De Culturis
Mundi

You probably saw all the news hype about the little Philippino boy - Luc Cagadoc - who has been disciplined in his school’s cafeteria because allegedly he eats like a pig…

The school board put out a news release saying it’s a disciplinary and etiquette problem, not an (inter)cultural one. And the principal was quoted saying he just wants the students to eat “correctly”…

Not intercultural?

Boy, they can’t be more wrong. You don’t really need a PhD in cultural anthropology or a related field to realize that applying “correct” and “incorrect” labels to the behaviour of a person from a different cultural background is the typical case for ethnocentrism.

In any basic course of cross-cultural communication, cultural anthropology or international business etc. one of the first things taught is about the very relative nature of what could be called as “etiquette”. The norms of the accepted social behaviour are par excellence defined by the culture. Even the occasional tourist can tell you anecdotal evidence about the cultural differences when it comes about human behaviour.

A brief free lesson: one of the cultural categories (or institutions) among others like economy, kinship, religion, political/social organization, communication - is something called justice or law. It encompasses the official laws (usually written), the rules of behaviour and the rights and obligations of a member in a culture.
A “sub-chapter” of the rules of behaviour would be what you call the etiquette and in an even narrower approach: the table manners.

The example below may sound funny at the first reading, however it shows exactly how the ethnocentrism works in both directions: Westerners abroad frequently show contempt for those who eat with their fingers. On the other hand, a foreign student in an American restaurant expressed disgust at the idea of having to use spoons and forks that had been inside the mouths of others. Both judgements have been made about another culture solely based on what is perceived as “correct” in one’s own culture.

Maybe the school board from Marguerite Bourgeoys should send their employees to a mandatory cross-cultural communication seminar offered on these pages..