Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Seventh Entry

What concepts in the Sawi culture intrigued / reviled / saddened / angered / surprised you?

First of all, I would have to admit that I encountered many intriguing aspects of Sawi culture as I was reading the book. I believe the main aspect of it, which impacted me the most is the fact that Sawies take pride in treachery, especially, because the culture I come from strongly contradicts this Sawi belief. As I was growing up in Korea, I became aware of something what we call "euri". To define this word in English, I looked it up in Korean/English dictionary, and found the meaning of the word to be a "sworn relation". In other words it is a brotherhood, which has its foundation on a sense of morality and humanity. For instance, if a person is willing to die for his friend, people would say that he has euri. "Euri" is not something that people learn in schools or anywhere else. It is something with which people affiliate, especially, men. Almost all the Korean people take pride in euri and highly value it. Therefore, when I learned that Sawi culture takes pride in treachery, it was nothing but surprising to me. I could not possibly reason how people can take pride in such an egregious aspect of human virtue and to eat their so called, "friend" after betraying him or her was even beyond my capability of understanding. However, during the event of peace child exchange, I was able to emphathize the affliction of the child's father. Then I was able to at least try to commence understanding that the Sawi people are just as human as any other human beings in the world, with just different beliefs.

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