Coaching with the Brain in Mind

CHAPTER 1

Bedrock—Ontology

The anthropologist and her American university student had to walk for an hour after the Jeep that had brought them from Guatemala City could go no farther. They followed their native guide up and down paths through the mountains until they came to a village made up of mud huts set in a circle. In Guatemala before the civil war that made such visits too dangerous, the group would find that each village had its own typical costume, type of products that it would sell to other villages, and even its own dialect or language. The anthropologist was investigating the ravages of kwashiorkor—protein malnutrition that, in some parts of the country, left four of five toddlers dead after they switched from mother’s milk to the corn gruel that was considered the best thing parents could give to a child. Centuries of mistrust of strangers, probably beginning even before the Spanish invasion, meant that people did not believe Western doctors who told them they should give their children cow’s milk instead of their corn gruel. As she did not know how to resolve the problem, the anthropologist was there to listen instead of give advice.

A light mist had been falling, and the sky was overcast. One woman was brave enough to emerge from her mud-covered home, bringing two child-sized chairs for the anthropologist and her student to sit on. These seats were meant as a sign of honor. The woman, several children of different ages, and the guide hunkered down on the muddy ...