Laura Bohannan's Interpretation Of Shakespeare In The Bush

In “Shakespeare in the Bush,” by Laura Bohannan, the narrator of the story has an argument with a colleague on whether or not that the interpretation of Shakespeare could be understood the same way everywhere in the world because “human nature is more or less the same universally”. Her statement would then be proven invalid, because a person’s perception will always differ from someone else’s due to their cultural upbringing.
While preparing to travel to Africa to study a tribe by the name, Tiv, the narrator is given a copy of Hamlet by her colleague to read while traveling to her destination. After she arrives at her destination she begins to participate in the rituals and customs of the Tiv. While participating in one of the activities, she decides to tell the Tiv the story of Hamlet and begins to analyze what the
As well as showing that cultures have many interpretation of things compared to other cultures. Before traveling to the study the Tiv tribe in Africa, Bohannan believed that many stories like the one she told, had only one universal interpretation that everybody was able to understand. When she was telling her story to the Tiv, she realized that cultures around the world think differently and have different interpretations on particular aspects of life based on what their society has taught them. Since the elders in the Tiv’s tribe were highly regarded as high officials because they had experience many things in their life time, the tribe members look for them for wisdom and guidance. The elders experience leads to more knowledge for the tribe to grow upon as well as teaching the younger members that they can also achieve the same status as the elders one day. As a result this shows a clear difference between the Tiv and Bohannan’s society and how they are accustomed to their society’s