Botswana
Kwi lives in a hot desert, so he doesn’t wear clothes. He has no
house—his family travels from place to place to find food.
What we learn makes the difference
Kwi is six years old. He lives in the Kalahari Desert in Botswana,
Africa. He belongs to a group of people called Bushmen.
Danny is six, too. He lives on the coast of Maine, in the Northeastern
United States.
It is always hot in Kwi’s desert, so he never wears anything but a
string of beads around his neck. Even his parents and other grown-ups
wear few clothes.
Where Danny lives it is often cold. He and his parents have to wear
enough clothes to keep warm.
Kwi has no house. His family moves from place to place, looking for
food. Kwi eats wild animals that his father hunts, and roots and melons
that his mother finds. He has never tasted, nor even seen, a fish.
Danny’s family has lived in the same house for many years. Living near
the ocean, they eat fish often.
Most of their food is bought from stores.
Since he was a baby, Kwi has been taught the ways of Bushmen by his
parents and other people of his group. He has learned all the beliefs,
stories, songs,
United States
Danny lives in a house with his family. He goes to school. His father
works for money to buy food and other things the family needs.
and dances that are important to Bushmen. He will never go to school nor
learn how to read or write.
Danny learns many things from his parents, too. But he also learns
things at church and school. His religion, his games—even his ways of
thinking about things—are not the same as Kwi’s.
Kwi and Danny look very different. But it isn’t the color of their skin
or hair, or the things they wear, that makes them different. It’s their
way of life— their culture—that really makes them different. And
culture is a learned way of life.
If Danny had been brought up by Kwi’s family, he would have learned to
live the way Bushmen live. He would like the foods they like. He would
do the things they do. He would believe what they believe.
If Kwi had been brought up by Danny’s family, he would have learned to
live the way Danny’s family lives. He would like their foods. He would
do the things they do. He would believe what they believe.
People aren’t different. It’s ways of life that are different. We learn
our way of life—our culture— from the people with whom we live and
grow up.
