The Azande Culture Essay Example

the familiar sheltering trees and growth that most Azande enjoy. The most surprising difference is the way they go to something they call Church, depend on some unseen God to protect them from bad things, and do not believe in the occurrence of Mangu or witchcraft such as we have in Azande. How can they hope to protect their babies when they do not shield them from evil by banding their heads with iron and thus allow the actions of witches to freely attack and cause misfortune? (“Witchcraft, Mangu, need not be conscious; its action is understood as psychic.

A witch sends out his or her "witch soul," mbisimo mangu, said to be visible at night, to consume the mbisimo pasio, "flesh soul," of the victim's organs. Witches are also believed to cause other kinds of misfortune by less clearly defined means” (everyculture. com). Even our nobility is not immune to attack by witchcraft, although they are more protected than the rest of us. One of the ways boys are brought into manhood is by serving the royalty, although in most cases this does not work out too well for the servant, because the royalty fears the future witchcraft of the boy. “When an Azande Prince takes a boy to operate his oracles the boy is free to operate them until the Prince feels he has grown up, at which time the Prince has him killed to prevent him from unleashing witchcraft onto the Prince” (Evans-Pritchard). ) We do have the love of family, mothers and fathers, ceremonies, music, singing, and dancing in common. Although Azande dancing in the full moon is not normally done by

Americans, they do predominately dance together in the dark, male with the female in a rather indecent manner. (“The Azande dance is performed predominantly at night during full moons.

The men stand in circle moving their feel in time to the drums and swaying their bodies and heads from side to side- the forearms are held parallel to the ground with the palms of the hand turned upwards. At times, the whole circle goes round in file with the women forming an inner circle. They dance to the sound of the drums and sing topical songs more often than not rather obscene” (gurtong. net). Some of the American society lives on farms raising crops and animals for food, but most food is purchased at a centralized location, and clearly not grown by most of the citizens consuming it.

Adultery seems to be a problem in America, as there is much attention given to it in the writings and publications of the society. But it appears that nothing much is done about it, so it must be pretty much accepted, and even when it concerns the wives of one of the American chiefs there is usually not much rancor about it. In Azande, we handle such things more correctly, the offending male may very well live the remainder of his life without sexual organ, hands, or lips if found committing adultery with the wife of one of our chiefs.

Americans claim not to believe in witchcraft, but their literature is replete with references to voodoo, bad luck, hanging horse shoes and rabbits foots for good luck, and other claims which show they clearly believe that misfortune can be prevented

and is usually caused by someone else’s actions or wishes. When misfortune does occur and someone dies, no attention is paid to what animal they may be re-incarnated into, males are not buried facing the East, and females are no buried facing the West. It is beyond belief of how can such an advanced society be so ignorant of the basic needs of his or her deceased family members.

We as a people may be unsure of our origins, but we understand how we pass onto the next life. (“There is no sensational origin of the Azande people” (Gurtond. net), although as with most of the societies of the world they do have a giant flood somewhere in their legends (teaching hearts. com). ) “The general myth is that the Azande returns to life after they die, being re-incarnated in the form of some animal, which are mostly lions - for the biggest chiefs of the royal clan, and leopard, python, snake, wart-hog, rat and lightning for those of lower stature.

The death of that animal is the end of all things. Men will not kill the animal they believe they may turn into except in self defense,” (Gurtong. net) lest they kill off a friend or relative. While it may be admitted that the wars have devastated much of traditional Azande life, we try to continue with our treasured traditions. (“Because of the war, large communities of Sudanese Azande now live outside the Sudan particularly in DR Congo and Central African Republic”.

Peters-Golden) Clearly, the differences between American and Azande culture far outweigh the similarities; however, the differences do not fall in areas societies usually go to

war about. As such, Azande who would choose to immigrate to the United States would probably be able to live here in peace and comfort. While America does not have Kings and royalty, many of our politicians have almost risen to the status of royalty, and are treated more like that every day, so the Azade would not be without that similarity either.

References

1. Evans-Pritchard, E. E. The Azande: History and Political Institutions. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1971.
2. http://www. everyculture. com/wc/Brazil-to-Congo-Republic-of/Azande. html. (Retrieved on the web from everyculture. com on 2/5/2012) http://www. gurtong. net/Peoples/PeoplesProfiles/Azande/tabid/179/Default. aspx. (Retrieved on the web from gurtong. net on 2/5/2012) Peters-Golden H. (2011).
3. Culture sketches: Case studies in cultural anthropology. 6th edition. Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education ISBN-13: 9780078117022