Not Too Much...

going on. I turned in an English portfolio today that I was very interested in researching and writing. We read an article on how a subjects gaze in a photograph affects how that subject is viewed. The article particularly discussed National Geographic and we were suppose to look up pictures on the website and write an essay along the teachers guide lines, etc.

The pictures I found were of the Mbuti Pygmies of the Democratic Republic of Congo. I always thought, as I'm sure many people do, that pygmies were midget sized people which I learned was not true. The pictures were of a particular ritual called nkumbi were boys are initiated into manhood by having a daily whipping followed by spending time in the jungle to help them learn how to survive.

When I first read this and saw the picture of a boy actually being whipped I was horrified. Then when I was writing my essay I talked about how pictures cannot tell us anything about how those boys feel or if everything we've read or heard is true or written in a way that isn't bias. We, Americans who have never been to the Congo, cannot even begin to imagine what those boys lives are like nor how they feel. Cultures are so different from each other and we look at everyone else through our own cultural filters without thinking about how in this culture, certain things may be necessary.

I'm not saying I agree with the whippings, etc. I'm only saying that we can't know without being there.

So I think going to the Congo might be cool...