- Ibo
- The conquerors of the Ibo
- Your culture (Salvadoran or a different home culture)
Do not repeat an Aspect posted by anyone else. In other words, someone may discuss one law; you may not discuss the same law but you may discuss a different law.
For the Ibo and the conquerors, use MLA citations. For the conquerors you may need to do some research beyond the book.
Due Friday April 9
17 comments:
“…taking their bride home to spend seven market weeks with her suitor’s family. They sang songs as they went, and on their way they paid short courtesy visits to prominent men like Okonwo … Okonwo made a present of two cocks for them.” (Achebe 112)
This is one of the marriage rituals among the Ibo people, where after the suitor has come to the village to celebrate the marriage, the suitor’s family takes their bride for seven market weeks. In this case the daughter of Obierika, Akueke, is being married, after her suitor has paid the bride price of course. We also see that before they make their way they have the custom of visiting the important people in their village expecting gifts. The conquerors of the Ibo being Christian, have different customs, they take oath under the church in holy matrimony. In modern day culture we still have the option to be married under the church much like the conquerors of the Ibo most likely did. However now a day we do parade around town in an automobile or a horse and carriage decorated with just married labels. If gifts are to be given they are given at the wedding. We may also chose to get married not under the church but just simply by the state and have a ceremony. In Ibo culture the bride goes of with her suitor and his family for seven market weeks, in our society we have a thing called a honeymoon which is usually a getaway of a couple of days for the just married couple.
Religion is an aspect that differs between the Ibo, their conquerors and salvadorians. Specifically the way suicide is perceived in the religion of each of these societies. In the Ibo society those men who commit suicide are regarded as evil and are not buried like other people. “It is an abomination for a man to take his own life. It is an offense against the Earth, and a man who commits it will not be buried by his clansmen…” (Achebe 190) However, it seems that for the conquerors of the Ibo it is just another human being. “Will you bury him like any other man? Asked the commissioner.”(Achebe 190) Because they are Christian, in those days they could not have masses in their names but they could be buried. Nowadays in our society in the catholic religion people who commit suicide are able to have masses in their honor and be buried like any other human being; but the remain in the purgatory until they are able to reach heaven. Even though the ways they are buried may differ, the act of committing suicide is viewed in the same negative way in all cultures.
War is often a delicate subject especially now that the world is developing greater weapons that cause further destruction. Thus we can see different parallels on how societies behave towards war.
"Okonkwo stood looking at the dead man. He knew Umofia would not go to war." (ch. 24) In Umofia, as stated by the quote we can see that they preferred no to look for trouble. They were against war especially because they did not see the harm that the conquerors were bringing to the town. However, given that they esteemed Okonkwo for his skills as a warrior we can see that it was not that they did not value war they simply rejected the fact of going into war with the conquerors.
The conquerors on the other hand we can see simply by the name given to them that their sole purpose is to get into war. However, some conquerors do so through missionary work trying to infiltrate into the society they want to conquer . When this fails they recur to war (which is most of the time).
In comparison, another society in the world that is war oriented is that of The United States. Even though most of the population refuses their war efforts, the government feels obliged to intervene in most of the foreign affairs and get into war with other countries.
Thus looking at the three examples we can see that kinesics vary among societies.
I found that the stories told in the Ibo culture, the stories told by the conquerers, and the stories told by my home culture had surprisingly many similarities-even more than differences!
The stories of the Ibo culture, for the most part, had to do with nature and animals. For example, when Ekwefi was telling Ezinma the story of why the tortises shell was rugged, she mentioned how the tortise was a greedy animal who, by trying to trick the birds, ¨jumped from the sky...fell and fell until he he began to fear that he would never stop fallingg, until he crashed on the compound.¨(Achebe 94) The stories were told in relation to animals, but i feel the purpose of the stories were more based on ¨why this happened¨¨ than ¨the moral of the story is...¨
In the conquerers culture, as well as our own, I feel that the purpose of the stories are to teach kids a lesson, in a simple way. All three cultures have animals, so maybe kids can understand and be more entertained, but our culture is more focused on molding the kid´s behaviors, teaching them underlying morals, as opposed to the Ibo culture, who focused their stories on explaining nature, explaining the unexplicable.
