Individualism in the Crow and United States Cultures
Russian-American philosopher and author Ayn Rand succinctly sums up the Anglo-American United States’ take on individualism: “I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine” (Rand 1957: 557). While this is often what comes to mind when my fellow U.S. citizens think about individualism, not all cultures view individualism in such an isolationist light. While perusing through an online cultural database, I found that the Crow, members of a Native American tribe that lives in southern Montana, also value individualism— they just define it in a different way (Frey 2014: 1). In direct contradiction to Rand’s sentiments
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In fact, whenever Crow individuals succeed, they celebrate not with boastful and exaggerated tales of overcoming obstacles, but by honoring those who made their success possible. As quoted by Väyrynen, the Crow historian Joe Medicine Crow remarked, “When someone succeeds, he or she gives presents to those who helped make the success possible, like parents, relatives, teachers or friends” (2011: 68). This is not to say that individual achievement is discouraged by the Crow. Much like those of the Anglo-American U.S. culture, the Crow often pursue self-improvement and achievement. For example, some Crow individuals will join the U.S. military to help strengthen their courage and resolve (Väyrynen 2011). However, as the Crow metaphor goes, the Crow form an ashammaleaxia (driftwood lodge), where one individual plank of driftwood cannot survive the hardships of nature, but tightly combined planks can form a secure lodge (Voget 2001). They would reason that it is illogical to take pride in being self-made, given that family and friends contribute so much to the individual— in fact, they would hold the notion of the self-made individual as an absurdity. In sum, while both cultures encourage individual achievement, the culture of the U.S. tends to focus on how individuals can attain greatness alone, whereas the Crow focus on how social relationships make achievements