Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Ken v. Napolean

I don't believe that Ken's actions were worse than Napolean's by any means. Napolean give them weapons and then said fight to the death. Ken by all means helped the tribe by giving them pots, pans, and machetes to help them survive. When Ken lived with them the first time he became one of them and learned their language, their ways. And one of their "ways", or traditions, is to have an arranged marriage. For Ken to have declined this proposal, in the Yanomamo's eyes, would have been a rude gesture towards the people and he could have been shunned from their village. To me, and all of us, accepting the marriage was a gross, strange, and bizarre thing to do, but by doing so he honored their traditions and in the Yanomamo's eyes he did nothing unethical, and became an even closer member of the tribe.

1 comment:

Jack Finis said...

I agree completely. Ken did nothing but good for that culture. Although Americans may feel differently, to the tribe he was ethical to their beliefs. As he persued the arranged marriage tradition, he also learned their customs an language. Napolean was worse the ken; that is easy. Although what he did was weird, he did become one of them in a way.