The conquerors used more stories based on religion, like about the life of Jesus, as they all went to tell stories and ¨preach gospel¨(138). I think these stories were differnt than the Ibo culture{s stories because of the purpose and the audience. The purpose of the stories of the conquerors was to spread religion to adults. Nevertheless, stories are a huge part of each culture, and are widely used to help people understand, whether it be why things are the way they are, why they should beleive something, or why they should act upon certain behaviors
Dress differs between the Ibo, the conquerors of the Ibo, and my culture. The Ibo are tribal African villagers, so their clothing is primitive. The clothes worn by the conquerors is very ornate given they are colonialist Europeans in Africa, the more majestic they look the better. The clothes worn by my culture is more acceptable by modern standards, given that it is a modern culture. One similarity is that like the clothes worn by the Ibo men of high title, clothes can be used to demonstrate status.
The punishment for murder varies in every culture. In the Ibo clan depends of the type of murder."The crime was of two kinds, male and female. Okonkwo had committed the female, because it had been inadvertent. He could return to the clan after seven years."(Achebe 117) The missionaries believed that a man should be tried and punished accordingly to the laws of the land, meaning that he would be hanged. "Aneto got his belongings together in readiness to flee...He was imprisoned with all the leaders of his family...Odchue died and Aneto was taken to Umuru and hanged."(Achebe 162) In my culture the act of murder is treated in somewhat the same manner as the missionaries treat it. It is more elaborate in the US however and takes years before anyone is put to death.
The belief in god is an aspect that differs between the ibo, the conquerors and the french.
In the ibo society, people trust their gods and respect them: "It is not our custom to fight for our gods. Let us not presume to do so now. If a man kills the sacred python in the secrecy of his hut, the matter lies between him and the god. If we put ourselves betweent the god and his victim we may receive blows intended for the offender" (Achebe 148). Each ibo is loyal to his gods and shows strong respect towards them and their customs.
On the other hand, the conquerors believe in only one god: "There are no other gods. Chukwu is the only God and all others are false." They disagree with the beliefs of the ibos and remain loyal to their God.
In France, religions vary from place to place. Muslims, jews, catholics, are all mixed and everyone respects others religion. Even though most french are monotheistic, they do not criticize other religions and remain faithful to their god.
There are some differences in funeral from the Ibo culture compared to the conquerors and to my home culture.
In Ezeudu's funeral, the whole clan was there "the ancient drums of death beat, guns and cannon were fired, and men dashed about in frenzy, cutting down every tree or animal they saw...they all wore smoked raffia skirts and their bodies were painted with chalk and charcoal" (Achebe114). In Ezeudu's funeral the Ibo people danced in loud drum beats, guns were fired and machetes clanged. Unlike the Ibo culture, in the conquerors' culture, people in the funeral wore plain black attire for mourning and had no drum beats nor loud events in the funeral. Bodies were placed in catacombs or graveyards.In my culture, funeral is not that festive compared to the Ibo culture, it is mostly mourning in odd number of days (3,5, or 7 days) in simple garbs and the procession is led by a leader that sings a deep mournful song. The grave is a round mound shape to prevent water seepage and a tombstone is placed.
The men of the Ibo culture are very different from my culture and the Ibo conquers culture. They are less civilized, but when it comes to oral tradition and music, they are different and more native. "the ancient drums of death beat, guns and cannon were fired, and men dashed about in frenzy". They live in more disorder than the Ibo conquerors and my culture. My culture and the Ibo conquerors' culture are more advanced and have better weapons.
The law to settle domestic matters in the Ibo culture is very simple when one comes to think about it. Cases are presented to the egwugwu which is composed of the ancestors and spirits of the Ibo people. An example of a ruling is "Go to your in-laws with a pot of wine and beg your wife to return to you. It is not bravery when a man fights with a woman." (89). One such man who is ruled by Ibo law is Uzowulu: "Dont you know what kind of man Uzowulu is? He will not listen to any other decision" (89). Ibo law is more succint and sacred- it is a rite performed by only the most important elders.
