On Being a Good Neighbor, or Things I Learned in the Field

Abstract

This article explores the possibility of anthropology as Bildung, or self-cultivation. As an educational mode, Bildung is focused on the moral education of students, encouraging them to broaden themselves in their encounters with others. I will discuss this process in terms of a lesson I learned from the highland Maya about being a good neighbor and will demonstrate how neighborliness can offer students a possibility for their own self-cultivation. [neighbor, socius, play, Bildung, fieldwork] Some years ago I was asked in a job interview what the value of anthropology is for education. "Why should a student take anthropology courses?" Thrilled to have been challenged with such a blunt question (and relieved that sitting before me was a potential colleague who wanted to get right to the point), my answer then, as now, is that I believe anthropology's greatest educational benefit is in its ability to present us with possibilities of being. Anthropology not only offers us information about the world but also opportunities for broadening ourselves in it. This, of course, is not its only important contribution-after all, it plays a very significant role in bringing diverse points of view to the policy table, in challenging our own values, and in providing a voice for people whose voices have been marginalized. But it seems to me that these issues only become relevant to policy makers and other "stakeholders" when they can find themselves somewhere in that other world and, moreover, when they can broaden themselves in their encounter with it.In thinking about anthropology in this way I am returning, in a sense, to the spirit of the old 18th-and 19th-century German educational philosophy of "Bildung" (from German bilden, to form, to make) in which education is viewed as an active pursuit of selfcultivation. In Bildung, each encounter with a new idea becomes an opportunity for the formation of a self, as well as for transcending one's limited circumstances of habit (Gadamer 1989(Gadamer [1960:17). In this article I will explore the possibilities of anthropology as Bildung. In doing so, I will draw on a lesson that I learned in the field from my highland Maya colleagues and friends about being a good neighbor. I contend that this kind of lesson should be brought into the classroom-not merely as content to be delivered but as a possibility for our students' own cultivation. A Brief Sketch of BildungI would like to begin by briefly sketching the contours of Bildung as it developed in Germany during the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. The goal in this case is not necessarily to provide a thorough critique of the concept-the limits of space and time in an article of this kind prohibit much more than an overview, anyway-but rather to give some sense of how Bildung yokes the educational process to a concern with moral growth and selfcultivation. 1 As a secular educational philosophy Bildung first became prominent in the works of the

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“…Because students are often focused on the separation of personal and professional identities, it can take a while before they experience that informal conversations can lead to valuable research contacts and information related to their research questions. The way this happens often resonates the idea of “play” as discussed by Ricoeur (1981) and Turner (1986), and applied by Stephens (2014). Stephens follows Ricoeur’s and Turner’s idea of play as something that is transformative and takes place in the subjunctive (liminal) phase (Stephens 2014).…”

“…The way this happens often resonates the idea of “play” as discussed by Ricoeur (1981) and Turner (1986), and applied by Stephens (2014). Stephens follows Ricoeur’s and Turner’s idea of play as something that is transformative and takes place in the subjunctive (liminal) phase (Stephens 2014). Play, then, reveals something to us.…”

“…Engaging in this other, and at times discomforting, everyday life, is crucial in the separation from their status as “student.” Hence, students enter the process of building rapport and relating to the Other through what Stephens would call “making oneself a good neighbour” (Stephens 2014). In line with Stephens we consider that students can learn a lot through “neighborliness.” The category of the neighbor transcends other social categories, such as job title or social status, in the service of a more direct relationship with others based on care, compassion, and respect (Stephens 2014, following Ricoeur 1965).…”

Why personal values matter: values, colorblindness, and social justice action orientation

“…Interventions could also be done to expand participants' conception of who is in their in-group by having them think of other in-groups they belong to aside from their family and friends such as work teams, clubs, college affiliations, communities of residence, etc. By expanding one's conception of an in-group or "who one's neighbor is", the positive feelings of care and connection that are constrained to one's in-group may be extended to other individuals that have been marginalized (Stephens, 2014).…”