads a person to
convert, and what changes do conversion effect in the beliefs
and practices of an individual? Some have been afraid to view
religious experiences such as conversion in terms of natural
processes. To do so does not deny their spiritual importance.
However, as Thomas Aquinas expressed in his famous dictum,
"Grace does not suppress nature." To this Paul Tournier adds:
"Man belongs to nature by the will of God, and no spiritual
experience, no matter how profound it may be, frees him from
his natural state." A better understanding of the processes of
conversion would be of value to missionaries.
A third area in the study of change, and the one on which
missionaries have drawn most heavily, is that of planned change
-- the study of how changes can be introduced most easily and
with least negative side-effects into a society. H. G. Barnett,
Ward Good enough and others in the field of applied
anthropology have written extensively on innovation and the
acceptance of new ideas, and on resistance to new ideas and
ways such resistance can be avoided. Applied anthropologists
have produced a wide range of materials that has been used in
training programs for those going into international programs,
such as the Peace Corps, development programs, diplomatic
service and missions.
Related to the study of change is that of socialization -- the
study of how children are raised and taught their culture.
Students of socialization in the anthropological field of Culture
and Personality have analyzed the importance of childrearing
practices in maintaining a culture's beliefs and practices.
45
Now, they are becoming aware that extensive changes can
occur in a culture through changes in the socialization process.
Both maintenance and change are important to missionaries
and other agents of planned change, for they are interested not
only in introducing change, but also in transmitting the new
ideas to subsequent generations. Attention has been given to
this in schools, but the greatest amount of socialization occurs in
the home prior to school age. A failure to develop an adequate
socialization process in the home generally leads to the "second
generation" problem -- the fact that second, third and fourth
generation Christians are only nominal believers and often leave
the organization.
Recent developments
A number of new areas of interest have arisen in anthropology.
Cultural ecology looks at the relationship between a culture and
its environment, expressive anthropology is the study of the arts
and music, and mathematical anthropology is an attempt to
understand human beings in terms of cybernetics and
mathematical models. These are probably less important for
missions than the rapidly expanding studies of complex and
urban societies. Missions have been successful in tribal and
peasant societies. With the rapid urbanization of the world,
missionaries are now looking for ways of reaching people in the
turmoil of the modern city.
Past and Present
The relationship between Christian mission and anthropology in
the past century has been one of ambivalence. On the one hand
they shared a common interest in people, and anthropologists
even sought the assistance of missionaries who had lived for
long periods on the field. On the other hand, the two groups
have been suspicious of each other's activities.
It may surprise some, therefore, that anthropology in Britain had
its origins in the broad Christian humanitarian movement of the
46
nineteenth century. After slavery was abolished (1807-1833),
those concerned with social reform turned their attention to
questions of the welfare of the native peoples in the colonies. In
1834 a split occurred on how to protect the rights of the natives.
One faction, including most of the missionaries, wanted to grant
them immediately the full "privileges" of western civilization.
The other wanted to study them before "raising and protecting
them". From that point on, missionaries and reformers too often
pursued programs of planned change without perceiving the
cultural contexts in which this change took place, while the
anthropologists too often proceeded to study the people with
little thought to how this knowledge could benefit the people. We
must, however, avoid Stereotyping an age.
Old mission field minutes show that many missionaries of the
late nineteenth and early twentieth century were deeply
sensitive to the cultures and viewpoints of the people among
whom they worked. A number of them -- R. H. Codrington of
Melanesia, M. Leenhardt of New Caledonia, H. Junod and E.
Smith of Africa, the Wisers in India and Father W. Schmidt and
the Vienna School of Anthropology, to name only a few -- made
significant contributions to anthropological knowledge and
theory. Many others studied the ethnographic materials of their
fields. Since the Second World War, there has been a growing
interaction between missions and anthropology.
This has been on a much broader scale than just the interest in
linguistics that characterized the period between the world wars.
Churchrelated colleges introduced anthropology courses, and
journals like the Anthropological Quarterly (Catholic) and the
International Review of Missions (mainly Protestant) carried
articles on broader topics of anthropology and missions.
A major impetus in bringing anthropological awareness to
missions came through the work of Eugene Nida and the
members of the American Bible Society translations team.
