The Sawi culture is something that I would never want to be immersed in. My culture is vastly different from the Sawi culture. I live in a culture of comfort and luxury. My culture is social-oriented, and friendly. Status is measured in wealth and popularity. Kindness and generosity are prized qualities, where as treachery is illegal in most forms. Families are important and safety is a commodity. Food is abundant, technology is plentiful, and love is everywhere. However, in the Sawi culture, most of this is opposite. Luxury and comfort are foreign ideals to the Sawi. The only social aspect that is common in Sawi culture is using friendship to fatten others for the slaughter. Status is measured in murders and feats of betrayal. Kindness and generosity show weakness, whereas betrayal is the ultimate prize of Sawi culture. Families are important, but safety for them must be fought for. Food is only sago, wild animals, and other humans. Technology has only advanced to stone axes and bamboo spears. Love is a language only shared by few, usually parent and child, not always the parents, as men seek up to five wives as "trophies".
Most of these aspects of the Sawi culture either depressed my spirit or caused anger inside of me. Sawi culture is a cruel one, focused on killing and headhunting. This torments and puzzles me about why and how this way of living is still in existence. I think to myself, "Many other nations advanced, why not the Sawi? Is it just geographical luck or something else entirely?" The Sawi are isolated in wickedness, whereas the outside world is clothed in comfort. A culture such is this, so strange to an outsider, has many things that puzzle and intrigue me.
Aside from the already mentioned, I wonder about many of their traditions and "curses", such as the "Waness" bind and "Gefam Ason". These practices, upon closer research, seemed to revolve around public image and supernatural consequences. The Sawi world is full of superstition and spirits, because of this there are many "cleansing" rituals. Public humiliation and the binding power that the debt held in it seem to over pass any further standard. Things, such as these, that seem so crazy to me often make me wonder about the roots of this culture as a whole. Overall, it's a culture that shakes me to the core of depression and intrigue, and leaves a constant search for answers and solutions. These conflicts of cannibalism versus Christianity will always affect me with the knowledge of what's out in the world.
It is so difficult to understand the Sawi culture - as it is in complete conflict with Christianity. God's grace and forgiveness is so evident in this story and certainly in my own culture and life.
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