Working out of two mindsets: critical methodology and PNG village traditional ways
Patrick F. Gesch
Abstract
The article sets out to describe two different ways of thinking and operating that are found in Papua New Guinea today. It seeks to put them in relationship to one another, and to clarify their areas of operation and validity. The different ways are termed the Village Traditional mindset and the Critical Methodological mindset. Although modern villagers are often charged with simply confusing aspects of the modern world by trying to react to them out of traditional premises, it is here rather proposed that the two mindsets are doing different things; they are trying to answer different questions put to reality. The village viewpoint seeks to account for social and personal values involved in a set of events. The critically methodological view wants to explain the events as separate from human involvement and as relationships established to exist among things in themselves. It is probably necessary to hold both views separately and alternately at the present time. The ideas of Robin Horton and experiences of dialogue between religious traditions are used to enlighten this discussion, and examples are given where the two mindsets function together.
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