It gradually became apparent, however, that although the material aspects of that culture were externally different, and to our egotistical Western bias simpler, the people, their needs, and their pattern of meeting those needs work unquestionably the same, and to Schweitzer as an outsider, much could be learned about what he had left by examining what he had found. Some of the following points are directly from Schweitzer’s writings. Some were explicit in the oral tradition at Lambarene. Others were implicit or assumed by those who participated as coworkers. Still others are based upon observation of the community from first-hand experience. What follows is in part based upon the belief that people are basically the same wherever we find them along the longitudinal line of history (that is, regardless of date), Or wherever we find them horizontally (that is, geographically, culturally, or whatever other arbitrary designation we may choose). We are at all times in a learning situation, if we will put aside cultural bias (in so far as we can). It is a theater if we merely watch. It is a classroom if we participate and take notes. It is a laboratory if we examine variables and raise the question about what happens when those variables change. The warning of Dr. Lester Dragstedt always haunts us: "when you look for something in the laboratory, you have to be very careful or you will find it." |
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