Blogs I've commented on so far

Stina – Blog #6
Haichan - 8th entry
Chelsea - How different is your modern culture from the Sawi tenants?

Post #9

What reflections and connections can you make with this novel?

When I began reading Peace Child, I felt as if I couldn’t really connect with it. The whole story was way out there to me. I mean, how often in my life have and will I ever meet a head hunter or cannibal - most likely never. So I took this book on looking at it as if it were fiction. To me, it was just another interesting story I could say I had read. All I did was make remarks such as “WOW” or “ummm ok, they are weird and just wrong”. However, during our last English class, one question made me think and change my whole perspective on the story. I remember the question was something like, “are we any different than the Sawi?” Then I realized how self centered my thoughts until that point had been. I perceived myself as being a civilized individual and far greater in every way than the Sawi people. I was wrong. I am just as treacherous and barbaric, just in a different manner. I don’t use my hands to kill, but my mouth – which God sees as the same since no sin is worse than another. What makes us revolt their customs of treachery is the pride they take in it and their lack of secrecy concerning it. In a way I think they are better than us because of that. Hiding what we know is wrong seems worse than the Sawi being subconsciously unaware of their actions.

post #8

What do you believe and why?

This is a very broad question.

I believe that every single person searches for happiness. The Sawi’s believed it to be by following superstitions so as to not anger the evil spirits. Many people currently try to find happiness in materialistic items. Christians believe that Jesus brings them the chance to receive everlasting happiness in heaven. I actually feel like part of each of these beliefs are a few of what make up my belief.

Although it seems silly to have superstitions, I can’t help having them. Although I try to tell myself that they aren’t true and remind myself that God makes everything happen for a purpose and that not every person who breaks a mirror gets seven years of bad luck, society and scary movies have placed a huge impact on me having them. I don’t necessarily search for happiness through superstitions but rather try not to go against them so as not to lose any more happiness I already have.

As for materialistic items, they satisfy me for a certain time period – a split moment. This happiness sometimes distracts me from the true path to happiness more than any other, but I believe it adds some spice to life. For example, I think we live to eat rather than eat to live. It is one of the things God gave us to enjoy and make us happy.

Last but not least, GOD – what I believe to be the ultimate and underlying source of happiness. It is what we all should be living for because if there was no God, what would the purpose of living be when we know we are all going to die someday. Also, no matter what we love or believe, it all leads back to something greater than us – a God. We love food, people, animals, pencils, clothes, computers, etc. Where did it come from? Everything points back to the question of the beginning and therefore to God.

So I believe in God.

post #7

Are primitive cultures, like the Sawi, necessary in our present world?

I don’t think they are necessary. Why? Because the rest of the world was perfectly fine without knowing about the Sawi. It wasn’t like they cared about them. More than anything, I think the governments wanted to convert them into a modern day type of society. Primitive cultures are therefore not absolutely essential. However, it would be nice to have a few and remind us that we don’t need all our advanced technology to survive.
If the primitive cultures disappeared, I don’t think their culture would be completely destroyed, so I think they would be fine intermingling with the rest of the world. All the other modern cultures were once primitive cultures. It’s just, they adjusted little by little as time passed for a good cause. No one culture can be isolated forever. Making reservations for certain cultures is weird to me. It’s as if they are a zoo, and if animals don’t like being in one, I’m sure people will feel the same.

Post #6

Choose a representative passage from this novel that holds particular significance to you. Type it in and comment on its significance.

In many of the legends that the Sawi people tell to their children around the campfires, the heroes are men who formed friendships with the express purpose of later betraying the befriended on to be killed and eaten. p. 8

This passage is in the author’s introduction, but it really caught my attention and reminded me of the songs I was sung when I was a child. Although they aren’t the same message, they seem just as bizarre to tell children. The songs that came to mind which I danced around the campfire to were “London bridge is falling down” and “Ring around the rosie." They sound like such cheerful nursery rhymes but their meaning is far from it. “Ring around the rosie” refers to the Black Plague and how people died from it. In the same way, the Sawi children enjoy legends that are vile and repulsive to the majority of societies today.
It seems hypocritical of me to ridicule their legends of idealizing men who betray and cannibalize or head hunt other humans, as my own culture sheds a positive light on one of the worst natural disasters in history. "Do not judge lest you be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure it will be measured to you. And why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye' when there is a log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye" (Matthew 7:1-5). We choose to point out other people’s faults, yet tend to ignore our own.

Post #5

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

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

I was surprised by the way the Sawi people reacted towards the missionaries when they first arrived. I expected them to appear barbaric and exhibit some type of aggression towards the “tuans” because the first part of the book described their cannibalistic ways and how highly they idealized treachery. The whole conception Don Richardson gives of the Sawi’s culture until the meeting point with the missionaries is certainly not a depiction of a benevolent society. So it was a bit shocking when I read that they were scared of them and hid. Although it was the first time seeing people of different skin color, have weapons, tools, and items they had never seen before, it intrigued me as to why they had not grouped together to destroy them. I understand how they could think that the missionaries were some type of God because of their modern day items, but like they said, the ancestor’s stories left no advice for what to do with the new comers. Even though they were confused wouldn’t it make sense for them to kill the missionaries as they passed their territory because that is what they did to the other tribes. I just thought the Sawi people would rid of what they felt uncomfortable with and feared.

Blog #4

What do mission organizations do for these people?

Mission organizations are done to reach out and help people who have not been reached yet. It is not for personal gain as so many people often correlate it with. They are actually the opposite, for the most part. Of course, missionaries do gain happiness and joy beyond some people’s imagination when they are successful in preaching God’s Word and seeing people accept Jesus Christ. However, they do not try and take advantage of the people for their lack of developed knowledge the modern world has.
So their main purpose is to introduce Christianity to people while trying to preserve the valid parts of their culture in regards to what the Bible claims as fine. In cases such as the Sawi people in The Peace Child, they are doing this as well as progressively holding their hands and guiding them to the path the rest of the world is following and living by. What the missionaries do is try to rid of satanic practices such as cannibalism and the whole idea of treachery not only for the purpose of satisfying God, but in a kind manner so that they can be prepared and warned without a shock when the government and so called humanitarians come in and kill them with little warning.
Although there is a controversy about whether or not missionaries destroy people’s culture, I think that it is unfair to put them in the spotlight because eventually, society will intrude their ways and beliefs upon them without compassion. It is inevitable to stay isolated from the developing world forever. Missionaries aren’t even forcing a change on the people. They are showing them and it’s their choice if they want to accept it or not.