Speaker Donald Brown

Duration: 2 minutes and 53 seconds

Country: United States

Language: English

License: Public Domain

Genre: None

Views: 867 (666 embedded)

Posted by: pangea on May 14, 2008

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[Music]
Greetings. Here's my story:
As a young anthropologist
Donald Brown. Anthropologist
I conduted doctoral research in
the South-East Asian state of Brunei.
One day there, three young men and I were seated and conversing
on a river front. We were alone.
Tiring of my seat, I slipped down to sit on the walkway.
The young men quickly dropped to the walkway too.
I realized at once that they did it not because
they too were uncomfortable, but because in Brunei culture
it is not polite to sit higher than another person
unless you considerably outrank him.
Now it was not my custom to be worried about seating levels
and it was informal anyway, so I protested
urging them to resume their seats.
They said it wouldn't look nice
I said there was no one around to notice
One of them closed the matter by pointing a quarter-mile across the river
to where people just might see us.
For years, I related this story to illustrate difference
to show the extremetiy of Brunei concern with rank.
But in later years, I began to think about human universals
the features common to all humans.
I then realized that the story I told is prevaded with universals
The young men, like people everywhere
were concerned with what other people thought about them.
With politeness, and with rules.
Furthermore, the exchange between them and me
involved the universals of language, gesture, tone of voice
body language, facial expressions, conversational turn-taking
memory, assessment of context, explanation, and more.
In my lectures, I had ignored those entirely common
and largely unconcious features of human life.
Instead, I had focused on a mere quantitative difference
between the young men and me.
After all, high and low symbolize rank in the west too.
There's a lesson to be learned from my story
but first, let us begin to see
some of the hundreds of Human universals that I have documented.
[Music]
[Numerous universals flash on the screen, including:
Romantic love, baby talk, affection, conflict, cooperation
folklore, gossip, disgust, surprise. insulting, jokes
magic, medecine, possessiveness, promises, shelter
tools, territorality, prohibition of rape, hope]
Here's the lesson:
Humans are, and must be sensitive to difference
but too much focus on difference lurks behind
way too much human conflict.
Today, celebrating what we all have in common
you should find hope in realizing how rich and numerous
those commonalitites are.
[Applause]

Speaker Donald Brown

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