What assumptions did the author test out in the bush?

The author assumed that the elders would understand, or shift their way of thinking temporarily to try to understand American social rituals such as marriage, power and death which is obvious that the elders didn't and perceived the story of Hamlet completely different than how most Americans would.  A good example is how the author assumed that the elder's would be able to understand the concept of a ghost, when in actuality the elder's could not understand that and related the idea of a ghost with a zombie which is a connected to the bush's peoples pagan beliefs which must have been very hard to get across thus initiating the new interpretation of Hamlet by the Elders.