Good Intentions

By Jim Citron
This article was printed in Abroad View Fall 2005

History is full of examples of people who tried to do good deeds for those whose cultures they did not understand, only to fail. My close friend, the late Ernesto Orellana Villers, who worked for many years at Mexico’s National Museum of Anthropology, used to illustrate this point with the following true anecdote.

A Western-trained doctor was assigned to complete his required community service practicum at a government-run health clinic in a small indigenous village in Mexico. Shortly after he began his assignment, the number of patients coming to the clinic dropped dramatically. An investigation was quickly launched. The investigating team asked the doctor to describe the delivery of a baby that he had recently performed. He detailed every aspect of the procedure. Each task had been performed according to standard protocol and the healthy newborn baby had been sent home with his healthy mother. Puzzled, an investigator asked, “And what did you do with the umbilical cord?”

“I disposed of it carefully” said the physician.

“That’s it,” declared the investigator.

According to local practices in this community, the umbilical cord was considered sacred; it represented the newborn baby’s sprit. Where it was buried after the birth was crucial. If the baby was a boy, the umbilical cord was buried in the field behind the family’s home in order to encourage a prosperous harvest. If the baby was a girl, the umbilical cord was buried under the house to bring peace and love to the home. In this case, however, the doctor had simply thrown out this sacred object, disrespecting the baby and his family in such a blatant way that word had quickly spread and no one in the community had returned to the hospital.

Good will goes far in making the world a better place, but knowledge of the cultural practices of those you want to help can be just as important.

JAMES L. CITRON is the Director of Study Abroad at Colby College.