Difference of Cultures

What makes our cultures so different to others? Is it because we have a television, modern weapons, or even the UN to stop war? If we consider merely those things that make us different then the Sawi, we are wrong. The Sawi may not have a television to learn more violence and evil, but they do have an older generation to look up to and observe violence that way. The Sawi may not have modern weapons that can kill with a single pull of a finger, but what they do have is spears that can prolong the existence. They cannot kill someone easily, because of their spears. If we were reduced to merely spears’, I am sure that we would also betray people and try and kill them other ways. Like I said, we are not that all different from the Sawi. They may not have the UN to protect countries from attacking each other. But what they do have is a peace child built so strongly into their culture that it stops war. This Peace child is stronger then anything we have in our culture. In our modern culture, there is no remedy for peace. Anywhere you go there will always be some kind of war. The Sawi have mastered that though. Yes, I know the Sawi do not have the things that we have, and the knowledge that we have, but when we get down to the basics of the culture, we are the same.

Changing Cultures

There are a number of things to do when we encounter a culture most unlike our own. The first thing we could do is just immediately regard them as stupid and non-human, much like what traders considered Africans. But just as Africans really didn’t learn anything from the traders except hate, so a cultural will not learn anything from you if regard it as less then you. Lets look at what Don and Carol did. They came in and built a house on a Sawi river without protection. They were EXPOSED. The Sawi could do anything they wanted to Carol or Don. The missionaries didn’t get afraid and instead settled down there, even with the warnings from other tribes. Despite the horror things that continued to go around them, such as bloody fights, a alive man claimed death, and a possible death of their own among crocodiles, they did not give up. Instead of trying to change the cultural to fit the gospel. Don brought the gospel to the Sawi in their own way. He did not try and change their culture. Instead, he tried to change their beliefs. I believe that’s what all of us should do. Instead of trying to put natives in tuxedo’s and putting them in houses and beds, we need to respect how they grew up. You alone cannot change an entire culture, but you can change yourself to accept them. You cannot change the way they live, but you can change your views on what is right.