47
As Nida drew from his work in cross-cultural translations, he
broadened his interest to the whole range of sociocultural
anthropology. In the process, he wrote Customs and Cultures
and Message and Mission, pioneering works that contributed
greatly to interest in mission anthropology.
Another major impetus came through Practical Anthropology
(now called Missiology, a journal edited by members of the
translation team and other interested colleagues. This served as
a forum for anthropological studies of the mission process. The
quality of articles published in the journal is reflected in the fact
that they have found acceptance in departments of anthropology
on university campuses. Anthropology has now found its place
in many schools and institutes training people for overseas
service. http://www.antropos.com.br Fornecido por Joomla!
Produzido em: 15 August, 2008, 05:56
Is there purpose in culture?
Does culture express purpose, in the sense that it responds to
biological and psychological needs? In general it does, but the
purpose which it serves may be “ imaginary” as well as “real”
In some cultures one cannot marry a person who’s even
distantly related. in some cultures, however, marriage with a
sister-in-law is not only encouraged; it is almost obligatory.
Purpose in culture may be easily perceived in the practice of
female infanticide and the suicide of old people in Eskimo
culture. when men got beyond the age when they were able to
be active hunters, or women were no longer able to chew the
hides and thus prepare them, they were usually expected to
commit suicide or to induce friends or relatives to kill them. All
this may seem inhuman but it was purposeful.
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What does anthropology show us?
Anthropology has made a number of contributions to our
knowledge of ourselves and others but we can summarize the
most outstanding insights under three statements:
(a)
The behavior of people is not haphazard, but conforms
to a pattern. The fact that Aymara Indians have customarily let
their friends drawn in lake. Titicaca rather than rescuing them
they belief that the spirit of the lake is requiring a sacrificial
victim.
(b)
The parts of the pattern of behavior are interrelated. The
fact that San Blas fishermen do not sell fish but will sell
coconuts. does not reflect any lack of commercial interest in life.
(c)
The life of people may be oriented in many different
directions. Americans have glorified strong individualism, the will
to power, the accumulation of wealth, and the prestige which
comes from being well known. Whether as a gangster like Al
Capone, or as an actress like Marilyn Monroe.
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CHAPTER: 5 COMMUNICATION AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE.
Communications never take place in a social vacuum, but
always between individuals who are part of a total social context.
These participants in the communicative event stand in a
definite relationship to each other.
In every society there are definite rules about what types of
people say what kinds of things to certain classes of persons.
Whatever different classes of people say is inevitably influenced
by their respective positions in society.
This aspect of communication within the social structure is
particularly important from the religious point of view.
Well-intentional missionary work has sometimes failed to
communicate the gospel because the source adopted a role
completely incompatible with any effective identification with
those to be reached.
Types of social structures.
Social structures, together with the networks of communication
they request, are very diverse. Here we are concerned only with
a particular aspect of social structure – namely, that which is
significant in terms of interpersonal communication. For this
purpose two primary types of distinctions, intersecting on
various levels, may be distinguished first, we most distinguish
between the urban (or so – called “metropolitan” society) and
the rural (or “face to face” society) types of structures. Second,
we must analyses these types of structures in terms of their
homogeneous or heterogeneous character.
The urban society is characteristic of the typical city dweller in
large urban centers. By a homogeneous society we mean one in
which most or all of the people participate in the common Life in
more or less the same way.
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Diagrammatic models of social structure.
In order to understand more clearly certain of the essential
features of social structure, it is convenient to diagram such
social patterns using as a general base an “inverted” diamond
jewel shape.
We have arbitrarily chosen to represent social structure in three
classes. In some societies, however, one must recognize four,
five, six or even more classes. In such a case it is customary to
speak of such distinctive on as upper, upper lower, upper, upper
middle, lower middle, and upper lower and lower lower. it would
be wrong, however, to leave the impression that all societies
differ radically in structural configuration.
COMMUNICATION WITHIN SOCIAL STRUCTURES.
The significance of social structure for communication can be
summarized in two basic principles;
1.
2.
People communicate more with people of their own class;
That is, interpersonal communication of a reciprocal nature
is essentially horizontal and
Prestigious communication descends from the upper
classes to the lower classes and this vertical communication
is primarily in one direction and tends to be principally
between adjacent groups.
