Group #6
Florita Coto
Janeth González Pineda
María José Maltez
The White Masai
1. From the perspective of Hall's and Hofstede's cultural theories, write a
description of each of the cultures represented in the film.
Masai culture: From the perspective of Hall’s cultural theories, Masai culture can
be defined as a high context culture since they are polychromic people, for them the
non-verbal communication is more important than the verbal message, and they
cannot separate the person from the issue. There are many scenes in the movie that
prove it. For instances, gestures such as a smile or looking directly to other people’s
eyes mean that they have a personal relationship. That is why, after Carola went to
the bank, Lemalian asked her if she knew the cashier since she smiled at him. As
well, Carola´s culture differed from Lemalian´s culture in regards to non verbal
communication. In Western cultures, eye contact is very important because it
expresses confidence and social communication. Indeed, the lack of eye contact can
be interpreted as a sign of lack of confidence when talking with somebody else.
Usually, a person can be judged badly when not keeping eye contact because people
might think that he/she has unrevealed intentions or thoughts. On the other hand, in
Masai culture, people often lower their gaze to avoid long eye contact with a person
from the opposite sex outside of their family. Long eye contact between people from
the opposite sex is often related to lustful glances. As a result, Carola´s straight eye
contact with other men was misunderstood by Lemalian. He thought that Carola was
flirting with other men in his absence; therefore, cultural differences in regards to
eye contact caused Lemalian to become more jealous and insecure about Carola´s
fidelity. Besides, Lemalian felt personally attacked when Carola yelled at him
because he crashed her car.
From the perspective of Hofstede's cultural theories, Masai culture has a high power
distance index; men do not care about women’s rights, needs, or desires at all. On
the other hand, Masai people reinforce collectivity so they have a low individualism
index. Indeed, extended families live together and protect each other. Finally, Masai
culture has a long term orientation; they preserve all their ancient rituals, customs,
and their simple lifestyle.
Swiss culture: From the perspective of Hall’s cultural theories, Swiss culture is a
low context culture. Carola openly recognizes that she is a monochronic person; for
example, while she was watching the noisy city of Mombasa, she said that she is a
person that needs order and clearness. Moreover, as a low context person, Carola
could not understand many of the non-verbal messages from Masai people.
From the perspective of Hofstede's cultural theories, Swiss culture has a low power
distance index. That is why, Carola could succeed and own a shop. This aspect of
Carola’s life also reveals that Swiss culture has a high individualism index. Personal
achievements are very important for Swiss people. This is also a society that takes
risks; for this reason, Carola do not hesitate; she abandoned her life in Switzerland
to be with Lemalian.
2. Describe Carola's process of culture shock and eventual, if any, cultural
adaptation.
In the name of love Carola tries hard to adapt to Masai culture. However, the
complexity of the cultural differences between her and Lemalian was greater and
stronger than love. For us, Carola’s process of culture shock is: everything is awfuleverything seems to be ok- everything is awful. Even before Carola and Lemalian
relationship began, she was astonished about what Elizabeth said about the
conditions in Barsaloi: there is not drinking water, electricity, and people live in
huts. In spite of these disadvantages, in one point Carola felt that their cultural
differences did not matter. For instance, when they “took a shower” together and
when she got malaria and Lemalian took care of her. However, little by little she
realized that their relationship was not sustainable, and that she should leave him.
3. Choose three scenes where Carola's and Lemalian's differences seem
impossible to resolve. Discuss them in terms of your own cultural biases. Who
did you side with as you watched these scenes? Why? What would you have
done in the characters' place?
Genital mutilation scene: for Carola this is a crime, something beyond all reason,
but for Lemalian that is something normal, unquestionable, the right thing to do.
From our biased cultural point of view, genital mutilation is a violation of human
rights. In western countries, female genital mutilation is considered to be a form of
violence against women and girls. In fact, genital mutilation can lead to serious
difficulties in urination, menstruation, sexual intercourse and childbirth. Female
genital mutilation encourages the oppression of women because it is a means to
control women´s sexuality. Women in these types of cultures are not allowed to
have sexual desire or pleasure. Women´s main function in these societies is to
assure reproduction. Therefore, we shared the same frightened reaction as Carola
towards female genital mutilation (FGM). Probably, we have done the same thing if
we were in Carola´s place. Carola felt powerless in this scene because everybody
else in the tribe considered FGM as part of their cultural activities. On the other
hand, young women in Masai culture undergo genital mutilation as a part of an
elaborate ritual of rite of passage. This event marks the beginning of the “adulthood”
when girls can get married. For Masai people this ceremony is very important as a
part of their cultural heritage; during the ceremony women who will be circumcised
wear dark clothing, paint their faces with markings, and then cover their faces as a
part of the ritual.
Lemalian’s jealousy: Lemalian can’t understand how Carola speaks to other men
and being faithful to him. For Carola, speaking to other men means nothing beyond
being kind. Their cultural differences are reflected in their behavior with other
people. In Carola´s culture, it is completely normal the communication between
people from different sex. Her non verbal communication as well is misunderstood.
