Who sets the standard of a culture being civilized or uncivilized? We don’t have the right to decide whether a culture is civilized or not, because it’s their culture and they could be living the most (comfortable) life for them. But there are some things that the “civilized cultures” can do for the “uncivilized cultures” like the Sawi. One of the things we can help them with is hygiene and health. Since they don’t take care of hygiene and keep them self not clean, it becomes very easy for them to get diseases. Helping them to keep them clean can prevent many death that come from diseases. And we could provide them medicines and doctors for diseases. Another important thing we could do for them is education and language. Since many of the “uncivilized cultures” don’t have written language, creating written language for them could be a helpful tool for them to communicate within themselves and with other cultures. We also could introduce them some of the “civilized cultures” to them. But one thing we have to be careful of is that we don’t try to make profit out of them with excuses that we are helping them, like the ones who sold axes with children. I think both of the cultures can contribute and help in some ways. |
Excellent point. What is Civilised? What gives us the right to judge? You have posted sensible ideas and I am glad that you questioned the vocab - this was essential to understanding the book. Mrs.Mc.