Week Two

He was going to embrace him, and those great Princes who accompanied Montezuma held back Cortés by the arm so that he should not embrace him, for they considered it an indignity. (Stephen Schwartz, Victors and Vanquished- The March Inward, 135)

I think we can all agree that Cortés made some mistakes during his visit with Montezuma. In my opinion, the biggest mistake that he made was ignoring the culture that was so obviously in place. When Cortés chided Montezuma in regards to the way they worship, I was appalled by his lack of understanding of the culture. No, I don't think that human sacrifice to idols is particularly effective worship, but it's not quite apropos to tell someone they're going to hell. This was a pretty glaring example of cultural misunderstanding, but not every example in the text is so obvious, and that's why I like the quote above. There really is no way that Cortés could have known that hugging was undignified, because his culture was (slightly) more like this video:   

 I imagine that not everyone in Spain at that time was as willing to hug strangers as the video portrays, but my point is that hugging was (and is) a sign of friendship and good will. At least it is in some cultures. But in others- like Montezuma's- it's not appropriate or appreciated. In class, we talked about this idea, that there are varying cultures even within the Latin American culture. I think it's so important to remember that culture changes everywhere you go. For example, I grew up in Nebraska and moved to Utah for college. Despite the fact that they're both in the United States, you better believe that I discovered many cultural differences. 


Ultimately, everyone is different. The culture of one country is going to be different than that of another country. There will even be different sub-cultures within that country. We are all stuck behind the lens of culture that we grew up with. But as we try to understand these different cultures and ideas, we will have our eyes opened to a great wealth of knowledge and new ways of life. As I consider this, though, I realize that some things we just won't understand. And that reminds me of this video:

  

Sometimes people are just different.