She is used to have long eye contact with men because in her culture this is a sign of
self confidence. However, in Lemalian´s culture, women are not supposed to keep
eye contact with men for too long. This is interpreted as a sign of lust glances in this
society. In one scene, the Italian priest warns Carola about this issue in regards to
eye contact. Nevertheless, she seems to ignore it. With the time, Lemalian´s
jealousy grew greater due to the independence of Carola and cultural differences. At
the end of the movie, these differences seem impossible to resolve. That is why, at
the end of the movie Carola decides to return to Switzerland with her daughter.
Even though Carola loved Lemalian, these cultural differences overwhelmed their
relationship.
Lemalian’s unacceptance of Carola’s success and power: he just can’t bear the
thought that Carola becomes a successful woman. He has been taught that the male
figure is the one in power not the female. So, he complains about her having the
shop and also winning some sheep to the corrupt chief. Lemalian feels that Carola is
taking away his position in the tribe. She shows different traits such as
independence that are not seen in Masai women. Masai society is strongly
patriarchal; women and men have specific functions in the society. Therefore, girls
are responsible for chores such as cooking and milking, skills which they learn from
their mothers at an early age. Boys are in charge of hearing livestock. This
patriarchal division of chores differed from Swiss culture where men and women
have almost the same type of jobs. She was used to be an independent woman; she
even owned a store in Switzerland. These cultural differences impaired the effective
communication between Lemalian and Carola.
4. Discuss the differences in worldview between Carola and Lemalian. Is there
any part of the film in which cultural/spiritual/religious reconciliation seems
possible?
The role of women is viewed totally different from both cultures. For instance, they
had totally different perspectives about women’s position in society. Despite of
these evident differences, at some parts of the movie Carola seems to be trying to
adapt to Lemalian’s culture, but every attempt ends up either in a discussion with
her husband or in her realization that she can’t change the things which she can’t
adapt to. At some particular moments in the story, Carola and Lemalian seem to be
a couple that is able to overcome difficulties, basically because they seem to be truly
in love. Indeed, all of these moments are very emotional and romantic, for example,
among these are: their stay at the hotel in Mombasa, the returning of Carola from
her country (decided to marry Lemalian in spite of the difficult life that she has
already experienced in the village) at their wedding, and when Carola gave birth to
the baby. However, the complexity of cultural, spiritual, and religious issues is at
the end impossible for them to overcome.
5. What specifically Costa Rican cultural traits would collide strongly with the
Masai culture? How would Carola have been different if she had been Costa
Rican?
A Costa Rican would definitely collide with the strict Masai customs regarding to
gender segregation: Women cannot touch men in public, men cannot eat food with
women, and women must never laugh with or even look at another man. As
Elizabeth said, for Masai people goats are more valuable than women. In this sense,
Costa Ricans share Carola’s point of view: women and men should have the same
rights and duties. In spite of that, Masai and Costa Rican culture are both high
context cultures; for that reason, we think that if Carola would have been a Costa
Rican woman, she would have handled the situation about non-verbal
communication better. Definitely, she would have been able to understand that from
Lemalian’s perspective she could not talk to men without being unfaithful to him,
just based on Lemalian’s gestures and indirect questions.
6. Discuss the presence of racism in the film, in all the cultural groups
represented. Does the movie make any ideological statement on this matter?
In the movie, racism is depicted basically in the way that the Masai members are
treated in their country. Masai people are considered as not seen as part of the
citizens of Kenya. For instance, in the scene when Carola invites Lemalian and his
friends to have a drink in her hotel, the guard does not let them in because they are
not “civilians.” The guard discriminates them because of their way of living. Even
though Masai are Kenyan citizens, in their society are often victims of
discrimination because of their cultural background. They are seen as “savage”
because of their primitive lifestyle; their customs and culture are often diminished
by other Kenyans. Another example of discrimination is the scene when Lemalian is
not allowed to enter the Registration Building because of the way he is dressed. The
guard at the Registration Building treats Lemalian very bad just because he is
wearing a traditional custom. The guard does not recognize the meaning of the
custom and arrow for Masai warriors. The ideology of the movie is portrayed
through the discrimination of Kenyans towards the Masai people and its culture. The
clashes between two cultures and worldview are shown as a main theme in the
movie.
7. Is there anything that you think Carola did wrong? What about Lemalian?
Discuss.
Both of them thought that their culture was superior to that of the other; Carola
considered her culture superior to Lemalian’s who in turn considered his culture
superior to Carola’s. Therefore, as they considered their worldview better they try
to intrude in each other’s cultural traits. When Carola gets to know the life of this
tribe, she thinks that they would live better if they adopt some traits of her
worldview; that is one of the reasons why she wanted to establish a shop in the place
for example. In addition to that, she reveals this attitude when she tries to stop the
practice of the genital mutilation of women and also when she brought them many
things from her country that would “enhance” the way in which they do things in the
village. On the other hand, Lemalian also wanted Carola to adjust to his culture,
and not only him but the entire village expected her to adapt and to behave the way
they did. Lemalian expected her to assume her role as the rest of the women there,
that is why he didn’t accept that she acquired some sort of power through her
management of the shop, and also he didn’t wanted her to talk to other men the way
she did, because women weren’t supposed to behave in that way at the village.