10. How different is your modern culture from the sawi tenants?
When our English class first began reading this novel, Peace Child, and learning about the Sawi culture, almost everyone was shocked and disgusted. They simply could not understand how people could possibly think and act in this horrible manner.
When our English class first began reading this novel, Peace Child, and learning about the Sawi culture, almost everyone was shocked and disgusted. They simply could not understand how people could possibly think and act in this horrible manner.
However, I didn’t see much difference between the Sawi people and us. To me, these two groups of people are quite similar with very small differences. The Sawi people betray and kill others to gain status and fame and we betray and emotionally hurt others to gain advantage for ourselves. We do not care what happens to others as long as the ones we love, including ourselves, are safe and the Sawi deeply love and care for those in their community but are heartless to others. The Sawi hand over something that is a part of their body as an oath but are quick to break this promise; we often say “I swear on my right hand/on God/on my mother’s grave…” but these are just words for us. We think that we are better than everyone and shun those who are ‘uncivilized,’ while the Sawi also cannot see anything wrong with what THEY are doing and believe themselves to be superior to other tribes.
Aren’t we quite similar to the Sawi if we look at this topic in this point of view?
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"Modern" people seem to wrap their hideous parts of them with prettyand fancy things to cover those ugliness |
We should not say that the Sawi are people with disgusting thoughts and actions because we too have those thoughts and do those actions. The only difference is that we cover our ugliness with pretty smiles and fancy intelligence. Underneath all the elaborate exterior, the ugliness is still there and is no different from the Sawi people’s ugliness.
With all these similarities, can we, the so-called “modernized” people, be any different from the Sawi people?
We are very alike. We just don’t want to admit it.
Just like white-washed tombs...
ReplyDeleteI agree. And while we might not do what the Sawi do, we often still think about doing it, and thinking it is sinning, just as doing it is. The hardest part is removing our masks, our pretty faces, and facing our sin. I think that's one of the biggest problems of society. There are so many different ways to cover up our sins, that we go ahead and sin, and then cover it up, thinking that it's gone.
Very deep analysis. Definitely makes us think.
I think you have a great point. While the Sawi seem, to us, like horrible wicked cannibals, their society says this is a good thing. It's driven from human nature, and we're humans just like them. While our society it based on the ten commandments and we have laws against many of the Sawi's idealizations, we still do bad things. Granted we don't eat other people, but we hurt them, we devour their emotions and feelings. We tear others down to build ourselves up. I think, even though our modern society claims to be better, we're as bad as them, maybe even worse. They are told that killing and betrayal are good, so they do it, however, we are told that it is bad, but we STILL do it! They don't know all the concepts of right and wrong, but we do, so who is really more at fault here? Is it the ignorant wickedness of the Sawi, or the informed wrongdoings of modern culture?
ReplyDeleteGood post! Lots to ponder and think about when comparing morals and examining your own life.
Hey Rong. I really liked your insight on this question.
ReplyDeleteYour response really made me question if we are as 'good' as we claim to be. After thinking about this matter for a while, I discovered that we are just greedy and selfish creatures. You see, we protect our loves ones and don't give much about other people who don't mean a lot to us. We just seek for ways to make OUR lives better, even if we have to destroy other peoples' lives. We're pretty self-centered and unkind, right?
While I was completing one of my blog posts, I discovered that we and the Sawi have another thing in common. We both actually enjoy life a whole lot, even though we may be such sadistic creatures. We both love our family and our children, and we both appreciate nature and the world we live in. A lot of people are turning eco-friendly so they can preserve the world they love and, as stated in the book, the Sawi dedicated a whole subclass of their language to describe nature. (Look at page 147).
Isn't it interesting how our society and the Sawi society are so alike in both negative ways and positive ways?