Mini-case 1.2

In 1970s, anthropologist John Grayzel conducted fieldwork in Mali among FulBe herders. The purpose was to collect data about grazing resources, which included “the sale of animals” and sizes, movement and composition of herds. Later Grayzel discovered diversity among people; some did not contribute to livestock production, others even had a “negative effect”. This was explained by pulaade, code of life of FulBe ethnic group. Pulaade included “four main values”: intelligence, beauty, wealth and independence. FulBe considered themselves superior to others in terms of intelligence and beauty, and tended to be wealthy and independent. All these explained herder’s behavior, like “Pursuit of wealth or beauty” and “basic desire for independence”. The above-mentioned project was inconsistent with FulBe rules “toward the independent exercise of intelligence in pursuit of wealth, beauty, and emotional satisfaction”.

In first and second mini-cases Nolan showed how foreign people do not realize particular aspect of other culture at once. In both cases, it took for a while to fully understand the difference.