Since anthropology is defined as the studies of culture –in a very simple
and general definition-, the anthropologist used to see everything different to
their own culture as something strange and worth of being studied. From this
point of view, a cultural shock can be defined as an aspect of a culture that
is different from ours and cannot be understood. This is very usual when we
visit another country or even, when we visit a non-urban place (as urban
people) in our own country.
For example, when my family and I visited northern
Argentina, my father asked for potatoes to dinner and the waiter told him that
it was one potato, and my father reply that he wanted at least two of them. The
waiter told him that they were big, but my father insists and when the waiter
brings the dinner to the table, we realized what he meant. The potatoes were
really big; my father couldn’t even eat one!
This can be funny, but there are
others cultural shock that can be really hard to face. For example, my friends
and I visited a non-urban place two weeks ago and the machismo was strong. The girls
were sexually harassed by men. For the men it was something normal, to say
things and to whistle when we walk in the town. I felt terrible because I
couldn’t do a thing to prevent it.
