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1. Christina Lee's 7th entry



2. Christy Yu's 7th entry



3. Chelsea's 7th entry



4. Alex's 2nd entry
   
5. Ji Young Lee's 8th entry


6. Pritha's 4th entry

Last Entry

Does everyone have a specific culture? Define culture?

One time during Peace Child class discussion we came across a question, "What is a culture?". When this question was brought up, I found myself pondering upon it. The dictionary.com defines culture as behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic, or age group. I believe a culture is a way of identifying any specific group of people by their common beliefs or certain behaviors. Most people today, seem to believe that the word, "culture" is used only to describe a nation or a certain racial group. However, they are mistaken in the fact that the word culture is used not only to define a nation but to define any group of people with shared beliefs and behaviour.

As a "third culture kid" growing up in two different environments, Korea and the States, I was able to see many cultural differences between the two. Furthermore, among many differences, there was also a difference in the ways people of each culture thought. Some things that are normal in one culture are considered inhumane in other culture. For instance, eating a dog meat is well practiced one of many Korean eating cultures. However, in the States, i heard many people commenting negatively about eating dog meat. While I was acknowledging all these cultural differences, I noticed something else that was very intriguing to me. It was that such differences of people's ways of thinking can exist in small communities within cultures. In other words, cultures can exist within cultures. Within Sawi culture, for example, there were people who did not practice cannibalism. Basically, I believe, those people in Sawi culture who do not practice cannibalism can be sub-categorized into a different culture, a culture that does not practice cannibalism. Such categorization can apply to small communities even as minute as cliques, which students categorize themselves at schools. Students, whether consciously or not, engender cliques among themselves. These cliques divide students with common intersts and beliefs into groups. Thus, within those groups, in time, students form their own small culture. Ultimately, everyone belongs to a culture, whether it is a small cultures such as cliques or major cultures such as a nation.

Eighth Entry

How did Christianity change this culture?

Don Richardson's ministry to the Sawies made a significant change in their culture. Prior to his arrival, Sawi culture consisted of nothing more than barbarity, cannibalism, and treachery. Sawies were also very infamous for their brutal hostility. However, experiencing the Sawi culture through the book, it occurred to me that Sawies are just as regular human beings as the people of the rest of the world. In the book, Sawies began to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour when the father of the peace child experienced the similarity between God and himself. God had to give up his one and only Son, Jesus Christ, in order to bring peace onto the Earth. Likewise, the father of the peace child had to give up his own precious son in order to synthesize peace between the enemy tribe and the tribe, to which he belonged. The pain of giving up a child was unbearable to him. After this event, one by one, people of the Sawi tribe began to believe in Jesus Christ, which engendered a significant change in their culture.

The major change, which the people of the Sawi tribe embraced, especially those who decided to belive in the Lord, is that they gave up cannibalism and treachery. This is significant because to give up cannibalism and treachery meant they are giving up their highest vitue, which is an aspect of their culture they believed to be the greatest thing a man can ever achieve in his life. Now the Sawi culture has assembled peach among its enemy tribes and tries to follow the examples of Jesus Christ, which Don Richardson had succeeded to preach to them.

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.

Sixth Entry

What should society do for “uncivilized cultures” like the Sawi?


This question induces me to refer back to the question, by which I was asked to answer on my fourth entry, "What should we do when we are confronted with other cultures?" I wrote in my fourth entry that cultural influence is inevitable, especailly today, where it is becoming a multicultural society. Today, nations depend on each other for support and trade needed materials, by which influences from different cultures become inevitable. However, if a culture had a choice to decide whether it wants to accept the influence or not, it engenders a difficult situation. It is because such culture may desire to maintain its culture as is, which will result in only one possible outcome: to remain as an uncivilized culture. However, I strongly believe that a culture has the right to decide for its own future whether it is to remain an uncivilized culture or to accept the change and become a civilized culture. It is not of any other nations' decisions to change another culture. By stating such an assertion, I am trying to communicate that when approaching a culture such as the Sawi's, people need to be careful not to force a change. They need to consider what is best for the people of a culture they are approaching. In this case, it would be to give them the voice to speak out for what they need and want. Don Richardson's method of approach in the book is a great example of such. He spoke to the Sawies about Christianity and laid out options for them to choose. He did not force any change. Nonetheless, in the end, the Sawi culture embraced a significant culture change, but it was by the decision of the Sawies not by Don Richardson's.

