Eugene, Eva and Kathryn,
Thank you for your kind comments. I've sent the message below with my thanks
yesterday but it came back to me stating that "host unknown." So, here it is
again:
I tend to agree with you, Eugene, culture is one of the possible
interpretations of ambiguity in relations with other people. However, I am
not sure that culture is the reason for making ambiguities "problematic."
Unless there is a general tendency in a specific culture to standardize, find
problematic individual and cultural differences. You see, where I grew up,
individual and cultural differences were taken for granted. This expectation
and anticipation, I guess, was the reason why when ambiguity was experienced
more strongly than usual, it stimulated my curiosity and desire to learn
more, to understand better, if possible, the person or the situation.
Kathryn, I'm not quite sure which reference you're interested in. Is it the
one regarding the Cheyennes? Or any of the other cultural groups (Chinese,
Japanese, Kapinga)? I have written this paper more than 10 years ago, when I
was a doctoral student, and I doubt that I still have all the references. Of
the top of my head, if my memory doesn't fail me, I believe the
anthropologist's name was Strauss (1982?). If this is the reference that
you're looking for, I'll do my best to dig it out from wherever it's buried.
Doris.
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