In modern culture, people highly value the achievement of an individual and respect others according to their fame and capacity to earn a lot of money. We as individuals tend to think that our culture is superior to any other culture that exists in the world because it happens to be that modern culture is in a much bigger scale than other minor cultures and that the majority of the population belongs to modernized world. What we fail to realize is that even though we call our culture ‘modern’, it has evolved from earlier and undeveloped forms of culture just like the Sawi. Hundreds of years ago, our ancestors must have practiced treacherous ideas such as cannibalism and we cannot deny that they have been just like the Sawi tribesman. People are revolted when they hear about cannibalism because they know from history the consequences of such a treacherous act and they understand that it is not acceptable in the present world. I mean who would like to embrace a culture that seems to ‘fatten victims with friendship’ and just kill each other?
Even though both cultures look different from outside, I believe that the centre core, the meaning and the value of culture is equal irrespective of how they might appear. There is no ‘correct’ definition of culture because it can be interpreted from different perspective. Arguing about whose culture is ‘better’ is futile because any culture is valid as long as there is a belief system, faith, custom and tradition. People just have different ways of pursing what they believe.
Even though both cultures look different from outside, I believe that the centre core, the meaning and the value of culture is equal irrespective of how they might appear. There is no ‘correct’ definition of culture because it can be interpreted from different perspective. Arguing about whose culture is ‘better’ is futile because any culture is valid as long as there is a belief system, faith, custom and tradition. People just have different ways of pursing what they believe.
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