Introduction: Where is the line between stereotypes and cultural associations? As mediators, we are told that we need to be aware of potential cultural differences between parties. Yet, S.Y. Bowland points out that it can be dangerous to have preconceived notions about the cultural assumptions that we make about how people from certain cultures will behave.

This rough transcript provides a text alternative to audio. We apologize for occasional errors and unintelligible sections (which are marked with ???).

Stereotypes and Cultural Associations
S.Y. Bowland
Director of The Practitioners Research and Scholarship Institute (PRASI) and mediator, based in Atlanta, Georgia
Interviewed by
Julian Portilla
2003
A: Sometimes all the things that you were told about a culture, all the things that you were told about a group, can completely go out the window. I was working with a black family and a mixed family, and in the mixed family was an Asian woman. She was the one that was raising her voice and saying, "Look me in the eye," "Talk to me face-to-face," "Talk to me woman-to-woman." And on the other side was a black woman, who was giving her the silent treatment and saying, "Talk to the hand." So clearly, when we look at what we're told, it doesn't always offer the insight that we need.

Q: That Asians are quiet, that they won't look you in the eye, that there's a lot of context to what they say and there's a lot of symbolism... That, in that case, was completely false?

A: Absolutely, absolutely. I think that that's why it's important, because a lot of people from different groups have been together long enough that new cultures and new ways of working are emerging. People will do a lot of different things that you don't expect. You have to figure out how to engage the people at the table in the best way that you can, and that's not only going to come through in what you say. It's also going to come through in what you do and how you behave. People from many cultures will look at you not for what you say you are, but for what you do.
Beyond Intractability Version II
Copyright © 2003-2006 The Beyond Intractability Project
Beyond Intractability is a Registered Trademark of the University of Colorado
Project Acknowledgements

The Beyond Intractability Knowledge Base Project
Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess, Co-Directors and Editors
c/o Conflict Research Consortium, University of Colorado
Campus Box 580, Boulder, CO 80309
Phone: (303)492-1635; Fax: (303)492-2154; Contact