ABSTRACT
Experience in the field has told us that" ... digging a well in villages where irrigation is communal (may present problems in the long run?). For example, a new well can shift the power from a community to one the landowner. This action may strengthen the group paid to dig it or create divisiveness between indigenous populations or give the impression that you ... do not understand what is going on in the culture or that you have unknowingly sided with one element or another. Yet, all you were trying to do is to provide water to a community," recites General McChrystal (The Economist 2009: 31 ). Understanding cultures and applying assistance is a common
problem among organization members who are trying to improve the developing world. How do we go about understanding local values? Why should we take the time to find this out? How do we make changes that indigenous communities want to maintain and take ownership of? What possible value could this add and is it worth my time? Cultural Anthropologists have addressed these very issues for decades and have built a reservoir of data on cultures all over the world. Learn how Anthropologists have grappled with these very issues in the past and in many cases, made changes to communities that members want to own in the Building Cross Cultural Trust and Change: how do I obtain and implement local knowledge? Anthropologists have been working with indigenous communities worldwide and analyzing cultures according to the local context for decades. This paper discusses anthropological concepts to establish a common ground. Ethnographic studies are discussed from Ghana, West Africa, and Guatemala. Applied anthropology in the form of medical anthropology is illustrated (Benedict 1934; Mead 1931; Boaz and Powell 1966; Peaples and Bailey 2008).