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Truly effective communication, however, is not unidirectional,
There must be reciprocity in communication (which we may call
“social feedback”) or the results may be unsatisfactory.
Both in the ministry and in missionary work it is usual for the
religious professional to do most of the talking. Too often the
minister or missionary regards himself solely as intermediary of
a superior message from God.
Communicative Approach to Urban Society.
In communicative approaches to various societies, there have
been in the recent past, three main types of orientations. These
can be called generally Roman Catholic, communist and
protestant etc.
In the RC approach to a new society, primary consideration has
usually been given to the upper class, though a number of
instances can be cited in which abroad segment of the society
has been approached. The tendency, however, has been for the
RC to identify itself with the leadership of the society and
through it to influence the lower classes. In exchange for
partnership in controlling the society, the church always provides
52
the upper class with many benefits. Including the best
professional religious services and facilities for the education of
children.
The shaded area indicates the class with which the church has
primarily identified itself, and the arrows indicate both the
direction of control (downward) and the pressures of opposition
(upward).
The communist technique in approaching a society is to draw
out a segment from the middle and lower classes, usually the
lower – middle class and the upper – lower classes.
In this segment there is usually a small nucleus of frustrated
middle class intellectuals, These intellectuals then combine with
the economically, socially, or politically disenfranchised lower
class elements and by revolution capture the leadership. The
main features of this development may be diagrammed as
follows:
Leadership is not recruited from the middle classes (except in so
far as certain experts may work for the state), the decisions and
the control of communication continue to be exerted by an elite
drawing its membership from the lower-middle and upper tower
classes.
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The present protestant approach to society especially in its
missionary aspects is quite different from the RC and communist
orientations. It must be recognized that, in the past, protestant
developments were closely related to broad political and social
movements in northern Europe, in which significant changes in
church affiliation were considerably influenced by the loyalties of
certain princes and rulers.
Protestant concentrated their efforts on the diagrammatic bulge
in society that is on the lower – middle and upper – lower
classes even as in a sense, communists have done.
In such areas as Latin America, for example. Pressure of the
lower middle and upper – lower classes often have little to lose
by identifying themselves with the protestant cause, since they
belong largely to a socially “disinherited” group.
Protestant missionary programs to reach the intelligentsia in
various countries are of course very worthy, and most certainly
the upper classes should not be neglected. For they are likewise
objects of God's constraining love.
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One reason for Protestantism is lack of appeal to many
elements in the strictly indigent class – which is not only poor,
but content with its status – is that it demands too high a
standard of personal accountability, while at the same time
failing to adjust its approach to different constituencies.
The Structure of Face – to – Face Societies.
To the structure of urban societies, the rural peasant, and
primitive face – to – face societies present certain striking
contrasts. In general there are two main types of face-to- face
societies:
1.
2.
Folk and
Primitive
The first is a dependent type of society which looks toward the
urban center, derives considerable benefits from it, and also
contributes much to it, especially by way of raw materials.
The primitive society, on the other hand, is also a strictly face –
to- face grouping. Whether loosely or tightly organized, but it's
economy and orientation are almost completely independent of
outside influences. such a group, with its own laws is quite
homogeneous, with little division of labor, except as between
sexes.
A typical folk or peasant society is not only economically
dependent upon the urban centre, whether it looks on the mining
area around Elizabethville in the Congo. Folk society is
generally small, usually quite homogeneous and intimate, with a
milder, more passive manner, and with emphasis upon strong
concepts of traditional morality. In such a face – to- face society
every one knows every one else, and also knows almost
everyone’s business; including a good deal about every one’s
private life – in fact nothing is hidden from the praying and
watchful eyes of neighbors.
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Communicative Approach to a Face – to- Face Society.
The methods by which we can best reach people in an urban
type of society are quite evident to us, because most of us
belong to such a social grouping. We can see that the
approaches which have proved to be most successful in them
are the ones that make optimum use of the natural flow of
communication. The basic principles in such an approach are
four:
1. Effective communication must be based upon personal
friendship
2. The initial approach should be to those who can effectively
pass on communication within their family grouping.
3. Time must be allowed for the internal diffusion of new ideas
and
4. The challenge for any change of belief or action must be
addressed to the persons or groups socially capable or
making such decisions.
