It took me a lot of time trying to understand how baseball cards can be that much of a life lessons learning source for Pratt’s son, baseball cards are so irrelevant from contact zones. Pratt’s son Sam; developing his abilities in many aspects with his passion for baseball cards. He was able to develop his mathematical and moral skills. He managed to be able to differ between the sentimental value and the market value, showed awareness of the current world issues like the world war and the struggle of racism in the United States at that time. With all of his passion toward baseball, players and stadiums he had more information about architecture, meteorology and topography. As much as Pratt expressed her son’s obtained skills, she should have specified how this example relates to the concept of contact zones. I find it hard to relate this example directly to the topic, but spotting how the shared areas between Sam and the baseball cards were enhanced by the contact zone would be better idea Pratt should consider.

            A Pratt moves on in her second attempt to relate an example to the contact zones, she mentions Guaman Poma, the Andean who wrote a letter to King Philip III of Spain in 1613. The letter was 1200 pages in length and hand written; it apparently had a lot of information about the culture, history, leaders and everything about Inca. The letter was divided into two parts; “New chronicle” was the first one. It was all about the Spanish describing the American conquest to themselves. Pratt described the first part with authoethnographic. Though the text written by Poma had a lot of information, it was not able to preach its goals. The second part of the letter, “Good Government and Justice”, suggested and presented a theory of collaboration between the Inca and the Spanish. Poma used transculturation in forming his text by using two languages to gain the invader’s attention. Though this example can be used perfectly to define contact zones, Pratt spent more time giving a history lesson that has no relation to what the essay is supposedly about. It had too much unnecessary historical information that would take away the reader’s mind from the main discussion and purpose of the essay. Simply describing how the letter took a part of two contacted cultures and forming a contact zone is direct, simple and clear.

            Pratt referred to a course at Stanford University that welcomed students from all cultures and backgrounds; it provided the opportunity for students to view and interact with the world’s point of views. That is a great application of a “Contact Zone” The students were able to conduct deep fruitful discussions and gain higher levels of wisdom and awareness; it had a real life example of facing stereotypical false beliefs. Some students faced a culture shock. However, everyone must have ended with a great experience.

            The whole point of the essay is to specify the meaning of a “Contact Zone” which can be defined as the sensitive area that is under the controversy were nations, people or any other thing, clashes, meet and communicate, also highly related to authoethnography and transculturally. Pratt was able to define a part of it, the examples were not all supportive. Emphasizing the high level of philosophy presented in Pratt’s work but the given information are distracting and more than what defining the term deserves.