Jacob Lowen, a former Mennonite missionary-anthropologist in Paraguay helped defuse a rather volatile situation among some Indians and Mennonites in Paraguay. As a result he came up with eight very helpful techniques for gathering information:

"1. The creation of culturally relevant situations in which a given series of questions could appropriately be asked. In one demonstration, for example (to introduce the discussion on Lengua Indian values of property and property exchange), the anthropologist highlighted his need for a horse to travel to all the different Indian camps and villages. He then confided to the informant that since his father had not been a Lengua he had not taught his son how to acquire such a horse in good Indian fashion. Would the informant be willing to teach him how?... Of course, once such a discussion is moving freely, it is very easy to branch off into other areas.

"2. The recounting of patterns and situations from other cultures. This technique requires some knowledge of cultures in other parts of the world. A missionary with S.I.L. in Peru reported how a team of workers had been stymied in their attempts to elicit folktales from the Indian informants of a given tribe. They just were not able to get across the idea of what they wanted. Someone suggested they get Indians from another tribe to tell some stories in Spanish to the semi-bilingual Indians who seemingly had no stories. After listening to a few stories the informants suddenly realized what the team was after and, thus prompted, they could provide a wide selection of myths and folktales. In the Chaco this technique was most profitable for the investigation of shamanism which had been under rather strong missionary condemnation and for that reason had come to be associated with severe inhibitions. Lengthy discussions of a series of slides illustrating a Colombia Choco shaman in action in action effectively set the stage for a discussion of shamanism as it prevailed in the pre-Christian environment of the Chaco tribes. This discussion readily lent itself to spot questions to locate areas where former practices had been syncretized with the newly adopted Christian patterns.

"3. The use of self exposure by means of which the investigator shared with the informant some aspects of his own culture or personal experience. Like the former technique, it can provide a setting for discussion similar areas of experience in the informant's life or culture. Self exposure can be a very useful tool for the missionary who cannot fall back on the knowledge of cultures other than his own. (Editor's note: Care needs to be taken not to be perceived as correcting or superior in self exposure.) It is especially useful and productive for investigating the areas of sex, world view, and values, where inhibitions often prevent individuals from speaking freely and honestly.

Techniques 2 and 3 served not only as types of "pump priming" to begin discussions on the local situation, but they provided occasions for watching the informant's reactions which would indicate something of his values and attitudes. Often after the anthropologist had recounted the introductory stage setting, he would add, "that is the way we (or they) do it. What do you think about that way?" The informant would then give his evaluation of the situation and often added, "No, our people do not do like that, they...." Then would follow his version of the situation in his culture. It was interesting to note how freely the informants often talked after the investigator had been transparent about some more delicate aspect of his own culture. It permitted the informant to speak freely about their practices without feeling that he was being investigated in an area in which it would be easy to incriminate himself. As long as the informant would talk freely, the missionary investigators were encouraged not to interrupt with questions, but to note such areas in which they needed to ask more questions later. Only when the informant seemed to hesitate was the investigator instructed to try to stimulate further flow of information through a strategic question.

"4. Also related to techniques 2 and 3 was the directing of the discussion at some more distant part of the tribe, either in space or in time. For example, it was noted that the Toba informant consistently denied that dancing ever played an important part in pre-Christian Toba culture. This could indicate either that the informant had developed some rather deep-seated inhibitions about dancing or that his family had been sufficiently separated from the traditional ways of the tribe so that the informant had actually never participated in the dancing activities that had characterized his tribe in general. The anthropologist, therefore, shifted the emphasis and inquired about the dancing activities among the "less civilized" northern Toba whom the southern group calls Pilaga. These people, though dialectically different, are more or less identical culturally. Once the attention was focused upon this distant group of people, the informant was able to supply all types of information about their dancing patterns. In fact, it was not very long before he also began to suggest that there were some people in the local area that occasionally engaged in such activities. The technique of focusing on the more distant can be used in connection with different villages, rivers, or sections of the tribe. It permits the informant to stay neutral and noncommittal while talking about areas that he fears might be self incriminating.

As a variant of this technique, the "ancients" of the tribe can be made the focus of the discussion. Often this permits inquiry into areas that would be delicate for the present. Inquiry about the situation of the past often supplies the actual covert patterns of the present, which for some reason or other have become embarrassing." While asking about "the way things used to be" one New Tribes missionary confirmed his suspicion that a plant once used for medicinal and punitive purposes was still being used. His 12 year old culture helper exclaimed, "Sure! I know about ortega (the plant), Grandmother uses it all the time to drive away my pain."

"5. A fifth technique involved conversations with a whole group of people. After an appropriate introduction, individual Indians were encouraged to volunteer to report on items they had experienced or claimed to have knowledge of. Such reports were recorded on magnetic tape and then played back for the entertainment of the group as a whole. After the first brave souls had broken the ice, the rest generally became eager to participate. In fact, as time went on they often vied for the opportunity to perform before the microphone. As these reports were replayed for the entertainment of the group, the missionary investigators were encouraged to write down the reactions of the listeners to the material on tape, for out of these responses valuable information about values, attitudes, and prejudices could be gleaned. ...Later the anthropologist and the missionary investigator reviewed the contents of these accounts and formulated questions to pursue the leads that such material contained. The additional questions were generally asked in private, with only one or two informants being present. A missionary Bible school teacher used this group technique to study the Lengua spirit world with the students during some of the regularly scheduled classes. Others applied this technique to the study of individual life cycles, recent historical events, and folktales and mythology.

"6. Related to the above was the delivery of public lectures to the Indians in the course of which the anthropologist explained that he had been invited by the Mennonites to help find the best ways of assisting the Indians to become "people." An appeal was then made to all individuals having knowledge of things that the anthropologist should know to draw such matters to the latter's attention. This approach was very productive in locating tension spots that were developing in the relationship between the Indians and the Mennonite cultures. It was after one such lecture that a Chulup Indian asked the anthropologist why it was that the church-going whites generally sat down one meter away from the Indians, while those people who did not go to church and did not believe in God often wanted to sit down beside the Indians and drink yerba mate [an herbal tea] with them.

"7. Another technique was assigning specific questions to individual Indians for discussion with their family or fellow villagers. This was especially valuable where the group under question was not accessible, either physically or psychologically, to the person doing the research. It was used to gather valuable information concerning the attitudes of the Indians toward given situations of past history and programs proposed for the future. Through the application of this technique, a number of areas of inter- and intracultural tensions were revealed. It also provided some insight into the attitudes of the Indians toward the Mennonites, the current program of the mission, the past settlement ventures, and the proposed settlement plans.

"8. Finally, each missionary investigator was provided with magnetic tape and access to a tape recorder for recording accounts of [their own and other outsider's] personal experiences and observations. The prepared questions or oral questions posed by the anthropologist reviewing the information pointed out gaps in the missionary's data. The gaps were followed up in interviews with Indian informants and some of the previously described techniques were used. Many of the missionaries found that by systematically recording some of their experiences they began to see relationships that they had not been aware of before.