In a face -to -face society it is essential to establish a personal
basis of friendship and acceptance before communication can
become effective. In fact, a mans position of leadership in a
face-to-face society depends more upon the intimate and
knowledgeable support of his followers than is true of a leader is
an impersonal, urban society, where “money talks” more
successfully.
Another principle in a approaching face-to-face societies is to
present the challenge for change of belief to persons socially
capable of making valid decisions.
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The Problem of Heterogeneous Societies.
Heterogeneous society is primarily of two types:
1.
2.
Urban Societies that contain urban-structured minority
groups, similar, i.e. to the negro subculture within America
life, and
Urban societies that include face-to-face sub societies.
In the first type one must recognize three factors:
(a)
The basic differences, which mean that one cannot, for
all his idealism, use identically the same approaches, to the
various groups.
(b)
The immense prestige differential, which means that the
people in the less prestigious groups try to follow, or think that
they are following the norms of the higher group; and
(c)
The priority of intra group communication, if effective
communication is to be attained. The relation between two urban
– structured groups in a single society can be diagrammatically
represented as follows:-
57
In the second principal type of heterogeneous society the
dominant urban structure includes a minority group having a
face-to-face type of society. A typical situation of this kind may
be illustrated by the following diagram.
Several significant features of the diagram should be
recognized. First, the included face-to-face group may penetrate
into the middle class, if one takes into account economic
resources and general prestige.
Second, the base of the included face-to-face group is usually
not so low as that of the urban culture, for in general the poor
people of the smaller rural communities.
Included folk societies have always been recognized as in some
degree different from their urban neighbors, especially if they
happen to speak another language and wear different types of
clothing.
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CHAPTER 5 Principles of Communicating and the Social
Structure.
Obviously in view of the fact that the social context not only
affects the ways in which messages are transmitted, but also
involves the manner in which they are decoded, the encoding of
messages can be done effectively only when these social
factors in communication are considered. The basic principle
which may be derived from this study of social structure can
perhaps best be summarized as follows:
- The response to the preaching of the Good news may at
times reflect a social situation even more than a religious
conviction.
- Opposition to the communication of the Christian message
may be in many instances more social than religious.
- Changes in social structure may altar the religious view of
behavior.
- Effective communication follows the patterns of social
structure.
- A relevant witness will incorporate valid indigenous social
structures.
The fact that effective communication within any social context
must inevitably follow the social structure seems quite evident.
An effective church always incorporates into its structure the
valid indigenous forms of social organization. This is not
syncretism, but indigenization, the invariable and necessary
means of making the good news relevant in any community.
It will be noted that we have distinguished between “microculture” and “macro-culture” “macro-culture” refers to the large
groupings in which people identify with one another by giving
allegiance to the same flag or obeying the same government or
speaking the same language or operating with similar values.
While “Micro-cultures” refers to the various sub-cultural
distinctions within these larger groupings.
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CHAPTER: 6 LINGUISTICS
There are a number of areas in which anthropology has helped
us to understand the mission process.
Two of the first to emerge were linguistics and communication.
Early anthropologists developed an interest in communication
particularly in language, because they were often faced with
learning exotic languages in order to study other cultures. For
the most part, these languages lacked written forms, grammars,
dictionaries and teachers to give instruction. The methods that
had been developed by the classical linguists for written
languages were, therefore, of little help. Anthropological linguists
developed techniques which enabled them to learn languages
quickly and accurately without the assistance of language
schools.
Out of their work developed some of the emphases of modern
linguistics, which is the study of the basic nature and structures
of human languages. Missionaries faced the same problems of
language, and a number of missionary linguists played an
important part in the development of linguistic and translation
theory.
H. A. Gleason taught linguistics to missionaries at the Kennedy
School of Missions, when it was still in operation. Kenneth L.
Pike and his colleagues of the Summer Institute of
Linguistics/Wycliffe
Bible Translators pioneered work in
linguistics structures. Each summer they held intensive courses
on university campuses in different countries, teaching
prospective translators how to analyze a language in
preparation for making accurate Bible translations.
Eugene A. Nida and the American Bible Society (later within the
framework of the United Bible Societies) put together a team of
highly qualified experts who have done significant work in
translation theory, and who serve as technical consultants to
national Bible societies around the world doing translation.
