Case Studies

A foreigner workinig in a Two-Thirds World country purchased a large desk lamp from a Chinese merchant who promised it would be delivered the next afternoon. That didn’t happen. The foreigner enquired why not. The merchant told him the delivery man was sick and the delivery might be in a few days.  The foreigner offered […]

A Western missionary came to live in a Two-Thirds World country. Unlike most houses in his neighbourhood, his did not have walls. Dogs were not valued in this society but the missionary, a lover of dogs, had one and furthermore allowed it to run loose.
When the local postmaster told him he was asking people for help because a neighbourhood […]

There was a pinkeye epidemic among the Motilones, a tribal group of Indians in a remote Colombian jungle area. The traditional healer (”witch doctor”) had been unable to bring healing through her incantations, potions and prayers. Missionary Bruce Olson offered her Terramycin as a possible cure. She rejected it, saying, “You are white. Your ways […]

In a Two-Thirds World country, a “mother and her son had been visiting friends, and find that it is too late to get transportation back to their province. So within hearing of her friends, she comments to her son, “Son, we are very poor. We cannot go back to the province today. Maybe we have […]

“In one of my overseas stints, I was president of a Bible school. Working late on a Friday, I noticed the grass had not been cut. The church used our buildings on Sunday, and I was feeling a bit ashamed to have them come to a ragged-looking place. Everyone else had gone home, so I […]

The renowned English anthropologist, Radcliff-Brown once went to China on a fact-finding mission, accompanied by a young Chinese assistant. It was before World War II. When they came across a farmer’s family performing rites in honour of ancestors with food and wine, the master anthropologist teased his assistant and asked him: ‘When you Chinese people […]

A young Papua New Guinea student was about to visit Australia on a cultural exchange program. Two Australians teaching in PNG invited the student to their home for dinner, so that they might tutor her in Australian table manners. They didn’t so much teach her Australian cultural conventions and “rules”, but how to use such […]

Before …………… was invaded and conquered by …………….., not a single ……………….. had ever done anything to leave his name in the pages of history. Roads were built by ……………….., towns developed, agricultural methods advanced, and the arts were promoted. In ……………. (time) the ………………. withdrew from …………………. Within fifty years the towns of …………………… […]