Fifth Entry

How does Faith relate to the world in which we live?

It is apparent throughout history that some form of religion has existed among the human race. At one point in history, people worshipped the nature or their ancestors as a form of their religion. Judging by this, one can almost say that people have been, and are superstitious. It is almot as if religion is one of many essential factors in history that cannot be ignored. In today's world, religion still plays a crucial part in human society. To begin explaining, I would like to introduce three major religions. They are Christianity, Buddhism, and Islam. I am a Christian and I believe that Jesus Christ is the only almighty God, the creator of heavens and the earth, thus, my faith in Christianity may cloud my objective perspective. However, as I am trying to be as much objective as I can be about this topic, I observe that the reasons for the existence of belief systems since the commence of human race are people’s insecurity and vulnerability. People are born naturally insecure and vulnerable. This is why they began to seek supernatural existence in nature and many others to feel secure. They thought such supernatural existence would watch over them and guide them. Although, three most common religions today are Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism, in some parts of the world people still practice worshipping the nature or their ancestors.

I strongly believe that religion is more than just a belief in something. It is something that provides people a community, motive, and alleviation. Some people can argue that a man is most fearful when he believes something to be true. I conceive that today’s terrorist attacks on various parts of the world are motivated strongly by their religion. Crusades of the tenth century is another example of religious motivation. They believed it was a glory to fight for Christ and spread Roman Catholicism in whatever way neccessary. Religion also provides alleviation to people in such a way that it assuages people from their sadness, anger, and stress.
For me, personally, Christianity is something more than a religion. Apart from being the ultimate truth, Jesus Christ and the fact that I believe in Him purges all of my worries. One of my favorite verse found in the Bible is Matthews chapter 11 verse 28, "Then Jesus said, 'Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.'" Whenever I am crestfallen or in a state of affliction, this verse accomodates me with peace. I can also find people in a community built among Christians to share my worries and burdens.

Fourth Entry

What should we do when we are confronted with other cultures?

Today's society has become and still continuing to be a multicultural society. One major aspect in synthesizing a multicultural society is interracial marriage. As the rate of interracial marriage increases, it is only getting harder to define a single culture. Apart from interracial marriage, immigration of foreigners into various cultures is also another significant aspect of it. These aspects of amalgamation make multicultural society extremely inevitable. For instance, Korea, which served as a bridge that connected China and Japan, was influenced inevitably by both countries and lost its tradition and culture. For instance, today, Korean language is mixed up with a lot of Japanese words and most Koreans use them without acknowledging that they are Japanese words.

Approximately a hundred years ago Korea was invaded by Japan and was governed under the rule of Japan for about thirty-six years. During this time of invasion, Korea embraced the influence of many different cultures. First, Korea adapted to Japanese culture, then Western culture due to prior Western influences to Japan. As for the influence of Chinese culture, it was inevitable due to trade between the two countries. At this point, it raises a question of how people should respond when they are confronted with other cultures.

Being confronted with other cultures, often times, is extremely difficult. It is because to adjust to a whole new culture means a possible change of the lifestyle of a whole nation. People of a nation would have no other choice but to give up a part of their own traditions and their culture to accept a cultural change. However, by accepting other cultures it can engender many positive changes as well. Going back to discussing the invasion of Japan, although some people might disagree, Japan was far more developed than Korea at the time because they had accepted Western influences aforetime. Some examples of Japan's advances include guns and ships, which were made of iron. Furthermore, one time in history, when China was far more advanced than other nations as they invented porcelain, silk, and may others, it started to avoid trading with other countries and tried to barricate all the influences from other countries to prevent sharing its advances with other nations. Due to this event, after centuries passed China found itself more undeveloped than many other nations, while, many other nations were advancing through influences of developed countries. China is still recovering from this event even today. Moreover, many African countries today are also very under developed due to its lack of experience with other countries. However, they managed to keep many of their traditions and culture.

Ultimately, acknowledging the question, "What should we do when we are confronted with other cultures?", I believe, at this point, one can clearly see that there is a dilemma found in the question. If people are to choose to accept the confrontation of other cultures, it means a possible loss of their traditions and culture, but development of their country. However, if they choose to deny the confrontation, it means that they might keep their traditions and culture to some point. But, since, it is impossible to totally barricate the influences of other cultures, at some point, their country will be contaminated with the influence of other cultures. Thus, at the end of the day, people may realize that the best way is to accept the confrontation and construct their new culture and traditions within a changing society.