After our discussion last Wednesday about how we view other cultures as "weird" compared to our own, I couldn't help but think of all the times I judged the Tongan culture and thought that things were strange or dumb. I remember back in our culture class, we were learning about the fahu and we discussed how the fahu can take presents from a celebration even if they were supposed to go to the wedding couple or graduating student. We were all completely blown away and I'm pretty sure I said that it was so weird! I couldn't even grasp the idea that at a celebration for someone, where people bring them gifts, a person could come and take all those gifts no questions asked. For the Tongan culture, it's normal and people don't even think twice about it. Why would they get gifts in the first place if they knew the fahu was going to come and take them and there's a chance that the person the gift was intended for wouldn't even receive it?
But, when you've grown up in a culture, things that you do aren't strange because you're used it! I'm sure if someone who's never been to church before, and sat with a bunch of people who then proceeded to sing songs about God it would be super strange for them. And then the fact that we separate men and women into Elders Quorum and Relief society or young men and women would probably be strange and people might not like it because it's like segregation!
Anyway, it's important to watch our behavior and the words we say around or about other cultures because we all see the world differently through our culture and lifestyles.
I found that I had to watch myself really closely about the words that I used and the way that I thought about things. At the same time when I caught myself thinking negatively about something it was a good opportunity to reflect and analyze why I had those feelings. This enabled me to find the roots of what was going on and to make a more educated judgment on how I should/did feel about what was going on.
ReplyDeleteI thought the same thing about the Fahu. It really does seem so strange to me that people let the sister takes gifts at someone else's celebration. I noticed myself thinking very egocentrically about it, because I kept thinking why is it the sister? In the U.S. it would be much more likely for the father of the family to be the one everyone obeys and follows, etc, not the sister. That was just one example of how I view the Tongan culture with the frame of reference being the U.S. culture.
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