Article
Сквозь призму традиции народа аватиме (Гана): от детства к взрослости
Avatime is a small people (about 24 thousand) living in the south-east of Ghana. The author’s first expedition to areas inhabited by Avatime took place in 2011 and lasted three months. Ethnographic material was collected, interviews with representatives of different social strata were conducted, students of primary and secondary schools in one of the villages were questioned. The second expedition in 2012-2013 also lasted for 3 months. There were meetings with the elders and chiefs of villages. We collected material which allowed us to keep in writing form the oral history of people.
The article tells about the expedition of a group of managers from the post-Soviet states to Western Africa (Benin, Togo, and Ghana), in October – November 2012. The expedition organized jointly by the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the “DBA-Concept” scientific and consulting group, was led by researchers – the article co-authors. The expedition’s aims were both educational and research: diving into the worlds of African cultures, its participants searched and found in them parallels with their own professional and life experience which were to accelerate their further career and personality progress in the future. There is much to be learned about the importance of the continent’s culture for the present-day globalizing culture from what main “discoveries” these educated, successful Africa first-time visitors did.
The results of cross-cultural research of implicit theories of innovativeness among students and teachers, representatives of three ethnocultural groups: Russians, the people of the North Caucasus (Chechens and Ingushs) and Tuvinians (N=804) are presented. Intergroup differences in implicit theories of innovativeness are revealed: the ‘individual’ theories of innovativeness prevail among Russians and among the students, the ‘social’ theories of innovativeness are more expressed among respondents from the North Caucasus, Tuva and among the teachers. Using the structural equations modeling the universal model of values impact on implicit theories of innovativeness and attitudes towards innovations is constructed. Values of the Openness to changes and individual theories of innovativeness promote the positive relation to innovations. Results of research have shown that implicit theories of innovativeness differ in different cultures, and values make different impact on the attitudes towards innovations and innovative experience in different cultures.