5 - Cultural diversity

Summary

DIVERSITIES OF CULTURE

In 1900 the French anthropologist Topinard maintained that the various ‘races’ differed in their propensity to lie. He identified regions in France prone to lying, and also wrote of ‘the cheating Italian, the hypocritical Englishman, the Greek without good faith, the Turk incapable of keeping his word’. Further:

The Asiatics, the Japanese, the Chinese, the Siamese, show bad faith, and are much disposed to make deceitful promises when they struggle with the English and the Germans. It is necessary to add that they can be of good faith when they feel that they are not threatened.

(Larson 1932:51)

These evaluations tell us more about contemporary French stereotypes of other national characters than about the groups labelled so dismissively. Earlier Herbert Spencer (1892:400–409) made similar sweeping statements about the worldwide diversity in lying. There is no evidence for the causal link assumed by Topinard between propensity to lie and ‘racial’ type. His comments do however draw attention to the variations between one culture and another in attitudes towards lying and the incidence of telling lies. Although in the West, as well as in many non-Western cultures, deceit and lying are in general regarded as reprehensible, the evidence already presented shows how this generalization has many exceptions; for example, the San Blas Kuna, of northeastern Panama, are said to ‘enjoy deceiving each other’ (Howe and Sherzer 1986:684).