Tedlock, B. (2007). Bicultural dreaming as an intersubjective communicative process. Dreaming, 17(2), 57-72.
I found this articel interesting because we have just finished Agar's Language Shock in which we talked about how significant and integrated culture is to any language. But, how can we explore culture? The author tackles the issue of dreaming and regards it as an important component of any culture. Interestingly, she reviews part of the literature and shows us how ethnographers found it very useful to try sharing and interpreting your dreams according to the values and beliefs of the culture you want to learn about. She states that: " Today fieldworkers participate within many cultural contexts, learning not only the local uses of dreaming, but also sharing their dreams with their subjects. In doing so, they increase their cultural knowledge and their communicative responsiveness: becoming to some degree both bilingual and bicultural." (p. 57). So, dreaming is said to be a path to a cultural knowlege. Some anthropologists now describe dreams as part of a cultural grammar that can be used to both understand one's own consciousness and culture as well as the consciousness and cultures of others. The article refers to Katherine Ewing, an ethnographer who did field research in Pakistan. Her experience with dreams in Sufism has allowed her to better understand the Sufis' perspective and religious values. Since most Western fieldworkers have retained their Western values, Tedlock argues against saying that they have "gone native." Instead, thay should be labeled "biculturals." Dreaming is also an indicator of whether you have successfully assimilated in agiven society, as your dreams start to include new surroundings from the new culture. I can't summarize the whole points but I rally recommend you read the whole articel; it reports interesting stories about dreaming in different cultures such as India and Venezuela.