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Nida and William A. Smalley also pioneered a second type of
program, one aimed at teaching missionaries how to learn new
languages. Under the sponsorship of a group of mission boards,
they operated the Toronto Institute of Linguistics, a program in
which candidates were taught methods for learning a language
rapidly and accurately even in regions where language training
schools do not exist or are inadequate. Similar programs have
been developed in a number of schools interested in preparing
people for overseas ministries.
Communications
At first anthropological linguists treated languages as autonomous structures, independent of the rest of culture. Later, they
became increasingly interested in the problem of the relationship
of language to culture. It became obvious to them that culture
would be impossible without language and that language is
molded by the culture of which it is a part.
On one level, the relationship between these two raised
questions about how communication takes place. What happens
in the communication process? What media other than language
do people use? Which forms of communication are most
effective in transmitting particular types of messages? And how
is communication affected by its socio-cultural contexts?
A number of mission scholars such as Nida and then Donald
Smith (of Daystar Communications Institute, Nairobi) applied
communication theory to the mission process with considerable
success. On another level, the relationship of language to
culture raises the question of cognition.
To what extent is thought molded and confined by the words of a
language and the conceptual categories implicit within them?
And how can language help us discover how people perceive
their worlds? As we saw in the Christmas drama, how we form
our concepts and organize them into larger domains profoundly
affects the message we convey. Anthropologists in cognition -61
such as Dell Hymes, John Gumperz, James Spradley and
Stephen Tyler – developed "ethnoscience" for the study of
cognitive systems. Its importance to Christian missions and all
cross-cultural communication is obvious, for communication is
not measured by what is said, but by what the listener
understands. Thus far, little has been done to apply ethnoscientific theory and methods to missionary communication,
although an encouraging start has been made by Charles Kraft
of Fuller Theological Seminary (Pasadena).
Language learning and the urgency of the missionary task.
No doubt one of the most pervasive obstacles to language
learning is the feeling that the world is in such desperate straits
and its need is so great that we are hardly justified in devoting
months and years to the study of a foreign language.
Success in our missionary task means that we must
communicate the true nature of the world’s danger and the
divine provision for salvation, and we must attempt to persuade
men to take the proper steps to save themselves and others.
how does one do that apart from language?
The mission fields (and homeland) are fairly well populated with
missionaries who look backward in time and say in essence.
Language as a vehicle for Gospel communication.
It is rather widely believed that some languages are woefully
inadequate vehicles for the propagation of the Christian
message. From the fact that the material culture of tribal peoples
is very limited, each language presents its own unique
challenges to translators and communicators. But, by the same
token any language can be used as a vehicle for conveying
Gods truth.
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Using an Interpreter to Communicate Christ.
Finally, something should be said about the use of an
interpreter. There are missionaries who have relied on
interpreters in the past and would have to rely on interpreters in
the present if they were engaged in intensive preaching,
teaching, and counseling ministries.
While the missionary speaker had spoken of God's love and
provision in Christ, the necessity of repentance and faith, and
the urgency of making an immediate decision for Christ, the
interpreter had given short shift to the missionary's words, but
had augmented them with his own invitation.
Almost without exception, missionaries will be well advised to
learn the language of their respondent culture. if one waits to
communicate Christ to a people, he must know them. The key to
that knowledge always has been, and always will be language.
Religion
Many anthropologists have focused on particular areas of
culture. Economic anthropologists began by analyzing economic
institutions but have turned to the study of how individuals and
societies create and use resources. These may be property,
money and material goods, or they may be time and effort.
Although missions use such resources and their use generates
a great deal of debate on the field, little has been done to apply
theories of comparative economics to the mission scene.
Political anthropologists began with political institutions and
have now broadened their interest to the uses of power (force,
knowledge, wealth etc.) and of politics power (leadership, and
decision making). With the exception of some studies on
leadership, modern mission strategists have, for the most part,
given far too little attention to power and politics.
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Orlando Costas and other third world missions leaders pointed
out the critical nature of this issue on the international mission
scene, and a few scholars such as John Yoder have examined
the New Testament in political terms. But these discussions will
have to be broadened to include a cross-cultural analysis of
political systems and how they operate. Otherwise the
judgments passed will be used on western political biases. Work
is also needed on the uses of power within mission
organizations themselves to make us aware of how this
dimension affects the operation of mission programs.