The conquerors took matters to the king or to the Governor which was appointed in the territory. In this case, the Commisioner acted as head of the judicial power and he decreed punishments such as the payment of 250 cowries and 6 whippings. The conquerers used much more physical ways to punish the Ibo people. Their code of law however was very difficult for the Ibo to understand since they were punished for doing natural things to them such as destroying a temple because they were scared of a foreing invasion.
In my home country on the other hand we base our law on the Swiss code. We have a constitution and judiciary documents and judges which decree sanctions. It is our belief that people are innocent until proven guilty and people have the right to defend themselves and hire a lwayer. it is not direct law since the defendant uses someone else to intervene for him.
“Okonkwo’s gun had exploded and a piece of iron had pierced the boy’s heart. The confusion that followed was without parallel in the tradition of Umofia. Violent deaths were frequent, but nothing like this had ever happened. The only course open to Okonkwo was to flee from the clan.”(Achebe 117) The concept of murder is much different in Umofia than in our lives. In our culture, murder is punishable by the law and the offender usually goes to jail to serve his time in there. In Umofia, Okonkwo was to be exiled from the village for a period of seven years. Punishment is much more different, and the consequences for murdering someone logically differ.
"And so they killed the white man and tied his iron horse to their sacred tree because it looked as if it would run away to call the man's friends (Achebe 128)." This demonstrates the Ibo nature of war. The Ibo met an unknown creatue and defended their terrain. The people of the Ibo are very territorial and protective of their land, they will defend it against any threat; however, their primitive war skills are no match for their conquerers superiority. "They must have used a powerful medicine to make themselves invisible until the market was full. Everybody was killed except except a ful of men and women... (Achebe 129)" The war skills of the conquerers differ from that of the Ibo because of their advanced technology and tactical ability. Their war tactics are more organized and ready to make an offensive because they are conquerers. The Ibo instead are left to defend and their weapons are no match against the white men's weapons.
In El Salvador war has always been reflected in the interior. Our country has always been in domestic turmoil. Wether its in a civil war or against gangs, most of its battles are fought within the country. This differs greatly from the Ibo and the white men because they didn't fight amongst themselves.
One aspect that differs from all cultures is the way and reason of transportation. For the Ibo culture the lack of technology can only leave their transportation to walking or in some cases using animal power. For the Conquerors their advances give them the advantage of advance sailing or sea traveling, technology such as bicycles that clearly can’t be understood by the Ibo as they refer to it as an “Iron horse” (128) and their reason for travel are much different to both my culture and the Ibo’s because their reason for travel was either conquer or to discover new land that could be used. For my culture, a much more technological culture, travel has many and more efficient way such as air travel and perfected land and sea travel (Cars, motor boats, etc.) and the reason have completely changed. I think the main reasons for travel in my culture are for studying, working or just visiting, yet there are two big similarities in the reasons for travel between all cultures and those are trade and warfare.
"GO-DI-DI-GO-DI-Go. DI-GO-GO-DI-GO. It was the ekwe talking to the clan. One of the things that every man learned was the language of the hollowed-out wooden instrument." (Achebe 113)
The Ibo used this kind of musical sounds to send messages among the villages. The conquerors of the village don't use musical aspects (maybe such as prayer sometimes) to send messages directly, but to create union. In our culture, many people use music to send a message directly or indirectly to the world.
The perception of suicide in the Ibo culture is very different between the conquerors of Ibo and my culture. In the Ibo culture suicide is seen as a taboo. The reaction of the Ibo culture towards this transgression can be seen when Okonkwo takes his life away and his own culture shuns and refuses to touch his body, “We cannot bury him. Only strangers can” (Achebe, 190). This demonstrates that even with a man as respected as Okonkwo, suicide was a sin so great that it obliterated any hint of admiration towards Okonkwo and made others regard him as a stranger. The conquerors of the Ibo culture also regard suicide as a sin but are more tolerant when it comes to the consideration of the body. Although, the conquerors do not honor the body with a ceremony as with any other death, the deceased is still buried by its loved ones. In my culture, suicide is still seen as a taboo, but it is very considerate with the corpse. The corpse is buried and can even be honored in a catholic church (note: El Salvador is mostly Roman Catholic)
Post a Comment