Cultural diversity – AVATAR

When we talk about cultural diversity it is important to talk about what culture is. UNESCO (2001) defines culture as “the set of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features of society or a social group, that encompasses, not only art and literature, but lifestyles, ways of living together, value systems, traditions and beliefs”.

When discussions around culture arise, it’s always relevant to consider also the obstacles to intercultural communication. A good example of an intercultural threat to dialogue is in the movie AVATAR, a cinematic masterpiece that James Cameron offered to the big screen in 2009. The movie is a technical marvel for its time, with a truly immersive sci-fi 3D experience. But AVATAR is a lot more than just cinema innovation. It’s the story of human beings trying to colonize another planet, Pandora, as natural resources on planet Earth are about to be exhausted. AVATAR is able to leave a magnificent cultural footprint unlike any other movie around the topic, because the borders were expanded, the dispute is not between countries on the same planet, rather between planets.

Pandora isn’t some distant planet many lightyears away it’s just a reflection of earth. It’s enriched with the religions we know, the colonialism and liberation we’ve seen throughout history; the cultures we live with. It’s also a wake-up call, a reminder for all of us of the dangers of greed, unconsciousness, disconnection, insensitivity, violence, and human beings’ arrogance, both globally and personally.

The movie covers a variety of relevant topics, such as race relations and race domination, revolution, destruction of natural habitats for the sake of greed and money. AVATAR is also openly critical of how colonialism has affected everyone and everything, destroying a way of life that should have been preserved and respected. Humans show to have greedy and arrogant behaviors, totally disrespectful of another culture, whose customs are very different, they have a special sense of community, and can create special bonds with animals and the nature surrounding them.

This is why the movie AVATAR is so worth mentioning from an intercultural perspective: because it brings up the issues that may arise from the lack of consideration of cultures other than ours. And here are the main differences in the two cultural behaviors with respect to the people and the environment.

Selfishness VS Empathy

Selfishness as a synonym of egocentrism is embodied in a lack of consideration for others, in the prevalence of their own interests over the interests of others. Opposing selfishness and empathy concepts in the movie, we can analyze the behavior of humans and Na’vi. Nothing stops humans in their goal to extract the precious minerals from Pandora, even the merciless extermination of an entire population. Na’vi’s empathy, on the contrary, manifests itself in the appraisal of the life of the other creatures. This is clearly seen in the episode where Jake Sully thanks Neytiri for saving his life by killing animals, but their death is a tragedy for her. She says a prayer over their bodies and asks for forgiveness.

“Hi, how are you doing?” VS “I SEE YOU”

Greeting ritual of Na’vi “I see you” is not about just seeing a person in front of you, but it is rather “I see into you, I feel and understand you”. This ability in seeing others in a spiritual sense highlights the idea of their interconnectedness with each other as people. This greeting ritual is diametrically opposed to one of the humans who can ask how the other person is, but not caring much about the answer they receive.

Resource appraisal VS resource exploitation

Considering the way humans and Na’vi use resources to achieve their goals can also help to clarify their cultural differences. Let’s take the example of Na’vi hunting. They are using different types of animals to fly or ride, but it is difficult to call it “using” because they create a partnership with these animals and treat them accordingly. When the hunt is over they pray and thank the animals they killed for their sacrifice. The amount of animals they kill also has to be taken into consideration as they only hunt for food and not causing unnecessary harm. Humans, on the contrary, are even ready to neglect the safety of their troops to complete the mission.

It doesn’t come as a surprise that the Na’vi seem so familiar. The destruction of the Tree of Souls would lead to the destruction of all of Na’vi. A story we’ve heard before of Yggdrasil (axis mundi) from Norse folklore. The Na’vi themselves, with their tall stature and their blue hued skin are a parallel to the Hindu God Krishna. The reincarnations along the movie speaks so loudly of what Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, and Sikhs believe.

Even though some critics call Cameron’s Pandora a utopia, we can still make a few comparisons of the two different cultures. In S. Brent Rodriguez Plate’s words, “it begs, borrows, and steals from a variety of long standing human stories, puts them through the grinder, and comes up with something new.” While the movie conveys an overtly progressive social justice message, we could also analyze how these cultural aspects can potentially affect the mission achievement, and the overall performance. Transfering the film’s moral to the context of international management highlights how serious could be the consequences of the underestimation of other cultures and cultural differences.

We want to give a very special thanks to Valentina De Vivo, Maria Evseeva and Hafsa Shakil, students of the Dipartimento di Management, Master in Business Administration in Università degli Studi di Torino, for sharing their project and give us the possibility to publish it.