Anthropological studies in the area of religion and magic have
had a more obvious relevance to mission. It is not surprising,
therefore, that mission scholars have drawn on and contributed
to theory in this area. In the anthropology of religion the question
of the ultimate truthfulness of a religion is not raised. That is a
question to be answered by theology, philosophy and
comparative religions. What is asked is how religions function,
and how they relate to other areas of a culture.
Some anthropologists have turned to the study of world views
the basic existential and normative assumptions people make
about their worlds. What do they perceive to be the nature of
reality, and what do they consider to be right and wrong?
For example, behind the Christmas story lies a view of reality
that assumes not only the uniqueness of human life and its
eternal existence, but also a linear view of time in which human
beings live but one life and then face a judgment. The human
goal is heaven in which the individual is fulfilled.
But the Hindu world view assumes that time, like the seasons,
repeats itself endlessly, that human beings die and are reborn
innumerable times, and that the goal of life is to merge back into
the source of life and lose its individuality.
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The Westerner, influenced by Christianity, believes in
progress, and points to modern technological developments as
evidence that this is taking place. The traditional Indian sees
modern technology as a sign of the increasing depersonalization
of life, and therefore a sign of the loss of true values and the
decline of civilization.
The basic assumptions
The basis assumptions a culture makes about reality are often
so taken for granted that they are not made explicit by its
members. But it is upon these assumptions that people build
their concepts of the universe and their social orders. To
understand people, we must understand their world views. Only
then can we communicate with a minimum loss of meaning.
Other anthropologists focused on the nature of religious rituals
and symbols, and the place these have in the lives of people. In
our rebellion against ritualism we Protestants have often
overlooked its importance in the maintenance of faith and the
transmission of religious beliefs.
Too often missionaries have been guilty of destroying a people's
traditional symbols and rituals without providing them with
meaningful substitutes. This is particularly critical in the case of
non literates for whom rituals are not only the reaffirmations of
their faith, but also the encyclopedias preserving their religious
knowledge, As John Carman points out, when non-literate
Christians are deprived of rituals, dramas and dance, they may
be left only with a lyrical theology rooted in the few hymns they
know by heart.
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The Right of Mr. Robert Simiyu Kakai to be identified as the Author
of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the
Copyright. Bible verses are taken from the Simple King James
Version, Christ on Disk {c} D. Reynolds 2002 version 1.0
Foundation Adullam Kenya, Africa
Dir. Robert Simiyu Kakai
P.O. Box : 2806
Code
: 30200 Kitale, Kenya
Mobile : +254 (0) 723 711 915 or +254 (0)718 0 43 256
E-mail
: kakairob999@yahoo.co.in or kakairob@gmail.com
© Robert Simiyu Kakai. 20/5/2010
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A MISSIONARY TASK
This book looks and give vital insight at the
tremendous growing involvement of Cultural
anthropology that provides the conceptual
tools necessary to begin the process of
missions. It aims at bringing missionary's
concerns more directly, effectively and
efficiently into abroad mission process, and
achieves an improvement in to mission
fields in our rapidly changing world.
Robert Simiyu Kakai has served four years as Chaplain on the
faculty of Reformed Theological College Kampala Uganda,
currently he is serving as an African - Kenya National Field
Director with Adullam Foundation based in Bungoma North
District and representing Adullam Ministries International
Holland that deals with Pastoral/Christian, HIV AID’s, Church
Planting, and Conflict Management Counseling and Training.
He holds: Cert. in computer application packages. Dip. In
Pastoral - Christian and HIV AIDS counseling. Dip. In Bible and
Theology, BTH. (Pastoral Ministry), B.A. HON. Theology
(Associate Master) and Masters Degree in Development
Administration and Management.
Mr. Robert is a family Man. He and his Wife, Caroline, have one
year Daughter called Phyne Khalayi. He has wider Knowledge in
Christian Counseling, Writing Skills, Community Mobilization,
Family, Seminar and Conference Ministries, has Published
several Books: HIV AIDs: How to Control it. Written in Christian
Perspective. The Role of Women in Development, A Critical
Analysis in the Third World Country and Christian Counseling
Handbook for Love, Dating and Marriage.
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