Reflection #6

Inathaelle Pigne
Prof: McNair
EDF 2085
In these three reading I read things that I could truly say was out of my norm. In the Sitting Quietly I saw a sense of coming from one stage to the other. Basically in that story the little boys had to go through test, or obstacles to become a man. The elders had to see if truly they were ready for the responsibilities of becoming a man being able to take care of their family through those trials. In this story it showed that even when they were a little boy their parents had this plan for them to go through these things. Now when thinking back at this it shows that the family had a rite of passage planed for Kona and Zena even before they were able to talk. I read a part in the story where Kona ran after his father (Flumo) to beg him so that he could go with them. And his dad picked him up and hit him then sent him back. At that moment and time Kona could have not understood what his father did but his father was trying to protect him from something he was not ready for. Being able to endure the test that was put out for them was the true way or meaning to show they were ready to shirt to change from being a boy to becoming a man. Now in the Sambia story was to me the strangest type of ritual or custom I have ever heard of in my life. When looking at the “Sitting Quietly” and “The Sambia” they have a similarity in them with rite of passage they had to meet with their destiny. It was their fate to transform to move from one level to the next. Okay now going on to the Sambia I know that is it their custom to take the younger boys and to make them become warriors so that they could fight and protect their village. In their rituals it was something that the boys had to do if not they were beat them up. For me I can read this or look at this and say man this is wrong, but it is their customs the little boys did not choose to be raised by the men but they had no choice they were born into the family and culture. It is the same way I was raise a certain way and I have rites of passage that for them can be absurd. It is all how you look at it looking through their glasses or am I looking through my glasses at them. So a lot of the time we cannot be quick to say that “oh that’s wrong” because when we do that is shows that we are only looking through our optical and not taking the time to ask them for theirs to see what they see.