From: Olga Bourlin (fauxever@sprynet.com)
Date: Wed Aug 29 2001 - 23:32:25 MDT
From: "Lee Corbin" <lcorbin@tsoft.com>
> Harvey writes
>
> > However, I would be very curious to see any references that also
> > claim such a thing. Are there any studies or references to support
> > your assertion that "Cubans" aren't as punctual as "Mormons"?
>
> How Latin Americans view punctuality as opposed to Mormons can
> be found in the works of Edward T. Hall, e.g., "The Silent Language".
I've had that book for decades (maybe it is becoming outdated?). A few
years ago I was in Spain and Portugal, and got the distinct impression that
the traditional "siesta" hour was on the wane. Westernization, tourist
dollars, and (at the time of my visit) the advent of the Euro dollar were
all having an impact. Books like Hall's have a short shelf life, IMO -
consider that it was written before all the technical advances we've gone
through in the last couple of decades (before CNN, even). And in Italy
(which I visited just last October) Internet cafes are springing up in
medieval buildings - and Italy's shopping malls are indistinguishable from
the ones in the United States. I'm not saying Hall's book is completely
irrelevant, but it has lost some of its relevancy through the years, and
will probably keep losing even more relevance (at an accelerated rate) in
the years to come.
Olga
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