"EDGEWALKERS: DEFUSING CULTURAL BOUNDARIES ON THE NEW GLOBAL FRONTIER."   Term Paper ID:30750 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Critique of Nina Boyd Krebs' book.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Critique of Nina Boyd Krebs' book. Her thesis that the USA is undergoing a profound cultural crisis. Mainstream versus alternative ethnic, social or spiritual groups. Variety of individual experience. The paradox of multiple identities, and walking the edge between two cultures. Analysis of edgewalking and personal narratives of edgewalkers. Paper Introduction: This research reviews the book Edgewalkers by Nina Boyd Krebs. Edgewalkers is Krebs's response to what she perceives as a profound cultural crisis in the United States. She refers to the "morass" of an American experience in which the dominant, or mainstream culture, seems capable of literally swallowing up the myriad individual cultures that contribute to it; the melting pot theory is one aspect of this (15f). But she takes the view that acknowledgment and even nurturing of the individual cultures of discrete contribution to the "pot" is a meaningful possibility, not least because the image of the pot has the effect of limiting outlook and perspective of the realities of lived culture. In order to establish a context for such acknowledgment and nurture, Krebs pursued the personal narratives of a number of people whom she describes as edgew Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. The mark of effective development within the cycle of experiencemay be the ability to notice cultural difference, difficulty, complexity,and possibility, and to pursue those attributes even though the morecomfortable action might be to retreat into infantile security about whatone knows. Far Hills, N.J.: New Horizon P, 1999. Edgewalkers: Defusing Cultural Boundaries on the New Global Frontier. The relevance of the concept of life cycle experience to Krebs's workis that the project of transition into and out of cultures may take placeat different times of life for different people. She refers to the "morass" of anAmerican experience in which the dominant, or mainstream culture, seemscapable of literally swallowing up the myriad individual cultures thatcontribute to it; the melting pot theory is one aspect of this (15f). This does not mean that the people whose stories Krebs uses in thebook necessarily have a pollyannaish outlook on life or that they may nothave feelings that, turned in a different way, might connect with social,cultural, or racial animus. In order to establish acontext for such acknowledgment and nurture, Krebs pursued the personalnarratives of a number of people whom she describes as edgewalkers--thoseindividuals who function and even thrive on the boundary between mainstreamculture and another culture-group to which they were born as a matter ofethnicity,(e.g. Theedgewalker who is culturally competent (14 f) picks his or her fights,chooses where traditions should or need not be challenged while also beingalert to opportunities to challenge undesirable aspects of a given culture(sexism, racism, and similar hatreds), mainstream or not (169-7 ). I began to get clues about how to help people who are experiencing culture shock in their own culture, but don't recognize it as such, as they move back and forth (Krebs 168). This also works the other way, to the degree membersof the mainstream may function in the boundaries of alternative social,spiritual, or ethnic groups. The difficulty of "translat[ing]culture in and out of the region" of origin may be pronounced. . . Nor does it mean that they switch roles whenmoving from one culture to another, a sham that Krebs, whose own heritageis Native American, says can lead to great psychoemotional cost. Edgewalking is not acquiescence in being forced to restart one'sfundamental conscience in the experiential style of a child but rather adeliberate taking-hold of a strategy that can be located in such a style.It is an active, not passive, way of being and functions as a mechanism ofcultural aptitude and openness to growth. The result of this kind of dynamic is that, although Krebsresists calling her book a cross-cultural exercise, it may serve as ahighly useful cross-cultural bridge. Works CitedKrebs, Nina Boyd. The embrace does not automatically fix everything about edgewalkers'experience; they may be challenged by the mainstream culture to (say) beless ethnic, or by an ethnic culture to (say) not challenge 14th-centurycustoms and practices that would be outmoded in any modern society. But this may be taking place at the verytime that these children are on the brink of having to negotiate betweenthe familiar culture of childhood and the mainstream culture that willcontain their working lives. A statementfrom a woman minister born in American Appalachia and educated at Harvardwho worked as a missionary in Brazil may be most revealing about thepersonal impact associated with the deliberate embrace of an edgewalkingethos: Part of what I learned in Brazil about how to speak a new language was to become a child again. Butshe takes the view that acknowledgment and even nurturing of the individualcultures of discrete contribution to the "pot" is a meaningful possibility,not least because the image of the pot has the effect of limiting outlookand perspective of the realities of lived culture. Thus potential for conflict, withoutacknowledgment of paradox, may emerge. To the degree Krebs looks at a variety of individual experience comingfrom many social and ethnic cultures, it can be characterized as cross-cultural. But she is not just interested in identifying multiple cultures;she seeks to get the inside story of the experience of walking the edge, orboundaries, of cultures in the American context. Elder daughters maybe expected to assume maternal household duties, and elder sons may beexpected to support the family. Tiger Woods) and in which their heartfelt personalexperience may be grounded, whatever the structure of their mainstreamexperience (xii-xiii). It may include the discarding ofclosely held, rigid beliefs or the adoption of insights into the experienceof others, alien to one's own culture, who may be obliged to come to termswith it and who may need some acculturated individual to notice theirattempt. In some cultures, aschildren grow older, expectations of them may increase. It doesmean that edgewalkers appear to have deliberately acknowledged the paradoxof multiple identities and embraced or at minimum acknowledged eachidentity in the other's worlds, "walking the edge between two cultures inthe same persona" (9). Edgewalking, in Krebs'sformulation, entails competent movement of an individual between cultureswith which he or she is either identified or in which he or she ismaterially positioned. She cites people "who use their intelligence,creativity and stamina to solve problems, promote harmony and find a betterway," as against people whose identity politics may foster politicalgridlock, ethnic/gang rivalry, or indeed multiculturalism, which over theyears has proved to be more divisive than unifying as a principle of socialorganization (15-16). This research reviews the book Edgewalkers by Nina Boyd Krebs.Edgewalkers is Krebs's response to what she perceives as a profoundcultural crisis in the United States. 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