Sunday, January 28, 2007

Comparing my culture with the Sawi's

How different is your modern culture from the Sawi tenets?

- As with most other cultures, my culture, which I can say is Korean-American, is obviously different from the Sawi culture in numerous ways. First of all, my culture does not promote cannibalism at all. People do not support any sort of killing of humans, and definitely not any eating of humans. Although the Sawis eat humans for purposes other than everyday meals, their practice would certainly not be accepted in my culture.
My culture also supports education of all individuals in primary and secondary schools. People receive education in subjects such as literature, math, sciences, or social studies; however, the Sawis do not receive any sort of education. Sometime it seems that they live to survive; their everyday lives seem to center around the search for food. In contrast, people in my culture assume survival, taking it for granted.
One important aspect of Sawi culture is that of the Peace Child. While the native tribes in New Guinea often live in fear of attack of other tribes, those who exchange Peace Children can enjoy a certain period of peace between them unless one tribe violates the promise of peace or any of the Peace Children dies. While this is actually the only way to guarantee peace for the Sawis, my culture usually, again, takes peace for granted, in the sense of people not attacking and killing each other. I live in a very safe and civilized society that has laws that substitute for promises made between native tribes such as that with the Peace Child.
The culture I live in, along with these few examples, is very different from the Sawi culture in many aspects.

2 comments:

alice said...

Hi Dennissssss

I totally agree with your clear comparisons between the Sawi's culture and ours. By reading your entry, I feel I am such a lucky person, not living in Sawi's culture (no offense). Sawi's culture has their uniqueness, but I would rather receive education and live in a society with laws than living in a village of headhunters. Nice comparison.

African Globe Trotters. said...

Yes - excellent comparisons. Dennis keep up your blogging and focus on using more quotes from the novel. Mrs.Mc.