“Even Anthropologists Get Culture Shock” by Conrad Kottak

Anthropology Semester Exam
Objective: Analyze an anthropological description adapted from an
ethnographic study Assault on Paradise: Social Change in a Brazilian Village,
3rd ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1999).
Even Anthropologists Get Culture Shock
Conrad Kottak
I first lived in Arembepe (Brazil) during the (North American) summer of 1962. That was between
my junior and senior years at New York City’s Columbia College, where I was majoring in
anthropology. I went to Arembepe as a participant in a now defunct program designed to provide
undergraduates with experience doing ethnography—firsthand study of an alien society’s culture
and social life. Brought up in one culture, intensely curious about others, anthropologists
nevertheless experience culture shock, particularly on their first field trip. Culture shock refers to
the whole set of feelings about being in an alien setting, and the ensuing reactions. It is a chilly,
creepy feeling of alienation, of being without some of the most ordinary, trivial (and therefore
basic) cues of one’s culture of origin. As I planned my departure for Brazil in 1962, I could not
know just how naked I would feel without the cloak of my own language and culture. My sojourn
in Arembepe would be my fi rst trip outside the United States. I was an urban boy who had grown
up in Atlanta, Georgia, and New York City. I had little experience with rural life in my own country,
none with Latin America, and I had received only minimal training in the Portuguese language.
New York City direct to Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. Just a brief stopover in Rio de Janeiro; a longer visit
would be a reward at the end of fi eld work. As our prop jet approached tropical Salvador, I
couldn’t believe the whiteness of the sand. “That’s not snow, is it?” I remarked to a fellow fi eld
team member. . . . My fi rst impressions of Bahia were of smells—alien odors of ripe and decaying
mangoes, bananas, and passion fruit—and of swatting the ubiquitous fruit fl ies I had never seen
before, although I had read extensively about their reproductive behavior in genetics classes.
There were strange concoctions of rice, black beans, and gelatinous gobs of unidentifi able
DIVERSITY Even Anthropologists Get Culture Shock appreciating take part in many events and
processes we are observing and trying to comprehend. By participating, we may learn why people
fi nd such events meaningful, as we see how they are organized and conducted. In Arembepe,
Brazil, I learned about fi shing by sailing on the Atlantic with local fishers. I gave Jeep rides to
malnourished babies, to pregnant mothers, and once to a teenage girl possessed by a spirit. All
those people needed to consult specialists outside the village. I danced on Arembepe’s festive
occasions, drank libations commemorating new births, and became a godfather to a village girl.
Coffee was strong and sugar crude, and every tabletop had containers for toothpicks and for
manioc (cassava) fl our to sprinkle, like Parmesan cheese, on anything one might eat. I remember
oatmeal soup and a slimy stew of beef tongue in tomatoes. At one meal a disintegrating fi sh head,
eyes still attached, but barely, stared up at me as the rest of its body fl oated in a bowl of bright
orange palm oil. . . . I only vaguely remember my fi rst day in Arembepe. Unlike ethnographerswho have studied remote tribes in the tropical forests of interior South America or the highlands
of Papua New Guinea, I did not have to hike or ride a canoe for days to arrive at my field site.
Arembepe was not isolated relative to such places, only relative to every other place I had ever
been. . . . I do recall what happened when we arrived. There was no formal road into the village.
Entering through southern Arembepe, vehicles simply threaded their way around coconut trees,
following tracks left by automobiles that had passed previously. A crowd of children had heard us
coming, and they pursued our car through the village streets until we parked in front of our house,
near the central square. Our first few days in Arembepe were spent with children following us
everywhere. For weeks we had few moments of privacy. Children watched our every move
through our living room window. Occasionally one made an incomprehensible remark. Usually
they just stood there . . . The sounds, sensations, sights, smells, and tastes of life in northeastern
Brazil, and in Arembepe, slowly grew familiar . . . I grew accustomed to this world without Kleenex,
in which globs of mucus habitually drooped from the noses of village children whenever a cold
passed through Arembepe. A world where, seemingly without effort, women . . . carried 18-liter
kerosene cans of water on their heads, where boys sailed kites and sported at catching houseflies
in their bare hands, where old women smoked pipes, storekeepers offered cachaça (common rum)
at nine in the morning, and men played dominoes on lazy afternoons when there was no fishing. I
was visiting a world where human life was oriented toward water—the sea, where men fi shed,
and the lagoon, where women communally washed clothing, dishes, and their own bodies.
Most anthropologists have similar fi eld experiences. The common humanity of the student and
the studied, the ethnographer and the research community, makes participant observation
inevitable. Conversation, Interviewing, and Interview Schedules Participating in local life means
that ethnographers constantly talk to people and ask questions. As their knowledge of the local
language and culture increases, they understand more.
-According to the article, even anthropologists suffer culture shock. Culture shock
is the depression and anxiety experienced by many people when
they travel or move to a new social and cultural setting. . Based on
some of his experiences and the articles/videos reviewed in class how can we
avoid/cope with culture shock and respect/tolerate others. Write at least 250 words to
present your thoughts about this.