Time...
Sunday, July 06, 2008
Ouro Preto, MG
There is a real difference to the experience of time, here in Minas Gerais. Years ago as a graduate student in New Mexico, I read and studied about different conceptions and uses of time. When in Ouro Preto, I feel like I am walking about amongst the footnotes in an Edward T. Hall text.
I am someone who derives from a culture, where everything is marked by our watches. Where everything is set by calendar or Palm pilot, even a visit to your family must be marked weeks in advance. We are obsessed by time (it being linked to money) in a way that I think is not so good for us. Here the person in the moment generally takes precedence and is considered more important than the meeting. You would never tell someone that you had to go; you allow the conversation to finish first.
Here a, reunião marked for 2pm, may start at 3. The only problem for me, when I lived here was that there were always ½ of the people there at the time marked, and another would show up later. After more than 14 years of traveling in Brasil including two visiting professorships, I am still to understand the meeting schedule subtleties in Brasil. Classes, medical appointments and busses all manage to run on time. The rest is, how shall I say, is wonderfully flexible and relaxed. Things are set by, declarations and greetings such as:
“vamos a jantar hoje”?
“vamos!”
Without any time being set, just an agreement, and then a short phone call around 8pm that initiates the visit, or decision to meet in a restaurante or boteco.
The other part that puts wrench in my anthropological observations is that in São Paulo, the world’s 4th largest city, and arguably one of the most congested transit wise, people show up on time, as in California. But here in Ouro Preto, where it takes less than 15 minutes to cross town on bus or lotação, people are chronically late, or it may be that I am chronically challenged.
I am not sure this, stress inducing devotion to clocks and schedules, is all that healthy or wise. You see the main reason that folks are late here, and that I recognize is without a doubt a values laden term, is because of their sweetness. You see, it is impossible for me, after being away for more than 2 years as visiting professor, to walk down the street with out encountering someone I know. Here it is just plane silly to have a car, as far as I am concerned. But you do encounter the following linguistic gymnastics, as payment for the liberty from having to care for the four-wheeled internal combustion device that we are devoted to maintaining and caring for:
“Oi, Daniel! Tudo bom? Voce sumiu?”
“Tudo bem, Dona Felicides, como vai?”
This necessarily initiates a ten minute conversation that requires each of us to ask about our parents, children, significant others, colleagues and to share valuable information related to the neighborhood, the bus stop, and the town in general. It is considered bad form to just walk by someone like we do in California, it is ok to simply share a casual and very pleasant “Oh Daniel, Tudo bem?” in passing, but you can see that this carries with it and efetuo domino. So we are chronically challenged here, and for very good reasons, mostly health-based. For me it is far better to linger, with a friend, and a bit of fofoca, than to arrive stressed and with blood pressure elevated. So most of Saturday I walked about town, taking pictures, and running into people I knew: I had coffee with Heloisa, and Don Ignacio, a well know santeiro, in Ouro Preto entertained me with news and cachaça.
So yesterday, when a friend said that he was going to pick me up at 4, it gave me the opportunity to do my laundry and finish a book. You see, I knew the evening would turn out fine, in a boteco or two, with drink, salgadinhos, and good conversation.
Ouro Preto, MG
There is a real difference to the experience of time, here in Minas Gerais. Years ago as a graduate student in New Mexico, I read and studied about different conceptions and uses of time. When in Ouro Preto, I feel like I am walking about amongst the footnotes in an Edward T. Hall text.
I am someone who derives from a culture, where everything is marked by our watches. Where everything is set by calendar or Palm pilot, even a visit to your family must be marked weeks in advance. We are obsessed by time (it being linked to money) in a way that I think is not so good for us. Here the person in the moment generally takes precedence and is considered more important than the meeting. You would never tell someone that you had to go; you allow the conversation to finish first.
Here a, reunião marked for 2pm, may start at 3. The only problem for me, when I lived here was that there were always ½ of the people there at the time marked, and another would show up later. After more than 14 years of traveling in Brasil including two visiting professorships, I am still to understand the meeting schedule subtleties in Brasil. Classes, medical appointments and busses all manage to run on time. The rest is, how shall I say, is wonderfully flexible and relaxed. Things are set by, declarations and greetings such as:
“vamos a jantar hoje”?
“vamos!”
Without any time being set, just an agreement, and then a short phone call around 8pm that initiates the visit, or decision to meet in a restaurante or boteco.
The other part that puts wrench in my anthropological observations is that in São Paulo, the world’s 4th largest city, and arguably one of the most congested transit wise, people show up on time, as in California. But here in Ouro Preto, where it takes less than 15 minutes to cross town on bus or lotação, people are chronically late, or it may be that I am chronically challenged.
I am not sure this, stress inducing devotion to clocks and schedules, is all that healthy or wise. You see the main reason that folks are late here, and that I recognize is without a doubt a values laden term, is because of their sweetness. You see, it is impossible for me, after being away for more than 2 years as visiting professor, to walk down the street with out encountering someone I know. Here it is just plane silly to have a car, as far as I am concerned. But you do encounter the following linguistic gymnastics, as payment for the liberty from having to care for the four-wheeled internal combustion device that we are devoted to maintaining and caring for:
“Oi, Daniel! Tudo bom? Voce sumiu?”
“Tudo bem, Dona Felicides, como vai?”
This necessarily initiates a ten minute conversation that requires each of us to ask about our parents, children, significant others, colleagues and to share valuable information related to the neighborhood, the bus stop, and the town in general. It is considered bad form to just walk by someone like we do in California, it is ok to simply share a casual and very pleasant “Oh Daniel, Tudo bem?” in passing, but you can see that this carries with it and efetuo domino. So we are chronically challenged here, and for very good reasons, mostly health-based. For me it is far better to linger, with a friend, and a bit of fofoca, than to arrive stressed and with blood pressure elevated. So most of Saturday I walked about town, taking pictures, and running into people I knew: I had coffee with Heloisa, and Don Ignacio, a well know santeiro, in Ouro Preto entertained me with news and cachaça.
So yesterday, when a friend said that he was going to pick me up at 4, it gave me the opportunity to do my laundry and finish a book. You see, I knew the evening would turn out fine, in a boteco or two, with drink, salgadinhos, and good conversation.
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